The Thread Killer

Not sure how reliable this is, but PWInsider is reporting that AEW Dynamite will be airing at 8:00 pm live on TSN. They are the all sports network owned by Bell Canada (the phone company) that used to air Raw during the Monday Night wars. I assume that they won't have a problem with preemption since TSN has 5 channels. If this is true...talk about waiting until the last minute.

Victoria looked GREAT in that one video I saw of her online.

I stopped listening to 83 Weeks quite a while ago. As anybody who has read this thread knows, I was pretty much the die hard 83 Weeks fanboy of PWO, but I got behind in listening to it, and then it was announced that Eric was going back to WWE. Once he announced he was joining WWE, I decided I wasn't going to listen anymore. One of the things I liked about Eric Bischoff and this podcast is that he was well out of the business and was pulling no punches, being honest with his opinions. (Kind of how JR is now when he discusses WWE.) I knew damn well that as soon as he was back working for Vince, he was going to be very selective about what he said and who he talked about...or pretty much the way Bruce Prichard was during the majority of his podcast episodes. The idea of Eric Bischoff doing episodes of 83 Weeks but having to be careful about what he said didn't appeal to me at all. I like drunk rambling and slightly bitter Eric, not safe political Eric. However, I noticed that this week he's finally breaking his self-imposed silence about his time in TNA, so I'm going to check that out and see what it's like. Good timing too, since there is no episode of my usual Monday Morning podcast Cornette's Drive Thru today, because he is in Atlanta for the NWA TV tapings. I'll check this episode out and comment after I've listened to it, if anybody cares.

How are you going to watch it (if you plan on watching it?) Do you have the Network, or are you going to have to watch the edited version on Sportsnet? Or are you planning on finding the episode via other means which you're not free to discuss in an open forum?

I'm not saying you're wrong, necessarily. I like anything that will provoke discussion or rational debate here at PWO. I just find that the whole AEW vs. NXT thing seems to really rile people up for some reason. Wrestling fans in general (and I'm including myself in this group) tend to be very vocal and passionate about stuff they really like, which tends to lead to heated debate and people "picking sides" for some reason. We all know there is no reason to be like that, and I'd like to think I can be objective. Who knows, it could work.

I can see a thread like that going very badly, very quickly.

Well, that sucks. They're airing just one hour of the show, two days later?! A 24 hour delay on the show is one thing, but delaying the broadcast by two days is too much, and if they're only showing one hour not both, you know they're going to butcher it. I remember when TSN used to edit three hours of Nitro down to two, and they'd just randomly cut stuff, like a match would be in progress, they'd go to commercial and then the show would come back from commercial at a totally different point in the original broadcast. Screw that, now that WWE is actually producing a show I want to see, I'm not waiting two days to see an edited version - at 7:00 pm on a Friday Night, no less. I just hope WWE continues to show the 2 hour replay commercial free on the WWE Network on Thursday nights, otherwise I will have to resort to other more nefarious means to see the show. EDIT: If my DVR guide for the upcoming week is to be believed (and sometimes it changes) my WWE Network feed/TV channel has the new episode of NXT still scheduled for this coming Thursday at 10:00 pm, right after a replay of last week's episode...so it looks like hopefully I will be able to catch the entire 2 hour episode without commercials, only delayed by 24 hours. I can live with that. I just feel bad for Canadian fans who don't have the WWE Network as a TV Channel, or don't have the WWE Network at all. I'd hate to have to rely on what they're planning on showing on Sportsnet360, it will be literally too little and too late.

Once again there was no NXT Live this week in Canada, as they still don't have a Canadian Network TV deal. (Still waiting for the announcement of the promised Canadian AEW TV deal, too.) So once again this week, I waited 24 hours and watched both hours on my WWE Network TV channel. Actually, more accurately I recorded the show on my PVR and just checked it out now, which I assume is the way I will continue to watch both NXT and give AEW a trial run, if they ever get a Canadian TV deal. So at least in my house, there shall be no Wednesday Night War. There can't be, because #OneChicago would win that war if I could only watch live TV. For what it's worth, I am not bothered by waiting an extra 24 hours to watch the show on the WWE Network because they cut out the commercials, and 24 hours isn't a huge wait. I am able to avoid spoilers for a day or two, no big deal. NXT 09/25/19 Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic I had never seen Keith Lee before, and had only seen Dijakovic during his run in ROH. I was impressed with what I saw of Dijakovic then, and he has improved significantly since. And holy crap, Keith Lee is awesome. This guy is a powerhouse who can do some impressively agile moves for a guy his size. Later in the show the announcers talk about Killian Dain in comparison to Vader but stuff that...Keith Lee reminds me of Vader. This match was a good old fashioned hoss battle. It wasn't always pretty, there were a couple of minor botches but nothing embarrassing. I loved this match and came away very impressed with both guys. My only minor quibble is that the flipping destroyer type move off the second turnbuckle should have definitely been the finish of the match. Having guys kick out after high impact moves like that is doing too much, in my opinion. But overall I thought this match was outstanding and was a great way to start the show. The announcers said these guys are now 1-1-1 against each other, so I need to look through the NXT archives on the Network and see the other two matches, and I assume this means these guys are going to hook up again, and that is good news because this was great. Street Profits Promo Short, sweet and to the point. Did what it was meant to do, hyped up the Tag Team Title match next week. This was well done, both guys seemed relaxed and natural and weren't acting like a comedy act, as they do when I've seen them on Raw. I usually hate WWE produced scripted promos and segments, but this didn't come off as stiff, awkward or stilted at all. This is a classic example of doing more by doing less. Dakota Kai vs. Taynara Dakota Kai is a name I have heard thrown around quite a bit online, but since I am not an avid follower of Women's Wrestling, I'd not seen her before this match. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed. I assume that is because she is just coming back from injury, but she looked a bit awkward and unpolished to me. Honestly, I was more impressed with Taynara. But this match was fairly quick and to the point, and was clearly intended to put Kai over after her injury. Street Fight: Killian Dain vs. Matt Riddle So this is apparently going to be the culmination of their feud and also determine the new #1 Contender to the NXT Championship. I have never been a huge Killian Dain fan, but Matt Riddle is really starting to grow on me. Having said that, this was definitely the best Killian Dain match I have seen so far. He seems to be getting smoother and better at hitting the big power moves, and Riddle did a great job doing the scrappy smaller guy routine. I found the striking in this match to be especially good. Not a fan of stupid Kendo Stick shots for no reason whatsoever (there just happened to be a spare Kendo Stick under the ring?) and I HATE that stupid spot where a guy throws a chair at his opponent who catches it, and then helpfully holds it up in front of his face so the other guy can kick it. I didn't like it when RVD did it in ECW and I don't like it now. This match was very obviously choreographed, the spot where they smashed through the riser and went through the table seemed really contrived. If they're going to do matches like this, they need a guy like Tommy Dreamer or Mick Foley to help lay them out so they come across as more realistic. That's not to say I hated this match - I didn't. But I didn't love it either, and since it was the Main Event of the USA Network hour, I probably should have. NXT is only going to get so many chances to hook new fans, and they might not do it with matches like this. I found both last week and this week, the second hour on the WWE Network was better than the USA Network hour, and that shouldn't have been like that. Of course, as of next week that will no longer be an issue. Once again, I don't want to sound too negative, this match was okay. It just wasn't great, and for my money it went on too long. I liked the post match confrontation (even though it was blatantly obvious what was going to happen once Adam Cole showed up) and I am really looking forward to the Cole/Riddle match next week. If Cole can keep up with Riddle and their styles mesh properly, I can see that being a very good match. I am generally underwhelmed by Adam Cole, so I hope Riddle is good enough to make that match fun. I loved the Riddle/Strong match on a recent TakeOver, but that was probably attributable to Strong, not Riddle. Next week will really be a test to see how good both Cole and Riddle perform under pressure in big matches. I just hope it isn't laid out by Shawn Michaels and we don't get another Cole/Gargano forced epic, because...ugh. Rhea Ripley vs. Kayden Carter We're done with the USA Network Hour now and into the WWE Network hour. So this was my first exposure to both women, and...damn. Why is Candice LeRae getting the title match next week? Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler seems like the obvious money match to me. I've been watching Baszler tear through the entire NXT Women's division for ages now, and Ripley looks like the first possible contender who could stand up to her physically and not end up looking weaker or intimidated. LaRae is okay, but I'd really like to see Ripley vs. Baszler for the title now, please. I know they had that DQ match a few weeks ago, but they have to be heading towards a rematch, right? Maybe they're planning on making us wait until the next TakeOver. Kayden Carter looked okay I guess, but this was pretty much a glorified squash. I'll say this for Carter...she sure has a lot of hair. Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs. Ever-Rise I love Lorcan and Burch. I know they're probably never going to win any Championships, but their style is exactly the kind of Pro Wrestling I love. I loved it when they fought each other, I loved it when they teamed up in NXT, I loved it when they won this week on 205 Live, and I was happy to see them get this match. As far as their opponents go...meh. I'm Canadian but I don't have a burning desire to see a new French-Canadian Tag Team, and let's be honest. Martel and Parker did okay here, but they weren't really all that impressive. Martel is pudgy and looks like an enhancement worker at best. Parker is bland and unremarkable, and "Ever-Rise" is a stupid name for a Tag Team. But hey...it means I got to see Burch and Lorcan, so in the bigger picture I'm not complaining. One of the things I love about this show is how they wisely use newer or undeveloped talent to enhance the established guys. It reminds me of when I was a kid and the WWF had an impressive roster of Jobbers-To-The-Stars...guys who had some skill and could get their shit in, but were really there to put talents higher up the food chain over in an impressive way. Cameron Grimes vs. Raul Mendoza I'm digging Cameron Grimes but I didn't love this. Last week Grimes got a really impressive win via squash, this week it takes him almost 8 minutes to beat a guy who is clearly beneath him. Mendoza had a couple of nice moves, but in my humble opinion he is definitely not ready for prime time...to me he came across as too sloppy flippy floppy. I guess the important thing is Grimes gets the win and is put over for the second week in a row. Maybe they're going to have him challenge Roderick Strong or something. Kushida & Breezango vs. Imperium What a great Main Event. These guys were working really crisp. Kushida looked awesome here, like a definite star. Aichner and Barthel also looked really solid. I'm not all that blown away by Wolfe, though. He's kind of flabby and his high impact offensive moves don't look as impressive to me as the other two guys on his team. Breeze and Fandango did a good job holding up their end of the deal, and we got a really fun 10+ minute TV Main Event. It made me so happy to just watch a 6 Man Tag match where guys were actually tagging in and out, we had hot tags and everything. It wasn't just everybody running around doing spot after spot after spot. There were some very impressive and risky spots, sure. But this was more of an old school style TV Main Event and I loved it for that. Kushida gets a big win and then gets laid out by WALTER, so it looks like we're going to see that match for sure, which has tons of potential. Final Thoughts First and foremost, it is very obvious to me that some time in the past week, somebody in a position of authority had a conversation with the announcers because their presentation was noticeably different this week. Don't get me wrong, Mauro Ranallo was still horrible and annoying as hell with his stupid alliteration and ridiculous forced pop culture references, but he significantly cut down on the screaming and shouting this week. I suppose it's possible he was just fired up last week due to it being the Network TV debut, but I think it is much more likely somebody told him to calm the fuck down and let the other announcers get a word in. Speaking of which, I loved the fact that Nigel is showing more and more heel announcer tendencies, going so far as to quote Jesse Ventura's classic "it's only cheating if you get caught" line. Conversely, Beth was playing a clear babyface booster, and she and Nigel got into it, especially during the Main Event, and that was fun. See what happens when you let your coworkers talk, Mauro. I found it interesting that Nigel and Beth do the whole bickering announcers deal about a million times better than Graves and Rene Young on Raw. Anyhow, the announcing was significantly better this week. But Mauro still sucks. Overall, as far as I'm concerned this was the second home run in a row for NXT. What a great show. Outstanding action in the ring, no stupid scripted promos or boring repetitive angles, no evil authority figures or McMahons hogging the spotlight. The NXT roster feels deeper than the roster on Raw or Smackdown to me for some reason. Whenever I try and sit through either of those shows I always feel like I am seeing the same damn thing over and over again. You've seen one boring Seth Rollins promo, you've seen them all. NXT just seems more exciting with a wider variety of talent and action to me. I don't know if that's because this show is new, or what. Bottom line is, this was another great episode of NXT. If you're watching Raw and Smackdown but not watching this, you're missing out in my opinion. This show is rapidly becoming must see viewing for me. This show really scratches me where I itch as a Pro Wrestling fan. Little things like matches one after the other without too many promos. They used the "Tale of the Tape." They actually make it feel like "wins and losses matter" and there are legitimate consequences for winning and losing, without stupid, corny and unrealistic shit going on. I have generally been very, very down on WWE over the past few years but I am loving this brand and this show.

OMG, the Jarrett/Gulas split resulted in one of my all time favorite behind-the-scenes wrestling stories, as told by Jim Cornette: "Daddy said sell!" If you have a spare 10 minutes, you really need to check that story out.

Edge announced during today's show that he's quitting the podcast. Christian may be continuing the show without him, they were kind of vague about it. I have to admit, I used to love this show but it dropped out of my rotation because I just had too many podcasts to listen to. It's interesting, in this folder alone we've seen threads for Lanny Poffo's podcast, Dinner with the King, and I used to be a big fan of Killing the Town with Lance Storm and Don Callis. Jake Roberts had a podcast which lasted for about a month. All those podcasts are gone now. It brings to mind Conrad Thompson's comments recently when he was interviewed by Sean Oliver. Conrad stated that in his opinion, a lot of podcasts are going to be disappearing because wrestlers got into it thinking there was money to make, but there isn't unless you're getting hundreds of thousands of downloads and have big sponsors. When it comes to Pro Wrestling podcasts, it is getting to the point where you are either doing it because you love it, or you're one of the big podcasts that actually does generate some money, like Jericho, Stone Cold, Cornette or the Conrad shows. Edge claimed he was quitting because he is too busy, but I have to wonder if this hasn't turned out to be as lucrative as he might have hoped. A ton of prep work for pretty much little to no financial reward.

I don't hate the Phil Collins era of Genesis, "Turn it on again" and "Abacab" still feature heavily in my playlists. It was more that I was with them up until "Invisible Touch" and then they got a bit too Top 40 for me, and lost me. That may have also had something to do with my dislike of the stuff Phil Collins was doing in the 90's with all the sappy, schmaltzy Disney songs. I liked him a lot up until he got grossly overexposed and the teeth seemed to come out of his music. I loved it when Genesis re-recorded Carpet Crawlers in 1999 with both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, though. And yeah, I never got the Joel vs. Mike debate either. I really liked Joel a bunch but after he left, the second half of Season 5 and all of Season 6 are my all time favorites in the entire history of MST3K.

I think you hit it on the head there. JR has been publicly saying in interviews for some time now that Lawler's contract with WWE is almost up and that he really wanted him to come to AEW. (No word on if that's what Tony Khan and company wanted, but that's besides the point.) You have to know that with Vince's obsession with the Attitude era, the last thing in the world he would want is to have the two broadcast voices of that era working for the competition. Even if he doesn't want them, I'm sure he doesn't want anybody else having them. Since AEW already seemed set on JR/Excalibur, I never saw AEW hiring Lawler anyhow. Hell, I would not be surprised if Jim Ross gave those interviews mentioning Lawler to help him leverage a new deal with WWE, since Ross and Lawler are legit friends. That Maddin guy has been on 205 Live for the past few weeks, replacing Nigel who now has two hours of NXT and NXT UK to deal with. Not that it's important in the grand scheme of things but I wonder who the new team for NXT UK and 205 Live will be. Maybe that's where Tom Phillips will end up. I am surprised to see Vic Joseph leapfrog Tom Phillips in the WWE Commentary pecking order. Then again, I've been trumpeting that guy ever since he showed up on 205 Live last year, and he's awesome in NXT UK with Nigel. The problem is that he wasn't being produced by Vince McMahon or Michael Cole on either of those shows. He'll probably start to suck now, since he'll have those two in his ear telling him to shout more and stop calling the action. And Vic Joseph doesn't even have a fake, unconvincing laugh! That will have to change once Vince and Cole find out.

Not a bad episode of 205 Live this week. I really enjoyed the Burch & Lorcan vs. Nese & Gulak match. I freely admit I am a Burch/Lorcan mark and it was great to see them get a match outside NXT.

Good point. I had totally forgotten about that until you mentioned it. I remember Cornette making some rather blunt comments about Sean and KC on Twitter and his own podcast, but not getting into details. I think I assumed at the time Cornette was sore over Sean Oliver promoting Russo, but I never got any solid confirmation of that fact. Wasn't it just when Cornette agreed to come back to KC for the "Back to the Territories" series that Sean and Cornette patched things up? I know they are on good terms now, because Cornette is going to be a guest on the Kayfabe Podcast at some point. By the way @CarpetCrawler on an unrelated note, I am a big fan of your username. That's one of my favorite Genesis songs, before they went all Top 40 mush during the 80's.

I don't know if it's because they're both from the New York area or what, but Sean Oliver has always seemed to have a soft spot for Russo, for whatever reason. You make a good point about Russo not needing any exposure, but as we all know Russo will talk to pretty much anybody who will talk to him. The extra funny thing is that this is the promo for the episode: "Coming this week on the podcast....”The Many Lives of @THEVinceRusso” Get ready to talk Bischoff and Prichard's hirings, Trips and Steph “cock blocking” his return, and hear how Vince broke the bank with podcasting, going from nothing to six figures." If you listen to Conrad's interview during week one of this podcast, you'll hear why the likelihood of Russo making six figures from his podcast is extremely low and his claim is highly suspect. Even worse, Sean announced that Russo is on next week's show as well. Ugh.

Last week's show, the second episode of this podcast was pretty good, and the interview was interesting. The guest was Tod Gordon, and they focused a lot on Tod's exit from ECW. We've all heard the various versions of this story from the talent's perspective and Paul Heyman's version on the WWE produced DVD about him. Tod provides a much different version and some interesting insight about his departure. I'm not sure about some of the narrative presented here...I'm pretty sure if Paul Heyman had never taken over booking in ECW that Tod Gordon's version of ECW would not have risen to the level that ECW eventually did...but regardless this was a good interview. Funny story about this week's show...Sean announced on Twitter that his guest was going to be Vince Russo. He immediately started taking shit from some fans who aren't interested in hearing from or about Vince Russo, and Sean got a tad touchy about it. Of course, some of Russo's fanboys interjected themselves too, but Sean seemed a bit taken aback by the fact that people aren't going to listen to an episode because of the guest.

The first episode of the Arn Anderson/Conrad Thompson podcast was released this morning. It is not available on all platforms yet, but is available at ArnShow.com. The first episode covers Arn's early life and entrance into the business. You can tell he's a bit tenuous and nervous, but he's still a great storyteller. As others have said, the success of this show will rise and fall on Arn's willingness to be forthcoming with information - something that up to this point he has been notoriously reticent about. For a first episode, this was pretty damn interesting and the famous Arn Anderson dry wit is already starting to come across. I am curious about how this podcast is going to be received.

Well...let me think about it. Normally I'd just pay you right off the bat without even thinking about it...but I need to save some money because I want to become a paid subscriber to Vince Russo's podcast, join the Mauro Ranallo fan club, and if I have any money left over I want to buy Nickelback tickets.

I just woke up, and as per my habit I checked the website for my local All News Radio station to see if there was anything important going on news-wise, either locally or globally. The Main Story, at the top of the page, headline lead-off...is Lacey Evans getting a speeding ticket in Edmonton and then complaining about it and posting a video on Twitter. Of particular note is the part of the article where a "social media expert" opines that Lacey might be using "shtick" to bring attention to herself. That social media expert must be a GENIUS. This is what passes for headline news in 2019. Good Lord.

He's a quite a wordsmith, isn't he? It's eloquent, poetic and almost lyrical prose like that which amply illustrates why Bix is a bonafide writer, not just some message board poster.

That's not good news. When I read the reports online about Dream having back problems after the match, I assumed it was a work intended to put all of Strong's work on Dream's back during the match over, with all the backbreakers and everything. I hope he's okay and just needs some rest and physiotherapy or something. Back injuries can be brutal. While we're on the topic of backs and backbreakers, does anybody else think calling Roderick Strong the "Messiah of the Backbreaker" sounds really stupid and it doesn't even work? I can see "Master of the Backbreaker." Fine. But the dictionary definition of the word "Messiah" means "in Judaism, the prophizised King and deliverer of the Jews" or "the accepted leader of a hope or cause." Neither of those definitions apply, unless we are to believe that Roderick Strong is the savior of the Jews and will be leading them to heaven (by use of the backbreaker I assume) OR he is here to somehow be the messianic leader over all the backbreakers. It's a stupid nickname and it doesn't even make any sense.

Thanks brother. It's funny, I always keep my eye on what's going on in Impact, yet I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of him being X Division Champion. Weird. Well, I liked his look and gimmick last night.

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, here in Canada we do not get the USA Network, so I was unable to see the debut of NXT on Wednesday. However, the WWE Network showed a replay (of the USA hour and the Network hour combined) last night, so I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing. I have to say, that was pretty damn good show. That was the best two hours of WWE produced TV I can remember seeing in...I don't even remember how long. - I could have lived without the cornball Triple H opening, but this is his baby so I guess we have to forgive him if he's a little hyped up. The crowd was very hot for this opening and the entire show, and that really helped the overall aura. Speaking of which, there are so many things about NXT that I prefer to Raw and Smackdown, one of which is the lighting. I am unabashedly old school, and I love leaving the ring lit and the crowd darkened. It's things like that which distinguish between NXT and Raw/Smackdown. - The opening Women's Fatal 4 Way was outstanding. As has been mentioned by other posters already, this match clearly demonstrated that WWE has a ton of confidence in their NXT Women's division if they let them be in the opening match right off the bat of their first Broadcast Network show. This was a super-fun match and it's so nice to see a high stakes match on TV which names a #1 contender that is actually going to pay off on TV as well, not a PPV. There's not really anything negative you can say about this match, in my opinion. - I am not familiar with Keith Lee, but based on the video package I am looking forward to his match with Dijakovic next week. I liked Dijakovic a lot when I saw him fight Moose in ROH a couple years back and I assume he has only improved since then. - The Cameron Grimes squash on Maluta was too short to be offensive. Grimes certainly has a unique look. He's another guy I have heard of but not seen. - Damian Priest vignette was good. It reminded me a bit of Aleistar Black, which reminded me that as per usual, WWE took a guy who was doing great in NXT and have accomplished exactly jack squat with him since. First he was in a Tag Team with Ricochet, and then...some vignettes, he fought Cesaro and now...nothing. And this guy was one of the hottest acts in NXT. Is he injured or something, or does "creative just not have anything for him." Anyhow, if I was Damian Priest and I was doing a dark, gothic character, I would look at Aleistar Black and pray I don't get "promoted" to the "main roster." - Surprisingly, I didn't enjoy the Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong match as much as I thought I would have. I like both guys, but something about this match didn't click for me. Maybe it was too much of a styles clash. Maybe it was the fact that Dream can't keep his pants up. I dunno. I still think Dream is money and it's scary how good he already is considering how young and inexperienced he is. I think if he is brought along slowly and used properly (ha!) this guy could be big money. Then again, I thought the same thing about Aleistar Black. Wouldn't it be great if NXT on USA actually does well, and they end up getting seen as their own functional brand on par with Raw and Smackdown? Then guys wouldn't need to be "called up to the Main Roster" and they could have good careers in NXT. I know that is a pipe dream, NXT is a developmental league or the place guys like Breezeango go to die. But it would be nice if it happened. I for one don't have a huge issue with Strong taking the title here. I am kind of hoping Velveteen Dream continues to feud with The Undisputed Era but gets moved into a match with Adam Cole. And I love big heel stables who have all the belts, so I am not as tired of The Undisputed Era as others seem to be. - Now we're into the Network hour, and I just want to say that I fucking loved loved loved the match between Ruas and Dunne. LOVED IT I tell you. Ruas has an odd style which I like because it makes him different from everybody else, and Dunne found a way to work with it. The match wasn't crazy long or anything but I'd give a solid three and a half stars, that's how great I thought it was. More of this type of match, and more of both these guys, please. - Just like Cameron Grimes earlier in the night, the Xia Li match was too short to be offensive. I like the fact that they are doing a couple of squash matches on the show. It puts the winners over as a big threat, it gives the loser TV time where they probably wouldn't have gotten any otherwise, and it breaks up the pace of the show in a good way. And I was a big fan of Li, from the little I saw of her. - I was very surprised to see Imperium show up, and I never even thought about the possibility of WALTER vs. Kushida of all things, but now that I have...let's see it. I assume this is another match they're going to want to show on Network TV, and so they should. That has the potential to be excellent. And damn, is WALTER ever over. Funny how the NXT US crowd seems really into him, whereas in NXT UK he has succeeded in getting himself across as a real heel, for the most part. - Not gonna lie, I don't like Lio Rush, not one little bit. I do love me some Oney Lorcan, and I was hoping he would win this #1 contenders match so we could see Lorcan/Gulak for the title. I am very happy WWE is planning on making the Cruiserweight Division part of NXT. That can only mean a lot of good guys are going to get more work and TV time. As much as I don't like Lio Rush, he looked pretty good in this match. That spot where he got thrown through the ropes but bounces back into a stunner was crazy, I've never seen that before. I also found it somewhat amusing that the announcers were talking about Rush being gone so long because he was dealing with some mental health issues and focusing on his rap career. Apparently, being a jackass backstage so everybody ends up hating you is now a "mental health" issue. Anyhow, my anti-Lio bias aside, this was a damn fun match. - The Main Event was what it was. The Riddle/Dain feud seems odd to me, although I like both guys. I thought the huge brawl involving the entire roster was a good visual, and if you were seeing the show for the first time it would give you the impression that this will be a very unpredictable, exciting and fun show to watch. Not a fan of Street Fights in general or inconclusive finishes, but it wasn't boring. The only negative thing I can say about this show is (surprise) the horrible performance of Mauro Ranallo. He can take a show this great and make it a chore with his stupid, pointless and shoe-horned in attempts at alliteration and his needless pop culture references. I am sure he thinks that is his trademark, but it comes across as so forced and unnatural. He just doesn't get that he is supposed to be putting the matches and wrestlers over, not getting his own stupid pointless gimmick over. The show is about NXT, not Mauro Ranallo. Also, there were several glaring examples yet again this week of him interrupting Nigel and Beth while they were speaking and trying to make a point. As much as I hate Michael Cole, at least he lets his broadcast partners talk and doesn't interrupt them by screaming out the name of a manoeuvre or whatever. And did you catch when Nigel was putting over the length of Pete Dunne's WWE UK Championship reign, and Mauro just HAD to jump in there and point out that he'd already made that point? What an asshole. And finally - and maybe worst of all, what the fuck is up with his constantly shouting and screaming? Is this guy incapable of calling a match in a normal tone of voice? I'm all for getting excited, all the great announcers did it at times, JR was as guilty as anybody - but he wasn't constantly shouting ALL THE DAMN TIME. I find it really hard to believe that Triple H and whoever else is in charge there doesn't see Mauro Ranallo as a massive liability who can actually turn fans away from this product. Because he is. There was one more positive thing I wanted to mention. I fucking hate stupid overused PC buzzwords like "inclusiveness" and "diversity" and "progressive" which all have perfectly valid uses and literal meanings, but they get overused to the point of being ridiculous. However, having said all that - I was really impressed with how diverse the NXT roster and this show really was. A great women's division with American, Japanese and Chinese women...and more. And on the men's side, European, American, Japanese, Brazilian. Black and White. NXT really is a global brand that has representatives from all over the world, and I think it's really cool that we get to see people like Ruas and Li, who a few years ago we probably wouldn't have been able to see. Anyhow, no matter how you look at this show...it was definite win for NXT. If they keep putting out this high quality type of Pro Wrestling every week, I'm not going to miss it. It was a breath of fresh air, and totally different from the so-called Main Roster shows. It didn't come off as overly scripted or produced. Great stuff.

Yeah me too. I can tell it's Mauro because my TV screen is all marked up from me throwing shit at it all night. Plus my neighbors call to complain about the noise when I scream at the TV begging Mauro to shut the fuck up.

Oh man, that means the Sportsnet 360 feed is probably going to supersede the Fox feed and we won't get the original broadcast in Canada, I bet. All so we get to see Canadian commercials, meanwhile the picture ends up getting compressed so they can run that stupids sports score ticker at the bottom of the screen. The fact that Sportsnet doesn't want NXT at all is telling. Maybe the ratings are down here in Canada, too. Wouldn't surprise me.