Thursdays belong to Mortal Kombat: Conquest on the El Rey Network! The cult 1998 series from Mortal Kombat movie producers Threshold Entertainment has returned to screens, running from midday on the home for kickass film and television!

The re-run will be the perfect opportunity for fans new and old to catch-up on a once forgotten piece of Kombat fandom. Spinning out of the Mortal Kombat movie universe: the series takes place in ancient Zhuzin, during the reign of The Great Kung Lao (Paolo Montalban) as Mortal Kombat Champion!

Under the guidance of Raiden (Jeff MeeK), Kung Lao joins forces with fellow mortals Siro (Daniel Bernhardt) and Taja (Kristanna Loken) to defend the Earthrealm against the evil forces of Shao Kahn and disgraced sorcerer Shang Tsung (Bruce Locke). Along the way they encounter incarnations of classic characters, such as: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Quan Chi, Reptile, Rain, Mileena, Noob Saibot, plus brand new threats from within and other realms!

[Related Article: Retrospective: The Mortal Kombat Cinematic Universe]

The El Rey Network is showing four hours of Conquest each Saturday. Curated by legendary cult director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror), the network specializes in cult, grindhouse and kickass entertainment, including the new series based on the film From Dusk Til Dawn, the entire Shaw Brothers kung fu film catalogue, and breakout pro wrestling series Lucha Underground!

The Network is available through Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Google Fiber, Time Warner Cable, and more. Check local listings. Can't get the El Rey Network? The entire Mortal Kombat: Conquest is now available on Region 4 DVD [full story]! Register to discuss every episode on the Media & Merchandise forum! Special thanks to user IshyRoze for tweeting us a tip at @MK_Online!

Halloween is coming and the goose is getting fat, will you please put a penny in the old man's hat? If you haven't got a penny -- no problem! You can download the Mortal Kombat X Mobile app and play for free! If you did that over the Halloween weekend - you'll have come face-to-face mask with the inescapable terror of guest characters!!

Jason Voorhees made a splash with his inclusion in Mortal Kombat X as downloadable Kombat Pack guest fighter! The Friday the 13th franchise mascot must've got his calendar mixed up, because he's on the move as the Halloween Multi-Player Challenge for MKX Mobile!

[Related Article: Kountdown: Top 10 Mortal Kombat Horror Icons]

Mortal Kombat X Mobile is available to download now from Apple Store, Google Play & Amazon Games!

Did you brave the Camp Crystal Lake killer this Halloween? Got MK Halloween costume pics to share? Register to share your exploits on the Mortal Kombat X forum, and submit your kosplay! Support the community by liking & sharing via @MK_Online, Facebook & YouTube!

The greatest hero of the modern age is coming back to Mortal Kombat X Mobile! You can unlock Liu Kang in the free-to-play kard kollecting game - but first you must complete the hero's journey within the time available to prove you are a true Shaolin Warrior!

Unlocking Liu Kang means facing five tiers of secret Shaolin training: each tier consists of 12 battles, with the exception of the final 15 fight challenge! Tier 1 is all Bronze Kard war games, Tier 2 & 3 promote you to Bronze & Silver skirmishes. You'll need an Outworld kharacter kard in your Tier 4 team, before Tier 5 pushes kung fu klass to face the Liu Kang boss battle with D'Vorah!

The second chance Liu Kang Challenge is only available this week! Fans hungry for more free-to-play Mortal Kombat challenges might also like to check out WWE Immortals, where there's still time to unlock Johnny Cage!

Check in-app for the most accurate reading of challenge time remaining. Kompleted the challenge? Register to confer with fellow shaolin and find more MKX Mobile on the Mortal Kombat X forum! Woooaahhh!

The debut episode of The Fight Network's newest podcast Keep It 100 has featured an in depth interview with former World Championship Wrestling star Ray Lloyd, better known to fans as Glacier.

The ice themed striker was conceived in 1996, right as MK Trilogy was hitting arcades and home consoles. Best known for borrowing liberally from Mortal Kombat at the height of its popularity! Just one year after the feature film hit theatres, the gimmick attempted to repurpose the concept of a stylized martial arts tournament fighter -- namely Sub-Zero -- for the weekly serial of professional wrestling.

As noted in a previous feature, it was a concept also pitched to ECW star and eventual WWE Champion: Rob Van Dam. As Lloyd explains, the idea was driven by WCW parent Turner Broadcasting and WCW President Eric Bischoff:

"I was an indie wrestler for years, like most people coming up through the ranks trying to get a break. And, uh. I actually moved to Atlanta. [...] Became friends with [Diamond] Dallas Page, and uh, so he kept pitching me to Eric Bischoff. Eventually, we had dinner - me and Eric.

Long and short of it was - he kinda grilled me with questions, for, I wanna say about three hours! 'Are you still wrestling on the independent wrestling scene?' I said, 'Yeah. I'm pretty much booked every weekend.' He said, 'I want you to disappear from the pro wrestling scene for the next few months. Totally cancel your bookings and just disappear.' So I really didn't know until the next several meetings exactly where things were headed, or where we were gonna try to go with this.

Anyone around then couldn't help but know what Mortal Kombat was, because it was so popular!

There were some people in Turner Broadcasting who were like, 'Hey. This is a pretty cool idea. Can we bring this into the ring?'

It was very clear to me after the first couple of meetings that this was something that Eric was very determined to do. I remember Eric saying to us, 'I want you guys to be a video game come to life.' We just figured - okay, well why not go watch people play the video game? Lets see what they think's cool about it.

We actually went to arcades - in Atlanta. Found one that had the game, and we would stand back and just watch people play the game. Just to get an idea of kinda what the characters were. We talked to gamers: 'What do you like about the game? What do these guys do that's really cool?' What ever those fans think is cool obviously could very well transition into the ring. Or at least - we hope it could.

I'm trying to kinda take all this in, and uh. We're seeing things happen that seemed almost to be like 'fly by the seat of your pants'. The first vignette when it ran - I wasn't even aware it was gonna run that night on Nitro. I remember sitting with the girl I was dating at the time - at her house - with her family - we were watching the show - and all of a sudden they start running the video!

I literally, I remember going to the phone and calling Kanyon, 'They didn't tell us they were gonna start running these vignettes!' So we had no idea that they were gonna start running them when they did. They really didn't go anywhere. At first, they did. They only revealed a little bit, then they kinda revealed a bit more. They got to that point where just, okay. Enough already! I mean, bring the guy out! But that's when, that was my first taste of -- I don't know if you want to call it mismanagement in WCW, but it just seemed like there didn't seem to be anybody steering that ship, and even though it was supposed to be Eric, he was getting really really overwhelmed with what all WCW was becoming."

WCW Glacier Hype Promos: #1, #2, #3, #4

"I thought they could evolve it more and drop some of the video game look to it, and just, y'know, streamline it a bit more. I wonder sometimes if it came along a couple years earlier, or a couple years later, what would've become of it? But, um, I guess I went from living as an indie wrestler, to basically that spot, overnight. Granted, I was ready for it. I was wrestling nine years, wrestling in Japan. I was ready! So, I wasn't like some, y'know, some naive kid.

Arn Anderson was someone who helped me an awful lot in WCW. And, uh. He really opened up to me and said, 'Hey, look.' Y'know. When Eric presented it to us, he kinda dumped it in our laps and said, 'Uh, here you go.' [W]e had no idea what to do with it. We had no idea what to do with it. And he said, 'That entrance is such an entity on its own!' And I'll never forget him saying this, 'You would have to walk on water to live up to that entrance.' Now - everybody has an entrance like that. But back then - this was '96 - nobody had an entrance like that! Not [Ric] Flair, not [Hulk] Hogan, not Sting/ None of those guys! Nobody had an entrance like that where you had lazers, the snow, and the ring gets dark -- no one had that. And as cool an entrance that was - that was the thing, okay. The challenge was: how do you live up to that?"

Mortal Kombat's wrestling connection has remained strong. In 1998, WCW would again be associated with the gaming license as TBS featured a line-up of WCW Monday Nitro followed by Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

Threshold Entertainment would bring the concept full circle, attempting to capitalize on the popularity of professional wrestling with the invention of Mortal Kombat: Federation of Martial Arts! The concept failed to be picked up as a televised series, but would enjoy a brief life as the first official MK webseries [">watch it all]!

Most recently; developer NetherRealm Studios has returned to the world of sports entertainment with their free-to-play app WWE Immortals. The current challenge introduces Johnny Cage to the hyper-stylized WWE world [trailer]!

[Related Article: Kountdown: Top 10 WWE Immortals Feuds for Johnny Cage]

Download or stream the full Keep It 100 interview for free at FightNetwork.com! Register to share your thoughts on the forums! Support the kommunity by posting, and liking & sharing stories via @MK_Online, Facebook & YouTube!

The rivalry has been rekindled ahead of a second season of Electronic Sports League tournament action! The North American Mortal Kombat X Pre-Season Cup came down to a finals pairing familiar to anyone who's followed the MK scene since 2011: 2015 Evo World Champion SonicFox5000 besting 2011/2012 champ PerfectLegend in the online final!

It was a massive turn out for the online tournament, contested over a nearly full 256 fighter bracket! Like all good tournaments, it was do-or-die single elimination, with the final winner claiming a $250 purse. Here's the full rundown:

Will this result be a sign of things to come in the rest of Season 2? Did you participate in the Pre-Season Cup? Register to share war stories, post tournament info and organize online play in the Gameplay & Matchmaking forum! Support the kommunity by posting and liking & sharing stories via @MK_Online & Facebook! The more you put in, the more you get out! Learn more at ESL North America, Europe & Russian Commonwealth.