The Thread Killer

I see what you're saying, but as I recall in the wake of the JBL controversy a couple of years ago, a lot of stories came out about Mauro behind the scenes. I picked the Cage Potato article but if you look hard enough online there is enough evidence to support the idea that Mauro is not the easiest guy to get along with backstage. In fact, Dave Meltzer himself even alluded to that very fact...and Mauro Ranallo has been a source for Meltzer in the past, and I think they even consider themselves friends. Despite that, when reporting the JBL/Mauro story even Meltzer implied that while JBL is definitely a bully, there was blame on both sides of that issue. No, there has never been unassailable proof of Mauro Ranallo doing something wrong, nothing has ever been caught on film...but I tend to believe it.

Fuck yeah. I'm a total Five-Squirrels-In-An-Overcoat mark.

The whole issue of mental health and the treatment of mental health issues is always tricky. We discussed a similar issue way back here when we debated ranking Chris Benoit in the Greatest Wrestler Ever poll. We got into discussing his mental health issues and debated if he was truly responsible for the murders or not. There are arguments that can be made on both sides. For some, Chris Benoit is not responsible for the murders because he was mentally ill. The whole "diminshed capacity" or "not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect" argument. For others, Chris Benoit knew he had mental health issues and was aware enough to get medical treatment, but he still insisted on taking a steroid (Testosterone) which he knew would make him more aggressive. You can apply the same argument to Mauro Ranallo on a much, much smaller scale. Some people might write off Mauro's alleged behavior behind the scenes because he's bi-polar. Others might make the argument that because he knows he is bi-polar and refuses to take the clinically accepted medication for his condition and instead is using cannabis as treatment, then he is therefore responsible for his actions. I honestly don't know the answer, but it's an interesting discussion/debate. All I do know, and it's something we can all agree on - is that he's terrible and should never call another Pro Wrestling match again as long as he lives.

Found the article.

It was way back during the whole Mauro/JBL debacle that I first saw the article, and I don't know if I'll even be able to find it now...but because it's you asking, I'll hunt around and see if I can find it. When it comes to Mauro Ranallo and his mental condition, here's my issue. I've seen Ranallo admit in more than one interview that yes, he has been diagnosed as bi-polar but no, he doesn't take his medication because he doesn't like the way it makes him feel. Specifically, he has claimed Lithium made him groggy and lethargic and incapable of working. Which may be true, I am in no position to judge him. That's his right, and as long he is not a risk to himself or others he has the right to refuse to undergo pharmacological treatment. Lord knows he would hardly be the first person with a mental illness who didn't want to take their medication due to the side effects. However, Mauro Ranallo has gone on to advocate for the use of cannabis as an alternative treatment for bi-polar disorder. In my opinion that is incredibly irresponsible. It is a well known, well documented, proven scientific fact that when people with a diagnosed chemical imbalance/mental illness use cannabis their conditions can be exacerbated, in some cases severely, and irreparably. If you don't believe me, google the phrase "Cannabis Induced Psychosis." During my career I personally saw people who had manageable mental illness end up having full blown psychotic episodes after cannabis use. Not always, but it happens enough to be statistically noteworthy. In one severe case, we had a kid who had previously only been diagnosed with a mood disorder graduate to full on schizophrenia after using cannabis, and he never came back from it. After he came down, from that point on he was schizophrenic. That was actually how I found out about Cannabis Induced Psychosis, the Psychiatrist treating the kid told me about it and gave me the research to read. I am not anti-cannabis. I am simply saying that THC does not react the same way with people with a chemical imbalance of the brain as it would with a person without. Hell, there have even been documented cases of cannabis actually causing bi-polar disorder, not just exacerbating it. When I saw his documentary I was disgusted that he was presenting cannabis as a treatment for bi-polar disorder. That's always been one of my main issues with him. If he is bi-polar and wants to refuse treatment and go through life in an unmedicated state, that is his choice and his call. However to produce a documentary that suggests that his condition can be managed by a substance that can actually cause the condition it's supposed to be treating - and then give publicity interviews reinforcing that theory? Not cool at all. Other people are watching that, and I cringe to think how many people were encouraged to stop taking their meds or start using cannabis because of him. In the documentary he blithely passes off his use of marijuana by casually mentioning that people may not agree with him or it's not for everybody or something to that effect...but the actual results of his words could be much more serious. You only have to watch an interview with this guy to see that he is a manic state a lot of the time, and I've even seen him say things in interviews which indicate delusions of grandeur. For example, not long after his documentary came out, I actually saw him claim that he was surprised that his film hadn't had a greater impact yet on the mental health profession yet. Yeah. Keep cashing those checks, Mauro.

There is not. They claimed they are going to be announcing a TV outlet for NXT in Canada when the announcement was made, but as of yet they have not. I would have assumed it would be Sportsnet 360, since that is the home of Raw and SD (for now.) I am guessing when SD starts on Fox, they won't be on SN360 in Canada anymore, so maybe Sportsnet will want to take NXT to make up for it. I'm not all that fussed about it either way, since they actually are replaying the complete 2 hour block of NXT from Wednesday on USA on the WWE Network TV feed on Thursday nights, so I only miss the show by 24 hours and realistically I wasn't going to watch it live anyhow. On a similar note, Cody also claimed AEW will be available in Canada, and it's two weeks before they debut and so far we haven't heard squat. So that's pretty lame too. If they don't manage to secure a TV deal up here, that will be a bigger problem than some people are going to think.

It's like @sek69 said earlier...first Luke Harper, then AOP and Rusev and now Lio. It's like Vince just figured out he had a bunch of guys on his roster that he was paying but wasn't actually using.

Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness are actually pretty damn good in NXT UK. For real.

The funny thing is, in reality Mauro Ranallo is notoriously thin-skinned. You only have to watch his documentary for evidence of that fact. Also, an MMA writer wrote a scathing expose about him a few years back - before he even signed with WWE, which paints him as temperamental and abusive to his co-workers, and totally incapable of handling criticism. I know many people will chalk that up to his being Bi-Polar and un-medicated, but I don't necessarily agree. Also, while many of us have been complaining about Mauro for quite some time now, I think there is actual evidence that his work is getting worse. Or it may just be that he isn't really being produced in NXT and they let him say whatever he wants. If you back and listen to him when he was on Smackdown, he really wasn't anywhere near as bad. In PRIDE he was fucking annoying, but he wasn't totally unlistenable like he is now. I have no evidence of this theory of course, but I think he's actually buying into his own hype and thinks he's really good. That's why he even hates letting other people talk and is constantly interrupting.

Man, people like to rag on some of the stupid insensitive and tone deaf stuff Triple H, Vince, and Stephanie say in interviews...and rightly so. But in fairness, Omega comes off as a total douche in that interview. Even if he really feels that way, there is little to no upside in actually saying it. Apparently Kenny has never heard of "taking the high road." I really don't understand why more people involved in this so-called "war" don't understand that this not 20 years ago, and thanks to technology people can WATCH BOTH DAMN SHOWS. It doesn't have to be either/or.

I get the impression that Sean is having problems getting the podcast carried by as many platforms as he would like. I myself had to sign up for Spotify in order to access the podcast. It finally became available on iTunes today, about a week later than he had hoped. He also tweeted today that he has no intention of posting the podcast on YouTube, which I personally think is a mistake. He would reach a much wider audience that way but according to Sean, YouTube "doesn’t count toward download stats that are shown to advertisers and Google/YouTube pay dick." So there you go. @SPS let us know what you thought of it after you checked it out, I am interested to hear your opinion.

You should check out Sean's interview with Conrad, I found it really interesting. I don't think it will be for everybody (some fans won't give a shit about the business aspects of podcasting) but I thought it was informative.

There is no point trying to discuss this with you any further, because you're either unable or unwilling to differentiate between your opinion about something and what constitutes a fact. That's a fact, by the way.

Whether you want to admit this or not, there are a lot of fans out there of traditional Pro Wrestling who don't like AEW and don't like the direction so-called "modern" Pro Wrestling is taking. That's a fact, even if you can't accept it. David Bixenspan wrote an article about it last month when AEW signed Orange Cassidy. I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it's a fact. You love AEW. You want AEW to succeed. You think AEW is making Pro Wrestling better. You've made that point. And that's fine, more power to you. But if you can't admit that there is a segment of fandom that doesn't like the whole comedy/performance art aspect of AEW, and if you can't see that Cornette has pretty much ended up becoming the spokesman for those types of fans, then you are the one who is being completely ridiculous.

As mentioned above, Kayfabe Commentaries is stopping DVD production, they have started a streaming service and Sean Oliver now has a podcast.

As we discussed in the Shoot Interview thread here, Sean Oliver and Kayfabe Commentaries are getting out of the Shoot Interview DVD business. They are selling all their stock at $5.00 per DVD, and once they have sold them out they are not selling any new DVD's. Kayfabe Commentaries have started an On Demand service called KC Vault, where eventually they plan to have their entire back catalogue available to stream for $14.00 a month. They are still uploading stuff so the entire catalogue is not yet available. You can also still get their Shoots at WWN Live (which is where I purchased a bunch of the "Back to the Territories" episodes when they first came out) but that is much more expensive. For the record, Sean Oliver is not claiming that Kayfabe Commentaries is going out of business, he is just saying they are going on hiatus while they focus on getting the streaming service off the ground. He claims it is still possible that KC will produce new content exclusively for KC Vault in the future. I follow Sean Oliver on Twitter, and over the past few years he has made some comments about podcasts killing the Shoot Interview business, some comments were vague and cryptic and some were quite pointed. A year or so ago, Conrad Thompson replied to one of Oliver's tweets defending the Pro Wrestling podcast (as you would obviously expect him to) and Oliver and Thompson got into a minor back-and-forth regarding Shoots vs. Podcasts. I guess Sean has decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" because this week he launched his own Podcast, "Sean Oliver's Kayfabe Podcast." So far it seems to be available via the usual suspects, Google Play, Spotify and Stitcher. It looks like the podcast will run about an hour and be divided between Oliver (who is flying solo at that point with no co-host) delivering a monologue, then there is an interview, and finally he will be taking Twitter questions. It should be noted that Sean Oliver has written three books over the past few years about his experience running Kayfabe Commentaries: "The Business of Kayfabe" "Kayfabe: Stories You're Not Supposed to Hear from a Pro Wrestling Production Company Owner" and "Fathers' Blood: True Stories of Pro Wrestling Dads Facing Their Greatest Challenger - Parenthood." The main takeaway here is that Sean apparently has no problem dishing dirt on the Pro Wrestlers who he has worked with over the years, who was great to work with, and who was not. So I am betting the Q&A portion of the podcast is going to be focusing on those types of questions. The first episode released this week featured none other than Conrad Thompson as the first guest. For a first podcast, I'd say it was pretty good. During his opening segment, Sean comes off a little rough - it sounds like he's almost complaining about having to do the podcast, and then he gets into a somewhat impassioned defense of Shoot Interviews in general. He makes some valid points, although I suppose you could argue some of his claims. For example, he attributes Jim Cornette's current popularity and profile resurgence to the Shoot Interviews he did with KC. The interview with Conrad Thompson is excellent, my only complaint is that is was short. We already know Oliver is an excellent interviewer, and he proves it once again here. Of special interest is the discussion they have about the financial viability of podcasts, advertising rates and the commitment required to have a successful podcast. Conrad claims that in order to have a financially successful podcast, you need to be doing 100,000 downloads per episode and obviously not many do that, but he discusses the ad rates etc., to back up his claims. It's early days yet, but I've always been a big Sean Oliver fan so I am going to keep listening. I am curious if anybody else heard it, and what they thought.

I don't disagree with you there. I don't even listen to The Jim Cornette Experience every week. If the main topic is something that interests me then I'll check it out, but otherwise I can live without listening to Jim talk about shaving his nether regions and ranting about Trump and Republicans. I never miss Corny's Drive-Thru though, that's probably my favorite podcast.

I've seen you say stuff like this on a couple of occasions about Cornette and MLW, and I don't get it. Cornette was never on the creative team in MLW. From what I understand, Court Bauer handles a lot of the creative, if not all of it. Cornette was simply brought in to MLW to cover for Tony Schiavone during baseball season, and to act as a promo coach. He's part time at best, and the proof of this is the fact that he isn't even working for MLW right now. He's been saying for the last couple of years that he won't go anywhere he can't get to by driving, and he won't go back to New York under any circumstances. He claims he was asked to work the recent MLW tour of Texas and he wouldn't go due to the distance. He hasn't ruled out returning to MLW as a color guy at some point if they're doing tapings within 600 miles of his home, and if they need him - but it's not like the he's the creative force behind MLW. You always seem to give Cornette way more credit than he deserves when it comes to MLW, like just because he worked there he was somehow responsible for the stuff they did which didn't work, or that working there made him a hypocrite when he slammed AEW. Not to mention, Cornette has been openly critical of MLW. He has openly stated on a number of occasions that while he respects the cultural and historical significance of Lucha Libre, he doesn't like it, he thinks it's overly choreographed and too fake looking and doesn't really enjoy calling the Lucha matches in MLW. Not to mention his public feuds with Callihan or most recently Mance Warner. How many announcers have you seen that get into Twitter spats with guys on their own roster, or roast them on their podcasts? I've heard Cornette praise MJF and Jacob Fatu (and a couple of others) to the high heavens, but I never heard him say anything implying that MLW was superior to AEW in any way, shape or form. Face it dude, you just don't like Cornette because he craps all over AEW and in doing so, is verbalizing the opinions of a select group of Pro Wrestling fans who don't like that style. He's pretty much the voice of the resistance when it comes to a certain segment of Pro Wrestling fandom that doesn't care for the so called "evolution" of the sport, and are being vocal about it.

I know I am late to the party, but I finally got a chance to watch the entire NXT Takeover: Cardiff show. I thought the show was very good, although if I never see another Triple Threat Tag Team Match which involves nothing but spots and dives, I would die a happy man. The main thing that grabbed me from this show WALTER vs. Bate. I am not a big WALTER fan. NXT UK was my first exposure to him and I honestly didn't get him at first. I saw the logic in putting him over Pete Dunne (especially since Dunne is reportedly moving to the US to join NXT) but the match where he won the title was okay at best, as far as I was concerned. It was my lack of enthusiasm about WALTER which kept me from watching this show live or making it a priority. Before I saw WALTER vs. Bate, I had heard it was a very long match and I cringed because I was afraid it was another Shawn Michaels inspired "epic" with a million false finishes and needless melodrama, in the vein of the Cole/Gargano feud. That was not the case at all with this match. Firstly, they worked the classic old school "Big Man vs. Little Man" style match to near perfection. Secondly, (and I know this is probably going to be considered a "hot take") this match to me was much more reminiscent of a 90's All Japan Style Main Event. Long match yes, but a slow build, super hot crowd, with lots of hard hitting and high impact moves leading to a definitive finish. I said it elsewhere but I'll reiterate - WALTER vs. Bate supplanted Cody vs. Dustin as my 2019 Match of the Year. If you haven't checked it out, I encourage you to do so. Surprisingly and unexpectedly, NXT UK is becoming my favorite promotion. I've pretty much given up on Impact, MLW is way too hit and miss for me, and I can't sit through Raw & Smackdown. NXT seems to be stuck in a rut, but NXT UK really gives me a great old school vibe. And as a major bonus, the commentary team is outstanding...especially the fact that there is NO Mauro Ranallo.

Cornette finished his review and ended up reviewing the All Out Main Event on this week's episode of the Experience. I honestly can't blame him for not doing it last week. I know advertising last week's episode as a review of All Out and then not reviewing the Main Event is a definite "bait and switch" but in his defense, the show was a lot longer than I think he expected it to be. I tried to watch that AEW PPV in one sitting as well, and I couldn't get through it all either. I don't know who the genius is that decided "big" Pro Wrestling shows in 2019 needed to be 4 + hours long, but whoever it was needs a smack in the teeth. All Out was living proof of that. You're not going to find a more rabid fan base than AEW fans, but judging by the crowd noise, even they were burned out by the time the Main Event rolled around. Cornette reviews NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff during this week's Experience. I was really surprised at how much he liked WALTER vs. Tyler Bate. I personally loved that match and have it as my current MOTY, where it bumped off Cody vs. Dustin - but I was caught off guard by how much Cornette and Last liked it as well. The one good thing about Cornette's review of the NXT UK show is that he's never met anybody on the roster, and he doesn't have heat with anybody there, so he went into the review with an open mind - or as much of an open mind as you're likely to get from Jim Cornette.

This is a great idea for a thread. I'm biased of course, but I really hope Maple Leaf Gardens makes your list.

Thanks for the heads up. I've not seen that particular interview. After seeing Waltman's YouShoot I tended to avoid any other interviews he did because of his obvious substance abuse problems. I found his YouShoot to be kind of sad to watch. I love the "Breaking Kayfabe" series so I watched that and was glad to see he was cleaned up. If he is straight for the WWE Timeline Shoot, I will check it out. Although I didn't have a lot of time for Sean Waltman as a Pro Wrestler, he seems like a decent guy and a good interview when not battling his demons. I was totally shocked at how much I liked their YouShoot. I didn't realize they had been trained as Pro Wrestlers before getting into music. They are great interviews, and SO damn funny. The "What a Dick" segment of their YouShoot alone is worth the price, never mind the other stories I mentioned. That might be the funniest Shoot Interview I ever saw.

When it comes to the Kayfabe Commentaries Shoot Interviews, I break them down into six types: 1) Guys like Shane Douglas, RVD, and Jim Cornette who seem to legitimately enjoy talking about their careers or specific events, share details and insight and are eloquent, talented storytellers. 2) Guys like Kevin Nash, Kevin Sullivan, The Honkytonk Man, and Superstar Billy Graham. These are guys who are good storytellers and like talking (especially about themselves) but they clearly have an agenda and telling anything close to the truth isn't on that agenda. Their interviews might be interesting, but usually the bullshit meter will explode. 3) Guys like Sabu, Barry Windham, Bret Hart and King Kong Bundy. These guys want to talk, but they are either ill at ease with the entire Shoot Interview concept and need the host to really pull answers out of them, or their memory isn't all that great so even though they want to talk, there's stuff they just don't remember. The interviews will be interesting, but not so entertaining. 4) Guys like Hacksaw Duggan, Stan Hansen, Rikishi and Bob Orton. They want to get paid for doing a Shoot Interview, they just don't want to actually do a Shoot Interview. Some of these guys are old timers who can't seem to accept that Kayfabe is dead, or they don't want to bury anybody so they say basically nothing and are evasive and annoying as hell. 5) Complete assholes like New Jack, X-Pac, Brutus Beefcake, Marty Jannetty and The Sandman, who take money to do an interview and then show up "in no condition to perform." Aside from Beefcake and Jannetty, I've seen these guys do good interviews, and bad. Depends on what substance is in their system at the time of the interview. I don't know why these guys can't be more like The Iron Sheik - totally fucked up but incredibly entertaining at the same time. These guys are just annoying, it's like hanging out with a drunk person when you're not drinking. 6) Complete assholes like Mike Graham and Greg Gagne who are clearly lying about stuff, stupid basic lies which could be easily disproved - and on top of that they aren't even entertaining about it. I have not watched any full Shoot Interviews with Vince Russo or Sunny. I've seen clips and that annoyed me so much, I can't even imagine watching an entire interview. The mere sound of Vince Russo's voice makes me cringe, never mind the ridiculous bullshit that voice is usually spouting. So sorry, I can't comment on any of his numerous KC interviews. Generally speaking, you can't go wrong with the "Back to the Territories" series, the ECW, WCW and WWE "Timeline" series, and the Breaking Kayfabe Series. The "YouShoot" interviews can be interesting, but they are usually filled with more sleazy topics and a lot of the sex and drugs stuff. I'd avoid the "Guest Booker" series, those things are usually death. The key to the success of these interviews is Sean Oliver. He's an excellent interviewer, he knows when to ask questions, when to listen, when to follow up, when to let a guest ramble, and when to get them back on topic. He's personable and very funny. He's basically the exact opposite of Rob Feinstein, who just reads questions off a piece of paper and always sounds like a first year High School kid giving a report in front of his class. I've seen a large number of the KC Shoots, here are my personal recommendations. I'd grab any of the Highly Recommended and Good ones. The Meh are okay, kind of your mileage may vary. I'd avoid the Bad, and especially the "Avoid at all costs" category. If I was you, of course. Feel free to disagree. Highly Recommended ECW Timeline 92/93 with Tod Gordon ECW Timeline 94 with Shane Douglas ECW Timeline 99 with RVD (I was shocked at how eloquent and thoughtful RVD was, and how good his memory is, considering his drug use.) WCW Timeline 89 with Jim Cornette WCW Timeline 90 with Jim Cornette (Love Cornette or hate him, he is an amazing storyteller and he takes notes about every single thing that ever happens to him so his recall is incredible. He actually has his Day Planners with him for these two Timeline shoots, he can say how much shows drew, attendance, payoffs, everything.) WWE Timeline 63-69 with Bruno Sammartino WWE Timeline 92 with Bret Hart (Bret is very laid back and low key, but he gives very detailed answers.) WWE Timeline 97 with Jim Cornette (You need to see this for the Kevin Dunn story alone.) Supercard - Wrestlemania 2 with King Kong Bundy (Bundy is HILARIOUS in this interview. His memory is for shit, but I still loved this interview.) Breaking Kayfabe with Jim Cornette Breaking Kayfabe with Scott Levy (Raven) Breaking Kayfabe with Troy Martin (Shane Douglas) Breaking Kayfabe with Jerome Young (New Jack) Breaking Kayfabe with Terry Brunk (Sabu) YouShoot: ICP (I don't like ICP, but this is one of the funniest Shoot Interviews I have ever seen. The ring rat stories, the Chris Benoit story and the Evan Karagis/Goldberg stories are all gold.) YouShoot: RVD (This contains the famous "Pick a Hand" segment and RVD's killer Shawn Michaels impression.) Back to the Territories: Houston with Bruce Prichard (Get Bruce talking about Houston and Paul Boesch and he's very entertaining, and there are some great stories in this interview.) Good ECW Timeline 96 with Raven ECW Timeline 97 with Sabu ECW Timeline 98 with New Jack ECW Timeline 2000 with Justin Credible WCW Timeline 91 with Barry Windham (Barry seems very shy and isn't much of a talker, but he's honest.) WWE Timeline 84 with Roddy Piper (Poor Sean Oliver has to try and get Piper to realize that Kayfabe is dead, plus keep him on topic. Very tough job. This shoot is infamous for Piper's comments about Pat Patterson.) WWE Timeline 85 with Greg Valentine WWE Timeline 86 with George Steele Supercard: Summerslam 88 with The Honky Tonk Man Breaking Kayfabe with Kevin Nash (When he's talking about his personal life, there isn't as much obvious bullshit.) Breaking Kayfabe with Lanny Poffo YouShoot: Tod Gordon (This is good, but his ECW Timeline is much better.) YouShoot: The Iron Sheik (I know I shouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did, but I did.) YouShoot: Lanny Poffo YouShoot: New Jack (He's clearly drunk/high, but in a perversely entertaining way.) YouShoot: Shane Douglas YouShoot: 2 Cold Scorpio Back to the Territories: Puerto Rico with Savio Vega Back to the Territories: Amarillo with Terry Funk Back to the Territories: Calgary with Lance Storm Back to the Territories: Florida with Kevin Sullivan Guest Booker with Dutch Mantell Meh WCW Timeline 96 with Kevin Sullivan (Sullivan is entertaining, but in my opinion he is notoriously full of shit and spends most of his time trying to pin his bad booking decisions on everybody other than him. I really think he does these interviews as an attempt at image rehabilitation and to deflect blame for anything bad that happened in WCW creatively on other people.) WCW Timeline 97 with Kevin Nash (Once again, great storyteller but Nash is ridiculously egotistical and totally full of shit. This is a good watch if you aren't worried about facts getting in the way of a good story.) WWE Timeline 87 with The Honkytonk Man (Same deal, he is entertaining but you can't believe much of what he says.) WWE Timeline 95 with Kevin Nash (See my comments about WCW 97 Timeline.) Breaking Kayfabe with Sean Waltman (at least he's not visibly stoned in this interview, unlike his YouShoot.) Breaking Kayfabe with Francine Breaking Kayfabe with Teddy Annis (Teddy Hart) YouShoot: Scott Hall (this is after he sobered up.) YouShoot: Kevin Nash YouShoot: Al Snow (Al is a good interview, but some of his opinions are just plain odd. Not to mention, he gives the impression that he thinks he's smarter than...everybody.) YouShoot: Jim Cornette (Not bad, but his "Timeline" interviews are his strong point.) YouShoot: DDP YouShoot: Sabu (Sabu still wasn't comfortable doing Shoot Interviews at this point. The ECW Timeline and Breaking Kayfabe interviews are much better.) YouShoot: Ken Anderson Back to the Territories: All Japan with Stan Hansen (I was really disappointed with this interview. It was interesting and good at times but it could have been so much better if Stan Hansen would have actually been willing to give something even closely resembling details during most of his stories.) Back to the Territories: Georgia with The Masked Superstar (Equal parts informative and boring.) Back to the Territories: Indianapolis with Baron Von Raschke Bad WWE Timeline 78/79 with Superstar Billy Graham WWE Timeline 80 with Larry Zbysko WWE Timeline 81 with Rick Martel (Martel seems like a nice guy, but this was SO. BORING.) WWE Timeline 83 with Don Muraco (See above, but add the fact that Muraco's memory is spotty at best.) WWE Timeline 90 with Bruce Prichard (Basically a bad episode of STW hosted by Sean Oliver.) WWE Timeline 2001 with Ivory Supercard - Royal Rumble 88 with Hacksaw Duggan Supercard - Wrestlemania with Bob Orton YouShoot: Sean Waltman (Poor Sean is clearly fucked up during this interview.) YouShoot: The Honkytonk Man (Honky is in pure asshole mode during this interview, sometimes it's interesting - mostly it isn't. He did two YouShoots, based on this one I skipped the second.) YouShoot: Perry Saturn (I don't think poor Perry was the sharpest knife in the drawer BEFORE he fried his brain with drugs. Now it's kind of sad.) YouShoot: Shane Helms (Shane is one of those guys who just doesn't want to say anything bad about anybody, which makes him a nice guy but an annoying interview.) YouShoot: Balls Mahoney (Please see my comments above about Perry Saturn.) YouShoot: Alberto El Patron (I'll say this about Alberto, at least he seems quite impressed with himself.) Back to the Territories: Mid-Atlantic with J.J. Dillon Guest Booker with Al Snow (See my above comments regarding Al Snow. He's obnoxious and oblivious. Having said that, he's not stupid.) Avoid at all costs ECW Timeline 95 with The Sandman (this is a total trainwreck, he's clearly high/drunk, slurring his words and can't remember anything of significance) WWE Timeline 88 with Hacksaw Duggan (just like with every other Duggan "shoot" he wants to get paid for the interview but doesn't actually want to say anything of any consequence about anybody or anything - plus he's a boring interview to boot.) WWE Timeline 2000 with Rikishi (This is one of the worst "shoots" I've ever seen. This should have been called "a trip to the dentist" because getting an actual answer or entertaining story out of Rikishi is like pulling teeth - and then afterwards you're in pain.) Breaking Kayfabe with Mary Jannetty (he is FUCKED UP on something during this interview.) YouShoot: Dixie Carter (Avoid this unless you want firsthand evidence of how stupid this woman really is.) YouShoot: Danny Doring (aka: "An obnoxious, obviously jealous total nobody spends over an hour burying everybody he ever met.") YouShoot: Rikishi YouShoot: Vampiro YouShoot: Manny Fernandez (Manny might just be tied with Greg Gagne for the most bullshit ever that could easily be disproved, in the history of Shoot Interviews. Keep in mind this is a guy who claimed for years to be a Viet Nam Vet. He is not.) Back to the Territories: Mid South with Jim Duggan (Even Jim Cornette can't make Duggan give an interesting or informative interview.) Back to the Territories: AWA with Greg Gagne Guest Booker with Kevin Nash (Watch this if you want to hear Nash try and explain how you could basically run an entire organization, just using members of the Kliq! This is Nash at his most delusional.) Guest Booker with Greg Gagne Guest Booker with Mike Graham (Graham might be one of the most deluded, obnoxious and unpleasant interviews I have ever seen. Never before has a man who thought so highly of himself actually accomplished so little. This might be my least favorite Shoot Interview that I've ever seen.)

This is sad news. My first exposure to Harley Race was during his WWF run in the 80's, and I didn't like him at all. Later I saw him show up in Stampede and the AWA and I still didn't "get him." As I got older and was exposed to more of his work from the NWA and Japan, I really grew to respect, appreciate and actually enjoy his in ring style and aura, and especially how he carried the NWA World Heavyweight Championship during the territory era. He was a badass heel but he didn't mind bumping or stooging for babyfaces, which is a lost art. As sad as his death is, (especially his illness) at least he lived a long life. Harley Race was clearly widely respected by his peers and most importantly he lived his life on his terms, his way. RIP.

It's funny you know, a lot of the rabid AEW fans who are hanging all their hopes on AEW like to imply that fans who dare criticize them want AEW to fail. I have been critical of AEW for a lot of their roster signings,and for some of the goofier and insulting to the intelligence content they've vomited up so far, but I don't want them to fail. I just want them to produce a good product. Conversely, as a lifelong Pro Wrestling fan, if something bizarre or catastrophic was to happen and Vince McMahon and WWE were to go out of business, I wouldn't shed one tear. I'd feel bad for some of the people who worked there for losing their jobs, but screw Vince McMahon and screw that organization for some of the truly horrible shit they have done over the years. Yeah Vince has tried to re-write history, sanitized the product to the point of total blandness, and at times has tried to take the Wrestling out of World Wrestling Entertainment. That's bad, but not "he deserves to go out of business" bad. But he's also done such unethical and in some cases outright immoral shit, that if he somehow lost WWE it would be karmic justice as far as I'm concerned. In that sense, I'd rather see AEW succeed over WWE.