WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.560 --> 00:00:07.759 It's business time, baby, you are listening to sounds. It's such good 2 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:14.320 shit. Mama Monster, Come dude, woman, you got grown ass wrestlers 3 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:19.079 in the back going out Twitter. Oh my god, we're only an hour 4 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:23.359 in. Eric is the idiot. We have two more hours of this and 5 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:27.039 maybe the single stupidest idiot that ever got into wrestling. I don't want out 6 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:34.759 of my contract if I don't get what I want. Never forget. It 7 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:42.280 was one year ago this weekend that Vince McMahon tweeted out his retirement seventy seven. 8 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:48.439 It's time for me to retire. Thank you w Universe. Then no 9 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:55.200 forever together. That was one year ago this weekend. No one ever truly 10 00:00:55.240 --> 00:01:00.679 retires in wrestling until they're dead. Always remember that. Remember that also when 11 00:01:00.679 --> 00:01:03.799 you talk about Billy Gunn, who left his boots in the ring last night 12 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:07.799 on aw Collision. I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it. But 13 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.879 this is episode eight eighteen of The Salom Monster Sounds Off. It is Sunday, 14 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:15.200 July twenty thirty two and twenty three. I am the Salom Monster. 15 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.680 Got a lot of things to cover on the show this week, including La 16 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:23.920 Night. La Night has been a hot topic of conversation, especially after what 17 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:27.439 happened on SmackDown on Friday Night. So I got a lot to say about 18 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:32.040 that, a lot to say about this new report from the Torch that came 19 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:37.760 out about La Night's supposed push and what might derail said push. We're gonna, 20 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:40.079 We're gonna, We're gonna go back in the vault a little bit. 21 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:42.480 So I got a lot to say about that ton of aw stuff. Dark 22 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:48.000 Side of the Ring, probably the not even probably the episode I was looking 23 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.640 forward to the least this season did not disappoint. We're gonna talk about that 24 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.519 as well, and all your questions. First though, I want to say 25 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:57.079 thank you. I gotta shout out a bunch of people here who supported the 26 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:01.400 podcast via PayPal this week, our PayPal producers. Again, you could always 27 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.480 go to the Solomonster dot com. You'll see the PayPal link at the top 28 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:07.560 of the link tree. Ten dollars or more, we'll get you a nickname 29 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:12.080 and a shout out. Of course, so there's some other shout outs that 30 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:15.599 run a little bit more, but you could always get in touch and ask 31 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:16.960 about that. But I gotta say thank you here to the Portland Pop Star 32 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:23.039 Paul Hamilton, Night Stalker, nief Als far Big b, Bryan Passarah Beast 33 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:25.759 Mode, Brock Joseph out of Control, Cody Thomas, Kill Shot, Keith 34 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:30.240 Hart, The Chicago Slayer, Willie eicherd Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The 35 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:35.680 Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Sew Up, Brian Man of the Hour, 36 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:39.039 Musha, New York Punk, Arnold Medesto. I want to give a shout 37 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:46.280 out to Alvin Alvin Peeples and his new podcast, Wressell Theory Podcast. He 38 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:50.840 said, You've helped inspire me to start not just one podcast, but two 39 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:53.599 of them, with this being my newest one. I've been a SoundOff listener 40 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:59.360 since twenty fourteen, So Alvin, thank you. Check out his new show, 41 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:05.960 Wressell Theory Podcast. Also the Seattle Saint. Marco Wallace wanted to give 42 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.319 a shout out to Shane and David from The Chemical Syndicate podcast that I plugged 43 00:03:09.319 --> 00:03:12.800 a couple of weeks ago. He says, I gave their show a listen 44 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:16.080 and I love it as someone who not only loves behind the scenes tales when 45 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:23.439 it comes to movies, but also finds Batman Forever to be underappreciated and underrated. 46 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:27.000 I had a great time listening to their show, and I am officially 47 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.400 a fan. And he says, if you're a bat nerd like I am, 48 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:35.280 give them a listen. So there you go, a ringing endorsement from 49 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:38.439 Marco. Tell you if you have a show or a channel or something else 50 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:42.800 that you might want to promote, get in touch and we can talk about 51 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:47.080 what's involved. This show has an audience that spans the globe. And Kevin 52 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:52.960 let me know that his friend Caitlin just lost her cat, Jason, who 53 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:55.960 was born on Friday the thirteenth, hence the name, had to put him 54 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.360 down, which is always a tough thing. I'm very sorry hear that. 55 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:04.080 But Caitlin, just based on the name you gave him alone, I know 56 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:06.879 you took good care of him and gave him a good life. He was 57 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.520 very lucky to have you looking after him. So I'm very sorry to hear 58 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:15.160 that. I was also very sorry to hear about the death of Rick Skaya 59 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:19.759 this week. If you were a wrestling fan on the Internet in the mid 60 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:26.399 to late nineteen nineties, you probably heard of Rick either through his news from 61 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.480 Dayton updates in the RSPW News Group. Later on the website Online on Slot 62 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:36.319 that he and Mike Semuda started, or Mike Cassa as he called himself. 63 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:43.959 Those news from Dayton updates. Rick would compile them from wrestling articles that started 64 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:48.279 appearing in the Dayton Daily News in Ohio. Those columns were written by Alex 65 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:54.480 Marvez, the same Alex Marvez that you see today doing backstage interviews on aw 66 00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:59.120 Television. He used to write for the Dayton Daily News, among other places, 67 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:03.079 I think the Miami Herold over the years, but Online Onslaught was part 68 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:09.240 of my introduction to the world of wrestling news online and websites that you can 69 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:12.879 go to for humorous reviews of all the shows. This was during the Monday 70 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:16.639 Night War era. I used to visit that website all the time. Rick 71 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:20.680 passed away last Sunday at the age of forty nine after a long battle with 72 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:27.680 stage three colon cancer. He was diagnosed in the early days of the pandemic. 73 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:32.360 This was after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in twenty fourteen, which he 74 00:05:32.439 --> 00:05:36.879 was lucky enough to find early, and less than six months later he was 75 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:41.560 cancer free. So to say that he was very lucky would be an understatement, 76 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:46.000 because pancreatic cancer is the number one killer among all cancers in this country 77 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.519 because it is so hard to diagnose. Usually don't know you have it until 78 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:54.199 you start showing symptoms, and by then it's too late. So he was 79 00:05:54.279 --> 00:05:56.959 very lucky in that regard. But this time he was not so lucky, 80 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:00.120 and he really got put through the wringer in the reading up on what he 81 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:04.439 went through. So I was very sorry to hear that. As his obituary 82 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:10.879 page says, he will be cremated and shot into space like Spock at the 83 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:15.759 end of Star Trek two, and an earthbound memorial in Dayton is pending. 84 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:23.120 From what I remember of him, that sounds like Rick. This was one 85 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:27.120 of those rare weeks where Monday Night Raw was a better show than SmackDown. 86 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:30.839 I thought it was the best Raw in months, and nobody was all over 87 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:34.399 the show more than the judgment day. They weren't just on Raw Monday, 88 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:39.519 they were on NXT on Tuesday, they were on SmackDown on Friday. And 89 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.759 there was a report this week that their segments are going to continue to be 90 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:46.680 a focal point on television going forward. If that's the case, then I 91 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.519 think there's a strong case to be made for Finn Balor to win the world 92 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:55.160 heavyweight title at SummerSlam. As it stands, he's the only member of the 93 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:59.199 Judgment Day without some sort of accolade. Whea Ripley is the Women's World Champion, 94 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:03.319 Damian Priest has the Money in the Bank briefcase, and Dominic Mysterio after 95 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:10.040 his win over Wes Lee on Tuesday, is the new NXT North American Champion. 96 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:14.120 Dominic made history a couple of different ways this week. Actually, we 97 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:20.160 had a member of the Raw roster defending an NXT championship on SmackDown. I 98 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:25.639 believe that was a first. Not only that, but this week Dominic became 99 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:30.920 the first person to ever main event Raw, NXT and SmackDown in the same 100 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:33.279 week. I mean, this is the kind of stuff they're gonna mention in 101 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:39.040 the video package when he goes into the Hall of Fame. I love the 102 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:44.519 little segment they did earlier in the show on Tuesday where Tony DeAngelo and Stacks 103 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:48.639 they walked by Rha and Dominic in the back and Tony d who just got 104 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:51.680 busted out of the Big House. You know, from one x con to 105 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:57.199 another. He tells Dominic. Benny the bumper from the yard says hello, 106 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:01.279 and Dominic just says, oh, yeah, Ny, what a guy. 107 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:05.480 That was great. That was great. His delivery was great. There's actually 108 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:09.759 there's another great one from SmackDown Friday night. Although this didn't air on TV, 109 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:13.759 I think it was just posted on social media. There was somebody filming 110 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:18.199 this from behind Tony d and Stacks. They were walking through the backstage area 111 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:22.560 in Orlando. They were in Orlando for SmackDown, and they're walking through the 112 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:28.240 hallway and in the opposite direction you see Kit Wilson of pretty deadly pushing Elton 113 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:31.600 Prince in his wheelchair, pretty deadly. For those who don't know, they 114 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.399 were written out of NXT when they got called up to the main roster. 115 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.200 They were written out when Stacks threw them in the trunk of a car and 116 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:43.240 pushed the car into a lake. So presumably they drowned, although I think 117 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:46.840 later on they did air video of them escaping out of the trunk. But 118 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.759 they make you pretty deadly makes eye contact with them and they look away, 119 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:56.279 and Wilson quickly, you know, rolls Prince out of camera view. Meanwhile 120 00:08:56.320 --> 00:09:00.960 Stax is looking like he saw a ghost. Tony just tells him, don't 121 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.720 worry about it, let's go. Let's go, like he doesn't want to 122 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:07.200 admit on camera to what they did. So I thought that was funny, 123 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:11.919 but the match itself would Dominic in west On Tuesday easily the weakest of all 124 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:16.159 the Westley title defenses so far that he's had. It looked like he had 125 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:20.480 to slow himself down in the ring with Dominic because Dominic is an in ring 126 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:24.720 performer, is nowhere near the level of a west Lee, nor does he 127 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:28.440 have the level of experience that he does. And there was an ugly spot 128 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:31.120 where Dominic dumped him on the back of his head. I don't know what 129 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:35.159 he was going for. I don't know if he was going to attempt for 130 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:37.919 a backsup plex. Doesn't look like it. He just kind of picked him 131 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.679 up and dumped him. It looked reckless as all hell, but Lee pulled 132 00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:46.240 off a twisting corkscrew cent on the old AJ style spiral tap. When Finn 133 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:50.240 Balor and Damian Priest ran in, Lee managed to fight them off, but 134 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.720 he couldn't fight off a belt shot by Ria Ripley, which actually cut him 135 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:56.799 open on the side of his eye. He was bleeding at the end of 136 00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:01.840 the show and Dominic, with the assist from Maria, wins the North American 137 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:05.919 title. But that's his m that's his character'smo. He cannot win anything on 138 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:11.759 his own without his friends helping him. And there were people online upset over 139 00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:16.240 how they disrespected west Lee by having him lose that way and lose to Dominic. 140 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:18.720 Oh, I don't know, you know, let's see here. The 141 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:22.000 man is the longest reigning North American Champion in the history of the brand, 142 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:28.559 and it took him trying to fight off three other people before he lost three 143 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:33.639 other people and a belt shot to the face. I think they could do 144 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:39.799 far worse by Wesley as far as disrespecting him than that. Wesley is going 145 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:43.200 to be fine. Wesley had a great run as the North American Champion. 146 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.679 He may have another one at some point, but he had a great run 147 00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:52.200 as the North American Champion. But I love the move. It only adds 148 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:56.840 to the judgment Day's story. And he's such a pest heel, you know, 149 00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:01.000 him walking around with the title is only ann get him even more heat. 150 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.919 And I know his segment also did big numbers of the main roster. 151 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:09.320 A crossover experiment that they started is paying off for them at just the right 152 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:13.840 time because they're trying to get more money out of this next media rights deal. 153 00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:16.240 This is why we're seeing all of these main roster stars pop up on 154 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:20.639 Tuesdays, and we're going to be seeing a lot more of it. So 155 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:24.799 Balor is the only one empty handed now in the Judgment Day. He's having 156 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:28.639 a contract signing for Summer Slam tomorrow night with Seth Rollins, and on Twitter, 157 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.480 Baler said that if John Cena shows up again, he's going to be 158 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.000 pissed. And I saw that. I said, that's right, that's right, 159 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:39.000 seeing as stole his title match with Roman Reins away from him a couple 160 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:43.279 of years ago for Summer Slam. See bald Ballard doesn't forgive, and he 161 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:48.759 doesn't forget. He's been stewing over Seth Rollins for seven years. Two years 162 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:52.320 is nothing to this man. But I do think, you know, as 163 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:58.159 strong as the Judgment Day is, I mean, priest and dominated. They 164 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:01.320 lost to Kevin Owens and sammy's An in the main event on Monday in an 165 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:05.559 excellent match. I was actually surprised they gave the title match away unannounced like 166 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:09.039 that. Originally it was going to be non title and then during the show, 167 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:11.000 Priest said, why don't you put the belts on the line, and 168 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:16.120 so it became a championship match. They could have easily done that match at 169 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:20.080 SummerSlam, but they did win on Tuesday, and then Dominic won again on 170 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:24.399 Friday. He had his first title defense against Butch. So if they want 171 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.879 to go all the way with it, Finn Balor should win the World Heavyweight 172 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:33.000 title. And then you have the intrigue of Damian Priest still carrying around the 173 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:37.600 money in the bank briefcase and Balor constantly no matter how many times Priests may 174 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:39.120 say, I would never cash in on you, I would never cash in 175 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:45.879 on you, Balor is constantly going to be looking over his shoulder unless to 176 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:52.480 show his loyalty to the judgment day. What if Damian Price cashed in his 177 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:56.320 money in the bank at SummerSlam when it looked like maybe Balor was in some 178 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:58.960 trouble, maybe things weren't going his way. He cashes in, he makes 179 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:05.399 a triple threat match, and he lays down for Finn Balor. People would 180 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:09.799 have a meltdown, But that would be the ultimate show of loyalty. If 181 00:13:09.799 --> 00:13:15.919 priest helped Balor win the world title by sacrificing his own shot, and I'm 182 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.360 not advocating for it. I'm just saying, you know, there's multiple ways 183 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:24.120 they could go with this seth Rawlins was on Logan Paul's podcast this week. 184 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:28.080 It was actually taped the day of Money in the Bank in London. So 185 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:31.720 yeah, they put their WrestleMania beef behind them, I guess, and Rollins 186 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:37.240 said that he has been dealing with a bad back for some time. He 187 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:41.080 said he's been trying to avoid surgery on his lower back since two nineteen, 188 00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:46.240 and to put that in perspective of how long that's been, twenty nineteen is 189 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.360 when he had that hell in a salmatch with the Fiend, so apparently he's 190 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:54.240 had a bad back going back that far. He said, I try to 191 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.279 change my training up based on how I feel. There's constant injuries. My 192 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:01.440 knees been bugging me since before WrestleMania. I was having issues with that. 193 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:05.440 My neck is acting up, my lower back has been at me since twenty 194 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:09.960 nineteen. Probably should get some surgery on that, but just trying to do 195 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:13.080 whatever I can to make sure I don't need it because I have a couple 196 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:18.679 of stress fractures back there, so that doesn't sound good. He said he's 197 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:24.600 done stem cell treatments for his various injuries, but the relief was only temporary. 198 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:28.440 So he's pretty beat up, and it sounds like he wants to keep 199 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.960 going, which of course he doesn't mean. They put him in the position 200 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.600 they put him in. The last thing he wants to do is take time 201 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.559 away and have surgery. He wants to keep going. He wants to make 202 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.399 that world title means something because he knows that it is the consolation belt because 203 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:46.639 Roman Reigns merge the other two and he's been the champion now for years, 204 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:50.480 and when people think of who the real champion in this company is, they 205 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:54.159 don't think of Seth Rollins, they think of Roman Reigns. I've not heard 206 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:58.399 Rollins even deny that criticism when people bring it up in interviews about it being 207 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:03.480 a consolation prize. But what he always says is that it's his job to 208 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:07.840 make that title means something. So I doubt he's going to take any time 209 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:13.639 away to heal up, unfortunately until the wheels fall off, but hopefully that 210 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.240 that doesn't happen. Also on Monday, Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green. They 211 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:22.639 beat Raquel Rodriguez and Live Morgan to win the women's tag team titles. Matt 212 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:28.600 Cardona has now taken to calling himself one half of the Women's Tag Team Champions. 213 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:33.879 He has co opted Chelsea's belt as his own, to the point where 214 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:39.919 he showed up in Japan last night for his match in DDT wearing the WWE 215 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:43.360 Women's Tag Team belt around his waist, which I'm sure was a replica. 216 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:46.960 No, Chelsea is not going to get heat. She is not going to 217 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:52.799 get buried. He actually won his match. He won the DDT Universal title 218 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:56.240 last night. How many titles does this guy have right now? I wonder 219 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:58.720 what number he's up to. I know he's got the House of Glory World 220 00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:03.039 Championship. He's defending that against Tanahashi next month. But every time I see 221 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:07.639 this guy, he's got a new belt. You know, if Chelsea and 222 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:11.759 son you can hold onto those tag titles longer than two weeks, maybe Cardona 223 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:14.559 will wear the belt to the next Hog Show, and then I could get 224 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:18.120 close enough to set the damn thing on fire. Friday night on SmackDown, 225 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:25.039 Roman Reigns and jay Ousso set the rules of engagement for their match at Summer 226 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:29.960 Slam. It's going to be tribal combat, is what they are calling it. 227 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:33.879 Not only is the championship on the line, but the title of tribal 228 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:38.440 chief apparently is on the line as well. And when Jay mentioned tribal combat, 229 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:42.639 Roman perked up. He said, the elders know about this, and 230 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:48.120 Jay told him us it was their idea. So tribal combat basically means no 231 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:52.879 rules, anything goes It's it's a noice qualification match. But I did see 232 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:57.519 some people online saying that it also means no blood relative can interfere in the 233 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:03.559 match. It is apparently forbidden. If so, they did not do a 234 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.720 very good job of explaining that on TV on Friday, But I guess the 235 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:11.039 handshake and the head to head thing they did maybe that was their way of 236 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:15.519 showing that it would make sense. Then why Roman stopped Solo Sakoa from striking 237 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:19.119 Jay with the Samoan spike at the end of the segment he went to go 238 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:25.279 spike j Roman grabbed his arm and stopped him. So I don't know if 239 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.240 that's true or not. But if that's the case, and no blood relative 240 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:32.160 is allowed to interfere in the match. Then that means Solo Skoa can't get 241 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:37.200 involved, and he's gotten involved in plenty of Roman Reigns matches before. That 242 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:40.839 means Jimmy Usso can't get involved. But you know who is not a blood 243 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:45.200 relative, the wise Man, Paul Hayman is not a blood relative. I'm 244 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:48.680 just saying, but it just means that Roman is going to have to beat 245 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:52.759 Jay clean. And you know what, he's due for a clean win. 246 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:57.640 Most of his wins have come with outside interference. I talked about Dominic Mysterio, 247 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:00.480 his m O being that he can't win a match without his friends helping 248 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.599 him. How does that make him any different from Roman Reigns. I mean 249 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.240 right, Roman can't win a match on his own either. I think he's 250 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:15.640 due for a clean win. Ray Mysterio won the US Title Invitational four Way 251 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:22.519 on SmackDown Friday Night. He will meet Santos Escobar this Friday in a battle 252 00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:26.880 of the LWO members to crown a number one contender to face Austin Theory for 253 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:33.559 the United States Championship. When they haven't said, probably the night before Summer 254 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:38.119 Slam rather than on the actual Summer Slam card. Itself, which brings me 255 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:45.160 to La Night. Let's talk about La Night. La Night was a participant 256 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:52.160 in that US Title Invitational on Friday, and he lost again after coming up 257 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:56.160 a loser at Money in the Bank after Money in the Bank. At the 258 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:02.559 post show press conference, somebody asked Triple A about La Night, and Triple 259 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:08.240 H said, good things come to those who wait. I was waiting to 260 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.680 see if he would get a spot on the WrestleMania card this year, because 261 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:17.319 that's around the time that he really started catching fire with the crowds. They 262 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:22.960 had two nights of WrestleMania he was left off the show. The crowds have 263 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:26.240 only grown louder since then. Triple H himself was drowned out at the Night 264 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:32.160 of Champions press conference in Saudi Arabia by chance of La Night, and the 265 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:37.200 man wasn't even on the show. And he did finally make it onto the 266 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:41.440 show of Money in the Bank. He came within fingertips of winning until Damian 267 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:45.519 Priest threw him off the ladder. And I didn't mind Damian Priest winning Money 268 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:47.680 in the Bank if it wasn't going to be La Night. I was happy 269 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:51.680 that it was Damian Priest because storyline wise, it made sense for him to 270 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:55.480 win that match. But all of this, to me, as I look 271 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:59.960 back on this now, all of this has felt like one big dress rehearse. 272 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:03.559 This has all felt like one big test, Like they're asking the question 273 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:08.200 is this real? Is this ground swell of fans support a real thing? 274 00:20:08.359 --> 00:20:11.240 Is this guy the real deal? Or is he just a fly by night 275 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:15.400 attraction that the fans are going to move on from. It's been over four 276 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:22.559 months and they're still chanting his name and doing his catchphrases and bringing signs to 277 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:29.240 the events. The rumor on Friday was that WWE is seriously considering having a 278 00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:33.519 Latino champion in the company. Santos Escobar would fit that. Bill and Escobar 279 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:37.279 against Rain Mysterio this week. I'm sure it's going to be very good. 280 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:42.920 But the other rumor was that the push for La Night would begin after SummerSlam, 281 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:47.839 which still means that you're leaving the man off one of your biggest shows 282 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:52.559 of the year again for the second time this year. It's also very likely 283 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:55.559 the US title match is going to get left off Summer Slam anyway, whether 284 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.079 he was in the match or not. But I would hope they give him 285 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:00.920 a cameo on the show so he can at least get an entrance and show 286 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:04.359 his face, because you're gonna have forty five thousand people chanting this man's name. 287 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:11.920 Someone on the stream on Friday even suggested the idea of an open challenge 288 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:15.640 for the UA because we don't have enough of those, an open challenge for 289 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.799 the US title and having La Night win the championship there at SummerSlam that way. 290 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:22.000 I don't know why Theory would issue an open challenge, but you know, 291 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:26.240 if he beats Escobar. Let's assume Escobar is gonna beat Ray this Friday, 292 00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:30.799 which he should. If he then goes on and beats Escobar, let's 293 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:36.400 say the night before SummerSlam could be as simplest theory coming out at SummerSlam, 294 00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:40.000 very upset that they left the US champion off one of the biggest shows of 295 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:42.880 the year, and maybe he throws out a challenge to anybody in the back. 296 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:47.960 The crowd starts chanting his name. Outcomes La Night, and they lose 297 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.359 their minds when he wins the title, they have a short match and he 298 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:55.440 wins. Sure, yeah, you could do that. The US title is 299 00:21:55.480 --> 00:21:59.559 doing nothing for Austin theory and Austin Theory is doing nothing but dragging down the 300 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:04.359 US title ever since WrestleMania and having him go out there like he did last 301 00:22:04.359 --> 00:22:08.440 week on commentary or in any of his promos and remind us that I beat 302 00:22:08.519 --> 00:22:11.599 John Cena at WrestleMania. I got news for you. That's not the flex 303 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:15.119 they think it is or that it should have been. And I don't blame 304 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:18.240 Austin Theory for that so much as I blame the way they've booked him since 305 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:25.039 WrestleMania. But let's leave the fantasy booking on the side for now. I 306 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:30.200 know people think that this guy is buried because he lost on Friday. La 307 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:32.759 Night is not buried. I said this weeks ago. La Knight is not 308 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:36.640 buried. Just because he was left off the Madison Square Garden Show a few 309 00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:40.640 weeks ago, and just because he lost on Friday does not mean that La 310 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:47.039 Knight is buried. There are actually some positive signs that this rumored post Summer 311 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:52.000 Slam push could be a real thing. Right. They've only recently pushed out 312 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:55.319 new merch for the guy, which appears to be selling very well. Apparently 313 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:59.240 he's one of the top merch sellers in the company. That's a positive sign. 314 00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:03.359 They're clearly planting the yeas signs, have these signs that say yeah on 315 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:08.160 them. Clearly they're planting signs in the crowd at these show and I don't 316 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:12.400 doubt that people are bringing their own as well, But there are signs that 317 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:17.279 they are clearly planting in the crowd, especially in those first like front row 318 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:21.079 sections. You can't tell me those signs we see in the floor sections aren't 319 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:26.599 planted there by the company. That's a positive sign. He was the only 320 00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:29.519 man in the four way on Friday to be given promo time when he came 321 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:33.039 out for the match. That's a positive sign. He said. Summer Slam 322 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:36.680 is right around the corner, and it's the biggest party of the summer, 323 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:38.400 and the party that I want to go to is the one where I capture 324 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:45.160 the United States Championship. These are all good things that they're doing, but 325 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:48.759 he can cut all the great promos in the world. At some point, 326 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:53.440 if he doesn't start backing it up and winning, he just becomes another Bray 327 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:56.880 Wyatt who used to talk big talk and then he would go out and lose 328 00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:00.240 all of his big matches. At some point, people start to see through 329 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:04.559 that and this lightning in a bottle that you've captured with this guy is going 330 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:11.200 to wither away. Which brings me to this latest report from Wade Keller of 331 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:14.400 the Pro Wrestling Torch. I want to read this to you. I'll break 332 00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:17.960 it down by section. I'll comment as I go along. This was posted 333 00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:22.359 yesterday. La Night, despite not winning the fatal four away match on SmackDown, 334 00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:26.759 is in for a big push later this summer and fall. PW Torch 335 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:32.559 sources indicate Vince McMahon has grown to be a fan of his, and Paul 336 00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:37.000 Avec already was, so let's stop there. We knew Triple H was a 337 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:41.279 fan of his already because Triple H is the one who brought him into NXT 338 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:47.240 and Triple H is the one when Vince McMahon took his vacation from WWE last 339 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:51.319 year so that he could plot his return to WWE. Triple H is the 340 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:53.480 one who dropped the Max Dupree garbage and gave him his old name back. 341 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:57.799 He should have been La Night on the main roster from day one. He's 342 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:02.079 the one who gave him his name and his character back. The fact that 343 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:03.880 Vince McMahon now is a fan of his. It only shows, It only 344 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:07.319 reinforces the point that it was a huge mistake that he made, and it's 345 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:12.400 nice to hear that he realizes it was a mistake. So the report continues, 346 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.960 Night has a long running reputation for rubbing people the wrong way behind the 347 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:23.359 scenes and just being quote bad backstage politics. Those who know him well tend 348 00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:26.400 to like him, and some of them have spoken up on his behalf when 349 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:33.039 Night gives a bad first impression. Night's surging crowd reactions in social media popularity 350 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:37.599 have landed him on the radar of Leavek and McMahon as being a candidate for 351 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:44.799 a big push after SummerSlam, PW Torch sources indicate. So this backs up 352 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:48.880 the other report from Friday that he is in line for a big push after 353 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:55.279 Summer Slam. It says, by all indications, despite his average or below 354 00:25:55.359 --> 00:26:00.519 average work in the ring that isn't at the level of most ww emain of 355 00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:03.599 enters, he is on course to get a push at a high level in 356 00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:07.759 spite of that, because he has a special X factor and connection with the 357 00:26:07.799 --> 00:26:15.759 crowd that has not gone unnoticed by anyone. Now people might give Keller grief 358 00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:21.519 there for editorializing about the average and below average match stuff. But he's not 359 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:26.160 wrong. La Knight's strength is not his in ring work. It's his charisma, 360 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:32.160 it's his verbal skills. Point me to a top five list or a 361 00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:37.200 top ten list of great La Knight or great Eli Drake matches, there is 362 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:41.000 none. I'm sure he had some good matches and impact is Eli Drake. 363 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.359 I mean he was there long enough. I can't name any offhand, but 364 00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:49.759 I'm sure he had a few good ones in NXT. I like the stuff 365 00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:53.640 he did with Cameron Grimes over the million dollars belt, but that's it. 366 00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:57.880 You know, he was part of the NXT Wargames match between Team Black and 367 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:02.240 Golden Team two point, but he was one of eight people in that match. 368 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:04.480 Right. This year's Money in the Bank match I thought was excellent. 369 00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:07.319 He was one of seven people in that. Man, I'm not counting those, 370 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:14.160 So Keller isn't wrong. He is a competent worker, but nobody is 371 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:18.000 going to mistake him for seth rollins or AJ styles. And if you were 372 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.920 to put him in the ring with those guys, he would probably be outclassed. 373 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:26.119 And there have been some sloppy moments in some of his recent matches where 374 00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:30.759 he looked a little out of sorts. It's okay to root for the guy 375 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:34.200 to succeed and be a fan of La Night, but also acknowledge that he 376 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:38.279 has got some weaknesses. That does not mean that he should not be in 377 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:44.480 line for a big push because he's getting reactions everywhere he goes, and he 378 00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:48.519 doesn't have to be the best in ring worker in the company. He doesn't 379 00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:52.079 have to be Seth Rollins, he doesn't have to be Drew McIntire, he 380 00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:56.200 doesn't have to be any of those people. But then there was this last 381 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:02.519 part of the report, and this really irritated me. If his push isn't 382 00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:07.359 sustained, even if crowds still like him, it'll likely be because he mishandled 383 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:11.000 himself backstage in a way that caused him to lose the support of key people 384 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:18.319 who can influence his push. So, loosely translated, if his push tapers 385 00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:21.839 off, then it must be his fault for pissing off the wrong people. 386 00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:26.440 So blame La Night, don't blame Creative, don't blame Triple H, don't 387 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:32.480 blame Vince McMahon. So let's address the elephant in the room. There have 388 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:37.279 been reports and rumors over the years of him, as they say in the 389 00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:41.079 report, rubbing people the wrong way and getting on the bad side of the 390 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:45.039 wrong people. Even as far back as his first stint in NXT. They 391 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:48.279 brought him in, they gave him a new name. Remember, Slate Randall 392 00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:52.759 was the name that they gave him when he first got signed to NXT. 393 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.880 And I was singing the man's praises even before he ever made his debut on 394 00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:02.279 television. He never made a single appearance on NXT television. I was singing 395 00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:06.160 the man's praises, so no one was more shocked than I was when I 396 00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:08.960 went online and I read that he had gotten released. This is a clip 397 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:15.759 from soundof three thirty nine from August of twenty fourteen. Danny Jacks, who 398 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:21.079 was the lone female release and Slate Randall, the Hollywood he Man, the 399 00:29:21.160 --> 00:29:25.799 former Sean Ricker from Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, also the guy who appeared on 400 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:30.640 The Rocks reality show. The Hero that Cut shocked the hell out of me. 401 00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:33.359 You may remember, I think at the beginning of the year, when 402 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:37.000 I was talking about possible NXT call ups this year, people to look out 403 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:40.359 for, I believe. I mentioned Slate Randall as one of those people. 404 00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:44.799 I just can't believe they cut him now. He had not yet debuted on 405 00:29:44.839 --> 00:29:47.599 TV. Last I heard he was out with a concussion. You know, 406 00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:52.200 he's only thirty one. He's got a great look. He was the last 407 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:56.680 man Paul Bear managed before he died last year. I think he saw a 408 00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:00.200 lot of potential in him. You can go find videos of the guy on 409 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.759 YouTube. Go find videos of his promos back from his Sean Rickard days. 410 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:08.839 The guy is money. So unless there was some kind of medical issue here 411 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:12.200 that we're not aware of, I think wwe made a big, big mistake. 412 00:30:14.599 --> 00:30:18.640 He was only thirty one. Then that's a lot of time wasted from 413 00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:22.079 then to now. So why did they fire him. He told Chris van 414 00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:26.319 Vleet recently that it was made very clear to him at the time that it 415 00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:30.799 wasn't a talent issue. It was not a talent issue, it was a 416 00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:33.519 professional issue. He said that he and the head coach at the time did 417 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:37.200 not see eye to eye. That had to be Billdemot, who got released 418 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:41.880 himself in fact the following year. So I assume he's referring to Bill Dumont, 419 00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:45.640 but This is what he told the UK Mirror in twenty eighteen about being 420 00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:49.759 blacklisted by w WWE. He said, I would put a lot of that 421 00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:52.279 down to politics, if I was honest with you. And some of it 422 00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:56.720 is me shooting myself in the foot here and there, but a lot of 423 00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:00.480 it is not being allotted a lot of opportunities for one reason or another. 424 00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:03.480 I have voiced frustrations about some of the guys that I know who have been 425 00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.880 doing it as long as I have. They have already had their run and 426 00:31:07.960 --> 00:31:11.519 they are on the back end of their career while mine is really just starting 427 00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:15.440 now and I have been there just as long. I started to look at 428 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.519 it and it's like, man, if I had done X, Y and 429 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:22.759 Z, I'd have already had my run too. But it's a lot of 430 00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:26.000 different stuff. When I was on the Indies in two thousand and eight, 431 00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:29.599 I had an opportunity with WWE when I went in and I did a dark 432 00:31:29.640 --> 00:31:32.319 match, and they liked me and wanted me to come back the next week. 433 00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:34.680 And here's the part where I shot myself in the foot. I showed 434 00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:38.759 up an hour late on that second day due to some circumstances, and after 435 00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:41.960 that they didn't talk to me for about three years. I was put on 436 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:48.240 a blacklist. I didn't even end up getting to WWE into developmental until my 437 00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:51.079 tenth year in the business. And again, some of that was me, 438 00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:55.440 some of that was politics, but a lot of it was BS. So 439 00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:57.799 it's a little frustrating every time I think about it. It kind of bites 440 00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:00.240 me in the ass every day. But at the same time, it also 441 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:07.039 is kind of what drives me. So he admits that he is not blameless 442 00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:09.799 in this. He probably said and did things that got him heat, which 443 00:32:09.799 --> 00:32:15.000 in turn led to him being released. The talk at the time was that 444 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.039 the company was very unhappy with some of his social media posts, and that 445 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:23.039 he also sent an email that buried him with management. I don't know exactly 446 00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:28.240 who he sent the email too, if it was the head coach or if 447 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:30.160 it was somebody else. I don't know what the email said. I don't 448 00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:34.279 know, but he may have put his foot in his mouth and that's what 449 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:37.200 did it. But to hear him tell it, it had a lot to 450 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:40.240 do with the head coach at the time. The truth is probably somewhere in 451 00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:44.359 the middle, as it usually is. Right there's the old Robert Evans quote, 452 00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:46.000 there's three sides to every story. Your side, my side, and 453 00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:52.160 the truth. But there was controversy around his exit from Impact Wrestling. Also, 454 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:55.559 you know, he was very vocal about not wanting to do intergender matches. 455 00:32:55.599 --> 00:32:59.759 He was asked to work with Tessa Blanchard at the time that they were 456 00:32:59.799 --> 00:33:02.279 pushing Tessa in matches against man. I mean, she even went on to 457 00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:07.240 win the Impact World title I remember, I think it was from Sammy Callahan, 458 00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:09.960 but he was very much against it. He was asked to work with 459 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.319 her, and maybe he was asked a job to her. He refused, 460 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:20.519 and then there was a tweet in twenty nineteen where somebody asked him about this 461 00:33:20.599 --> 00:33:23.799 online and he said, not to take anything away from her. She's a 462 00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:28.720 great performer an athlete, but there was nothing realistic about a five foot three 463 00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:34.119 girl fighting a six foot for jack wrestler, wrestling rooted in some level of 464 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:38.759 realism is what attracts casual audiences, and that is how you grow. And 465 00:33:38.839 --> 00:33:44.200 he also tweeted that Killer Cross would destroy Jordan Grace in a real fight. 466 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.319 There was heat on him for going on a podcast and saying the writers had 467 00:33:49.359 --> 00:33:53.680 booked him into oblivion. Steve Austin did the same thing once he buried Creative 468 00:33:54.480 --> 00:33:59.759 on WWE's own show, and a month later they booked him to job to 469 00:34:00.039 --> 00:34:02.680 Rock Lesner and a King of the Rain qualifying match on TV. They don't 470 00:34:02.720 --> 00:34:07.679 like it when you speak ill of Creative, so his exit from Impact was 471 00:34:07.719 --> 00:34:12.920 not an amicable one. He does seem when you put all this together, 472 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:16.239 he does seem like the kind of guy who says what's on his mind. 473 00:34:16.440 --> 00:34:21.679 He can't help himself, and maybe he is a little tone deaf when it 474 00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:24.599 comes to playing the game, you know, playing the political game. But 475 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:29.119 the idea that, oh, if his push gets derailed in these next few 476 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:31.800 months, well then it must be La Nights fall. Don't blame the company. 477 00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:37.920 If he's smart enough not to get in his own way, this could 478 00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.679 be the big break that he's been waiting over a decade for. But it 479 00:34:42.719 --> 00:34:45.599 almost makes it sound like they're setting him up to fail. Oh, we'll 480 00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:50.239 give the guy just enough rope to hang himself with. And the slightest thing 481 00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:52.440 if he doesn't play ball, if he's not a good little soldier, his 482 00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:57.320 push goes away. And then they can turn around and say saying we tried. 483 00:34:57.400 --> 00:34:59.559 We tried to give the people what they wanted. We gave him a 484 00:34:59.639 --> 00:35:02.679 chance and it didn't work. He blew it. I hope that's not the 485 00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:07.199 case. For his sake, I hope that's not the case. Whatever the 486 00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:10.960 reasons were, they did not take advantage when he was thirty one. Now 487 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:17.519 he's going to be forty one and this is probably his last chance. There 488 00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:23.000 is an account on Twitter that I know some people look to for reliable news. 489 00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:27.360 I'm not really sure how reliable it is, but Boozer Boozer Wrestling on 490 00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:31.119 Twitter posts it's something that got people talking this week and said bray Wyatt has 491 00:35:31.159 --> 00:35:36.000 been around a few times, meaning that Bray I guess has been backstage recently 492 00:35:36.039 --> 00:35:40.920 a few times. His plans are there for his return a feud suggested and 493 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:46.280 approved by everyone. It's only a call of when the discussion is for Summer 494 00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:49.880 Slam, so I would keep an eye on one of the main events that 495 00:35:50.039 --> 00:35:54.079 night. As always with these Twitter accounts, you take what they report with 496 00:35:54.119 --> 00:35:59.239 a healthy dose of skepticism. But Roman reigns against jay ousso that is the 497 00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:02.599 main event of SummerSlam this year. The other match that they are referring to 498 00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:07.679 a Michael Call called it a main event on Friday. The other so called 499 00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:13.320 made event of SummerSlam this year is Cody Rhodes against brock Lesner. If Cody 500 00:36:13.400 --> 00:36:17.320 Rhodes goes from feuding with brock Lesner to feuding for months on end with bray 501 00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:22.440 Wyatt, may the Gods be with him, because that sounds like an awful 502 00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:29.519 IDEA. Fightful also reported this week on creative plans that WWW had for Bray 503 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:34.320 as far back as twenty nineteen, when he first started doing the theme character. 504 00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:38.519 That would have included turning the Firefly Funhouse puppets into real life people. 505 00:36:39.719 --> 00:36:44.840 The report states there was recently a story that indicated there were plans in twenty 506 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:49.960 nineteen for Eric Young and Mike Bennett to serve in a bray Wyatt stable that 507 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:52.719 would see his puppets come to life. As it turns out, there is 508 00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:57.599 actually some truth to that. We've learned that prior to their WWE releases in 509 00:36:57.639 --> 00:37:01.039 twenty twenty, there were pitches from all Hayman to have Mike Bennett and Eric 510 00:37:01.119 --> 00:37:05.880 Young involved with bray Wyatt. However, the pitch made it to Bennett but 511 00:37:06.039 --> 00:37:09.039 not Young. It ended up getting pitched more than once, including an idea 512 00:37:09.079 --> 00:37:19.880 for Mike Bennett to perform as Sister Abigail that sounds positively terrible. Fightful reported 513 00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:23.159 that Eric Young requested and was granted his WWW released this spring, before serving 514 00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:28.719 out his noncompete clause and returning to Impact Wrestling at Slam Aniversary last weekend. 515 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:34.920 Despite never appearing for WWE after signing in November, there were creative plans in 516 00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:37.880 order for him. Young was to be involved in a new style version of 517 00:37:37.920 --> 00:37:44.000 the Wyatt Family with both bray Wyatt and bow Dallas, who had been portraying 518 00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:47.599 Uncle Howdy on TV. We are told the creative plans were set in January 519 00:37:47.960 --> 00:37:52.119 and would have kicked off after WrestleMania. However, bray Wyatt was sidelined with 520 00:37:52.159 --> 00:37:58.039 an undisclosed illness and neither he nor bo Dallas have appeared on TV since by 521 00:37:58.039 --> 00:38:00.079 the time the angle would have started, Young had asked for his release, 522 00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:06.760 citing moral and creative reasons tied to working with Vince McMahon as the reason that 523 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:09.920 he did not want to be there. It was also noted that there were 524 00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:15.719 pitches for Alexa Bliss to join before her maternity leave, which were nixed when 525 00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:19.920 it was obvious that she wouldn't be around for all of twenty twenty three. 526 00:38:21.079 --> 00:38:24.039 There was talk about a Wyatt six faction early on. People will go and 527 00:38:24.159 --> 00:38:29.039 nuts about the Wyatt six, trying to decode some of the tweets he would 528 00:38:29.079 --> 00:38:32.519 post online in the red circle emojis and it was a whole thing. So 529 00:38:32.559 --> 00:38:37.280 there there was talk about that early on. I don't know who the other 530 00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:39.159 two people would have been. You would have had Bray, you would have 531 00:38:39.199 --> 00:38:44.559 had Eric Young, you would have had Alexa, you would have had bo. 532 00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:49.800 I don't know who the other two would have been in the so called 533 00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:53.679 Wyatt six. Eric Young gave an interview, although before I get to that, 534 00:38:53.679 --> 00:39:00.119 there was talk about Vincent and Dutch, so there may have been something 535 00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:02.920 to that. Vincent and Dutch who ended up signing with AW now they're working 536 00:39:02.920 --> 00:39:07.280 for the Ring of Honor brand, that could have been it. Maybe there 537 00:39:07.320 --> 00:39:12.519 was some truth to the Vincent and Dutch stuff, and when Bray went away, 538 00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:15.280 maybe the whole thing fell apart. I don't remember the timeline of when 539 00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:20.599 Vincent and Dutch signed with Tony Khan, but it might line up. But 540 00:39:20.760 --> 00:39:22.840 Eric Young gave an interview. Being that Eric Young was mentioned here. Eric 541 00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:29.400 Young gave an interview to Mike Johnson of pwinsider dot Com for those still unconvinced 542 00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:32.199 by these recent reports of him quitting because he didn't want to work with Vince 543 00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:37.480 McMahon or he didn't want to work for Vince McMahon. You know, Vincenzo 544 00:39:37.599 --> 00:39:39.800 still has a lot of defenders out there who don't believe any of the bad 545 00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:44.960 news about you know, poor Vincenzo here, right, he's a victim apparently. 546 00:39:45.639 --> 00:39:49.519 Well, now you have it from the horse's mouth on his decision to 547 00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:53.000 leave WWE and return to Impact, is what Eric Young said. The thing 548 00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:59.360 with Anthem is truth be told. I've never not worked for Anthem since leaving 549 00:39:59.400 --> 00:40:02.880 Impact. I've been appearing multiple times a week on Game Plus Network for the 550 00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:07.360 last three years, so I was still linked to them When I was under 551 00:40:07.400 --> 00:40:10.800 contract at the other place. I signed up for one thing and it turned 552 00:40:10.800 --> 00:40:15.920 into something completely different and personally, professionally, and more importantly for me morally, 553 00:40:16.639 --> 00:40:21.280 I just could not work there anymore. If you're a wrestling fan, 554 00:40:21.400 --> 00:40:23.719 you know what's going on, and I know that you're a smart guy, 555 00:40:23.800 --> 00:40:28.079 Mike, and you're well aware of what I'm saying and what's going on. 556 00:40:28.840 --> 00:40:31.159 It was not a super difficult choice for me, to be honest. I 557 00:40:31.239 --> 00:40:36.039 know it was a dream come true going back for short. The contract was 558 00:40:36.119 --> 00:40:40.079 fantastic and all this other stuff and I was poised to do the stuff that 559 00:40:40.119 --> 00:40:44.960 I was poised to do on the TV show was excellent. But in the 560 00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:49.039 end I would have had to answer to somebody that I am just not willing 561 00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:52.599 to do. Like I said earlier, I'm a believer in fate and everything 562 00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:57.400 happens for a reason, and I'm not mad about it. I'm not bitter 563 00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:01.000 about it, just like I wasn't last time. Obviously, it was a 564 00:41:01.079 --> 00:41:07.880 massive mistake on one person's part, but a huge gain for wrestling. Eric 565 00:41:07.960 --> 00:41:15.239 Young leaving WWE will have no impact, no pun intended on their business at 566 00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:19.079 the end of the day, but good for him. Good for Eric Young 567 00:41:19.199 --> 00:41:22.920 for standing his ground and leaving behind a great contract to stay true to his 568 00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:27.960 convictions. If he felt that morally he could not work for the Sex Past, 569 00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:30.920 then that's good for him. I have a lot of respect for him 570 00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:37.159 making that decision. Someone who may be going the opposite way this time from 571 00:41:37.199 --> 00:41:43.880 Impact to WWE is former NWA champion Nick Aldis, who wrapped up his very 572 00:41:43.920 --> 00:41:47.400 brief run with Impact last weekend in a losing effort to Alec Shelley that was 573 00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:52.239 for the Impact World title at Slammiversary, and then in a match with Eric 574 00:41:52.280 --> 00:41:54.800 Young at their tapings the next night. So you know, he did business 575 00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:58.760 on the way out and his run is over now. He only returned to 576 00:41:58.800 --> 00:42:02.199 the promotion in a so this wasn't even a full six month run. If 577 00:42:02.199 --> 00:42:06.960 you talking about short term runs, this was a short term run. There 578 00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:09.079 was said to be interest in him from WWE at the beginning of the year, 579 00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:14.639 going back before the Royal Rumble, and he did have conversations with them. 580 00:42:14.679 --> 00:42:17.559 All he would say about it is that timing was a big factor in 581 00:42:17.679 --> 00:42:22.119 why things didn't work out. That that was during a period of time where 582 00:42:22.119 --> 00:42:29.400 there was supposedly a hiring freeze, or if there wasn't an official hiring freeze, 583 00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:32.960 then they certainly weren't signing very many names at the time, and the 584 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:37.440 pending deal with Endeavor probably has a lot to do with that because business is 585 00:42:37.480 --> 00:42:38.840 booming right now, so I mean, it can't be a financial thing. 586 00:42:38.840 --> 00:42:43.679 They could sign anybody they want. My guess is they told him, hey 587 00:42:43.840 --> 00:42:47.480 waited out, he went and signed a very short term deal with Impact because 588 00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:52.800 you know, the man's got to work now that deal is over, and 589 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:57.400 WWE may be an option, but not as a wrestler per pw Insider. 590 00:42:57.440 --> 00:43:01.159 It would be for a role as a producer slab agent behind the scenes. 591 00:43:02.920 --> 00:43:06.760 So who even knows if he would be interested in that role. I mean, 592 00:43:06.760 --> 00:43:10.400 that's like WWE offering thunder Rosa a job is a referee. You know, 593 00:43:10.519 --> 00:43:14.360 all this is only thirty six years old. It's not like he's aged 594 00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:17.800 out in the ring. I don't see them making him a world heavyweight champion 595 00:43:17.880 --> 00:43:22.920 or anything, but he could certainly get a main roster spot on either show. 596 00:43:22.920 --> 00:43:23.920 And I think he's a good you know, he's a good promo. 597 00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:30.400 But it could be a case where it's you know, backstage or nothing. 598 00:43:30.400 --> 00:43:35.840 Maybe they don't want him as a wrestler. This notion that they're still not 599 00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:39.119 willing to sign people to wrestle until the endeavor deal goes through. I mean, 600 00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:44.800 really, it's nonsense. They signed Carlito. He just hasn't debuted yet, 601 00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:50.159 but they signed Carlito, So if they want somebody bad enough, they 602 00:43:50.199 --> 00:43:54.840 will sign them. Brian Pillman Junior was spotted at the WWE Performance Center last 603 00:43:54.880 --> 00:44:00.360 week. His aw contract expired, so he's a free Asian he supposedly got 604 00:44:00.360 --> 00:44:04.440 to try out. Now this week we hear that they have no plans to 605 00:44:04.440 --> 00:44:07.719 sign him anytime soon. Again, I hear the endeavor stuff mentioned. If 606 00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:13.360 they wanted Brian Pillman Junior bad enough, they would sign Brian Pillman Junior and 607 00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:17.199 send him to developmental. If they want Nick all This bad enough, they 608 00:44:17.239 --> 00:44:20.960 will sign Nick all This. And if he wants to wrestle and they don't 609 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:23.840 want him to, then he's going to have a decision to make. You 610 00:44:23.880 --> 00:44:30.079 know, someone like Abyss leaving Impact after all those years and signing with WWE 611 00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:34.800 as a producer made sense because he was forty five years old and his body 612 00:44:34.880 --> 00:44:39.119 was beaten to shit. Outside of that brief time he was on screen with 613 00:44:39.159 --> 00:44:44.679 aj Styles, remember he was his stat guy. He's been exclusively behind the 614 00:44:44.719 --> 00:44:50.480 scenes and apparently very well liked behind the scenes. All this doesn't have the 615 00:44:50.519 --> 00:44:52.880 miles on his body that Abyss does, and he's not forty five years old. 616 00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:59.559 But if this is true and he wants to wrestle, he may have 617 00:44:59.559 --> 00:45:01.880 to acce up the reality the WWE is not going to be the destination for 618 00:45:01.960 --> 00:45:08.599 him. I want you guys to check out the website Wrestling XCoffee dot com. 619 00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:14.960 Their mission is to provide wrestling fans with high quality merchandise while giving back 620 00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.119 to the wrestling community. You might be wondering coffee. What does coffee have 621 00:45:19.159 --> 00:45:22.400 to do with this? Yes, they have a couple of types of coffee 622 00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:24.800 beans they sell as well right now, though those are only available in the 623 00:45:24.920 --> 00:45:29.320 UK, so by all means, if you're located in the UK you want 624 00:45:29.320 --> 00:45:31.159 to check that out, go ahead and do so. What you should be 625 00:45:31.239 --> 00:45:36.679 checking out wherever you are is their clothing section. All of their shirts or 626 00:45:36.719 --> 00:45:42.199 premium quality. Even John Moxley himself was photograph recently wearing one and shockingly, 627 00:45:42.199 --> 00:45:45.360 it had no blood on it. But here's what I love about this. 628 00:45:45.480 --> 00:45:50.800 Ten percent of their annual profits are donated to charities that best help retired pro 629 00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:55.800 wrestlers right now. Their charity of choices, the Brain Injury Association Headway SoundOff 630 00:45:55.880 --> 00:46:01.159 listeners get ten percent off sitewide when you use the Salom Monster ten. That's 631 00:46:01.159 --> 00:46:07.719 Salom Monster and the number ten at checkout again, that's wrestling XCoffee dot Com. 632 00:46:07.760 --> 00:46:15.880 Wrestling XCoffee dot Com AW held its Blood and Guts episode of Dynamite on 633 00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:19.960 Wednesday, doing back to back shows with the matches that went nearly sixty minutes. 634 00:46:20.519 --> 00:46:22.440 First, he had the FTR Bullet Club Gold two out of three falls 635 00:46:22.480 --> 00:46:27.360 match on Collision last weekend that went fifty eight minutes, and then Blood and 636 00:46:27.400 --> 00:46:31.440 Guts which went fifty one minutes with the Golden Elite picking up a win over 637 00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:37.960 the Blackpool Combat Club. When Pack and Canoskate to Keshta both walked out on 638 00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:44.039 their team, Pack after eating an inadvertent uppercut from his partner Claudio, they 639 00:46:44.079 --> 00:46:46.599 got up at each other's face, Pack flipped them all off. He used 640 00:46:46.599 --> 00:46:50.880 a pair of bolt cutters to cut the lock on the door and he walked 641 00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:55.000 out. After that, don callis he decided to pull his man to Keshta 642 00:46:55.039 --> 00:47:00.679 from the match, which left at five on three with John Moxley submitting to 643 00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:05.000 save Wheeler Utah, who was being choked out by a chain. Now we 644 00:47:05.039 --> 00:47:09.480 didn't see Moxley submitting for you to because the camera didn't catch it. Camera's 645 00:47:09.519 --> 00:47:14.840 actually missed a lot of things during the match, but Tony Shirvanni told us 646 00:47:14.880 --> 00:47:19.119 after the fact on commentary that John Moxley had submitted for his team. It 647 00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:23.000 was bloody as advertised. It included things like broken glass and thumbtacks and a 648 00:47:23.039 --> 00:47:27.599 bed of nails. You know what you're getting with a match like this. 649 00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:31.360 You either are into it or you're not. These are not the war games 650 00:47:31.400 --> 00:47:36.519 matches of thirty five years ago where you had blood but you didn't need to 651 00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:38.519 rely at all the weapons and all the bullshit to get a reaction out of 652 00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:42.599 people. But this is the way it is now. You know, an 653 00:47:42.679 --> 00:47:47.119 NXT they had the weapons on the cage and aw has blood and guts with 654 00:47:47.159 --> 00:47:51.880 all kinds of toys and weapons, and that's just the way it is for 655 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:53.719 what it was supposed to be. I thought it was very good. By 656 00:47:53.760 --> 00:47:57.960 the end of it, you could see Utah he was limping around a little 657 00:47:57.960 --> 00:48:00.800 bit. He came into the match with a hamstring in that he suffered the 658 00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:05.119 week before Brian Danielson. He would have been part of the match had he 659 00:48:05.159 --> 00:48:08.239 not broken his arm with ten minutes left in his match with Okada at Forbidden 660 00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:13.039 Door. He tweeted an update on his arm this week with an X ray 661 00:48:13.800 --> 00:48:16.920 he said he had surgery on the arm two weeks ago where they implanted a 662 00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:22.280 steel rod and nine screws. So we are not going to be seeing him 663 00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:25.320 back in the ring for a very long time. But his absence is what 664 00:48:25.400 --> 00:48:29.760 paved the way for Pack to come back and take his place in the Blood 665 00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:34.840 and Guts match. I thought, having two men walk out on the heel 666 00:48:34.880 --> 00:48:37.119 team at the end of the match, it was a little bit much, 667 00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:40.079 you know, Pack, I could understand because it's set up the death before 668 00:48:40.159 --> 00:48:45.599 dishonor match on Friday. I had also forgotten it, it was so long 669 00:48:45.639 --> 00:48:50.000 ago. But on the third ever episode of Dynamite, there was a tag 670 00:48:50.039 --> 00:48:54.679 team match where John Moxley teamed up with Pack to take on Kenny Omega and 671 00:48:54.760 --> 00:48:59.880 Hangman Page. At the end of that match, Moxley walked out on Pack. 672 00:49:00.719 --> 00:49:04.480 He even flipped him off, then dropped him with a paradigm shift and 673 00:49:04.519 --> 00:49:08.880 he walked out. So whether it was intended or not, and I mean 674 00:49:08.880 --> 00:49:13.880 that would be quite a coincidence. If it wasn't intended, that is some 675 00:49:14.360 --> 00:49:17.760 long term storytelling. There some long term payback for having Pack, you know, 676 00:49:17.800 --> 00:49:22.920 flipped them off on Wednesday and walk out. But someone mentioned something else 677 00:49:22.920 --> 00:49:25.199 to me after I finished my review. They made a great point about why 678 00:49:25.239 --> 00:49:29.239 they had Pack and to Kesh to walk out, and it ties into the 679 00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:32.559 story they were trying to tell before Eddie Kingston left for the g One. 680 00:49:34.079 --> 00:49:37.519 He was trying to convince John Moxley you don't need to be hanging out with 681 00:49:37.559 --> 00:49:42.920 Claudio because he hates Claudio right. He hates Claudio's guts, and he's trying 682 00:49:42.920 --> 00:49:45.320 to tell Moxley, who he still considers a friend, you don't need him. 683 00:49:45.920 --> 00:49:50.639 Claudio's a piece of garbage. You would be much better without him. 684 00:49:51.800 --> 00:49:55.599 So it's two things actually. For one, what Moxley learned at the end 685 00:49:55.639 --> 00:50:00.239 of that match and the reason they lost, is because he couldn't trust either 686 00:50:00.239 --> 00:50:02.639 one of them. He couldn't trust Pack and he couldn't trust to Keshen. 687 00:50:04.639 --> 00:50:08.039 They were in friends of his like Eddie is. If Kingston was in the 688 00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:13.840 match, he never would have betrayed Moxley like that. But also it was 689 00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:17.280 Claudio who instigated the problems with Pack in the first place and caused him to 690 00:50:17.320 --> 00:50:22.599 walk out, the same Claudio that Eddie told Moxley you can't trust and you 691 00:50:22.639 --> 00:50:28.760 don't need Eddie Kingston was proven right, So I think I thought that was 692 00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:30.480 a great point. Again, none of this was mentioned in the commentary, 693 00:50:30.559 --> 00:50:35.119 but I thought that was a great point and a pretty important point as far 694 00:50:35.159 --> 00:50:37.800 as the story goes, because when Eddie comes back, he's probably going to 695 00:50:37.880 --> 00:50:42.920 be, you know, facing off with either Moxley or Claudio. It's probably 696 00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:46.400 gonna lead ultimately to the end of the Blackpool Combat Club because I think Eddie 697 00:50:46.440 --> 00:50:51.599 against mox or Eddie against Claudio is the match for Wembley Stadium. I think 698 00:50:51.679 --> 00:50:52.880 Eddie is going to be the one to take the Ring of Honor world title 699 00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:59.159 from Claudio. Now you know now that Mark Briscoe is hurt. Eddie was 700 00:50:59.199 --> 00:51:02.280 probably the play and all along until Tony decided to let him do the g 701 00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:08.480 One. And I think Tony even said he was considering ways to let him 702 00:51:08.519 --> 00:51:12.360 do the g One but fly him back and forth and maybe he could do 703 00:51:12.400 --> 00:51:15.039 blood and gut. I mean that would have been ridiculous though, I mean 704 00:51:15.280 --> 00:51:17.159 the travel. I mean it's bad enough the schedule they keep up with the 705 00:51:17.239 --> 00:51:22.239 g One, but to fly him back and forth to Japan like that, 706 00:51:22.320 --> 00:51:24.119 you know too and from Japan would have been ridiculous. So they realized that 707 00:51:24.119 --> 00:51:29.320 that just wasn't doable. But I do I think that with Mark Briscoe out 708 00:51:29.400 --> 00:51:30.599 for a while with a knee injury, I think it's going to be Eddie 709 00:51:30.639 --> 00:51:35.679 ultimately who takes the Ring of Honor World title. We also got to see 710 00:51:35.719 --> 00:51:39.800 the debut on Wednesday of Kota Ibushi in Blood and Guts, and no, 711 00:51:40.440 --> 00:51:44.960 he does not look like the Abushi from New Japan. He did not look 712 00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:47.719 like the Ambushi from New Japan when he first came back Wrestle Media Weekend either, 713 00:51:49.559 --> 00:51:52.239 and he did the Blood Sport match with Mike Bailey and then he did 714 00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:54.719 the match with Joey Janella the next day. He is not in the same 715 00:51:54.760 --> 00:52:00.320 shape physically that he used to be in. He is coming off almost two 716 00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:05.880 years on the shelf. He had not worked a match before this week since 717 00:52:05.880 --> 00:52:09.360 Wrestle Media Weekend, you know, I mean, so you got to take 718 00:52:09.360 --> 00:52:13.599 that into consideration as well. If you remember, he announced right before that 719 00:52:13.599 --> 00:52:16.719 Blood Sport match in March that he had reinjured his shoulder in training. I 720 00:52:16.719 --> 00:52:21.480 don't know if he hurt it more during the match, but he was definitely 721 00:52:21.559 --> 00:52:24.840 hurt coming into that match WrestleMania Weekend and to be honest with you, I 722 00:52:24.920 --> 00:52:29.760 question whether he's fully healed from the injury at all, because all of the 723 00:52:29.800 --> 00:52:32.199 definition that he used to have in his upper body is gone. The guy 724 00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:36.039 used to come out there looking like a comic book character. He was all 725 00:52:36.079 --> 00:52:40.599 cut up. All of that definition is gone, and that could have something 726 00:52:40.599 --> 00:52:44.360 to do with him not being able to work out. Maybe he can't lift 727 00:52:44.400 --> 00:52:47.199 the way that he used to if his shoulder is not fully healed, his 728 00:52:47.239 --> 00:52:52.719 shoulder is fucked, it would make sense he's not able to work out the 729 00:52:52.760 --> 00:52:55.480 way that he used to. Now, remember he never had surgery. He 730 00:52:55.559 --> 00:53:00.760 probably should have had surgery, but he opted to try to have the injury 731 00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:05.440 on his own. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best decision, but 732 00:53:05.519 --> 00:53:07.639 it was still good to see him back in the ring. He did not 733 00:53:07.760 --> 00:53:09.880 do much, and some of the stuff he did do, honestly, it 734 00:53:09.920 --> 00:53:14.400 didn't look that impressive. I'm going to cut the guy some slack, though, 735 00:53:14.559 --> 00:53:16.840 I think to go from doing nothing to working a blood and guts match 736 00:53:16.840 --> 00:53:22.920 with nine other people, it's a pretty big leap. After the show was 737 00:53:22.960 --> 00:53:27.840 over, there was fan footage of him taking a back bump onto the thumb 738 00:53:27.920 --> 00:53:30.000 tax in the ring and then he gets right back up. He just like 739 00:53:30.039 --> 00:53:32.280 he just wanted to do It's like a little kid. He just wanted to 740 00:53:32.280 --> 00:53:35.840 take a back bump into the thumb tax and then he just got up and 741 00:53:35.880 --> 00:53:39.480 no sold it. That was pretty stupid. I mean, it wasn't on 742 00:53:39.559 --> 00:53:44.639 TV, but it was still dumb. But that's a bushi. The guy 743 00:53:44.760 --> 00:53:46.679 does a lot of stupid shit. You know what else do you want me 744 00:53:46.719 --> 00:53:51.599 to say? He's a weird dude. All you need to do is go 745 00:53:51.679 --> 00:53:54.360 back and watch his stuff from DDT. The guy used to shoot firecrackers out 746 00:53:54.360 --> 00:53:59.440 of his ass. A few years ago for his birthday, he took a 747 00:53:59.480 --> 00:54:04.199 litt arkler and he put it in his mouth. He's like a child in 748 00:54:04.239 --> 00:54:09.719 a forty one year old body. So the Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club 749 00:54:09.760 --> 00:54:14.679 they shook hands after the match. This also did not air on TV. 750 00:54:15.280 --> 00:54:20.159 Claudio actually told Sports Illustrated it probably should have aired, but it didn't. 751 00:54:21.280 --> 00:54:23.320 The Blackpool Combat Club, you know, for months in their promos they talked 752 00:54:23.320 --> 00:54:28.719 about the Elite being amateurs. Brian Danielson went around, amateurs were professionals, 753 00:54:28.719 --> 00:54:32.280 they're amateurs. In the end, they pushed the Elite to do things that 754 00:54:32.800 --> 00:54:37.239 you know they had to do in order to win, and they did, 755 00:54:37.320 --> 00:54:40.400 and so the BCC showing them respect for it. I don't see that as 756 00:54:40.639 --> 00:54:45.119 a an indication of a baby face turn or anything. I think it's just 757 00:54:45.159 --> 00:54:50.199 a matter of them respecting the elite for proving them wrong. So I can 758 00:54:50.239 --> 00:54:52.840 see why Claudio thought that that should have aired on TV. The other thing 759 00:54:52.840 --> 00:54:59.280 about the show was MJF and Adam Cole. The unlikely partnership continues to be 760 00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:02.800 one of the most attaining parts of AW television. They went in there against 761 00:55:02.800 --> 00:55:07.920 Sammy Gavara and Daniel Garcia in the finals of the Blind Eliminator Tag Team tournament 762 00:55:07.960 --> 00:55:13.639 and they won, which makes them number one contenders now for the AW Tag 763 00:55:13.679 --> 00:55:17.559 Team titles. There was a very polarizing dance off at the beginning of the 764 00:55:17.599 --> 00:55:22.519 match where I guess technically before the match started they had a dance off. 765 00:55:22.559 --> 00:55:27.719 This was a total WWE segment, one that we have seen so many times 766 00:55:27.760 --> 00:55:31.760 on WWE that here on this one. We don't see it very often, 767 00:55:31.800 --> 00:55:37.239 this type of thing, and if it was almost anybody else, I probably 768 00:55:37.239 --> 00:55:39.320 would have rolled my eyes at it. But MJF and Cole together have been 769 00:55:39.360 --> 00:55:44.119 so good. They found a way to make it work, and the crowd 770 00:55:44.159 --> 00:55:47.079 loved it. You know, the crowd ate it up. It did make 771 00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:52.039 Adam Cole look like a geek, but MJF has been calling him a geek 772 00:55:52.079 --> 00:55:53.719 since day one, right, he calls him a geek who sits home on 773 00:55:53.719 --> 00:55:59.039 Twitch playing video games. I guess it's kind of on brand for him. 774 00:56:00.320 --> 00:56:02.159 Tell you what, though, would if he's a geek, it hasn't heard 775 00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:06.840 his standing with the audience. Adam Cole is actually more over right now than 776 00:56:06.840 --> 00:56:10.800 he has been probably at any other point during his AW run because it's working. 777 00:56:13.639 --> 00:56:19.039 The other distinction I would make. We are over a month into AW 778 00:56:19.079 --> 00:56:22.599 Collision, and they have done a good job of establishing Collision as the more 779 00:56:22.679 --> 00:56:28.360 serious wrestling show. And it could be the ideas that on Dynamite, yeah, 780 00:56:28.400 --> 00:56:31.119 you can see good wrestling also, but you get more of the kind 781 00:56:31.119 --> 00:56:36.760 of sports entertainment type stuff like the dance off that you would not see on 782 00:56:36.840 --> 00:56:39.760 Collision because they want to differentiate the two shows. It couldn't be that that's 783 00:56:39.760 --> 00:56:43.679 what they're trying to establish as well. You know that you wouldn't see this 784 00:56:43.760 --> 00:56:47.480 sort of thing on Saturdays Wednesdays is more for the GAGA than the Saturday show 785 00:56:47.559 --> 00:56:52.639 is because you know, look, when aw first started, they branded themselves 786 00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:59.719 as an alternative to WWE. Fans wanted an alternative to the typical WWE sports 787 00:56:59.800 --> 00:57:04.039 entertainment. Over time, they have gotten farther and farther away from that to 788 00:57:04.079 --> 00:57:07.559 where sometimes it feels like they're trying to be WWE. But you can't be 789 00:57:07.800 --> 00:57:14.960 WWE. You cannot out WWE WWE, nor should anybody try to, because 790 00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:20.320 if you do, you will fail. But what they're doing is working right 791 00:57:20.360 --> 00:57:22.519 now. You know, WWE is a hot ticket. It's working. No 792 00:57:22.519 --> 00:57:27.800 one can deny that. So if they want to borrow certain elements from the 793 00:57:27.800 --> 00:57:30.199 show, that's understandable. And I don't want the show to be nothing but 794 00:57:30.239 --> 00:57:36.639 just straight wrestling matches for two hours, because that'll get boring. As long 795 00:57:36.679 --> 00:57:38.239 as they don't make a habit out of doing shit like this, then I'm 796 00:57:38.280 --> 00:57:43.760 fine with it. But you know, in the match, MJF, it's 797 00:57:43.800 --> 00:57:46.559 amazing how much they get out of so little, And it just goes to 798 00:57:46.559 --> 00:57:50.039 show you that you don't need to break your neck and break your back to 799 00:57:50.079 --> 00:57:52.800 get a reaction out of the crowd. If you have the right people and 800 00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:57.719 you tell the right story. You don't. You could do the bare minimum 801 00:57:57.800 --> 00:58:01.000 and get a monster reaction for it. JF does not do dives. He 802 00:58:01.119 --> 00:58:05.920 has mocked other wrestlers who feel like they have to do dives and all these 803 00:58:05.960 --> 00:58:09.119 fancy moves. He doesn't do any of that stuff. He did a dive 804 00:58:09.159 --> 00:58:13.719 in this match. He did a suicide dive and the people went nuts. 805 00:58:14.519 --> 00:58:17.159 And then finally Cole and MJF they hit the double clothesline spot. They'd been 806 00:58:17.159 --> 00:58:21.880 teasing the spot for weeks. They finally hit the double clothesline and they blew 807 00:58:21.920 --> 00:58:24.079 the roof off the place and they won with it. They won the match. 808 00:58:24.119 --> 00:58:28.960 They pinned Garcia with a double clothesline. After the match was over, 809 00:58:29.039 --> 00:58:31.119 Cole took the aw World title belt. The referee handed it to him. 810 00:58:31.119 --> 00:58:35.159 He was gonna give it to Max, but then he was kind of looking 811 00:58:35.199 --> 00:58:37.679 down at it and staring at it. MJF turned around, he saw this 812 00:58:37.719 --> 00:58:42.719 and he flipped out, what are you doing? Why are you looking at 813 00:58:42.760 --> 00:58:46.039 it like that? So already planting the seeds of dissension between the two of 814 00:58:46.039 --> 00:58:51.039 them. Meanwhile, you had Garcia and Gavara, they're walking to the back. 815 00:58:51.119 --> 00:58:55.159 Chris Jericho was on stage to greet them, and they walked right past 816 00:58:55.239 --> 00:58:59.639 Jericho like he wasn't even there, the same way that Jake Hager the week 817 00:58:59.679 --> 00:59:02.519 before walked out on Jericho. So they were telling that story that was almost 818 00:59:02.519 --> 00:59:07.800 like a little side story that they were telling as well. Colin MJF. 819 00:59:07.840 --> 00:59:14.960 Now they're gonna meet FTR next Saturday on Collision for the aw tag team titles. 820 00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:17.280 Last night on the show, FTR came out, they cut a promo 821 00:59:17.480 --> 00:59:23.000 with Dax Harwood talking about how you guys go out there on Wednesday in the 822 00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:28.960 biggest match of your tag team career and you're dancing, you're dancing, you're 823 00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:31.840 playing it off as comedy. He said, this Saturday Network or I guess 824 00:59:31.880 --> 00:59:37.159 next Saturday. No comedy. There's not going to be any dancing. There's 825 00:59:37.159 --> 00:59:43.400 not going to be any funny skits. So really differentiating FTR from Cole and 826 00:59:43.519 --> 00:59:46.599 MJF, do they do the title change? Is the question? Do they 827 00:59:46.639 --> 00:59:51.960 pull off a title change on this show? Do they pull the trigger because 828 00:59:51.960 --> 00:59:55.599 it's working and prolong it by putting the tag team titles on it? And 829 00:59:55.639 --> 01:00:00.000 they don't even have to prolong it honestly, because this is going to continue 830 01:00:00.159 --> 01:00:01.639 to go on until we get to the end of August, at least until 831 01:00:01.639 --> 01:00:06.360 we get to the Wembley Show. They could very well win the tag team 832 01:00:06.400 --> 01:00:09.119 titles next weekend and hold them for two or three weeks and then drop them 833 01:00:09.119 --> 01:00:14.280 back to FTR, or drop it to somebody else, drop it to Bullet 834 01:00:14.280 --> 01:00:16.960 Club Gold, so they may get a run with the tag titles regardless, 835 01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:22.280 it is possible. You know, they keep coming out with new merch for 836 01:00:22.320 --> 01:00:27.199 these guys. They just released a new double clothesline shirt yesterday. But I 837 01:00:27.280 --> 01:00:29.880 still feel like FTR is going to win the match. I don't think you 838 01:00:29.920 --> 01:00:34.159 take the titles off of them. I think they retain doesn't mean that the 839 01:00:34.559 --> 01:00:37.159 partnership is over next weekend. It just means that it's going to be the 840 01:00:37.199 --> 01:00:42.440 next chapter of wherever it's leading. But I feel like FTR is going to 841 01:00:42.480 --> 01:00:45.599 retain the titles. This pairing with Cole and MJF it was never meant to 842 01:00:45.639 --> 01:00:49.599 be a long term thing, and I do believe at the end of the 843 01:00:49.639 --> 01:00:52.199 day, Tony Kann is going to stay the chorus with whatever his plans are 844 01:00:52.280 --> 01:00:55.760 for all in and all Out, which would be a shame because it is 845 01:00:55.800 --> 01:00:58.960 working. So it's like, you know, why not ride it out as 846 01:00:59.000 --> 01:01:01.639 long as you can. But you've got two big shows back to back at 847 01:01:01.679 --> 01:01:06.360 the end of next month. I think one of those shows is going to 848 01:01:06.400 --> 01:01:09.559 have MJF defending his title against Adam Cole, you know. And then there's 849 01:01:09.599 --> 01:01:13.559 also the question of where does Roderick Strong fit into all of this. He's 850 01:01:13.559 --> 01:01:16.199 been trying to warn Cole about MJF now for weeks. Cole keeps blowing him 851 01:01:16.239 --> 01:01:20.880 off. There may be a big swerve in here somewhere, but I don't 852 01:01:20.880 --> 01:01:22.280 know where they're going to go with it, which I think is part of 853 01:01:22.320 --> 01:01:27.280 the fun. The thought did cross my mind, though. I was watching 854 01:01:27.320 --> 01:01:30.920 Collision last night, and if you missed it, I did go live for 855 01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:32.960 Collision, so the review is up if you want to go back and see 856 01:01:32.960 --> 01:01:37.599 it. But I was watching Collision last night when CM Punk and his promo 857 01:01:37.760 --> 01:01:40.920 with Ricky Starks, he mentioned MJF again. It was very brief. It 858 01:01:40.960 --> 01:01:47.119 was a little mention of Max, but he did mention MJF and kind of 859 01:01:47.199 --> 01:01:52.480 hinted in a way there's another little hint that there will be a match between 860 01:01:52.519 --> 01:01:57.599 them eventually, and with the mixed reactions that Punk has been getting, even 861 01:01:57.599 --> 01:02:00.800 in Newark last night. I mean, obviously Punk was booed by a lot 862 01:02:00.840 --> 01:02:04.280 of the fans in Canada. Well now they're back on US soil, and 863 01:02:04.320 --> 01:02:07.280 even in Newark last night, it was a very heavily mixed reaction, leaning 864 01:02:07.320 --> 01:02:15.239 towards a negative reaction for Cmpunk. So you consider the reactions, maybe they 865 01:02:15.280 --> 01:02:19.840 do keep MJF in this sort of I don't want to call him a baby 866 01:02:19.840 --> 01:02:22.920 face, because he's really not, but keep him in the sort of baby 867 01:02:22.920 --> 01:02:27.119 face mode that he's been in, or Tony con does a double turn with 868 01:02:27.199 --> 01:02:30.880 him and Adam Cole. Either way, and when the time comes for Punk 869 01:02:30.920 --> 01:02:36.039 against MJF to decide who the real aw World champion is, this time Punk 870 01:02:36.119 --> 01:02:42.679 is the heel and MJF is the baby face possibility too. Also on the 871 01:02:42.679 --> 01:02:49.360 show Wednesday, Jungle Boy is dead. Jack Perry beat Hook to win the 872 01:02:49.440 --> 01:02:54.360 FTW Championship. No more Tarzan Boy for Jungle Boy. Now he's using Beethoven 873 01:02:54.440 --> 01:02:58.880 Symphony number five, which is going to take some getting used to. The 874 01:02:58.960 --> 01:03:02.800 Mattmen podcast out to them, they posted his entrance with the old Beverly Hills 875 01:03:02.880 --> 01:03:07.599 nine O two one oh theme song dubbed over it and it just works so 876 01:03:07.639 --> 01:03:12.079 well. I don't think Warner Brothers Discovery has the rights to it, but 877 01:03:12.159 --> 01:03:14.880 that would have been incredible if they could have gotten that music for him. 878 01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:19.760 But he hands Hook his very first loss, and it gives Jack a big 879 01:03:19.760 --> 01:03:22.079 win that he needed to establish himself as a heel. Now he's got a 880 01:03:22.119 --> 01:03:25.440 title that he can walk around with. Hook now has a reason to want 881 01:03:25.440 --> 01:03:28.880 revenge for what was done to him. This is the first time that Hook 882 01:03:28.920 --> 01:03:31.480 has tasted defeat. Now we get to see him in this sort of vulnerable 883 01:03:31.559 --> 01:03:36.960 position where he is chasing instead of him being the champion. How will he 884 01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:38.960 respond? So I like that. I like what they did with those two. 885 01:03:39.039 --> 01:03:45.079 On Wednesday, the drama with Pack and Claudio from Blood and Guts set 886 01:03:45.159 --> 01:03:49.440 up a match between them at the Ring of Honor Death before Dishonor pay per 887 01:03:49.519 --> 01:03:52.320 view Friday night, after Mark Briscoe got pulled from the main event against Claudio. 888 01:03:52.400 --> 01:03:57.199 He is dealing with a very bad knee injury. Apparently he's been hurt 889 01:03:57.199 --> 01:04:00.800 pretty badly for a while. He was hiding that fact from the aw medical 890 01:04:00.840 --> 01:04:03.079 staff, which is not a smart thing to be doing. So Tony Conn 891 01:04:03.159 --> 01:04:06.400 was left with no main event. The day before the show, he made 892 01:04:06.400 --> 01:04:11.639 an official it would be Pack challenging Claudio for the Ring of Honor world title 893 01:04:11.639 --> 01:04:15.719 on Friday night. This was a show that had next to no matches announced 894 01:04:15.760 --> 01:04:18.599 the week out. They lost their main event, but the talent came through, 895 01:04:18.719 --> 01:04:24.119 as they usually do. Talent came through. Claudio and Pack had an 896 01:04:24.119 --> 01:04:29.079 excellent match with what I felt was a very lame finish Pack. He was 897 01:04:29.159 --> 01:04:31.119 kicking out of all sorts of things, big moves, There was a spot 898 01:04:31.119 --> 01:04:36.239 in there where he got gorilla pressed out of the ring through a table, 899 01:04:36.400 --> 01:04:41.679 crashed through a table that exploded outside the ring, and then Claudio put him 900 01:04:41.719 --> 01:04:44.760 in the ring. He hit a top rope elbow drop, he covered him 901 01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:47.480 and he still kicked out. I'm not gonna lie. That kind of pissed 902 01:04:47.519 --> 01:04:50.760 me off. But he was kicking out of all sorts of things, all 903 01:04:50.760 --> 01:04:56.599 of this stuff, only for Wheeler Utah to run out and cause the distraction 904 01:04:56.719 --> 01:04:59.679 right at the very end, and that led to the Ricola bomb and the 905 01:04:59.719 --> 01:05:03.360 wind for Claudio. Now on commentary, the story was Claudio he usually wins 906 01:05:03.400 --> 01:05:09.880 his matches with honor, not this time. Maybe it sets up a rematch, 907 01:05:10.320 --> 01:05:13.039 but after such a great match, for it to end that way I 908 01:05:13.079 --> 01:05:16.239 thought was pretty lame. And they headlined the show for the first time in 909 01:05:16.360 --> 01:05:21.519 Ring of Honors twenty plus years in business with a women's match for the Ring 910 01:05:21.559 --> 01:05:28.000 of Honor Women's World Championship, Athena against Willow Nightingale, who had her entire 911 01:05:28.079 --> 01:05:30.599 family in the front row, including her mom and dad. She was coming 912 01:05:30.639 --> 01:05:34.639 off a win over Athena in the Owenhart Tournament, which she went on to 913 01:05:34.719 --> 01:05:39.719 win. It felt like the stage was set for a title change, but 914 01:05:40.280 --> 01:05:43.639 in the end, Athena retained. I don't think it would have surprised me 915 01:05:44.559 --> 01:05:48.760 coming into the show because Willow beat her already once before. But once I 916 01:05:48.760 --> 01:05:54.639 saw Willow's family was there and I saw they were getting the main event spot 917 01:05:54.679 --> 01:05:59.320 to close out the show, I thought, Okay, well this might just 918 01:05:59.400 --> 01:06:01.480 be it. This might be the big title change here. And so when 919 01:06:01.480 --> 01:06:05.320 it didn't happen, I was very surprised. I wasn't upset or anything. 920 01:06:05.360 --> 01:06:09.559 I was just, you know, kind of shocked by it. But how 921 01:06:09.559 --> 01:06:12.199 can anybody be upset with the kind of match that these two women had. 922 01:06:12.239 --> 01:06:15.719 It was excellent every bit as good as the Claudio pac match, honestly, 923 01:06:15.760 --> 01:06:18.480 if not better, at a much better finish. I liked it more than 924 01:06:18.519 --> 01:06:21.400 their match in February, and I thought that was an excellent match those two 925 01:06:21.440 --> 01:06:26.360 had on television at the beginning of the year. I liked the little callbacks 926 01:06:26.360 --> 01:06:30.440 in their match. All throughout the match, they were calling back to moves 927 01:06:30.480 --> 01:06:32.519 that were used by other women in the division over the years, Sarah del 928 01:06:32.639 --> 01:06:39.079 Ray, Daisy Hayes, Mickey James. I thought the announcers were great at 929 01:06:39.159 --> 01:06:43.599 noting each of them each time it happened. Athena hit the O face, 930 01:06:43.760 --> 01:06:46.519 Willow kicked out to a huge reaction. Athena locked in a cross face. 931 01:06:46.559 --> 01:06:51.119 She was struggling mightily to fight out of it, until finally Willow had no 932 01:06:51.199 --> 01:06:56.639 gas left in the tank. She went out and the referee called for a 933 01:06:56.719 --> 01:07:00.760 stop twenty minutes in. I have no idea what's next, Who's next for 934 01:07:00.840 --> 01:07:03.079 Athena. I feel like they're going to have to start bringing people in from 935 01:07:03.119 --> 01:07:09.320 the outside now to face her, because who else is there. Feifel broke 936 01:07:09.360 --> 01:07:13.480 the news last Sunday that Ian Ricabani, who called not only the Ring of 937 01:07:13.519 --> 01:07:16.159 Honor pay per view on Friday, but Collision on Saturday because Kevin Kelly is 938 01:07:16.199 --> 01:07:21.679 in Japan for the g one Ian Ricabanni recently signed a multiyear deal with AW 939 01:07:21.840 --> 01:07:26.639 that will see him calling action for both AW and Ring of Honor, as 940 01:07:26.679 --> 01:07:29.840 he has been doing. He filled in for Kevin Kelly each of the past 941 01:07:29.880 --> 01:07:33.440 two weeks and will continue to do so. The report states that he was 942 01:07:33.519 --> 01:07:39.039 considered for the lead play by play position on Collision and it probably was his 943 01:07:39.119 --> 01:07:42.519 if he wanted it, but he preferred to stick to ROH so that he 944 01:07:42.559 --> 01:07:45.400 could have his weekends free to spend more time with his family, and he 945 01:07:45.599 --> 01:07:49.800 was the one who actually recommended Kevin Kelly for the job instead. How often 946 01:07:49.800 --> 01:07:55.599 do you hear that that you're offered the job as the lead announcer and you 947 01:07:55.679 --> 01:07:59.079 turn it down and recommend somebody else for the position. That doesn't happen very 948 01:07:59.119 --> 01:08:01.119 often for those who don't know, though, Rick and Banni still has a 949 01:08:01.199 --> 01:08:06.920 non wrestling job in addition to his wrestling, where he works in patient services 950 01:08:06.960 --> 01:08:12.079 for a biotech company. So good on him. You know that he chose 951 01:08:12.119 --> 01:08:15.760 his family over putting more work on his plate. This way, he still 952 01:08:15.800 --> 01:08:19.560 gets to do wrestling stuff. Which he clearly enjoys, but with the travel 953 01:08:19.600 --> 01:08:23.000 and everything, it doesn't take up more of his time than it has to. 954 01:08:23.640 --> 01:08:28.279 I think he's been doing a Ring of Honor commentary remotely from home for 955 01:08:28.319 --> 01:08:33.960 a while. I don't even think he's there for the actual tapings. Other 956 01:08:33.960 --> 01:08:39.279 news and notes, One story real quick here. TMZ Sports broke the news 957 01:08:39.319 --> 01:08:44.119 on Tuesday that Edward Annis, better known in the wrestling world as Teddy Hart, 958 01:08:44.840 --> 01:08:47.520 was arrested last week in Titusville, Florida, after cops say he was 959 01:08:47.560 --> 01:08:54.800 in possession of ecstasy and steroids. According to Titusville PD documents, the drugs 960 01:08:54.800 --> 01:08:59.399 were found in Teddy's rental card during a routine traffic stop. Cops say they 961 01:08:59.439 --> 01:09:02.640 initially pulled over the forty three year old wrestler at around midnight after they say 962 01:09:02.640 --> 01:09:05.600 he ran a red light and traveled at a high rate of speed in a 963 01:09:05.680 --> 01:09:11.159 twenty twenty two Mustang. During the stop, though, police said they smelled 964 01:09:11.199 --> 01:09:16.039 an overbearing odor of burnt marijuana emanating from the vehicle, and they noticed an 965 01:09:16.119 --> 01:09:21.960 unsealed medical marijuana container with a faded label inside of the glove compartment, as 966 01:09:23.000 --> 01:09:28.239 well as several pieces of loose leaf marijuana shake on one of the car seats. 967 01:09:29.159 --> 01:09:31.399 During an ensuing search of the car, cops said they found a baggie 968 01:09:31.399 --> 01:09:36.399 of red pills and a baggie of red powder that both tested positive for the 969 01:09:36.439 --> 01:09:42.439 presence of MDMA. They also said that they found two small vials inside of 970 01:09:42.479 --> 01:09:47.560 a bag in the car that were labeled Masteron and testosterone scipionate, which cops 971 01:09:47.560 --> 01:09:54.199 say they are known as anabolic steroids. Cops also claimed they found another baggie 972 01:09:54.239 --> 01:09:57.960 during this point. This guy was a walking pharmacy here. They said they 973 01:09:58.000 --> 01:10:01.960 also found during the search a bag that contained a blue powdery substance, which 974 01:10:02.000 --> 01:10:06.920 they said also tested positive for MDMA. Heart was then arrested and booked on 975 01:10:06.960 --> 01:10:14.000 two felony charges, possession of MDMA and possession of a controlled substance without prescription. 976 01:10:15.720 --> 01:10:18.159 Story continues here. This is far from the first time the wrestler has 977 01:10:18.199 --> 01:10:21.359 had trouble with the law. He has been in and out of jail multiple 978 01:10:21.439 --> 01:10:26.359 times in the last few years, including back in twenty twenty one when he 979 01:10:26.399 --> 01:10:30.079 had also been accused of being in possession of a controlled substance. In fact, 980 01:10:30.119 --> 01:10:34.079 Teddy has been arrested so many times over the years A Twitter account called 981 01:10:34.319 --> 01:10:41.800 is Teddy Hart in Jail was reportedly created to monitor his myriad of legal issues, 982 01:10:43.159 --> 01:10:47.239 and in checking is Teddy Hart in jail, he is not currently in 983 01:10:47.319 --> 01:10:50.840 jail, but he is under house arrest, so I guess that half counts. 984 01:10:53.319 --> 01:10:56.840 Teddy Hart has not wrestled much these past few years. He just had 985 01:10:56.880 --> 01:11:00.600 his first match, I think, in three years. On July fourteenth, 986 01:11:00.640 --> 01:11:08.000 he was tagging with registered sex offender Chason Rance on a show for Rance's team 987 01:11:08.119 --> 01:11:14.239 Vision Dojo. Why am I not surprised? Dark Side of the Ring this 988 01:11:14.319 --> 01:11:17.039 week was the Abdullah the Butcher episode. It is the one that I was 989 01:11:17.119 --> 01:11:21.840 looking forward to the least of all the episodes of this season, and to 990 01:11:21.960 --> 01:11:28.600 that end, it did not disappoint. Now, Abdullah, he was a 991 01:11:28.760 --> 01:11:33.479 feared figure by the fans. Absolutely. It's kind of like how Bruiser Brody 992 01:11:33.640 --> 01:11:36.920 was when you would see him running into the crowd like a wild man in 993 01:11:36.960 --> 01:11:41.359 those matches in Japan, and the fans would scatter, they would run for 994 01:11:41.399 --> 01:11:44.960 their lives. If you were one of those fans, especially a younger fan, 995 01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:47.039 and you saw this giant man coming at you covered in blood with a 996 01:11:47.079 --> 01:11:50.800 fork in his hand, you would probably shit your pants. He made a 997 01:11:50.800 --> 01:11:56.039 lot of money and he was a great gimmick back in his day. I 998 01:11:56.119 --> 01:11:59.520 was never really a fan. You know, he stayed He never stayed in 999 01:11:59.600 --> 01:12:02.439 any one place for too long. He was the traveling attraction. He was 1000 01:12:02.479 --> 01:12:06.760 big in places like Puerto Rico in Japan. The first half of the episode 1001 01:12:08.520 --> 01:12:12.600 was background, although they left out a lot of stuff as far as background 1002 01:12:12.600 --> 01:12:15.199 goes, which is what happens when you have less than forty five minutes to 1003 01:12:15.239 --> 01:12:19.279 cram everything. In the second half was basically a retelling of the history between 1004 01:12:19.359 --> 01:12:27.359 Abdullah and Devin Nicholson, better known as Hannibal the wrestler, who allegedly contracted 1005 01:12:27.439 --> 01:12:31.279 hepatitis C from a match with Abdullah the Butcher. That's what he's always claimed. 1006 01:12:31.840 --> 01:12:34.960 He claims he got HEPSI from him in a double juice match they did 1007 01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:38.800 back in two thousand and seven, and that it later cost him a contract 1008 01:12:38.840 --> 01:12:44.119 with WWWE. There were lawsuits, there were court cases and judgments that Hannibal 1009 01:12:44.159 --> 01:12:46.399 won against him, and to this day he still has yet to collect a 1010 01:12:46.479 --> 01:12:53.439 penny. It's like Nancy Argentino's family winning a five hundred thousand dollars wrongful death 1011 01:12:53.439 --> 01:12:58.000 suit against Jimmy Snooker for killing their daughter. That was in nineteen eighty five 1012 01:12:58.119 --> 01:13:00.199 that they won that judgment. The family never saw a dime of that money 1013 01:13:00.520 --> 01:13:05.680 because he I always claimed he was broke. I'm broke, Brenna, Brona. 1014 01:13:05.720 --> 01:13:11.239 I got no money, Brenna, even though he kept working, even 1015 01:13:11.279 --> 01:13:14.640 got a second run in WWE. But I guess Vince McMahon paid him in 1016 01:13:14.680 --> 01:13:19.359 monopoly money because he was still too broke to pay Brota. I Also, 1017 01:13:19.439 --> 01:13:24.319 by the way, I also remember Snook's widow claiming he couldn't read or write 1018 01:13:24.359 --> 01:13:29.079 in English, and I laughed when I heard Abby claimed the same thing in 1019 01:13:29.119 --> 01:13:31.359 the episode here, that he never learned how to read or write, which 1020 01:13:31.399 --> 01:13:35.960 is why he lost the lawsuit that Hannibal filed, because they would send him 1021 01:13:35.960 --> 01:13:42.239 summonses and other legal documents, but he couldn't read them, so he had 1022 01:13:42.279 --> 01:13:46.760 no idea that he was supposed to show up for depositions and whatnot. You 1023 01:13:46.840 --> 01:13:51.239 know, a lot of these episodes with these old school you know wrestler they're 1024 01:13:51.239 --> 01:13:58.279 all carnies. You expect a certain level of embellishment and exaggeration. I kind 1025 01:13:58.279 --> 01:14:00.359 of joked about it when I was covering else from the Territories, which I 1026 01:14:00.439 --> 01:14:03.560 enjoyed, but you take it for what it is. It's a mixture of 1027 01:14:04.039 --> 01:14:09.199 fact and fiction. There were so many stories about eyeballs being gouged out. 1028 01:14:09.239 --> 01:14:13.239 After a while, I mean, it just it became comical. So you 1029 01:14:13.359 --> 01:14:17.039 expect something like that with these shows. It comes with the territory. Having 1030 01:14:17.079 --> 01:14:23.199 my intelligence insulted is something entirely different, and that's how I felt watching this. 1031 01:14:24.399 --> 01:14:28.680 There's also a lot of really scummy people in the wrestling business. There 1032 01:14:28.720 --> 01:14:32.159 are real life heels and there are real life baby faces. There were no 1033 01:14:32.239 --> 01:14:39.640 baby faces in this episode, only heels. Mick Foley was interviewed for this. 1034 01:14:39.760 --> 01:14:42.279 I guess he would be a baby face, but Mick Foley was interviewed 1035 01:14:42.279 --> 01:14:45.800 for this. You'll never get Mick Foley to say a cross word about anybody, 1036 01:14:45.520 --> 01:14:49.119 and he admits that he idolized Abdullah growing up. He even put a 1037 01:14:49.159 --> 01:14:53.000 photo of him on his wall in college. He would tell people that Abby 1038 01:14:53.119 --> 01:14:58.720 was his father. Hugo Savinovich, who was a star in Puerto Rico in 1039 01:14:58.800 --> 01:15:03.479 a long time spa Fish language announcer for WWE for almost twenty years. He 1040 01:15:03.560 --> 01:15:08.359 was interviewed as someone who was close to Abdullah for a long time. In 1041 01:15:08.399 --> 01:15:11.800 fact, he was Abbey's manager in Puerto Rico. You know, he had 1042 01:15:11.800 --> 01:15:15.000 trained to wrestle himself, but the promoter made him a manager instead, and 1043 01:15:15.039 --> 01:15:18.800 they had some footage of that. They also interviewed his caretaker and his sister 1044 01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:25.880 Josephine and his brother Ralph. They talked about their poor upbringing, with eight 1045 01:15:25.920 --> 01:15:29.479 people sharing a two bedroom house up in Canada, which is where he's from. 1046 01:15:30.680 --> 01:15:33.560 Abbey dropped out of school in the second grade, worked as a janitor, 1047 01:15:33.560 --> 01:15:38.359 a mover. He taught karate to senior citizens so they would know how 1048 01:15:38.359 --> 01:15:43.279 to defend themselves. And as they tell the story, it was his teaching 1049 01:15:43.399 --> 01:15:45.920 karate that got him noticed by a promoter who suggested that, hey, you 1050 01:15:45.920 --> 01:15:49.600 should be a wrestler, and he scoffed at the idea and said, I'm 1051 01:15:49.600 --> 01:15:53.560 not going to do that crap until the promoter told him, hey, you 1052 01:15:53.560 --> 01:15:58.199 can make a lot of money doing this. Then he changed his tune and 1053 01:15:58.479 --> 01:16:02.199 from there the story as him traveling to Detroit to work for the original Sheik 1054 01:16:02.760 --> 01:16:08.079 ed Farhat, who wasn't just a big star in the ring. He ran 1055 01:16:08.199 --> 01:16:12.199 the territory, but they made it sound like he got into the business and 1056 01:16:12.239 --> 01:16:15.319 immediately started working for the sheik as Abdullah the Butcher. He was wrestling at 1057 01:16:15.319 --> 01:16:19.760 Cobo Hall. There was a huge chunk in the middle that got left out 1058 01:16:19.760 --> 01:16:24.159 here. They completely glossed over the years and years that he spent working for 1059 01:16:24.239 --> 01:16:28.760 other promoters under different names. He was not always Abdulah the Butcher, and 1060 01:16:28.840 --> 01:16:33.119 he was not always working made events at Cobo Hall. Abdullah the Butcher didn't 1061 01:16:33.119 --> 01:16:39.279 happen on day one. It took time before he created the character. But 1062 01:16:39.319 --> 01:16:43.359 there was a story, and this was not mentioned in the episode, And 1063 01:16:43.560 --> 01:16:46.479 honestly, what I can understand why it wasn't anything that really impacted his career, 1064 01:16:46.520 --> 01:16:50.680 although it could have. Had things in this story happened a little bit 1065 01:16:50.680 --> 01:16:57.039 differently, it could have very well affected his career. But I just thought 1066 01:16:57.039 --> 01:17:00.800 this story would have been perfect for one of their rent aments that they do 1067 01:17:00.920 --> 01:17:05.319 on these shows. Back in the sixties and seventies, there were a number 1068 01:17:05.479 --> 01:17:11.560 of airplane hijackings in the news. It was like an epidemic of hijackings. 1069 01:17:11.600 --> 01:17:17.159 There was one newspaper clipping I saw from July of nineteen sixty eight to February 1070 01:17:17.199 --> 01:17:21.319 of nineteen sixty nine. Alone, just that period July of sixty eight to 1071 01:17:21.359 --> 01:17:28.479 February of sixty nine, there were twenty seven hijackings. One of those hijack 1072 01:17:28.560 --> 01:17:31.720 airliners was an Eastern Airlines flight that was in route from San Juan to Miami 1073 01:17:32.319 --> 01:17:39.279 and happened to be carrying Abdullah the Butcher, and the story said the hijacker 1074 01:17:39.399 --> 01:17:44.399 was a fat man who hid an automatic pistol in a shirt box that was 1075 01:17:44.600 --> 01:17:48.199 in his lap. The man wanted to go to Cuba to visit his sick 1076 01:17:48.239 --> 01:17:51.319 father, and he told them he felt like this was his only recourse. 1077 01:17:51.359 --> 01:17:55.840 This was the only way he could think of to try to get to Cuba. 1078 01:17:55.920 --> 01:17:59.199 He wasn't threatening to shoot anyone. He wasn't waving the gun around and 1079 01:17:59.279 --> 01:18:01.800 yelling and screen. They said. He actually seemed kind of nervous. But 1080 01:18:02.079 --> 01:18:06.279 Abby and another wrestler on the plane happened again to be on the flight. 1081 01:18:06.920 --> 01:18:12.119 They were pissed off about the whole thing and the flight possibly being diverted to 1082 01:18:12.159 --> 01:18:15.560 Havana, so Abby got up out of his seat and he started moving towards 1083 01:18:15.600 --> 01:18:20.079 the hijacker. Thankfully, one of the flight attendants convinced him to go back 1084 01:18:20.119 --> 01:18:24.880 to his seat, because who knows how that would have turned out otherwise. 1085 01:18:25.600 --> 01:18:29.479 I mean, it wasn't some skilled assassin. It was just some random guy 1086 01:18:29.520 --> 01:18:31.079 who thought this was the only way he could get to Cuba to see his 1087 01:18:31.119 --> 01:18:35.560 father. But he still had a gun. You know, you put a 1088 01:18:35.600 --> 01:18:41.560 gun in someone's hand when they're nervous, anything can happen. In the story, 1089 01:18:41.600 --> 01:18:45.800 it described Abbey as two hundred and thirty pounds with scars on his bald 1090 01:18:45.840 --> 01:18:48.279 head. That may be the most shocking part that Abbey was ever two hundred 1091 01:18:48.319 --> 01:18:50.079 and thirty pounds. Yeah, I just in my head, I kind of 1092 01:18:50.199 --> 01:18:54.680 envisioned when he popped out of his mother's womb, he was already, you 1093 01:18:54.720 --> 01:18:58.359 know, pretty much a cool two fifty. I'm trying to picture two hundred 1094 01:18:58.359 --> 01:19:01.119 and thirty pounds Abdulah the Butcher my head. I just can't do it. 1095 01:19:01.840 --> 01:19:04.760 I can't do it. I gotta find photos of him from the sixties just 1096 01:19:04.800 --> 01:19:10.560 to see it from myself. But they talked about his time in Puerto Rico, 1097 01:19:11.119 --> 01:19:15.039 the home of hardcore, and no one shed more blood in their matches 1098 01:19:15.279 --> 01:19:20.439 than Abdullah the Butcher, whether it was his own blood or other people's blood, 1099 01:19:20.520 --> 01:19:25.159 Nobody shed more blood than he did. He was big in Japan also, 1100 01:19:25.279 --> 01:19:28.159 not only in the ring. They showed him appearing in movies and TV 1101 01:19:28.279 --> 01:19:30.640 commercials. He was in cartoon for him, he was in video games. 1102 01:19:30.680 --> 01:19:35.520 He was like a pop culture celebrity over there, even recorded an album. 1103 01:19:36.840 --> 01:19:45.199 And then we meet Hannibal Devin Nicholson, who started wrestling for Stampede back in 1104 01:19:45.239 --> 01:19:47.760 two thousand and one. He even started his own promotion up North, which 1105 01:19:47.760 --> 01:19:51.600 I believe he still runs to this day. But he started that up all 1106 01:19:51.680 --> 01:19:57.199 that before. Finally he works with Abdullah. Abby is the first wrestler to 1107 01:19:57.279 --> 01:20:00.560 really take him under his wing and teach him the business. They would tag 1108 01:20:00.640 --> 01:20:04.479 together, they would work against each other. He says he knows people are 1109 01:20:04.520 --> 01:20:08.920 going to hate him for exposing Abby, but he doesn't care. Actually they 1110 01:20:08.960 --> 01:20:13.239 opened the episode. The end of the intro to the episode is just Hannibal 1111 01:20:13.359 --> 01:20:17.399 on camera staring directly at us to deliver the following message to Abdullah the Butcher, 1112 01:20:18.000 --> 01:20:20.920 You're a piece of shit and I hope that when you die, you 1113 01:20:21.039 --> 01:20:29.920 die a really slow and painful death. What a heartwarming message. Tony Atlas 1114 01:20:29.960 --> 01:20:33.439 was also interviewed for this. He talked about Abby taping blades to each one 1115 01:20:33.439 --> 01:20:38.319 of his fingers and cutting people with them during his matches. You know, 1116 01:20:38.720 --> 01:20:43.039 the idea of him doing that to people if they weren't expecting it, or 1117 01:20:43.079 --> 01:20:45.479 if they had not agreed to it beforehand, and maybe some of them did, 1118 01:20:46.279 --> 01:20:50.239 but if not, I mean, that's just sickening. Tony said that 1119 01:20:50.279 --> 01:20:54.439 nobody ever complained about it that he was aware of, because if you did, 1120 01:20:54.960 --> 01:21:00.880 then you wouldn't be considered tough enough. What a business Back to Hannibal, 1121 01:21:00.359 --> 01:21:04.720 he said he was signed to a wweek contract and they did show footage 1122 01:21:04.760 --> 01:21:08.039 of some of the sea level shows that he worked for them, although the 1123 01:21:08.039 --> 01:21:12.680 footage looked to be from two thousand and five, so that was not when 1124 01:21:12.680 --> 01:21:16.199 he was signed, but he did get signed later on. It wasn't until 1125 01:21:16.279 --> 01:21:20.880 years later that he got signed to a contract. And then again, he 1126 01:21:20.920 --> 01:21:26.920 claims when they found out that he had hepatitis C, they rescinded his deal, 1127 01:21:28.199 --> 01:21:30.680 and he's talked elsewhere about them pulling the deal not for medical reasons, 1128 01:21:30.720 --> 01:21:34.439 but because there were a handful of states that wouldn't license him to wrestle because 1129 01:21:34.439 --> 01:21:40.000 of the heps or they wouldn't allow him to work there and I don't know 1130 01:21:40.039 --> 01:21:42.960 what states those would have been. Obviously, if it was New York or 1131 01:21:43.000 --> 01:21:45.800 California or Florida, that would have been a problem. If it was North 1132 01:21:45.880 --> 01:21:50.199 Dakota or Utah or something, that's less of an issue because they don't run 1133 01:21:50.239 --> 01:21:55.640 shows there. Now there are international tours. People like Jeff Hardy an MVP 1134 01:21:55.760 --> 01:22:00.199 couldn't work in the past because of their criminal records, or the USO's you 1135 01:22:00.199 --> 01:22:04.159 know, sometimes couldn't get across the border because of their DUIs. Hannibal Hannibal 1136 01:22:04.239 --> 01:22:08.239 was not a star on their level, but if he was ever going to 1137 01:22:08.279 --> 01:22:13.880 be, and he would not have been. He doesn't have the best reputation 1138 01:22:13.920 --> 01:22:16.399 to begin with. But hypothetically, if he was ever going to be a 1139 01:22:16.399 --> 01:22:19.279 star on that level, then it would be a problem if he wasn't allowed 1140 01:22:19.279 --> 01:22:24.800 to work in certain places. So he was confused about how he contracted the 1141 01:22:24.840 --> 01:22:27.439 disease in the first place. Tony Atlas said, a lot of guys would 1142 01:22:27.520 --> 01:22:30.720 use dirty blades. They would share a blade with somebody who needed one for 1143 01:22:30.760 --> 01:22:33.720 their match. You could be in the locker room and if you wanted to 1144 01:22:33.720 --> 01:22:36.840 get color, or you were told you're getting color that night, you might 1145 01:22:36.840 --> 01:22:41.560 turn to someone like Abdullah, who you know is going to be prepared and 1146 01:22:41.600 --> 01:22:43.760 say, hey, Abby, I need a blade for tonight. Right, 1147 01:22:44.199 --> 01:22:47.239 That's the sort of thing that, according to Tony Atlas, would go on 1148 01:22:48.199 --> 01:22:53.239 and would happen. And then even now, look, sharing is caring. 1149 01:22:53.760 --> 01:22:57.960 But the problem is that after the match would be over, that person, 1150 01:22:58.079 --> 01:23:00.520 let's say Abby, would take it back from them. After they would take 1151 01:23:00.560 --> 01:23:04.800 back the dirty blade, they might not even clean it. So now you 1152 01:23:04.880 --> 01:23:09.840 have this person who just cut themselves with a razor blade and they're giving it 1153 01:23:09.880 --> 01:23:12.479 back to the person they got it from, who in turn will end up 1154 01:23:12.520 --> 01:23:17.279 cutting themselves or someone else with that same dirty blade. It's like drug addicts 1155 01:23:17.279 --> 01:23:24.760 that share needles. It's sick. Nicholson immediately thinks it may have been from 1156 01:23:24.800 --> 01:23:28.399 Abdullah, who said in the episode he didn't want to talk about any of 1157 01:23:28.399 --> 01:23:32.119 that stuff. Nicholson had a documentary that was being made at the time about 1158 01:23:32.159 --> 01:23:36.600 his journey to WWE that went from you know, this happy thing to being 1159 01:23:36.640 --> 01:23:41.239 a sad thing when he found out he wasn't going to WWE. And I 1160 01:23:41.279 --> 01:23:44.359 think it may have been his videographer who found the footage of the match that 1161 01:23:44.399 --> 01:23:47.680 he had with Abdullah from two thousand and seven, whoever it was who found 1162 01:23:47.680 --> 01:23:53.760 the footage. Nicholson claims that this is the match from a Bad News Allan 1163 01:23:53.800 --> 01:23:58.199 tribute show was May of two thousand and seven where he contracted the disease. 1164 01:23:58.840 --> 01:24:01.880 He was Hannibal against that Dullah the Butcher in a steelcage match, and they 1165 01:24:01.880 --> 01:24:05.720 showed the footage. Abdullah he cuts his own head with a razor and then 1166 01:24:05.760 --> 01:24:12.800 he uses the same razor blade taped to his finger to poke at Hannibal's forehead. 1167 01:24:12.800 --> 01:24:15.079 You can see it playing his day. He pokes him over and over 1168 01:24:15.119 --> 01:24:19.359 and over again. Now I should know that before that match, Nicholson was 1169 01:24:19.399 --> 01:24:25.000 coming off of a tour of Puerto Rico where I'm sure he was blating himself 1170 01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:28.880 probably in every match. His opponents may have been doing the same thing. 1171 01:24:30.119 --> 01:24:34.439 Then he comes back and he works with Abby, but he goes and finds 1172 01:24:34.439 --> 01:24:39.239 a lawyer. He sues Abby over it. They got Abbey to provide a 1173 01:24:39.279 --> 01:24:43.079 blood sample which showed a history of hepatitis. Not only did he have it, 1174 01:24:43.239 --> 01:24:47.800 he had the exact same strain that Nicholson had. Now I'm gonna play 1175 01:24:47.840 --> 01:24:53.960 Devil's advocate here, I'm gonna play devil's advocate. I do wonder, given 1176 01:24:54.000 --> 01:24:58.079 how many other matches he was bleeding in, how sure can he be that 1177 01:24:58.199 --> 01:25:00.920 it was actually Abdullah that gave him the hepatitis and not the other way around, 1178 01:25:02.439 --> 01:25:04.119 right, I mean, there may be a way for them to know. 1179 01:25:04.720 --> 01:25:08.960 I just wonder how they can be so sure. I don't doubt that 1180 01:25:09.000 --> 01:25:14.199 Abdullah probably had hepatitis for years from all the blood beats that he had, 1181 01:25:15.039 --> 01:25:17.279 and he wasn't exactly willing to provide a blood sample. He had to be 1182 01:25:17.319 --> 01:25:21.760 forced to do so so if he knew, or if he thought that he 1183 01:25:21.880 --> 01:25:26.720 might have the disease, or even if he didn't know, but he never 1184 01:25:26.760 --> 01:25:30.680 bothered to get himself tested and checked for his own health, more importantly, 1185 01:25:30.720 --> 01:25:34.840 for the health of the people he was working with and cutting that makes him 1186 01:25:34.880 --> 01:25:42.119 a gigantic piece of shit. This is where we hear Abby talking about how 1187 01:25:42.720 --> 01:25:45.199 he can't read or write, so he couldn't read the lawsuit when he was 1188 01:25:45.239 --> 01:25:49.920 served the papers in the mail, and so Nicholson wanted default judgment when he 1189 01:25:49.960 --> 01:25:54.800 didn't respond. He actually wanting court twice, once in Ontario and then once 1190 01:25:54.840 --> 01:25:59.319 in Georgia, which is where Abbey used to run his own was there ribs 1191 01:25:59.319 --> 01:26:03.880 in Chinese restaurant. I think he won two point three million dollars in damages. 1192 01:26:03.920 --> 01:26:08.560 He still has not seen a dime. He's accused Abbey of hiding his 1193 01:26:08.600 --> 01:26:14.199 assets. Tony Atlas says that Devin Nicholson shouldn't get anything, and he blames 1194 01:26:14.479 --> 01:26:17.720 him for not cutting himself. He claims he was too afraid to do it 1195 01:26:17.800 --> 01:26:23.039 himself, which sounds very odd considering how much Nicholson bled in all of his 1196 01:26:23.079 --> 01:26:27.000 other matches. I doubt he was having other people cut him in those matches. 1197 01:26:27.600 --> 01:26:31.000 He seemed like he was perfectly fine cutting himself. I know he also 1198 01:26:31.079 --> 01:26:35.479 sued WWE for wrongful termination in twenty eleven. He's settled with them the following 1199 01:26:35.560 --> 01:26:39.079 year. I don't know for how much. I don't know what the terms 1200 01:26:39.079 --> 01:26:44.560 were. I don't think that was ever disclosed. Abbey's caretaker and his brother 1201 01:26:44.640 --> 01:26:47.159 and sister, they parrot this nonsense about him not being able to read or 1202 01:26:47.159 --> 01:26:51.880 write. Even Mick Foley. Even Mick Foley, who speaks about the men 1203 01:26:51.960 --> 01:26:56.319 in glowing terms, said he traveled the road for years with Abbey. They 1204 01:26:56.319 --> 01:27:00.039 would eat out at restaurants, sometimes three times a day, never not one 1205 01:27:00.079 --> 01:27:06.279 time did he ever see Abby having a problem reading? Menus Hugo Savinovitch, 1206 01:27:06.319 --> 01:27:10.399 who also spent all that time with Abby, said this was the first he 1207 01:27:10.439 --> 01:27:15.199 ever heard that he couldn't read or write. It was a convenient excuse for 1208 01:27:15.279 --> 01:27:18.239 him to come up with, and I don't believe a word of it. 1209 01:27:20.199 --> 01:27:26.119 His caretaker showed us some photographs allegedly of Abby's home. You see water damage 1210 01:27:26.119 --> 01:27:29.880 on the walls and such, you know, to show us the poor conditions 1211 01:27:29.920 --> 01:27:31.479 that he's living in since he has no money to fix any of it. 1212 01:27:31.880 --> 01:27:35.439 She says people have taken advantage of him over the years. They threw quite 1213 01:27:35.439 --> 01:27:40.920 the pity party for him in this episode. As far as Nicholson goes, 1214 01:27:40.960 --> 01:27:44.520 he's no better than Abby. I have no sympathy for the guy, especially 1215 01:27:44.560 --> 01:27:46.920 after the referee insid in Texas, and I was very happy they covered this 1216 01:27:46.960 --> 01:27:50.680 and they did not shy away from it. What Nicholson claims Abby did to 1217 01:27:50.760 --> 01:27:55.199 him, there's no excuse for that. But for Hannibal to play victim when 1218 01:27:55.239 --> 01:28:00.399 he did what he did to this guy two years ago is disgusting. There 1219 01:28:00.439 --> 01:28:04.439 was a world class pro wrestling show in Irving, Texas. Nicholson was working 1220 01:28:04.439 --> 01:28:09.800 the show, not his Hannibal, but as his alter ego, this other 1221 01:28:09.920 --> 01:28:14.720 character he calls the blood Hunter by the way, He set up a gofund 1222 01:28:14.760 --> 01:28:18.359 me a few months after this incident to raise money to produce a movie about 1223 01:28:18.399 --> 01:28:24.399 his Blood Hunter character. He was asking for fifty thousand dollars. You would 1224 01:28:24.399 --> 01:28:28.720 be better off setting your money on fire. He raised a little over two 1225 01:28:28.800 --> 01:28:32.359 hundred bucks Canadian before it was shut down. But it was the blood Hunter 1226 01:28:32.439 --> 01:28:38.399 against Carlito, and there was a planned spot with a referee, this guy, 1227 01:28:38.560 --> 01:28:42.439 Lando del Toro, who cut a deal with Nicholson before the match. 1228 01:28:42.560 --> 01:28:45.000 She was going to dress up like a referee and he was going to get 1229 01:28:45.000 --> 01:28:48.720 color after the match for like seventy five bucks or something. I think is 1230 01:28:48.760 --> 01:28:53.000 what the cops said he was paid. He agreed to do the spot. 1231 01:28:53.039 --> 01:28:56.520 He said, no problem, I bled before, and he did bleed. 1232 01:28:56.720 --> 01:29:00.760 He bled a lot more than he bargained for. Things got out of control. 1233 01:29:00.079 --> 01:29:04.199 Nicholson used a spike to stab this guy in the head multiple times. 1234 01:29:04.239 --> 01:29:08.479 I think he's claimed he didn't realize the spike was sticking out of the bottom 1235 01:29:08.520 --> 01:29:12.760 of his hand as he was jabbing him repeatedly in the head with it. 1236 01:29:12.760 --> 01:29:16.920 It was disturbing to watch, and not disturbing in a getting heat kind of 1237 01:29:16.960 --> 01:29:20.640 way. It was disturbing in a you're taking liberties with someone and mutilating them 1238 01:29:20.720 --> 01:29:27.680 kind of way. It was sickening to watch. Nicholson claimed he wasn't even 1239 01:29:27.720 --> 01:29:30.439 given the spike until he was in the ring, so he had never handled 1240 01:29:30.439 --> 01:29:33.680 it before, and he had trouble seeing out of the eye holes of his 1241 01:29:33.760 --> 01:29:39.000 masks due to the mesh. If that's the case and you can't see, 1242 01:29:39.039 --> 01:29:44.439 then why the fuck are you using a spike to cut somebody open? He 1243 01:29:44.560 --> 01:29:47.479 claimed it was the actual spike that Kevin Sullivan used in the eighties on Dusty 1244 01:29:47.560 --> 01:29:53.119 Road. Sullivan was the one booking the show that night. Nicholson blamed Del 1245 01:29:53.159 --> 01:29:57.239 Toro for not letting him know that he was really hurting him during the angle. 1246 01:29:57.279 --> 01:30:01.239 He blamed the other guy. I guess he was blameless for what happened. 1247 01:30:01.239 --> 01:30:05.199 It was the referee's fault for not speaking up. It was the mask's 1248 01:30:05.199 --> 01:30:12.119 fault because he couldn't see. The actual referee for the match itself said after 1249 01:30:12.199 --> 01:30:15.159 that he knew something was off with Nicholson even before the match when he saw 1250 01:30:15.239 --> 01:30:19.439 him. I guess in the back stumbling around. Nobody could find him for 1251 01:30:19.479 --> 01:30:25.000 almost ten minutes before he was scheduled to go out. Del Toro ended up 1252 01:30:25.000 --> 01:30:29.479 with seven staples in his head. He underwent emergency surgery to repair a severed 1253 01:30:29.560 --> 01:30:33.439 artery in his skull. He lost almost three pints of blood. He ended 1254 01:30:33.479 --> 01:30:38.479 up back in the hospital later on with a blood infection. Someone set up 1255 01:30:38.479 --> 01:30:41.720 a go fund me to help him pay for his medical bills. The promotion, 1256 01:30:41.760 --> 01:30:45.359 which I think has since gone belly up. They banned Nicholson from all 1257 01:30:45.359 --> 01:30:46.920 events going forward. They said they would never book him, they would never 1258 01:30:46.920 --> 01:30:51.199 do business with him again. He's lucky he was and prosecuted for what he 1259 01:30:51.279 --> 01:30:57.000 did. He should have been blackballed from the wrestling business, and basically he 1260 01:30:57.199 --> 01:31:00.600 was. From the looks of it. He's only wrestled twice then, both 1261 01:31:00.640 --> 01:31:04.359 times were for his own promotion. He booked himself. There should be no 1262 01:31:04.439 --> 01:31:09.920 place in wrestling for people who do that sort of thing. They aired an 1263 01:31:09.960 --> 01:31:13.840 audio clip of land Storm on Wrestling Observer Radio after the incident happened. He 1264 01:31:13.880 --> 01:31:16.960 was appalled. He was talking about how appalled he was by the entire thing. 1265 01:31:16.960 --> 01:31:21.239 He was wondering why charges weren't pressed and why Nicholson wasn't in jail for 1266 01:31:21.279 --> 01:31:26.560 what he did. Del Toro opted to not press charges at the time, 1267 01:31:26.600 --> 01:31:30.159 which is too bad because he should have been thrown in a cell for what 1268 01:31:30.239 --> 01:31:34.239 he did. In the episode, Nicholson says the promoter didn't have any medics 1269 01:31:34.279 --> 01:31:39.079 on site and that it went on longer than it should have and it was 1270 01:31:39.399 --> 01:31:45.760 bad communication all around, more excuses. It's everyone else's fault. It's like 1271 01:31:45.800 --> 01:31:48.800 I said at the top of this, there are no good people in this 1272 01:31:48.840 --> 01:31:54.000 episode. If I showed this episode to someone who knew nothing about pro wrestling, 1273 01:31:54.399 --> 01:31:57.079 but they know I'm a big fan and I cover it. God only 1274 01:31:57.119 --> 01:32:00.239 knows what they would think of me. I would be embarrassed. I'm sure 1275 01:32:00.279 --> 01:32:06.000 their opinion of me would drop faster than wwe dropped. Hannibal Abby at the 1276 01:32:06.119 --> 01:32:10.960 end of this is asked about his legacy. He says, I just want 1277 01:32:11.000 --> 01:32:15.000 respect for all that I've done. He said, I did not do all 1278 01:32:15.000 --> 01:32:18.560 the things I'm accused of doing. He said he got shafted all the tapes 1279 01:32:18.880 --> 01:32:21.560 what he made for many many years. He says, I got nothing. 1280 01:32:24.079 --> 01:32:27.800 It's hard to feel sorry for anyone in this episode. Because there are no 1281 01:32:27.960 --> 01:32:32.359 likable people involved here. This Tuesday, it's going to be the episode on 1282 01:32:32.479 --> 01:32:35.600 Bam Bam Bigelow, which I am looking forward to. Of course, I 1283 01:32:35.600 --> 01:32:38.920 will have a review for that on the show next week, as I do 1284 01:32:39.000 --> 01:32:43.640 every week. Let's hit the mail bag. I'm done talking about this. 1285 01:32:44.079 --> 01:32:47.359 You can email me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com. Always include your 1286 01:32:47.439 --> 01:32:49.880 name or where you are from so I could try to get you in here. 1287 01:32:50.920 --> 01:32:57.520 Faisal from Kuwait curious to hear your take about this. Tony Cohn appeared 1288 01:32:57.560 --> 01:33:00.680 on the Dan LeBatard Show a few days ago and he was asked about soccer 1289 01:33:00.760 --> 01:33:06.039 clubs and Saudi Arabia targeting Fulham players. He responded by saying, it's amazing. 1290 01:33:06.199 --> 01:33:09.840 I think if you have enough money, you can get away with anything, 1291 01:33:10.000 --> 01:33:15.880 including murder. How this ties into AW is that Warner Brothers Discovery currently 1292 01:33:15.880 --> 01:33:20.680 has a deal with Saudi Arabia worth thirteen billion dollars to open indoor amusement parks. 1293 01:33:20.960 --> 01:33:27.960 Could Tony Khan's latest comments negatively affect AW during their negotiations for a new 1294 01:33:27.960 --> 01:33:30.960 TV deal, and should Tony Kahn cut down on the tweeting and public comments 1295 01:33:31.000 --> 01:33:35.119 as one slip up could end up doing more harm than good. It's great 1296 01:33:35.159 --> 01:33:39.960 that an owner is so open about talking about his projects, but sometimes less 1297 01:33:40.159 --> 01:33:45.399 is more. Well. I am a big proponent of less is more for 1298 01:33:45.439 --> 01:33:47.399 a lot of different reasons, and I think it would be wise for him 1299 01:33:47.399 --> 01:33:53.159 to, if not cut down, certainly be more mindful of stuff that he 1300 01:33:53.159 --> 01:33:56.199 tweets, because there have been things he's tweeted before, not about this, 1301 01:33:56.319 --> 01:34:00.520 but other things that kind of ended up biting him on the AD. I 1302 01:34:00.520 --> 01:34:03.119 think back to the big Swoll stuff as an example. I did see that 1303 01:34:03.159 --> 01:34:06.760 clip. He's not wrong. There are people who get away with a lot 1304 01:34:06.800 --> 01:34:11.600 of things when they have money. That's just how the world works. I 1305 01:34:11.600 --> 01:34:15.239 don't think it's going to have any effect on his negotiations with Warner Brothers Discovery. 1306 01:34:15.359 --> 01:34:18.680 As far as aw goes, one has nothing to do with the other, 1307 01:34:19.239 --> 01:34:23.039 And if he wants to come out and say something like that, he's 1308 01:34:23.239 --> 01:34:27.520 free to do so. You know, there's been other things like I said, 1309 01:34:27.560 --> 01:34:30.680 that he has tweeted about before that we're probably better left unsaid, But 1310 01:34:30.760 --> 01:34:35.880 again, nothing that would jeopardize his television deal or negotiations or anything like that. 1311 01:34:38.039 --> 01:34:42.880 You know, there's also been this narrative for years about the Khan family 1312 01:34:42.960 --> 01:34:45.359 doing business with the Saudi government. I saw it again in some of the 1313 01:34:45.399 --> 01:34:50.359 comments underneath the LeBatard clip. To be fair to Tony, he's addressed this 1314 01:34:50.479 --> 01:34:58.199 before. His father, Shad Khan, he bought a hotel years ago from 1315 01:34:58.199 --> 01:35:00.479 a person. It was one person, it wasn't the government. I think 1316 01:35:00.520 --> 01:35:05.640 it was a four seasons hotel. And when people were criticizing WWE after the 1317 01:35:05.680 --> 01:35:11.359 Koshogie murder for doing business with the Crown Prince, somehow this became oh, 1318 01:35:11.439 --> 01:35:15.079 yeah, well Shad Khan did the same thing. Shad Khan does business with 1319 01:35:15.119 --> 01:35:18.800 the Saudi government. Also. It's pretty misleading. Yeah, I know that 1320 01:35:18.920 --> 01:35:21.680 really upset Tony. He came out to defend his father. He said, 1321 01:35:21.720 --> 01:35:27.239 buying one hotel from one individual is not the same thing, and it is. 1322 01:35:27.239 --> 01:35:30.119 It's a false equivalency. It's not exactly the same thing. But people 1323 01:35:30.159 --> 01:35:33.560 love to kind of throw that out there. But no, his comment is 1324 01:35:33.560 --> 01:35:38.960 not going to have any impact on their negotiations or they're standing with Warner Brothers 1325 01:35:39.039 --> 01:35:45.039 Discovery. Jay Van from The Bronx has an idea on what to do with 1326 01:35:45.239 --> 01:35:49.239 La Night. I was thinking, since WWE is using more main roster talents 1327 01:35:49.279 --> 01:35:55.279 on NXT. What if Carmelo Hayes after he retains at the Great American Bash, 1328 01:35:55.479 --> 01:35:59.279 issues an open shoutow. There it is again. There are those two 1329 01:35:59.319 --> 01:36:03.600 words again, the open challenge. An open challenge to any star from any 1330 01:36:03.640 --> 01:36:09.079 brand for the NXT title, and on the next episode, La Knight answers 1331 01:36:09.079 --> 01:36:13.920 the challenge and wins the NXT Championship. It could help boost the ratings for 1332 01:36:14.039 --> 01:36:17.159 NXT and also keep him from losing, and it can keep the crab reactions 1333 01:36:17.159 --> 01:36:24.000 he has from fading away and have him do what Dom is doing and compete 1334 01:36:24.000 --> 01:36:27.359 on SmackDown and NX TAT for a while. What do you think. I 1335 01:36:27.399 --> 01:36:30.359 don't like that idea at all. I don't like that idea at all, 1336 01:36:30.800 --> 01:36:33.960 just because La Knight should not be winning the NXT Championship. He should be 1337 01:36:33.960 --> 01:36:38.720 winning championships on the main roster. If anything, don't I don't want to 1338 01:36:38.720 --> 01:36:41.399 see La Knight in n X State's fine if they want to have some main 1339 01:36:41.479 --> 01:36:45.159 roster crossover and they want to have some people on there, and look the 1340 01:36:45.239 --> 01:36:47.079 judgment day right, They're one of the biggest acts in the entire company. 1341 01:36:47.199 --> 01:36:50.960 So it's like if it's good for Finn Balor, and it's good for Ria 1342 01:36:51.039 --> 01:36:56.159 Ripley. Why wouldn't it be good for La Knight because it wouldn't be because 1343 01:36:56.239 --> 01:37:00.479 right now he needs to be established on Raw and SmackDown. But the other 1344 01:37:00.479 --> 01:37:02.840 reason I don't like that is what you said in the last sentence. They're 1345 01:37:02.840 --> 01:37:06.840 already doing it with Dominic. I was fine with them putting the North American 1346 01:37:06.880 --> 01:37:11.439 title on Dominic. I would not be fine with them making a habit out 1347 01:37:11.439 --> 01:37:13.720 of it and saying, oh, well, we'll put this title on another 1348 01:37:13.720 --> 01:37:15.720 main roster guy. We'll put this title. Why don't you just have every 1349 01:37:15.720 --> 01:37:20.600 main roster star holding all the NXT titles. It doesn't work. You did 1350 01:37:20.640 --> 01:37:25.800 it once with dom leave well enough alone. I don't want to see them 1351 01:37:25.840 --> 01:37:29.239 doing that with anybody else. Not as long as Dominic has one of the 1352 01:37:29.359 --> 01:37:32.880 NXT titles. I certainly wouldn't be doing that with somebody else. I mean, 1353 01:37:32.920 --> 01:37:38.600 I think we're probably going to see Finn Balor challenging for the NXT Championship 1354 01:37:38.600 --> 01:37:42.239 at some point. I feel like it has to happen because he's already beaten 1355 01:37:42.520 --> 01:37:46.159 Carmelo Haze twice. Hayes is going to have to get his retribution at some 1356 01:37:46.239 --> 01:37:53.560 point, but I don't expect Baller to win Dark Soul. Jeff Cole, 1357 01:37:54.680 --> 01:37:59.880 who has been listening since twenty ten. I was watching Death before Dishonor and 1358 01:38:00.079 --> 01:38:03.760 during the Tracy Williams Josh Woods match, they mentioned that Williams survived a life 1359 01:38:03.760 --> 01:38:09.359 threatening car accident while saving a dog in Brooklyn, New York. Do you 1360 01:38:09.399 --> 01:38:15.199 have any knowledge regarding this accident. I don't know about the saving a dog 1361 01:38:15.279 --> 01:38:17.439 part. What happened is that he was crossing the street with his dog. 1362 01:38:17.680 --> 01:38:20.319 This was a couple of years ago, and he got hit by a car. 1363 01:38:21.680 --> 01:38:25.720 The driver ran a red light. Thankfully he was I think he was 1364 01:38:25.760 --> 01:38:30.039 only going like twenty miles an hour or twenty five miles an hour. If 1365 01:38:30.079 --> 01:38:32.239 he was going any faster than that, this would be a very different mailbag 1366 01:38:32.319 --> 01:38:38.119 question that you're sending into me. So thankfully he was only going twenty five 1367 01:38:38.279 --> 01:38:43.760 ish as far as his speedometer is concerned. Somehow the dog did not get 1368 01:38:43.840 --> 01:38:48.039 hit. The dog, I guess was unscathed. Maybe that's what you're thinking 1369 01:38:48.079 --> 01:38:50.800 of. It wasn't so much that he saved the dog. I don't think 1370 01:38:50.800 --> 01:38:57.000 he didn't have enough time to shield the dog or throw the dog out of 1371 01:38:57.039 --> 01:39:00.199 the way. I think it all happened so quickly. If he had the 1372 01:39:00.239 --> 01:39:02.359 time, he may well have saved the dog. There are a lot of 1373 01:39:02.399 --> 01:39:05.720 people who would have jumped in the way to save their pets. Pets are 1374 01:39:05.760 --> 01:39:09.960 like family. I don't think that's what happened here, though, so that 1375 01:39:10.000 --> 01:39:13.520 may be what you're thinking of. But it was also sudden. I don't 1376 01:39:13.560 --> 01:39:15.319 think he had a choice. It's just pure luck. You know that the 1377 01:39:15.359 --> 01:39:19.079 dog didn't get hurt, or that he didn't get killed. How many people 1378 01:39:19.079 --> 01:39:24.039 who get hit by cars don't get killed? I would wager a bet. 1379 01:39:24.079 --> 01:39:27.439 I don't have a scientific stat in front of me to back this up, 1380 01:39:27.800 --> 01:39:31.960 but I would think of all the people who were hit by cars in this 1381 01:39:32.119 --> 01:39:36.479 country in a given year, probably the majority of them do not end up 1382 01:39:38.319 --> 01:39:44.279 surviving or do not end up at least without very serious life altering injuries. 1383 01:39:44.520 --> 01:39:46.840 So I would say that Tracy Williams ended up being one of the lucky ones. 1384 01:39:48.960 --> 01:39:54.000 David from Sacramento. I was watching back the matches that CM Punk had 1385 01:39:54.039 --> 01:39:58.199 with The Rock in twenty thirteen and the promos leading up to them, and 1386 01:39:58.279 --> 01:40:01.760 thought Rock was outclassed by Punk. Am I the only one who feels this 1387 01:40:01.760 --> 01:40:04.600 way. I don't hate Rock, but he seemed out of his element here. 1388 01:40:04.640 --> 01:40:12.479 Do you agree those segments have not aged well for the Rock. I 1389 01:40:12.479 --> 01:40:15.000 don't think they were that great from him back then either, but they've only 1390 01:40:15.039 --> 01:40:19.319 gotten worse with time. I thought Cmpunk made him look silly, honestly, 1391 01:40:19.520 --> 01:40:23.800 especially that one promo where he nailed him with the line about you know, 1392 01:40:23.920 --> 01:40:28.439 Rock's arms being too short to box with God. That was such a great 1393 01:40:28.479 --> 01:40:30.760 line. I forgot where he got it from. Was it was it Ali? 1394 01:40:31.199 --> 01:40:33.600 Did Ali say that line? Muhammad Ali? I don't remember, but 1395 01:40:34.119 --> 01:40:38.479 it was just it was such a great line. And I wish I could 1396 01:40:38.520 --> 01:40:41.920 remember what Rock came back with, but I think it was some lame, 1397 01:40:42.439 --> 01:40:45.600 some lame shit that he came back with, even some of his stuff in 1398 01:40:45.640 --> 01:40:48.439 the feud with John Cena, you know, I thought Sina, I don't 1399 01:40:48.479 --> 01:40:51.640 want to say he mopped the floor with him, but he kind of mopped 1400 01:40:51.680 --> 01:40:57.439 the floor with them. And all of that was ten years ago, you 1401 01:40:57.479 --> 01:41:00.159 know, so the people still clamoring for a Rock turned to feud with Roman 1402 01:41:00.239 --> 01:41:05.119 Rains, and there are people who still would like to see that this version 1403 01:41:05.119 --> 01:41:09.720 of Roman Rains would do the same thing that CM Punk did to him ten 1404 01:41:09.840 --> 01:41:14.119 years ago. You know, don't get me wrong, Rock is one of 1405 01:41:14.119 --> 01:41:17.279 the goats. He's a charismatic guy. He's one of the most charismatic stars 1406 01:41:17.319 --> 01:41:20.560 they've ever had, maybe the most right, one of the best talkers in 1407 01:41:20.600 --> 01:41:25.319 his prime. By those later years, though a lot of it just doesn't 1408 01:41:25.359 --> 01:41:30.119 stand up, you know. It was mostly just not funny, juvenile stuff. 1409 01:41:30.159 --> 01:41:34.079 He'd call people popcorn fart, cookie puss. He tried to get cookie 1410 01:41:34.079 --> 01:41:40.800 puss over. That was pretty cringeworthy. He had two matches with John Cena. 1411 01:41:40.880 --> 01:41:44.319 He got hurt in both of them. Yeah, the match with Eric 1412 01:41:44.399 --> 01:41:47.520 Rowan it WrestleMania thirty two. He made it out unscathed because he didn't take 1413 01:41:47.560 --> 01:41:54.000 any bumps and it was a six second match. Rock is fifty one now. 1414 01:41:55.399 --> 01:41:57.960 So if he ever did come back for a match with Roman Rains, 1415 01:41:58.840 --> 01:42:02.079 I mean, look at it would do incredible business. But they're already doing 1416 01:42:02.119 --> 01:42:08.520 big business. I don't know what people would be expecting out of it as 1417 01:42:08.520 --> 01:42:12.560 far as you know, physically what he could give, but also verbally, 1418 01:42:14.760 --> 01:42:17.319 so I think people need to temper their expectations for what that would actually look 1419 01:42:17.359 --> 01:42:20.920 like because a lot of that stuff from that last comeback run, you know, 1420 01:42:21.000 --> 01:42:25.159 it just it doesn't hold up well. You know, he really did. 1421 01:42:25.199 --> 01:42:30.119 I think he did get out classed by Punk Vincent from Columbus, Ohio. 1422 01:42:30.640 --> 01:42:33.640 What would you consider your amount Rushmore of Big four pay per views with 1423 01:42:33.800 --> 01:42:39.920 each slot being filled by one of each for the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, 1424 01:42:40.279 --> 01:42:46.159 Summer Slam, and Survivor Series. For the Rumble, you know, for 1425 01:42:46.319 --> 01:42:50.439 me, it's either nineteen ninety two or two thousand. I'll go at nineteen 1426 01:42:50.479 --> 01:42:55.920 ninety two, even though I thought two two thousand was the better overall pay 1427 01:42:55.960 --> 01:43:01.199 per view. The Rumble wasn't very good. Overall pay per view was excellent. 1428 01:43:01.279 --> 01:43:03.479 Ninety two though, I mean, come on, how can I not 1429 01:43:03.520 --> 01:43:10.479 put that on my Mount Rushmore? So I go ninety two For WrestleMania. 1430 01:43:10.479 --> 01:43:15.239 It's got to be WrestleMania seventeen Summer Slam. I gotta go two thousand and 1431 01:43:15.239 --> 01:43:21.239 two, which had Rock and brock Sean's return against Triple H and one of 1432 01:43:21.239 --> 01:43:28.039 the best opening matches you'll ever see between Kurt Angele and Ray Maistereo nineteen ninety 1433 01:43:28.079 --> 01:43:32.680 one is my sentimental pick for Summer Slam because I absolutely love that show as 1434 01:43:32.720 --> 01:43:36.479 a kid. I still do still love that show, but objectively, I 1435 01:43:36.520 --> 01:43:43.399 think it has to be two thousand two, And for Survivor Series, I 1436 01:43:44.079 --> 01:43:48.960 would go. Survivor Series, I would go in nineteen ninety six. I 1437 01:43:49.000 --> 01:43:53.560 think I would go in nineteen ninety six. The atmosphere in Madison Square Garden 1438 01:43:53.640 --> 01:43:57.680 that night, especially for that main event, the best match that Sid ever 1439 01:43:57.720 --> 01:44:02.159 had in his entire career against Michael's Brett's returned against Stone Cold, that was 1440 01:44:02.199 --> 01:44:11.319 their first match, televised the historical value of Rock debuting that night. I've 1441 01:44:11.359 --> 01:44:15.000 grown fonder of that show. I actually wasn't I wasn't that smitten with the 1442 01:44:15.039 --> 01:44:18.880 show at the time that had happened. I think I was just bent out 1443 01:44:18.880 --> 01:44:24.239 of shape about the whole mystery man thing. There was a Survivor Series match 1444 01:44:24.319 --> 01:44:29.239 that night. I know Yokozuna was in it, maybe Vader. Anyway, 1445 01:44:29.239 --> 01:44:31.000 there was an opening in the match. They were teasing a mystery entrant, 1446 01:44:31.000 --> 01:44:34.239 and there were so many rumors going around back then because even back then you 1447 01:44:34.319 --> 01:44:39.199 had, you know, the dirt sheets, and there were online websites, 1448 01:44:39.199 --> 01:44:43.520 and there was so much talk at the time, probably on RSPW also of 1449 01:44:43.760 --> 01:44:47.680 either the Ultimate Warrior or Rick Rude. Rick Rude was really the one that 1450 01:44:47.840 --> 01:44:51.079 was being talked about the most. This is going to be the big return 1451 01:44:51.119 --> 01:44:56.560 for ravishing Rick Rude to the ring, and then it ends up being the 1452 01:44:56.560 --> 01:45:00.399 fucking murder. It ends up being Jimmy Snuker. So I remember being very 1453 01:45:00.439 --> 01:45:03.840 disappointed about that, but I have a grown fonder of that show over time, 1454 01:45:05.359 --> 01:45:11.560 and Jason from County Monahan, Ireland. With today's wrestling podcasts and the 1455 01:45:11.600 --> 01:45:15.720 amount of shoot interviews from wrestler's point of view, who is your favorite point 1456 01:45:15.720 --> 01:45:19.439 of view storyteller and always has interesting stories and opinions about anything wrestling, no 1457 01:45:19.439 --> 01:45:25.439 matter if it's from shoot interviews, podcasts, or books. Oh my god, 1458 01:45:25.479 --> 01:45:28.520 I mean there's so many of them now, so many podcasts. I 1459 01:45:28.520 --> 01:45:32.439 don't listen much to any wrestler hosted podcasts outside of clips here and there on 1460 01:45:32.439 --> 01:45:38.840 YouTube. In the early days of his podcast before he went back to WWE. 1461 01:45:39.920 --> 01:45:43.720 I did enjoy some of the Bruce Pritchard shows until it just started sounding 1462 01:45:43.720 --> 01:45:46.560 like he was full of shit on a lot of different things. So I 1463 01:45:46.600 --> 01:45:51.640 don't listen to any of them now, but Shoot interview wise, Kevin Nash 1464 01:45:51.760 --> 01:45:56.119 was always the best. I always loved his shoot interviews. They were very 1465 01:45:56.239 --> 01:45:59.000 entertaining. I mean, if there was a three hour one that got posted 1466 01:45:59.000 --> 01:46:02.720 somewhere, I could watch the entire three hours shoot. His podcast isn't bad. 1467 01:46:02.760 --> 01:46:06.760 It's mostly clips if I see anything. As far as books, Mick 1468 01:46:06.880 --> 01:46:12.439 Foley's first book was terrific. He's a great storyteller. I enjoyed the first 1469 01:46:12.680 --> 01:46:15.760 couple of books that Chris Jericho wrote. I thought his first two books were 1470 01:46:15.760 --> 01:46:18.720 excellent. I'm not a fan of his podcast, but his books were very 1471 01:46:18.760 --> 01:46:24.239 good. Of course, you guys only need one podcast in your life and 1472 01:46:24.319 --> 01:46:28.920 you're listening to it, and I thank you for that. So keep emailing 1473 01:46:28.960 --> 01:46:31.680 me the Salom Monster at gmail dot com. Be sure to follow me on 1474 01:46:31.680 --> 01:46:35.000 Twitter at salom Monster. That way, you can also vote in the polls 1475 01:46:35.000 --> 01:46:41.479 that I post there and subscribe on YouTube. Always new content live streams going 1476 01:46:41.560 --> 01:46:44.880 up on the YouTube channel. Just type in salom Monster sounds off. I'll 1477 01:46:44.880 --> 01:46:48.359 be live again after all tomorrow night as well. A few weeks. We 1478 01:46:48.439 --> 01:46:51.039 got Summer Slam coming up right then. It's going to be a very busy 1479 01:46:51.199 --> 01:46:55.319 end of the month. In August we've got all in, we've got all 1480 01:46:55.359 --> 01:46:59.279 out, we've got paybacked. There's going to be so many things going on, 1481 01:46:59.359 --> 01:47:02.439 so make sure you are subscribed on the channel. I'm going to be 1482 01:47:02.439 --> 01:47:06.479 back with you next Sunday. That is going to be episode eight nineteen of 1483 01:47:06.600 --> 01:47:12.680 The Salom Monster Sounds Off with more news and opinions from the week, Dark 1484 01:47:12.720 --> 01:47:15.720 Side of the Ring, all that good stuff. So one last time, 1485 01:47:15.760 --> 01:47:18.000 thank you guys for tuning in, thank you for downloading. Please share this 1486 01:47:18.079 --> 01:47:23.199 out, spread it far and wide. I appreciate all the support, and 1487 01:47:23.399 --> 01:47:26.239 we'll come back and do it all over again next Sunday. Until then, 1488 01:47:26.560 --> 01:47:30.319 take care, guys. The salom Monsters Sounds Off. The US title right 1489 01:47:30.319 --> 01:47:34.560 now is being held hostage by Austin Theory. Austin Theory is being held hostage 1490 01:47:34.600 --> 01:47:39.640 by the booking since WrestleMania A match with John Cena. He beats John Cena 1491 01:47:39.680 --> 01:47:43.399 at WrestleMania. What did it mean nothing? Because look at what they have 1492 01:47:43.520 --> 01:47:46.359 done with Austin Theory since WrestleMania. So the sooner they get that title off 1493 01:47:46.399 --> 01:47:50.800 of Austin Theory, the better it will beat. For the United States Championship. 1494 01:47:50.880 --> 01:47:56.199 Austin Theory beat John Cena at WrestleMania. Who gives up? Fuck it 1495 01:47:56.439 --> 01:48:01.920 meant nothing. The salom Monsters Sounds Off each week, bursting with context, 1496 01:48:02.479 --> 01:48:06.920 podcast predictions, reviews, YouTube livestreams, and more. Become a channel member 1497 01:48:06.920 --> 01:48:14.640 for perks and follow the solom Monster on Twitter at Solomonster, Solomons Solo Monster, 1498 01:48:14.800 --> 01:48:15.439 Solomonster Songs Off