Big Pete

If Dave Meltzer came out and called Adam Cole a genius Cornette would likely take that evaluation to task and nit-pick but as it stands, he can over-look those short-comings as modern wrestling tropes and see Cole for his positives. I don't think either guy has that much in common. Cornette's issue with Omega is that he finds him to be pretentious and he is so over-the-top and goofy in the ring he can't take him seriously for a second. Above all else, he worked for DDT and made a name for himself working these type of matches that took the piss out of something he passionately loves. As far as I know, Cole is a relatively straight laced performer who makes up for his short-comings on the microphone. While Jim does like to harp on about 'grown men' he's happy to accept guys like Cole, Sabien and even Kenny. It's Joey Janela, Marko Stunt and Riho where he draws the line.

So if Bob Woodward wants to do a piece on me I'm fine with that whether it's positive or negative, because it's Bob fucking Woodward and he's a journalist. People who have gone to school to become journalists - Dave Meltzer has worked at legitimate newspapers. People who have degrees and experience in this field and who are paid professional at what they do they got the right to say shit as long as it's valid. But people like Bitch the journalist is not a journalist at all. What he is is he's a fucking muck raker. He tries to stir his own shit up then write about it then sell it for 25 bucks or 50 bucks or maybe it's 100 bucks if you're Colt Cabana to websites of varying quality and professionalism and standards ranging from ho-hum to *mimics an explosion*. And because there's so many these days and everybody thinks they can cover wrestling and write about wrestling or need to there's all kinds of people that will pay even a fictious individual like Bitch the journalist for his effluvia of opinions. None of which he has the background, the knowledge, the substance or the actual proof to make but yet some of them will make these asides and cast these aspersions and poke the bear as some people say and let's just hypothetically say that I even mentioned a few months ago online to Bitch the journalist when he chimed in on something else that didn't involve him involving me and someone else that we had never had a problem and he should probably keep it that way and why was he commenting on something that didn't concern him or include him, that's when he blocked me so he could talk behind my back about me. Let me just say once again that journalists and journalism is fine. But just as I think the professionalism level overall in the wrestling industry has gone downhill and anybody can do this shit these days the standards of journalism are lower than ever before at least what passes for journalism on the internet and with a great variety of wrestling sites or sites who don't know enough about wrestling and don't bother enough to find out and just pay a pittance to people who put their opinions on their pages. I'll have you know it is a fact that I watched live as it happened on network television in the middle of the night the moon landing when man first walked on the moon that does not mean my opinion is as valuable as Neil Armstrong's but some people think that. EDIT: I was going to censor the cute nickname but I think he chose his words carefully even though it's clear who he was talking about.

I'll try and get you a direct quote and save you from a lecture on the freedom and fairness of the press and all the petty insults.

I wish I was relevant enough for Corny to call me an asshole on his podcast. If anyone is curious, the rant starts around an hour and 10 minutes into the Experience in and if you take away all the bluster of Jim whipping himself into a heel promo, Jim has an issue with Bix 'stirring the shit' and 'casting aspersions' without having any sufficient proof all in order to make a quick buck from various wrestling 'news' websites. Jim didn't specifically discuss what he had been accused of, just that Bix had bagged him out and this was his receipt.

That was the strongest edition of Dynamite so far. Top to bottom, there wasn't a weak segment on the show and a lot of performers hit PBs in their run with the promotion. I liked how the tag team match played on expectations. Before the match, the obvious direction would have been to have the Dark Order interfere, Page capitilises and Omega is left disappointed in his partner. I'm glad they ignored that nonsense and just let the guys go out there and have the best version of their match possible. Even through out the match, I liked how they played on Page being an unreliable partner and put into question his capacity to show up for the hot tag. I liked how they flipped it too with Kenny sustaining so much damage during that portion that he may not be able to return the favour. Then the finish where it seemed obvious they'd set up a miscommuncation with Omega/Page only for the champs to figure out and beat SCU by the barest of margins. Good stuff and I liked how they took the time to build next week's tag team battle royal afterwards. I thought Dustin may have had his best showcase match in his career against Guevara. I was so worried they'd give him 80% of the match only for Hager to interfere right at the death, but they actually took the home crowd into consideration and gave Dustin his biggest singles win in AEW so far. Good stuff and AEW Revolution is beginning to take shape with not one but two matches seemingly coming together. I thought the Nyla/Riho match was the best women's match in AEW history. As well put together as the finish was, that table spot at the beginning was great. That was obviously Nyla's fall-back plan, so to see Riho use it against her was such a smart spot. Schiavone said it best, fans aren't cheering Nyla because they necessarily prefer her over Riho, they just appreciated the quality of competition they saw. Between that and Baker's Chubby Whataburger Faces line, it may have been the strongest showing for the women so far. Just when it seemed like MJF had little to no credibility, they put him in with Jungle Boy and the two worked a PPV calibre match together. An excellent showcase for both men with both playing their roles to a tee and MJF actually getting to show off his power and athleticism. I think MJF needed this match and to his credit he smashed it out of the park. Even the PAC promo was smart in the sense that he was able to take credit of Omega's scatterbrained booking. Moxley/Santana actually started off as the weakest match of the show before it built and Santana was able to get some near-falls on Mox. The one thing I noticed is that despite having a few opportunities, Mox didn't go for a cover until he hit the Paradigm Shift which seems like a big league move. In the end I thought the match succeeded in making Mox's victory over Santana feel like an accomplishment and the post-match segment worked as well. I actually thought it was smart they had Jericho announce Cobb's signing ahead of time. Not only is Jericho the best guy for the job, but it gives the casual fans some background on Cobb so they know who he is and he isn't left dangling in the wind like The Dark Order and the Butcher and the Blade before him. I thought it was a really positive step forward for the company and they're beginning to put all the pieces together. Jeff Cobb is an excellent get for the company and I think putting him with Jericho right away is a smart move that will ensure he doesn't get lost in the shuffle like he did in ROH. Next week's show is looking just as stacked and we've got PAC/Omega to look forward to on the go-home edition.

The match against Brandon Cutler is in the running for the worst singles match in Dynamite history. His biggest match so far, the Dynamite Diamond Ring match did nothing for him or Adam Page either. So far his best effort was his recent match against Janela and even then it was taped and edited. It's too early to completely write him off but as it currently stands the few opportunities he's had to impress have been underwhelming.

I'm just looking at the segment in a vaccuum and how it didn't make for great television. As a piece in the greater whole, I thought the segment achieved what it wanted to, not only adding to the MJF/Cody rivalry but putting over Cody's passion for AEW. I just think the drama was in Cody turning up at all and MJF actually going through with it, not Cody surviving 10 lashes. We've seen wrestlers endure far worse in this company.

Cody maybe the best NWA Powerr wrestler of them all. He's a throwback that takes these old ideas, plays them straight as an arrow and still gets over. I feel the MJF/Cody segment was a better idea in concept than in actual execution, it really isn't something that should be celebrated but at the same time it's another notch under Cody's belt and he's literally spilt blood, sweat and tears for this company. In a way, the blurring of lines is the true art of Pro Wrestling. Personally I feel like they focused on the wrong thing and the segment lacked tension. Of course Cody was going to survive 10 lashes, we've seen wrestlers endure far worse in the promotion and still back up. The drama was in whether MJF would really go through with it and if Cody would subject himself to such public embarrassment. The actual lashing itself isn't that spell-binding, it's the characters and how they change before and after this event. I thought they got Ortiz-Moxley just right. Ortiz got to show enough offence without Moxley looking like a mid-card guy and the sudden spike in drama with Moxley stabbing Santana in the eye with the key was fantastic. Best Friends-SCU didn't quite work. The focal point of the match being the hug disruption took away from the victory and it made it seem like the Best Friends would have won had they gotten their priorities straight. The Orange Cassidy spot on the floor was a highlight but the whole point of the match was to build heat for the inevitable Dark Order-SCU match at Revolution. It was nice to see Baker's nasty streak come to life and that bit where she knocked Sukizaki's teeth out gives her a lot more credibility than a roll-up win ever would. Good stuff and they're slowly but surely building things back up. I thought the eight man tag team match played to the strengths of the performers and rarely had a dull moment. At the end of the day, it was a character driven match but it was also a stunt show which is what I think the fans want from the Bucks and the Lucha Bros. I think they came up with the right result, with Page-Bucks being the focal point for now but the Lucha Bros getting another W over the Bucks to continue their relatively good record against them. I was really curious about Sabien-Janela. Now I didn't think the match was Steamboat-Flair by any stretch of the imagination, in fact I thought it was pretty lousy but I think it's cool that we're getting to see these wrestlers fly by the seat of their pants. I don't want to see overly choreographed matches, I want to see some blemishes, I want to see wrestlers try to establish themselves in the ring so we can see that journey and make a point of those milestone matches. They've got a long way to go and while this match wasn't a trainwreck, I don't think it did much for either guy. If anything, Penelope (a really underused wrestling name) came out of it looking the best.

The kicker is that Jim often cites Richards/Black from Ring of Honor circa 2010 as the modern equivalent of Flair/Steamboat.

With Orton, I've always had the sense that if he was to leave the WWE and go to NJPW or AEW he would surprise a lot of people. I don't think the WWE environment is condusive to his personality and he seems far more comfortable when he can be edgy. The problem is, the WWE doesn't know how to market Orton effectively so they give him these wordy Jake Roberts-lite promos he has to cut like an ASMR promo. They're so incredibly dry, you can almost feel yourself melting. He's also never been booked well. Even in 2013-14, the WWE made it adamently clear he wasn't a deserving champion and really it was HHH, Stephanie and The Shield behind his success. This was after years of constantly having his seat kicked out from underneath him by HHH. At a certain point in time, a character loses so many big ones, it's hard to take them seriously. 2009 was well and truly the last straw for Orton. Fast forward to 2020 and he's been given this opportunity to appear in a money segment and he's working alongside somebody who has a point to prove. If you listened to the E&C show, Edge was extremely critical of the product and would constantly talk about details. I think Raw was a great example of that.

I thought they played it incredibly safe this week. In a lot of ways, it felt like a WWE show with a fairly straight forward 15 minute promo between the two biggest stars opening the show. Then to close the show you have the babyface clear the heel out of the ring, it was so typical of the WWE I was half-expecting the watermark to appear. I can't blame AEW for running that type of show, especially since Jericho and Moxley are their two biggest stars they should be featured more often. It's just little details in those segments that could have been better. The lax security, Ortiz and Santana's Band of Geeks etc. all should have been avoided. I didn't feel like the card had a whole lot of momentum behind it. The only match with any kind of build-up was the Bucks/Blade & Butcher match and that was very much opening card material. The Butcher and The Blade barely got to stand out before the Bucks made their comeback and won fairly convincingly. Then to really ram home how irrelevant last week's segment was, the rematch for next week was put together to get the Bucks onside with Omega/Page. The more obvious direction would have been for the Bucks to win the match, only for MJF's tag team to attack the Bucks after the bell and for Omega/Page to rush in and make the save. The rest of the card was cold, so there was about four matches where they had to start from scratch. They weren't bad matches, they were all fine but ideally you want these matches to have some backstory and for there to be some consequences. It seems like half the roster is still trialing for a place and it's just been months of probables vs. possibles. It's like Fully Loaded 2000 on repeat, and they've got to mix it up. Something as simple as having Darby and Private Party come out and assist Moxley in the opening would have helped the show out. It only occured to me recently, but the show should really mix up the amount of matches on any given card. They've ran the same five match format for five shows now, it's starting to run together like Impact circa 2016.

I couldn't pin the blame on Foley. Foley took inspiration from others namely Snuka and the MSG Splash. If it wasn't Foley, it'd be somebody else taking that spot or the hook from the Scaffold match and making it their own. As far as backstage skits, they were the natural evolution of the backstage vignettes that were popularised in WCCW in the early 80s. The WWF had been running them since at least the start of Hulkamania, most notably when he was preparing Mean Gene for their tag team match. They became more common place in the 90s, but even before the Attitude era you had that episode where Heenan was banned from Raw and was constantly trying to enter the building to no avail. Even so, if anyone deserves the blame for it, it'd have to be Russo since that 'fly on the wall' story-telling became popular during his tenure. I also don't think you're giving wrestlers enough credit. If they sat down and watched Mick and the only thing they got out of him was that he was goofy and he took crazy bumps then they'd have to be the biggest bunch of simpletons on the face of the earth. Mick is somebody who by rights should have just been a guy on the roster and yet he's one of the biggest names to ever come out of the sport. What made Foley so good is that he was a details guy who could take a spot and get more mileage out of it because he could find a way to connect it to his persona. As a personality he was able to connect because he came up with creative motives for his character and had an excellent turn of phrase. It was more than just the dialogue as well, Mick would always deliver a performance that went beyond the stereotypical promo and carved his own niche. Again, I think the vast majority understand this and the small percentage who don't didn't stand a chance in the first place.

That's the awkward tasteless HHH is renown for in shoot interviews. I don't think he meant it to come out as badly as it did since he was just trying to relate Edge to Paige in a witty way, but what he said was honestly dumb and he knew it the moment he said it. Silly and I'm glad others have publicly gotten behind their co-worker. Also, I didn't know she couldn't have kids either.

I would say Delirious best asset is his capacity to keep an open mind. Before he went solo, ROH had Cornette trying to book it like a mainstream promotion. While it's difficult to fault Jim's lofty ambitions, he just didn't receive the support from iPPV or Sinclair to make the shift worthwhile, so ultimately fans were left with a third rate WWE. Delirious handled the transition better and instead of trying to force the issue, he went back and booked the talent Cornette passed on since they didn't fit the aesthetic he was going for. Most notably bringing the Young Bucks back and capitilising on the reputation they had built for themselves on the west coast and putting them in a featured position. Even then, I don't think a guy like Dalton Castle would see the light of day under Cornette's ROH and he was one of the better acts to come out of the promotion in recent years. Again, I feel Delirious made a wise decision to appease the independant crowd and it paid off handsomely when he was able to get ROH affiliated with NJPW. However, the promotion felt aimless and there were so many acts that came and went that never received the stardom they deserved. Hopefully Scurll brings some fresh ideas and overhauls their television. The lead up to Final Battle was some of the worst promotion I've seen for a major PPV.

I thought the first half of the match as underwhelming. It gave me the sense that Ibushi was having an off night and Okada was taking pity on him. One spot in particular that drove this point home was the draping DDT. There was an attention to detail missing because with the way it played out, as soon as Okada hit the move, he just started non-chalantly walking around the ring like he wasn't seconds away from winning the match. Now if Red Shoes had have shown some urgency, the spot would have registered but as it played out, Okada took his time to give Ibushi a fighting chance. The match didn't really pick up until Okada caught Ibushi with a stiff uppercut that fired Ibushi up. Kota did well to sell his anger and Okada took some extremely stiff shots for his trouble. From that point on, they worked another great Okada epic and the finishing flurry got over like crazy. Okada hitting rainmaker after rainmaker, baiting Ibushi into one final comeback only to counter it made for a thrilling and satisfactory Dome finish.

I don't see the issue of having Kris honour her prior booking. If anything it plays into her underdog status that she has to honour the wrestling code and fulfill her other obligations before she can partake in the biggest match of her young career. The issue is that instead of post-poning the match, somehow the three women she beat all got a simultaneous title shot and Riho is under a severe disadvantage. For a company that marketed itself for treating wins/losses as important this is yet another example of AEW's booking flying in the face of it. It's not a big deal right now but it could be down the road if this becomes a habit.

The biggest news out of the television tapings was the appearance of Scurll who was rumoured to be finished with the company. Not only did Scurll appear, but he was featured heavily through out the tapings and the ground work was laid for a rivalry between him and RUSH's new stable with Dragon Lee and Kenny King. That would suggest to me that ROH is at least confident enough that he'll be around for the January shows in Atlanta and North Carolina.

The PCO/RUSH match was suitably off the wall. As expected, PCO took at least three crazy bumps through out the match and also did a crazy sports entertainment spot where he was brought back from the dead to continue the match. It won't be everybody's cup of tea, but I thought it suited the match and both performers. The only lowlight was RUSH fumbling around with a small ladder for what felt like an eternity. They quickly switched gears so it wasn't that big a deal, but it was bush league. I'm not holding my breath, but they've got some momentum heading into the TV tapings. Whether PCO is the right fit or not, RUSH as ROH Champion wasn't working and he needed to go back to the drawing board. I just hope ROH do a better job than what they dished out heading into Final Battle.

It's a shame because at the start of the year, he released two reviews on Raw and SmackDown that were genuinely quite interesting to hear. Cornette is at his best when he's offering constructive criticism from his own perspective. He's at his worse when he transforms into his 1998 NWA Invasion character and starts doing these silly over the top YouTube personality rants. It just seems like a bit because he's playing to an audience who react strongly to it. I understand why he does it, but it's a shame because he's one of the best historians in the industry and he gets too hopped up on social media drama to share those stories. I don't think Cornette should be silenced or cancelled or anything silly. I think he needs to be caught up to speed on certain issues. So many of his criticisms feel like lines out of Austin Powers, where Jim is just so far behind on modern trends. His amazement at women opening an NXT show or having more than one segment was a huge red flag. When he was a lapsed fan, it was forgiveable but now that he's changed format, he really doesn't have any excuse. I think fans have a right to dismiss his opinion as a troll until proven otherwise. Instead of reacting to him, the best thing to do is ignore him.

Not that I'm aware of, I believe Cornette saw a clip of one of his stunts and Janela keeps poking the bear. Cornette has always been anti-hardcore and it was one of the few aspects he openly criticised about MLW. For the record, the show Omega skipped was Final Battle 2010 where he was set to face off against Eddie Edwards. The show was on the 18th of December and Kenny would go onto work on Boxing Day in a 20+ minute tag team match with Kota Ibushi. The strange thing about the Bucks is that if you go back and watch those early Sinclair Broadcasts, they're actually booked pretty well and showcased. Something happened in early 2012, and the relationship between the two parties went sour. The Bucks started losing all the time and they (along with Tyler Perkins) stopped appearing altogether. This strained Cornette's relationship with Steen who was close friends with the Buck and he began to vocalise his issues with Cornette. There was a 2012 shoot interview with Steen and Richards where they sat down and cleared the air over some issue they had during their 2012 program. They both blamed Cornette for being out of touch and trying to turn their rivalry into a USA vs. Canada feud and make Davey into a white meat babyface. Cornette heard about it and it escalated from there.

From my experience, the wrestling podcast boom has had an impact on the way fans critique a match. Wider groups of fans have now become concious of high-spots and near-falls and have become more and more critical when those spots are thrown away flippantly. These criticisms certainly existed, but the way they're universally regarded and the conversations around them have been shaped by the past wrestlers since they're credible sources and know how to articulate their issues. In saying that, it's disappointing when these dominant voices with their widepsread influence undermine their credibility with these silly agendas. Cornette hates the Young Bucks because they slagged him since he'd only bring in Bennett and Maria from the west coast. Cornette hates Omega because he pulled out of their biggest show of the year close to the date of the show causing him to scramble to find a replacement only to find out Omega worked a match in Japan a few days later. Cornette doesn't allow all negative experiences to shape his view on wrestlers (eg. HBK) but he was a contemporary whereas these other wrestlers are a different generation, so of course he isn't going to give them a chance. Jim doesn't have to like them either to be right, but when he makes a point that he skipped through the match or starts up a Kenny Olivier rant you know it's coming from a bad place. Not only does it warp a section of the community, but it also just undermines his own.

I suppose it's a personal bug-bear. For me if you're going to be hyper-critical of a product, the least you can do is make sure your review is on point. Skipping through segments, missing key matches and just leaning heavily on pre-existing criticisms. Again, normally I like Jim but this wasn't one of his better episodes. Also I'm not sure if Jim should be dishing out about run-times given the state of his podcast. You could skip through an hour of his podcast and all you'd be missing is his plugs, his latest twitter beef, some political news story and possibly a wrestling news item that everybody and their doghas already weighed in.

I can understand how a one hour pre-show and four hour PPV can be difficult to sit through, but when you promise to a review a show and don't even get around to watching the main event, I don't care if you're Roger Ebert, it's a bad review. I still look forward to his opinion. Jim can still turn a phrase and I enjoy his perspective if only because I'm sure the old guard see it the same way. However, I can see why others would be turned off especially when he just repeats himself on certain wrestlers and goes on and on.

Really? See, I'd say the flip from the Regal knock-off into the defacto leader of D-Generation X is what put him over in the minds of the fans. Granted, it wasn't the most dramatic rehab and there's certainly an argument to be made that Chyna and Mick had already got the ball rolling. Regardless the point I was getting at is that a lot of these WWF stars underwent massive make-overs that rocketed them to stardom. No doubt he hit pay-dirt around that time. Interestingly, as the story goes when Russo walked out while the company was performing that Rebellion UK PPV, HHH turned to Vince and told him he'd help write the show. Suddenly Vince became the top babyface in the company and HHH was cutting twenty minute dialogues. The show hasn't changed since. His career was at a real cross-rhodes in 1995. No doubt he was a top prospect, but he never put all those pieces together and it just seemed like his body wasn't going to allow him to have the career a lot of people foresaw. He really could have gone one of two ways, but he found his voice in ECW and when he was given the opportunity to talk freely he not only saved his own career, but he helped turned Pro Wrestling on it's head. All it took was that brief stint in ECW to figure that out. However, the way I interpreted this thread is a wrestler going through a bad patch and coming out of it a better worker. I personally don't think Moxley was travelling that poorly, he was just clearly being given bad material and was phoning his performances in because he couldn't want to get out. He already looked to be in great shape and primed for a big run, it just wasn't going to be the WWE. I'd say Eddie Guerrero would have to be right up there. After the car accident, Eddie struggled to perform to the same level and it seemed like he recognised that, switching from his high athletic style to more of a character worker. It got him a decent place on the mid-card, but you'd hardly know that Eddie was considered by many to be just as good as Bret, Shawn or Benoit in that decade. Eventually his drug use gets out of control, he gets released and his life spirals out of control. He eventually turns it around, starts building a reputation on the indies and is quickly hired back to the WWE where he eventually builds a legacy as one of the greatest performers of all-time. The tragedy is that his comeback could have very well been what did him in.

Stunning Steve Austin into Stone Cold Steve Austin has to be right up there with Rocky Maivia into The Rock and Hunter Hearst Helmsly into Triple H as a major turning point? From an injury prone star into somebody who defied injury to become the biggest bad-ass on television, it doesn't get much better. Throw in Issac Yankem and The Sultan in there as well. From an image perspective, Goldberg's return in 2016 helped solidify him as a megastar in the industry. For years, he was portrayed as this flash in the pan who was in the right place at the right time and he couldn't deal with losing. That was put on it's head with the Brock Lesnar storyline which was just a great piece of business from top to bottom. Johnny Polo into Raven worked out OK as well.