The Thread Killer

If only Russo had known that if he wanted to see JBL get knocked out, all he had to do was get Vince McMahon to hire Joey Styles. Think of all the needless trouble that could have been avoided.

I'm sure the pandemic is hurting the Khan family plenty, and even before this there were reports that Tony Khan had decided to put the brakes on any big AEW signings...but saying they "don't have money" is a bit of a stretch. Put it this way...if The Revival's contracts expire during this pandemic (which they might) then you can pretty much bet AEW is going to sign them, pandemic or no pandemic.

Conrad Thompson did a podcast with the producers of the Dark Side of the Ring today. Turns out, they filmed a lot of content for the Brawl for All episode last year, including the interviews with Russo and Cornette...but then their episode order got cut from 10 to 6, so they decided to put a lot of the stuff between Russo and Cornette into the Montreal Screwjob episode, where it had not been originally intended. They really wanted to use a lot of the footage because they thought it was good TV, but didn't know if they'd have the chance to use it otherwise. That makes a lot of sense now, because at the time the Russo/Cornette stuff seemed kind of pointless and shoehorned into the Montreal episode. Turns out it was originally intended for this episode, where it makes a bit more sense.

I listened to the recent episodes of Talk is Jericho with Matt Hardy and then Brodie Lee. Very interesting insight into this whole question. Both guys had the exact same story...Vince offered them huge amounts of money, up until the very last minute their contracts expired, to try and get them to stay. And in both cases, they both knew they weren't going to be used and "creative had nothing for them" but Vince just didn't want anybody signing with AEW after losing Jericho and Moxley. Brodie Lee made it sound like Triple H told him that the WWE's main concern was how it would look if all sorts of people started asking for their releases and going to AEW. I think that's why they refused to even give a guy like Mike Bennett his release when he asked. They have no intention of using a lot of these guys, but they just don't want them going anywhere else.

You know, I never would’ve figured that there would be a way to make a Baron Corbin match even less enjoyable…but here we are.

The important thing is that Mauro couldn’t make it.

I guess maybe it was naïve of me to hope that because of the empty arena they wouldn’t do their normal routine with switching camera angles every 3 seconds.

I couldn't agree with you more. That Mike Mills segment was the kind of thing that shows Cornette at his best and highlighted why I listen to his podcasts to begin with. I couldn't care less what Jim Cornette thinks of Legend's House, for fuck's sake. Conversely, that little history he gave of the Texas wrestling territories on the Drive-Thru last week was very interesting, informative and entertaining, in my opinion. But I'm afraid that type of content is becoming less featured on Cornette's show. After Cornette signed up for the WWE Network. Brian Last posted a poll on Twitter, giving fans a choice of what content they wanted Cornette to review first. There were some decent choices in the poll, but Legend's House actually won the poll. I was actually really surprised at first but I guess this just proves something I have suspected for a while now. Cornette is playing to his Twitter fans more and more now. Cornette's newer fans don't want to hear about classic Pro Wrestling history at all, or hear his match reviews and constructive insight on how the modern product could be improved using lessons from the territory days. These newer fans just want to hear yet another version of the "Dairy Queen video." We all know how Cornette will react to this stuff, there's no surprise there. There has been a noticeable decline in the quality of Cornette's Drive-Thru since he started to grow in popularity and gain new listeners after his infamous review of AEW's Double or Nothing last year. There used to be some really interesting questions about historical stuff or Cornette's time in the territories. Now it's stupid crap like "what would you think of Orange Cassidy as AEW Champion?" or questions about who should be in the WWE Hall of Fame. And a lot of that is on Brian Last. But both he and Cornette obviously know what helped these shows gain in popularity, and they are playing to that crowd...not the old school fans who used to be his fanbase.

I was excited at the prospect of watching Dynamite. Then I saw that the first match featured Jimmy Havoc, with Kenny Omega on commentary. At that point, I became much less excited. And for the record...Kenny Omega may very well be the blandest, least interesting person in all of Professional Wrestling when he has a microphone in front of his face.

Why did you skip WM9? That was the one in Vegas, right? I hear you, though. I was a 15 year old fan at the time of the first Wrestlemania, but had no way to watch it...I had to wait until it came out on video and rent it, although as I remember they did a great job of getting it into Video Stores quickly. I saw 2, 3, 4 and 5 on closed circuit and then since then I've seen every other one on PPV. Even at times my fandom had waned to the point of not watching WWF TV anymore, I still always watched Wrestlemania, for sentimental reasons if nothing else. I sometimes regretted it but I always made sure to catch Wrestlemania, no matter the circumstances. But this year, I dunno. I don't like the empty area stuff at all. I don't blame them for doing it, because they have no choice...but I am not at all excited about it. Then again, I'll probably be stuck in the house and will end up watching it out of boredom and a lack of anything better to do. If nothing else, the watch along threads here at PWO are sometimes as entertaining as the shows themselves.

I don't think that's in character, I think he's just a moron. I've also seen people on Twitter bitching about "willingly giving up their rights." I don't even know how you could argue with somebody that stupid. It's like trying to argue with one of those idiots who think the world is flat, or a 9-11 "truther" or that you shouldn't vaccinate your kids. If somebody is actually that dumb, you can't even use logic to convince them otherwise.

I saw it live. There really wasn't any such thing as "Pay Per View" at the time, and if there was very few people had it. You have to remember, a lot of people didn't even have cable at that time. The majority of people saw the show on "Closed Circuit Television" where you bought tickets to go to a local arena, and they broadcast the show on huge screens with crappy audio. At the time, I didn't mind Wrestlemania 2 all that much. I got kind of caught up in the spectacle and the experience. You have to consider that WWF shows really weren't all that great at that time when it came to the quality of the matches, either. At the time, I remember enjoying the Battle Royal and the Bulldogs match, and not minding the Hogan/Bundy match. But you're not wrong, it does not hold up well at all.

I marked out for that segment I freely admit that. :)

Poor JR. He just couldn’t stop himself from saying “medical facility.”

I love Jake Roberts but I don’t understand his new haircut. Why is only one side of it grey and shaved? On the plus side I’m really glad they didn’t drag this out for weeks before we found out who Jake’s new protégé was.

That explains why there are always Pro Wrestling references on Billions. (Which is an awesome show.)

I'm all for Matt Hardy coming in to AEW and going hog wild with his whole "Broken" gimmick. I just don't want to see him getting stuck working with The Dark Order, because they suck.

He frequently accuses Kenny Omega of having a Japanese schoolgirl fetish, too. (Which hey...where's there's smoke...) You're right though. I used to think that Kenny took too much shit for his mannerisms being effeminate and that some of the criticisms levied at him were borderline homophobic. Then I found out that he starred in an art film entitled: "Sissy Boy Slap Party." And I saw a couple of minutes of it on YouTube. I don't think he is gay, and even if he was I wouldn't care, nor would I support anybody criticizing his lifestyle choices. But after Sissy Boy Slap Party, I can see where the people that are taking shots at him for that are getting their ammunition.

Or you know...revolutionary idea here...people could watch and enjoy BOTH. Radical thought, I know. But it's actually possible, because I do it pretty much every week. I don't even hate Omega, I just think he's wildly overrated. There are fans around who claim that Omega is the best Pro Wrestler in the world right now, and I don't see the evidence of that. Especially since Dynamite debuted. I think he's a talented Pro Wrestler who is capable of being involved in very good and even great matches. His recent Iron Man match with PAC and the Tag Team match at Revolution are both clearly proof of that fact. But I think his promos are shitty, his facials and mannerisms in the ring are comical, and his selling is inconsistent and unconvincing a lot of the time. Kenny Omega is very good, but there are plenty of guys around who are just as good as he is, and better in quite a few cases. Let me have that opinion...without the judgment. I don't know what information you've been getting, but Cornette criticizes WWE and NXT almost as much as he does AEW. There seems to be a misconception that Cornette blindly hates AEW and shits all over everything they do, so he must therefore prefer NXT and WWE. He's even had some wacked out AEW fans on Twitter accuse him of secretly working for WWE, which is laughable. On his podcast he and Brian Last reviewed both Dynamite and NXT every week for a few months, and he gave Dynamite a better review than NXT about half the time. Hell, he reviewed Raw for the past three weeks and he absolutely eviscerated it. He even shit on Seth Rollins, who used to be one of his favorites. (Which I was glad to see, because for my money Seth Rollins and Kenny Omega are cut from very similar cloth.) As recently as this past week, he said that he thought Dynamite was a very good show, the best they've done so far. (Which I totally don't get, but whatever.) He's even gone so far as to say that at least AEW is interesting when WWE is just boring overly scripted garbage. Cornette doesn't hate all "modern" Pro Wrestling, he gushes about Darby Allin all the time and they don't get much more current and modern than him. He always praises The Jurassic Express, he just hates Marko Stunt. Hell, he even gave the Tag Team Title match at Revolution a positive review, even though Omega and The Young Bucks were involved.

Good. They've been dragging this crap on for way too long. It would be one thing if this angle was advancing something good, but it's the Dark Order...so come on, already. Having said that, I'd mark out if The Exalted One turns out to be Kevin Sullivan. Or even Jim Mitchell, who recently left Impact.

That's the problem right there. I generally enjoy watching Pro Wrestling with friends rather than on my own. Problem is, I only have three friends who watch Pro Wrestling. One is an even bigger fan than I am and will watch pretty much anything, so if we can get together we will split costs for PPV's. The other two were devoted fans up until around the end of the Monday Night Wars. Once Vince pretty much became the main game in town and WWE went downhill creatively, they both stopped watching. I got them both into early Ring of Honor and 90's AJPW compilations, but neither will touch the modern product. I recently got them to watch an NXT Takeover with me, but anything modern is always a tough sell with those guys.If left to their own devices, neither guy will watch anything. I wish I did know more people who lived within reasonable distance of me that watched Pro Wrestling.

Based on their general skill level, I'm not terribly surprised neither had shown up on your radar yet.

I wouldn't actually hate Tim Storm vs. George South, but like I said...they really need to lay off all the old guys, in my opinion. George South's "I'd punch your Mother in the face" line did legit crack me up. @rovert you know quite a bit about Women's Wrestling and follow the scene pretty closely, had you ever heard about or seen either Freya or Dani Jordyn and what did you think of them potential wise? Was my assessment too harsh?

So they had a Crockett Cup event center segment with Sean Mooney on this week's show. They have now confirmed 4 of the 8 teams that will be entering the tournament. - The Rock & Roll Express (I loved it when the announced said this "might be their last year" to enter the tournament. They're in their late sixties for fucks sake. This might be their last year for a lot of things.) - Defending champs Villain Enterprises (Brody King and Flip Gordon, subbing for PCO who has an NWA World Title shot upcoming) - Ray Horus & Flamita - The Wild Cards They also announced that there will be another Wild Card slot this year, which will be determined the winners of a Battle Royal. Last year's Battle Royal was just for Tag Teams, but this year singles wrestlers can enter as well, and in that event the last two guys in the ring will be forced to team together. They announced Tim Storm, Zicky Dice and Ricky Starks for the Battle Royal, with more to come. As much as I'd like to see Tim Storm get into the tournament, I am kind of pulling for a Starks/Dice team based on the entrants so far. I am hoping maybe CW Anderson and Caleb Konley end up in this Battle Royal at least. They also announced that on the show, in addition to the Aldis/Scurll II, Aron Stevens will be defending the NWA National Championship against Trevor Murdoch. That means we can pretty much scratch Stevens/Question Mark as a team entering the Tournament, I guess? Thunder Rosa will be defending the NWA Women's Championship against an opponent to be named. So bottom line is, only three open spots left for the tournament. I am hoping two of those spots get taken by The Bouncers and Outlaw Inc., with maybe one more team from ROH? Crossing my fingers for the Briscoes.

So last night was the premiere of episodes 2 and 3 of "The Circle Squared" and that was...not so good. They seem to have responded to feedback and scaled back on the amount of inserted videos with the fans, or made the clips shorter...which is good. They also added professional members of the NWA watching the show and giving feedback. Eli Drake and Allysin Kay watched along and added their feedback, and it was highly amusing to watch them both put on as positive a spin as they could and avoid burying the crap. Especially in Drake's case, I got the definite impression he was pretty much biting his tongue. Not for nothing as well...I like Allysin Kay but the shot they got of her watching these matches (on Skype I assume) was not exactly the most flattering look for her. She looked kind of ghoulish, like the Mother from the old Munsters TV show. The first tryout was Colby Corino vs. George South. Yes...that George South. The legendary enhancement guy from the glory days of JCP at the Techwood Drive studios. I'll give the guy full marks, his promo was chock full of old school heelish goodness. Problem is, the dude is almost 60 years old and his entire offensive strategy during his "match" with Corino consisted of repeatedly slapping on a clawhold. And as a sidenote, The Rock and Roll Express, Scott Steiner and now George South...somebody working backstage for the NWA has a serious fetish for watching senior citizens wrestle, and whoever it is (Lagana or Corgan) they need to see a counsellor about it, or something. George South was literally part of NWA studio wrestling 35 goddamn years ago. I thought the whole point of The Circle Squared was to present fresh new talent to the NWA. As funny as seeing him was, there is absolutely nothing fresh or new about George South. What are they going to do on the next episode, try to reanimate the corpse of George Hackenschmidt? As far as Cornio...well, he looks just like his Dad, to the point where it was almost eerie. Too bad the apple has fallen very, very far from the tree when it comes to promo skills. Steve Cornio promos were some of the highlights of the dying days of ECW. Colby cut a promo before his match that was really awkward and almost painful to watch, Colby kind of shit the bed if he was hoping to impress anybody with his promo skills. The "behind the scenes" segment they did with him where he talked about his drug problems was much better. The match went almost 5 minutes and it felt like it was 10 times that. I can't see either of these guys advancing in this competition, because quite frankly that was awful. And it wasn't even the worst match they showed last night, amazingly. The second tryout was "Freya The Slaya" vs. Dani Jordyn. (Why do all Pro Wrestlers have the need to insert the letter "y" in their names where it doesn't really need to be?) So here's my thing about this match. Billy Corgan recorded a video where he announced that any unsigned Pro Wrestlers out there were interested in earning a contract with the NWA could apply to be on The Circle Squared. They claimed the response was overwhelming. After seeing this episode, my thoughts are that I never want to see the quality of the applicants who couldn't make the cut to be on the show...if this was an example of people who applied and "earned" a shot. This match was fucking awful. "Freya" seems to be a very tall girl (although Dani seemed very small so it might just be that Freya looked big by comparison) but she is awkward as hell. She makes Marti Belle look like Manami Toyota. Her selling and overall presence was atrocious. Both girls looked good from a cosmetic standpoint, but work wise? Yikes. And their promos really weren't much better. I'm not going to recommend that people avoid this show, because it was absolutely entertaining from a car wreck perspective...so bad I couldn't look away. But so far, the only act that The Circle Squared has introduced that I think has any shot at becoming legitimate stars in the NWA are the team of Jeff Lewis Neal & Tyson Dean. Based on the poll numbers they showed this week, I get the impression that Luke and PJ Hawx are leading. I really think that the NWA wants to sign them because of that stupid viral video of PJ Hawx jumping off that balcony in the mall that ended up getting mainstream press. If anything, I hope the NWA signs both those teams from Episode 1, but this week? Hard pass.