The Thread Killer

I have watched AEW but I don't know yet if I will watch AEW. That depends on what they're planning on doing. I have seen every AEW show so far, although there have been a few matches I couldn't sit through so I hit FF. And who knows, maybe they will be wildly successful. They have been so far. What remains to be seen is if they can attract and maintain a large audience with the roster they have, presenting the style of wrestling they have. There is no doubt there is an audience for the Marko Stunt and Orange Cassidy types, but you know that is going to turn off a lot of "traditional" or old school fans. I don't know if it will appeal to new or returning fans or keep them hooked. They seem to be inclined to try and offer a little bit of everything (hardcore, lucha, comedy, old school) all at once. I don't know what the mix is going to be on TV. Based on the roster they have right now, they sure look like they're going heavy into the goofy stuff, but it's way too soon to say. For every Jon Moxley you have two comedy guys. We need to see who else they sign, and how they use the guys they have signed. We need to see how good the booking is week to week, and how they balance their TV. If I am going to get stuff like Cody vs. Dustin (or hell, even Cody vs. Darby Allin) I can either sit through or change the channel during the comedy and goofy crap. But if the show is heavily balanced with the goofy stuff, then I don't really want to watch. I am legit curious to see if other people will. I have never once said I don't want AEW to succeed or I don't think they will. Like Cornette says: "For people who like that kind of thing, this is the kind of thing those people will like." The million dollar question still is will people like it once the novelty wears off. The other major factor is how much people will automatically flock to AEW just because it isn't WWE and they're tired of having their intelligence insulted and want to make a statement. I don't for a minute discount how much that will factor into things. If you offer somebody who is dying of thirst a drink, they take it no matter what it is.

Did you see the video for that? That whole thing screamed "work" to me, but either way I didn't get the whole thing. Enzo is basically a little annoying yappy dog, nipping at your heels - and Janela (who I assume is supposed to be some sort of hardcore tough guy) doesn't throw a punch and basically backs away from the confrontation after Enzo "threatens" him. If it was real, I assume the reason neither guy actually threw a punch is because they didn't want to get thrown out of the concert, arrested or sued. Either way, it confirms Enzo is an annoying little shit, but like I said, it didn't do much for Janela's rep.

For the record, I don't think AEW hiring Enzo and Cass is really a good idea. But if they did, I'd laugh my ass off at the entertainment it would provide. There are certain fans who trumpet every single thing AEW does as brilliant - whether it is or not. Watching AEW fanboys twist themselves into pretzels trying to justify AEW signing Enzo and Cass would likely entail lots of "they might not be good wrestlers but they're entertaining" and "they don't fit the prototypical old school model of a wrestler but Pro Wrestling has evolved" arguments, which I find endlessly amusing. Similar to those ridiculous comments that Jordynne Grace made on Twitter lately that have gotten her so much attention. Hell, AEW signed Marko Stunt to a contract and they already use Sonny Kiss, The Evil Librarian, Evil Uno, Michael Nakazawa, Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor, why not go all in and sign Enzo and Cass? If you're not going to take the sport seriously, why not sign all the clowns? They could actually have an entire Clown Division and instead of a title belt, if you win you get to wrestle in big floppy clown shoes and a rainbow wig. Realistically, the mystery partners most likely won't be Enzo and Cass, if for no other reason than what @sek69 said. Enzo's reputation is so toxic at this point, I can't see anybody wanting to work with him. In fact, a story came out a couple of months ago regarding how he had serious heat with Jericho when they were with WWE, so I especially don't see him showing up as a surprise partner for Jericho.

I'd mark out so hard if it was Enzo and Cass.

Agreed. That guy is a scumbag of epic proportions, even by Pro Wrestling standards.

Growing up in Toronto, I was actually pretty lucky because we got quite a variety when it came to televised Pro Wrestling. Of course, the majority of the content we got was the WWF. Jack Tunney was the on-air authority figure for the WWF, but in reality he was the co-owner and promoter of Maple Leaf Wrestling which was based out of Maple Leaf Gardens. For years they had wrestling there one Sunday a month. When I was a little kid, Maple Leaf Wrestling was actually part of Jim Crockett Promotions believe it or not, from 1978 - 1983. But after Jack Tunney's uncle Frank died, Jack switched allegiances to the WWF. As a result, Maple Leaf Wrestling started hosting a ton of TV tapings for the WWF from the Brantford Civic Center. A lot of the matches shown in the States on the USA Network by the WWF were taped in Brantford. Those were the TV tapings where Jesse Ventura hosted "The Body Shop." Plus we got the WWF show that was taped from the Mid-Hudson Civic Arena in Poughkeepsie. So the schedule was basically at noon every Saturday we got the WWF show from Poughkeepsie, then at 1:00 pm we got a second hour of WWF Wrestling from Brantford. Later, that changed when the WWF took the tapings on the road and the Noon show became WWF Superstars and the 1:00 pm show became Wrestling Challenge. On top of that, every Saturday Night at 7:00 pm there was another hour of WWF content which featured exclusive matches from Maple Leaf Gardens, usually the preliminary matches from the monthly house shows. Later in the afternoon, we got an odd little hour long magazine type show, hosted by Joe Pedicino. This show featured clips of matches and news from all over the NWA. That was my initial exposure to Ric Flair and a lot of the smaller southern territories. The problem was, it was hard to follow because the matches were always very dated and they never followed any particular feuds or angles, it was always like: "And now here's Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA" but then the next week they'd show you a match from Continental or something. It was hard to follow. Later Joe Pedicino stopped hosting it and Angleo Mosca started hosting it and they called it Pro Wrestling Canada, but it was nothing but really old out of date NWA stuff. After that at 4:00 pm we got the extremely lame weekly TV show produced by Al Tomko's Vancouver territory called "All Star Wrestling." It was studio wrestling and the show was pretty awful. The only thing of note I ever remember from that show is seeing John Tenta years before he became Earthquake. Plus Mauro Ranallo was a mainstay on that show as an obnoxious teenager. *shudder* Once Mid-South changed it's name to the UWF for a time we could get their weekly show using an antennae, from a UHF station in Buffalo. Once the UWF merged with JCP, the show disappeared though. Later, we could get the NWA Power Hour Saturdays at Midnight. I distinctly remember the UWF guys showing up there and that was the first time I heard Jim Ross as well. On Sunday afternoons we got a show called "International Wrestling" hosted by Gino Brito and a guy named Milt Avruskin. That was the weekly television for the Montreal territory, and I used to love that. That was the first place I saw The Road Warriors, Steve Strong, The Great Samu, Rick Martel, Dino Bravo, the Rougeau Brothers and most importantly Bruiser Brody and Abdullah The Butcher. That was a great show. As soon as we got basic cable and The Sports Network and ESPN Canada launched, we also started getting Stampede Wrestling every Monday at 4:00 pm on TSN, and the AWA five afternoons a week. Then when TBS was made available in Canada, we started getting WCW Saturday Night at 6:05 pm, but that was quite a bit later. So yeah, in short we got: WWF Championship Wrestling (later "WWF Superstars"): Saturdays at Noon WWF All-Star Wrestling (later "WWF Wrestling Challenge"): Saturdays at 1:00 pm NWA Joe Pedicino's "Pro Wrestling This Week" (Later "Pro Wrestling Canada" with Angleo Mosca, Milt Avruskin and Danny Johnson): Saturdays at 2:00 pm All-Star Wrestling from Vancouver: Saturdays at 4:00 pm WWF Maple Leaf Wrestling: Saturdays at 7:00 pm UWF (Later NWA Power Hour): Saturdays at Midnight International Wrestling from Montreal: Sundays at 1:00 pm AWA on ESPN: (Monday to Friday at 5:00 pm) Stampede Wrestling: (Mondays at 4:00 pm) You know, between the fact that I religiously collected every Apter Mag (Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler and Inside Wrestling) from 1983 to 1987 or so and looking at this TV schedule now...I can kind of see why my parents thought I was too obsessed with Pro Wrestling.

This. I've heard Tony Schiavone say in multiple interviews and podcasts that calling baseball is his main passion and #1 priority. I think he really likes Pro Wrestling, but he loves Baseball. I can't see him taking a gig that wouldn't allow him his summers off to work for the Braves Triple A team. Having said that - to quote Ted DiBiase, everybody has a price. I'm sure if Vince backed up the old Brinks truck, Tony would listen. However, if Bruce Prichard is to be believed (and that is a big if) Vince didn't even like Schaivone, Tony only got the job because Linda hired him and Vince was glad to see him go. Apparently, he was too "southern." So I can't see Vince paying Tony enough to get him to quit doing baseball when Vince didn't even like him to begin with. Then again, this is 2019. If you'd have told me a year ago that Bruce Prichard, Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff would all be working behind the scenes again in WWE, I would have laughed in your face. So anything is possible, I suppose. I can see Schaivone doing some sort of gig on the WWE Network that doesn't take up too much time. I've heard him say he'd love that kind of job. Moreover, if hiring Tony Schiavone meant we might get Michael Cole or Mauro Ranallo away from the microphone, then in the name of all that is good and decent, pay that man whatever he asks for.

I would love to see some of those infamous Cactus Jack vs. Eddie Gilbert matches in decent quality. I don't know if their match from the 09/15/90 show ("Autumn Armageddon") ever made tape but if it did, I haven't seen it. I know their Falls Count Anywhere match from 03/02/91 ("Winter Challenge II") is available online, but the VQ is pretty bad. Their Barbed Wire match from 05/18/91 ("Spring Spectacular II") is also available online, but the VQ is really bad.Then there is the infamous three fall match from 03/08/91 ("Summer Sizzler II") where the first match was Falls Count Anywhere, the second was a Stretcher Match and the third was a Cage match. I have seen really bad VQ versions of all three matches. The versions of those matches that are posted online all have John Arezzi doing commentary. I'd love it if somebody had the raw footage or at least something of better quality.

Yeah they showed up when I accessed the Network on my PC today. They weren't there when I looked Monday, but they are now.

All those ECW Supershows from 1994 they promised were added to the Network on Monday morning, they just haven't been added to the Hidden Gems or ECW PPV menus. You have to search for the specific event by name, and then it will show up. I am hoping they get added to the menu later on, but they have been pretty lax in added stuff to the Hidden Gems menu for a while now. If you don't know what match or specific event you are looking for, it is really hard to find.

Sweet, they've released the list and The Night The Line Was Crossed and When World's Collide are both on it! Courtesy WWENetworkNews: Is Hostile City Showdown 94 the show where Foley faces Sabu for the first time and spits on the WCW Tag Title, or is that a different show?

That's some good news. It's always bugged me that you can see the complete run of Hardcore TV and ECW on TNN, plus the PPV's on the Nework, but the only place you can see the Supershows like "The Night The Line Was Crossed" is to get them from RF Video - which I would never do. If WWE starts adding the classic ECW Supershows I wonder if they'll make RF video stop selling them? One show I'd love to see that I never have, is the ECW version of "When World's Collide" from 05/14/94 (not to be confused with the AAA PPV from the same year with the same name) that featured Sabu and Bobby Eaton vs. Terry Funk and Arn Anderson. Sign me up for that sumbitch, please.

WWE should embrace their role, double down and have the show they're running in opposition be sponsored by the NRA.

I know this is a few weeks late, but on this week's episode of The Jim Cornette Experience, Cornette finally goes into specific behind the scenes detail about Sami Callihan getting fired from MLW after the "Loser Leaves Town" match. If you listen to the show and don't want to hear all of the other stuff, you can always click here. Cornette starts talking about this issue at around 54:00 minutes into this week's episode. Cornette confesses that he actually had met with Callihan after the incident with Eddie Edwards in Impact, and that they had agreed to perpetuate their Twitter rivalry as a "work." Cornette claims he even gave Callihan his home phone number. According to Cornette, the night of this Loser Leaves Town match in MLW, he actually thought the whole deal with Callihan spitting on him was part of the work. He even went up to Callihan after the match and congratulated him. What he didn't know was that Callihan was about to get fired for going off script during his match with Warner. Cornette claims the match was edited for TV, and we never got to see the damage Callihan did to the venue, which is what actually cost him his job. Also, Callihan himself was supposedly the agent for this match, but he never alerted the truck that he was planning on going into the bleachers, so the cameras couldn't film some of it, and security wasn't warned ahead of time to be there to protect the wrestlers from the fans, or vice versa. Of course, there's always the possibility that Cornette is lying about his side of the story, but the whole thing is pretty hilarious either way.

That's awesome.

Time will tell. They may not make WWE TV any better, but I can't see Bischoff or especially Heyman contributing to a product that is any worse than what is being put out there right now. How much worse can it get?

Even though the accepted theory is that the new producers won't be fully in place until after Extreme Rules, I am not expecting to notice significant changes on either show right away anyhow. If it is even possible, it's going to take time to turn things around, especially considering the mess both guys are walking into. If you inherit a show where one (or more than one) of your main angles involves Shane McMahon, or you get saddled with Baron Fucking Corbin as your top heel, I don't care how good a writer you are - your show is still going to suck. I wouldn't expect to see any noticeable differences until Heyman and Bischoff both are in place for at least a month - and that's even assuming that Vince actually lets them implement any of the changes they want to make, which knowing him, he probably won't. I think SummerSlam will probably be a good indicator of how different things are or aren't going to be with the two new Executive Producers in place.

I have to be honest, I don't get @El-P's hate of this past week's episode of Fusion. It wasn't exactly "must see" TV or anything, but it was what I would have expected for what it was supposed to accomplish. This episode was pretty much designed to do two things: reintroduce Austin Aries and hype up Kings of Colosseum. It accomplished both of those goals, in my opinion. I do agree with El-P and @Migs wholeheartedly, there were some issues with the way Austin Aries was added back into the mix, but not all of those can be blamed on MLW. I agree that Aries just didn't look good, physically. He has lost a noticeable amount of weight since the last time I saw him, including muscle mass. He's never been huge to begin with, but on this show he looked a bit puny. I assume during his time off he wasn't doing a ton of weight training - not to say he looked out of shape, don't get me wrong. Secondly, his overall physical presentation was awful. I'm sorry, but he needs to have a serious word with whoever gave him that haircut. Having his head totally shaved on the sides combined with an epic beard is just a weird look for anybody, especially him. Add that to his new thinner look and the basic, plain full length black tights and he did not look like the Austin Aries I remember from a purely aesthetic point of view. He didn't look like a star. If you compare how he looked on this show to how he looked in WWE or even Impact, it's a significant change. On this show, he looked like enhancement talent, honestly. As far as the match goes. I don't know who Adam Brooks is, but all I know is that Austin Aries gave this kid WAY too much in their match. That match had no business going that long (12 minutes) and I can't believe some of the offense that Aries unloaded on this kid, only to have Brooks fight it off. That Death Valley Driver on the ring apron was insane, and a spot like that should be reserved for a PPV match against a name opponent, not a TV match. And then on top of that, Brooks fights his way out of a submission hold which Aries has clamped on. If Aries wanted somebody to be really competitive against him during his first match back so he could show everything he could do, then they should have put him in there against an established name, not some new kid nobody has ever heard of making his debut. That just made it look like Aries had way too much trouble putting a kid away. As for the post-match, like I said previously, I don't think Jim Cornette had anything to do with that post-match promo. I think that was all Aries. I am somewhat intrigued by the potential Aries/Teddy Hart match they seem to be heading towards. I thought the Fatu squash was great. It made him look like a total monster, which he needed going into the next show. Jacob Fatu is so damn good. That moonsault was crazy. As far as the Main Event goes, it also made sense leading into Kings of Colosseum. There's no way they were going to have their champion lose, and they also want to keep Samael and Contra Unit strong, so having a brawl that gets out of control made sense to me. It was what it was - a TV Main Event leading into a big show. Then again, I really like Josef Samael so maybe I am more inclined to enjoy stuff he is involved in. This is a guy who has patterned himself after the original Sheik, and it shows. My only major criticism of this episode (aside from Aries giving Adam Brooks too much offense) is that they are overdoing it with the constant inserting of the Contra Unit clips throughout the episode. It's making it look like an nWo ripoff, or something. I like the Contra Unit as a stable, but they probably don't need to have their logo flashing across the screen every five minutes, it's overkill to me.

Dude, I think you're way off on this one for two reasons. Firstly, Cornette is just a Color Commentator and Part Time producer. I don't think he has anything to do with creative in MLW. He can't really, because he doesn't even work for them Full Time. And even if he did, the second reason I think Cornette had nothing to do with this is that Cornette and Austin Aries hate each other. It's well documented that Austin Aries and Jim Cornette have big time heat from Cornette's time in ROH when he actually did have input into creative. I really can't see Jim Cornette going to Austin Aries and telling him what to say, and Aries happily agreeing to say it. I believe that promo may actually have represented Austin Aries' actually feelings on the current state of the Pro Wrestling industry.

I do agree that his work during the UK tournament was excellent. To be honest, prior to that I'd never thought he was even capable of that. I didn't think he had the skill. Which in a way, almost makes his usual performances more maddening - he could be great, he just usually isn't. I guess my big complaint is that Cole seems to embrace Vince McMahon's version of what makes a good play-by-play man with a bit too much gusto.

I agree that even if he did agree to be split off from The New Day, WWE "creative" would probably screw it up because hey...they pretty much screw everything up lately. I just don't get a guy with all the physical gifts that Big E has limiting himself like that. But it could very well be that he thinks he's better off being comfortable in the New Day than having creative botch a potential singles run and hurt his potential long term viability.

Some of that is on Big E. I've seen interviews where he says that he has refused to be split off from The New Day under any circumstances. There's only so much mileage you're going to be able to get from a guy throwing pancakes around and swivelling his hips. Considering his abilities, he could and should be considered a monster, but apparently he'd rather dance around in costumes and give the fans breakfast cereal.

Oh man, KS. I normally admire your ability to find something positive in even the most negative aspects of the WWE product, but I really think you're off base on this issue, in my opinion. For example I watched Super Showdown, and yeah that show was horrible and maybe one of the worst shows I've ever seen - but Michael Cole was at his all time worst during that broadcast. He doesn't even call matches anymore, he just lovingly and gleefully spouts cliches ("Vintage Undertaker! Vintage Shane! Vintage Vintage!") in the most insufferably insincere manner. To me he personifies everything about Vince McMahon's vision of Pro Wrestling that I hate. Even within the confines of Vince McMahon's announcing production, I'd take Tom Phillips or Vic Joseph any day of the week. The only play-by-play guy I hate more than Michael Cole is Mauro Ranallo, and that's just due to Mauro's constant idiotic pop culture references and the constant screaming. And when it comes to screaming, sometimes Cole gives Ranallo a run for his money.

The whole question of AEW's target demographic is an interesting one, isn't it? I've heard Tony Khan say in more than one interview that he hopes AEW appeals to new fans, and to lapsed fans from the 90's. Fair enough. So the question becomes how are they going to do that? Based on what I've seen from their first two shows, I am guessing they are going to take the approach of trying to provide a bit of something for everyone. For example, if you like theatrical/comedy stuff then they will use guys like Orange Cassidy and his little shin-kicking spot, or this whole Librarians angle. If you like lots of action and spots, they've got the Lucha Brothers, Young Bucks, etc. If you want the more "hardcore" stuff they have Joey Janella, Jimmy Havoc, etc. And if you like the more traditional old school stuff, they've already proven what they can do with Cody/Dustin and I am betting Moxley will fit right into that category as well. The main question is will some fans be turned off by some of that stuff. I know some fans hate the hardcore stuff. Others don't like the comedy. I myself can't imagine anybody not liking the matches like Cody vs. Dustin, but who knows. I know I was planning on ordering Double or Nothing until I saw the price. I wasn't going to pay $50.00 to see a show that only had one or two matches I was interested in, and having since seen the show I am glad I kept my money in my pocket. I know a lot of fans (rightfully) like to criticize WWE for being too samey and generic - and they unquestionably are. But I don't know how many new or lapsed fans AEW will be able to draw in by having such a wide variety of stuff on the menu. That's the main reason I want to see what their TV is like. A couple of months of television should be able to answer the question about what the overall tone and style the promotion is going to have. Those are questions that can't be answered by two PPV's, the second of which was being done for a very niche audience, even among wrestling fans.

If nothing else, this last episode discussing the Draft proved that JR is not taking the Bruce Prichard route. JR clearly doesn't give a shit at this point about burning any bridges with WWE, so if he has an opinion he's going to share it, regardless of how it sounds. I don't agree with all of his opinions, but it's refreshing (and quite humorous) how blunt he's being. For example, Conrad reads the news item about WWE re-hiring D-Lo Brown. Conrad asks JR if he thinks Vince did that for appearances, to try and prove WWE isn't racist. JR doesn't miss a beat before he responds "yes." You think Bruce would have admitted that, even before he went back to work with Vince? No way. He was always hedging his bets. Bruce didn't mind admitting when he thought a particular match or angle was bad, but we've gotten more honest answers out of JR in a month than we got out of Bruce in a year.