The Thread Killer

Apparently, Meltzer is now reporting that Andrade’s release was for “disciplinary reasons” but had nothing to do with a Wellness Policy violation or his relationship with Charlotte, for what that’s worth.

I had been thinking about the drama between Andrade and Sammy Guevara. I remember they had some sort of incident backstage, and then they were sniping back-and-forth at each other on Twitter. Turns out, Tony Khan felt Guevara was the problem during that issue, and he actually liked Andrade. So much so, that when Andrade was getting ready to leave AEW and go back to WWE, Khan supposedly made an offer to try and get him to stay, but of course Andrade would not because he wanted to be on the same schedule as Charlotte because they were trying to have kids. Some sites are reporting that Tony Khan is saying that Andrade left AEW “the right way” and was a professional, with no hard feelings on either side, so maybe the door is open. So maybe I was wrong, apparently there is a chance that Andrade might be welcome back in AEW, which would also give him access to CMLL, I guess? Time will tell.

That’s odd. There has to be some sort of story behind that. His contract was apparently not up for another 18 months, and this is not part of budget cuts because nobody else is getting released, just him. I’m probably in the minority, but I kind of liked him, actually. I thought he was a solid midcard guy, and I was really enjoying his team with Fenix. I wondered why we hadn’t seen him since SummerSlam. I guess he’s kind of screwed now. I imagine considering how things went for him in AEW, he can’t go back there. AAA is probably not an option either. Rumour has it his divorce from Charlotte was kind of contentious so you have to wonder if that has something to do with this.

Over the last few weeks on SmackDown, we saw London, we saw France…and now we’ve seen Brock Lesnar’s underpants.

Smackdown is only 2 hours now, and since it’s on traditional TV, you have to subtract 30 minutes of commercial time, so in reality it’s only a 90 minute show. I’m not saying last night wasn’t a talk heavy episode…it definitely was…but not quite as bad as 3 matches in 3 hours.

Sooner, apparently. All Out will be on HBO MAX and for only $40.

AEW just announced they are moving the start time for All Out from 8:00 PM to 3:00 PM.

So the ticket sales for All Out in Toronto were actually moving really well up to this point. The Scotiabank Arena seats around 18,000 but initially AEW only opened up 8,000 tickets for sale, and based on the map, it looked like they were blocking off the rest of the arena with the stage and ramp. Surprisingly, they sold the 8000 tickets pretty quickly, so they opened more seats. As of now, they have opened up around 11,400 seats and have sold around 9,700 so they only need to sell another 1,700 for a sellout the way the arena is configured now. And keep in mind, this was all before it was officially announced on Dynamite last week that Copeland & Christian are fighting FTR. I expect the fan interest in that match to be especially high in the Toronto area, so I would not be surprised at all if they sell out all 11,400 seats, and maybe even have to open up a few more, although I don’t know how many more seats they could open up considering I know the stage and ramp take up a huge amount of space in those big arena shows. The only possible monkey wrench is that of course WWE is now running the Wrestlepalooza PLE directly opposite All Out. Toronto has always been a hardcore WWE town, so it’s conceivable that some fans may choose to skip this show in favour of the WWE show, but at this point, the two audiences are so divergent, I don’t know that it will really be an issue.

That crowd was crazy and that show massively over-delivered. Cena vs Paul was miles better than I expected.

Well, Roman certainly gave Reed a lot. That was a really good match, and I can only assume from the post match beat down that Reigns is going on another extended break. Reed definitely got his heat back. The tag title match was decent. Looks like they are finally going to pull the trigger on breaking up the Street Profits, which is long overdue if you ask me. Not to be mean spirited but Dawkins is clearly the Jannetty of that team.

Clash in Paris time. Bronson Reed rockin the Pimp Fur Coat. Nice. Reed should probably go over here, but he probably won’t. I just hope Roman gives him a lot, and it’s a good match.

Booker T might not have been a good promo in the classic sense of the word, but he connected with fans. He had charisma. He had personality, and in the immortal words of Jules Winfield…personality goes a long way.

In Kelly’s defense, her Father just died so there is a valid argument to be made that the “too soon” rule applies to Becky’s promo. On the other hand, Kelly Osbourne is not exactly blessed in the self-awareness (or general intelligence) departments. My personal favourite highlight from her was after Trump got elected the first time, and in a show of solidarity with Latino people she righteously asked on The View: “If you kick the Latino people out of the country, who is going to clean your toilet, Donald Trump?”

They tried with New Jack a couple of times, but it never stuck.

If the Benoit tragedy didn’t result in any real long term change in the industry (which it really didn’t) then I can’t see this incident causing any long term effects. I suppose you could argue that the Benoit murders brought about a heightened awareness of CTE, but the wind was already blowing in that direction anyways from the NFL. Sadly, this will probably blow over and the people who are shrieking about it will move on to the next outrage of the day. It takes real will and determination to create change, and I don’t think anybody will stay angry about this incident long enough to allow change to happen. Sadly, the Pro Wrestling industry seems to attract damaged and psychologically maladjusted people. This is probably just the latest example. Raja Jackson deserves to be criminally charged for assault at the very least, but who knows if even that will happen. Of course, if the victim ends up dying or something, that’s a whole different story.