The Thread Killer

Over the past couple years I've heard and read about Ring of Honor having problems behind the scenes and after finding out what I did today, I have no sympathy for them. They have a bunch of morons running that company. Ever since Marty Scurll signed his new contract and got promoted to the creative team, there has been a significantly increased ROH presence in the NWA. Scurll is challenging Aldis for the World Title at the next NWA PPV, Flip Gordon challenged Aldis at the last NWA PPV, and guys like Dan Maff, The Bouncers and Brody King have all shown up on NWA Power. A couple of days ago it was announced that Nick Aldis would be defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Supercard of Honor on April 4, against PCO. I was a big fan of that idea, so I decided I would probably check it out. I am a huge NWA fan, and I figured with all the cross promotion between the NWA and ROH I would start watching Ring of Honor's weekly TV show and catch the next couple of PPV's. I've watched their TV show for the past two weeks. It's the drizzling shits. It's horribly edited together, the production values make Impact look like WWE, and it's basically a bunch of second rate NJPW ripoff spotfests filmed in front of mostly empty arenas. With bad commentary on top of it. Undaunted, I decided I'd check Supercard of Honor anyhow. I headed over to Fite TV to pre-order the show, only to find out that Ring of Honor are charging $35.00 for Supercard of Honor. Thirty-five freaking bucks. For a Ring of Honor show, in 2020. That's insane. By comparison, I just paid $19.99 for AEW Revolution, which is obviously a far superior product with way better quality of content and production values. ROH is charging $15.00 more for their PPV's than AEW. That's also literally double what I paid for the last NWA PPV. That's just madness. But I still wanted to see the show. I had heard about "Honor Club." My understanding was that this is basically the ROH version of the WWE Network. I had heard for $10.00 a month, you get access to ROH's considerable video library and can see their PPV's as well. I figured, hey...I'll re-watch the Joe vs. Punk Trilogy, I'll re-watch Joe vs. Kobashi, I'll check out some classic Bryan Danielson...plus I'll be able to see the upcoming 18th Anniversary Show and Supercard of Honor. Ten bucks a month for all that sounded fair to me, so I decided to sign up. But then I found out that... - Ring of Honor has not actually uploaded all of their back-catalogue to "Honor Club" although they "hope to" do so some time in 2020, so I wouldn't be able to check out all that classic era stuff I was hoping to. Basically all you get is apparently the Sinclair era ROH stuff, the rest has barely been uploaded. And even better... - Being a member of "Honor Club" doesn't actually mean you get to see the PPV's as part of your monthly fee. Oh no, if you pay $9.99 a month to be part of Honor Club, you get 50% off the Pay Per Views. Unless you want to be an Honor Club "VIP" and pay them $120.00 up front for the year. Then you can see the PPV's. What a bunch of bullshit. I'd seen the infamous "Breaking Kayfabe" shoot interview Jim Cornette did with Sean Oliver after he quit Ring of Honor. He goes into insane detail about how Ring of Honor screwed up their PPV delivery, and jacked up the prices on all their merchandise to the point that nobody buys their DVD's anymore. Sean Oliver even commented during the interview that at one point, Kayfabe Commentaries was selling some of the ROH shoot interviews and merchandise, until ROH decided to jack the percentages up for them as well, so KC and ROH no longer do business together. I don't know what moron over in Ring of Honor they have making the business decisions, but whoever it is they're a total idiot. If they actually think that in this day and age they're going to get a significant number of people to pay $35.00 for one of their crappy, poorly lit, technically flawed, badly booked spotfests...they're nuts. Ditto for people signing up for "Honor Club" when in reality, you get next to nothing of interest for your $9.99 a month. Like I said, you can get the WWE Network with so much programming you could never watch it all, and all their PPV's for basically ten bucks a month. You can see an AEW PPV like Revolution for twenty bucks. But Ring of Honor somehow thinks their rinky-dink product is worth more than that?

That's a good question and one I have been wondering about myself. So far on the NWA side of things, the only Tag Teams they have on the roster are: - The Rock & Roll Express - Strictly Business - James Storm & Eli Drake - Eddie Kingston & Homicide - The Bouncers - Aron Stevens & The Question Mark That's one hell of a weak field for a Tag Team tournament. I agree with @Memphis Mark, I am really hoping they can get The Briscoes again this year. We have just seen CW Anderson and Caleb Konley team up and "win an NWA contract" so I assume they are a possibility as well. I don't know if the two teams we've seen so far on "The Circle Squared" would be eligible, Luke & PJ Hawx and Jeff Lewis Neal & Tyson Dean. Both teams would be good additions to the tournament. The other thing is, if the majority of this show is devoted to the tournament, they have a lot of their biggest names who wouldn't be featured on the show. Last year that wasn't an issue because they didn't really have any names under contract to speak of. Now I'd hate to see guys like Trevor Murdoch, Tim Storm, Ricky Starks, Matt Cross and even Zicky Dice miss the PPV just because they aren't in a tag team. I'm all for a team of guys who don't normally team up (like Murdoch and Storm for example) being in the tournament as well. Since the relationship with ROH is so cozy right now, I tend to agree with @Migs that it makes sense to expect to see Villain Enterprises back in the mix. Plus there are other great ROH teams would could really beef up this tournament like Lethal & Gresham, Williams & Haskins, Maff & Cobb (assuming he's still around), Flamita & Bandito, Vincent & Bateman, Silas Young & Josh Woods, Joe Hendry & Dalton Castle, PJ Black & Brian Johnson and some combination of Rush, Dragon Lee & Kenny King. These are all teams that worked in ROH in the past few months. They have a pretty strong Tag Team division, when you think about it. If you mix in some of the NWA singles wrestlers and a few of the many teams from ROH, you could actually have a decent tournament here.

They have announced that Nick Aldis will be defending the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship against PCO at Supercard of Honor on April 4. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that PCO isn't going to win the title, since the NWA has put so much work into Aldis/Scurll II at the Crockett Cup which is happening two weeks after Supercard of Honor, but it should still be a great match, IMO. That whole card is shaping up pretty nicely, I may have to check this out.

Hey @paul sosnowski I have a question. I recently heard JR talk on his podcast about how great some of the Windham/Flair matches were, and I've heard Cornette say the same. What would you say is the greatest Windham/Flair match from NWA TV or a major show that would be available on the WWE Network? Crockett Cup 87, or is there another one I've not heard of? I know they had some matches on the NWA syndicated TV shows but I'm not sure if those are even available on the Network.

Anyhow... I thought last night's episode of Power was really good and a significant improvement over the previous week. - I was a big fan of how Sean Mooney welcomed us to the show and then they jumped right into the action. There have been a lot of episodes recently where they have started with an interview and then gone to another interview, and that always seems like a bad move to me. I thought this was a great way to start the show. - So Zicky Dice beats Ricky Starks and becomes the new NWA Television Champion. I have mixed feelings about this. Zicky Dice has totally grown on me, and I have no issue with him winning a title. His ring work is pretty good, and his character is so awesome...he just comes across as so sleazy and sketchy. The whole deal with him grinding his butt on his opponent when he has him in the corner, or swivelling his hips before doing a powerbomb is exactly the right kind of cringeworthy. Starks and Dice work really well against each other, based on their characters alone. So like I said, I think Dice will be a good champ, and it's a pretty safe bet there will be plenty of stooging and old school heel antics from him trying to hang on to that belt. However, I thought (and still think) that Ricky Starks is one of the guys the NWA should be building around, so I don't get giving him such a short title reign. I honestly thought Starks might actually get the "Lucky 7" wins needed to trade the TV title in for a World Heavyweight Title shot. After the time limit draw he had with Aldis a while back, there is a built in story there between those two. Who knows...maybe Aldis will beat Scurll and move on to an angle with Starks. Whatever happens, I just hope the NWA doesn't miss the boat on Ricky Starks. I also really enjoyed the NWA TV Title 6:05 deal during this match. I find it adds to the enjoyment and sense of urgency when you're keeping one eye on the clock...and after some of the ridiculously long matches in NXT and AEW lately, a short sprint is a refreshing change of pace. - I thought the stuff from the Crockett Cup press conference was good. You certainly can't claim that the NWA doesn't treat World Heavyweight Championship matches like a big deal. That arena looks nice, it's small but I really hope the NWA can get a decent crowd in there, even if they don't manage to sell it out. - That segment with The Question Mark and the ventriloquist was...something. I may end up having nightmare about that Question Mark ventriloquist dummy. - I have been the first one to complain about the NWA featuring too much comedy, and I still worry about that. The one hope I have is that Zicky Dice keeps playing old school scumbag heel and doesn't veer too far into the comedy stuff, because Aron Stevens already has that market pretty much cornered. Having said that, I absolutely loved the interview with Stevens and The Question Mark challenging The Rock & Roll Express. If you're going to do comedy in Pro Wrestling, this is how you do it. Stevens was really funny during this segment. Even better, I think if you're going to use The Rock & Roll Express, then THIS is how you use them. At their age, you can't realistically present them as legitimate contenders for the World Tag Team Championships...but against The Question Mark & Stevens in a midcard comedy match? I have no issue whatsoever with that. This kind of thing is pretty much the ideal use of The Question Mark and the Rock & Rolls. Let guys like Aldis & Scurll have the serious, "reality based" storylines, but when you mix in stuff like this, it actually works. - As far as the next match,the "Last Chance" match? FUCK YEAH. I have been bitching since week one that the NWA isn't doing enough with Caleb Konley. I have been bitching that CW Anderson is a great pickup for the NWA, but they need to use him more...and correctly. And I have been bitching that The Dawsons are basically in over their heads in the NWA and are quite honestly not talented enough to be featured on such a prominent stage. (With all due respect.) And this match managed to address all those concerns. Konley gets a big win. CW Anderson "earns" an NWA contract which means we'll be seeing more of him, which makes me very happy. And apparently, the Dawsons are OUT and lose their spot. Since this is Pro Wrestling I am highly skeptical about that last stipulation, but based on past history when I heard the terms of this match I figured there was no way Konley and Anderson were going to win this match and as per the announced stipulations, that would mean this would be the last we saw of CW Anderson. I have never been happier to be proved wrong. Now let's see Konley and Anderson as a team in the Crockett Cup. - As much as I liked this week's show, the whole deal with May Valentine, Saul Rinauro and Royce Isaacs is kind of lame and isn't doing much for me. Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed May Valentine's character, her whole oblivious social media influencer gimmick is gold, and those Video Diary segments are great...but is anybody honestly clamoring for a Sal Minauro/Royce Isaacs feud? Or even a single match? - I have really enjoyed this whole angle with The Pope and Eddie Kingston. There have been some great twists to the story, from Pope managing Kingston & Homicide, to turning on them, to managing the Dawsons against the Bouncers, to the Bouncers turning on Kingston. The promos have been gold (Kingston and Pope are both better than pretty much anybody in WWE or NXT, and even better than more than a select few in AEW) and I can only hope this is leading to either a Kingston & Homicide vs. The Bouncers match or even an Kingston vs. Pope match. Having said all that, the Main Event of this week's show was pretty bad. As JR would say, it was "bowling shoe ugly." I never would have guessed that the Dawsons would have a better match against The Bouncers than Eli Drake and James Storm did, but there you go. The Bouncers are a lot better than I originally gave them credit for, but these two teams just did not mesh well at all. I am glad Drake and Storm retained and I hope this isn't the last we see of The Bouncers in the NWA, but this was...not so good. On the whole though, I really enjoyed Power this week. Yet another fun hour of old school style Pro Wrestling that just flew by. Too bad there is only one more episode left for the next six weeks. I hope next week's Circle Squared episodes are good.

So for those of you that didn't see Power last night, they addressed this issue. Here's the schedule starting next week... 03/10/20: Double episode of "The Circle Squared." (I wonder if they're showing two episodes because a lot of people bitched that the first episode was so short?) 03/17/20: Special extended episode of Power called "Super Power" featuring Tim Storm vs. Jax Dane, The Rock & Rolls vs. Stevens/Question Mark, Kamille's in-ring debut and Marty Scurll & Brody King vs. Nick Aldis & Thom Lattimer. 03/24/20: "Power Surge" which sounds like it's basically going to be a "best of" or highlight clip show 03/31/20: The Crockett Cup "Selection Show" (during which I assume they'll be announcing the complete list of participants and maybe the brackets?) 04/07/20: Ten Pounds of Gold (I don't know if this is going to be the debut of a new season of Ten Pounds of Gold. I assume it will be, because the entire original series is already available on YouTube.) So here's the weird thing...that's all they announced last night. Based on the spoilers from the last set of Power tapings in January, the stuff they will be showing on the "Super Power" episode on 03/17/20 will be the last of the pre-taped stuff they have. They didn't announce anything for 04/14/20, which would be the last show before the PPV that weekend. So either they don't know what they're doing that last week yet, or both weeks before the PPV and after the "Selection Show" will be basically a lead up promotion for the Pay Per View. No matter how you look at it, the fact is that March 17 will be the last episode of Power with original in-ring content, and then there is still an entire month until the PPV with no new actual in-ring content. That seems like a really odd choice, to me. They might be able to pull it off if the Selection Show and Ten Pounds of Gold do a good job of building to the PPV, but that still seems like way too long between the last episode of Power and the PPV. (Granted the original "Ten Pounds of Gold" series is excellent, so if they can do that again, it might make up for it.) But at first glance, this kind of reminds me of the buildup to Into The Fire, where it became pretty obvious that they hadn't taped enough content to get them to the PPV and had to do that horrible clip show and pointless empty arena match. If they're not going to run bi-monthly Pay Per Views like they did with Into The Fire and Hard Times, then they're probably going to have to tape more than two days of TV at a time. Maybe waiting three months between Hard Times and the Crockett Cup was a one time thing, and they'll go back to bi-monthly PPV's. Or maybe they'll do more co-promoted stuff with ROH. If Scurll actually beats Aldis at the PPV, I am betting more co-branded content is a safe bet. They have also confirmed the upcoming schedule, the PPV is on April 19 (the first four rows have sold out, but some reason I have seen it reported elsewhere that the entire event is sold out, and I don't think that is the case. That new arena looks pretty damn big and I have my doubts about them filling it up.) and then they tape the next round of Power at the "NWA Arena" on April 20 and 21.

I would like to share a screen-grab from the interview on Power last night, when Aron Stevens & The Question Mark challenged The Rock & Roll Express to a Tag Team match for next week's show. "Finally, after four or five decades in the ring, you've finally made it. You're sharing a screen with me. Let's get a shot of this!" "Look...I don't want to waste your time. Lord knows how much you have left." There is something to be said for unscripted promos when you just tell that the participants are actually having fun out there.

I know that current All Japan is to the King's Road Era as the current NWA is to JCP...but still. The thought of Vince McMahon owning All Japan Pro Wrestling is the most depressing thing, ever.

Six months ago, if you'd have told me that there was going to be a match involving Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Adam Page in AEW and that the most popular person out of the four participants would be Adam Page...and the Young Bucks would actually get booed for working him over, I would thought you were crazy and never believed it in a million years. But there it was. I've always liked Adam Page but I've loved watching him come into his own and slowly gain in popularity based on his natural charisma, unscripted promos and skill. It's too bad that because this wasn't planned or a creation of management, we know that he's going to basically get punished for getting over on his own, so AEW won't push him. Oh wait that's right...this isn't WWE. You can actually get over in AEW based on your own work and they won't bury you for it. What an unheard of and revolutionary concept.

I thought this past week's episode of Power was a sort of humdrum, to be honest. There was some good in there but there was also some not so good. It felt like a lot of it was filler, which is something I was concerned about when they announced they don't have another PPV until April. One thing I am very curious about is the fact that they have basically 6 more weeks of TV to fill before the Crockett Cup on April 19, but they are still broadcasting stuff they taped during the two day set of tapings after the last PPV in January. Even with a couple more "Circle Squared" episodes in place of Power, I don't see how they are going to make what they have left in the can last all the way until the next PPV. That can only mean one of two things, either they are going to do more tapings (which seems unlikely) or they are going to be presenting us with a lot more filler. I remember that episode they aired right after "Hard Times" where there was only 7 minutes of action in the entire hour. I really don't want to see another show like that. I guess they will probably do a Crockett Cup preview show or something, and maybe three more episodes of "The Circle Squared" in which case they only have to get 4 more episodes of Power out of what they have already taped. Anyhow... - I thought the opening interview with Tim Storm was okay. I wish he was in a higher profile angle right now, but this is what it is. So we discover "Danny Deals" is the genius behind the infamous Momma Storm parody, and he is now managing Jax Dane. Storm is going to fight Dane and if he wins he gets his hands on Deals. If he loses, Dane gets a contract. I don't mind Dane, he's a pretty solid (if somewhat unspectacular) worker. Dane is another decent pickup and another guy who is perfect for the NWA because he is decent and isn't tainted as a "reject" from some other national organization. I know he worked in New Japan, ROH and Impact but he's not exactly synonymous with any of those organizations. I'm not sure why he needs to "earn" an NWA contract considering the fact that he is a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a former NWA National Champion, a former NWA North American Champion and even a former NWA Tag Team Champion. If that isn't enough to get him a contract, what is? Anyhow, apparently Storm and Dane have quite a bit of experience working against each other, so I am hoping they get some time to work and that this match is decent. - The Matt Cross interview was passable. It's kind of sad that there are guys like him who have been basically working the indies for 20 years and still look kind of uncomfortable cutting a promo, probably due to lack of experience working TV more than anything else. No wonder they teach promos at NXT. The Triple Threat for the TV Title was like everything else on this show...just okay. Zicky Dice has really grown on me, but my only concern is that his heel act is borderline comedy and Aron Stevens pretty much fills that role already. The stuff about his fanny pack was amusing, as was his heel stooging, but like I said...Aron Stevens already pretty much owns that role in the NWA. I know Dave Lagana is the booker for the NWA and you can tell he worked as a WWE writer because he sure has a love for comedy. Which is fine, but the NWA seems to constantly be at risk of overdoing it. This match was way too short. I can't believe Dice is getting another shot at Starks already. I am wondering if they are planning on putting the TV title on him. I think that would be a major mistake for two reasons. Starks is just getting started as the TV Champ and would suffer having the TV title taken off him already...and like I said, we have one comedy champion with Stevens as the National Champion. We don't need two. They went to all the trouble to devote an entire PPV to the TV Title, I'd hate to think they're planning on making it a hot shot belt. - I don't know why but these May Valentine Video Diary segments really crack me up. But once again, maybe too much emphasis on comedy? - The Stevens promo was fine but nothing we haven't seen from him already. I am really hoping this is leading to another match with Murdoch vs. Stevens where Murdoch wins the National Championship. I was thrilled to see Murdoch squash The Question Mark. Obviously they finally got the fact that this guy was fine for comedy but was not meant for beating guys like Murdoch. Better late than never, I guess. - The Aldis promo was very good, the resulting surprise appearance by Brody King was cool and the big brawl was done pretty well. I would be happy to see Aldis, Lattimer and Isaacs vs. Scurll, King and PCO. Villain Enterprises vs. Strictly Business would be fun, I think. This was well done to lead up to the Crockett Cup. - I loved the Eddie Kingston promo, and I have to be honest and say I did NOT see The Bouncers joining Pope and turning on Kingston. I assume that this is leading to Kingston & Homicide vs. The Bouncers and I am great with that. I would assume those two teams will end up meeting at some point in the Crockett Cup. Plus next week The Bouncers get a shot at Drake & Storm for the Tag Team Titles, which could be interesting. - The Rock & Roll Express are announced as the first team entering the 2020 Crockett Cup. Okay...seriously? Those two are the real Jurassic Express. - The "Main Event" was just an angle, and not even a good one. The whole thing was total shite, obviously. Although I suppose it was better than having to watch Melina actually wrestle, so there is that at least. This is the second time now that the NWA has spent more than one week hyping a Main Event match, only to not deliver. First Storm vs. Aldis in the TV Title Qualifier match, and now this. That is a bad habit to get into, because all they are doing is teaching their fans not to get excited when the NWA hypes a match as a Main Event on Power. I honestly don't even know what the point of this stupid segment was. Melina claims she deserves a title shot (which she doesn't, but whatever.) She demands the shot. She actually gets the shot, and then she runs away? It's not even like she ran because she was getting her ass kicked, she just ran. If she ran because she was afraid of Thunder Rosa, then why did she demand the match? Or was this whole thing just meant to set up Kamille vs. Kay? I am fine with seeing those two wrestle, although I have no idea if Kamille is any good. But she sure looks damn good. So yeah, this show was just "there" in my opinion.

I mentioned this somewhere else around here, but recently Mauro has made some subtle but noticeable changes in his work. Both during the past Takeover show and last week's weekly episode on USA, I swear Mauro was actually going out of his way to illicit commentary from both Nigel and Beth, and he was actually letting them answer before he starting bellowing again. He was actually asking opinions and throwing it to them for answers. Based on his history, I'm going to assume that he didn't just randomly decide to stop interrupting them all the time. I'd be willing to bet that either Nigel and Beth pulled him aside and asked if he'd actually let them speak once in a while or (more likely) somebody in authority told him he needed to stop trying to monopolize the entire commentary position and trying to be a one-man show. We all know that Mauro not letting Beth and Nigel speak was one of the points that Corey Graves brought up during his infamous Tweet that drove Mauro off Twitter forever. It is an issue that lots of people have noticed, but it seems like maybe he might actually trying to not do it as much, either because he wants to or because he was told to. That's good. I hated the constant interrupting of his coworkers. It was rude, egotistical and unprofessional and gave me the impression that Mauro would love to be a one man commentary team like Joey Styles was in ECW. The difference is, Joey could actually work with people like Don Callis and Joel Gertner. Up until now in NXT, I've yet to see any evidence Mauro knows how to do that. One Mauro problem down, two to go. Now if Ranallo could actually address his other two glaring deficiencies. Namely his constant shouting and bellowing is both totally unnecessarily and distracting from the matches. He doesn't need to be like that. He has been blessed with pretty much the perfect voice for Pro Wrestling announcing. If he would just calm the fuck down and stop yelling about everything, he would be so much better. Maybe worst of all are his stupid ham-handed attempts at alliteration. The rhyming, the strained and unnatural analogies, the comparisons and metaphors and WORST of all, the labored pop culture and hip hop references that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the action. He basically stands on his head to try and shoehorn his stupid hip hop references. And why? Because obviously that and "Mama Mia" are his "gimmick." @DMJhit the nail on the head. Mauro Ranallo isn't trying to be the NXT play-by-play announcer, he's trying to be a character and work his gimmick. This is the root of all his problems...he's trying to get himself over. He's trying to bring attention to how "clever" he is. That's not his job. He doesn't need a gimmick. NXT is a damn developmental league, so how about instead of trying to be the fucking pasty, white, middle aged version of hip hop Dr. Seuss, he just does his fucking job and gets the talent over? His job is to describe the match, but Mauro Ranallo is more concerned with coming up with rhyming descriptors and comparing something to a dated hip hop song from the fucking 90's. It's infuriating. His inability to just call the fucking match actually detracts from NXT most of the time, and that pisses me off to no end, because NXT (and NXT UK) are actually the only WWE brands that are any good, for my money. Of course God forbid anybody actually say that to him, or he'll have another "episode" and need to take two weeks off while his manager Frank "Dog Killer" Shamrock defends him on Twitter. So fuck Frank Shamrock and yes...fuck Mauro Fucking Ranallo.

At this point I find it really hard to get excited about any Wrestlemania matches, because I know they're going to be on a 7 hour show (if you include the pre-show matches.)

Yeah, that was just plain uncomfortable. I really don't know why JR felt the need to unburden himself about something like that on his podcast of all fucking places. For a guy who is so hypersensitive to criticism about his age and sharpness, he sure does a lot of stuff that pretty much guarantees people are going to question his mental state. Old Conrad couldn't get off that topic fast enough. Knowing Conrad, I'm a bit surprised he didn't use it as a segue into an add read... "Speaking of getting pregnant, you know what helps with that, JR? Blue Chew! Especially if you use it and then take the women to bed on a Purple Mattress! And if the woman does get knocked up, and you have to drive her to the clinic, make sure and get your car checked at Rock Auto first!"

I had the exact same thought when watching that show. The NWA currently features the 500 year old Rock & Roll Express, and the freaking Dawsons as two of their top Tag Teams. If I was them, I'd sign both of the teams featured on this week's show and be happy to do it, I don't know why they need to feature just one team as the "winner." If I had to pick between the two teams, I'd definitely sign Dean & Neal. Those guys are the exact type of talent the NWA should be looking for right now, they have skill, they clearly know what they're doing but they are pretty much total unknowns who the NWA could legitimately claim to have discovered and put on the national stage as original talents. They looked pretty sharp and much more polished as a team than the Dawsons ever have, in my opinion. Luke and PJ Hawx were okay, I guess. PJ is clearly not ready for prime time, though. His interviews were awful, he doesn't look even remotely athletic, and although he seems to have some mat wrestling skills, let's be honest here...his big claim to fame right now is jumping off that balcony in that shopping mall like a total idiot. This stupid clip of him has gone "viral" and gotten mainstream media attention recently, so I have no doubt that the NWA wants to hop on board and use that as free publicity. I can't fault them for that, but I don't see PJ Hawx as much of a prospect, nevertheless. I understand what @Coffeyis saying about the fan reaction video inserts...I really don't much care what some 9 year old kid thinks of the talents featured on this show, but on the other side of the coin, I get what the NWA is trying to do here. They are trying to demonstrate how fan friendly and interactive they are as an organization. They are really going out of their way to engage their fans and make sure that everybody knows that what their fans think is important. I appreciate that, even though the execution of that plan might leave something to be desired.

I really enjoyed this show. While not every match was to my tastes, everybody worked really hard and the level of enthusiasm and energy was great. The hot crowd definitely helped. - I have enjoyed every Lee/Dijakovic match in NXT so far, and for my money this match was easily the best of their series. Hard hitting, high impact and well laid out, I thought. I thought it was a tad on the long side with a tendency toward too many near falls and false finishes, but that seemed to be the theme of the night (and is an issue overall for all of NXT, it's what I like to call "The Shawn Michaels Effect.") But in the bigger picture on a stage like this, I'd rather see two guys overdo it rather than underwhelm. They managed to reel me in with a bunch of the high impact false finishes too, so at least they did what they were intended to do. Great match and a great way to start the show. - The video package did an excellent job summarizing the Nox/Kai feud and I actually really enjoyed this fight right up until the finish. I guess it is sexist of me to say this, but I don't like to see women beating the hell out of each other like that, it made me slightly uncomfortable...but that's just my age showing, I guess. A few of the bumps in this match were really effective and cringe-worthy, especially the cannonball against the trash can and the table spot at the end. To me, the main thing that kept this match from being great was the finish. I for one had no damn clue who Raquel Gonzalez was when she showed up, and I don't think I was alone in that. I wish they had done a decisive finish and had Gonzalez show up to attack Nox after the match, but it was what it was. Still a very good match. - I didn't really enjoy the Balor/Gargano match all that much, but I think that is mostly on me. Gargano is one of those guys who I think is technically very good but I don't connect with his character on an emotional level. I know it's probably just me, but I always feel like he's just running through the paces and isn't capable of convincingly conveying his emotions during his matches. And that was exacerbated by the fact that while I don't mind Finn Balor, I really don't find him particularly engaging either. Balor has always just been kind of "there" as far as I'm concerned. He certainly doesn't do anything wrong, but he also has never really done anything that really grabbed me, either. The only match I ever remember him having that I really liked was against AJ Styles at TLC 2017, or that sprint against Lesnar at the Rumble last year. Considering how long he's been with WWE and how many high profile matches he's had, that's not a lot of distinguishable work. So the combination of both these guys left me kind of nonplussed, so say the least. Much like my feelings towards both participants, this match was well executed and technically sound but it didn't really do anything for me. And it wasn't helped by the fact that it went on WAY too fucking long. I don't know who is in charge of laying out Gargano's matches, but whoever it is needs to be told that the guy can wrestle a match that is 20 minutes or less, and the world won't come to an end. Seriously, this match was 27 damn minutes long, and it wasn't a title match or the Main Event. There were four title matches on this show, and this match went longer than all of them aside from the Main Event. I'm sorry but that's just nuts. - I thought the Ripley/Belair match was excellent, and for my money they managed to do what Gargano/Balor couldn't, in literally half the damn time. I can only assume and hope that Bianca Belair is going to be heading to the main roster soon, because these repeated losses in big matches certainly aren't doing anything for her. Besides, she's amply proved that she's ready for the big stage and I don't see what else she needs to prove or do in NXT. If the Royal Rumble showed anything, it's that they have confidence in her, so let's get her up on the main roster and mixing with Bailey, Becky, Sasha, etc. I'm only wondering if they might not be planning on making the NXT Women's Championship match a Triple Threat, based on this match. I kind of hope not, I'm really looking forward to Ripley/Flair, even though they have totally botched the buildup so far. - I thought the Tag Team Title match was pretty damn good. It wasn't quite an old school southern style tag match that I like, but it wasn't modern chaotic anything goes spot-fu, either. I would like to say that I really like Pete Dunne a lot, and I'm also a Riddle fan...but these vignettes and comedy bits they've been doing with them as a team are absolutely ridiculous, stupid and totally unnecessary. The whole deal with them mocking Fish and their stupid t-shirts and golf cart and all that was just made me roll my eyes. But as I said, the match was fun. Unlike pretty much everybody here at PWO, I really like The Undisputed Era as a stable. I love Fish and O'Reilly and I don't want to see them get called up because we've seen what happens when good tag teams go to the main roster. I selfishly want to keep enjoying their matches in NXT. I know this sounds really dumb, but I assumed Dunne and Riddle were winning when I saw they've gone to the trouble and expense of having custom ring gear made for their team. That seems to indicate to me that they're going to run with these two for a while before their inevitable split. But yeah anyhow, I aside from the "comedy" vignettes leading up to this match, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this match, it was fun. - I didn't hate the Main Event, at all. It was a good match. I thought it was overbooked at the end with all the run-ins and the false finishes, and if you're going to go almost 35 minutes in your Main Event then I'd think a clean finish would be nice. Much like the Balor/Gargano match, to me this match had Shawn Michaels' fingerprints all over it. Both matches were attempts to recreate the kind of overdone "epics" he became famous for at Wrestlemania against The Undertaker. I thought they easily could have shaved off 5-10 minutes and it would have been just as effective and good, because in my opinion when you have that many false finishes it diminishes their effectiveness and pretty much kills the believablilty of the participants finishing manoeuvres. During the last 8-10 minutes of these types of matches, they are pre-conditioning us as fans to not get excited when somebody hits a finish, because based on history, multiple kickouts are inevitable. At one point, when both guys had kicked out of everything (more than once) I found myself saying "well, obviously there's going to be a run-in" and then sure enough, here comes Strong, Fish and O'Reilly and eventually Gargano. I don't hate Cole, so I don't have a problem with him retaining. I also don't have an issue with the Gargano/Ciampa angle at the end. To be honest, I found both Gargano and Ciampa were at their most interesting and compelling when they were teaming and then feuding with each other, so I have no issue whatsoever with NXT going back to that again, with a new twist. I'm not entirely convinced Gargano has what it takes to make a convincing heel, just as I find Ciampa to be much more effective as a heel than he is a babyface, but I'm willing to give this angle a shot and see how it plays out. I will say that I really hope that this isn't paving the way to Cole vs. Balor, because I don't have much interest in seeing that...but time will tell. Anyhow, as I said earlier...I thought overall this show was excellent. There was nothing bad on this show, and there was a lot that was very good. Credit where it's due, I even found that I was able to tune out Mauro Ranallo for most of the night. He did have a couple of ridiculously labored metaphors which made no sense and were just stupid, but I found he wasn't quite as bad as he normally is at the screaming and bellowing during this show. During this show, he was mostly just yelling...which for him is almost like being quiet. I also couldn't help but notice that on several occasions he would actively throw the call to his broadcast partners, as in: "Beth I noticed this" or "Nigel, what did you think of that." I am convinced that somebody must have said something to him about constantly interrupting Beth and Nigel, because it was noticeable last night when he didn't do it and in fact went out of his way to solicit comments from them. So that's good. Don't get me wrong, he still sucks...but last night it seems like he didn't suck quite as bad. Or maybe I was just in a better mood with him, because this was a really good show.

At this point in Pro Wrestling, any wrestler who is over 6 feet tall and weighs more than 220 pounds is pretty much a "hoss." Guys the size of Lee and Dijakovic are becoming more and more of a rarity. The old school fan in me is just happy to see somebody who isn't 190 pounds bouncing around the ring like a rubber ball. When those two flung themselves through or over the ropes last night, it actually looked like something.

This. I am hardly a big Adam Cole fan, but I'd watch a 4 hour "Best Of" Adam Cole Compilation before I'd sit through another one of Omega's goofy epics, with all the bug-eyed pointing, jazz-hands pew-pew motions, dancing and prancing. Both guys are technically sound, but Omega can't cut a serious promo to save his life, and his execution looks so theatrical and ridiculous most of the time that I don't see the comparison with Cole at all. Plus, Cornette worked with both guys early in their careers and it certainly appears that he liked Cole's attitude towards the Pro Wrestling business a lot more than he did Kenny's.

I’d kind of like to punch Sam Roberts in the face.

I hear you @Blehschmidt, but the problem she, Sandra and Boston Rob are facing is that they're almost too infamous and have huge targets on their backs...in my opinion.

I'm going to be watching this show, but then again I'm a really big NXT fan - although the TV show over the past couple of weeks and the buildup has been pretty lacklustre. A couple of these matches have the potential to be very good, I am especially looking forward to the Tag Team Title match, as long as it doesn't devolve into spot-fu. I'm all over Lee vs. Dijakovic again, I loved their previous matches...I love me a good hoss fight. Both women's matches have promise. I am actually kind of ambivalent about Cole vs. Ciampa and Balor vs. Gargano. I'm not a huge fan of Ciampa as a babyface, and neither Balor or Gargano do much for me. But I'm still looking forward to the show. I'm not going to post along as I watch the show because I just want to sit back and enjoy it and not be typing away furiously while I do, but I'll share my thoughts at some point after the show is over. I'm sure everybody will be breathless with anticipation over that.

Ever since I first saw him, I've always been amazed that WWE hasn't been all over Jacob Fatu.

Too bad he can't work like either of them.

I thought that was really weird too. During Cornette's entire rant, Brian Last didn't utter a word. And it's not like Brian Last is afraid to disagree with or contradict Cornette when Cornette says something he disagrees with. He does that all the time, but this time he was conspicuously silent.

Me too. I couldn't resist seeing all those winners from the past 20 years/40 seasons all playing at once. And I wasn't disappointed, either. #TeamYul Who are you pulling for, @C.S.?

I know nobody here at PWO watches NXT UK or cares about it, but I'd just like to mention that Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch are there now, and fought Gallus in the Main Event this past week...and it was awesome. I'm thrilled that not only did WWE settle with Lorcan, but that they kept him and Burch working together...and then moved them to the one brand under the WWE umbrella that they can actually work to their strengths.