The Thread Killer

This week’s episode focuses on Fit Finlay. It’s a bit dry at points but it’s quite good overall.

I think it is a combination of three different problems. Firstly, he seems to assume that people are only interested in stuff that happened within the same time frame that he was a fan himself. Meaning, he was a big fan during the attitude era therefore that’s all people want to hear about. He didn’t care about the territories so why would anybody else? Secondly, I think that even if Conrad realizes there might be some fan interest in other eras or topics, he is probably worried that it will not appeal to a large enough listener base. There is a message in the fact that even though Bruce Prichard has been phoning in his show for literally the last few years, it is still one of Conrad’s most successful podcasts. Obviously Prichard does not talk about anything historical or even all that interesting, but yet that show still remains popular. I bet you Conrad is afraid that if they dig deeper into more obscure stuff, it will not appeal to as wide of an audience. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Arn Anderson started going through his time in JCP, and that is Conrad’s least successful podcast. Conrad knows what shows Brian Last has or had as part of the Arcadian Vanguard network. Last has had many shows about the territories and they literally have brought in a mere fraction of the amount of listeners that Conrad’s shows do. Finally, you can’t discount the fact that Conrad Thompson is basically lazy. He does not do his own research anymore, he has a staff. He has become the podcast equivalent of McDonald’s. Serve up a ton of low quality content to the masses, and the money flows in. Sure there might be a “Mom and Pop” Burger joint across the street which serves far better food, but McDonald’s will always bring in more customers because it’s all about mass production marketing of a low quality product.

Just to echo what everyone else is saying both here and elsewhere online…that whole sequence with the Starks match/Hook challenge and win/Team Taz implosion was done to perfection. Classic Pro Wrestling.

I was curious to hear Cornette’s review of the ROH PPV, so I looked for his newest podcast…and it clocks in at 4 hours and 15 minutes?! What the actual fuck? And he is doing two podcasts a week! I have no life and am still off work, and even I have no time to listen to all this. Who has time to listen to 7+ hours of Jim Cornette a week?

I saw Motörhead live here in Toronto. They were indescribably loud. I could barely hear anything the next day my ears were ringing. It was outstanding. I also have a rather lengthy list of artists that I wish I had seen when I had the chance, Tom Petty probably being at the top of that list. But I am very glad I got to see Motörhead at least once. Unfortunately, it was during my substance abusing days, so the rest of that night did not end very well for me. But the concert was awesome.

In fairness, I don’t think women should be compelled to wear unnecessarily revealing ring attire either. I think all pro wrestlers should wear full body singlets, akin to bathing suits from the 1920s.

I only want to see that if Lee gets some new tights. I have PTSD from his male stripper outfit at the last ROH PPV. I don’t want to see that again, ever.

That’s true. Having said that, I honestly believe that Lemmy and Trips were legit friends. Triple H is in that Lemmy documentary from a few years back (which is excellent btw). One of Lemmy’s last interviews ever was a thing he did with Triple H and Corey Graves for the WWE Network, which didn’t get released until after Lemmy died unfortunately. Triple H gave one of the eulogies at Lemmy’s memorial, and he has even stayed in touch with Mickey and Phil, the surviving members of Motörhead. I do wish they would use more Motorhead music in WWE, but then again it’s not like I would notice it because I don’t watch that crap anymore.

Actually, after Eddie Kingston and Ortiz making the save for Dante Martin last night...maybe that could lead to those three teaming up? And it looks like Tony Nese and Josh Woods are forming a team, so that is another unit that just needs a third guy. Plus...you have to figure New Japan might send some guys for this deal, too. Plus apparently Cole Karter, Aria Davari and Slim J just formed a faction on AEW Dark? The possibilities for these titles are indeed endless, if this is booked properly.

I agree that Tony Khan is totally out of control with the titles and tournaments, and he must be stopped before every single wrestler has some kind of title. However...I do think AEW can sustain 6 Man Titles: - The Elite (Kenny & The Young Bucks) - The Undisputed Elite (Cole, O'Reilly & Fish) - The House of Black (Black, King & Mathews) - Blackpool Combat Club (Some combination of Moxley, Danielson, Castagnoli & Yuta) - Death Triangle (Penta, Fenix & PAC) - The Best Friends (Baretta, Taylor & Cassidy) - The Dark Order (Probably Uno, Reynolds & Silver?) - Jericho Appreciation Society (Garcia, Menard & Parker) - Jericho Appreciation Society II (Jericho, Hager and Guevara) - The Gunn Club - FTR & CM Punk (They have already said on the record that if these titles happen, they are going for them.) - The Nightmare Factory (Marhsall, Solo & Comoroto) - Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz (Depending on what happens with Santana's injury & contract) - Lethal, Davari & Singh Plus... Until last night I would have said Team Taz (Stark, Hobbs & Hook...but I guess that's not happening now!) You've got teams like Butcher & Blade who just need a third guy like Archer or something. Sting, Darby and Somebody (could be the perfect chance for Sting to stay active but not see too much action.) Private Party and Somebody. Andrade, Rush and Somebody. There are a ton of possibilities. EDIT: @Blehschmidt just barely beat me to it!

Exactly!

Um excuse me but who are you doubt the awesome power of destrucity?

One of the few positives I can say is that at least WWE worked with Motörhead a lot, and Motörhead rules all your faces and Lemmy was and still is the fucking man. So at least they had that going for them.

At the time I pretty much thought it was crap. Now, it’s outdated crap.

This. I worked in a group home with kids aged 13-17 during that era, and they LOVED Limp Bizkit and all those other “Nu-Metal” bands. I had to hear that music pretty much constantly for a couple of years there. Posters, T-shirts, the whole deal. I still get an automatic facial twitch response when I hear that music to this day. And the majority of the older kids really didn’t care about or watch wrestling at all.

The only worry I have about Keith Lee when it comes to his age, is that the dude weighs 400 pounds, and he does dives and all sorts of high-risk maneuvers. It’s only a matter of time until his knees start to give out. I hope he gets a good long run on top before his body starts to give out on him, or conversely, I hope he changes his style up a bit and does more power based moves so he does not put himself in physical danger. I think he is smart enough to only bust out those crazy moves when it matters. Plus, the AEW schedule is pretty much tailor made for him. He only has to wrestle once or twice a week at most, that should help guarantee that his career will be longer than it would have been otherwise. It’s like that whole “bump card” theory I have heard Mick Foley and Edge talk about. You only have so many high risk manoeuvres in you before your body gives out or starts to break down. The trick is for those guys, to only bust them out when it means the most. Especially when you are a Keith Lee’s size.

I have never seen or heard Jim Cornette claim Keith Lee does not sound “black enough.” He has been very critical of Lee’s promos, because he claims that he finds his delivery very odd, and that he never gets fired up. Plus his cadence when he talks is somewhat strange, it’s almost sing-song like. His whole “greetings and salutations” deal is not what you would expect from any pro wrestler…black or white. I can only assume that is really the way he talks, which is fine. I have heard the exact same criticisms levied against Kenny Omega…his promos lack any emotion or urgency. I know not everybody can point at the camera and scream, not everybody is Eddie Kingston or MJF. I have heard people defending Keith Lee and say that his delivery is unique and sets him apart. And that’s true. I hope if he ever gets involved in a blood feud or heated angle that he does ramp up his emotion a notch. I remember having a similar discussion regarding Brian Pillman Jr., it’s all about conveying emotion.

Exactly. I distinctly remember Cody mentioning in an interview that he gave while he was still with AEW that he really liked Triple H and considered him a mentor and friend. And at the time he gave the interview, he was an EVP with the competition, there was no reason for him to lie and say that if it wasn’t true. Or at least, if he did not believe it to be true.

I just saw that reported, that’s hilarious that she would be on two shows, on the same night, announcing the plans for new titles. (Power came out on YouTube yesterday I think?) I am not sure it was planned that way, but it’s pretty funny still.

Surprisingly, the reason I know about him is because of Bruce Prichard and to a lesser degree, Jim Cornette. One of the few things that Bruce Prichard once said on his podcast that I actually believe, is that David Sahadi was the man primarily responsible for so many of those great video packages that we saw in the WWF over the years. Jim Cornette has always said that the production and video packages that WWF did were so much better than anybody else in the industry, and he also gave credit to David Sahadi. I don’t remember the actual episode, but I distinctly remember Bruce Prichard saying that when David Sahadi left WWE it was a huge loss and they’ve never been as good since. I guess Prichard and Cornette both ended up working with Sahadi in TNA. I remember them both praising his work there, as well.

David Sahadi, I believe.

Same. I enjoyed the episodes where Tony watched ECW for the first time. The Bruce Prichard and Arn watch-alongs were deadly boring. The Bischoff ones are hilarious, because they’re pretty much pointless. He goes off on tangents and they don’t even end up talking about what is happening on screen. I ended up canceling my subscription to the WWE Network so I stopped watching them. (We don’t have Peacock in Canada.) Cornette’s watch-alongs are outstanding, but he does individual matches not full shows.

Yeah, Brian Last had to really reign him in there. Cornette really has no clue how corporate culture works at all, and he is totally ignorant about labor laws and liability. Which is odd considering he used to run his own company…you’d have thought he would have picked up even a marginal clue regarding appropriate workplace conduct and accountability. But…nope. Remember his brilliant position on Becky Lynch taking maternity leave? It goes back to something I had discussed a long time ago, either in this thread or the thread about his podcast. Quite honestly, Jim Cornette is not really all that intelligent. It’s not just that I don’t agree with a lot of his opinions about politics, it’s that his basic understanding of social issues and current events are usually remarkably simplistic and he is incredibly ill-informed. When he actually attempts to expound upon his reasoning for some of his opinions, you can tell that he is just not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He has street smarts, and he has a razor sharp wit. But even he himself admits, he basically only has a high school education, and he spent his entire adult life on the road working at his career in professional wrestling. He has admitted he never voted, and never read or watched the news while he was working. He doesn’t read much, unless it is related to pro wrestling. He gets most of his news and information from Twitter and soundbites on CNN. Jim Cornette is pretty much a savant when it comes to pro wrestling history. It amazes me when he can accurately quote dates and matches from the distant past, with perfect clarity and accuracy. His analysis on Vince McMahon‘s impact on the wrestling industry in general, and where things might go from here was actually interesting and insightful. But his take on the things that let up to this situation are quite cringeworthy.

I have seen rumours on Twitter that if Dunn is out, Jeremy Borash would be the one to take his place? I don’t know if I put any stock in Twitter rumours, but that would certainly be something if true. As I said earlier, if Dunn and Pritchard actually go, I am prepared to believe they actually are making real changes and Vince is really gone.

While I’m not confident Trips taking over creative is going to make things significantly better, I don’t think it’s going to make it any worse either. At worst there will be no noticeable difference. Once again, this is all operating under the assumption that Vince is not secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes. Having said that, there was a very brief period of time when NXT was putting out a damn good product, and Triple H was in charge then. It is actually conceivable that this could be a good thing. I am choosing to remain open minded and wait to see what he does. I also know it’s not like the changes are going to be happening overnight. My question is, what exactly is Bruce Pritchard‘s job now? He is no longer in charge of talent relations, and now he is no longer in charge of creative either. Is he going over to Vince’s house to wash his car or something?