The Thread Killer

His enthusiasm isn't the problem, dude. I could almost handle the screaming and shouting and jumping out of his seat. I can almost deal with that, although it's fucking annoying. His enthusiasm I can at least appreciate and understand. The problem is that much of the time he seems more concerned with shoe-horning his stupid pop culture references and allegories into the match than he is with actually you know...calling the match. It's never natural when he does that, it always sounds incredibly forced and corny. Whether he means to do this or not, he sounds like he trying to get himself over as some sort of character, not be the play-by-play guy. Secondly, he's unprofessional. He doesn't let his fellow announcers talk, he is constantly cutting them off and interrupting them and there is literally no excuse for that. I know there are plenty of people who like the guy, and that's fine. But even his biggest defenders would have to admit that he interrupts Nigel and Beth all the time, and like I said there is no excuse for that shit. Secondly, for those that don't like him he actually detracts from the show. I've lost count of the times I've read about people either not watching NXT or having to mute the volume because they don't want to listen to Mauro Ranallo bellowing nonsense at the top of his lungs. He doesn't add to the product, for a lot of people he actually takes away from the enjoyment of the product. That isn't made up or imagined. I can't stand Josh Mathews as an example, but I've never let him get to me so much that I have to turn the volume down. But I habitually turn the volume extra low when I watch NXT because I literally can't stand listening to Mauro Ranallo's nonsense. I've never tweeted something negative to the guy, and I personally could care less if he uses Twitter or not. But if he didn't call NXT anymore I wouldn't shed a tear and I honestly think it would make the product considerably better, and I'm not going to feel guilty or apologize for that either.

@Slasher you're the man and you're one of my favorite posters here at PWO...but in this particular case I believe you're wrong brother. As I have ranted about previously, Messiah has two literal definitions: 1) "The prophesied king and deliverer of the Jews" which does not apply here, unless Roderick Strong is planning on delivering the Jews through the use of the backbreaker? or... 2) "A professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause" which would imply that the backbreaker is a "hope or cause?" It doesn't work. As I've bitched about previously, there is no earthly reason that they can't call him "The Master of the Backbreaker." Otherwise it's a stupid nickname and it makes no sense. And it's mildly sacrilegious, to boot.

One of the things that struck me when I listened to the podcast was that Cornette seemed uncharacteristically calm about the whole situation. He got a little fired up, but I expected him to go into full on insane rant mode. I thought his apology was actually fairly reasonable. If he had done that on Wednesday this might have actually blown over, but from his perspective I can see why he didn't. He was right about one thing, this kind of thing was just going to keep happening until he got fired, so it's just as well that he quit. There were two things Cornette said that I liked. Firstly he talked about how this whole controversy was overshadowing the NWA and taking attention away from the promotion and the workers and one of the reasons he quit is because he didn't want to do that to them. Secondly, he encouraged his fans to continue to support the NWA and he even reiterated that point at the end of the show, so that was good I thought. One thing that really surprised me was Brian Last during that podcast. He told Cornette flat out that he thought the joke was inappropriate and he could absolutely see why people would think it was racist. He did say that he doesn't think Cornette is a racist person, but the joke was bad and he never should have made it. I respect Brian Last for being so blunt about that. I can only imagine how Alice Radley would have reacted. Well, I guess I don't have to imagine that...when something similar to this happened when she was co-host, she quit.

I only want to see an AEW version of War Games if one of the teams is made up of Marko Stunt, Michael Nakazawa, Peter Avalon, Sonny Kiss, and the fat guy from The Dark Order.

Finally got around to watching NXT last night and saw this match. It did not disappoint, one little bit. In fact (and I know nobody will agree with me, but I'm going to say it anyhow) I think I would go as far as to say it was a MOTYC. They wisely gave it around 25 minutes and let it breathe, and I thought it was outstanding. Agree/Disagree anybody?

The Women's War Games was far and away the best match on the show, and since it was the opener all the other matches paled in comparison...but having said that, I agree with you. I still enjoyed the Men's War Games and overall I thought this was an excellent show and very enjoyable. Except the commentary of Mauro Ranallo, who I hope gets a terminal case of mouth herpes.

An "Archer of Infamy" is a lot like a "Messiah of the Backbreaker." Namely, a nickname which makes literally NO FUCKING SENSE and was apparently created solely so Mauro Ranallo can bellow it at the top of his lungs approximately 37 times every match.

The board is starting to refuse to recognize his bizarre South American political non-sequitur thread titles.

Yeah, you're right. If you watch the Breaking Kayfabe shoot interview Cornette did with KC, this is the exact kind of thing he was going insane over in ROH when he worked there around 6 years ago. He had the exact same complaints about lack of medical care for the wrestlers as well, and this kind of stuff is why he quit ROH altogether.

I'm just guessing here, but it might be a Canadian thing. As you probably know, historically there has been a fair bit of tension in Canada between Quebec and the rest of the country. It's nowhere near as bad now as it used to be, but of course at one point Quebec actually wanted to separate from the rest of Canada, and some parts of the country (especially the Western Provinces) can be resentful towards Quebec for getting what is perceived to be preferential treatment. It has also chaffed a lot of people historically that the entire country is required to be bilingual, with French on all government signs etc, when only one province is predominantly French. This led to a bit of a cultural thing where sometimes, people from the West or kids would put on a mocking French accent or deliberately mispronounce French words, or over exaggerate certain phrases. It happened a lot when I was a kid, and Jericho is pretty much the exact same age I am. He grew up in Winnipeg, so it could be something he picked up there as a comedic affectation, I'm not sure. As I said, it's just a guess.

Well, if Meltzer is to be believed (and in this case he probably should be, because he and Cornette are still friends despite their sniping at each other over AEW) then this answers a few questions. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they might have given Cornette a pass on this situation if he had been willing to apologize, which he apparently isn't. That doesn't surprise me, but it makes me think maybe he did resign rather than apologize, instead of them just firing him. I guess we'll get Cornette's side of the story later today, which I'm betting a hell of a lot of people will be listening to. I know I will, it's like a car crash that I can't look away from. I'm weak, I know. Also, this story seems to confirm that it was Lagana's fault the joke stayed on the show. Also, in context the line: "Justin Roberts looks like he ought to be registered somewhere to be around children. He’s so happy. You see a fucking guy dressed up like that, with that big smile coming across his face, coming towards your kids...run." made me laugh. That probably makes me a bad person, but I don't care.

I admit, my French may be somewhat rusty, and those are pretty much the only words I remember. Which is a shame, because if I had paid attention and applied myself it would have helped. You can get some very high paying government jobs in Canada if you're bilingual.

They made me take French in Grade 9, let's see how I remember it: Maître, je dois tailler mon crayon puis aller à la salle de bain. J'ai mangé ma moto dans le hall avec un pamplemousse.

It's always sad when guys who were popular years ago get stuck in a rut and refuse to modify or update their act. There was nothing at all racial about it, but in a somewhat similar vein I remember when Roddy Piper made his comeback to WCW in 1996. He was cutting one of his nonsensical, rambling promos and he insulted somebody (I forget who...Hogan probably) by comparing them to Punky Brewster. Naturally, the crowd didn't react since they most likely had no idea who or what Punky Brewster was. I remember thinking "Punky Brewster? WTF, that show got cancelled 10 years ago! Get some new jokes, Roddy!" But nope, there he was recycling the same lines he used in 1986 to great success but now...not so much. As much as I loved him, close to the end of his time in WCW Bobby Heenan could be guilty of the same thing, using the same old jokes we'd all heard a million times. Jerry Lawler too, come to think of it.

I'd say it's probably a little from column A and a little from column B. I know a fair number of people watch the show when it debuts live at 6:05 pm Eastern (like me for example, which is why I heard Cornette's joke before the episode was pulled down) so none of the numbers of the people who watched it in the first couple of hours will be reflected. However...the bad word of mouth about this episode spread so quickly that I have no doubt that a lot of fans decided not to watch the episode after they heard about it.

He said on more than one occasion that Hilary Clinton didn't deserve to be President because she's a woman, and women are meant to be subservient to men...because they were created from the body of man. "I don’t believe a woman was created to run this country based on the fact that the woman was taken from the man’s rib...Woman wasn’t created first. The man was created first. The woman was created second. I believe that’s how God wanted the pecking order to be." And of course who could forget this gem: "I have come to the conclusion if you are part of the NXT crowd, the people who were in Orlando, the ‘This is Awesome’ crowd, you fall in three categories. Its this simple, bro. You’re either A) homosexual. Okay, you like men. For you to react this way, you have to like men. B) You’re either no homosexual but have homosexual tendencies. Or C) You’re in the closet. Its that simple bro, because men do not react to other men that way. It’s not a normal function. Bro, I had someone tweet me after I made a tweet that Finn Balor has to hit the gym. Bro, I literally had a guy send me a picture of Finn Balor with his shirt off. Bro, you are probably a homosexual. If you are searching the internet for pictures of Finn Balor without his shirt on, and taking his time to send it to me, you fall in one of these categories." In his defense, he did go on to say that he doesn't actually have a problem with gays and worked with a lot of gay wrestlers.

Well, as bad as what Cornette said is, Russo has said even worse over the past couple of years about women and homosexuals, so I suppose Russo might refrain from saying anything since there are plenty of skeletons in his closet that would not be hard to find.

He absolutely brought this all on himself and I have no sympathy whatsoever for him. However, I find it humorous to see people like Dixie Carter using this as an opportunity to throw her two cents in. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up getting a self-satisfied promo from Russo any minute now. "See bro? Cornette is a bad person, bro! I tried to tell everybody bro, but nobody would listen to me, bro!"

I know Bruce Prichard has told a couple of horror stories about what it was like to deal with her, and Bischoff ended up suing her as well. He refuses to discuss the details, but he does not have flattering things to say about her either. In fact, aside from Mick Foley I don't know many people who do.

I had heard this as well. In fact, hasn't Billy Corgan claimed that they had an exclusive contract with Willie Mack, which he violated by signing with Impact? I remember Corgan saying that he had a solid legal case against Mack for breach of contract, but in the end he didn't want to get into another legal battle with Impact after he had just finished getting his money back from the whole Dixie Carter/TNA investment debacle. In his interview with Mike Johnson he claimed he didn't want to be known as "the lawsuit guy" so he ended up deciding to just let the whole thing go. It's a shame really, I would have loved to see Willie Mack in the NWA.

They agreed that when Cornette left TNA the public story would be that they agreed amicably to part ways. (Pretty much like what happened today with Cornette and the NWA, I assume.) Then Terry Taylor leaked it to Mike Johnson that Cornette had been fired, after Dixie Carter had given Cornette her word that wouldn't happen. Cornette called her on the phone to ask why TNA had done that, and Dixie apparently assured him that the whole thing had been a misunderstanding and that she was personally going to call Mike Johnson and issue a retraction, which she never did. It seems like Dixie pretty much told Cornette that they would agree to go with the story that the firing was a mutual agreement just so she could get rid of him, but never had any intention of honoring that agreement, she just did it to get rid of him. Cornette claimed he didn't even care if they had told everybody that he'd been fired, but he was pissed that it was their idea to claim they'd mutually parted ways, but then lied about it. I'm pretty sure that incident was the end of Cornette's friendship with Terry Taylor, because Cornette claims to have seen evidence that it was Taylor who fucked him over and leaked the info to PWInsider.

The Kenny King deal is pretty well known. When Cornette was an executive with ROH, the decision was made to put the Tag Team titles on Kenny King and Rhett Titus, even though King's contract was coming up. King verbally agreed to a new contract (and if you believe Cornette, even shook hands on the deal) so they went ahead and did the title change, but then King apparently went back on his word and refused to sign the actual contract when it was presented to him. He went to TNA and did a tryout match there without even telling ROH he was doing it, so they fired him. Then of course, King went on to accomplish exactly jack squat in TNA and ended up slinking back to ROH with his tail between his legs. As soon as King went back on his word about signing the contract, went to TNA without telling anybody and basically screwed Rhett Titus over, Cornette went ballistic and started burying King in interviews all over the place. As far as Dixie Carter...well her history with Cornette is pretty much well documented. She chose Russo over Cornette, and if that isn't going to get you heat with Cornette, I don't know what will. What we all assumed would happen is currently happening...every single Pro Wrestler or executive Cornette has ever criticized or cussed out are now tripping over themselves coming out of the woodwork to condemn him, Austin Aries being the first unsurprisingly. There is blood in the water now.

I only found out about it by accident, when one of my friends made some comment about not liking The Young Bucks and it wasn't directed at them, it was part of some discussion about New Japan or something, and one of them posted some snarky response and blocked him. My friend was all "WTF, I didn't even tag them in that tweet!" I know Kevin Nash and The Honky Tonk Man have been known to do the same thing. I was just flummoxed that these guys have the time to do that, never mind the inclination. Twitter is hardly the place for the sensitive or easily offended.

Agreed. I don't even doubt that Cornette intended the joke to allude to how tough Trevor Murdoch is...but how anybody could make a joke involving black people and fried chicken and not expect a backlash is beyond me. This reminds me a bit of when Michael Hayes gave that interview where he was acting mildly puzzled that people found the Confederate Flag offensive. He may not have worn it with the intention of offending African-American fans, but you can sure as hell understand why it would offend them.

I know he automatically blocks anybody who identifies as a Trump supporter or says they're a Republican. You didn't post a picture of yourself wearing a MAGA hat, did you?