C.S.

Pat is SO BAD!

I took a few months off from WWE and the Network. Kassius Ohno being on a main TakeOver card tells me the NXT roster is depleted again. I know he's a Hero to some of you, but he does nothing for me. Aleister Black does even less for me. Ohno and Black being on this show while Velveteen Dream isn't is a big WTF to me. But even "bad" TakeOver shows are usually good, so I'll tune in.

Because most wrestling fans are chaw-sucking scumbags...

Undertaker? Supposedly no plans for him at WM (according to the increasingly wrong Meltzer anyway).

To be fair, he was probably beaten down and broken by '99 - like the majority of the WCW roster at the time. Plus, his name was General Hugh G. Rection - what's the fucking point of putting in any effort when your career and push are DOA anyway with a name like that? Not that I'm the Bill DeMott defense force - far from it. His training methods were exposed as nothing short of awful. Even on worked/kayfabed shows like Tough Enough, he came across pretty poorly. Part of is "this is how rasslin' used to be" *spits tobacco* and he didn't/couldn't change with the times, wasn't able to realize that the paradigm had shifted, and was ultimately used as a scapegoat by a front office that willingly encouraged his behavior or at least willfully looked the other way for many years. Not that I'm absolving him of his sins - he was a pretty shitty trainer and person by all accounts, and who knows how many future main eventers he drove away with his bullshit. (Kenny Omega?)

Now a post from Roman himself...

Here's what the Big Dog has been up to...

AEW has signed "Jungle Boy" Nate Coy. Rumor has it that Beverly Hills 90210 and Riverdale star Luke Perry and a team of lawyers were there for the negotiations, and they opted for a shorter deal instead of the two years originally offered. Of course, it should probably be mentioned that "Jungle Boy" is Luke Perry's son.

I watched that Let Me Tell You Something Mean Gene special, and it was pretty good. Wouldn't load at first when I tried to access it from the Recommendations section. I tried something else and that worked. Tried Gene again and nothing. Ended up loading it from a different part of the service. Good to see that WWE Network still runs on scotch tape and tin foil. I was hoping dumping BAMtech would improve things. Guess not... Anyway, the Gene special was nice. How is the Nigel doc? Is it the same one he released years ago?

Abyss and Sonjay Dutt have left Impact to take jobs with WWE (presumably in non-wrestling roles, but who knows). I thought Abyss would be a lifer there. Guess not... Wonder if he regrets not signing with WWE a decade ago when an Undertaker match was apparently dangled in front of him?

@The Thread Killer You're one of my favorite posters here, and I'm very sorry to hear about your health issues. Been there and done that, and it's not fun. I'm really glad the Patreon is bringing you some joy. I have to admit, it does sound very cool. I barely have the time and energy for any podcasts, but I always enjoy the ones I do infrequently listen to (I haven't tried this one though - I just enjoy reading the recaps and opinions in this thread).

Well, they may have bitched, but there was no social media or even internet then - and the media certainly wasn't talking to wrestlers or taking them seriously back then. Not to mention, kayfabe would've prevented them from complaining about Andre that way in public.

I want to rewatch 1992, which was my first Rumble and still the best one IMO. I'm just terrified it won't hold up. I remember '93 being pretty underrated too, with that awesome Backlund iron man performance during the Rumble. '94 at least had the memorable Bret-Lex finish. '95 was shortened bullshit with HBK winning in half the time even though he easily had the endurance to go a full hour-plus in a traditional Rumble. He won again the next year, but I can't remember where he came in or how long that Rumble was.

I asked a friend if WWE Network still offered free months for new or lapsed subscribers. Sure enough... https://www.wwe.com/3-months-free This gets you a free membership through Mania. I can confirm it does work.

It sounds like Mike got clean on his own (with Maria's help) instead of going to a facility? I'm guessing WWE wasn't informed about the pill addiction until after the fact? But who knows.

It's always been this way IMO. Mid '80s WWF signed everyone under the sun too.

BTW, for whatever it's worth, Maria is denying all of this.

Because it's largely irrelevant. Those people aren't in those places anymore. Lighting ROH (or wherever) on fire is likely not going to change a damn thing about their current career trajectory. It's useful for, "Hey, here's some cool shit to check out on YouTube and Vimeo," but that's about it. The only exception is when contracts come up and we see if these people actually jump to AEW, NJPW, or whenever and attempt to recapture whatever they supposedly had before. I definitely think there's a lot of potential for that. BTW, I agree with everything you said about Maria. I'm kinda surprised people here are seemingly lukewarm on her. I get that she's kind of tainted by association because of Mediocre Mike, but that isn't necessarily fair.

The problem with Zigs is that his character is literally "I will steal the show. EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT!!!" What the fuck is that? That isn't a character. We know nothing about him, except that he comes across as the partially aborted baby of HBK and Mr. Perfect, with the wire-hanger taking out the best aspects of both and leaving us with what's left in Ziggler. (Too much? I get carried away sometimes.) To be honest, I don't even hate Ziggler. I just don't care about him. I would be curious to see what he'd do outside of the WWE system though. My guess is he'd be another Mr. Anderson or Damien Sandow type though - decent but nothing indicating that WWE exactly lost out on undiscovered potential.

Mike would probably be fine in a tag team or as part of a stable run by Maria, but I'm guessing WWE doesn't want to showcase Maria quite that much. Either way, giving Mike a henpecked husband gimmick killed him dead right off the bat. What was the point? Even if Mike isn't awesome, purposely sandbagging his chances seems like a waste of time and money to me. Unless this was one of those things Vince found funny (Red Rooster, polka dot Dusty, etc.) and thinks the talent should make the most of? To be fair, Mike seemed to try to make it work.

Granted, WWE "creative" is partly to blame there. The entire gimmick seems like a giant rib against Mike and how they never really wanted him in the first place, only Maria, so how was that ever supposed to be a success? As for Shockmaster, I'd call that more successful. At least it was amazing to watch live, memorable as hell (for all the wrong reasons), and they did get a brief run out of it with the clumsy "Uncle Fred" gimmick. Contrast that to the PPV debut segment of Mike and Maria Kannelis, which died on the vine, got zero reaction, was forgotten about ten minutes after it happened, and is only being discussed now because they supposedly asked for their releases. Obviously, in terms of big business, WCW probably lost a lot more by botching Shockmaster as badly as they did. He could have presumably been a decent upper-midcard or even main event player for them (well, maybe not main event). Mike's ceiling was probably never going to be that high. Impact did a great job of making him seem like a big deal with the "Miracle" tease, but wasn't everyone deflated when it was revealed to be, "oh, just Maria's bland ROH guy we've kind of heard of but not really."

To be fair, I'm pretty sure he has overcome his addictions. Doesn't seem like that should be held against him for the rest of his life. Plenty of legitimate reasons not to want to bring the guy in. Maria is a great personality IMO. I wouldn't break the bank for her or anything, but she's someone I'd gladly add to any roster in a non-wrestling role. Unfortunately, she and Bootleg Heath Slater come as a package deal. They were DOA the minute they joined the WWE. I've never seen a worse debut in my life.

More rumors: The Revival and Mike & Maria Kannellis asked for their releases. Makes me wonder if their recent Twitter "spat" was a work to try to start a storyline elsewhere. I can't imagine WWE letting any of them go, especially now with AEW. Mike has shown me less than zero (although I'm sure someone will come around shortly to tell me he's amazing and had bang-up matches in ROH and Impact), but I'd want to keep Maria. Good point. And I agree 100% that Cody's talk about not hiring writers and "letting wrestlers play to their own music" is exactly what I've been wanting to hear for years now.

He definitely shouldn't be challenging for the title day one, but at the same time, he does deserve the chance to show what he can do and prove that WWE missed the boat on him. If he's stuck in the same spot in AEW that he was in WWE, what's the point of jumping?