Speaker 1: This is Action Demolition and I'm Smash of Demolition and
Speaker 1: you're listening to the Solo Monster. It's business time, baby.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Solo Monster sounds up. It's such
Speaker 1: good shit. Monster dude like a woman. You got grown
Speaker 1: ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter. Come over here,
Speaker 1: Oh speak bitch, Come on now you have legs. They've
Speaker 1: made Solo a monster. I was ninety nine percent positive
Speaker 1: it was just chessed up. Now I want out of
Speaker 1: my contract if I don't care what I want my
Speaker 1: Thanks to Steve Mellow for getting that legendary shout out
Speaker 1: from one of the best damn tag teams of all time.
Speaker 1: Acts and Smash Demolition future WWE Hall of Famers. They
Speaker 1: appear to the Petersborough Comic Con this weekend. That was
Speaker 1: a nice surprise. And this is episode eight eighty seven
Speaker 1: of the Solo Mon Sounds Off apparently for Sunday, November tenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, celebrating seventeen years of the Sound of
Speaker 1: All through the month of November. I also got to
Speaker 1: give a shout out to Sarah, who I know is
Speaker 1: listening right now. Sarah the Songbird. She was the one
Speaker 1: who had the sign on SmackDown Friday Night. At the
Speaker 1: beginning of the show, I sang the Solomonster jingle. That
Speaker 1: was Sarah. You've heard her voice before for many many
Speaker 1: years on the show. This little ditty right here, the
Speaker 1: Solomonster sounds off. That was the Solomonster jingle. And she
Speaker 1: was there in Buffalo on Friday night. So very cool
Speaker 1: to hear from her and get that on TV. I
Speaker 1: had some minor surgery a few days ago. I still
Speaker 1: have stitches in my mouth. I'm not supposed to be
Speaker 1: doing a lot of speaking, I was told, which is
Speaker 1: kind of what I do. So if this show ends
Speaker 1: up a little light, you'll know why. But I think
Speaker 1: we've got enough meat to get into this week. Meat
Speaker 1: being something I can can't chew for the next ten days,
Speaker 1: so I'm living on yogurt and applesauce. If you would
Speaker 1: like to make a PayPal donation, you may do so
Speaker 1: on thesolo monster dot com ten dollars or more. We'll
Speaker 1: get you a nifty little wrestling nickname and a shout
Speaker 1: out here on this worldwide podcast. I want to say
Speaker 1: thank you first and foremost to Peb. You know who
Speaker 1: you are. Peeb. Thank you very much, Big B. Brian Pisera,
Speaker 1: The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soap, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,
Speaker 1: the Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, Knight Stalker and if
Speaker 1: Alsafar the Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichord Best in the Game,
Speaker 1: Trey Porter, Killshot, Keith Hart Ironman, Joshua stark Weather, Welcome
Speaker 1: to the PayPal family. Same to mean, Mark Dodson, shout
Speaker 1: out to Jake the Snake who wants to give a
Speaker 1: shout out to his grandfather JB for always supporting and
Speaker 1: helping him when life gets toughen. Jarrett, I just sent
Speaker 1: you an email back, Jarrett. He bought a copy of
Speaker 1: Hardy the Horse to read to his daughter who has
Speaker 1: not even been born yet. Daughter is coming into the
Speaker 1: world this April. So again, Jarrett, congrats to you and
Speaker 1: your wife. And if my mother was still here, she
Speaker 1: would be saying the same. It is that time of
Speaker 1: year where we are getting very close to the Tokyo
Speaker 1: Dome show for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and boy it
Speaker 1: does not feel like a Big Wrestle Kingdom show, but
Speaker 1: the company is basically in reset mode right now. Zach
Speaker 1: Saber Junior is the IWGP World Champion for the first time,
Speaker 1: and they are trying to build new stars. One of
Speaker 1: those new stars is show To Umino, who will be
Speaker 1: challenging Saber for that title in the main event on
Speaker 1: January fourth. You look at the main event for the
Speaker 1: past few years. Last year was Sonata against Nito. Before that,
Speaker 1: it was Jay White against Okada, Shingo against Okata, Nito
Speaker 1: against Kode Bushi, and so on. Saber against Umio doesn't
Speaker 1: scream big match, main event for the Dome, but you
Speaker 1: got to start somewhere. They have to rebuild. This is
Speaker 1: what that looks like. It's like a baseball team that
Speaker 1: fails to make the postseason after all these years of success.
Speaker 1: Got to rebuild, got to rebuild and think long term,
Speaker 1: think for the future. Umio Pinsaber and the g One
Speaker 1: Climax back in July. So to that end, it makes
Speaker 1: sense for them to do the match. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: is the weakest Tokyo Domain event that they have booked
Speaker 1: since Wressell Kingdom four maybe five. This is Wressell Kingdom nineteen,
Speaker 1: just to put some context to that. But Ricochet made
Speaker 1: a surprise appearance that their power Struggle show this week
Speaker 1: and laid out Saber with a springboard clothes line before
Speaker 1: saying that he wanted a title shot, and the match
Speaker 1: has been made for Wressell Dynasty, also with the Tokyo Dome,
Speaker 1: but that is taking place the next night on January fifth.
Speaker 1: That is a joint show with talent from New Japan
Speaker 1: aw Ring of Honor CMLL Stardom. Honestly, that show is
Speaker 1: shaping up to be bigger than the actual main Tokyo
Speaker 1: Dome show on January fourth. He've got Ricochet challenging Saber
Speaker 1: for the IWGP title, assuming that Saber retains the night before,
Speaker 1: the Young Bucks have already been announced for the show.
Speaker 1: They're going to make their return to Japan for the
Speaker 1: first time in five years, and Kenny Omega, who has
Speaker 1: been out for nearly a year, he might be making
Speaker 1: his in ring return, not in an aw ring but
Speaker 1: for New Japan on that January fifth show. He too
Speaker 1: made an appearance of Power Struggle this week, and he
Speaker 1: said that he would be able to wrestle again soon.
Speaker 1: He called New Japan the king of pro wrestling, the
Speaker 1: home of the best pro wrestling on the planet, and
Speaker 1: that even though he's an AW wrestler, New Japan is
Speaker 1: his home, and then later there was a confrontation backstage
Speaker 1: between him and Gabe Kid. So while nothing is official yet,
Speaker 1: it looks like Omega's first match back is going to
Speaker 1: be against Gabe Kid at the Tokyo Dome. Now, it
Speaker 1: is a joint show with AW Talent, so you could
Speaker 1: argue Omega is wrestling on behalf of AW on that show,
Speaker 1: but it's still wild that. You know, he's an AW star,
Speaker 1: he's been out for so long and he's here putting
Speaker 1: over in New Japan is the best wrestling on the
Speaker 1: planet and probably making his comeback there and not here,
Speaker 1: that is certainly a choice. The good news though for
Speaker 1: Tony Khan is that Kenny Omega is on his way back.
Speaker 1: He has been missed and Kode and Bushi has said
Speaker 1: that he won't come back until Kenny comes back, So
Speaker 1: if Omega is going to be back soon, that probably
Speaker 1: means Abushi is too. We know The Royal Rumble is
Speaker 1: coming to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis next year and
Speaker 1: WrestleMania is coming back to Las Vegas, but there's another
Speaker 1: show in between those two called Elimination Chamber. WWE is
Speaker 1: bringing Elimination Chamber to an old WrestleMania venue, the Rogers
Speaker 1: Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, formerly the SkyDome on Saturday
Speaker 1: March first, twenty twenty five. They held WrestleMania six and
Speaker 1: eighteen there. This will be the fourth straight year that
Speaker 1: the Chamber ple is held from an international venue, with
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, then Montreal, then Perth, Australia, and now Toronto.
Speaker 1: The ticket on sale for the general public is Friday,
Speaker 1: December sixth. The website on location already has some ticket
Speaker 1: packages listed for the show, including their Champion Package, which
Speaker 1: includes two front row seats on a non hard cam
Speaker 1: side for as much as nine thousand dollars per ticket.
Speaker 1: That's eighteen thousand dollars for both. I would imagine hardcam
Speaker 1: side tickets are a lot more than that. And you know,
Speaker 1: my one time that I ever attended I never went
Speaker 1: to a wrestling event at the SkyDome. But by one
Speaker 1: time I ever attended an event at the SkyDome, I
Speaker 1: went to a Toronto Argonauts football game. It was the
Speaker 1: Argonauts against the BC Lions. It was August fourteenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety five. And I know this because I still have
Speaker 1: my ticket stuff. I dug it out. You know what
Speaker 1: I paid for that game. I paid a cool five
Speaker 1: dollars for my seat that was in Aisle one, forty
Speaker 1: as far away from the field as I was. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's going to matter how high up you
Speaker 1: are for this show. You're going to be paying a
Speaker 1: hell of a lot more than five dollars. WWE also
Speaker 1: released more tickets this week for Saturday Night's main event
Speaker 1: at the Nasau Coliseum on December fourteenth. In the email
Speaker 1: that WWE sent out announcing the ticket dump, they noted
Speaker 1: that they were bringing back that quote old school look
Speaker 1: and feel for the show, and per Mike Johnson, a
Speaker 1: PW insider, that's not just hype. They really are going
Speaker 1: old school with the presentation of the show, not just
Speaker 1: on NBC. Yeah, Like they might have Obsession, which was
Speaker 1: the original theme song. I'm hoping they do. Even the
Speaker 1: second theme, which was I think was a Jim Johnston
Speaker 1: theme the second Saturday Night's main event theme. I might
Speaker 1: like that more than Obsession. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if
Speaker 1: they used either one of those, so as old school
Speaker 1: of the presentation on TV might be in the building,
Speaker 1: the setup of the coliseum itself. Apparently they're going old school,
Speaker 1: you know whatever that means. But the show is going
Speaker 1: to feature full arena seating as opposed to the portion
Speaker 1: of the arena typically that's closed off for Titan tron staging.
Speaker 1: Normally you would see that kind of thing. For our SmackDown,
Speaker 1: they're going to be utilizing full arena seating. See, it's
Speaker 1: not old school to me unless they have Nasau County
Speaker 1: State Police escorting the wrestlers to the ring while holding
Speaker 1: the fans back from touching them. See if that's old
Speaker 1: school when people are trying to put their hands on
Speaker 1: the wrestlers and the cops have to get in between
Speaker 1: them and the fans, that's old school. But that's awesome.
Speaker 1: They don't need a fancy setup for this, you know,
Speaker 1: just pack the building in with as many fans as
Speaker 1: you can and just use one of the regular entrance
Speaker 1: ways as the aisleway. Keep it simple, less is more.
Speaker 1: And you know what else they need. They need Jesse
Speaker 1: Ventur on this show, if only to do commentary for
Speaker 1: one match or interview somebody, you know, like he did
Speaker 1: a wrestle maybea twenty whatever. You gotta have him on
Speaker 1: the show. He just signed a Legends deal. He was
Speaker 1: on the very first episode of Saturday Nights made event
Speaker 1: in that very same building. He has to be part
Speaker 1: of the show in some way. I think that's where
Speaker 1: we get the Randy Orton Kevin Owens match. They shot
Speaker 1: an angle on SmackDown on Friday Night, a big injury
Speaker 1: angle to take Orton off television for a while, probably
Speaker 1: through Survivor series, with Owens giving him a pile driver,
Speaker 1: not a very good one. The Undertaker's tombstone on Hulkogan
Speaker 1: at Survivor series, where his head was like six inches
Speaker 1: up off the ground. That was better than this. He
Speaker 1: protected him well, but it just did not look good,
Speaker 1: to the point where they didn't actually show the moment
Speaker 1: of impact on the replays. They cut it out. They
Speaker 1: just showed. They showed you from like the stomach up
Speaker 1: because they knew it was bad. But it was a
Speaker 1: great angle. It was a great angle because of the
Speaker 1: way that everybody sold it, from Orton to Owens, who
Speaker 1: sold it like he had blacked out for a minute
Speaker 1: and regretted what he had done to Cody Rhodes coming
Speaker 1: out to check on Randy stretching him out of the
Speaker 1: building into the ambulance. Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary.
Speaker 1: I mean, they really put this over in a big
Speaker 1: way because we don't see pile drivers on WWE television
Speaker 1: unless you were Kane or the Undertaker. You know, the
Speaker 1: tombstone was the closest thing that we got banned the
Speaker 1: move in the early two thousands, and very, very seldomly
Speaker 1: did we see one. The last time was twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: It's a great match between CM Punk and John Cena
Speaker 1: Raw and Punk gave sena pile driver in that match,
Speaker 1: and they got a lot of heat for that. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you don't do something, or you don't
Speaker 1: abuse it, and then you finally do it, it means more.
Speaker 1: It's far more effective. That goes for anything, that could
Speaker 1: go for blood, that could go for cussing, that could
Speaker 1: go for weapons. You know, we see that stuff all
Speaker 1: the time everywhere else, to the point where you're just
Speaker 1: numb to it. So a simple pile driver here, they
Speaker 1: can turn it into a serious injury angle and that
Speaker 1: should lead to Cody Rhoades now defending the WWE Championship
Speaker 1: at Survivor Series against Kevin Owens coming out of that show,
Speaker 1: you could do Orton against Owens on Saturday Night's Main Events,
Speaker 1: since we never actually got the match at Crown Jewel,
Speaker 1: but the official storyline diagnosis for Orton is cervical cord neuropraxia.
Speaker 1: I wonder which one of the writers looked that up
Speaker 1: in the dictionary when they were figuring out what to
Speaker 1: call it. One day after TKO announced it's quarterly earnings,
Speaker 1: Endeavor President and COO Mark Shapiro, in an interview with
Speaker 1: CNBC's Alex Sherman, was asked about Vince McMahon, who was
Speaker 1: still under federal investigation for now, not likely for much longer,
Speaker 1: and Shapiro revealed that he actually had breakfast with McMahon recently,
Speaker 1: just to check in, coming off the Netflix docu saries
Speaker 1: on him that dropped. He said he had not heard
Speaker 1: from Vince in a while and he wanted to see
Speaker 1: where he was with everything. That makes me nervous. No, no,
Speaker 1: stay away, keep away, He said. McMahon has some litigation
Speaker 1: that he is working through. Well, isn't that the understatement
Speaker 1: of the century. Yeah, he's got a little bit of
Speaker 1: litigation that he's working like, he's been sued for copyright infringement.
Speaker 1: He's got a couple of parking tickets, he's got some
Speaker 1: litigation that he's working through, and frankly, he said he
Speaker 1: wants the privacy and the time to work through it,
Speaker 1: which is great because in the meantime we're going to
Speaker 1: keep building TKO and WWA. He could not have been
Speaker 1: more cooperative, He could not have been nicer. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was a total pro at breakfast if you will, Yes,
Speaker 1: he is the world breakfast eating champion, total pro. He
Speaker 1: reiterated that Vince is out of the business. He does
Speaker 1: not make decisions, he's not on the board, he does
Speaker 1: not opine. They don't consult him for anything. Let's keep
Speaker 1: it that way. I'll just say this, if the government
Speaker 1: plans to indict this man, or if they planned to
Speaker 1: indict him sometime next year, I think that's pretty much
Speaker 1: out the window now. The US Attorney in the Southern
Speaker 1: District of New York is a presidential appointee, so I
Speaker 1: assume the new president can replace him with somebody else,
Speaker 1: should he choose to do so. The Janelle Grant lawsuit,
Speaker 1: though that's a separate issue. I'm talking about any charges
Speaker 1: that the Justice Department might want a file because remember
Speaker 1: they serve Vince with a federal grand jury subpoena. They
Speaker 1: executed a search warrant on this man's home, they took
Speaker 1: his phone, and then they went to Janelle Grant's lawyers
Speaker 1: and they asked her to pause her lawsuit until December eleventh,
Speaker 1: which is coming up quick. We'll see if they ask
Speaker 1: her to extend that pause. But Janelle Grant is free
Speaker 1: to do whatever she wants. She wants to pursue this case.
Speaker 1: You know, her lawsuit against Vince McMahon, she can continue
Speaker 1: to do that. That's a civil suit, that's not anything
Speaker 1: criminal or federal. But if I'm Vince McMahon, I'm breathing
Speaker 1: a lot easier today than I would have been a
Speaker 1: week ago. Now. Shapiro, in that same interview, also revealed
Speaker 1: that the advertising slots for Raw on Netflix. A lot
Speaker 1: of people have been asking about ads on Netflix. Are
Speaker 1: they going to have ads? Are they're not going to
Speaker 1: have ads? He said, starting in January, all the ad
Speaker 1: slots are already filled up. So for anybody wondering the
Speaker 1: answer to that, the answer is yes. But I think
Speaker 1: some people were holding out hope that that might not
Speaker 1: be the case, they've already sold their spots and the
Speaker 1: ads are ready to roll, according to Shapiro, he did
Speaker 1: say starting in year two, they're going to be able
Speaker 1: to use personalized advertising, so focusing basically on users based
Speaker 1: on data as opposed to just more general ads. They
Speaker 1: don't have the ability to do that right now, but
Speaker 1: starting in year two they plan to have a much
Speaker 1: more targeted way to deliver ads to people that are
Speaker 1: relevant to each user. Dave Meltzer broke the news this
Speaker 1: week that two of Paul Levek's right hand men behind
Speaker 1: the scenes in WWE have been sidelin, Bruce Pritchard and
Speaker 1: Michael Hayes. They are both said to be on temporary leave,
Speaker 1: he says. According to the company, Pritchard's absence is due
Speaker 1: to a family emergency, while Hayes is said to be
Speaker 1: out due to personal reasons. He's apparently been missing for
Speaker 1: weeks only now it got out. He's usually the point
Speaker 1: person as agents go for all of Roman Reigns' matches,
Speaker 1: a lot of the bloodline stuff, and obviously Paul Hayman
Speaker 1: is heavily involved in the bloodline stuff as well. He
Speaker 1: was not on the trip though, of Saudi Arabia Michael Hayes,
Speaker 1: but again he's been missing for a while now. Mike Johnson,
Speaker 1: a PW insider, added to this and said that both
Speaker 1: are still with the company. The Hayes absence is believed
Speaker 1: to be medical in nature, which also caused him to
Speaker 1: pull out of this weekend's big event convention on Long Island,
Speaker 1: and with Pritchard, there has been no change in his
Speaker 1: status with the company other than he is not expected
Speaker 1: back at least until the end of November, if not longer.
Speaker 1: Because when the new this first broke that Prichard and
Speaker 1: Hayes were gone, you know, some people were immediately just
Speaker 1: assuming that that meant that they were gone gone, you know,
Speaker 1: like the acts had fallen on two more members of
Speaker 1: the old regime. If the new regime didn't want anybody
Speaker 1: from the old regime around, then they would have been
Speaker 1: gone after Vince left, like Kevin done. Now, he didn't
Speaker 1: get fired. Kevin Dunn opted to leave, but he saw
Speaker 1: the writing on the wall and he got the hell
Speaker 1: out of there, and the shows had been better off
Speaker 1: for it. The Triple H likes Bruce, that's why he
Speaker 1: keeps him around. He's like a comfortable old shoe. So really,
Speaker 1: there's nothing to see here. If you hear about this
Speaker 1: and again, you're gonna hear people who were, oh, this
Speaker 1: means they're gone, and you know, what's the real story here.
Speaker 1: That's the real story. There's nothing to see here. And
Speaker 1: Meltzer did break the news first. But this was not
Speaker 1: a good week for Dave Meltzer. We got to talk
Speaker 1: about this. This has not been a good year for
Speaker 1: day Meltzer, let alone a good week, but this was
Speaker 1: one of his more embarrassing weeks. He started the week
Speaker 1: on Monday by tweeting twenty twenty five Backlash will be
Speaker 1: at the Tokyo Dome. Now, I'm sure the minute that
Speaker 1: he saw Tokyo Dome he did a happy dance and
Speaker 1: he couldn't wait to break the news. The problem is
Speaker 1: what he saw was a fan made fake logo for
Speaker 1: Backlash Japan, which was posted by a spoof Twitter account
Speaker 1: called wessel Votes. Evidently he thought it was Wrestle Votes.
Speaker 1: It was not Wrestle Votes, it was wessel Votes. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what's worse the fact that he fell for
Speaker 1: a fake Wrestle Votes account, the fact that he posted
Speaker 1: without giving credit to the original source, which made it
Speaker 1: seem like he was breaking the news himself, or the
Speaker 1: fact that he didn't bother to verify the news before
Speaker 1: he tweeted that out to his three hundred thousand followers.
Speaker 1: He clearly he doesn't have the sources that he used
Speaker 1: to have in that company. But you mean to tell
Speaker 1: me something as big as that, if you're gullible enough
Speaker 1: to fall forward in the first place, that you can't
Speaker 1: pick up the phone and call somebody or text somebody
Speaker 1: who works there to verify that. Nine minutes later after
Speaker 1: he posted that, he posted a follow up tweet, and
Speaker 1: both tweets have been deleted as far as I could tell,
Speaker 1: But he said backlash tweet apparently was a fake. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no shit, Dave. Apparently he never linked to or quote
Speaker 1: tweeted the original tweet anyway. So someone who follows him
Speaker 1: and not wessel votes, I sound like fucking Elmer Fudd
Speaker 1: every time I say that. Somebody who follows him and
Speaker 1: not wessel votes would not even have any idea what
Speaker 1: he's talking about in that follow up tweet, Like what
Speaker 1: tweet are you referring to your own? The one tweet
Speaker 1: that is still up. He posted a third tweet to
Speaker 1: tell us that he confirmed with WWE that the Tokyo
Speaker 1: Dome thing was a fake. It was your tweet. Oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta be careful. I can't laugh. I can't laugh
Speaker 1: or the stitches might come out. You tweeted it. Of
Speaker 1: course it was fake. What has happened to this man?
Speaker 1: He should have put his phone down for the rest
Speaker 1: of the week for that alone. But a few days later,
Speaker 1: the ratings came out on Thursday for the NXT Dynamite
Speaker 1: head to head. Both shows went head to head on
Speaker 1: Wednesday night. Okay, so NXT got bumped out of its
Speaker 1: usual time slot and they were head to head from
Speaker 1: eight to ten pm. And as I predicted, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure I wasn't the only one. NXT, even though it
Speaker 1: was not in its regular night, they invaded aw's turf
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, and they actually beat them. Remember when Dynamite
Speaker 1: ran on Tuesday last month, they got absolutely shell ackt
Speaker 1: NXT runs on their night and they still get shrounched
Speaker 1: AW does, although not as badly as they did last month.
Speaker 1: Last month was just an annihilation. This wasn't an annihilation
Speaker 1: per se, but they got beat on their own night.
Speaker 1: NXT averaged six hundred and nineteen thousand viewers on the
Speaker 1: CW network and an zero point one seven rating in
Speaker 1: the coveted eighteen to forty nine demo, as compared to
Speaker 1: Dynamite in its regular timeslot, which averaged five hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty three thousand viewers on TBS with an zero point
Speaker 1: one six rating as opposed to an zero point one
Speaker 1: seven rating in eighteen to forty nine. Now, neither number
Speaker 1: is anything to saying home about that. That goes for NXT. Also, okay,
Speaker 1: it's like fighting over the ugliest girl in the class.
Speaker 1: But that AW rating it ties the second lowest eighteen
Speaker 1: to forty nine number in the history of the show. Overall,
Speaker 1: it was the lowest rating in the history of the show.
Speaker 1: Five years of Dynamite. That is the low point. There's
Speaker 1: no two ways about it. That is embarrassing for AAW.
Speaker 1: It's like having home field advantage in getting beat by
Speaker 1: the visiting team. Don't tell that to Dave Meltzer. He
Speaker 1: felt compelled to defend AW against some random person on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and I swear this is what he said. If I
Speaker 1: worked at TBS, I would say that AW one Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers Discovery when it does internal ratings. It's based on
Speaker 1: eighteen to forty nine as a percentage of homes that
Speaker 1: get the station. I've seen copies in the standings how
Speaker 1: they would have it, which is the statistically fair way
Speaker 1: to look at it, It would be zero point three
Speaker 1: nine to zero point three eight. But I don't work
Speaker 1: at TBS. No you don't. And I wish I could
Speaker 1: believe him when he says something like I've seen copies
Speaker 1: a few years ago, I wouldn't have even questioned it.
Speaker 1: If he said that he had seen something, Okay, then
Speaker 1: he must have seen something. But after the internal memo
Speaker 1: debacle a couple of months back, where he claimed to
Speaker 1: have seen an internal Warner Brothers memo on the total
Speaker 1: value of aw programming, which turned out to be an
Speaker 1: Excel spreadsheet some fan drafted and shared on a discord
Speaker 1: which he saw. After that, I have to question everything
Speaker 1: the man says, even when he claims to have seen copies.
Speaker 1: What did he see? What did he see a PowerPoint
Speaker 1: presentation put together by at my Harry Ball's itch me
Speaker 1: on Blue Sky? What did he see? By the way
Speaker 1: that internal memo gaff it happened the same week that
Speaker 1: he tweeted that Afa of the Wild Samoans was dead
Speaker 1: while he was actually still alive. But it doesn't help
Speaker 1: his cause with those people who think he's in the
Speaker 1: tank for aw when they get their ass kicked, and
Speaker 1: his first response is to say, but if I were TBS,
Speaker 1: I would say they actually want But it gets even
Speaker 1: worse then. In this week's newsletter, he wrote about Dutch Mantel. Now,
Speaker 1: for those who don't know, Dutch has not been doing
Speaker 1: very well. He's been in and out of the hospital
Speaker 1: for much of the past year. Although he's back home
Speaker 1: right now, he has not been able to do his podcast,
Speaker 1: although I think he's supposed to be getting back to that.
Speaker 1: That's really all he's been able to do. His wife
Speaker 1: is also very sick. She's been hospitalized eleven times since May.
Speaker 1: She's maxed out her days in the hospital that her
Speaker 1: insurance will cover. Their daughter, Amanda, has exhausted her own
Speaker 1: savings trying to keep the bills paid. It's just a
Speaker 1: really bad situation for that family all around. Right now,
Speaker 1: there's a GoFundMe set up for them that has so
Speaker 1: far raised over ninety five thousand dollars on a goal
Speaker 1: of one hundred k. So people have really responded, They've
Speaker 1: really come out in the wrestling community to support them.
Speaker 1: So Dave posted about it in the Observer. Great brings
Speaker 1: more attention to what's going on, and it is newsworthy.
Speaker 1: And if that's all he would have posted, then nobody
Speaker 1: would have said a word. But after mentioning all of
Speaker 1: that and the GoFundMe, Melter continued. He singled out Tony
Speaker 1: Khan and Chris Jericho as the top donors to the campaign,
Speaker 1: which is fine. Tony Kahn donated five grand, so did
Speaker 1: Jim Cornett and his wife. Jericho donated fifteen hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: Jericho is a name that you see constantly in these
Speaker 1: wrestler gofundmees. He's always, you know, donating to wrestlers who
Speaker 1: are in need of one thing or another. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with mentioning who the top donors were,
Speaker 1: but it's very interesting that he singled out Tony Khan
Speaker 1: and Chris Jericho but not Jim Cornett and Stacy Coronett,
Speaker 1: since I know Coronett hates Dave's guts now and constantly
Speaker 1: bashes him. But he mentioned con and Jericho, and he
Speaker 1: can tell with this with con, Many have pointed out
Speaker 1: that Mantel as a podcaster was brutal to con. First
Speaker 1: of all, many have pointed out, who is this many
Speaker 1: that he speaks of. It's like when someone says, you know,
Speaker 1: many people are saying about something, when in reality, absolutely
Speaker 1: nobody is saying that. The voices in your fucking head
Speaker 1: are saying it anyway, he says. Many have pointed out
Speaker 1: that Mantel as a podcaster was brutal to con even
Speaker 1: being critical of him when the promotion was at its
Speaker 1: popularity peak, and recently criticized him for the contract term
Speaker 1: swerve Strickland got in his recent deal. It is something
Speaker 1: when a former wrestler gets mad at a promoter who
Speaker 1: clearly can afford it for what he pays the top talent,
Speaker 1: and he was doing it after he knew the new
Speaker 1: deal was put together that was going to make the
Speaker 1: company exceedingly profitable wrestlers using the old old school he
Speaker 1: doesn't draw money and not understanding that this is not
Speaker 1: a mom and pop week to week business based on
Speaker 1: live event numbers, but one that in a worst case
Speaker 1: scenario year would generate two hundred and fifty million dollars
Speaker 1: next year and that most of that revenue is guaranteed
Speaker 1: ahead of time. How did he go for mentioning Dutch
Speaker 1: Mantel almost died twice, his wife is sick and there's
Speaker 1: a GoFundMe to help them to kicking the man when
Speaker 1: he's down for saying something negative about AW and Tony
Speaker 1: Kahan and rambling on in defense of their new television deal.
Speaker 1: How did we get from point A to point B
Speaker 1: like that? This is what I'm talking about. He does
Speaker 1: not do himself any favors when it comes to people
Speaker 1: talking about him being on the payroll there, and for
Speaker 1: the record, I don't think he is, but he sure
Speaker 1: acts like it sometimes, doesn't he. I also thought it
Speaker 1: was tacky as fuck for him to tack that on,
Speaker 1: and there was no reason for him to even go
Speaker 1: into that whole diatribe there at the end of the paragraph.
Speaker 1: What was the point in even bringing that up to
Speaker 1: show what a great guy Tony Khan is? What is
Speaker 1: he is? Pr person? Because Dutch has had criticisms at
Speaker 1: times of AW on his podcast, so is everybody else.
Speaker 1: What does that have to do with anything? It's just
Speaker 1: fucking weird. Today's episode is sponsored by Betterhelp I have
Speaker 1: to take a moment here at the top to shout
Speaker 1: out a member of my family, my aunt Barbara. She
Speaker 1: has sent over some vegetable soup. It has been a godsend.
Speaker 1: It is one of the only things I can eat
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Speaker 1: food is just off the charts. Everybody loves her food.
Speaker 1: This month is all about gratitude, and along with my aunt,
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Speaker 1: It's sometimes hard to remind our that we're trying our
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Speaker 1: your first month. That's Better Help h e LP dot
Speaker 1: com slash Solo Monster. We're still three weeks away from
Speaker 1: Survivor series, but we have the wargame's main event already set.
Speaker 1: It will be og Bloodline against the New Bloodline. As
Speaker 1: we saw on TV this week, we had Roman Reins,
Speaker 1: Sammy's Ain, Jimmy, and Jay Uso all in the ring
Speaker 1: together on SmackDown on Friday Night, and Sammy's ain made
Speaker 1: it clear that what happened to Crown Jewel when he
Speaker 1: kicked Roman Reigns in the face that was an accident
Speaker 1: and he was willing to let the past stay in
Speaker 1: the past. He was ready to get the band back
Speaker 1: together on one condition. He wanted one thing out of
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns. He wanted him to apologize, not to him,
Speaker 1: but to Jay Uso. We're all a crap that he
Speaker 1: put j through because Jay is a friend of Sammy's.
Speaker 1: So Roman would apologize to Jay, he'd throw the ones
Speaker 1: up and we can get the band back together. Roman
Speaker 1: Reigns could not even bring himself to do that, and
Speaker 1: he ranted about how he's not family. Why do you
Speaker 1: care about him? I don't care about him. I want Solo,
Speaker 1: Solo Socoa, get your ass out here. I want Solo
Speaker 1: and Sammy walked off and it looked like Roman was
Speaker 1: going to alienate every single member of his family because
Speaker 1: Sammy walked away from him, Jay walked away from him,
Speaker 1: Jimmy walked away from him in the back. Later, Roman
Speaker 1: was all by himself and that led to a ceremony
Speaker 1: in the main event. It was Solo Sokoa bringing out
Speaker 1: his boys and he was going to have some kind
Speaker 1: of tribal chief acknowledgment ceremony. Roman Reigns came out. He
Speaker 1: was all by himself. Roman issued a challenge to Solo.
Speaker 1: Solo said, no, we're not going to do that, but
Speaker 1: he mentioned war and Roman said, way are you talking
Speaker 1: war games? And he was a little confused because he
Speaker 1: only got four guys out here. Normally it's five on five.
Speaker 1: Solo said, well you got me, you got Jacob, you
Speaker 1: got Tomatonga, you got Tongaloa and my fifth guy, my boy,
Speaker 1: Sammy's ain walked out on stage. And then when Roman
Speaker 1: had to go it alone against the Solo and his crew,
Speaker 1: here comes Jimmy and Jay. They blow right past Sammy.
Speaker 1: They come out try to make the save. This all
Speaker 1: led to Sammy being summoned into the ring by Solo
Speaker 1: Sokoa to kick Roman in the face again, only Sammy
Speaker 1: kicked Solo in the face instead, And when we got
Speaker 1: to the end of the show, it was Roman and
Speaker 1: Sammy and Jimmy and Jay alone in the ring. Jay, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: they put their fingers up in the air. Sammy puts
Speaker 1: his finger up in the air. It all comes down
Speaker 1: to Roman reigns. What is he going to do? He
Speaker 1: throws up the ones and we got the original bloodline
Speaker 1: minus the Wise Man back together. Wargames is set four
Speaker 1: on four. It doesn't have to be five on five.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense for it to be five
Speaker 1: on five. You add anybody else to this match, it
Speaker 1: is going to be tacked on for the sake of
Speaker 1: tacking and on all the players are accounted for. You
Speaker 1: don't need to add anybody else. Four on four is
Speaker 1: absolutely fine. We've had war games matches in this company before,
Speaker 1: going back to the NXT days that were three on
Speaker 1: three on three. It doesn't matter what format you come
Speaker 1: up with. You got your eight guys, that's all you need.
Speaker 1: But I will say this, now that we have reached
Speaker 1: this point finally where we have the bloodline reunited, that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that everything is going to be rock solid
Speaker 1: between them because we still have many more weeks of TV.
Speaker 1: There could still be some trouble in Paradise with the Ogs.
Speaker 1: But we got to this point, it still felt rushed.
Speaker 1: Even though you had to get here right in advance
Speaker 1: of Survivor series, you had to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to get to this point. I still think you could
Speaker 1: have dragged it out another couple of weeks, which is
Speaker 1: what I thought they were gonna do, you know, based
Speaker 1: on what they did in the opening segment. I thought,
Speaker 1: but this is a perfect way to reintroduce Paul Hayman
Speaker 1: to television and try and have Paul Hayman be the
Speaker 1: one that tries to bring all four of these guys
Speaker 1: back together and then you can have this big dramatic
Speaker 1: segment where it finally happens and you only have two
Speaker 1: weeks left, let's say before Survivor series. They didn't do that.
Speaker 1: It's like they condensed two or three weeks worth of
Speaker 1: television into one episode. But to me, that has been
Speaker 1: the story of this Bloodline reunion over the last couple
Speaker 1: of months. This is something I think that they could
Speaker 1: even should have started a little bit earlier than they did. Right,
Speaker 1: the blood Line was always episodic in nature. You know,
Speaker 1: some of the best blood Line segments involved these guys
Speaker 1: you know, in the back and in the ring, and
Speaker 1: you know, that's what made the Bloodline so much fun,
Speaker 1: the chemistry that they had. So I think it would
Speaker 1: have been fun taking the time to see, Okay, we
Speaker 1: know where we're going here. It is predictable, but how
Speaker 1: are you going to get there? Right? That's the fun part.
Speaker 1: The fun part is getting there, And I feel like
Speaker 1: they kind of blew through some segments that they could
Speaker 1: have done. But we're here now. That's all that matters.
Speaker 1: We're here now, and how they're going to introduce Paul Hayman. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe he'll pop up before a Survivor series,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see. Could Sammy Zain end up turning
Speaker 1: against Roman Reigns at War Games? Could there be a
Speaker 1: big heel turn in the works. I don't think so,
Speaker 1: but yeah it's possible. I mean, this could go a
Speaker 1: million different ways. They could introduce a new bloodline member
Speaker 1: like a Hicculeo. You could have somebody turning. You could
Speaker 1: have Roman's cruse straight up win. And then maybe a
Speaker 1: Solo gets kicked out of his own bloodline by Jacob
Speaker 1: fought too. I mean, again, any number of ways that
Speaker 1: this can go. One of the other issues I had
Speaker 1: with this, and again, this is something that from a
Speaker 1: story perspective just kind of annoys me. Look at what
Speaker 1: they did on Friday as an example. Okay, we'll use
Speaker 1: that since that was the most recent episode. Roman Reigns
Speaker 1: since he came back, has been wildly cheered by the audience.
Speaker 1: They chant OTC every week and he's selling OTC T shirts. Right,
Speaker 1: he's a big babyface, But is he really? Because what
Speaker 1: is different about Roman Reigns now as opposed to the
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns that we saw in April at WrestleMania. Nothing
Speaker 1: outside of the fact that he doesn't have the title anymore.
Speaker 1: He's still the same arrogant, you know, kind of stubborn,
Speaker 1: bullheaded guy that he was before, who thinks the world
Speaker 1: revolves around him and he doesn't have to apologize or
Speaker 1: answer for anything. He's never taken responsibility for treating people
Speaker 1: around him like shit, his own family, and the one
Speaker 1: time that somebody says to him, I want you to apologize,
Speaker 1: which is what Sammy z Ain told him, That's all
Speaker 1: I need you to do. Apologize to Jay, he couldn't
Speaker 1: even bring himself to do that. And yet by the
Speaker 1: end of the night, it didn't matter because Sammy and
Speaker 1: Jay clearly they didn't have any problem with standing side
Speaker 1: by side with Roman reigns because there they were putting
Speaker 1: their fingers up in the air at the end of
Speaker 1: the show. So what did it all mean if they
Speaker 1: were steadfast and their convictions and this is really how
Speaker 1: they felt, right, Jay's like, I'm not gonna do this.
Speaker 1: If you don't treat me as an equal, you're not
Speaker 1: going to disrespect me. I'm going to be out. Sammy
Speaker 1: making it clear what he wants out of this they
Speaker 1: never got any of that from Roman. In the end,
Speaker 1: they just caved or they just decided, well, we hate
Speaker 1: Solo more than we hate Romans, So the enemy of
Speaker 1: my enemy is my friend, you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But I just think it's lazy storytelling. And lazy is
Speaker 1: not a word that I would use too often to
Speaker 1: describe the Bloodline stuff. I think that they have taken
Speaker 1: great care to plan a lot of this stuff out.
Speaker 1: You could say lazy and that you know, there have
Speaker 1: definitely been times this year where the Bloodline stuff has
Speaker 1: felt recycled. A lot of the stuff, a lot of
Speaker 1: the beatdown angles with Solo's crew. It's like the same
Speaker 1: thing over and over again. But again, they take greater
Speaker 1: care creatively with this than any other storyline, any other
Speaker 1: super anything else in the company. It's all about the Bloodline.
Speaker 1: The Bloodline has been their golden goose now for the
Speaker 1: last four years. They're gonna drag this stuff out for
Speaker 1: another four years if they can. They certainly have enough
Speaker 1: family members to pull it off. They're gonna ride this
Speaker 1: into the wheels fall off. But I just thought that
Speaker 1: was lazy. Why was it so easy for Sammy and
Speaker 1: Jay to stand down and just stand with Roman, why
Speaker 1: did you have to do that on Friday. So again
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be overly you know, critical of
Speaker 1: what they did, because it was a good segment and
Speaker 1: it got to where it needed to go, and at
Speaker 1: the end everybody was very happy to see everybody together.
Speaker 1: But it's okay to sit here and say, look, I
Speaker 1: enjoy this, but I can still pick apart this, this
Speaker 1: and this, this I thought could have been done better.
Speaker 1: This was lazy, This was that, Like, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with that. Not everything with the Bloodline stuff cooks. There
Speaker 1: is some things that are that are still uncooked. There's
Speaker 1: still some raw elements here to this story that you
Speaker 1: really shouldn't be eating unless you want to get salmonella. Okay,
Speaker 1: And maybe over these next few weeks on TV, maybe
Speaker 1: they'll answer some of those questions. Maybe we'll see a
Speaker 1: shift in Roman's attitude. Maybe there'll still be some drama
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, you know that'll play out. But we
Speaker 1: have our war game's main event for a Survivor series.
Speaker 1: The other big news coming at a SmackDown on Friday.
Speaker 1: Outside of the Randy Orton Kevin Owens angle that I
Speaker 1: already talked about, earlier, Nick all this the general manager
Speaker 1: announced a brand new women's championship. This has been rumored
Speaker 1: for some time now. A brand new mid card women's
Speaker 1: United States Championship is being introduced. And they showed the
Speaker 1: time title and it is as uncreative and unimaginative a
Speaker 1: design as you would expect. It is the same US
Speaker 1: title design that the men have. It's a smaller belt
Speaker 1: with a white strap and it says Women's on it. Look.
Speaker 1: I wish that they would be more creative with these designs,
Speaker 1: but you got to remember to them, it's all about
Speaker 1: brand consistency. We see it on raw. Look at the
Speaker 1: World heavyweight title for the men. What do the women have?
Speaker 1: A smaller version of the World Heavyweight Championship but on
Speaker 1: a white strap, and I assume the word women or
Speaker 1: women's is on there somewhere. It's about consistency. I don't
Speaker 1: like it either, but that's why they do it. But
Speaker 1: this has been rumored for some time now, and we've
Speaker 1: talked about this on the show. I've gotten questions about
Speaker 1: the introduction of a women's mid card title, and I
Speaker 1: kind of it's not just that I expected it, but
Speaker 1: I thought, if ever there was a time for them
Speaker 1: to introduce one that would make sense if they wanted
Speaker 1: to try it on the main roster. They tried it
Speaker 1: in NXT. We have the Women's North American Championship that
Speaker 1: was only introduced in June. Hasn't been that long, but
Speaker 1: I almost feel like it was sort of a testing
Speaker 1: ground for what was to come with the main roster
Speaker 1: and now here we are. If anything, I'm a little
Speaker 1: surprised they're going with a US title and not a
Speaker 1: women's Intercontinental title, although that could still potentially happen, But
Speaker 1: that also goes to how is this going to work?
Speaker 1: Is this SmackDown exclusive? It was Nick Aldis who made
Speaker 1: the announcement. There was no Adam Pierce. There was no
Speaker 1: mention in his speech about Monday Night Raw. I did
Speaker 1: go back, as I missed it the first time. I
Speaker 1: went back. When the segment was over, they cut to
Speaker 1: the announcers and Michael Cole did say raw and SmackDown.
Speaker 1: He specifically mentioned this as again I didn't write down
Speaker 1: the exact verbiage, but he did mention raw and SmackDown
Speaker 1: being a part of this. So based on that, it
Speaker 1: does sound like the title will float, and I like
Speaker 1: that I think that's the way to go. I said
Speaker 1: that the other night. I said, I'm not sure which
Speaker 1: way they're going with it. I wish it would float.
Speaker 1: I wish it would be like the women's tag team titles,
Speaker 1: where you are allowed to defend it across different shows
Speaker 1: and it's not brand exclusive. Sounds like that's going to
Speaker 1: be the case now. If they were going to go
Speaker 1: the other way and have one title for each show,
Speaker 1: then it would be better to wait until the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year because Raw and SmackDown are expected to
Speaker 1: both be going three hours. God help me, but it
Speaker 1: sounds like they're both going three hours in January, and
Speaker 1: when they do that, they're going to have to call
Speaker 1: up more women from NXT. If they don't call them
Speaker 1: up in January, they're gonna have to call them up
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter. They're going to need more faces. And if
Speaker 1: there is one thing that NXT has a lot of,
Speaker 1: it is a surplus of female talent. Then it might
Speaker 1: make more sense to have an Intercontinental title on Raw
Speaker 1: and a US title on smack But one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I'm okay with them trying this, and I'm generally speaking,
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of oversaturating these shows with championships. Right,
Speaker 1: We've seen this in WWE before. We see this right
Speaker 1: now in AW. Too many titles. The thing with AW
Speaker 1: is you have titles from fucking everywhere have AW titles,
Speaker 1: you have Ring of Honor titles, you have New Japan titles.
Speaker 1: So there's so many belts and it's just ridiculous. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons I'm okay with them trying this, it
Speaker 1: might help them focus more on story when it comes
Speaker 1: to the women who are not involved directly with the
Speaker 1: World Championship. Right now, in Naya Jackson's orbit, she has lived.
Speaker 1: Morgan was just the wrestling her at Crown Jewel for
Speaker 1: the Crown Jewel Championship. Right, that's over with now. So
Speaker 1: now Naya she still has Tiffany Stratton as her BFF,
Speaker 1: shadowing her and threatening to cash in everywhere she goes.
Speaker 1: Nya wrapped up a feud with Bailey, and now she's
Speaker 1: got this going. Oh she's gonna be wrestling Naomi coming
Speaker 1: up on SmackDown this week. All this stuff revolves around
Speaker 1: Nya and the Women's World Championship on SmackDown. Very few
Speaker 1: times can you find a women's angle. Let's just stick
Speaker 1: with SmackDown here that does not revolve around the World
Speaker 1: Championship where they put any sort of real effort into
Speaker 1: it to make it interesting in any way. We just
Speaker 1: had a program with Chelsea Green and Michen I'm not
Speaker 1: going to sit here and tell you that it lit
Speaker 1: the world on fire, but it was nice to see
Speaker 1: them put effort into something that didn't involve Naya Jacks. Right.
Speaker 1: They paid it off in a dumpster match, made a
Speaker 1: whole big deal about it. Chelsea walked around for weeks,
Speaker 1: you know, smelling like shit. It was something. But you
Speaker 1: have to come up with something for these other women
Speaker 1: to do, because not everybody is going to be challenging
Speaker 1: Nya Jacks. So what does everybody else do? Not much?
Speaker 1: Maybe this will help in that regard. Maybe this will
Speaker 1: force them into a situation where, okay, we have to
Speaker 1: come up with other things now for these other women
Speaker 1: to do. If that means we have to give somebody
Speaker 1: else another title in order to do it, then so
Speaker 1: be it. Because you can add up all the championships
Speaker 1: you want. You could have a women's Intercontinental title, a
Speaker 1: women's US title, you can anything you want to. If
Speaker 1: you don't have good creative to back it up. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean anything. Nobody cares, So who wins it? On Friday,
Speaker 1: when I thought it was going to be brand exclusive,
Speaker 1: I ran down the SmackDown Women's roster, which we'll do
Speaker 1: again here real quick. Naya Jacks take her out because
Speaker 1: she's the world champion. Tiffany Stratton has the briefcase to
Speaker 1: cash in for a world title shot. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: no point in her cashing in for any other title.
Speaker 1: Charlotte Flair is going to be back any month now.
Speaker 1: She's writ in that timeframe where she should be all
Speaker 1: healed up. If she's not medically cleared, she will be soon.
Speaker 1: Just a matter of whether or not they're going to
Speaker 1: hold off on her for the Royal Rumble, because I
Speaker 1: guarantee you she'll be back by then. So does Charlotte
Speaker 1: Flair go after this brand new US title? Oh you
Speaker 1: bet your ash will go after it at some point.
Speaker 1: Do I think you need to put the US title
Speaker 1: on her right now and have her as the first champion?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, But she's still out right now. We'll put
Speaker 1: her on the side. You've got Bailey, You've got Naomi
Speaker 1: who is challenging for the world Championship this Friday. Bianca Bellair,
Speaker 1: Jade Cargill, Chelsea Green, Blair Davenport, who I assume is
Speaker 1: still employed. I can't remember the last time I saw her,
Speaker 1: Candice Leray, Piper Niven, Mechen. You've got Beefab and you've
Speaker 1: got Electro Lopez. They don't wrestle, though I'm the main roster,
Speaker 1: at least not yet, so we'll put them on the side.
Speaker 1: I look at this roster, and if we're talking SmackDown only,
Speaker 1: you know who are the best options from the SmackDown side?
Speaker 1: I think to be a good first pick for US champion,
Speaker 1: I come up with three names, Naomi, Chelsea, and Metchen.
Speaker 1: I like Chelsea. Chelsea Green for US champion would be
Speaker 1: my pick. If we're sticking to SmackDown only. If we're
Speaker 1: going to expand that out to raw, well now you
Speaker 1: have more options on the raw women's roster. Live Morgan
Speaker 1: is the women's World champion. Take her out, put her
Speaker 1: on the side. Raquel Rodriguez is her heavy right, her bodyguard,
Speaker 1: her backup, her insurance policy. Riquel. You got to consider
Speaker 1: Raquel as a very real possibility. Rhea Ripley is injured
Speaker 1: and even if she wasn't she's not wrestling for a
Speaker 1: mid card title. Put her on the side. Eo Sky,
Speaker 1: I love Eo Sky. Eo Sky though is going to
Speaker 1: be challenging very soon for the women's world title, so
Speaker 1: we'll put her on the side. Kyrie saying Lyra Valkyria,
Speaker 1: Alba fire Isla, Dawn, Shana Basler, Zoe Stark, Sonya Deville,
Speaker 1: who I don't think has looked great at all since
Speaker 1: coming back, although we haven't seen much of her lately,
Speaker 1: Kayden Carter, Katana Chance, Zelina Vega, Natalia, Ivy Nile, Maxine Dupree.
Speaker 1: Scarlett doesn't wrestle for them, so we'll put her on
Speaker 1: the side. Osca is injured, Dakota Kai is injured, and
Speaker 1: Keana James is injured. I think with the ACL that's
Speaker 1: the women's roster on Raw from Raw. If I had
Speaker 1: to pick three that stand out, I think you're looking
Speaker 1: at Raquel, Lyra, or Ivy Nile, and of those three,
Speaker 1: Lyra Valkeria would be my pick. They've toned down her
Speaker 1: push these last few months because she she got a
Speaker 1: little push there coming out of the gate. Becky Lynch
Speaker 1: before she left kind of tried to give her a
Speaker 1: little bit of the rub they were doing segments together. Uh,
Speaker 1: but I think Lyra would be my pick from the
Speaker 1: raw side. I think also it would be better to
Speaker 1: go with the babyface to balance things out. You got
Speaker 1: two Heel Women's champions right now. You know, for how
Speaker 1: much longer I don't know, But right now you have
Speaker 1: two Heel Women's champions. So if you're going to crown
Speaker 1: a US champion, let's say in the next thirty days,
Speaker 1: I think you want it to be a babyface. So
Speaker 1: that's why I would give the edge to Lyra over Chelsea.
Speaker 1: But those are the two names, one for each show.
Speaker 1: If I had to really kind of look at these
Speaker 1: rosters and say, who do I think would make a
Speaker 1: good first candidate for this, those are the two names
Speaker 1: that I come up with. But then there's another question here,
Speaker 1: how do you do it? They didn't announce anything as
Speaker 1: far as how they're going to crown the champion. Is
Speaker 1: there going to be a tournament, Is there going to
Speaker 1: be a battle royal, Is there going to be a lottery?
Speaker 1: We don't know. Let's assume that the title floats. We're
Speaker 1: not going to get Adam Pearce showing up on Monday
Speaker 1: Night right tomorrow, and I to introduce an intercontinental title.
Speaker 1: If they have a title that floats, then I think
Speaker 1: a co branded tournament like the one they did for
Speaker 1: the World Heavyweight title last year would make sense where
Speaker 1: they had talent from Raw and SmackDown. That that one
Speaker 1: actually did not make sense because that was exclusively a
Speaker 1: Raw title and they had SmackDown people wrestling for a
Speaker 1: Raw title with the idea that if they won, they
Speaker 1: would be forced to switch brands. I mean, it was weird,
Speaker 1: like that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Here,
Speaker 1: it would make more sense to do something like that.
Speaker 1: Or I was thinking of a way to tie Survivor
Speaker 1: Series into this, and I would really love for them
Speaker 1: to do one traditional Survivor Series elimination match every year
Speaker 1: instead of just you know, doing away with the entire concept.
Speaker 1: This year. You can have each GM, and again this
Speaker 1: is just one idea. You can have each GM choose
Speaker 1: five ladies, or you can even make them qualify for
Speaker 1: spots representing Raw and SmackDown. And I can't even believe
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here pitching brand warfare, which is funny coming
Speaker 1: from me, I know, but at least here there would
Speaker 1: be actual stakes, right, It wouldn't just be Raw versus
Speaker 1: SmackDown for brand loyalty, like who gives a fuck. At
Speaker 1: Least here there's something, there's something tangible at stake. So
Speaker 1: you get five women from Raw, five women from SmackDown,
Speaker 1: and whichever team wins those women in the match, it
Speaker 1: doesn't even matter if all but one are eliminated. If
Speaker 1: their team wins. Let's say Raw wins, right, and Sonia
Speaker 1: Deville is the sole survivor. Raw would get to decide
Speaker 1: the first US champion among those five women, maybe in
Speaker 1: a five way match. Let's say a five way is
Speaker 1: Saturday Night's main event two weeks later. Maybe you could
Speaker 1: come up with something better, But I just I like
Speaker 1: the idea of tying Survivor Series into this in some way.
Speaker 1: I think that would be one way to do it.
Speaker 1: Sewn Michaels. This week welcome Pro Wrestling Noah star Shiki
Speaker 1: in Amora to the Performance Center. As part of their
Speaker 1: working relationship with Noah, they sent aj Styles to Japan
Speaker 1: if you remember, for a match in July against Naomichi Marafuji.
Speaker 1: They also sent Tavian Heights of the No Quarter Catch
Speaker 1: Crew and Josh Briggs to Noah to compete in their
Speaker 1: N one tournament. They let Shinsky Nakamura work a match
Speaker 1: with the Great Mooda two years ago and their New
Speaker 1: Year's Show. In fact, they're sending Knakamura back to Noah
Speaker 1: again for their New Year's Show against Lka Sasaki. It's
Speaker 1: not like Nakamura has been doing anything on WWE television.
Speaker 1: He's just waiting for the New Year so he can
Speaker 1: go back to Japan. So there's been a lot going
Speaker 1: on between the two companies. A little bit of background
Speaker 1: here in Amora. He is thirty two years old, he's
Speaker 1: been pro for six years. He is considered a powerhouse
Speaker 1: type of wrestler. He's also competed for Progress Wrestling this year.
Speaker 1: This is not a situation where he's signing with NXT
Speaker 1: and joining full time. It's more like an excursion where
Speaker 1: he's coming to the US to works a little bit
Speaker 1: with NXT. I would assume he'll work with NXT for
Speaker 1: a little bit and then go back to Pro Wrestling Noah.
Speaker 1: Michael's tweeted, I'm excited to welcome Pro Wrestling Noah star
Speaker 1: Yoshiki Inamora to NXT. This hard hitting young man is
Speaker 1: going to be a problem for anyone he steps in
Speaker 1: the ring with. I look forward to growing NXT's partnership
Speaker 1: with Noah in the future. I just love the fact
Speaker 1: that in the last few years WWE has had more
Speaker 1: of an open borders policy. They have been more open
Speaker 1: to working with other promotions, even ones with TV, which
Speaker 1: they never were before. They were very isolationists in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. Now that their business is booming the
Speaker 1: way that it is, they have even less incentive to
Speaker 1: work with other people if they don't want to. But
Speaker 1: the fact that they're doing it anyway, I think is
Speaker 1: a great thing. NXT held its show at the ECW
Speaker 1: Arena this week. If you missed it, I did a
Speaker 1: rare live review. Since the show is on a Wednesday,
Speaker 1: I opt for that over Dynamite. You could find the
Speaker 1: full review, the videos up on YouTube, the audios up
Speaker 1: here on the feed where you're listening to this right now.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the show for what it was. I know
Speaker 1: it got a very mixed reaction. I think it was
Speaker 1: mostly positive, but kind of a mixed reaction. I think
Speaker 1: if you were watching it strictly as an ECW tribute show.
Speaker 1: It missed the mark. It was pretty lame. But that's
Speaker 1: not what this was. That's not what this was really
Speaker 1: meant to be. This was, you know what this was.
Speaker 1: This was an attempt to profit off the corpse of
Speaker 1: ECW by drawing an audience for a road show in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: First and foremost, that's number one. What this was Number two.
Speaker 1: They wanted to also use the ECW name and use
Speaker 1: some ECW alumni to endorse certain hand picked NXT stars
Speaker 1: like Trick Williams, like Javon Evans. You have raised somebody's
Speaker 1: hand or help put somebody through a table. That was
Speaker 1: the purpose. That was the whole. It wasn't to hey,
Speaker 1: you know, for two hours, we're gonna shine a spotlight
Speaker 1: on how great ECW was. It's like, all right, look,
Speaker 1: we want to take the show on the road. We're
Speaker 1: going to run this venue. This venue is known, you
Speaker 1: know for all those old classic ECW shows. How can
Speaker 1: we use this to our advantage. So we'll do the
Speaker 1: most basic, bare bones type of tribute that we can
Speaker 1: think of. We'll call in Bubba Rat and Devon and
Speaker 1: RVD and Nunzio and Francine and we'll have them wave
Speaker 1: and everybody will be happy. And that's what it was.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't even about them. It was about the
Speaker 1: NXT stars that they're trying to build. RVD didn't even
Speaker 1: do anything physical. I do wonder if he was hurt
Speaker 1: and he just wasn't allowed to because even in the
Speaker 1: back they did a segment where he got laid out
Speaker 1: by Wes Lee, they wouldn't show it. You heard share
Speaker 1: shots off camera when they showed him he was laying
Speaker 1: on the ground. He never he never did anything physical,
Speaker 1: even when he came out to the ring later. So
Speaker 1: I don't know what was going on with RVD. But again,
Speaker 1: the focus was not meant to be on those guys.
Speaker 1: But my big takeaway from that show on Wednesday was
Speaker 1: there is absolutely no reason that they cannot run smaller
Speaker 1: venues like this on the road once a month. I
Speaker 1: love the show they did in Saint Louis last month.
Speaker 1: I thought the atmosphere on Wednesday in Philadelphia at the
Speaker 1: Arena was great. I love the look of it too.
Speaker 1: It even just had kind of a distinct look to
Speaker 1: it with the lighting and everything. It didn't look like
Speaker 1: your typical week to week n XT show. No reason
Speaker 1: they can't do that. Once a month, you spend most
Speaker 1: of your time still at the PC. That's home base.
Speaker 1: You got your hometown audience there. Once a month you
Speaker 1: take the show on the road Chicago, Philadelphia, Fucking Vegas, California, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, wherever, Atlanta.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean regular NBA arenas. I mean like smaller,
Speaker 1: more intimate venue. Use a thousand people, you know, eight
Speaker 1: hundred people, fifteen hundred people. It really does. It creates
Speaker 1: a very unique atmosphere for the show that you cannot
Speaker 1: find on Mondays or Fridays. And per Mike Johnson of
Speaker 1: PW Insider, in speaking to several NXT talents, they were
Speaker 1: blown away by the atmosphere at the NXT Arena or
Speaker 1: ECW Arena twenty three hundred and hope the company would
Speaker 1: return there at some point, even if just for live events.
Speaker 1: We are told that all of the ECW originals were
Speaker 1: happy to give advice to anybody who asked. The company
Speaker 1: specifically went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Steps where
Speaker 1: Rocky was filmed, the Liberty Bell, the former Tony Luke's
Speaker 1: and Gino's Cheese Steaks, as well as down by the
Speaker 1: Pier to give the show a different flavor and lean
Speaker 1: into the Philadelphia history. The hope among talents is that
Speaker 1: they will do similar shoots and tapings in other cities.
Speaker 1: One talent specifically pointed out the Hammerstein Ballroom as a
Speaker 1: place they would like to see NXT visit in the future.
Speaker 1: You and me both. I've been saying that for months.
Speaker 1: I said it again on Wednesday, in fact, during my review,
Speaker 1: and I'm not surprised as some of the talents want
Speaker 1: to run there. I will tell you something may be
Speaker 1: coming to Hammerstein very soon, and it's not NXT, but
Speaker 1: it should. At some point in the future. NXT should
Speaker 1: run there. But let's talk about aw I opted to
Speaker 1: review NXT live on Wednesday and talk about Dynamite here
Speaker 1: on the podcast. I don't really think it was a
Speaker 1: good or bad choice one way or the other looking back,
Speaker 1: although I will say one of the reasons I did
Speaker 1: not bother with the NXT live reviews even before I
Speaker 1: started doing TNT on Tuesdays with JD was that people
Speaker 1: just didn't seem to care. You know, when I did
Speaker 1: the occasional live review, it would always have the weakest
Speaker 1: numbers of all the streams that I did that hasn't changed.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons why so you wanted to
Speaker 1: know why. It's just the interest level was just never
Speaker 1: there for NXT and still isn't as compared to Raw
Speaker 1: SmackDown and even Dynamite. Even if you think NXT is
Speaker 1: the better show, which I don't always agree with. I'm
Speaker 1: not as in love with the current NXT as some
Speaker 1: people are. But I did watch the show on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it for what it was. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about Dynamite. We got our first Hurt Syndicate promo acknowledged
Speaker 1: by that name on TV for the first time, and
Speaker 1: I noticed the fans treated them, even MVP, like they
Speaker 1: were big, big stars and they love Bobby Lashley. If
Speaker 1: the Hurt Syndicate offers you their business card, consider it
Speaker 1: your golden ticket to success. That was MVP's message, and
Speaker 1: if you reject it, this is what happens. And they
Speaker 1: showed their attack on Swerve Strickland from the previous week.
Speaker 1: That brought out Swerve, who had a very simple, very
Speaker 1: angry message while he was being held back in the aisleway.
Speaker 1: Bobby Lashley full gear an MVP accepted the challenge, so
Speaker 1: it was a simple segment to make the match official
Speaker 1: for the pay per view. The Hurt Syndicate. You know,
Speaker 1: they still have that new car smell. Fans are reacting
Speaker 1: to them like a big deal. We'll see how long
Speaker 1: that lasts. Orange Cassidy and Darby Allen the two true
Speaker 1: defenders of aw and this war with the Death Riders
Speaker 1: as they're now being called for reasons that remain unexplained.
Speaker 1: No more BCC. Did you notice, by the way, they've
Speaker 1: got a traditional Titan Tron video for their entrance. Now,
Speaker 1: all the people who have been begging for old school
Speaker 1: Titan Tron entrance videos and wrestling again, that is one
Speaker 1: cool thing they did with this group. If you didn't
Speaker 1: see it, go back and check it out. You'll see
Speaker 1: it again, probably on Wednesday this week. It's like a
Speaker 1: full fledged Titan Tron video showing them up different people,
Speaker 1: says Death Rider on Death Riders on the big screen,
Speaker 1: Cassidy and Darby. They beat Claudio and Pack by disqualification.
Speaker 1: I assume the referee got kicked out of the ring
Speaker 1: and the match just sort of ended when Marina Shaffir
Speaker 1: and Wheeler DA got involved. John Moxley showed up choked
Speaker 1: out Orange Cassidy, who he is defending his title against
Speaker 1: the Full Gear, the title that we never see anymore.
Speaker 1: We presume it's locked away in that briefcase that Marina
Speaker 1: carries around with them everywhere. Darby tried to save with
Speaker 1: his skateboard. He got wiped out though, and in the end,
Speaker 1: the conglomeration of Mark Briscoe, Kyl O'Reilly, Rocky Romero and
Speaker 1: Tombohiro is she hit the ring and the Heels retreated.
Speaker 1: They weren't beating the death Riders clean here and the
Speaker 1: non finish it was not a crowd pleaser. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the Death Riders are not supposed to beat crowd pleasers.
Speaker 1: They're supposed to piss you off. They're supposed to get heat,
Speaker 1: and so in that way, they're at least trying to
Speaker 1: do that. You had people cheering for Lashley an MVP
Speaker 1: in the opening segment. I mean, you don't want that
Speaker 1: with these guys, right, they're gonna they're cheering the Hurt Syndicate,
Speaker 1: who are feuding with Swerve, who up until at least
Speaker 1: recently was one of the biggest baby faces in the company. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: do you really want John Moxley coming out of being
Speaker 1: cheered when he beats the fuck out of Evil Luno,
Speaker 1: even though I would share him if I were in
Speaker 1: the crowd, I'd be cheering for him, But I don't
Speaker 1: think that's the right reaction that you want to go for.
Speaker 1: The Conglomeration stayed out there because up next we had
Speaker 1: a Fight Without Honor, with the Conglomeration taking on the
Speaker 1: Ring of Honor World Champion Chris Jericho, Big Bill and
Speaker 1: Brian Keith. We were barely two minutes into this match,
Speaker 1: and is She already put Jericho through a table. Typical
Speaker 1: hardcore shit, not unlike the opening match on NXT this week,
Speaker 1: but at least there. I know they did it because
Speaker 1: it was an ECW theme show. They were paying homage
Speaker 1: to ECW. This is basically every week on Dynamite. That
Speaker 1: was a theme show for NXT. This is your typical
Speaker 1: Wednesday on TBS. But I will say as hardcore matches go,
Speaker 1: this one was much better than the one with Lola
Speaker 1: Ice and Jada Parker on NXT. And it ended with
Speaker 1: ees She dropping Jericho with a brainbuster and pinning him.
Speaker 1: So that's going to be the match, if not for
Speaker 1: Full Gear. I mean, I know typically they've got final
Speaker 1: Battle coming up in December, but that's going to be
Speaker 1: the next ROH World title match. Jericho against eh G.
Speaker 1: I wonder who will win. And then we had Adam
Speaker 1: Cole against Malachi Black. I watched this match and I
Speaker 1: could not help but feel sad I had forgotten about
Speaker 1: their match at Takeover in Philadelphia. I asked the question
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, you know, have these guys
Speaker 1: haven't had a match before. I just couldn't remember. I
Speaker 1: thought it had to happen in NXT, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: remember where or when it happened. It was in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: at Takeover back in twenty eighteen, and I think part
Speaker 1: of the reason why I didn't remember it is because
Speaker 1: when I think of that Takeover Philadelphia's show, I instantly
Speaker 1: always think of Johnny Gargano against Andrade, which is one
Speaker 1: of the greatest NXT matches of all time, and it
Speaker 1: overshadowed everything else on that show for me. But I
Speaker 1: went back and I watched that match. WWE had posted
Speaker 1: it some time ago, the full match on their YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: and I'm watching these guys and watching them pre injury
Speaker 1: because they have both had serious injuries since then. Watching
Speaker 1: Malachi Black when he was still super over and he
Speaker 1: had big star written all over him, like everybody was
Speaker 1: talking Tommy en Man, he's gonna, you know, he's gonna
Speaker 1: go to WWE. He's gonna be the next big thing,
Speaker 1: and for the longest time in NXT he was. They
Speaker 1: gave him that spectacular entrance. He had great music, I mean,
Speaker 1: the stuff with him and Velveteen Dream, that great little
Speaker 1: feud they had. Ah. I mean, you could just tell
Speaker 1: this guy was a huge star in the making. And
Speaker 1: you look at that and you remember that, and you
Speaker 1: see how he's been used in aew you know, seeing
Speaker 1: what a great match these two had and how hot
Speaker 1: the crowd was for it back then, and then watching
Speaker 1: this where the crowds sat on their hands outside of
Speaker 1: you know, some of the big spots sat on their
Speaker 1: hands and were completely quiet. And the reason they were
Speaker 1: quiet is because I thought the match was pretty boring
Speaker 1: and plotting for the most part. I mean, this should
Speaker 1: have felt like a much bigger and it just wasn't.
Speaker 1: I also hated that Adam Cole kicked out of the
Speaker 1: end kick. They had protected that finish so the fact
Speaker 1: that Cole kicked out of it. You would think the
Speaker 1: crowd would react big, like holy shit, he kicked out
Speaker 1: of the kick. Not only did they barely react to it,
Speaker 1: you could hear some people booing. I was one of
Speaker 1: those people. I wasn't in the building, but I was booing.
Speaker 1: And I guarantee you that the booing. And again not
Speaker 1: everybody was booing, but the booing that was not the
Speaker 1: reaction they were hoping for. The dead silence was not
Speaker 1: the reaction they were hoping for. They tried to tell
Speaker 1: a story here. Early on, Black had the chance to
Speaker 1: target the surgically repaired ankle. He refused. He refused to
Speaker 1: take the easy route. He didn't want to take a shortcut.
Speaker 1: Later on, he hit the end, Cole kicked out and
Speaker 1: when Black tried to get to his feet, he couldn't
Speaker 1: and he collapsed back to the mat. So instead he
Speaker 1: sat cross legged and he basically allowed Adam Cole to
Speaker 1: hit him with the boom Finish me off, put me
Speaker 1: out of my misery, which he did, and Adam Cole
Speaker 1: pinned Malachi Black. Not much of a reaction to that either.
Speaker 1: After the match, Cole thanked him and offered a handshake,
Speaker 1: Black hugged him instead, and then as Black was heading
Speaker 1: up the ramp, Cole put him over as one of
Speaker 1: the best that he's ever been in the ring with,
Speaker 1: and the crowd gave Malachi a very nice ovation. This
Speaker 1: felt a little like maybe he was on his way out,
Speaker 1: you know, whether his career was gonna end. I didn't
Speaker 1: look at it as his career might be over. I
Speaker 1: looked at it as, you know, gee, I wonder if
Speaker 1: he's on his way out of the company. And so
Speaker 1: I can't fault people for coming away with that impression
Speaker 1: if they watched this, and believe me, people did, and
Speaker 1: Malachi noticed, and it upset him to the point that
Speaker 1: he posted a video on Instagram about it to refute
Speaker 1: the rumors, and in the video he said, I'm not injured,
Speaker 1: nor am I retiring, nor am I leaving. I feel
Speaker 1: this happens every match I have, and I don't understand
Speaker 1: how many times you're going to say these things and
Speaker 1: then them not happening and people are still going to
Speaker 1: fall for that. I have not been injured in more
Speaker 1: than three years, and I'm referring to my back injury,
Speaker 1: of course, and I only posted about that after it
Speaker 1: was already done, and if you would have read the post,
Speaker 1: you would have seen that and not read what other
Speaker 1: people have written about it. I'm fine. I've been fine
Speaker 1: for the longest time. I would really appreciate it if
Speaker 1: that stuff stops. If I'm going to retire, you're going
Speaker 1: to hear it from me, and not after Adam just
Speaker 1: cuts a promo as a thank you for the match,
Speaker 1: because that's all it was, so thank you. I think
Speaker 1: he should be happy that people even give a shit anymore. Honestly,
Speaker 1: he's been mostly a non factor in this company for
Speaker 1: the past three years. And I'm not saying that's all
Speaker 1: his fault. I'm not saying that some of it isn't,
Speaker 1: but I'm not saying that's all his fault. Like he said,
Speaker 1: he had a very serious back injury for while that
Speaker 1: was years ago, though that does not explain why he
Speaker 1: is not doing more than they have him doing. That
Speaker 1: does not explain why if he wasn't hurt, Tony Kahn
Speaker 1: had him doing trios and tags and hardly any singles matches.
Speaker 1: He is not a tag team wrestler. I know he's
Speaker 1: been part of a tag team. I don't mean that
Speaker 1: like literally, But I don't look at him as a
Speaker 1: tag team wrestler. He's not a tag team wrestler. He's
Speaker 1: not a trios wrestler. He built his name on the
Speaker 1: independent scene and in WWE as a singles wrestler, and
Speaker 1: as a singles wrestler, he gained the most notoriety in
Speaker 1: his career as Alistair Black. When he first came to AW,
Speaker 1: he pinned Cody Rhoads in his debut. He squashed him
Speaker 1: in under five minutes. It wasn't a squash in the
Speaker 1: way that Brody Lee beat Cody for the TNT title.
Speaker 1: But when you pin Cody Rhoads in four and a
Speaker 1: half minutes or whatever it was, that's about as close
Speaker 1: to a squash as you can get. And you know
Speaker 1: what happened after that. He pinned him again at Grand Slam.
Speaker 1: His run there got off to a very promising start
Speaker 1: and then it just fell off a cliff And maybe
Speaker 1: that's when the back injury came into play. I don't
Speaker 1: know the timetable on that, but ever since then he
Speaker 1: has been a total non factor. And all of the
Speaker 1: people who thought when he came in, this guy has
Speaker 1: world champion potential. What a loss for WWA. Those people
Speaker 1: have been made to look like complete fucking idiots, and
Speaker 1: I'll own it because I was one of those people.
Speaker 1: So yes, I can understand why he would be frustrated
Speaker 1: that fans keep writing him off, thinking that this is
Speaker 1: the end for him, But the fact that he even
Speaker 1: still has fans that are that invested to even care,
Speaker 1: he should be thankful for that. You know, he dances
Speaker 1: around it every time he posts a video like this.
Speaker 1: He did this once before it he said, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm not doing more singles matches.
Speaker 1: I'm not the guy you need to be asking that question.
Speaker 1: That was basically his answer. Don't look at me. He
Speaker 1: basically said, talk to Tony Khan without actually coming out
Speaker 1: and saying talk to Tony Khan. Here he says, I'm
Speaker 1: not hurt. I haven't been hurt. I haven't been hurt
Speaker 1: in more than three years. But he can't come out
Speaker 1: and say anything more than that because he works for
Speaker 1: Tony and Tony is the one booking him. I get it.
Speaker 1: I get it. Yeah, gotta come out and shit on
Speaker 1: your boss. But it's frustrating for the fans to see
Speaker 1: all of the potential that he had to be a
Speaker 1: top guy just get flushed down the toilet. Jim Ross,
Speaker 1: just this week on his podcast, said that his last
Speaker 1: conversation with Malachi a couple of pay per views ago,
Speaker 1: he didn't straight up say it to JR. But he
Speaker 1: detected that Black was, as he put it, he was
Speaker 1: a little dis enchanted. Yeah, you don't say. I'd be
Speaker 1: a little more than disenchanted if I were in his boots,
Speaker 1: but I'm not. So I'm not gonna waste my time
Speaker 1: protesting over this anymore. But that that lack of consistency,
Speaker 1: and that lack of any real, any kind of real
Speaker 1: singles push is why you felt the indifference that the
Speaker 1: audience had during most of this match, Because had his
Speaker 1: career gone a different way, had he gone right instead
Speaker 1: of left, I don't mean, you know, like not coming
Speaker 1: to AW. I mean in AW, had Tony taken him
Speaker 1: right instead of left, or left instead of right, maybe
Speaker 1: today we'd be sitting here watching Dynamite and a Malachi Black.
Speaker 1: Adam colemagined Malachi Black would be on the level of
Speaker 1: someone like a Kenny Omega the way he's pushed, or
Speaker 1: an MJF or a Will Osprey the way they're pushed
Speaker 1: or even to swerve. You know, he never got that chance.
Speaker 1: At the very beginning. Again, it looked very promising and
Speaker 1: he ended up going a different way. And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's because of a lack of talent. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's because he was exposed. He's not as good
Speaker 1: as people said he was. I think he is, it
Speaker 1: just didn't go that way. The reaction in this match
Speaker 1: would have been very, very different though, because he would
Speaker 1: have been a very different type of star for them.
Speaker 1: But now he is where he is, and that indifference
Speaker 1: that I mentioned, it's more than just Adam Cole against
Speaker 1: Malachi Black. It's not just an Adam Cole against Malachi
Speaker 1: Black problem. That's a problem with AW in general right now.
Speaker 1: So Cole has now beaten Buddy Matthews and Malachi Black,
Speaker 1: you would think that he would need to just beat
Speaker 1: Brody King now to get his match with MJF at
Speaker 1: full gear. But you would be wrong. Not only is
Speaker 1: he not wrestling Brody King, they're changing the entire stipulation
Speaker 1: that MJF laid out a few weeks ago. Here Cole
Speaker 1: said that he's got one win left to go and
Speaker 1: Roderick Strong, right, his good friend. He's got two more
Speaker 1: wins to go with the idea that if they both
Speaker 1: can get to three consecutive victories, what happens then Well,
Speaker 1: he talked to Tony Kahan and at full gear, it
Speaker 1: would be a triple threat match with Adam Cole, Roderick
Speaker 1: Strong and MJF. And he's guaranteed to get the ass
Speaker 1: kicking of a lifetime courtesy of the Undisputed Kingdom. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you a question, why would it be a
Speaker 1: triple threat match and not a handicapped match? Aren't they
Speaker 1: both interested in the same thing? He just said it
Speaker 1: in the promo. MJF is guaranteed the ass kicking of
Speaker 1: a lifetime courtesy of the Undisputed Kingdom. They're both interested
Speaker 1: in the same thing. They're both part of the same group, right,
Speaker 1: they both want to kick mjf's ass. There's no title
Speaker 1: on the line. Why would it even be billed as
Speaker 1: a triple threat so it would be a fucking handicap match.
Speaker 1: Why is Roderick Strong even involved in this? I don't
Speaker 1: give a shit about Roderick Strong against MJF. The story
Speaker 1: is MJF and Adam Cole so this whole thing is
Speaker 1: a mess. Originally it was Cole and Roddy would each
Speaker 1: have the chance to win three matches, and whoever reached
Speaker 1: three wins first would get MJF in the ring at
Speaker 1: full gear, which is why I've been saying for weeks.
Speaker 1: It's gonna come down to MJF forcing Adam Cole and
Speaker 1: Roderick Strong to wrestle each other, and the winner of
Speaker 1: that match would wrestle MJF at full gear. So either
Speaker 1: Max misspoke, which I don't think he did, or they
Speaker 1: just changed the direction of mid storyline. You know, a
Speaker 1: triple threat probably means Roddy would be turning on Adam Cole,
Speaker 1: But a triple threat also means that Adam Cole is
Speaker 1: going to have to win his next match, and his
Speaker 1: next match is going to be against the international champion
Speaker 1: Kenoskate Takeshta, the same Kenoskate Takeshta who lost on Dynamite
Speaker 1: this week. He got pinned in the main event by
Speaker 1: Ricochet in a tag team match. So you're gonna have
Speaker 1: Takeshta eat two losses back to back weeks. The only
Speaker 1: acceptable outcome then, if you're going to beat him is
Speaker 1: to have the Callous Family get involved with the DQ
Speaker 1: because if they pinned Takeshta two weeks in a row,
Speaker 1: then I want what Tony Kahan is smoking. I should
Speaker 1: also note that after Call one, they cut to a
Speaker 1: pre tape of MJF from inside his evil Layer at home,
Speaker 1: all upset, and he pulled out his phone and he
Speaker 1: dialed somebody and he told this mystery person, I need
Speaker 1: you to pay someone a visit. And my first thought
Speaker 1: was it's Wardlow, isn't it. Oh, God, tell me they're
Speaker 1: not just going to end up putting Award Love back
Speaker 1: with MJF after all this. I'll tell you who it
Speaker 1: should be. It should be mjf's lawyer paying Tony Kahna
Speaker 1: visit to show him the outclause in his contract so
Speaker 1: that he can get the hell out of there. I
Speaker 1: like the j White Hangman Page segment. Hangman crashed his
Speaker 1: backstage interview with Renee. They fought out into the arena.
Speaker 1: Page was going to hit him with a chair. Juice
Speaker 1: Robinson made the save, and as Hangman scurried into the crowd,
Speaker 1: Jay White cut a promo and he pointed out Hangman's
Speaker 1: gimpy leg that he has been limping around on and
Speaker 1: he said that would be his undoing and maybe he'll
Speaker 1: even be the first man to make the hangman tap out.
Speaker 1: See a simple story, nothing convoluted, and I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to the rematch because their last match was great. What
Speaker 1: was not great was the segment with Chris Statlander and
Speaker 1: Mercedes Monete. Statlander was being interviewed backstage by Renee, which
Speaker 1: apparently is a very dangerous thing to be doing. She
Speaker 1: finished and walked away, and as Renee was winding down
Speaker 1: the segment, she reacted to something off camera. We saw
Speaker 1: Statlander was on the ground having just narrowly avoided death.
Speaker 1: She was almost hit by an suv being driven by Camille,
Speaker 1: with Mercedes sitting in the passenger seat, and Mercedes yells
Speaker 1: at Camille from missing Statlander and said she can't do
Speaker 1: anything right. She goes, are you stupid? Or are you dumb?
Speaker 1: So Camille exited to go after Statlander, and Statlander meanwhile
Speaker 1: pulls Mercedes out of the suv. Statlander and Camille they
Speaker 1: briefly got into it until Chris slammed the door on
Speaker 1: Camille's arm, and then she slammed Mercedes onto the hood
Speaker 1: and that was that Statlander is going to challenge Mercedes
Speaker 1: at full gear for the TBS title, and the pairing
Speaker 1: between Mercedes and Camille is dead in the water. That
Speaker 1: only took three months. Good job. If Camille had any
Speaker 1: kind of special aura about her when she first showed up,
Speaker 1: she definitely doesn't have it now. Then again, I could
Speaker 1: say the same thing for Mercedes. We had Christian Cage
Speaker 1: and the patriarchy out with security in the aisle to
Speaker 1: prevent Hook from getting to them should he show up.
Speaker 1: He welcomed Kip Sabian to the family. That's like Fritz
Speaker 1: welcoming Lance van Erik into the family. So Christian played
Speaker 1: the video of Sabian stealing his pen. For those of you,
Speaker 1: I'm sure many of you don't even know this or
Speaker 1: remember this, but a while back he was about to
Speaker 1: cash in his World Championship contract. Christian was when Kip
Speaker 1: Sabian ran out, stole his pen before he could sign
Speaker 1: the contract, and ran off with this. Christian chased after him,
Speaker 1: and the camera followed them and as soon as Christian
Speaker 1: got to the back, he saw the BCC standing there
Speaker 1: and he realized. So now he realizes in that moment
Speaker 1: why Sabian did what he did. He saved Christian because
Speaker 1: the BCC likely would have interfered and cost him his
Speaker 1: World Championship shop. So Christian said, in that moment, Sabian
Speaker 1: did more for him than any of his other sons
Speaker 1: ever have. And he was glaring at Nick Wayne as
Speaker 1: he said this. So now we see the Hook signal
Speaker 1: up in the up and up in the rafters. He
Speaker 1: comes out on stage and Hook said, whatever it is
Speaker 1: that Christian has to say, make it good and make
Speaker 1: it fast. I don't have a lot of patience. Christian said.
Speaker 1: Hook is a wild card with crazy eyes. He's an
Speaker 1: ass kicker. He needs a son like him. He says,
Speaker 1: he realized that if he was going to be his son,
Speaker 1: he needed Taz out of the picture. He took out
Speaker 1: Taz with a lead pipe to the leg, and he
Speaker 1: pointed out that Taz got a good look at his face,
Speaker 1: so he knew who attacked him. And yet he questioned
Speaker 1: why Taz didn't just tell his son who did it?
Speaker 1: Why did he force Hook to find the culprit on
Speaker 1: his own. Christian said, Taz buckled under the pressure of
Speaker 1: the bright lights and hid behind the commentary table. And
Speaker 1: he asks if that's what Hook wants to do, or
Speaker 1: does he want to be a world champion like Christian.
Speaker 1: Christian said, no one cares that Taz is alive, and
Speaker 1: he wishes that Hook's father was dead. So Hook broke
Speaker 1: through security. The patriarchy bailed. Hook said that he would
Speaker 1: go through all of them one by one, so that
Speaker 1: means we're going to get Hook against Kipsabian suit. How
Speaker 1: many more weeks of rampage do they have left? They
Speaker 1: better get it in soon. Alex Marvez was in the back.
Speaker 1: He interviewed Don Callous about his new team of Lance
Speaker 1: Archer and Brian Cage before a large man walked up
Speaker 1: to him. I don't know who this person was, but
Speaker 1: he looked like a He looked like a wrestler. I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell you who he is. He offered Callous an
Speaker 1: envelope in a ring box before playing a message on
Speaker 1: his phone. It was from MJF, who said that he
Speaker 1: needs Callous to do something for him and that there's
Speaker 1: more money where that came from. MJF said, do what
Speaker 1: needs to be done, babe. Don't scuff up my ring
Speaker 1: or I'm going to have someone scuff you up. Callous
Speaker 1: put on the Dynamite Diamond Ring and admired it. I
Speaker 1: would laugh so hard if Callus sends Brian Cage and
Speaker 1: Lance Archer, these two giant men after Adam Cole, and
Speaker 1: they both end up getting their asses kicked. Imagine if
Speaker 1: that's the only reason they've even bothered to build up
Speaker 1: Cage and Archer in the last few weeks was just
Speaker 1: to go in there and get their fucking asses kicked
Speaker 1: by Adam Cole. Jamie Hater beat Penelope Ford. This was
Speaker 1: better than expected. Ford is not on Jamie's level, but
Speaker 1: she looked good for someone who's only been in the
Speaker 1: ring one other time recently, after almost two years not
Speaker 1: wrestling match. But man, it is depressing to see Jamie
Speaker 1: out there not getting the kind of reactions that she
Speaker 1: was getting last year before she got hurt. She was
Speaker 1: gone a long time, so yeah, I mean, things die
Speaker 1: down when you're not around. But she's been back for
Speaker 1: a few months now. I mean she's been back since
Speaker 1: Wembley that was in August, and they have just given
Speaker 1: the fans nothing to get excited about, nothing interesting for
Speaker 1: her to do. A side quest with Penelope Ford is
Speaker 1: not going to do it, and they close with Kyle
Speaker 1: Fletcher and Kenoski Takeshta against Ricochet and a mystery partner.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be Will Osprey. I was hoping
Speaker 1: it wasn't Mark Davis because that would have been fucking lame.
Speaker 1: It turned out to be Powerhouse Hobbes, which was a
Speaker 1: nice surprise. Powerhouse. It's great to see Hobbs back and
Speaker 1: healthy again. I remember that match against Moxley at Daily's
Speaker 1: place that was back in April, when he ruptured his
Speaker 1: pattel attendant and he finished the match. He hobbled around
Speaker 1: for another three minutes, but he finished the match. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a nasty, painful injury, so it was good to
Speaker 1: have him back. Takeshta wanted a lariot on Ricochet. Hobbs, though,
Speaker 1: shoved him out of the way and took the bullet.
Speaker 1: Ricochet flew off the top for a hurricane RNA and
Speaker 1: Takeshta initially caught him, but Ricochet snapped through with a
Speaker 1: pin attempt for two. Shooting star Press connected only for two,
Speaker 1: but Ricochet then after that just hit his running Larryot finish.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he calls him now, but it's
Speaker 1: far less impressive. I can tell you that, and he
Speaker 1: pinned Takeshta with it to win the match. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a fun made event. Ricochet pinning Takeshta logically
Speaker 1: sets him up for the next shot at the International title.
Speaker 1: After the match, Fletcher took out Hobbs and Ricochet with
Speaker 1: chair shots. He went for the Tiger Driver on Ricochet,
Speaker 1: but Mark Davis of Ossie Open ran down to make
Speaker 1: the save. He and Kyle got into a shoving match,
Speaker 1: and then Archer and Cage hit the ring and laid
Speaker 1: out Davis. Adam Cole tried to make the save, but
Speaker 1: takesh to cut him off in the two brawl to
Speaker 1: the back. Kyle went to retrieve the dreaded Screwdriver when
Speaker 1: Will Osprey's music hits. He so he could have been
Speaker 1: Ricochet's partner. He was there, the hell was he doing
Speaker 1: the entire time? Here he comes. He runs out to
Speaker 1: make the save. Fletcher almost ate a hidden blade, but
Speaker 1: he bailed before Osprey could connect. So we had Osprey, Hobbs, Ricochet,
Speaker 1: and Mark Davis running off the Kallus family to close
Speaker 1: out the show. They saved the best for last with
Speaker 1: this episode. It was cool to see Hobbs back. Hobbs
Speaker 1: has got top guy potential. He's not there yet, but
Speaker 1: he's got top guy potential. I think as a tweeter.
Speaker 1: So someone who doesn't care who you are, baby face, heel,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter you get in his way, he's gonna smash it.
Speaker 1: Throwing him into an other faction that won't do him
Speaker 1: any good. I've had people, I've had people writing in
Speaker 1: with suggestions for who MVP could recruit. Obviously he's been
Speaker 1: making overtures on TV towards Ricochet. You know what about
Speaker 1: Hobbes I threw I threw a Wardlow's name out there
Speaker 1: is a suggestion a week ago, just because it would
Speaker 1: be something to try to kind of get him back
Speaker 1: on the map, you know, not involving MJF. But then
Speaker 1: some people mention Hobbes and it's like throwing Hobbes into
Speaker 1: another faction is not going to do him any good.
Speaker 1: He's already been a part of three different groups. I
Speaker 1: guess Wardlow has been a part of two. But Hobbes
Speaker 1: is you know, he was with Team Taz, he was
Speaker 1: with QT. Marshall's Crew, whatever the fuck that was, and
Speaker 1: the Kallis family and what did that do for him?
Speaker 1: Nothing now. I would like to see him get a
Speaker 1: run on his own. So here's how the full gear
Speaker 1: lineup is shaping up. So far. We have John Moxley
Speaker 1: defending the aw World title against Orange Cassidy. We have
Speaker 1: MJF against Adam Cole or Roderick Strong or possibly both
Speaker 1: of them. Lashly takes on Swerve Strickland, Jack Perry takes
Speaker 1: on Daniel Garcia for the TNT title, Mercedes Money against
Speaker 1: Chris Statlander for the TVs title, Jay White against Hangman
Speaker 1: Adam Page. The tag team titles will be on the line,
Speaker 1: with Private Party defending in a four way match and
Speaker 1: they're going to face the Outrunners since they already qualified.
Speaker 1: And two other tag teams which will be determined between
Speaker 1: FTR and the House of Black on the next episode
Speaker 1: of Dynamite, and a match with LFI, so two members
Speaker 1: of Ruche Drelistico and The Beast Mortos, whichever two members
Speaker 1: of LFI will take on the acclaim. And we know
Speaker 1: on the Zero Hour pre show we have Big Boom
Speaker 1: aj from the Costco guys going to be taken on
Speaker 1: QT Marshall. I can't wait to not watch that. Will
Speaker 1: Osprey against Kyle Fletcher is not official, but they're not
Speaker 1: going to leave will Osprey off their full gear card,
Speaker 1: and Ricochet against Takesha seems likely for that show as
Speaker 1: well for the international title. So that is the lineup
Speaker 1: official and unofficial as it appears today. That show, of course,
Speaker 1: still a few weeks away November twenty third, that's the
Speaker 1: week before Survivor Series, so we still have time. I'm
Speaker 1: going to end it there because my mouth is starting
Speaker 1: to kill me here, so we'll put a lid on
Speaker 1: this and we'll get back to your mailbag questions and
Speaker 1: all the news of the week next week. That'll be
Speaker 1: episode eight eighty eight. How about that. We're going all
Speaker 1: eights next week, so get those questions in. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Solo Monster. Of course you can subscribe
Speaker 1: to the YouTube channel and find me there live during
Speaker 1: the week every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Raw Dynamite
Speaker 1: and SmackDown the Post shows, and of course every Tuesday
Speaker 1: night back this week with JD for Tuesday Night Titans
Speaker 1: on his channel, So a lot of content come in
Speaker 1: your way. Again, as I said on Twitter, I apologize
Speaker 1: for the show going up later than usual this week.
Speaker 1: I had a funeral to attend earlier today, and I
Speaker 1: will say, learn to appreciate the people in your life
Speaker 1: and those closest to you, because you never know when
Speaker 1: that day comes that they will not be here anymore.
Speaker 1: So you got to learn to cherish that and appreciate
Speaker 1: it while you still can. And on that note, be well,
Speaker 1: stay safe and I will see you back here for
Speaker 1: the Flagship next Sunday, episode eight eighty eight. Until then,
Speaker 1: take care, guys. The Solemn Monster sounds off. Let's go
Speaker 1: ninety five. A lot of people screamed cinema after the
Speaker 1: recent SmackDown episode. Not me. I think that word cinema.
Speaker 1: I cringe every time I hear it. Oh, it's cinema.
Speaker 1: It's cinema. If you took a non wrestling fan, but
Speaker 1: they're like a movie connoisse and you showed them the
Speaker 1: segments and they saw people going, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is sineva. This should win an award. Like these people
Speaker 1: would look at you like you need to get your
Speaker 1: head exam. All you fans of the Bloodline segments that
Speaker 1: call them, we need to take that word. Okay, we
Speaker 1: need to take the word cinema is given to me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take them away from you and we have
Speaker 1: to throw them in a fire and he has to die. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're over using the word to the point where now
Speaker 1: it's just becoming cringing. Okay, please don't use that word.
Speaker 1: The Solo Monster sounds off, bringing you the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
Speaker 1: content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and X The Solo Monster. I love you so young,