Speaker 1: It's business time.
Speaker 2: Baby. You are listening to Solo Monsters Sounds Off.
Speaker 1: I love you so Mama Monster talk. Dude, I want
Speaker 1: your soulier woman.
Speaker 3: You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Come over here. I have the best move set. You
Speaker 1: have legs. They've made Solo a monster. I was ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent positive. It was just chessed up. Now I want.
Speaker 2: Out of my contract if I don't.
Speaker 1: Care what I want. So what do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about? I could think of a few things to
Speaker 1: talk about. This is episode nine oh three of the
Speaker 1: Solo Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, March second, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: coming off one of the most talked about events in
Speaker 1: not only of the year, not only of the decade,
Speaker 1: but one of the most talked about events honestly in
Speaker 1: wrestling history. And we are coming off of an elimination
Speaker 1: Chambers show that also now has set the table for
Speaker 1: a championship match at WrestleMania that I think if you
Speaker 1: were coming into this year and you ask people, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to see John Cena in the main
Speaker 1: event wrestling Cody Roads for the WWE title, Not that
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be people who would be like, oh yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: that'd be a big match. I'd love to see it,
Speaker 1: but there'd be a lot of people to be like, eh,
Speaker 1: all right, I mean Babyface against Babyface, Cina and Cody,
Speaker 1: you know, coming out every week and complimenting each other.
Speaker 1: Not really a lot to get excited about there. But
Speaker 1: what we got last night was John Cena winning the
Speaker 1: elimination chamber punching his tickets to WrestleMania. But this is
Speaker 1: going to be a very different John Cena than the
Speaker 1: one that we are used to seeing over the past
Speaker 1: twenty years, and that is what makes things very interesting
Speaker 1: and very exciting now as we head into WrestleMania forty one,
Speaker 1: there is a lot to dissect coming out of last night,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to give it my all, and then
Speaker 1: we got a bunch of other news items to get
Speaker 1: into as well. So busy shit, a busy week, and
Speaker 1: I'm very happy that you were joining me here for
Speaker 1: the first sound off for the month of March. If
Speaker 1: you would like to make a PayPal donation, you may
Speaker 1: do so on Thesolomonster dot com ten dollars and more.
Speaker 1: We'll get your nickname and a shout out. I want
Speaker 1: it first. Actually, the first people I want to shout
Speaker 1: out are everybody who joined me on YouTube last night,
Speaker 1: because we went into the wee hours. I mean, I
Speaker 1: didn't even get off YouTube until I don't know sometime
Speaker 1: after three o'clock in the morning. You guys were hanging
Speaker 1: with me well over four thousand strong, and I love
Speaker 1: you for it. So thank you to everybody who was
Speaker 1: with me last night. I want to say thank you
Speaker 1: this week to Big B Bryant, Becea, The Diamond Dallas
Speaker 1: Dance Machine, Harrison Soap, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Portland
Speaker 1: pop Star, Paul Hamilton, the Chicago Slayer, Willie Iicherd, Night Stalker,
Speaker 1: n f Alsafar, the Alabama Assassin, Chris Young, Best in
Speaker 1: the Game, Trey Porter, Killshot, Keith Hart, and Tough Guy
Speaker 1: Temjin Zephyr. Thank you all for your support this week.
Speaker 1: Sometimes there are moments in wrestling that reminds you of
Speaker 1: why you became a fan in the first place, and
Speaker 1: why it is so much fun to follow this stuff
Speaker 1: and watch this stuff week to week. Triple H said
Speaker 1: coming into the Elimination Chamber this weekend that the show
Speaker 1: would be an industry changing event, and we get a
Speaker 1: lot of hyperbole from WWE. They throw all kinds of
Speaker 1: words and things like that around about how it's gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, transform this, or it's gonna, you know, shake
Speaker 1: the foundation of that. We were so desensitized to it
Speaker 1: at this point. But for a change, this was hyperbole
Speaker 1: that actually lived up to expectations. And this show last
Speaker 1: night will go down as one of the most memorable
Speaker 1: nights in WWE history, and that is not hyperbole. The
Speaker 1: ending of that show last night will be replayed many,
Speaker 1: many times over the years for years to come. A
Speaker 1: lot of people have been underwhelmed by the road to
Speaker 1: WrestleMania so far. Did a whole segment about this couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. I was feeling a lot of that too,
Speaker 1: and I said, one of the reasons for that is
Speaker 1: we are missing some very big names. We're missing some
Speaker 1: key players in the television build to WrestleMania. John Cena
Speaker 1: had not been seen on TV at all since the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble. Same for Roman Reigns. Randy Orton's been missing
Speaker 1: for months. They've been dragging this Jade Cargill mystery story
Speaker 1: out for months. Also, the who done it? She hasn't
Speaker 1: been on TV, and in a lot of ways, it
Speaker 1: felt like we were in a holding pattern until they
Speaker 1: got a lot of these names back on TV. It
Speaker 1: felt like we were in a holding pattern until we
Speaker 1: got past the chamber. Let's just get to the elimination chamber.
Speaker 1: Let's find out who the number one contender is going
Speaker 1: to be for the WWE title. Let's see who's going
Speaker 1: to be challenging Rio Ripley at WrestleMania. Let's get some
Speaker 1: names back and then the pieces should start to fall
Speaker 1: into place. Would The Rock be involved at all in
Speaker 1: WrestleMania this year or is he skipping the show? He
Speaker 1: showed up in Bad Blood, never said a word. He
Speaker 1: showed up on the Netflix premiere to sing the company's
Speaker 1: praises as Dwayne the board member, and he gave Cody
Speaker 1: Rhades his flowers like a total babyface. People thought it
Speaker 1: was strange how they seemed to drop the entire Rock
Speaker 1: in Cody story. It's like, oh my god, they're drinking
Speaker 1: Teamana together in the back. It was like a sin
Speaker 1: against all humanity for some people. He's killing k Fabe.
Speaker 1: He's throwing away a perfectly good story. The Rock told
Speaker 1: Cody last year the night after WrestleMania. Your story with
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns is over, but our story is only just beginning.
Speaker 1: So we saw The Rock at the Netflix premiere. We
Speaker 1: saw him with that very strange promo where he admitted
Speaker 1: he went out there on NXT and didn't know what
Speaker 1: he was going to say. That was clear, and then
Speaker 1: he went radio silent until last week when he reappeared
Speaker 1: and he showed up on Raw in New Orleans to
Speaker 1: announce the WrestleMania next year was coming back to the
Speaker 1: Big Easy and everybody you know loved it, and everybody
Speaker 1: cheered and went crazy, and then he said that's not
Speaker 1: the only reason why I'm here, and he invited Cody
Speaker 1: Rhodes out to the ring, and that's where we got
Speaker 1: the promo where he told Cody, I want you to
Speaker 1: be my champion. I don't want this title. I want
Speaker 1: your soul. And that brought us into the elimination chamber
Speaker 1: because The Rock said he was going to give Cody
Speaker 1: until the chamber in Toronto to make his decision. Go
Speaker 1: consult with your wife, talk to your family. I want
Speaker 1: you to be my brother. You and I could do
Speaker 1: big things together, and you give me your answer at
Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber. Now, of course the winner of the
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber was going to challenge Cody for the WWE
Speaker 1: title at Wrestle Media, so the two things tied together.
Speaker 1: It was pretty important to see who was going to
Speaker 1: come out of the Chamber match on top. This was
Speaker 1: John Cena's final shot, right, I mean, he didn't win
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble, and so in his mind, the only
Speaker 1: way to get a championship match at Wrestle Media, to
Speaker 1: try to win number seventeen and break the record was
Speaker 1: to win the Elimination Chamber. Because John Cena has been
Speaker 1: on this horrendous losing streak, at least in terms of
Speaker 1: singles matches. He's been on this terrible luck and has
Speaker 1: lost many matches over the last several years. This was
Speaker 1: maybe his last chance in his retirement year to try
Speaker 1: to get that championship shot. So he went into the
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber and we had Sena, We had CM Punk,
Speaker 1: who has his own story going on. He wants to
Speaker 1: go to the main event of WrestleMania for the first time.
Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins and Logan Paul and Damian
Speaker 1: Priest and I mean Logan Paul and Damian Priest. They
Speaker 1: were never going to win the Elimination Chamber, but you
Speaker 1: could at least make a plausible argument for any of
Speaker 1: the other four names that they could very well have
Speaker 1: won that match last night. But we had John Cena
Speaker 1: in there wrestling with CM punk. It was like they
Speaker 1: never missed a beat, right. We got to see the
Speaker 1: interaction with them. There's a lot of good shit, and
Speaker 1: I'll talk about it, but John Cena wins the Elimination Chamber,
Speaker 1: which means he's going to WrestleMania. They saved the Rock
Speaker 1: and Cody segment though, for the end of the show,
Speaker 1: So I just sort of assumed, you know, coming into this,
Speaker 1: that Rock and Cody that segment would go on in
Speaker 1: the middle of the show and they would close the
Speaker 1: show with the Elimination Chamber on the men's side. And
Speaker 1: when I realized that wasn't gonna happen and they were
Speaker 1: going to actually close with Rock and Cody, it became
Speaker 1: very clear that they've got something very big planned here,
Speaker 1: because you're not going to go off the air on
Speaker 1: this show with a talking segment in the ring and
Speaker 1: not put the chamber on last unless you have some
Speaker 1: kind of big twist or angle or something planned for
Speaker 1: the end of the show. So Cody is not just
Speaker 1: going to go out there and say, you know what, Rock,
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to take you up on that offer.
Speaker 1: Here's my soul. I've put it in a box for you.
Speaker 1: I put a bow on it. And that's how they
Speaker 1: go off there. So you knew something big was gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Cody comes out to the ring, scene is still out there.
Speaker 1: Then we get the Rock, who has Travis Scott with him.
Speaker 1: Triple H invited Travis Scott to come to the chamber.
Speaker 1: Of course, he sings the raw theme on Netflix every week.
Speaker 1: Rock and Travis Scott come down to the ring and
Speaker 1: the Rock wants his answer. Embrace me, Cody Rhodes. I
Speaker 1: will take you to heights never seen before. I will
Speaker 1: make your dreams come true. Give me your soul, and
Speaker 1: Cody Roads says Rock. I love the way they did
Speaker 1: the little tease where it was like Rock, you know,
Speaker 1: like he's gonna give him his soul, right, but he
Speaker 1: goes I can't because I've already given my soul to
Speaker 1: this ring. I've given my soul to all these people says, Hey, Rock,
Speaker 1: go fuck yourself. You know, Christian Cage telling Adam Copeland
Speaker 1: to go fuck yourself was one of those great moments
Speaker 1: in Dynamite history, right in part because it was just
Speaker 1: it was so unexpected. It just kind of came out
Speaker 1: of nowhere. He said, It's so matter of factly, like
Speaker 1: it was this great moment. Cody's standing out there on
Speaker 1: a show that has been technically PG for so long
Speaker 1: and standing in the middle of the ring here on
Speaker 1: this show and telling the Rock and no uncertain terms,
Speaker 1: to go fuck himself was quite the unexpected moment. It
Speaker 1: was great. That's exactly what he should have said to
Speaker 1: the Rock after the stunt the Rock pulled on Friday
Speaker 1: night when he sent that video in and he talked
Speaker 1: about Cody's father. He has this weight belt with the
Speaker 1: date on there that Dusty died, and he's invoking the
Speaker 1: name of the American Dream. If I were Cody, I
Speaker 1: would have told Rock to go fuck himself too. That
Speaker 1: was exactly the response that he should have given him.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't about that. It was about what happened next.
Speaker 1: Because John Cena is in the ring, and he's in
Speaker 1: the background and he's hamming it up, which he always does,
Speaker 1: but he's hamming it up and he looks so proud
Speaker 1: of Cody. And then they lowered the boom and the
Speaker 1: rock gave the cutthroat sign. John Cena's big smile, his
Speaker 1: big cheesy grin turned to this just stone face, look
Speaker 1: like he was about to murder somebody. And then came
Speaker 1: the low blow and then he picks up the rolex
Speaker 1: and he bashes Cody in the head with them. Michael
Speaker 1: Cole says it was brass knucks. It wasn't brass knucks.
Speaker 1: He picks up the WWE championship when I tell you
Speaker 1: that he hit Cody in the head with this title
Speaker 1: like you could hear the sound that it made. If
Speaker 1: Cody didn't wake up with a grapefruit on his head,
Speaker 1: I'd be shocked. Like he belted him right in the head,
Speaker 1: I think twice. Actually, Cody ends up bleeding, so we
Speaker 1: got some color. Seena rips his dress shirt off Cody's shirt.
Speaker 1: He's choking him with his neck tie. He's holding Cody down.
Speaker 1: Travis Scott is in the ring, he's holding Cody down.
Speaker 1: But he slapped the shit out of Cody too. I
Speaker 1: didn't even catch it when I watched the show last
Speaker 1: night live, but it's a video going around of him.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if it was so much a
Speaker 1: slap or a punch, but he nailed Cody right in
Speaker 1: the face as he was laying there. And then Rock
Speaker 1: takes off the white weight belt, whips Cody with it,
Speaker 1: wipes Cody's blood on it, just like he did last year.
Speaker 1: Remember Mama Rhodes in the build up to wrestle many
Speaker 1: of forty and we get the visual going off the air,
Speaker 1: bloody Cody Roads laying in the middle of the ring,
Speaker 1: John Cena being booed and leaving arm in arm with
Speaker 1: the Rock and Travis Scott. I said when they came
Speaker 1: out to the ring, it was like father and son.
Speaker 1: When I saw Rock and Travis Scott walking down to
Speaker 1: the ring, it's like take your son to workday. But
Speaker 1: there they are. They're all standing shoulder to shoulder in
Speaker 1: the aisleway as they go off the air. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about this visual, Okay. In one segment, we had
Speaker 1: Cody Rhodes telling the Rock to go fuck himself while
Speaker 1: Travis Scott is in the corner burning sage and John
Speaker 1: Cena turns heel. It sounds like the sort of thing
Speaker 1: that you wake up from and you tell your friends about, Like, man,
Speaker 1: I had the wildest fucking dream. I think I ate
Speaker 1: too much last night. Only that actually happened. And so
Speaker 1: now you see the Rock and Scena standing side by side.
Speaker 1: We got the Hollywood heels, we got the new two
Speaker 1: man power Trip. In WWE, this was the greatest elimination
Speaker 1: chamber pl that they have ever done, which I think
Speaker 1: says a lot considering it only had four matches, Like
Speaker 1: it had to be the fewest number of matches that
Speaker 1: they have ever had on one of these shows. It
Speaker 1: has to be, and yet it's gonna go down, if
Speaker 1: not as the best, that'll go down as one of
Speaker 1: their best. I think it says a lot about matches
Speaker 1: versus moments, you know, matches versus moments and story. But
Speaker 1: it was highlighted by one of the greatest heel turns
Speaker 1: of all time, second only to Hulkgan forming the nWo,
Speaker 1: which which wasn't only shocking, I mean that was transformative
Speaker 1: in what it did for the wrestling business as a whole.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you didn't live through that era, I
Speaker 1: can understand people thinking that last night blows it out
Speaker 1: of the water. You got a lot of people watching
Speaker 1: wrestling right now who are casual fans. They don't they
Speaker 1: don't know about the history of the heel turns and
Speaker 1: the past and all that stuff, or they just are
Speaker 1: are either newer fans or young enough that they just
Speaker 1: didn't grow up during that era. And you have a
Speaker 1: lot of people who grew up with John Cena as
Speaker 1: the top guy. John Cena was their guy. He was
Speaker 1: their big baby face for so many years. He was
Speaker 1: on top for so many years, and that's what people remember.
Speaker 1: Ruthless aggression in the PG era, the Reality era, all
Speaker 1: those different eras that John Cena sort of transcended throughout
Speaker 1: the history of this company. And so I can understand
Speaker 1: people looking at this and going, man, this is tops
Speaker 1: right here, right this is just a number one. This
Speaker 1: blows everything else out of the water. I can't sit
Speaker 1: here and say that, but I do think it's fair
Speaker 1: to say that last night was this generation's Bash at
Speaker 1: the Beach nineteen ninety six definitely the most shocking heel
Speaker 1: turns since Steve Austin and WrestleMania seventeen. And this was
Speaker 1: better because of the way that they set the whole
Speaker 1: thing up. It's actually very similar to the Austin turn.
Speaker 1: If they go with the idea that he's desperate to
Speaker 1: win Number seventeen in his final year. Like what did
Speaker 1: Austin tell Rock before that WrestleMania. I need to beat you, Rock,
Speaker 1: I need to beat you more than anything that you
Speaker 1: could ever imagine. Austin had already won the Royal Rumble,
Speaker 1: he already had a guaranteed title match of WrestleMania, but
Speaker 1: he was so desperate to ensure that he would win
Speaker 1: that championship that he would end up siding with the
Speaker 1: man who who was a thorn in his side from
Speaker 1: day one in that company, right, Austin versus mcmahnon. There
Speaker 1: he is standing in the middle of the ring, shaking
Speaker 1: hands with the devil himself. John Cena already has a
Speaker 1: guaranteed title match at WrestleMania as of last night, he
Speaker 1: won the Elimination Chamber. But maybe he's so desperate to
Speaker 1: ensure that this is it because right he's made it
Speaker 1: very clear this is his final year. He needs to
Speaker 1: win number seventeen to cement his legacy, to make people
Speaker 1: forget maybe about all the horrible losing streak. He's been
Speaker 1: on to set the record. It's best for business, That's
Speaker 1: what he said after the Royal Rumble. If they take
Speaker 1: that tack with this story, it's very similar. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of similarities between the two. Only I don't see
Speaker 1: business dipping the way that it started to dip after
Speaker 1: Austin turned heel. That's one of the big differences. And look,
Speaker 1: there have been a lot of great heel turns in
Speaker 1: wrestling history. There have been a lot of great heel turns.
Speaker 1: Let's focus specifically on WWE. Okay, forget other promotions, because
Speaker 1: that just opens it up to a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: other angles. There have been a lot of great ones
Speaker 1: over the years. Andre turning heel on Hogan to align
Speaker 1: with Bobby Heen and heading into WrestleMania three. That's a
Speaker 1: pretty fucking big one. Brett Hart in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1: But when I think of the top three most shocking,
Speaker 1: not even heel turns, I would say jaw dropping moments
Speaker 1: ever in wrestling storyline wise, it's the streak ending at
Speaker 1: WrestleMania thirty. I swear to God, I'm looking around. I've
Speaker 1: never seen so many jaws drop in my entire life,
Speaker 1: like just shocked expressions on people's faces. It was like
Speaker 1: somebody died in the building that night. I've never experienced
Speaker 1: anything like that in all my years of going to
Speaker 1: wrestling shows and not since. So it's the streak ending
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania thirty, it's Hogan turning at Bash at the Beach,
Speaker 1: and it's John Cena turning Heel last night at the
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber, and think about how we got there. I
Speaker 1: think it's important to take note of how we even
Speaker 1: got to this point. Let us not forget how we
Speaker 1: got Final Boss Rock last year. The only reason The
Speaker 1: Rock won Heal and we got the Final Boss is
Speaker 1: because the people wanted Cody Rhoades in that match. He
Speaker 1: won the Royal Rumble. He was getting fucked out of
Speaker 1: a WrestleMania match with Roman rains right. He was not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to finish his story. He won the
Speaker 1: Rumble and was gonna step aside and let somebody else
Speaker 1: take a spot. That's ridiculous, and The Rock realized that
Speaker 1: and they change course and we ended up with Heal Rock.
Speaker 1: That was not the plan. We were gonna get Rock
Speaker 1: against Roman rains. But think about it, if we don't
Speaker 1: get Final Boss Rock and they don't take that detours,
Speaker 1: very possible we don't get Heal John Cena. Right, you
Speaker 1: can't say that for sure. Maybe it's something Sena wanted
Speaker 1: to do in his final year. Regardless the way they
Speaker 1: they've weaved it into the Rock and Cody stuff, It's
Speaker 1: entirely possible we do not get Heal John Cena this
Speaker 1: year if things don't change in the way that they
Speaker 1: did last year. And it's why wild, how one thing
Speaker 1: could lead to a domino effect in so many other ways,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it just works out for the better. What
Speaker 1: does it say about Cody Rhodes as their top babyface
Speaker 1: that his run has led to the Rock Right going
Speaker 1: heel and abandoning his big plan for a match with
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns. We got the Final Boss, he turns heel
Speaker 1: for the first time in eleven years, and now the
Speaker 1: impossible has happened, the one thing that we never thought
Speaker 1: would happen. I certainly never thought it would happen. I'd
Speaker 1: given up hope on this years ago, and yes it
Speaker 1: does feel like it's many years too late, But I
Speaker 1: never envisioned that I would be sitting here talking about
Speaker 1: John Cena turning heel. Well, that's what happened last night.
Speaker 1: This all has happened under Cody's watch, with Cody as
Speaker 1: the top babyface in this company, and it gives Cody
Speaker 1: yet another obstacle to have to overcome. These things would
Speaker 1: not be happening if they did not believe in Cody
Speaker 1: as their top babyface, if the fans did not buy
Speaker 1: into Cody as their top babyface. And I think it
Speaker 1: says a lot of his value in that role, which
Speaker 1: is why I said it would be ridiculous to turn
Speaker 1: him heel. Right now, for all of the different scenarios
Speaker 1: that people were playing out in their head over the
Speaker 1: last few weeks, who might be the corporate champion? Right
Speaker 1: We've all been talking about it. We've all talked about
Speaker 1: the possibility that it could be John Cena, or that
Speaker 1: it could be cmpunk. People wanted Cody to go heal,
Speaker 1: It would have been ridiculous. Cody is their guy. He
Speaker 1: is the face of the company. He is the guy
Speaker 1: that is going to be there every single week, not
Speaker 1: John Cena, not the rock. Cody Rhoades is now to
Speaker 1: wwe what John Cena used to be. The only difference
Speaker 1: is people had grown sick and tired of seeing Sena
Speaker 1: doing the same thing over and over again for so
Speaker 1: many years. They were ready for a turn. They were
Speaker 1: ready for something different, and we almost got it in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve after he lost to the Rock, but Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon got cold feet and he changed his mind. Seena
Speaker 1: has talked about this. He was ready to go, He
Speaker 1: had a new track made, new gear made. He was
Speaker 1: ready to go, and Vin chickened out, but the fans
Speaker 1: were ready for it. Cody Rhodes has not yet reached
Speaker 1: that point where the fans are in rebellion against his
Speaker 1: push right. They've grown sick of this guy. And I
Speaker 1: mean there are people that don't like Cody and they
Speaker 1: think he's boring. I'm not saying everybody loves the guy,
Speaker 1: but you don't hear that in the crowd reactions every week.
Speaker 1: It's not coming through. We're not watching Raw and SmackDown
Speaker 1: every week and hearing the fans go back and forth
Speaker 1: with you know, let's go Cody. Cody sucks, right. They
Speaker 1: like him, they believe in him, and what this does
Speaker 1: is it makes Cody an even bigger star. He finished
Speaker 1: his story last year, but it now creates a whole
Speaker 1: new one for him, especially if he loses the title
Speaker 1: to John Cena and he has to chase to get
Speaker 1: it back. One of the things I'm not gonna lie
Speaker 1: that that I got excited thinking about last night is
Speaker 1: the possibility that we could get a redo on what
Speaker 1: we did not get last year WrestleMania, which would have
Speaker 1: been a tremendous moment and it didn't happen, and I'm
Speaker 1: still kind of sore about it, but it could happened
Speaker 1: this year. Of all the cameos that we got in
Speaker 1: that WrestleMania Maine event last year really felt like their
Speaker 1: version of Avengers Endgame. The one big name missing from
Speaker 1: that equation was Stone Cold. Steve Austin. You had the
Speaker 1: Rock was there, and you know, Cody obviously was in
Speaker 1: their Roman reigns. The Undertaker showed up. Where is Stone Cold?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: If the glass would have shattered, Oh my god, what
Speaker 1: a fucking moment that would have been if you would
Speaker 1: have stunned Rock out of his boots and it didn't happen. Well,
Speaker 1: WrestleMania this year is in Nevada. It's in Austin's backyard, right,
Speaker 1: that's where he lives now, that's where the broken skull ranches.
Speaker 1: And I would be very surprised if we didn't get
Speaker 1: some kind of an Austin appearance of WrestleMania this year.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he would be doing, right, He's
Speaker 1: not going to wrestle I know he had knee replacement
Speaker 1: surgery a few months ago. But now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I can envision a scenario or in the main event
Speaker 1: of WrestleMania, and Cody is out there, He's trying to
Speaker 1: beat this guy. Rock is out there, right, Rock's out
Speaker 1: there in Cody's corner or seen his corner. Sina needs
Speaker 1: some backup, and you hear the glass shatter. This year,
Speaker 1: we got Austin coming out and stunning Rock out of
Speaker 1: his boots. Right. I could see that, I could see him.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment again, but I'm
Speaker 1: just saying they could redo it. They could get a
Speaker 1: redo on last year. But look, John Cena had to
Speaker 1: turn heel. He had to turn heel if they wanted
Speaker 1: to give us John Cena in the main event against
Speaker 1: Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania of forty one. This is what
Speaker 1: needed to be done, because if not, what you end
Speaker 1: up with is John Cena effectively wrestling himself, and that's boring.
Speaker 1: This makes things far more interesting. It turns everything on
Speaker 1: its head, and it's very easy to explain. This man
Speaker 1: is desperate to win number seventeen because it is best
Speaker 1: for business. And like you said at the rumble, I
Speaker 1: need to win number seventeen so that I could eventually
Speaker 1: shake the hand of the man who wins number eighteen.
Speaker 1: But he is so desperate to ensure that he is
Speaker 1: going to win that champion, but he is willing to
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes. Look, there's any number of explanations
Speaker 1: that you can come up with for this. You could
Speaker 1: have seen it go out there and finally unleash on
Speaker 1: the fans for all the shit they put him through
Speaker 1: for so many years. The thing is over the last
Speaker 1: several years. You don't really get that anymore. Right, The
Speaker 1: fans have warmed up to John Cena. They've been cheering
Speaker 1: him for years now. The whole let's go see a
Speaker 1: scene of sucks thing that's from many, many years ago.
Speaker 1: But maybe he never forgot about that. The majority of
Speaker 1: his run was spent with these mixed reactions and no
Speaker 1: matter what he did to try to please the fans,
Speaker 1: it wasn't enough for some people. Right, Maybe they tap
Speaker 1: into that. It's like the Rock when the Rock went.
Speaker 1: He went from Rocky Myivia to the Rock and he
Speaker 1: joined the Nation and he said he talked about the
Speaker 1: Rocky sucks chance. Rocky is a lot of things, but
Speaker 1: sucks is in one of them. And all you people, right,
Speaker 1: the U People promo, It's like it's a necessity when
Speaker 1: you turn heel and wrestling, you got to get the
Speaker 1: U People promo. Maybe he goes the U People route
Speaker 1: and he taps into that a little bit, but that
Speaker 1: first heel scene of promo is going to hit like
Speaker 1: crack right now? Can you see me? Can you see
Speaker 1: me now? I don't know when we're gonna get it.
Speaker 1: I saw rock last night after the show said that
Speaker 1: Sina was flying right out to Africa for filming on something.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, we may not see Scena back
Speaker 1: on TV until Saint Patrick's Day, because that's the next
Speaker 1: show he's advertised for. They're going to be in Brussels.
Speaker 1: They've got that big European tour coming up. He's advertised
Speaker 1: for dates in Belgium, in Scotland the week after that,
Speaker 1: and then in London the week after that, which is
Speaker 1: the end of the month. So it's very possible we're
Speaker 1: going to have to wait a couple of weeks, and
Speaker 1: that's not ideal. I think that sucks. But if they
Speaker 1: got the rock on TV, if scene is not going
Speaker 1: to be there, but we get rock, at least that's something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that making people wait another week
Speaker 1: to get the explanation is a bad thing. Having to
Speaker 1: wait two weeks or you know, longer than that, that
Speaker 1: that I'm not interested in. Right to get this man
Speaker 1: on TV. This is what people are gonna be talking about.
Speaker 1: This is what people are going to be excited about.
Speaker 1: So he may miss this week, but I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: by the next week we get him back on TV.
Speaker 1: And when we see John Cena again on TV, he
Speaker 1: needs to look and sound completely different. No more jorts.
Speaker 1: Somebody on the stream last night says he should burn
Speaker 1: them on TV. Sure, get a garbage can in the
Speaker 1: ring and set it a blaze and dump the jorts
Speaker 1: in there. The jorts, the T shirts, the armbands, the
Speaker 1: baseball caps, all of it, the music, the presentation. I mean,
Speaker 1: God help us if they give him the deaf Rebel treatment.
Speaker 1: I would like to think that if Sena was told
Speaker 1: he was going to get the Deaf Rebel special, he
Speaker 1: would be like, you know what, fuck that, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sing my own song. You ain't given me that. I mean,
Speaker 1: if Randy Orton could say no to Deaf Rebel, I
Speaker 1: would think John Cena could. But the music, the presentation,
Speaker 1: all of it needs to change. They need to go
Speaker 1: all in on this, and I think they will. I
Speaker 1: think they've already got that mapped out. Sena's been wanting
Speaker 1: to do this for over a day. Kid. Now he's
Speaker 1: finally being given the chance. It's his last chance, because
Speaker 1: it's his last year. I think that John Cena will
Speaker 1: have carte planche to pretty much do whatever he wants,
Speaker 1: much like The Rock does, because why wouldn't he.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Brandy Rhodes on Twitter last night she put out John
Speaker 1: Cena sucks, and then Our Truth responded and said we
Speaker 1: can't jump to conclusions, which is funny because I was
Speaker 1: saying this in the review last night. I said, one
Speaker 1: of the first things John Cena needs to do sometime
Speaker 1: between now and WrestleMania. Maybe not the first thing, but
Speaker 1: he needs to kill our truth. Our truth is beloved
Speaker 1: by people, right, our truth has idolized this man. He
Speaker 1: has jack this man's moves. He is still stealing. Seen
Speaker 1: his moves in all of his matches. You want to
Speaker 1: put more heat on John Cena. You have him. You
Speaker 1: do an injury angle where he puts our truth at
Speaker 1: a commission. I know that Bronson Reid put our truth
Speaker 1: out for a while with some tsunami splashes all those
Speaker 1: months ago. This needs to be far worse. He needs
Speaker 1: to put this man out. We're gonna get heal Sina.
Speaker 1: We need heel Sena. And think about all the possibilities
Speaker 1: now that this opens up. You know, does John Cena
Speaker 1: break the record at WrestleMania as a heel and then
Speaker 1: go on a run defending the title against a bunch
Speaker 1: of his old rivals, CM Punk, Randy Orton, AJ styles
Speaker 1: Winning number seventeen feels like it should be a babyface moment,
Speaker 1: not a heal moment. But there is a redemption arc
Speaker 1: for Sina later this year that will be told because
Speaker 1: Sena is not ending his career this year as a heel. Right,
Speaker 1: we don't even know how long this is gonna last.
Speaker 1: It could go all the way to WrestleMania and then end.
Speaker 1: It could be as short as the Shawn Michaels heel
Speaker 1: turn was in two thousand and five. I think that
Speaker 1: was like four weeks. I hope not. I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun to be had with this, and
Speaker 1: I would hate to see it end in six weeks.
Speaker 1: But we just don't know. We don't know how deep
Speaker 1: into the year they plan to go with this. I
Speaker 1: was watching that E Limit Nation Chamber match last night
Speaker 1: and I commented on the magic that is still there
Speaker 1: with John Cena and Cmpunk. We have to get a
Speaker 1: singles match. When we get a singles match. Now the
Speaker 1: dynamic has completely flipped because now it's Cmpunk is the babyface,
Speaker 1: John Cena as the heel. Funny to say that the
Speaker 1: dynamic has flipped, because back when they did it at
Speaker 1: Money in the Bank in twenty eleven, it was already
Speaker 1: kind of like that because they were in Chicago. Punk
Speaker 1: was the hero and people were booing Sena, but Sena
Speaker 1: was still a babyface back then, and they had the
Speaker 1: Summer Slam match and they had that Raw match in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, but now the dynamic is completely different, which
Speaker 1: would make it even more fun. The promos matching the promos,
Speaker 1: Heel Sena and Punk going toe to toe on the
Speaker 1: mic heading into a big match on a pl Sign
Speaker 1: me the fuck up, because those two were in the
Speaker 1: ring last night, going back and forth, trading spots like
Speaker 1: it was twenty eleven all over again, and the magic
Speaker 1: was still there. They're a lot older now, maybe they
Speaker 1: don't move the way they used to, and scene is
Speaker 1: a lot you know, he looks a little bit different,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have the fade, needs to get that spray
Speaker 1: ten going to be like the old Sena, But the
Speaker 1: magic is still there between those two. That's what hit
Speaker 1: me when I saw them working together last night, Sena
Speaker 1: and Randy Orton. Every John Cena Randy Orton match I
Speaker 1: think that we've ever had was Babyface Sena and either
Speaker 1: baby Face Orton or Heel Orton. But Sena was always
Speaker 1: the constant in that equation. But now you get to
Speaker 1: heal John Cena against the baby face Randy Orton again.
Speaker 1: Everything is flipped on its head. John Cena and Roman Reigns.
Speaker 1: You know we're gonna get another match between them, I mean, hell,
Speaker 1: this even puts a new spin on Joe Hendry calling
Speaker 1: John Cena out for a match in T and A.
Speaker 1: Only now Sena would be the heel. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's actually gonna happen, but it definitely makes it
Speaker 1: more interesting than it would have been before. Right. It
Speaker 1: shakes everything up. That's what I love about this. It
Speaker 1: shakes everything up. That is what this build to wrestle
Speaker 1: Mania needed. This is the shakeup that this build needed.
Speaker 1: And I look ahead to WrestleMania in New Orleans next year.
Speaker 1: Is Rock and Cody the destination? Is this another three
Speaker 1: year story like Sena and Rock had? It started at
Speaker 1: WrestleMania twenty seven when Rock was kind of involved in
Speaker 1: that main event with Sena and Miz. That was the kickoff,
Speaker 1: and it bled into the two matches they had won.
Speaker 1: At WrestleMania twenty eight. Rock won that one and then
Speaker 1: finally at twenty nine and Rock put Sena over. It
Speaker 1: was a three year story arc, the Rock and Cody
Speaker 1: stuff that started last year and the Rock pin Cody
Speaker 1: on Night one of WrestleMania. Now it's bled over into
Speaker 1: this year. Do we get the payoff next year with
Speaker 1: Cody getting that win back over Rock from Night one
Speaker 1: last year. Is that where this story ultimately pays off.
Speaker 1: I know what Rock said last week about how you
Speaker 1: know this doesn't have to pay off in a match.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, this is pro wrestling
Speaker 1: and people want to see these stories pay off in
Speaker 1: the ring. So yes, this does need to pay off
Speaker 1: in a match, and I think WrestleMania two would make
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of sense. Maybe they want
Speaker 1: to still do Roman reigns in the Rock at some point,
Speaker 1: because at this point, I'll tell you this, the match
Speaker 1: to do is not Rock against Roman. Not that it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be a big match, that's not the match anymore.
Speaker 1: At this point, the match is Rock and Cody. If
Speaker 1: Rock is ever gonna wrestle again in a singles match,
Speaker 1: that's the match to do. We had what I thought
Speaker 1: was the best women's elimination chamber match they've ever done,
Speaker 1: because I thought last year's was probably the best and
Speaker 1: this was better than that. But they opened the show
Speaker 1: and they closed the show in the same way they
Speaker 1: opened and closed with two major angles. They opened the
Speaker 1: show with Jade Cargill coming out and making her return.
Speaker 1: She was not even in the women's chamber. But right
Speaker 1: before the bell sounded to start the match with Live
Speaker 1: Morgan and Naomi, here comes Jade looking unbelievable. She's walking
Speaker 1: down all dressed in all black, she got that silver hair.
Speaker 1: She's walking down to the ring. She gets into the chamber,
Speaker 1: the door was still open, making like she's going to
Speaker 1: attack Live, but then comes the swerve and she attacks Naomi,
Speaker 1: who a lot of people, myself included this entire time,
Speaker 1: have thought was the culprit right she was the one
Speaker 1: who attacked Jade, or the mastermind behind the attack on Jade.
Speaker 1: She went right for Naomi and Bianca Belair. This great
Speaker 1: visual of Bianca Belair in the pod right behind them
Speaker 1: in that corner, banging on the glass, desperate to get out,
Speaker 1: just freaking out. Can't believe what's going on, and she
Speaker 1: can't do anything about it because she's locked inside the pod.
Speaker 1: And Jade beats the ever loving shit out of this woman.
Speaker 1: Naomi tries to crawl out, Jade slams the door on
Speaker 1: her and then leaves, doesn't take her spot or anything.
Speaker 1: Naomi is eliminated. So basically it was a five woman
Speaker 1: chamber match and Jade leaves right arrive, raise hell and leave.
Speaker 1: Never said a word. We don't know what the explanation is.
Speaker 1: When did she find out, you know, about Naomi? Why
Speaker 1: did she attack Naomi now and not before? And it
Speaker 1: almost was done in a way that makes me think, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is not going to be well Naomi did it
Speaker 1: and that's the end of it. Right, Maybe Naomi did
Speaker 1: do it. Maybe Naomi did it with some help. Maybe
Speaker 1: it was from the metaphor girls in NXT. Maybe she
Speaker 1: had some help. Maybe there's something else going on here,
Speaker 1: and the big swerve is yet to come. Because I
Speaker 1: haven't bought into this idea that Bianca was behind any
Speaker 1: of this, because I just don't think they're gonna turn
Speaker 1: Beyonca heel right now. I think Bianca bell Air would
Speaker 1: do great as a heel. I really do. I think
Speaker 1: that she's I think that she actually is due for
Speaker 1: a heel turn. Not the first time I've said this,
Speaker 1: but realistically, like what they turned Bianca bell Air at
Speaker 1: the same time they've turned John Cena, two things I
Speaker 1: never thought that we would see right now. That would
Speaker 1: be hard to visualize, but you know what, after what
Speaker 1: we saw last night, anything's possible. So maybe there is
Speaker 1: another chapter to this story that has to play out. Clearly,
Speaker 1: there is going to be something. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: as cut and dry as what we saw last night,
Speaker 1: but as far as an angle to kick off the
Speaker 1: women's chamber, Maager, I thought it was funck great and
Speaker 1: we didn't see Jade again for the rest of the night. Bianca, though,
Speaker 1: goes on to win the elimination Chamber, and so she
Speaker 1: was my pick. It came down to her and Live
Speaker 1: the two likeliest winners, really, and so they gave it
Speaker 1: to Bianca, and I was very happy to see that
Speaker 1: because Ria and Bianca is a match I've wanted to
Speaker 1: see at WrestleMania for a very long time. Now. The
Speaker 1: wrinkle in all this is that Ria is defending her
Speaker 1: championship this Monday against Eo Sky. The winner of that
Speaker 1: match is going to defend the title against Bianca at WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: Are we going to get a straight singles match? Are
Speaker 1: they going to do the finish in such a way
Speaker 1: tomorrow night that Eo finds her way into the match
Speaker 1: and we get a triple threat at WrestleMania. And I've
Speaker 1: thought about this. I actually thought about this this morning
Speaker 1: as I was put my nose together, and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, as much as I want to see Ria
Speaker 1: and Bianca one on one, my only fear and they
Speaker 1: have six weeks, but my only fear is that only
Speaker 1: now is the build really about to begin for this
Speaker 1: match and it's a big enough match, is that going
Speaker 1: to be enough time? Is that going to be enough
Speaker 1: time to tell a proper story to really build this
Speaker 1: match up the right way? Would it not be a
Speaker 1: better idea to do a triple threat match and have
Speaker 1: Bianca bell Air win the championship but not beat Rhea
Speaker 1: Ripley to do it? EO is in there, and I
Speaker 1: know people are gonna hate hearing this, who love Eo?
Speaker 1: But EO takes the losing fall to protect Rhea. Bianca
Speaker 1: wins the championship. Maybe she does get a heel run.
Speaker 1: Maybe we do end up getting a Bianca bell Air
Speaker 1: heel turn. Right, we'll circle back to things with her
Speaker 1: and Jade. We come to find out that she had
Speaker 1: some involvement, or she framed Naomi or something like that.
Speaker 1: We could get Bianca and Jade at Summer Slam or something.
Speaker 1: But you give Bianca a year. Right. Starts out as
Speaker 1: a babyface ends up as a heel. You give her
Speaker 1: a year with that championship, and you build to a
Speaker 1: singles match between Ria and Bianca heel Bianca at WrestleMania
Speaker 1: next year in New Orleans. As I say that out loud,
Speaker 1: I like that idea more and I kind of hope
Speaker 1: that maybe that's the direction they're going in here. We
Speaker 1: get the triple threat. Eo gets into that match somehow,
Speaker 1: but let's be honest here. If she gets into the match,
Speaker 1: I don't see her winning. But there's a longer term
Speaker 1: play here with Riha and Bianca. So I like that idea.
Speaker 1: But Bianca winning was absolutely the right choice. She's been
Speaker 1: on the back burner for far too long. It's about
Speaker 1: time to get her back into the mix. Kevin Owens
Speaker 1: and Sammy's Ain they had their unsanctioned match last night.
Speaker 1: I thought it was an excellent match. Beat the hell
Speaker 1: out of each other. They did some big spots. The
Speaker 1: biggest surprise to me no blood. Kevin Owens was bleeding
Speaker 1: like a pig after the latter match with Cody Rhodes
Speaker 1: at the Royal Rumble. He goes in there to have
Speaker 1: an unsanctioned match with Sammy's ain and they beat the
Speaker 1: hell out of each other tables and chairs, a barbed
Speaker 1: wire chair. No blood. When the show was over, it
Speaker 1: became clear why that was. They didn't want them to
Speaker 1: do blood. I mean, if they bled by accident, there's
Speaker 1: nothing they could do about that. But they didn't want
Speaker 1: to do blood in that match because they wanted it
Speaker 1: to mean more in the clo angle, and it does.
Speaker 1: You know, when you save blood for very specific situations,
Speaker 1: it does mean more. So I don't disagree. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's the reason why we didn't get any in that match.
Speaker 1: When the match was over, Kevin Owens picks up the win,
Speaker 1: a much needed win for him. That's where we hear
Speaker 1: Randy Orton's music. And finally, after months on the shelf,
Speaker 1: after that shitty pile driver, Randy Orton is back and
Speaker 1: he goes after Kevin Owens and he teases a punt
Speaker 1: kick and the agents dive in. It really was. It
Speaker 1: was like secret Service diving in the way of the President,
Speaker 1: and they dive in the way to protect Kevin Owens.
Speaker 1: And so now you've got six weeks to build to
Speaker 1: Randy Orton kicking this guy in the fucking head, and
Speaker 1: we could see what the direction is now for Orton
Speaker 1: and Owens going into that show. What that means for
Speaker 1: Sammy's ay, he feels like the odd man out. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's carrying Cross, maybe it's something else. I don't see
Speaker 1: him being involved in this, so he's gonna be the
Speaker 1: odd man out. But it was good to see Orton back,
Speaker 1: another big name. Now they get back on TV in
Speaker 1: the build for WrestleMania, and then came the men's chamber,
Speaker 1: which I also thought was excellent. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I can call it the best men's chamber match. In fact,
Speaker 1: I know I can't. It's definitely not the best men's
Speaker 1: chamber match. I still think the first one is probably
Speaker 1: the best. But they've had some great chamber matches with
Speaker 1: the men. This was not the best, but this was great.
Speaker 1: This was a great one. Priest and McIntyre. Drew McIntyre
Speaker 1: goes out first at the hands of Damian Priest, just
Speaker 1: like he was eliminated from the Royal Rumble by Damian Priest.
Speaker 1: Now we know those two men are headed on a
Speaker 1: collision course for WrestleMania. If anything I was said, I
Speaker 1: think McIntyre should have been in there a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: but if he was going to be the first one out,
Speaker 1: then he was gonna be the first one out. Sena
Speaker 1: and Punk again, they still have that magic touch when
Speaker 1: they're in the ring together. Seth. Rollins gets eliminated and
Speaker 1: he warns CM Punk. On SmackDown Friday night, Rollins was
Speaker 1: out there dressed like an oven mitt and he warned
Speaker 1: CM Punk and he said, you're not going to WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: He goes, even if I don't, you're damn sure not
Speaker 1: going WrestleMania. He's going to make absolutely sure that CM
Speaker 1: Punk does not go to that WrestleMania main event. So
Speaker 1: he warned him. He spoiled it. He told you exactly
Speaker 1: what was going to happen. And in the end he
Speaker 1: gets eliminated, but he's still in the chamber. He stomps
Speaker 1: CM Punk face first down on the padding and John
Speaker 1: Cena sees an opportunity to take advantage of it and
Speaker 1: he ends up pinning, well not pinning, but he ends
Speaker 1: up putting CM Punk in the stf Punk goes out.
Speaker 1: That's how Sena wins the chamber, which was actually very
Speaker 1: smart because for John Cena to take advantage of the
Speaker 1: situation in the way that he did was very unlike him.
Speaker 1: But again it just plays into what happened later on
Speaker 1: at the end of the show. So now you see
Speaker 1: the possible WrestleMania card, the matches that we already know
Speaker 1: of that are confirmed. We have four confirmed matches for WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: We know that John Cena is going to challenge Cody
Speaker 1: Roads for the WWE Championship. That's going to be your
Speaker 1: Night two main event. We know that Jay Usso is
Speaker 1: going to challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship right
Speaker 1: probably on Night one. Although I would not call that
Speaker 1: the main event. It's very possible that Punk Punk may
Speaker 1: end up getting his WrestleMania main event, because I don't
Speaker 1: think that it's a lock that Usso and Gunther are
Speaker 1: going on last, but that's confirmed. Rhea Ripley will defend
Speaker 1: her championship or EO Sky against Bianca bell Air, and
Speaker 1: Tiffany Stratton is going to defend the WWE Women's Championship
Speaker 1: against Charlotte Flair. Those are the confirmed matches that we
Speaker 1: know of so far, CM Punk, seth Rawlins, and Roman Reigns.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be some combination of these three, probably a
Speaker 1: triple threat match is I think all but guaranteed for WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: and don't forget Punk has that favor from Paul Haman,
Speaker 1: so he's not going to the main event of WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: I don't think that he cashes in the favor from
Speaker 1: Hayman to work his way into the Sena and Cody match.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like that to me. That doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like his story anymore. It just he and Seth and
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns are all tied up together and it only
Speaker 1: makes sense for them to be in a match against
Speaker 1: each other if they wanted to use the Hayman favor
Speaker 1: now because they can hold onto it. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: no law. It's not like money in the bank. He
Speaker 1: has a year to cash in his Paul Hayman favor.
Speaker 1: He can cash it in whatever he wants to. He
Speaker 1: can cash it in for WrestleMania forty two if he wants.
Speaker 1: But if it's going to come into play here going
Speaker 1: into this WrestleMania, Roman Rains is going to be back
Speaker 1: on TV probably as soon as this week coming up,
Speaker 1: and he's going to be going after Seth Rolins. Rollins
Speaker 1: is the one who put him out at the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 1: If they get their match confirmed and it's Roman and
Speaker 1: Seth at WrestleMania and Punk is without a match, then
Speaker 1: I could see Punk going to Paul Hayman and saying, look,
Speaker 1: I got that favor. I want you to work me
Speaker 1: into this match at WrestleMania and we get Punk, Rollins
Speaker 1: and Roman. If they do that match on Night one,
Speaker 1: that's your Night one main event. It's not Gunther and
Speaker 1: jay Uzo. In my opinion, I think that Cmpunk may
Speaker 1: yet get his WrestleMania main event if that's going to
Speaker 1: be the match, because I look at that match and
Speaker 1: that could easily be a main event. Randy Orton and
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens that looks likely. Drew McIntyre against Damian Priest,
Speaker 1: that looks likely. Jacob fought to against Solo Sacoa. Sure
Speaker 1: feels to me like that's what they're building too. And
Speaker 1: then based on what happened in the women's chamber last night,
Speaker 1: Liv Morgan hinned Alexa Bliss, I think we could be
Speaker 1: looking at Alexa Bliss and Nicky Cross representing the y
Speaker 1: at Six against Liv Morgan and Rakel Rodriguez for the
Speaker 1: women's tag team titles. They could put more teams in there,
Speaker 1: but I think that's probably gonna be the women's tag
Speaker 1: team title match. That is the way the WrestleMania card
Speaker 1: is shaping up so far. So as I said, coming
Speaker 1: out of the Chamber, things would become a lot clearer
Speaker 1: as far as the direction that they're going in, And
Speaker 1: there's still some questions to be answered. We don't know
Speaker 1: where certain other people are going to end up, Logan Paul.
Speaker 1: I still think aj Style against Logan Paul is the
Speaker 1: match to do. Bron Breaker. Is he going to defend
Speaker 1: his title in a big multi man match? Is he
Speaker 1: going to defend it against one person?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: Is he going to defend it against Balor and dom Like.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of possibilities for what he'll be doing.
Speaker 1: You know, La Knight is going to be challenging Knackamora
Speaker 1: soon for the US title. I don't think they're waiting
Speaker 1: until WrestleMania to do that. Is the US title going
Speaker 1: to be defended on that show? The SmackDown tag team titles.
Speaker 1: There's still questions to be answered, but the card now
Speaker 1: has filled out a lot more coming out of last night.
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Speaker 1: Com slash solo Monster. There was a report from wrestle
Speaker 1: Nomics this week about morale among WWE employees fading fast.
Speaker 1: In a story titled WWE employees Benefits and raises limited
Speaker 1: as record financial performance rewards shareholders and executives. As WWE
Speaker 1: continues to post record financial results following its merger into TKO,
Speaker 1: employees say that they are seeing cutbacks and benefits and
Speaker 1: fewer promotions than expected. Multiple current WWE employees, speaking under
Speaker 1: the condition of anonymity, described to wrestle Nomics a decline
Speaker 1: in morale tied to reduced benefits, limited pay increases, and
Speaker 1: heavier workloads as the company integrates with UFC. Employees also
Speaker 1: pointed to a growing disconnect between corporate messaging and their
Speaker 1: daily experiences. While WWE management has emphasized the value of
Speaker 1: its workforce. At town hall meetings, multiple staff said that
Speaker 1: they feel increasingly undervalued. A key reason for the merger
Speaker 1: was to improve profitability by consolidating services under Endeavor, which
Speaker 1: holds the majority of TKO's ownership. As expected, this resulted
Speaker 1: in significant layoffs soon after the merger was finalized in
Speaker 1: September of twenty twenty three. At the same time, WWE
Speaker 1: is experiencing its hottest period in consumer business, perhaps since
Speaker 1: the vaunted Attitude era of the late nineties and early
Speaker 1: two thousands. Despite that, the company's stock purchase program ended
Speaker 1: when the merger closed. The program had allowed employees to
Speaker 1: buy WWE shares at a fifteen percent discount. Since the
Speaker 1: merger was completed, the stock price has climbed more than
Speaker 1: fifty percent over the past eighteen months, meaning that employees
Speaker 1: lost access to a benefit that would have allowed them
Speaker 1: to invest in the company's growth at a discounted rate.
Speaker 1: The removal of the WWE Superstar Program, a peer recognition
Speaker 1: initiative that allowed employees to reward each other with points
Speaker 1: redeemable for cash, bonuses, gift cards, or experiences, has also
Speaker 1: been a source of frustration. Additionally, WWE eliminated complementary live
Speaker 1: event tickets for employees, a long standing perk. Now that
Speaker 1: I can understand, because with business being as hot as
Speaker 1: it is, TKO is all about making as much money
Speaker 1: as it possibly can, right You see what tickets are
Speaker 1: going for these days. If they feel like they can
Speaker 1: sell those tickets instead of giving them away, then of
Speaker 1: course that's what they're going to do. WWE did not
Speaker 1: respond to a request for comment for this report. Attendance
Speaker 1: for televised events is at its highest in years, and
Speaker 1: the company has greatly reduced a number of domestic house shows. Still,
Speaker 1: some employees see the move as emblematic of a broader trend.
Speaker 1: WWE's corporate website, where potential job applicants could consider the
Speaker 1: company's total rewards benefits, still lists the recognition program, the
Speaker 1: stock purchase plan, and complimentary tickets among the rewards that
Speaker 1: employees may be eligible for. And then there was an
Speaker 1: update to the story shortly thereafter, saying, since this article
Speaker 1: was published, the total Rewards page has been updated to
Speaker 1: remove the benefits that are no longer offered. Meanwhile, WWE
Speaker 1: and TKO management have publicly touted a strong financial outlook.
Speaker 1: WWE's new five billion dollars ten year streaming deal with
Speaker 1: Netflix took effect in January to remarkable fanfare. Company announced that,
Speaker 1: as part of its partnership with Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority,
Speaker 1: it will bring the Royal Rumble to the country next year.
Speaker 1: Saudi government already pays WWE around one hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: annually for two premium live events, which are traditionally less
Speaker 1: prestigious than the Royal Rumble. Further, many recent pls have
Speaker 1: set new ticket sales records. WWE registered a four point
Speaker 1: eight million dollar gate for the premiere of Raw on
Speaker 1: Netflix just outside of Los Angeles in January, the biggest
Speaker 1: arena gate in company history. Weeks later, WWE had its
Speaker 1: biggest non WrestleMania gate ever, somewhere over seventeen million dollars,
Speaker 1: for the Royal Rumble in Indianapolis. Last month, WWE announced
Speaker 1: the deal with MLS to allow the soccer league to
Speaker 1: produce its studio shows at WWE headquarters. Employees told Wrestle
Speaker 1: Nomics however, the WWE's financial success has not translated into
Speaker 1: meaningful pay increases. Multiple staff members said they received a
Speaker 1: three percent cost of living rays this year, which they
Speaker 1: argue hardly keeps pace with the rising living costs in
Speaker 1: Connecticut and New York, which is the region around WWE's headquarters.
Speaker 1: I can vouch for that. Okay, the cost of living
Speaker 1: in New York has always been terrible, but it's not
Speaker 1: getting any better. Employees with strong performance reviews were told
Speaker 1: that despite those positive ratings, they would not get more
Speaker 1: than a cost of living adjustment due to budget constraints
Speaker 1: set by upper management. Some had expected significant raises or
Speaker 1: promotions based on past company practices, but were informed that
Speaker 1: the business was not in a position to offer increases
Speaker 1: because of the merger. Employee morale at WWE has been
Speaker 1: declining for some time now, according to employees. Following recent
Speaker 1: performance reviews. Employees already frustrated by the loss of the
Speaker 1: stock purchase program and comp tickets, were further discouraged by
Speaker 1: the lack of meaningful raises to reward those who have
Speaker 1: performed well. Concerns raised with lower and mid level managers,
Speaker 1: we are told, were met with explanations citing executive level decisions.
Speaker 1: Many who were frustrated by these unwelcome changes since the
Speaker 1: merger have respect for the company, but nonetheless told this
Speaker 1: they feel obligated to speak up because they want to
Speaker 1: be compensated fairly for the work that they have performed.
Speaker 1: While pay increases for most employees have been modest, top
Speaker 1: executives receive substantial bonuses multiples of their base salaries tied
Speaker 1: to the closing of the merger, according to SEC filings.
Speaker 1: They mentioned here that Ari Emmanuel, who's the CEO of TKO,
Speaker 1: got twenty million dollars in cash related to the merger,
Speaker 1: and he got a stock award of three hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty eight thousand shares, which is now worth around sixty
Speaker 1: million dollars. Mark Shapiro is the COO. He was awarded
Speaker 1: five million dollars and he has stock grants valued at
Speaker 1: about fifty million. Nick Cohn, president of WWE, got a
Speaker 1: fifteen million dollar cash bonus, Paul Leveck got a five
Speaker 1: million dollar bonus, and TKO's top executives are compensated not
Speaker 1: only with a base salary, but with millions more in
Speaker 1: bonuses that are determined by the board. This practice is
Speaker 1: not at all unusual for a public company like TKO,
Speaker 1: but further highlights how executives are being incentivized in ways
Speaker 1: that most employees are not. And it's not just executives
Speaker 1: benefiting ahead of much of the employee base. Investors have
Speaker 1: been rewarded, and then it gets into the stock buyback
Speaker 1: program and all of these other things. And some employees
Speaker 1: are concerned that as TKO expands acquiring endeavor assets like
Speaker 1: the Professional bull Riders League WWE, staff will be expected
Speaker 1: to take on even more work without additional compensation and
Speaker 1: dwindling benefits. TKO executives have publicly discussed the possibility of
Speaker 1: entering professional boxing as well, and that is true. Mark
Speaker 1: Shapiro just said the other day, in fact, that they
Speaker 1: are close to an agreement with the Saudis on the
Speaker 1: creation of a new boxing league. So the Saudis would
Speaker 1: bankroll it. TKO would just produce and promote the events
Speaker 1: and be responsible basically for the day to day operations
Speaker 1: of the league. So if it fails, it doesn't cost
Speaker 1: them anything because they're not the ones putting money in.
Speaker 1: But if they're handling the day to day operations, who
Speaker 1: do you think is going to be handling the day
Speaker 1: to day operations? You think they're just going to hire
Speaker 1: new people. It's going to be the people they already have, right,
Speaker 1: They'll just add more work to their plate, that's all.
Speaker 1: Like the wrestlers and MMA fighters who work under TKO.
Speaker 1: The story ends here. WWE employees are not represented by
Speaker 1: a union or an association. One WWE employee noted to
Speaker 1: us that morale has suffered to the point that some
Speaker 1: staff are less willing to go above and beyond in
Speaker 1: ways that they once did. First of all, this is
Speaker 1: nothing new in the world of corporate America. Okay, you
Speaker 1: hear stories like this with other companies, big billion dollar companies. Right,
Speaker 1: in a capitalist society, it's profits over people. It's just
Speaker 1: the way it is. When you're a publicly traded company.
Speaker 1: They only care about shareholders, and they have but is
Speaker 1: you know, called a fiduciary responsibility to those shareholders. They
Speaker 1: have to act in the best financial interest of the
Speaker 1: company and basically make as much money as possible, lose
Speaker 1: as little, and make as much as possible. So that
Speaker 1: in and of itself is not surprising, right, that's not news.
Speaker 1: But it still sucks if you're one of those people
Speaker 1: who works, you know, at their headquarters, let's say, and
Speaker 1: your workload keeps getting bigger and bigger, and your pay
Speaker 1: is not keeping pace with that. And if they enjoyed
Speaker 1: certain benefits under the company when it was still independent, right, well,
Speaker 1: now there's new ownership and Endeavor is well known for this,
Speaker 1: Like look up UFC fighter pay since Endeavor acquired UFC.
Speaker 1: Like it's a thing. It's a big thing that's been
Speaker 1: talked about for years. But I also remember, like Ari
Speaker 1: Emmanuel and Mark Shapiro and the whole lot of them
Speaker 1: throwing buzzwords around before the merger, like synergy and redundancy. Right,
Speaker 1: they wanted to eliminate redundantc with WWE and UFC employees
Speaker 1: who may have had overlapping job responsibilities. That's why they
Speaker 1: laid off so many people. And you'll notice, by the way,
Speaker 1: most of those layoffs they came on the WWE side,
Speaker 1: not the UFC side, so they basically gutted the WWE side.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, they're making more money now than
Speaker 1: ever before, but they want to keep as much of
Speaker 1: that money as they can. They don't want to pass
Speaker 1: it on to anybody else. So I can imagine every
Speaker 1: time one of these people who works in the tower
Speaker 1: they hear that WWE's going on about the latest gate
Speaker 1: record that they just set right because ticket prices are astronomical,
Speaker 1: or going on about how much money they made off
Speaker 1: their media rights deal or this deal or that deal,
Speaker 1: and they don't see that reflected in their salary or
Speaker 1: in their benefits, then yeah, it's going to be deflating.
Speaker 1: And if they're not happy there, then they always have
Speaker 1: the option of leaving and going to work somewhere else
Speaker 1: where they feel appreciated. I mean, that's really the only
Speaker 1: option here because they they don't have a union, they
Speaker 1: don't have anyone standing up for them, they don't have
Speaker 1: any singular voice representing them. They feel like they're being
Speaker 1: taken advantage of. If that's how they feel. If they
Speaker 1: feel like they're being taken advantage of, nobody is going
Speaker 1: to stand up for them. And so if you don't
Speaker 1: like it, the option, of course is to just leave.
Speaker 1: Devor is not suddenly going to change the way that
Speaker 1: it does business. So if they're that unhappy, unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: only option is to leave. No one should feel like
Speaker 1: they're forced to stay in a place where they're not
Speaker 1: happy or where they don't feel appreciated. Like I promise
Speaker 1: you for all of the raw ras speeches and town
Speaker 1: halls that they host there with all the employees standing
Speaker 1: around like fans as Triple h gets an entrance and
Speaker 1: he walks out and spits his fucking water like and
Speaker 1: he talks about how it's all of you who keep
Speaker 1: this machine running. At the end of the day, it
Speaker 1: is still a giant company, and that giant company doesn't
Speaker 1: give a shit about you. They care about up money.
Speaker 1: They want to make lots and lots and lots of money.
Speaker 1: And if a few people are upset that they can't
Speaker 1: get free tickets anymore and their bonuses are only three
Speaker 1: percent and not ten percent, they don't care because they
Speaker 1: don't have any incentive to change the way they do business.
Speaker 1: You know, people tag me in a video the other
Speaker 1: day if some guy he made it on TikTok, I
Speaker 1: guess talking about how WWE's greed is going to prove
Speaker 1: to be their downfall right, mainly because they're pricing hardcore
Speaker 1: fans out of most of their events these days when
Speaker 1: it comes to tickets. And he was saying, how, oh,
Speaker 1: eventually business will begin to fade and they're going to have,
Speaker 1: you know, they will have chased the way all of
Speaker 1: those diehard fans and the company will collapse. That's the
Speaker 1: word he used, it's going to collapse. I agree that
Speaker 1: it's pure greed and they're pricing people out right. They're
Speaker 1: pricing families out of a lot of these shows. They
Speaker 1: do it because they can, and they can get away
Speaker 1: with it because they're still able to sell those tickets
Speaker 1: supply and demand. If the demand is there. They have
Speaker 1: no incentive to reduce the cost of these shows. I
Speaker 1: agree with that, and it sucks. But the idea that
Speaker 1: it's going to be the collapse of WWE, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: WWE at this point is almost too big to fail,
Speaker 1: and that's not really what the phrase means. It has
Speaker 1: more to do with financial institutions, not wrestling companies. But
Speaker 1: I'll use it anyway because it's more or less true.
Speaker 1: I can't say that WWE will never ever fail. Right,
Speaker 1: if business starts to decline and their media rights deals
Speaker 1: expire and they don't get renewed, right, they're under new ownership.
Speaker 1: Now here today, gone tomorrow. Anything can happen. But what
Speaker 1: is the likelihood of that happening? Right, very very slim.
Speaker 1: WWE is not going to collapse. Business is up right now,
Speaker 1: business will go back down at some point, but they
Speaker 1: have weathered storms far worse before when they were a
Speaker 1: lot smaller than they are now. But it really does
Speaker 1: feels like the company is too big to fail. Their
Speaker 1: greed may be what eventually causes the bubble to burst,
Speaker 1: but it won't collapse the company when push comes to shove.
Speaker 1: These same employees complaining right now, they'll just be the
Speaker 1: first ones on the firing line the next time TKO
Speaker 1: talks about the need to cut costs, and the train
Speaker 1: will roll on like it always does.
Speaker 4: Hey, it's Chris fan Vleet, and when this episode of
Speaker 4: Solo Monster Sounds off ends, go check out my podcast
Speaker 4: Inside with Chris fan vlee All of my interviews that
Speaker 4: you might have seen on YouTube or maybe you've seen
Speaker 4: clips of on social media, they're all available in audio form.
Speaker 4: Some of the recent guests include Ludwick Kaiser, Lex Luger,
Speaker 4: seth Rawlins, Jordan Grace, Kurt angle Otis, and so many more.
Speaker 1: Aj Siles is on the show this week, So.
Speaker 4: Go check out Insight with Chris fan Vleet on Spotify
Speaker 4: or Apple or wherever you're listening to this one right now.
Speaker 1: There was a terrible rumor going around this week, and
Speaker 1: that's all. It was that Vince McMahon was looking to
Speaker 1: get back into the wrestling game by starting a new promotion,
Speaker 1: and that the Fox Network was holding a spot open
Speaker 1: to air whatever this new promotion was going to be
Speaker 1: started with Conrad Thompson and Eric Bischoff on Bischoff's eighty
Speaker 1: three Weeks of Nonsense podcast, where Conrad said that he
Speaker 1: was hearing rumblings that McMahon has had conversations with cameraman
Speaker 1: experienced in shooting pro wrestling, which is impossible because Michael
Speaker 1: Cole just told Logan Paul last week on his podcast
Speaker 1: that WWE doesn't do pro wrestling anymore, so I'm not
Speaker 1: sure why Vince would be looking for pro wrestling cameraman,
Speaker 1: so that can't be true. And Conrad said that Fox
Speaker 1: is said to be possibly holding a spot open to
Speaker 1: air this new promotion, the same Fox that dumped WWE
Speaker 1: after their five year deal expired because they weren't getting
Speaker 1: a return on their investment. More specifically, one of the
Speaker 1: Murdoch sons I forget which one, I don't remember, if
Speaker 1: it was Tweedled or Tweedled Dumb said that they weren't
Speaker 1: hitting their advertising goals with the wrestling audience, nor did
Speaker 1: they get the level of retransmission revenue that they were
Speaker 1: hoping for. So Vince McMahon was still running the show,
Speaker 1: of course, when they made that deal. He was in
Speaker 1: the room during those negotiations. Yet Fox is ready to
Speaker 1: jump right back in bed with this man and air
Speaker 1: his brand new promotion with no history whatsoever to speak of,
Speaker 1: by the way, So to that end, Andrew Marshand, who
Speaker 1: writes for The Atlantic, tweeted, there is a report that
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon might start a wrestling company with Fox as
Speaker 1: a partner. If McMahon is planning that or not, I
Speaker 1: don't know, But the Fox part is not true, according
Speaker 1: to a network spokesman. So Fox has already denied this.
Speaker 1: Now they could have stayed silent, or they could have
Speaker 1: given a no comment, they outright denied that there is
Speaker 1: any truth to this whatsoever. I should point out that
Speaker 1: Conrad and Eric they both said on that same show
Speaker 1: they don't believe the rumors to be true themselves, although
Speaker 1: that didn't stop them from putting it out there. But
Speaker 1: they don't believe it, they said. One aspect fueling the
Speaker 1: rumors was that McMahon attended the Super Bowl earlier this month,
Speaker 1: which happened to Aaron Fox. I shit, you nod, that's
Speaker 1: what they said. That's what some people. Some people are
Speaker 1: connecting the dots in this way and thinking that because
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon was at the super Bowl, that means he's
Speaker 1: going to have a new show airing on Fox. It's
Speaker 1: all bullshit. Vince McMahon is not getting back into the
Speaker 1: wrestling business. He is not starting a new wrestling promotion.
Speaker 1: I doubt that he cares enough to get back into
Speaker 1: wrestling unless it was with WWE. That's the only thing
Speaker 1: that would make sense for him is if he was
Speaker 1: to be back in WWE. And that's not going to
Speaker 1: happen either. Why would Vince McMahon want to get back
Speaker 1: into the wrestling business just to be number two or
Speaker 1: number three? He was number one for so many years.
Speaker 1: WWE is a juggernaut. No one is ever going to
Speaker 1: catch up to them business wise, no one is ever
Speaker 1: going to catch up to them audience wise. They've got
Speaker 1: so much of the market share locked up, so much
Speaker 1: of the talent pool locked up, especially now they have
Speaker 1: things like their ID program and LFG and their nil
Speaker 1: deals Like whatever is left, you've got Tony Kah snatching
Speaker 1: people up for aw and Ring of honor. The wrestling
Speaker 1: pool is not that big, it really isn't. I don't
Speaker 1: even know where he would pull enough talent from like
Speaker 1: quality talent to make something like this work. He obviously
Speaker 1: knows how to promote wrestling. Nobody is denying that. He's
Speaker 1: spent over four decades doing it. He was very successful
Speaker 1: at it. He was more successful at it than any
Speaker 1: other promoter in the history of the business. But the
Speaker 1: man is almost eighty years old. Even with all of
Speaker 1: his money, right, he's got plenty of that. He could
Speaker 1: probably get TV somewhere. Well, why would he want to
Speaker 1: at this point? You know? I talked months ago about
Speaker 1: the PW Insider report about starting up a new entertainment
Speaker 1: company of some kind. Apparently that's still in the works,
Speaker 1: and I don't doubt that he is pulling people together
Speaker 1: for it, probably even some people who used to work
Speaker 1: for him in WWE. Brad Blum is said to be
Speaker 1: one of those people. He was chief operating officer under
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon. He was also revealed as corporate officer number
Speaker 1: two in the Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit, and he
Speaker 1: resigned from the company shortly thereafter. It's said to be
Speaker 1: some kind of entertainment hub company focusing on producing film
Speaker 1: and TV projects. Vince doesn't have a good track record
Speaker 1: of success when it comes to projects outside of WWE,
Speaker 1: but he's got more money than he's ever had before.
Speaker 1: That money can go very far. It's been said that
Speaker 1: the company is not going to launch until after all
Speaker 1: of his legal problems are behind him, So if the
Speaker 1: Janelle Grant case gets settled at that point, we'll probably
Speaker 1: hear more about this new entertainment company. But I cannot
Speaker 1: see it being a wrestling company. It just doesn't make
Speaker 1: sense to sink his money into something that's going to
Speaker 1: end up being a money loser if he chooses to
Speaker 1: pursue it. Plus, if he has success doing something completely
Speaker 1: outside of the wrestling bubble, he'll finally have what he
Speaker 1: always wanted. He'll have that validation is more than just
Speaker 1: a wrestling promoter. This is his chance. Here's your chance.
Speaker 1: I don't really give a shit what he does, so
Speaker 1: long as he stays away from WWE and I don't
Speaker 1: have to see him on my TV screen anymore. Some
Speaker 1: news and notes In this week's issue of The Observer,
Speaker 1: Dave Meltzer reports that Malachi Black's return to WWE is imminent.
Speaker 1: He didn't say what those plans might be, but the
Speaker 1: Judgment Day is going to need new leaders soon. You know.
Speaker 1: Dominic's been trying to convince Finn Balor they need a
Speaker 1: new member. Ballor he doesn't want to hear it. If
Speaker 1: Black takes over that group, that could be a WrestleMania
Speaker 1: match right there. We could get Black against Balor, and
Speaker 1: the Judgment Day would need to look very different the
Speaker 1: current makeup of that group. It doesn't really fit his
Speaker 1: vibe vibe like he would have to remake it in
Speaker 1: his image, I would think. But it's it's an idea
Speaker 1: that could work. I just hope we get more of
Speaker 1: what we got from the presentation of Alista Black in
Speaker 1: NXT more than anything else they did with him later
Speaker 1: on on the main roster. If anybody knows about that,
Speaker 1: it's triple h because he was the man in charge
Speaker 1: of Black and Gold at the time that Black had
Speaker 1: his best run. Meltzer also reports that WWE is already
Speaker 1: making plans for the arrival of Ray Phoenix, even though
Speaker 1: there was no indication of any movement on him getting
Speaker 1: out of his AEW contract. Tony Kahn decided to let
Speaker 1: Miro and Ricky Starks go early from theirs. There's no
Speaker 1: reason he can't do the same with Ray Phoenix. If not,
Speaker 1: he's still got many more months left on his deal.
Speaker 1: But ye know, WWE, I'm sure they know that once
Speaker 1: he's a free man. It's like Ricky. They knew that
Speaker 1: once Ricky was a free man, he was coming in.
Speaker 1: Literally the day after Ricky was freed from his contract,
Speaker 1: he was already on NXT, like twenty four hours later,
Speaker 1: he was already on TV. You don't think they don't
Speaker 1: know that Ray Phoenix is on his way in the
Speaker 1: moment that he's free, so they're brainstorming ideas for him.
Speaker 1: Pent Ha's got a good thing going right now as
Speaker 1: a single, but the Luchabros would be a huge shot
Speaker 1: in the arm for that tag team division. I think
Speaker 1: for Phoenix more than Penta, the best thing to do
Speaker 1: would be to reunite the Lucha Bros. You could always
Speaker 1: go off and do more with Penta if you want to.
Speaker 1: Penta doesn't really need Phoenix, but I feel like Phoenix
Speaker 1: would be better off at least starting out, he would
Speaker 1: be better off in a team with Penta and according
Speaker 1: to a report in the West Australian newspaper on Friday,
Speaker 1: the city of Perth will soon become the host of
Speaker 1: major events promoted by TKO, including a triple header of
Speaker 1: Raw SmackDown and a pl to be announced in the
Speaker 1: near future, as well as two UFC events. All of
Speaker 1: the events will be held at the rac Arena or
Speaker 1: the Perth Arena, which fits up to fifteen thousand, five
Speaker 1: hundred people, so they're not going to be running Optis
Speaker 1: Stadium like they did last for Elimination Chamber. The events
Speaker 1: will be held over the next eighteen months, with the
Speaker 1: WWE events set for later this year, and the deal
Speaker 1: with TKO and the West Australian Government was locked in
Speaker 1: some time ago, but was not announced publicly until this week.
Speaker 1: I wonder if they'll call the PWA and rent out
Speaker 1: one of their rings to make sure they have a
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Speaker 1: to know I watched NXT this week. They were at
Speaker 1: the Brady Music Center in Cincinnati, the same place that
Speaker 1: AW held Dynamite in January. I like the look of
Speaker 1: that venue a lot, and I enjoyed the show. Some
Speaker 1: big T and A appearances and the inn ring debut
Speaker 1: of Ricky Saints. They are really loading up that roadblock show.
Speaker 1: Not this Tuesday, but next Tuesday. They're going to be
Speaker 1: at the theater at Madison Square Garden, and they are
Speaker 1: putting together one hell of a card for that show.
Speaker 1: By the way, two B TV, which is carrying the
Speaker 1: new WWE Evolve show starting this week. It's going to
Speaker 1: be airing every Wednesday at eight pm. Two B has
Speaker 1: now added past seasons of NXT to the service for free,
Speaker 1: so it's not the complete archive of shows I was
Speaker 1: perusing it before, but they do have shows going back
Speaker 1: as far as the first season on the old network
Speaker 1: from twenty fourteen. From what I saw, there were only
Speaker 1: I think three episodes from twenty fourteen, but the other
Speaker 1: years look pretty complete, so it goes all the way
Speaker 1: back to the full Sale era if you want to
Speaker 1: check out that content, because I don't know, it hasn't
Speaker 1: been an easy thing for people to find a lot
Speaker 1: of that archived NXT content. I know they just created
Speaker 1: a vault channel on YouTube specifically for NXT. I don't
Speaker 1: think they have everything up there yet, and ever since
Speaker 1: they went over to the CW, I think the CW
Speaker 1: only has CW NXT episodes. So this is a way
Speaker 1: if you want to go back and check out some
Speaker 1: of those early nxts, you can find it on two
Speaker 1: B Again, it's a free service. Stephanie Vicaire retained her
Speaker 1: North American Championship over Carmen Petrovic. Carmen's a little rough,
Speaker 1: but I thought she hung in there fine with Stephanie.
Speaker 1: And then after the match, Julia comes out and she
Speaker 1: says that Stephanie calls herself the best champion, but she's
Speaker 1: not I am, and Stephanie says that she's down for
Speaker 1: champion against champion, and later in the show, Ava, the
Speaker 1: GM made it official that at Roadblock it is going
Speaker 1: to be Julia versus Stephanie Vicaire, not only champion against champion,
Speaker 1: but it will be title for title, so it's going
Speaker 1: to be winner take all. And interesting that this comes
Speaker 1: after it was reported this week that Julia is pretty
Speaker 1: banged up right now, and it's not any one specific injury.
Speaker 1: It's not that she's not that hurt, but she's banged up,
Speaker 1: So make of that what you will. The fact that
Speaker 1: both of them are putting their titles on the line,
Speaker 1: I don't know if she's going to miss any time.
Speaker 1: This feels like it's being done as a way to
Speaker 1: get that title off her, to give her some time
Speaker 1: off to heal, because this is a stand and deliver
Speaker 1: match and they're doing it on their Roadblock show on
Speaker 1: TV in a week. You know, There's been nothing said
Speaker 1: about her taking time off. It's not confirmed that she's
Speaker 1: going to be taking time off, but that's what it
Speaker 1: feels like to me. So my guess is Stephanie wins
Speaker 1: the NXT Championship and they hold up the North American
Speaker 1: title in a tournament and they crown a new champion
Speaker 1: at stand and Deliver and not Jordan Grace, because if
Speaker 1: Julia is taking time off, I think the Stand and
Speaker 1: Deliver main event would be step defending against Jordan Grace,
Speaker 1: So they're not calling it a unification match. I don't
Speaker 1: really see a need to unify those two titles. But
Speaker 1: I also don't think they're going to have her going
Speaker 1: around defending both belts individually, and we don't need another
Speaker 1: Roman reign situation. So if Julia wins, then that's probably
Speaker 1: what they would do. But I don't think Julia is winning.
Speaker 1: Stephanie wins, you vacate the lesser of the two titles.
Speaker 1: We also have the first ever defense of the TNA
Speaker 1: X Division Championship on NXT television with Moose defending against
Speaker 1: Lexus King. This was the best Lexus King match that
Speaker 1: I have ever seen. I missed a few of his
Speaker 1: matches that he had for the Heritage Cup, so maybe
Speaker 1: he had some good Heritage Cup matches that trump this one,
Speaker 1: but this was easily the best Lexus King match that
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, and it took Moose to pull it
Speaker 1: out of him, someone from a different promotion, but they
Speaker 1: had a hell of a match here. There was a
Speaker 1: spot where Moose back dropped him onto the ramp. There
Speaker 1: was a ramp to the ring, and that did not
Speaker 1: look like a fun landing for Lexus King right on
Speaker 1: his tailbone. But they were in Cincinnati, so you know
Speaker 1: he was over that's where he's from, and he had
Speaker 1: the crowd behind him. Of course, Moose wins, and then
Speaker 1: out comes Oba Feme to confront Moose and he challenges
Speaker 1: him to a match at Roadblock for the NXT Championship.
Speaker 1: So this is only going to be for the NXT Championship.
Speaker 1: I believe there's no way that Moose takes the title.
Speaker 1: But that's another huge match now added to that show.
Speaker 1: And you watch Moose out there on Tuesday and he
Speaker 1: fits right in. You know, he's already over with their audience,
Speaker 1: and I thought he looked great and I could easily
Speaker 1: see him making the transition full time over to NXT
Speaker 1: whenever his TNA deal is. He's been there for so long.
Speaker 1: That's assuming they make a play for him, right, They've
Speaker 1: had the chance before to sign him and they've never
Speaker 1: expressed interest. His past history may have given them cold feet,
Speaker 1: but the fact that he's on their television show and
Speaker 1: Tessa Blanchard is not tells me that that's not going
Speaker 1: to be an issue for him, probably in the future. Jordan,
Speaker 1: Grace came out for a promo which by the end
Speaker 1: turned into a porno. We went from a promo to
Speaker 1: a porno. She talked about how she knew the only
Speaker 1: place for her was NXT and that she is going
Speaker 1: to be standing across the ring from either Julia or
Speaker 1: Stephanie Vicaierre. Soon enough, that brought out Roxane Perez, the
Speaker 1: former NXT Women's champion, who welcomed Jordan back and said
Speaker 1: that everybody wants to be a part of the division
Speaker 1: that I made famous, and she talked about Grace being
Speaker 1: a big fish in a small pond in the knockouts division,
Speaker 1: but she's in Roxanne's world now. And this ended with
Speaker 1: Grace saying that everybody's got a plan until and then
Speaker 1: she punched her in the face. And then two things happened.
Speaker 1: Grace got her up on her shoulders, rox Sam rapped
Speaker 1: the top rope to escape, only she got her leg
Speaker 1: tangled in the ropes and she could have easily tore
Speaker 1: her knee out, but you know, Jordan helped free her,
Speaker 1: and so that happened. But the other thing that happened
Speaker 1: was Grace had a wardrobe malfunction and she was exposed
Speaker 1: on live TV, right there for all the world to see,
Speaker 1: at least on the version that I watched. I didn't
Speaker 1: watch it live on the CW. Maybe on the CW
Speaker 1: it was edited, but not on the version I watched,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. You could see the panicked look on her
Speaker 1: face just as they cut over to show Rock sand
Speaker 1: On on the ramp, and they went to go pan
Speaker 1: back over to Jordan in the ring, but then the
Speaker 1: cameraman stopped and he put the camera back on Roxy
Speaker 1: and never showed Jordan again after that. I assumed she
Speaker 1: was adjusting herself. But the NXT universe got a little
Speaker 1: more of Jordan Grace than they bargained for. On Tuesday,
Speaker 1: then we had the return of Matt and Jeff Hardy
Speaker 1: to WWE television for the first time together as a
Speaker 1: team since twenty nineteen, and they returned as the TNA
Speaker 1: Tag Team Champions. I feel like we are living in
Speaker 1: the weirdest timeline because this just isn't something that you
Speaker 1: would have ever seen only a few years ago. I
Speaker 1: think it's great, but it's still very jarring. To see.
Speaker 1: I mean between this and what we got last night
Speaker 1: at the elimination chamber. Cody Roads out there telling Rock
Speaker 1: to go fuck himself, Travis Scott doing whatever the hell
Speaker 1: he was doing in the corner, John Cena turning heel.
Speaker 1: The Hardy Boys are back, but they're the TNA Tag
Speaker 1: team champions. You gotta admit this is just fucking weird.
Speaker 1: Wreussell Votes tweeted this week that WWE is optimistic that
Speaker 1: the Hardys will have a main roster run in the
Speaker 1: coming months, and they even put a new T shirt
Speaker 1: out for them on WWE shop ahead of their match
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. I wonder how that works with TNA, Like
Speaker 1: how much of a cut would TNA get for that merch, like,
Speaker 1: if any relative to WWE, And how how much would
Speaker 1: the Hardies get for that, Like if that's T shirt
Speaker 1: takes off, I wonder what the split is. I think
Speaker 1: the Hardy's back on WWETV is inevitable, but again I
Speaker 1: wonder how that would work, Like it's it's one thing
Speaker 1: to appear on NXT television while you're being paid by TNA.
Speaker 1: Like I'm sure the Hardies are making good money in TNA,
Speaker 1: but if they start working main roster matches, then they
Speaker 1: should be paid main roster money. So like, how does
Speaker 1: that work? If it's a one off, it's not a
Speaker 1: big deal, but if it became a regular occurrence, Like,
Speaker 1: how would that work? But the crowd loves seeing the
Speaker 1: Hardys and they played the hits against the No Quarter
Speaker 1: Catch crew Miles Bourne and tave On Heights. It was good.
Speaker 1: It was a good match. Miles Born, he got chance
Speaker 1: of You're not Randy because unmistakenly he looks and moves
Speaker 1: around the ring just like Randy Orton, like right down
Speaker 1: to the snap power slam that Orton does. It's very
Speaker 1: eerie how much he reminded me of a young Randy Orton,
Speaker 1: like his mannerisms and everything. And I'm talking Randy Orton
Speaker 1: back during his bald phase, like the Bald Menace from
Speaker 1: the late two thousands. His response to this on social
Speaker 1: media after the show was great. He said, bro, I'm
Speaker 1: not Randy Orton. He hears voices, I don't hear shit.
Speaker 1: If you don't know the man has been partially deaf
Speaker 1: from birth, I don't think I don't think he would
Speaker 1: have even known what the fans were chanting, right away
Speaker 1: on Tuesday unless somebody told him, because I remember he
Speaker 1: said once early in his career, might have been his
Speaker 1: first match, he didn't know that the fans were chanting
Speaker 1: something at him. He had to go ask somebody, like,
Speaker 1: what are they chanting and they said, like, dude, they're
Speaker 1: chanting your name. And you know, he said, the other
Speaker 1: wrestlers they have to raise their voices when they're in
Speaker 1: the ring with him to make sure that he can
Speaker 1: hear them. But otherwise it's not been a problem so
Speaker 1: far as far as him working in the ring. You know, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe he could work a match with John Cena during
Speaker 1: this heel run on his retirementry. He'd be the perfect
Speaker 1: opponent for Milesbourne. Even the deaf can hear John Cena
Speaker 1: when he's in that ring. But Born ad to twist
Speaker 1: the Fate and a Swanton bomb to give the Hardies
Speaker 1: the win, and that brought Fraxium into the ring. The
Speaker 1: NXT Tag Team Champions, they had already come out mid match.
Speaker 1: They took a seat on the ramp to observe, so
Speaker 1: they get in the ring and they called themselves the
Speaker 1: greatest tag team in the world today, which honestly, I
Speaker 1: can't argue that point. I mean, they've had an incredible
Speaker 1: run that they've been on. But the Hardys they said
Speaker 1: they're the greatest tag team of all time, and Jeff
Speaker 1: wasn't really interested in all the platitudes. He grabbed the
Speaker 1: microphone and he challenged them to a match, which brought
Speaker 1: out Santino Morella, the TNA Director of Authority, to his
Speaker 1: WWE music and he got a big reaction. You know,
Speaker 1: we have all these TNA people on WWE television, but
Speaker 1: they're mostly EXWWE guys, so like it's inter promotional, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't really feel interpromotional, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's weird. And you know, made the match
Speaker 1: official for Roadblock in New York City with only the
Speaker 1: Hardys TNA tag team titles on the line. Because he's
Speaker 1: the TNA Director of Authority, he has no authority over
Speaker 1: any of the NXT championships. So that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: TNA tag team title match. And in the Oba Moose match,
Speaker 1: again that's only for the NXT title, but here it's
Speaker 1: the TNA tag team titles. You know, people have asked
Speaker 1: me if I think we're ever going to see NXT
Speaker 1: against TNA like a World's Collide show one day. We
Speaker 1: don't need it. We're already getting it at roadblock. You
Speaker 1: want your World's Collide. March eleventh, there's your World's Collide show.
Speaker 1: And the other key thing on this show was the
Speaker 1: main event, which was the n Ring debut of Ricky Saints.
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the entrance. That's really what I
Speaker 1: wanted to see. I know what he can bring in
Speaker 1: the ring. I wanted to see the entrance. I wanted
Speaker 1: to hear the music. It is not as good as
Speaker 1: his aw music. I liked his aw music. It's not awful.
Speaker 1: It's not great, but it's not awful. It was Ricky
Speaker 1: Saints and Javon Evans against Ethan Page and Wesley and
Speaker 1: there was a long stretch where the heels got heat
Speaker 1: on Evans and eventually he made the hot tag to Ricky.
Speaker 1: This was a good showcase for Ricky and he wins
Speaker 1: it with his Rochambeau finish, which he's keeping the name
Speaker 1: of that finish at least. And they went off the
Speaker 1: air with him posing in the middle of the ring.
Speaker 1: So a fine spotlight for him his first win. I
Speaker 1: didn't care for a lot of the other stuff on
Speaker 1: the show. They had, like a Tony d sit down
Speaker 1: in a restaurant somewhere with the family, and like all
Speaker 1: that stuff. If you follow those smaller stories week to week,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's fine. They're developing their characters. But the
Speaker 1: stuff that I cared about, I thought it was very good.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the show. All right, let's get into your
Speaker 1: questions here from the mailbag. You could always email me
Speaker 1: the solom Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your
Speaker 1: name of where you are from when you write in
Speaker 1: Richie in Siaset, New York. By the time you read this,
Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber will be in the books. However, whatever
Speaker 1: the direction, I think the favorite Paul Haman owes to
Speaker 1: CM punk has to conflict with Roman Reign's agenda in
Speaker 1: order to get the maximum amount of drama out of it.
Speaker 1: What if the favor is Hayman has to be CM
Speaker 1: Punk's wise man for one night only at WrestleMania. If
Speaker 1: the WrestleMania forty one matches Punk against Rains against Rollins,
Speaker 1: wwe can play up whether or not Hayman keeps his
Speaker 1: word to Punk or defaults back to Roman. If it's
Speaker 1: Cody against Punk. You can play up Hayman having a
Speaker 1: phone for the Rock from last year's WrestleMania and they've
Speaker 1: been formulating a plan to take down Cody if Cody
Speaker 1: refuses the Rocks offer. That could have been the catalyst
Speaker 1: for Hayman to call Punk back after last fall to
Speaker 1: unite the duo, but this time as the Rocks new
Speaker 1: corporate champion. What do you think of these scenarios? Well, obviously,
Speaker 1: uh Punk will not be the corporate champion, but it
Speaker 1: does look like we're gonna get Roman, Punk and Rollins,
Speaker 1: probably in a triple threat match. As far as the
Speaker 1: favor where he has to be his wise man, I
Speaker 1: think that's pretty thin. I really. I still think that
Speaker 1: the favor has to tie into one of two things,
Speaker 1: either the WrestleMania main event and or a title match.
Speaker 1: Anything else would be lame. He has this favor in
Speaker 1: his back pocket, right, I want you to be my
Speaker 1: wise man for one night. It just doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: a worthy payoff. There has to be more to it
Speaker 1: than that. What I proposed earlier is if the match
Speaker 1: is made between Roman in Seth or it looks like
Speaker 1: Roman in Seth is gonna be a WrestleMania match and
Speaker 1: Punk may be left out of the mix. Punk can
Speaker 1: go to Hayman and say, look, I want it. I
Speaker 1: want in on this match, like you're gonna have this
Speaker 1: match made with Roman in Seth. I need you to
Speaker 1: do me this favor and go to whatever GM. I
Speaker 1: guess it would be Nickall, Well maybe not actually Roman,
Speaker 1: Seth is unraw, So go to whatever GM or authority,
Speaker 1: Triple H, whoever you have to go to, go to
Speaker 1: the Rock. I want in on this match. And that,
Speaker 1: to me at least would make sense, especially if you
Speaker 1: assume that match is going to possibly close out Night
Speaker 1: one of WrestleMania, Because then Punk gets his WrestleMania main event,
Speaker 1: he gets his hands on Seth rollins, and you can
Speaker 1: work in some tension and drama there now between Roman
Speaker 1: and Punk. Roman is not happy that Hayman did this.
Speaker 1: He wanted Seth all to himself after what happened at
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble. Now he has to contend with this
Speaker 1: fucking guy that he doesn't like already, and now you've
Speaker 1: got tension between Roman Reigns and Cmpunk that I think
Speaker 1: you could absolutely do that and it would make sense.
Speaker 1: Michael from Texas. I was thinking of different ways to
Speaker 1: get out of another older guy holding the aw championship,
Speaker 1: and also how to get it off of John Moxley.
Speaker 1: Sooner than all in I came up with this, so
Speaker 1: let me know how it sounds. First, Max should beat
Speaker 1: Copeland at Revolution and after a hard fought match, had
Speaker 1: Christian come out to cash in his contract. Except he doesn't.
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, Jay White had issues with Christian
Speaker 1: this past fall and said that they were never or
Speaker 1: they were never properly resolved. So before Christian can sign
Speaker 1: the contract, which it has been established he has to do,
Speaker 1: you have Jay White take him out, sign his own
Speaker 1: name on the contract, and take the title from John Moxley.
Speaker 1: To me, it would make sense that Jay was playing
Speaker 1: the long game and aligning himself with Cope while the
Speaker 1: Guns were out trying to take out the Death Riders
Speaker 1: and screw them both over as for the patriarchy. Have
Speaker 1: them get taken out by the ops or the Guns
Speaker 1: to leave Christian all by himself. Ah, yes, signing his
Speaker 1: name on the contract that has nothing to do with him.
Speaker 1: That's how Chris ben Wa got into the WrestleMania twenty
Speaker 1: Maine event or no, I'm sorry. That's how Sean Michaels
Speaker 1: got into the WrestleMania twenty Maine event, right, He super
Speaker 1: kicked Ben Wah and then signed his name on the contract.
Speaker 1: You could do that. I forgot about that that you
Speaker 1: have to sign the fucking thing first. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I suppose somebody could take him out and then put
Speaker 1: their name on the contract first. Honestly, I'm fine with
Speaker 1: your idea if for no other reason because it gets
Speaker 1: the title off of John Moxley. I'm just I'm over
Speaker 1: it at this point. If you wanted to have Christian
Speaker 1: successfully cash in and take the championship for a brief
Speaker 1: period of time, I'm okay with that. Like I'm resigned
Speaker 1: to pretty much any idea at this point that would
Speaker 1: a get the title off of Moxley and b hasten
Speaker 1: the downfall of the Death Riders. Even better, find a
Speaker 1: way to get that title on MJF in the next
Speaker 1: few months and then build two Hangman beating MJF at
Speaker 1: all in to win the championship. You want to work
Speaker 1: the two of them into this equation somehow, that would
Speaker 1: be even better. Yandy from South Africa, I think if
Speaker 1: there is one wrestler that needs an excursion, it is Bailey.
Speaker 1: With her already wrestling on NXT, what do you think
Speaker 1: of having her get a short run as the Knockouts Champion.
Speaker 1: I'd be okay with it. I definitely think she needs
Speaker 1: something different. You know, she's done it all right now.
Speaker 1: It looks like she's gonna be working with which I
Speaker 1: think is fine. If they wanted to give Bailey Ah
Speaker 1: even a short run as the Knockouts Champion, she could
Speaker 1: add that to her resume work with some of the
Speaker 1: women in TNA, you know, Masha Slamovich and some of
Speaker 1: those ladies. I think that'd be great. I think that
Speaker 1: would be fun. Mac from New Jersey. Are you surprised
Speaker 1: the Shield never had a triple threat match at WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: Which WrestleMania do you think was the best time to
Speaker 1: do so? I am surprised, and I think that the
Speaker 1: WrestleMania to do so probably would have been thirty one.
Speaker 1: I mean, had had Roman not won the Rumble, which
Speaker 1: he should not have, that would have been the time
Speaker 1: to do it, right. That was the first WrestleMania coming
Speaker 1: out of SETH turning on them, So I think thirty
Speaker 1: one or thirty two. The problem is I think Seth
Speaker 1: was her That's why he missed thirty two right, So
Speaker 1: thirty one probably would have made more sense. And David
Speaker 1: from Arkansas, My question is about the Right to Censor
Speaker 1: faction for what it was. I was entered attained it first.
Speaker 1: I thought Stevie Richards did a decent job with his character,
Speaker 1: and that Bull Buchanan, Oh my god, Bull Buchanan B two.
Speaker 1: Remember B Squared when he was with John Cena. Hey,
Speaker 1: you know John Cena is a heel again. Maybe he
Speaker 1: can bring back B Squared. Oh great with that, I
Speaker 1: completely forgot about that. He said Bull Buchanan was a
Speaker 1: good choice to be his heavy. But once Godfather was
Speaker 1: put into the group, I thought it jumped the shark.
Speaker 1: Adding Valvenus and Ivory to the group just made it worse.
Speaker 1: By the end, it came off as a weird cult
Speaker 1: group with Richard's brainwashing his followers, almost like Cmpunk's Straight
Speaker 1: Edge Society. I don't recall you ever talking about this,
Speaker 1: So what is your opinion of right to censer? Well,
Speaker 1: there's a reason why I don't talk about it because
Speaker 1: I wasn't really a fan. Look, the right to Censor.
Speaker 1: What I thought was kind of cool about it is
Speaker 1: the way they converted all of the old fan favorites. Well,
Speaker 1: you think of the attitude raon some of the more
Speaker 1: risque characters. You think of people like the Godfather, right,
Speaker 1: the Godfather and the whole Train Valvenus. So basically what
Speaker 1: Stevie Richards and The Right to Censor did was he
Speaker 1: took these these fan favorites, these these characters from the
Speaker 1: Attitude era, and he turned them good. Right, the Godfather
Speaker 1: literally became the Good Father. And they got good heat,
Speaker 1: and they had some success. I think they held the
Speaker 1: tag team titles. Ivory, I know, was the women's champion
Speaker 1: at one point. I just never saw it as anything
Speaker 1: more than a decent mid card stable. You know. Stevie
Speaker 1: did the best job with it that he could, But
Speaker 1: I can't say it was a favorite act of mind.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Right to Censor is on TV. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to watch what they're gonna do next. Like, no,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't really care one way or the others. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they got good heat. They served their purpose. Obviously. This
Speaker 1: was their way of kind of making fun of the
Speaker 1: Parents' Television Council, which went after them in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands for their Actually, that's really the reason why
Speaker 1: some of the sponsors started to get chased away and
Speaker 1: they had to tamp down on some of that to
Speaker 1: risk a stuff that they were doing was because of
Speaker 1: the PTC. So this was kind of their way of
Speaker 1: lashing out and making fun of the PTC. Yeah, again,
Speaker 1: it was fine. I wasn't a huge fan of it.
Speaker 1: It was a decent mid card faction. I didn't really
Speaker 1: look at it as anything more than that. But thank
Speaker 1: you for reminding me about Bull Buchanan because I completely
Speaker 1: forgot about B Squared. Now I'm hoping we get a
Speaker 1: B Squared cameo. If John Cena can't be on TV
Speaker 1: the next few weeks, can we get B Squared in
Speaker 1: the ring with the Rock? Isn't his son in NXT?
Speaker 1: Who is his son? Is it? Oh? My god? What
Speaker 1: was the team Briggs and Jensen? Is Jensen his son?
Speaker 1: Do I have that right? I know his son I
Speaker 1: think is in developmental lot it might be Jensen. Anyway,
Speaker 1: We will get some more next week. I am very
Speaker 1: sleep deprived after last night, so we'll cut this short.
Speaker 1: But hopefully you guys enjoyed the show. Hopefully you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the show last night. I had fun talking about it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of fun things that could come out
Speaker 1: of this. It's going to be an exciting next couple
Speaker 1: of months, and hopefully you will join me on the
Speaker 1: ride here as we head towards WrestleMania to follow me
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Sola Moster Sounds Off is the official channel.
Speaker 1: I will be live this week after what should be
Speaker 1: a very important Monday Night Raw, and then again on
Speaker 1: Friday after what should be a very important SmackDown. And
Speaker 1: in the middle of that is the go home episode
Speaker 1: of aw Dynamite. It didn't talk much AAW this week.
Speaker 1: We're gonna save that for next week because next Sunday
Speaker 1: is Revolution. I'll probably be covering that live on YouTube
Speaker 1: when the show is over. I'll save my predictions for
Speaker 1: next week as well. So we got Revolution coming up.
Speaker 1: You know, Elimination Chamber was a great show last night.
Speaker 1: Revolution is going to be a great show in its
Speaker 1: own way. Obviously, it'll be more focused on a lot
Speaker 1: of the matches that the card will be much bigger
Speaker 1: than the Elimination Chamber. We had four matches last night.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have at least double that number of matches
Speaker 1: at Revolution, if not more than that. But they got
Speaker 1: some really great ones lined up on that card next weekend,
Speaker 1: including Kenny Omega and Kenoski Takeshta, Kyle Fletcher, and Will Ospray.
Speaker 1: I got my fingers crossed that the Death Riders may
Speaker 1: no longer have a stranglehold on the aw World Championship.
Speaker 1: Tony Storm and Mariah May a lot of good stuff
Speaker 1: to look forward to next week. So we are being
Speaker 1: spoiled in terms of the pay per views here on
Speaker 1: these two weekends, and I'll be back with you next
Speaker 1: Sunday for episode nine oh four of The SoundOff. So
Speaker 1: until then, be well, stay saved, have yourselves a great week.
Speaker 1: We now live in a world with heel John Cena.
Speaker 1: I never thought I would see the day.
Speaker 3: Take care, guys, the Solemn Monster Sounds Off.
Speaker 1: Wait, Jackie read mean. She conducted a sit down interview
Speaker 1: with Sammy's ain. Then he said, yes, I was actually
Speaker 1: outside Kevin Owens house, but he wasn't home, but his
Speaker 1: mother was, so she was very happy to see him. Hey, Sammy,
Speaker 1: what's going on?
Speaker 2: Let's come over, Sammy, Sammy, My, God, look at you.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen you in forever. How you doing has
Speaker 2: the why? As a kid, you look like you lost weight.
Speaker 2: You don't come over anymore. I made cookies, I made
Speaker 2: a pie. Come on and talk to me.
Speaker 1: What's going out?
Speaker 2: Why are you holding your neck for?
Speaker 1: Apparently she doesn't watch WWE television.
Speaker 3: The Solo Monster Sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,
Speaker 3: and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
Speaker 3: content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 3: and X The Solo Monster.
Speaker 1: I love you so long.