C.S.

I thought Lawler was doing a podcast with Sean Reedy? I could be wrong and thinking of some other Memphis wrestler. Reedy also did a podcast with Jerry Jarrett until 2019 (or at least that's all iTunes has) and is very good and underrated. I've listened to his Jarrett podcast but not his second one with Lawler or whoever I'm thinking of. Either way, if Conrad did one with Lawler, you know 90% of it would be Attitude Era because Conrad has shown very little interest, knowledge, or aptitude for anything he didn't grow up on. Now, maybe I'm wrong and Conrad was somehow a diehard Memphis fan as a kid, but I kinda doubt it. Conrad is good, but he definitely has a wheelhouse that he sticks to. And Foley strongly opposed the recent WWE rule change about outside projects (along with politician Andrew Yang, actress Lea Thompson, and Batista).

I kinda liked The Librarians...

You're defending Russo-style promos in 2020. You realize that, right?

Punk answered a bunch of questions on Twitter. This response... Oof! More here: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/09/cm-punk-talks-current-wwe-standout-674645/

Mike "I.R.S." Rotunda is officially gone now. He was originally furloughed on April 15th, which is tax day in America. Guess they don't care about keeping Bray and Bo happy. (Is Bo even still with the company???)

The fact that I couldn't finish it really says a lot, because I have a high tolerance - I got through the Mayor Kane book and I'm powering through one of Jesse Ventura's political books (it was briefly free on Kindle, so I grabbed it for the hell of it), even though I don't align with the politics of either. Jesse does have some good ideas and points, but then goes off the rails in other areas. But has he? The tweets we're all talking about are days old. With that said, I know nothing else about the guy other than this recent gaffe and his book, so I have no opinion of him personally.

Gerald Brisco has been released after 36 years of service. This company really has no shame.

I don't remember other ex-WWE wrestlers in AEW cutting a LOLTNA promo like that. Podcasts don't count. I'm talking about TV. (Edit: I missed the Zack Ryder debut promo, but it sounds equally as terrible - and he already has below zero buzz, so it's not like that worked well.) As for Miro coming in as a best man for a wedding: While the whole cuck dynamic with Sabian, Ford, and Janela does nothing for me, Miro obviously came in this way by design to poke fun at his last notoriously bad WWE angle - which was a terrible wedding and cuck angle involving Lana and Lashley. Reminds me of Bret Hart coming as a referee in WCW because he was screwed by one in the WWF. It's not great.

Abysmal shit. I'm in disbelief that they didn't learn from LOLTNA's mistakes when it comes to this stuff. It's especially disappointing because AEW has had the good sense not to fall into that trap for the most part.

If I were Uncle Dave, I'd contact the local PD wherever Roidback lives and get him thrown in jail.

Didn't he write that Shooters book? A couple of folks here vouched for it, calling it one of the best wrestling books ever, but I couldn't even finish it.

The horror! The horror!

Thanks for such a lengthy and detailed answer, @The Thread Killer. Wow, there's a lot to unpack here. This is why I can't take Ryan Satin seriously as a legitimate journalist. He's not one, never has been, and probably never will be. I look at him as the tabloid TMZ hack he is. One of the golden rules of journalism is to report the story, not make yourself the story. Satin was flat-out unprofessional there. I assume he was inspired by Mark Madden tattling to baseball legend Hank Aaron about Bill Watts. That can be debated too, but the difference is, Madden got an openly proud racist removed from a powerful corporate position. Satin did what? Got Russo yanked from a podcast no one was listening to anyway. (I realize Russo was the target of a racial lawsuit himself, but I never got the impression that he was racist so much as he valued mic work above everything else, and wrestlers who spoke limited English weren't going to be valued by him for that reason - not because he hates Mexicans or whatever. I remember him loving Hector Garza, for example.) Of course, that does not in any way excuse Satin's poor girlfriend getting death threats over it - especially if they were influenced by Russo (even indirectly, which is no different from what Trump does). For as much criticism as Conrad gets for his formula being stale, played out, paint-by-numbers, or whatever else has been said here, it sounds like it would've been a winning recipe for Russo.

Ironically, the lack of live crowds now is probably what will save him in the long run - assuming nothing else comes out and if what's already come out can be conveniently swept under the carpet by a combination of WWE's lawyers and fans who want to develop selective amnesia. Agreed.

I dunno, guys... I realize Theory is still young and has a decade or more to grow into something, but nothing about him right now makes me think he brings what Dom does to the table - or even what AEW youngsters like Sammy, Darby, Jungle Boy, etc. are already showing us. If Theory wasn't a potential liability, I'd say he was worth bringing along. But now, why take the chance? Randy Orton at 23, yeah, you could see the potential. Brock Lesnar at 23. The Rock at 23. Even Velveteen Dream. Austin Theory? Not seeing it. He's nothing more than a bland "good hand" at this point, and "good rasslin'" doesn't, never has, and never will mean anything by itself without other key ingredients. I don't see the special superstar aura in Theory that was apparent in all of the above examples. (Which, BTW, is also why Timothy Thatcher is DOA the minute he gets called up from NXT. There will never, ever be another Chris Benoit who gets a major push in WWE because he's amazing in the ring, despite being deficient in literally every other category.)

Boggles my mind that he was kept, even if he's been demoted to NXT. I can understand keeping Dream - I'm not saying I agree, but at least there are (or used to be) dollar signs with him - but what does Theory bring to the table that's worth the risk?

What exactly happened here?

Isn't Austin's style - at least on these Network shows, or at least it's edited that way - to hang back and let the guest dominate the conversation?

Hope no one thinks I said Sydal shouldn't have been signed because of his "Shockmaster" botch. I agree with the above that it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things and not even an accurate comparison. The reason I think Sydal shouldn't be signed is because AEW already has a bunch of guys who can do Sydal's style, and they're all younger and better at it, period. As for Jericho-Orange Cassidy, I was going to bring up the Fandango comparison myself. That did nothing for either guy. I wouldn't quite put Orange Cassidy in the same category, as he definitely has more upside and can be a draw for the company. But I do agree they have to be very careful about who Jericho puts over, how, and why.

I know the inclination will be to credit what's-his-name for that, but Brad Armstrong was a hell of a worker and very, very underrated. But that doesn't explain how one develops more of a Southern accent in his 70s.

Credit where it's due, they're selling the hell out of this match.

Broken Skull Sessions with The King is good fun. Probably my favorite episode yet. Likely nothing new for most of us, but still a fun trip down memory lane - especially the Andy Kaufman stuff and stories about Jim Carrey and Man on the Moon. King's obvious plastic surgery is a tad bit distracting at first though. Also, it may just be me, but his accent seems slightly more Southern in this setting. Despite him being the King of Memphis Wrestling, he's never really sounded like a Southerner to me before.

My impressions after 24 hours: This week's Torch Newsletter was 90% show and PPV recaps, with a main story (the Reigns turn), two columns, and a tiny section of forgettable news tidbits. I get that the show results need to be preserved for historical purposes or whatever, but there has to be a better way go about it. Overall, I found the latest issue very disappointing and lacking. Has Keller even done a Torch Talk in a long time? He's very mistaken if he doesn't think that's still his bread and butter.

Was talking about this with a friend last night... I hope AEW didn't sign Matt Sydal. To me, guys like that are a colossal waste of money - no matter how cheap they work, because that budget can still be used better elsewhere. Do I have anything against Sydal? Not really. He's...fine. But they have a lot of guys already who can do the same style, and they're younger and flashier than Sydal is. IMO, if AEW had to do it all over again, they wouldn't have opened the purse strings for Shawn Spears (who I like), Pac, Jake Hager, and people like that. Sydal is on the same list in my mind. I can at least justify Zack Ryder because he always got far more over than his push and station would dictate. If Sydal is just a once-off (or maybe a twice-off so he can make up for "Shockmastering" the first time), that's fine. Even as a surprise, I think the majority reaction was "oh, that guy" and "that's nice, I guess." But okay, still a fun use of him. More than that, why bother? My friend mentioned Chris Hero as someone he'd like to see signed. Even though I thought he was useless in NXT as Kassius Ohno and he's also someone I don't necessarily think AEW should hand a contract to, I can understand that more than someone like Sydal. At least Hero has a cult following of sorts, unlike Sydal, and a unique look, also unlike Sydal. The fact that it hasn't happened yet makes me wonder if AEW just isn't interested in Hero, or maybe Hero isn't interested in AEW for whatever reason?

Just curious: I understand you had to leave for work, but why would you buy a show and then read the results for the second half instead of just watching where you left off? Or did you watch a live feed through *ahem* alternate means? (If that's why you couldn't see the rest of the show, then that makes sense. Otherwise, I am genuinely baffled.)