C.S.

Herd pretty much nailed what a con man carny charlatan Jim Cornette was, is, and always has been, but I guess he got the wool pulled over his eyes by the "charms" of Paul Heyman. It does appear, though, that Herd let his dislike of Cornette cloud his judgment a little bit. Then again, Cornette wouldn't show up in the WWF for several more years, and the Midnights never did, so much gas was really left in that tank? Viewing Arn and Tully as midcard acts sounds harsh to our Horsemen-loving ears, but was Herd really wrong at that point in time? Tully was always en route to self-destructing anyway. Bottom line: WCW/Turner's corporate structure was a complete and utter mess. Not even Jesus could've saved it. Uncle Eric came the closest but eventually he was undone by the exact same issues. I still want Arquette, but I can't argue with The Plane Ride from Hell being the next recap.

Amazing, as usual, @The Thread Killer. I was always under the impression that Jim Herd was some schmuck who walked in from Pizza Hut with no prior experience, because WCW was gonna WCW, but that's not the case at all. This really feels like a radical re-evaluation of everything we know about Herd. He had some great ideas and wanted to make some big moves (such as signing Savage) but wasn't always successful because of locker room and Turner politics. Even the movie tie-in stuff could have potentially been good, and the idea of it was certainly way ahead of its time. Herd seemed to understand what many people now have lost sight of - that rasslin' by itself is not a draw, never has been a draw, never will be a draw, and that attracting a wider audience through various means should always be the goal. Can't wait for Part 2. Minority opinion here, but I loved Lex Luger's reign with Harley Race and Mr. Hughes by his side. I thought he was a very good and very underrated World Champion in this era. Of course, it probably helps that I didn't start watching WCW until after Flair left and Luger was champion, so I had no preconceived notions to ruin my perceptions.

With WWE Studios still being a thing, I have no idea why they haven't given The Fiend his own horror movie yet. That would be a much better, more logical way to use him.

Who is this old loser exactly? I feel like I should recognize his name, but I'm drawing a blank.

Mark Henry's at it again - this time against the monumentally dumb jock-ass Ryback. When Ryback comes out looking like the better, classier, and more stable of the two, you know you have to rethink your approach. WrestlingInc.com: Mark Henry Says Ryback Should Apologize For Recent Comments WrestleZone.com: Mark Henry Responds To Ryback: ‘I Could Take A Nap And Be Better Than That Motherf*cker Any Day Of The Week’ Update: I spoke too soon. Meathead Ryback fired back with some nasty shots - even invoking the name of Big Match John. WrestlingInc.com: Ryback And Mark Henry War Of Words Continues

Kross is going to get eviscerated on the main roster, because Vince will see Scarlett as the real star of the two - like Ru Ru and Lana, except this time, he won't be wrong.

The Pat Laprade Andre book is once again $5 on Kindle.

Next stop MLW? That seems to be the place for malcontents who aren't actually draws, or interesting, but think they sold out every building ever and are God's gift to any wrestling promotion they "grace" with their presence.

Two honest questions: 1. Did anyone actually buy the show for him? 2. Does speaking out like this encourage any future employers to take a chance on an unknown quantity like him? He's not a star. He doesn't even have "indie buzz." And now this. Why would anyone hire him? I certainly understand his frustration if he was lied to and the editing of the match was a sloppy mess - was it? I didn't see it - but this hardly seems like a smart career move.

What a fantastic fucking thread. I never would've fathomed that kids on the other side of the world weren't listening to Gorilla, Heenan, etc. and actually had their own commentators instead. Do you have a link to this? (Well, if it's written in French, that won't really be of much use to me.)

Maybe he's getting a relatively nice payday for very few appearances.

Wouldn't surprise me if Broski shows up on Dynamite and rails against AEW for not signing him after his five-appearance deal expired.

Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that I'm not defending Bruce Mitchell's article, which was lazy, sloppy, typo-ridden, irresponsible tabloid speculation at its worst - completely lacking in ethics and common sense - not to mention incredibly harmful and hurtful to an already grieving family for absolutely no reason. With that said, we are only now finding out - many months later - that both Chris Jericho and Nick Jackson tested positive for Covid all the way back in September. I wonder if Bruce knew of that information ahead of time, assumed it was a cover-up, and that colored his opinions while writing about Brodie Lee. Just to be clear, if Jericho and Nick Jackson let the locker room and anyone else they were around know about the diagnosis and then followed the proper protocols, that is all they needed to do IMO. As a fan, I do not in any way feel entitled to know a pro wrestler's private medical history.

I wonder what Simon Gotch thinks of Mark Carrano.

Another tremendous recap, @The Thread Killer. Slow start with all the boring bullshit about BBQ joints, but it definitely picked up later on. BTW, big LOL for this... Also, I kinda feel bad for Mark Carrano. He's not "one of the boys" because the business has changed and Vince no longer puts "the boys" in that position. Seems unfair for Chioda or anyone else to hold that against him. Carrano does seem like a bit of a smirking cocky douchebag on Total Divas, but it would be ridiculous of me to judge him based on a fake "reality" show.

Funny you should say that - Nikki Bella wants the book.

Speaking of good finish guys, Johnny Ace used to be cited as one. How accurate is that? How overrated or underrated is he with finishes specifically?

My advice: Don't do anything you don't want to do. If stops becoming fun and starts feeling like work, that will lead to burn out, and that's no good for you or any of your devoted readers.

Nah, because Steph McMahon will still be there, and nobody will ever want to burn that bridge.

More scummy sleaze by WWE:

Tremendous recap, @The Thread Killer. This whole scenario makes WCW look so bad, like the bush league it was and really never stopped being, even when things were hot. Why the fuck should Vader have to call the arena or agents and tell them he's fulfilling another obligation for the company? That should be Bischoff's job, just like it should've been Bischoff's job to enforce Vader doing it when it was supposed to be done instead of putting it off for four months and kicking off the chain of events that led to this monumental shitshow. I had no idea Arn and particularly Haku were so closely involved, so that was new and interesting information to learn. Vader probably deserved to be fired, but it sounds like the real reason for it was more because he was playing hardball with contract negotiations, and Bischoff used this as an excuse to get rid of someone he was fed-up of dealing with. Unpopular pain in the ass or not, Vader probably knew he was a special talented, acted accordingly, and expected to be compensated accordingly. It's a shame things went even worse for him in WWE. Yeah, I was referring to You Can't Kill David Arquette. I haven't watched the documentary yet. Should I wait for TTK's recap first so I can do a double feature of sorts? Count me in as another one, BTW, who would love to read a Herd recap.

So, if Drew has Rona, does this mean Keith Lee and Goldberg are also in quarantine?

Sadly, all of this would be 100x more compelling than whatever we do get.

Thank goodness... What a fresh, exciting, new match!

Watched The Broken Skull Sessions with Bayley last night... Nothing earth-shattering, but a couple of things stood out to me: - Austin is obviously a huge fan of Bayley's work and was far more familiar with her overall career than I was expecting. - Bayley seems like such a genuinely nice, cool, chill person. You can see why she was such an effective babyface (in NXT at least). It makes her current heel work all the more impressive, especially now that she has found her footing with that. - Bayley vs. Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell 2020 seems like a thousand years ago already, but I forgot 1. it happened 2. it happened recently, and 3. what a fun match it was. (I'll have to dig up the thread to see what I thought of it then. I hope I was in the right mindset to appreciate it at the time.) - Bayley addressed winning and losing the Women's Tag Team Titles so quickly the first time around. She mentioned being very proud of the WrestleMania match (the one they lost), proud of Nattie and Beth's involvement, and said they watched it back after with The Iiconics. Nothing about getting on the floor, throwing a tantrum, or Ryan Satin. Speaking of which, I'm still not sure how that guy constantly falls upward - from a mid-tier "sheet" website (that I'm assuming had less visitors than Observer, Torch, PWInsider, or even stuff like Cageside Seats, Wrestling Inc., WrestleZone, etc., but probably more visitors than most of the generic "newz" sites) to actual work with WWE. Not begrudging his WWE gig, as that's "the dream" - but of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, WWE walked into his of all people?!