The Thread Killer

That has to be when the Rock n Rolls won the NWA Tag Team Championships, I would assume.

I'm very disappointed that this whole situation arose, with Cornette for making the joke and then with the NWA for not editing it out when they had plenty of time to do so. Having said that, I can't honestly say that this is going to keep me from being a fan of the NWA, watching Power or ordering the PPV. We've discussed this multiple times before here at PWO, but it bears repeating now...I think in order to be a fan of Professional Wrestling you have to be able to separate your feelings about the performers and the performance. Or especially the management and the product. I've come to accept that Pro Wrestling is pretty much a scummy business run and inhabited by scummy people for the most part. We all have our own personal line and breaking point of course, but for me...this incident wasn't it.

In the NWA thread I suggested Dutch Mantell. I don't know if you ever heard him when he did color back in WCW after Turner bought JCP but before Bischoff came in, but he was great. Knowledgeable, and really funny. He was also the Color Commentator on the infamous "Heroes of Wrestling" PPV back in 1999...not that it should be held against him.

I'm betting they don't name, shame and fire the person responsible for letting the joke stay on the show because I'm betting the person responsible either has the last name Corgan or Lagana.

Well, either they fired him or he quit (odds of either are 50/50 to me, since he made it pretty clear last month after the whole "suicide" controversy that he'd be okay with not doing the December tapings if that kind of situation arose again, which it has) but the bottom line is now he's gone. They're announcing it as a "resignation" and we won't have long to wait to hear his side of the story, as he's going to be addressing it on his podcast on Friday. The NWA apologized again when they made the announcement, for those who weren't satisfied with the apology from last night. I believe you are 100% correct sir. When he announced he'd be addressing the situation on Friday he certainly sounded neither conciliatory or even remotely apologetic. Sad thing is, I bet his podcast on Friday sets new records for listeners. Many of those will be his fans listening to get his side of the story, many others will be his detractors ready to transcribe any fresh outrage and spread it across Twitter the moment he says it. What's amusing to me is the reaction to his "resignation" online. It seems split into three groups, NWA fans who were threatening to boycott the NWA and are now mollified, Cornette fans who are now outraged and are claiming they'll be boycotting the NWA now for losing Cornette, and special third group who are claiming that this is a good step but it's not enough and they are demanding whoever in the NWA that allowed the comment to get through editing and air be named and fired as well. I am hoping that this Friday Cornette saves his vitriol for the people who complained about him and "misinterpreted" his "joke" but that he doesn't rip into the NWA. I am hoping he discourages his idiot fans from boycotting the NWA or going after Lagana and Corgan. I wonder who they're going to get to replace him? I am hoping there might be a decent retired or inactive Pro Wrestler out there who actually has some experience in the industry (preferably a heel) who can be moved into the Color Commentary position. I just hope and pray they don't get somebody who sucks. Joe Galli the play-by-play guy is okay, but they could really use somebody with experience in there with him. You know who would be outstanding? Dutch Mantell. He's an outstanding heel color guy.

Yeah, the clip of Cornette using the exact same joke in the WWF in 1995 is all over Twitter right now.

Nick Aldis released a statement tonight condemning Cornette's joke, so it seems clear that the NWA isn't going to shield him from the fallout of this situation. Problem for the NWA is, even if they decide to go public tomorrow and fire Cornette, they still have three more weeks of shows to burn through before the PPV and the next set of Power tapings. I wouldn't be surprised if they announced that Cornette will not be the Color Commentator for the PPV and on Power from now on, but there is not much they can do to scrub him from the upcoming shows. He does interviews from the podium and even if they tried to get clever and edit his commentary out or have somebody else do a voice-over, you'd still see him sitting there in the studio...it's too small an environment to try and cut all the scenes where he appears. It's not like they're going to scrap the shows. So they're pretty much stuck with him for the next few weeks, whether they like it or not at this point.

Yeah it was Pete, he wrote pretty much all of their lyrics and in the mid-seventies he was into that objectivism stuff, but I have seen him say in interviews that got way overblown because they dedicated an album to Ayn Rand in 1976 or something. From that point on, a lot of people liked to paint them as rabid Libertarians or something but as I said, I really don't think that represents any of their political views now - not that it matters anyhow because they're retired. And you are correct, Neil Young also has to cancel out a lot of crap we have unleashed upon the world. And no, you're not wrong for liking the Crash Test Dummies. As I recall, I had their first few albums on cassette!

Yeah but then that sets a precedent and I'd have to apologize for Celine Dion and then Justin Bieber...it never ends. Thank God we gave the world Shatner. Luckily he makes up for pretty much everything.

The whole "Rush are huge fans of Ayn Rand" thing got blown way out of proportion and is from literally over 40 years ago. I am pretty sure their political positions evolved over the years since then. And I'm not even saying that as a huge Rush fan, because I'm not. However, as a Canadian I am constitutionally bound to defend them while at the same time disavowing Nickelback.

I listened to the entire interview Mike Johnson did with Billy Corgan, who more or less admitted that they were learning as they went along with the first set of tapings. I am hoping that next month, now that they have had a chance to evaluate what has worked and what hasn't (as well as who) we will see some significant adjustments during the second set of tapings. Corgan basically said as much.

I was disappointed with how long the match went, absolutely. I thought what they gave us was very good, which made the fact that it was too short all the more disappointing. I think that match should have been the Main Event and should have gone 5-10 minutes at least. I'm going to chalk this up to the fact that they taped all of these episodes in two days. Not only did they have to make sure to not overwork these guys, I'm going to assume that they didn't know what they had yet in Murdoch...maybe they didn't know what kind of shape he'd be in, how rusty he'd be (he was essentially retired prior to these tapings, I think) and how popular he'd be with the NWA fans in the studio. That is the one advantage to booking a show week to week and not taping two months at a time, you can adjust on the fly and react when something gets popular. (Unless you're WWE in which case you ignore the fans and continue to ram bullshit down their throats.) I am just guessing here, but I think they went into these tapings with a predetermined plan for Murdoch mapped out for all the tapings and didn't know what they had with him. I am hoping he has a much more prominent role at the next set of tapings. If he doesn't, then they're idiots because this guy was made for the NWA and he has been gold so far. WAY better than guys like Anderson, Cabana and Storm who have all been featured more prominently than he. In fairness, my complaint about matches being too long and too competitive does not just apply to AEW, either. It applies to NXT as well, and I've loved that show since it debuted on the USA Network...but I still think these guys are going way too long, doing way too much and are doing too many dives, high impact manoeuvres and false finishes. Same goes for Raw and Smackdown, but I don't watch that crap so stuff them. But I'd like to think there is a happy medium between a lot of what we're seeing on Dynamite and NXT every week, and these short matches on Power. That's one thing that sucks about having an hour long show, they are trying to cram everything in. The show flies by for sure, but matches like this one get shortchanged. As I said, that disappoints me.

He barely gave me 24 hours after making this post to go and prove me wrong, I guess. Just to echo what everybody else has said...this was at best a stupid, insensitive and racist comment to make, but how the HELL have they had this episode in the can for almost two months and they didn't edit it out? Either Corgan/Lagana are incompetent and didn't notice, or they're stupid and thought it wouldn't be a problem. Either way...yeeesh.

Please Pro Wrestling Gods, let them give The Revival vs. O'Reilly & Fish lots of time with no screwy outside interference. This match could be so damn good, if they let it be.

I've been loving NXT since the USA Network show debuted, so I'll actually watch the PPV this weekend because of the NXT involvement. Since it is a "Main Roster" show I am sure they'll screw it up terribly, but I want to see it anyhow. I am also looking forward to War Games III as well.

This sounds like a good idea to me, if for no other reason than it will attract guys who are totally unknown. The NWA needs brand new fresh faces who are totally unfamiliar to fans, and this is as good a way as any to find some. They need some fresh new blood to mix in with the veterans they have, rather than relying solely on guys who are WWE or TNA castoffs. El-P mentioned Al Snow and I would love to see the NWA work with Al Snow and OVW as well, Snow has a ton of unknown talents and new students he trained, he could really benefit from the NWA, just as they could benefit from OVW.

I'm not surprised by that news. I have seen interviews where both Drew Galloway and Matt Hardy talked about how much they loved working with Billy Corgan when he was with TNA, and how if he hadn't left TNA (and sued to get his money back) they never would have left. So of course, Dixie Carter had to go and be Dixie Carter and fuck it all up for everybody.

At this point, I'd rather watch the shittiest, biggest mismatched NFL game you could imagine than I would a standard episode of Raw.

For real? Fuck yeah, that match could and should be outstanding. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing those guys working a program against each other. Count me in.

The Drake/Aldis scenario seems possible. Perhaps Kamille turns on Aldis but Storm turns on Drake? All signs point to a heel turn for Storm, but maybe not. I'm not even sure if that would be a good idea, he is such a natural and sympathetic babyface it seems a shame to waste that. Still not sure how Thomas Latimer would fit into the storyline despite his real life involvement, nor what any of this has to do with Ken Anderson. Time will tell, hopefully. And also, regarding that picture of Kamille...DAMN.

I don't disagree with you, and I hope nobody misinterprets my opinion about Cornette getting fired from the NWA to be me advocating for Cornette or endorsing some of the jokes he made. I don't think paedophilia is particularly funny, nor do I think Cornette should have made that joke. Hell, when he made it even Brian Last had an audibly negative reaction to the comment. But I also understand that is Jim Cornette and that is what you're going to get once in a while when you listen to him. He's a guy who is known for saying outrageous shit that said some outrageous shit. And if it costs him, then he has nobody to blame for that aside from himself.

I'm not so sure that Billy Corgan/Dave Lagana/the NWA are going to do anything about Cornette, for a couple of reasons. People have alluded to the fact that Cornette has somehow "gotten worse" lately, and I don't think that is the case at all. That just means you're not paying attention to him, and rightly so. If you're not a fan of Cornette or the things he says, why would you pay attention. But trust me...I've been listening to Cornette's Drive-Thru for a couple of years now, and quite honestly his opinion, bombastic rhetoric and outlandish name calling hasn't really gotten any worse during that time, it's been pretty consistent. I only listen to The Jim Cornette Experience if I want to hear him talk about the topic advertised ahead of time - I don't really care about his opinions on politics and religion and current events. I did start listening to "The Experience" weekly once he started reviewing AEW and NXT on a weekly basis and I agree that more people are hearing it now because of those weekly reviews, but his recent comments are not really a new development. People might only be finding out about him now that more people are complaining about him, but he really hasn't changed. I'm reasonably sure that Corgan and Lagana knew what they were getting when they hired Cornette, and that may in fact have been one of the reasons they hired him. They didn't just pull his name out of a hat. I think they hired him because they wanted him to appeal to old school, traditional wrestling fans. They wanted somebody who reminded fans of the old days and talked about how much better they were. I'm pretty sure they knew his reputation when they hired him, otherwise they didn't do their due diligence and just weren't paying attention. If they wanted somebody safe or bland, there are a million guys they could have hired. They wanted Cornette for what he brings to the table, and a huge part of that is his obnoxious personality. Hell, his recent tenure in MLW was not without some controversy, and they had to have seen/heard about that. There is a flipside to this situation and I think it bears discussion. Cornette's die-hard fans are slavishly devoted to him, and like it or not there are a lot of them. "The Cult of Cornette" is quite large and where Cornette goes, they follow. When Cornette announced he was going to be working for the NWA, he encouraged his listeners to check the show out and judging by the numbers, they did. Are Cornette fans enough to sustain NWA Power? Of course not, it would be stupid to think that. But having said that, if the NWA fired Jim Cornette, it's a safe bet a good chunk of his most cult-like followers would stop watching. Hell, a lot of those drooling morons would jump off a cliff if Cornette told them to. I am thinking Corgan and Lagana had a "risk vs. reward" conversation when it comes to employing Jim Cornette. Yes, you're going to have to do some damage control over some of the things he says on his own podcast and deal with potential blowback, but he also brings fans to the product and appeals to the demographic they are going for. Let's keep in mind, of all of these controversies lately (some real and some manufactured) how many of them are for things he said or did on the air in the NWA? All they have to do is go with the old "what Jim Cornette says and does on his podcast are his own business and the NWA are not responsible for that" line. I agree that the Twitter outrage machine has been in overdrive regarding Cornette recently. There are people literally going through every single thing he has said over the past few years, and listening to all his new material just looking for something to get offended by, so they can spread it around (and report it as "news?!") to try and get him in some kind of trouble. But let's be honest...Twitter outrage is not indicative of real life. Just because a handful of people on Twitter are horrified by Cornette and are complaining about his comments that doesn't mean it is going to significantly impact the NWA. Besides, and this is a key point...how many of the people complaining on Twitter about Jim Cornette are actual NWA fans anyhow? Does their hurt feelings and outrage really affect the bottom line for the NWA? A lot of the people going mental over Cornette on Twitter already hated him for the things he says about AEW and AEW wrestlers, and weren't going to support anything he did anyhow. I don't think the NWA getting rid of Cornette is going to mean a huge upswing in support from modern Pro Wrestling fans. The bottom line is anyhow, Cornette legitimately doesn't seem to care. At this point I don't think he needs the NWA, the NWA needs him. When that recent outrage broke out over the comments Cornette allegedly made regarding suicide, Dave Lagana called him and asked him about it. Cornette talked about it on The Jim Cornette Experience. He claims that once he pointed out that he hadn't actually encouraged anybody to kill themselves and there was no evidence that he had, the issue was dropped. But he made it pretty clear at that time that he really didn't care if the NWA did fire him over it. He is next scheduled to appear for the NWA when they have the PPV in the middle of December, followed by two days of TV tapings. His comment was something to the effect of "So you mean I wouldn't have to leave my home to drive all the way to Atlanta during the busiest time of year for my collectible's business to do a part time job for very little pay? Oh no!" During the same episode, he talked about some of the things he has said about Kenny Omega. He pointed out that he has publicly said that for the crime of wrestling a blow-up doll and a 9 year old girl in Japan, Kenny Omega should be suspended in the air and lowered into a vat of boiling oil. Cornette asked if anybody actually thought that he really wanted Omega to be boiled to death? Of course not, at most he'd just like to see him get a couple of fingers broken. Whether or not people want to admit it or not, 90% of the outlandish things Cornette says on his podcast is just a bunch of hot air. Are some of the jokes funny? Absolutely. Are some of them in poor taste and offensive? Absolutely. I consider myself a Jim Cornette fan (although I am hardly a member of the "Cult of Cornette") and some of the things he has said over the years have mildly offended me on rare occasions. Big deal. It turns out that words can't actually hurt you. I could be wrong (it's been known to happen) but I don't see the NWA firing Cornette unless he does something on the air there (which they could easily edit out) or if he says something new on one of his podcasts that creates a new controversy that they don't feeling like weathering. But it would have to be a lot bigger than anything he's said so far, in my opinion. It's equally possible that Cornette might quit on his own. Doing two or three days every other month works fine for him, but if the NWA actually succeeds and expands, he's not going to want to be a part of that.

Thanks for the info. Shows you how dumb I am, I saw Bram in TNA and NOAH yet for some stupid reason I never put it together that he was Thomas Latimer. And I know this is terribly sexist and horrible and it makes me a bad person to even think this, never mind say it...but if Bram went from being with Charlotte to Kamille? Dude traded UP, big time.

I have mixed feelings about that news. I love watching Lorcan on 205 Live and NXT and I love his team with Danny Burch (who is totally screwed if Lorcan gets his release) so I'd hate to not be able to see him anymore, but obviously I want the guy to be happy. If he thinks he will be happy elsewhere and there is a job out there for him somewhere (hopefully in AEW or the NWA and not in Impact or MLW) then I hope he gets what he wants. That guy is a hell of a talent and I think he has a ton of potential if he gets used properly.

Joey Ryan acting like he is trying to take the moral high ground about anything is a bunch of bull. He's easily just as big of a scumbag as Jim Cornette is. This is a guy who tried to get Cornette "cancelled" once before, to suddenly back off when Brian Last uncovered a bunch of tweets Ryan had made joking about hilarious topics such as paedophilia. Cornette might be a mental case and he might be saying some stupid shit, but Joey Fucking Ryan is the absolute last person to be throwing stones. Every time Cornette gets heat for something, Ryan crawls out from whatever rock his lives under to add his two cents. Usually followed by Austin Aries. At least Cornette has made a significant contribution to the Pro Wrestling business and isn't solely famous for his dick and being sponsored by Pornhub.