The Thread Killer

I've been a bit surprised to see some people being so...angrily dismissive of AEW before they've even gotten out of the gate. To me, it's mind-boggling to write them off before they've even started producing TV. I don't think anybody is going to be able to honestly judge what AEW is really going to be like until we get to view an entire run of television leading up to a PPV, and then the subsequent PPV. Then we'll finally get to see how they manage to juggle airtime for their talent, how they build storylines, how much is going to be based on in-ring action and how much is going to be based on backstage segments and promos, and we'll see who they'll be pushing and who they won't be. Will it really be a serious product based on wins and losses, or will it be more comedy based? Or will they try and balance both? Nobody knows yet. AEW has run two shows. To write them off at this point seems short-sighted and ignorant. You have to ask why some people are being so negative, and the obvious answer is that there is a segment of hardcore fans who don't want AEW to succeed at all, for some reason. Maybe they're die hard WWE fans (although I honestly didn't think there really was such a thing anymore) who find the mere idea of somebody daring to compete with Vince to be an insult therefore AEW must be stopped. Maybe they're just like a lot of Twitter trolls who are being negative and overly critical of everything in a sad effort to bring attention to themselves. Who knows. There's a flip side to that coin, though. Since the moment AEW was formed, there has also been a subset of fans who are trumpeting every little thing AEW has done when honestly - they've barely done anything yet. Or if you try and mention a good match you watched in NXT or on 205 Live and somebody barges in and starts blathering nonsense. "Who cares about NXT? How can you watch that crap? Plus, Saudi Arabia! Now AEW, that's a good product! 205 Live only wishes they had Luchasaurus! Blah blah blah!" Yeah, we get it. You're excited about AEW. Now go sit down. And gawd forbid somebody criticize what AEW has done so far. Then the person who criticized AEW must be a dinosaur who is stuck in the past and doesn't understand "modern" Pro Wrestling. Both groups are equally annoying, as far as I'm concerned. You can't honestly write AEW off before they've even started, but by the same token just because somebody didn't like some of the things they have done already it doesn't make their opinion invalid. Especially if they're voicing that option rationally and reasonably. I've been a Pro Wrestling fan for 36 years. By now, I know what I like and what I don't like in Pro Wrestling. To be honest, I am not excited about AEW for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it remains to be seen if I'm even going to get to see their TV. We don't get TNT in Canada, and so far they have not announced a Canadian TV deal. Secondly, I honestly am not a fan of a number of the wrestlers they have used thus far, and I don't care for the style of wrestling it looks like they're planning on presenting. I'm not a fan of overly choreographed or theatrical stuff that is meant to be humorous. I don't care to watch guys like Sonny Kiss, Orange Cassidy and Michael Nakazawa. I don't even much care for Kenny Omega or The Young Bucks. I suppose they're very good at what they do, I am just not a fan of what they do. I can't see myself going out of my way to watch those guys. But if you do like that type of wrestling, then more power to you. I certainly don't want AEW to fail. I think it's great that there is now a company where guys like Jon Moxley and Shawn Spears can get work and be creatively satisfied. Even better, guys like Rusev and Luke Harper and The Revival now have options if they can get away from WWE. I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't want to see them have an alternative place to go. Just because I don't necessarily want to see it, doesn't mean that people who do want to see it shouldn't be able to.

Fightful is reporting that the new TV deal is going to be with AXS. I have to plead ignorance here, since I don't even think we get AXS in Canada. If we do, it must be a real specialty channel because I have a very comprehensive TV provider and they're not listed. (Not that seeing Impact in Canada is a problem, since it's on The Fight Network.) Question for those of you in the know...would Impact going to AXS be considered a step up, like a TV deal that would be considered respectable and good for them? Better than Pursuit, at least? Or would it be considered as bad as Pop TV or Destination America?

Here's my picks based on what I watch. I follow NXT, NXT UK, Impact and MLW closely. I know what's going on in WWE and see most of the big matches, but I don't watch their weekly television. I don't watch ROH or NJPW so unfortunately I can't comment on any shows or wrestlers in either organization. Match of the Year: Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes (AEW Double or Nothing 05/25/19) Best Major Wrestling Show: NXT TakeOver: New York (04/19/19) Best Promotion: NXT Best on Interviews: Josef Samael Feud of the Year: Sami Callihan vs. Rich Swann - Impact Wrestling Most Improved: Velveteen Dream/Tessa Blanchard (Tie) Wrestler of the Year: Becky Lynch

I hope your dog is okay brother. I have two rescue dogs myself, and up until recently I had three, but one passed away. I end up spending a small fortune on my guys, one has a "luxating patella" which means his knees keep dislocating, so I've got him on an anti-inflammatory and a glucosamine supplement, both of which are very expensive. The other one has seizures and arthritis so he is on Gabapentin and an anti-inflammatory. That's not even getting into how much I had to spend on the one who just passed away. A lot of the time I end up spending more on Dog Medication and Dog Food than I do on myself, but I love those guys and I don't regret it a bit. I hope yours makes a full recovery from surgery.

Brian Last claims they are making good money of their podcasts, and recently claimed they didn't even need sponsors to do it. It was when he took a shot at Conrad Thompson and said that he didn't know why Conrad's podcasts needed "dick pills" as a sponsor when there are plenty of ways to make lots of money from your podcast. But that's Brian Last and he could be full of crap. Then again, he apparently makes a full time living from his network of podcasts, so there could be something to it, I suppose. It's not like Brian Last's other podcasts on the "Acadian Vanguard Network" are going to get anywhere near the downloads Cornette does. Stephen P. New is a paid sponsor, but just for the Drive-Thru. When Cornette promotes him on The Experience he's doing it for free. They did have that one new sponsor "manscaped" for a few weeks, but this week Cornette did an ad for Rhino Records, so I guess they're a new sponsor for now. Aside from sponsors, I think they do make quite a bit from YouTube. That's why Cornette had a conniption fit when their old Official YouTube channel got demonetized for a while. That guy who was illegally posting Cornette content ("Jim Cornette Talking Sense") even admitted he was making a lot of money from Cornette related YouTube content before Cornette made him stop and basically brought him on as an employee. I think if your YouTube content gets a lot of hits you can do pretty well for yourself.

Well, Cornette responded to David Starr's accusations of racism on today's episode of The Experience. It was an...interesting rebuttal. I didn't realize there was a history to the heat between Starr and Cornette. He also decided that his newest target is Orange Cassidy, however I approve of that so I'm not complaining. It all led into his analysis on the role of comedy in Pro Wrestling, along with a promise to review the AEW show this weekend - so I expect the outrage to continue. He's definitely working these guys now. He knows his downloads are going to continue to go through the roof, the more he eviscerates AEW the more his fans lap it up and his enemies listen to get new fuel for their fire. And he laughs all the way to the bank.

If we're talking about here and now, there's no doubt. I'm not denying that the ticket demand for AEW is insane. I know a guy who paid an absolutely obscene amount of money to a scalper to get a good ticket to All In and he was glad to pay it. I also know that nowadays WWE can't give away seats. If somebody kidnapped my Mother and told me that I had to go to WWE Stomping Grounds to get her back, I'd tell them that my Mom is getting up there in years, and had a good run, so who am I to interfere with the passage of time. However, if you look at how insanely hot the WWF was back in the 80's and even at points during the Attitude Era, I would imagine ticket demand might have been comparable if the same technology was available then as now.

You're right, it's a really stupid comparison. Hey, if AEW did really sell more first day tickets than any Wrestlemania ever then more power to them. But back when Vince put on the first Wrestlemania, there wasn't exactly a big problem in the industry with ticket scalping bots grabbing up all the best seats and then scalpers selling them online at grossly inflated prices, now was there? Some of Meltzer's comparisons and analogies are really weird and poorly thought out.

Oh boy, Cornette is going to have a fucking field day with this.

I prefer to picture a lonely and despondent Vince Russo at home, in his basement. He sits and watches, as over the past six months: Jeff Jarrett gets a job as a producer with WWE Bruce Prichard becomes a Senior Vice President in WWE Jim Cornette becomes a Producer with MLW Jim Ross is named a Senior Advisor with AEW and now... Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff are named as Executive Directors overseeing Creative Development in WWE Meanwhile even Russo himself has admitted that he has contacted WWE trying to get a job on more than one occasion, only to be ignored. Hell, he couldn't even get a job as a creative consultant for Pop TV. He is finally a total pariah in the Professional Wrestling business. Ahhh, karma. So sweet.

Yeah good point. The problem is that so far, Shepard seems to be one of the main sources reporting the ongoing developments and is driving the overall narrative as this story has been breaking. A lot of sites are quoting him.

Exactly. Like I said earlier in this thread, I know it was a long time ago but I keep thinking of Bill Watts in 1995. He was supposedly promised autonomy so Vince could "focus on other projects" and look how long that lasted. Watts has said in interviews since that there is no way that Vince McMahon can be around and not interfere in the running of that organization. He's a control freak, that's his nature.

Absolutely. I was very surprised by this news. I had always assumed that logically, Vince would turn the reins (or Reigns see what I did there?) to Triple H and Stephanie when the day came that he needed to step back for whatever reason. Vince McMahon bringing back people like Jeff Jarrett, Bruce Prichard, Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff in 2019 makes little sense to me if he's planning for the future. I suppose the argument could be made that there isn't anybody currently working in WWE who has demonstrated the capability of assuming a greater role, but that is on Vince. He has created and fostered an environment where he is surrounded by yes men and is the final word on every single thing...how was anybody else supposed to distinguish themselves? Then again, if Vince really does need to take a step back due to the XFL, if he doesn't bring in people who have run shows successfully in the past...who does he get if not them?

I don't tend to judge Bischoff's creative abilities based on his TNA run for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he was only there because Hogan insisted on it, as a condition of Hogan's coming into TNA. They didn't want Bischoff, and he really didn't want to be there and was only doing it as a favor to Hogan. (And for the money, one would assume.) Once Hogan pretty much vanished from TNA, Bischoff was really only a backstage producer and "creative consultant." It's not like he was in charge of the creative team or anything like that, and he has claimed (true or not) that he could never accomplish anything working for Dixie Carter. That I'd tend to believe, because so many other people had the exact same experience working in TNA. I think Dutch Mantell is a great booker, and he never really got to do everything he could in TNA either. Having said all that, @DMJ has a point about Bischoff regurgitating angles that have worked in the past. The one angle which Bischoff has admitted that he did have extensive creative input into (at the beginning) was the "Aces & Eights" storyline. Bischoff has claimed that he thought that angle started off really well, but went off the rails pretty badly. It doesn't take a booking genius to see that Aces & Eights were basically a re-hash of the nWo, and therein lies the problem. Eric Bischoff has never discussed this publicly that I am aware of, but I have seen Kevin Nash state in more than one interview that Eric Bischoff's theory when it comes to creative is that there are only a small handful of stories that will actually work in the context of Professional Wrestling. I have heard Bischoff say that by it's very nature, Pro Wrestling does limit the kind of stories you can tell. So the theory is, take the proven angles which have worked in the past and use them again successfully: Betrayal (Partner turns on partner, friend turns on friend, student turns on mentor, etc.) Ambition (Contender pursues Champion) Patriotism (USA vs. Foreign Country) Intrigue (Mystery antagonist taunts opponent until being revealed) Invasion (Outsider invades territory) Abuse of Power (Executive or organization abuses authority) Revenge (Protagonist seeks revenge against antagonist for injury/insult etc.) That theory has pretty much been proven when you look at the angles Bischoff did have a hand in, during his time in TNA. I don't think you're going to get anything other than the proven angles out of him, and there is a good chance that they will come across as being re-hashed. Which is fine, so long as you are using good talent and the resulting action is actually of a decent quality. One of my major complaints about WWE for years now, is that they pretty much rely exclusively on the second bullet point listed above (Ambition) or even worse they have no narrative reason whatsoever for any of their main rivalries - wrestlers in WWE fight each other just because. Like I said, Bischoff is not a creative guy. He's overseen creative guys, and done a mediocre job of that at best in the past. The whole basis of his relationship with Vince Russo in WCW was that Turner management wanted to bring Russo back to creative after his disastrous first run. Basically, they wanted to justify the lucrative contract they had given Russo, but they finally realized after three months that Russo couldn't work unless he was being overseen by somebody. That was the sole reason Bischoff got brought back. The first thing Bischoff did was ask Russo to present a written outline of his planned stories for the next six months, and Russo didn't want to do. He probably couldn't do it, because that is not how Crash TV worked. That relationship was pretty much shit from that point onward, and then it ended altogether after Bash at the Beach 2000. I maintain that we still haven't seen what Bischoff can do creatively on his own and I doubt that we will now.

I couldn't agree more. Sadly, I seem to have evolved into PWO's #1 Eric Bischoff defender/apologist/fanboy. I have decided to embrace that role, so be prepared to see me eloquently defending the honor of Eazy E in this thread against any and all disparaging remarks. I expect my comrade @SomethingSavage to join me, if needed. In all seriousness Matt, I am quite interested and intrigued about this announcement, if it is true. It's a bit of a bummer that the Fusient purchase of WCW never went through and we never got to see what WCW would have looked like with Eric Bischoff totally in control without Turner Entertainment overseeing, or being saddled with Vince Russo as part of his creative team. When he discusses the plans that he did have, it sounds very intriguing. I think that Bischoff has legitimately learned from a lot of the mistakes he made in WCW and would not make them again. (Of course, he might make all new mistakes, who knows.) I feel he has learned from his past mistakes, and that is a key phrase because in his case, he actually admits he made mistakes. When comparing the podcasts hosted by Conrad Thompson with Bruce Prichard and Eric Bischoff, you will notice one major difference. Prichard largely used his podcast as a platform to defend a large amount of the creative decisions he was involved in during his WWF career. The infamous Triple H/Booker T "people like you" angle/promo leaps to mind. Conversely, Biscoff is markedly more self-critical and reflective regarding the decisions he made while running WCW. One of the things I found most remarkable was that when Conrad was effusive with his praise regarding the success WCW had in 1998, Bischoff pretty much deflected that positive feedback. His position was that WCW was only successful in 1998 due to the smart decisions made in 1997, but the bad decisions he made in 1998 actually led to his downfall in 1999. That is a level of introspection that I think will really serve him well in this new role in WWE. Bischoff has said on countless occasions that one of his big regrets was his role (or lack thereof) in the creative aspects of WCW. He was never "the booker." When he was first promoted in 1994, he was only handling the TV production aspect of management, and other people were in charge of creative. When they review those early shows on 83 Weeks and Conrad either praises or criticizes matches or angles, Bischoff frequently points out that he had nothing to do with the creative. Sometimes that means he can avoid blame, but sometimes it means he doesn't take credit. Once he was promoted to actual President of WCW, he still left the creative to either Kevin Sullivan or the booking committee. He has said that he wishes he had taken a bigger hand in creative decisions, but that he lacked the confidence. He has also said that he wishes he hadn't let some talents have so much input into their own creative. (Just not his best friend Hulk Hogan, of course.) I honestly don't think we've ever actually seen Eric Bischoff creative version of Pro Wrestling. In WCW he was an Executive, first and foremost. What I have learned about him from 83 Weeks is that his tastes are surprisingly old school. He hates gimmick matches and screwy finishes. He loves technical wrestling. If FOX really does want a "sports" themed Pro Wrestling show when Smackdown debuts, then I think Bischoff will want to give it to them. The major question is, how much control will Bischoff actually have over the writing staff in WWE, and will Vince McMahon interfere and override his decisions? If you listen to the podcast/interview Jon Moxley did with Chris Jericho, it gives you a pretty clear window into the mindset of Vince McMahon nowadays. If Vince insists on poop jokes and personally approving every scripted promo, I don't think it matters who is in charge, the product is going to continue to be shit. Not to mention, who will decide what talents get pushed, and how? If Vince McMahon hands Bischoff (or Heyman) a guy like Baron Corbin and says "this is your #1 guy" then they're not going to be able to turn the proverbial chicken shit into chicken salad. And if anybody can disguise weakness and play to a strength, it's Paul Heyman...not Eric Bischoff. I think Bischoff will do well working with the talent and liaising with FOX. Hell, he probably has just as much experience working with different television networks as Vince, if you count all the outside projects he has been involved with over the years. I think he'll probably do a lot better answering to Vince McMahon than Paul Heyman will. I think he'll do a good job at overseeing creative, and I think he likes and appreciates the more competitive based and less outlandish style of Pro Wrestling that many of us do. If he is capable of presenting that style of wrestling and if Vince will actually let him...that's the million dollar question. I'd say all signs point to no, based on Vince's history. I am guessing the XFL and Vince's age are the only things that might actually allow this scenario to work. Even though Vince reportedly loves to micromanage, he can't be everywhere at once and the XFL is going to be his baby and require a ton of his time. He may have no choice but to finally cede some control to Heyman and Bischoff. And at Vince's age, how much longer will he be able to burn the candle at both ends? Maybe Bischoff will actually get the chance to run Smackdown the way he wishes he had run WCW.

This is such huge news on so many levels - and raises so many questions. Firstly, Bischoff has re-tweeted a couple of news stories about this, so it seems to be legit. Otherwise, I'd just assume that it was April 1 and we are all being fooled. This also explains why Bischoff just cancelled his entire tour of live shows in Canada. Secondly, if the multiple reports (Sports Illustrated, ESPN, etc.) are to be believed, this is not an "on screen" thing where these guys are going to be playing General Manager roles, this is supposedly legit. I really find that so hard to believe for so many reasons. Heyman has been saying for years that based on how his relationship with Vince deteriorated after the disastrous ECW reboot, he didn't want to work in a creative/executive role with WWE again...and I assumed the feeling was mutual. I know Heyman and the truth rarely meet, and I know money talks, but I find it so hard to believe both parties would want to work together after that whole debacle. Every single story I've ever heard about Heyman's tenure with WWE after the original ECW went under indicate that he was constantly stepping on Vince's toes and the two got on each other's nerves constantly. Eric Bischoff I can totally see in a role like this, it's pretty much made for him. If he's in charge of Smackdown, that means he's going to be the official liaison between WWE and FOX. Who knows more about being the go-between a major network and a wrestling organization than Bischoff? I know people love to slag him off, but he had to try and keep the Turner TV executives happy while running WCW, and for a while he succeeded. He is constantly talking about what he'd do if he had the chance to do it over again, and now he has that chance. Except this time, the TV Network he'll be dealing with actually wants the Pro Wrestling show, unlike Turner Entertainment who treated WCW like the unwanted child. What does this mean for Triple H's role with the company, does he work for these guys or is he separate from this deal? I can't imagine he is happy about this, although as Executive Vice President I assume he outranks them. Not to mention, Vince's propensity for interfering, micro-managing and having to be the last word regarding every little thing is pretty much legendary. Is he actually going to let these guys do their jobs, or is this Bill Watts in 1995 all over again? Or...does Vince bringing in Prichard, Heyman and Bischoff prove that he actually knows he'll be too busy with the XFL once they start up to run WWE? Finally, hiring Heyman and Bischoff doesn't exactly disprove the theory that Vince McMahon is stuck in the 1990's, does it?

Both @El-P and @Blehschmidt make total sense and I could not agree with them more. Back in the 90's nobody I knew loved "hardcore" wrestling more than I did. I ordered FMW tapes from tape traders, I bought ECW bootlegs because they didn't have TV in Canada, and I used to drive all the way from Toronto to Buffalo just to see ECW live. But the so-called "hardcore" stuff and "death matches" that happen now are a pretty pale comparison to that classic stuff, in my opinion. Like El-P said, there is a massive difference between what guys like Onita, Funk and Foley did back then and the stuff that goes on today - in the States and in Japan. I know it sounds goofy, but the old FMW and ECW actually had a perverse kind of psychology to it, whereas a lot of this new stuff is basically the Pro Wrestling equivalent of torture porn. Some fans seem to forget that the best "hardcore" wrestlers could actually...you know...WRESTLE. There is a legitimate argument to be made that Terry Funk could be the greatest Pro Wrestler of all time, and what guys like he and Onita and even Foley understood was how to work the crowd, and how implied violence is often more effective than the actual bump itself. Those guys could structure an entire match around the suspense of taking one or two big bumps into a supposedly electrified cage or the ring "exploding." Even if you watch the infamous "King of the Deathmatch" tournament from 1995, most of those matches were based around a guy taking one or two big bumps. (And even then, the matches weren't really all that good.) Besides, Onita got famous partially due to his personality and charisma, not just the violence. One of the biggest parts of his act was his post-match promos where he'd break down and cry and hug his opponents. I don't speak Japanese and I could see that guy had "it" in spades. Even in ECW, as much as some people like to remember it as some crazy hardcore fed, they stuck to the brawling basics. Chairs, tables and brawling through the crowd. Sure, the Dudleys would light tables on fire, and sure New Jack would jump off balconies, but they always built to that. Yeah there was the odd barbed wire match in ECW, but their shows weren't based on nothing but crazy hardcore stunts one after the other. People remember the goofy soap opera story between Raven and Tommy Dreamer as much as they remember Sabu getting stuck in barbed wire. A lot of the modern death match stuff I have seen has made me sick. As soon as Big Japan and other places started doing stupid shit like bringing florescent light-bulbs into it and then building from there, in my opinion it went from cool to gross, and then from gross to outright stupid. The scene didn't evolve it degraded. El-P brought up a good point as well, Onita started doing this crazy shit in front of packed stadiums. At least he made money from this stuff (in the beginning.) Today you get morons breaking light-tubes over each other's heads in their backyard or in a damn barn in front of 150 people. And if you took that stupid shit away from those scarred up morons and asked them to work a normal match, they'd shit in their ripped jeans. In May of 1998, Funk and Foley had a great brawl on RAW and didn't have to resort to any of that stupid shit...they had an old school Memphis style brawl and it worked great. Like Foley said in his first book, these guys need to learn how to apply a wristlock, then they can break a table. If you have to get sliced up or cut somebody else in order to have a match and can't do anything else, then I really don't consider you a wrestler. I know that most of the guys who compete in modern death matches are themselves fans of the old school stuff, and they're just trying to intensify the violence and ramp it up because modern death match fans have been desensitized and expect more and more brutality...but I honestly feel that whole scene went badly off the rails somewhere. I liken the modern death match scene to what happened to Punk Rock. I know a lot of punk fans loved the Sex Pistols, and got into music to emulate them. But what a lot of them missed, is if you listen to "Never Mind The Bollocks" you discover that by the time the Pistols had finished recording that album, they had matured into pretty fucking good musicians. That's why that album still stands up today. But some kids listened to it, gave themselves a mohawk, stuck a safety pin through their nose and thought if they could play two chords, that made them a Punk Rocker. In theory, sure yeah...it did. But a lot of the bands that followed the Pistols or the Clash sucked, because they never understood what made the early Punk bands succeed. It was the attitude combined with skill...not just screaming and spitting at people. One of my closest friends, is friends with a former CZW wrestler, who was relatively famous. This former CZW guy told my friend that he quit CZW and death match wrestling altogether because he realized he was literally killing himself and going broke for no reason whatsoever. He was getting sliced to ribbons by broken glass at shows, making shit money and performing in front of small crowds who didn't give a shit about him and just wanted to see him bleed. That's a far cry from what the early death match guys were doing. I don't blame these newer "wrestlers" for being fans and copying their idols, but unfortunately the death match scene grew until it was unwieldy and it kind of ended up eating itself alive.

I hear one of them has heat with the Locker Room already, because it forgot to go around and shake everybody's hand before the show.

Yeah, I freely admit that it might just be me when it comes to Sami Callihan. There's something about Callihan I don't much care for, and I can't really even fully put my finger on what it is. Maybe I just don't like his character and his promos and that is coloring my overall view of him. Maybe it's just that I don't like his stupid hairstyle and the fact that he wears a fucking flak jacket in the ring. Like I said, just something about him irritates me for some reason. Not to the degree that Seth Rollins irritates you, mind you. I do agree with you that his role in Impact has been superior to what he did in MLW, in my humble opinion. You have to assume that solely falls on the respective creative teams, and that D'Amore and Callis have a better idea how to use him. Like I said, I do love oVe as a stable. You're also right about the feud with Rich Swann. That angle has brought out stuff in Swann that I didn't even suspect was there and made him a much more well rounded and serious character, and the feud with Callihan is pretty much solely responsible for that.

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed in that Main Event too. I had heard from three different people (including a couple who were there live) that this was a great match and almost like the second (or third, I guess) coming of the Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl. Meh, not so much. This match was okay, at best. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad - it just wasn't as good as I'd been led to believe. There was some good stuff in there. Jacob Fatu is a beast, he's great and is going to be a big star wherever he ends up. Considering his lineage, I'm actually pretty shocked he didn't end up in NXT/WWE right off the bat. Simon Gotch was okay in this match, but some of his "brawling" offense looks a bit soft. His strengths are obviously mat wrestling and submissions, and you're not going to get a whole lot of that in an Unsanctioned 6 Man Tornado Tag Team Match. I've always been a big Josef Samael fan, since he was the Almighty Sheik. This dude is so old school, and I love it. Great look, great promo and a great overall aura. He did fine. One problem I had with this match was that a lot of the weapons shots and "violence" in this fight looked really weak and unconvincing. I don't want to see guys hammering the crap out of each other and getting hurt - but conversely if you're going to do a match like this, you pretty much have to "lay your shit in" as Steve Austin would say. Some of the kicks, punches, chairshots and especially that nonsense with the board looked really lame. The only one who used it properly was Samael, when he turned it into a spike. Speaking of weak looking, I am sorry but Tom Lawlor did not come across like a badass in this match. Firstly, I hate to say it but he needs to do something about his look. It appears as if he is wrestling in his boxer shorts. I know he is a former MMA guy - I saw in UFC long before I ever saw him in MLW - but his look in MLW is just goofy. Also, his promos are very wooden and unconvincing sounding. The spot where he got duct-taped to the ringpost and had to be rescued by the referee was just stupid and did him no good if he is supposed to be tough. Finally, he is obviously afraid of really hurting somebody because his worked punches and kicks are very obviously being pulled - they look really fake. I respect him but I do not think he should be the top guy in MLW. On the positive side, I thought the Von Erich brothers looked pretty good. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen them - I think I might have seen them once in a match from NOAH, but that was ages ago. Either way, they looked pretty good here. They look like stars. They certainly have a family history (good and bad.) Unlike a lot of hardcore fans, I was a pretty big fan of the Von Erich family and I'm old enough to remember them from World Class. Unfortunately, I missed the Freebird feud, but I saw a ton of their stuff in WCCW and I always liked them. I was really happy to hear Kevin's sons were coming to MLW and are finally getting some exposure in North America. I agree with @El-P that the claw is kind of goofy and outdated, but they're the Von Erichs, so what are you gonna do? It's expected. We can't say what they're like in a traditional Tag Team match, because this was anything but. I did think this was kind of a stupid way to debut the Von Erichs in MLW. I get the whole angle leading up to this...Contra are some weird faction who have come in and are terrorizing MLW, nobody knows why they're here, they don't even technically work for MLW, they have some mysterious "benefactor" and we don't know who that is. Fine. To make a statement, they attack the MLW Champion a couple of times, and cut his hair. Fine. But in response, Lawler challenges them to a 6 Man match, and basically says "You guys outnumber me...so I got the Von Erichs." Uh...right. Great storyline. Good buildup. Nice details. And then they stand there and don't say shit. I assume they're like their Dad and Uncles and can't cut a decent promo, but they could have said something, rather than just standing there. The post match brawl was okay, but strangely laid out. Fatu leaves, threatens the announcers, then he comes back. Contra beat up a bunch of officials, including putting a referee through a table, while the babyfaces stand in the ring and give each other high fives. I don't get it. I guess that was meant to help Contra keep their heat, but all it did to me was make Lawlor and the Von Erichs look either heartless for letting those poor guys get beat up, or scared. Or maybe stupid because they somehow missed it? I don't know. Finally, @El-P was dead on about how poorly paced this show was. They start off the show with an angle, which they then show a bunch of times on a replay throughout the show. Then Low Ki has a really lame looking squash match, which the fans don't care about. We have to sit through a ton of promos, and then the Main Event. Very poorly laid out, for whoever produced this episode. I like MLW a lot, probably more than Impact. They have a ton of talent and a lot of potential, but I am finding the quality of their shows tend to fluctuate wildly. For this show I guess the lesson is, don't believe the hype. Maybe I would have liked this week's episode of Fusion if I hadn't heard so much about how great it was, ahead of time.

I'm with you on everybody (especially Willie Mack) except Callihan. In my opinion, he's just okay at best. He's fine for midcard feuds and the odd brawl. His stuff with Edwards has been alright and I do think oVe are a great faction, but to me he is not the kind of guy you build a fed around. YMMV of course.

I watched this past week's episode of Impact and one thing really stuck out to me. Anthem need to pull their heads out of their butts and work things out with Killer Kross. Seriously, if they really do let that guy walk, they're morons. He is such a natural promo, he is head and shoulders above anybody else on that roster. That promo he cut when he was basically water-boarding Sandman was gold. He is so much more natural on the microphone than anybody else they have, plus he has a great look. After already losing Eli Drake, Impact really need to do their best to hang on to this guy. Anthem is not going to be able to rebuild their brand with Michael Freaking Elgin.

Has anybody heard the news item that claims WWE is going to stop having matches continue during commercial breaks? How would they even do that, time the show out so that they only go to commercial between matches, or will they have the referee call time out when the show goes to break?

Thanks brother, I really appreciate the kind words. I really hesitated for the longest time about even mentioning the fact I was sick here at PWO, because I know we generally don't post about those types of things (hence the name Pro Wrestling Only.) But in my own way I have made "friends" with a lot of guys here. Plus, if I suddenly disappear, people will know why. It turns out I have the exact same symptoms and condition that Ric Flair had recently - except mine is genetic and was not brought on by a lifetime of alcohol abuse. (Actually, come to think about it...) Maybe like Lou Gehrig's disease, they'll name the condition after Flair, and I can tell people I have Ric Flair disease. That would give me a medical excuse for drinking to excess, sleeping with thousands of women, wearing nothing but a robe and exposing myself to stewardesses.

Conrad Thompson recently said that Eric Bischoff and JR's podcasts usually do between 200,000 to 300,000 downloads a week. I think his show with Tony Schiavone does quite a bit fewer, and during it's peak I heard and read that Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard was doing significantly more than that, but I think that has dropped off. At it's height, Conrad claimed STW was getting an unbelievable 750,000 downloads a week, or 3 Million a month. It's been a long time since Conrad bragged about Bruce's numbers and I'm betting there is a reason for that. JR has said his audience has increased dramatically since he teamed up with Conrad Thompson. But despite all that, even at his most popular I think Jim Cornette's podcasts get more downloads than Conrad Thompson, the "Podfather" and king of Pro Wrestling podcasts. During one of his many spats with Vince Russo, Jim Cornette claimed that The Jim Cornette Experience does around 350,000 downloads a week - and that was a couple of years ago. Cornette once claimed that if called upon, he could prove that more people downloaded his podcast on a weekly basis than watched TNA wrestling during their decline, and if those figures are true then I believe it. He also offered to compare his numbers to those of Vince Russo's podcast, who wisely ignored the offer. On top of that, Cornette has long claimed that he makes more money from his collectibles business and from personal appearances than he does from his podcast. He has repeatedly claimed that he makes more money now than he ever did when he was active as a Pro Wrestling manager. But Cornette is no dummy - he uses his podcast to promote his other business ventures, obviously. Hell, the first 20 minutes of every show usually consist of him pimping his store and upcoming appearances. And Brian Last has wisely hitched his wagon to Cornette and uses his platform as Cornette's co-host to promote his own large network of shows. And now, if Brian Last is to be believed, the show where Cornette reviewed Double or Nothing did "almost a million" downloads, which (if true) is staggering. Obviously, they base their ad rates on downloads, and more significantly their YouTube channel is monetized and they get paid based on views. Cornette and Last have both claimed that since the whole Double or Nothing controversy, their audience continues to grow. Some of these people who are attacking Cornette online are pretty much playing right into his hands. Let's not forget, Cornette broke into the business in Memphis and at heart is an old school carny of the first order. As Eric Bischoff said: "Controversy Creates Cash" and in this case, I think Cornette and Last are laughing all the way to the bank.