Speaker 1: It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monster
Speaker 1: Sounds Off. I love you so, Mama, monster, dude, I
Speaker 1: want your soul. Woman, you got grown ass wrestlers in
Speaker 1: the back going on Twitter. Come over here, he may
Speaker 1: is that pet patison you have legs? Week I was
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent positive it was just chessed up. Now
Speaker 1: I want out of my contract if I don't care
Speaker 1: what I want. This is episode nine to ten of
Speaker 1: the Solemn Monster Sounds Off for Easter Sunday, April twentieth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. I want to wish you very happy
Speaker 1: Easter to all celebrating It also happens to be night
Speaker 1: two of WrestleMania forty one. We are now halfway through WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: I am a very sleepy Solemn Monster coming off of
Speaker 1: a very late night one review and we killed it
Speaker 1: last night. Hopefully we'll do the same tonight. But I'm
Speaker 1: I am going to have some thoughts on WrestleMania Night one,
Speaker 1: which was the big news of the weekend, but hardly
Speaker 1: the only news. Hardly the only big news of the weekend.
Speaker 1: There was actually a huge news story that broke yesterday
Speaker 1: involving WWE that I'm going to get into here at
Speaker 1: a few minutes. We got a lot of stuff to
Speaker 1: get into. There's a lot of other news and notes.
Speaker 1: I got news and notes on aw as well as
Speaker 1: New Japan, which had some big news of its own,
Speaker 1: and then a little bit later on, probably at the
Speaker 1: very end of the review, I'm going to be including
Speaker 1: my full WrestleMania nine documentary review, Becoming a Spectacle WrestleMania
Speaker 1: and nine, the making of is now on Peacock. I
Speaker 1: did watch it, I did review it on YouTube. It
Speaker 1: went up during the week. Not everybody is on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have a chance to include it in
Speaker 1: the podcast last weekend, so you're going to get it
Speaker 1: this week, and so the full review will be up
Speaker 1: towards the end of the show for those of you
Speaker 1: who want to tune into that. I got some great
Speaker 1: feedback on that and hopefully you will enjoy it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot to get into here on a very busy weekend,
Speaker 1: and I thank you for joining me for your WrestleMania coverage.
Speaker 1: If you would like to make a PayPal donation, as
Speaker 1: many of you did this week, you guys blew me
Speaker 1: away the Solomonster dot com. It never changes. That's the
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Speaker 1: of the page. Ten dollars or more will get you
Speaker 1: a nickname and a shout out like these fine folks.
Speaker 1: Gravedigger Brandon de Blanc Brandon, thank you very much, the
Speaker 1: Portland pop Star Paul Hamilton. Hey, seven is my lucky number,
Speaker 1: so thank you. Brother Big b Bryant Bessera, the Diamond
Speaker 1: Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soapp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the
Speaker 1: five tool Player, Adam Bartolo, number one in the division,
Speaker 1: Brother Fast Blast, Tim Banks, Tough Guy, Tim gen Zephyr,
Speaker 1: congrats on the new job. Only good things from here
Speaker 1: on out. Tem Gin the Chicago Slayer, Willie Eicherd Knight
Speaker 1: Stalker and if Al Safar the Which It's Clayton Nettleton,
Speaker 1: The Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis, Best Ending Game, Trey Porter, Kilshot,
Speaker 1: Keith Hart Nemesis, Nathan Moyers, who says that John Cena
Speaker 1: is going to tap out tonight. A bold prediction there
Speaker 1: from Nathan. I don't know about tapping out. What would
Speaker 1: he tap out to? Cody is not known as a
Speaker 1: submission specialist and CPIA Prince, thank you very much for
Speaker 1: the nice words. Thank you all. It was very very
Speaker 1: nice to see all of the support this week, not
Speaker 1: only on YouTube, but here for the main show as well.
Speaker 1: This Friday, House of Glory presents Isolation at the NYC
Speaker 1: Arena with Kenoski Takeshta making his Hog debut. He's going
Speaker 1: to be taking on our world champion Mike Santana and
Speaker 1: the TNA Knockouts Champion Masha Slamovich makes her Hog return
Speaker 1: as well. Bell time is eight pm. Tickets are available
Speaker 1: at Hog Wrestling dot Net or you can stream the
Speaker 1: show live on Triller TV. Plus. I will not be there.
Speaker 1: I'm flying to Chicago for a wedding, and so there
Speaker 1: will be no SmackDown review. I mean, there wouldn't be
Speaker 1: anyway I would be at the Hog show if I
Speaker 1: was here. But there will be no SmackDown review this Friday,
Speaker 1: which sucks because I know it's going to be the
Speaker 1: biggest smacked out of the year coming out of WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: But just be aware of that. There will be no
Speaker 1: SmackDown review on Friday night. There will be no new
Speaker 1: SoundOff next Sunday. So I just want to make everybody
Speaker 1: aware of that. That means I'll be back here in
Speaker 1: two weeks with episode nine to eleven. If you send
Speaker 1: in any paypals this week for Roll Call, send them
Speaker 1: on in and I will include them on the next show,
Speaker 1: So there's no worries there. I got to start with
Speaker 1: the bombshell announcement yesterday that was made on the WrestleMania
Speaker 1: kickoff show that WWE has purchased one of the two
Speaker 1: biggest Lucha libreate promotions in Mexico, Triple A, which was
Speaker 1: founded in nineteen ninety two. When Antonio Pena, who was
Speaker 1: the booker for CMLL, split with them, he took Conan
Speaker 1: with him. He took a lot of the young CMLL
Speaker 1: talent with him. I talked about this once before, I
Speaker 1: think in this Week in History segment, CMLL being the
Speaker 1: biggest promotion in Mexico and the one that happens to
Speaker 1: work with AW right now. In fact, AW just announced
Speaker 1: their first show ever in Mexico just this week, is
Speaker 1: going to be held at Arena Mexico. It's going to
Speaker 1: be an episode of Dynamite on June eighteen. But that
Speaker 1: news has been completely overshadowed by the announcement that Triple
Speaker 1: A is now under TKO ownership Triple H and Michael Cole.
Speaker 1: They were joined on set on the pre show by
Speaker 1: Triple A President Mariceella Penya her Son, Triple A General
Speaker 1: Manager Dorian Rodan Pena Triple A star Vikingo was there,
Speaker 1: which was wild to see Triple H introducing Vikingo, Raymis Stereo,
Speaker 1: Dragon Lee, Joachim Wilde, Cruis del Toro, Penta, Ray Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Santos Escobar, Angel and Berdo Andrade and Stephanie Viquier. We're
Speaker 1: all flanking Triple H and Michael Cole and all of
Speaker 1: the executives on set. Triple A is where Raymisterio got
Speaker 1: his first break in Wrestlingum he goes back to the
Speaker 1: very first year and he was on that first World's
Speaker 1: Collide pay per view in nineteen ninety four that Triple
Speaker 1: A produced with WCW. And on that note, the other
Speaker 1: part of their announcement was the return of World's Collide,
Speaker 1: which will be a cross promotional event with WWE and
Speaker 1: Triple A or NXT and Triple A. But I'm sure
Speaker 1: they'll have main roster talent on the show since they
Speaker 1: were present for the announcement, and I think all three
Speaker 1: logos are in the I think it's WWE, NXT and
Speaker 1: Triple A. I believe all the logos are represented in
Speaker 1: the poster. Saturday, June seventh, at three pm Eastern time,
Speaker 1: that's noon local time, from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: which is a big building. So they're definitely using main
Speaker 1: roster names on that show. They shot an angle last
Speaker 1: night at WrestleMania to set up Vikingo against Algreande Americano
Speaker 1: if they want to do it. Not saying they will,
Speaker 1: but they They certainly did something on the show last
Speaker 1: night that would be very easy to put that match
Speaker 1: together if they wanted to do so. I'm guessing a
Speaker 1: three pm start time, which is noon local time, because
Speaker 1: June seventh has been rumored as the date for Money
Speaker 1: in the Bank, also in Los Angeles, which makes more sense. Now.
Speaker 1: We have no details beyond that. As I sit here
Speaker 1: right now, we do not know anything as far as
Speaker 1: what kind of money is involved. We don't know how
Speaker 1: they intend to run the promotion going forward, how much
Speaker 1: influence they're going to have over creative if they're going
Speaker 1: to be cutting people, you know, Alberto del Rio works
Speaker 1: for Triple A, even though he got suspended recently for
Speaker 1: six months. I think it was only in Tijuana, but
Speaker 1: he was suspended for getting into a fight in the
Speaker 1: crowd at a show. So Dell dipshit still doing Dell
Speaker 1: dipshit things. You know, what does that mean for his
Speaker 1: future there? I don't know. I believe Marty Scull still
Speaker 1: works for Triple A. We don't know. The answer is
Speaker 1: we don't know right now. You know, when WWE bought WCW,
Speaker 1: you remember they grabbed the IP and the tape library
Speaker 1: and a handful of contracts, not a lot of big names,
Speaker 1: and they chose not to run it as a separate entity,
Speaker 1: even though that was the original plan. They bought Evolve
Speaker 1: about five or six years ago from Gabe Sapolski, but
Speaker 1: same thing. It was just the name in the library,
Speaker 1: and now they're using the Evolved name for one of
Speaker 1: their developmental shows. I don't think they're closing down Triple A,
Speaker 1: but how it's going to be run going forward will
Speaker 1: be very interesting to see. You know. At the post
Speaker 1: show scrum last night, Triple H said he's looking to
Speaker 1: keep quote traditional lucha libre as traditional lucha libre and
Speaker 1: help it grow. And I saw Luca blog made a
Speaker 1: great point. The problem is that Triple A never was
Speaker 1: traditional lucha libra. It was founded on the idea that
Speaker 1: lucha libre needed to change. And it's like they're trying
Speaker 1: to say the right things, but they seem to know
Speaker 1: very little about what they're actually talking about. I've heard
Speaker 1: people say that as far back as the nineties, you know,
Speaker 1: Triple A was trying to be more like WWE or
Speaker 1: WCW than they were so called traditional lucia libre. They
Speaker 1: do a lot of wacky stuff. So if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of the current Triple A product, and I don't
Speaker 1: know how many people are anymore, because Triple A has
Speaker 1: not been doing great, I mean they're not CMLL CMLL
Speaker 1: is the top lucha promotion in the certainly in that country,
Speaker 1: if not the world. Yeah, there's been talk of money
Speaker 1: issues with Triple A, issues with Conan's booking. They sound
Speaker 1: like a company that's been looking to make a deal
Speaker 1: for a while. And what it does is it gives
Speaker 1: WWE a huge presence now in a market that they
Speaker 1: did not traditionally have a big presence in. This is
Speaker 1: part of their global expansion. I've talked about this before.
Speaker 1: Remember that map that Triple H showed at some conference.
Speaker 1: I don't remember what the event was, but there was
Speaker 1: this giant map many years ago with all the different
Speaker 1: places they wanted to expand NXT. It was their plans
Speaker 1: for a global territory system. It was their plan for
Speaker 1: world domination. This was actually was twenty eighteen. It was
Speaker 1: a couple of years before Triple H had his heart issue.
Speaker 1: You know NXT Europe, which never got off the ground.
Speaker 1: But this is what the vision was. And now they
Speaker 1: have a pipeline to a ton of lucha talent, which
Speaker 1: gives them a competitive advantage over everybody else, just like
Speaker 1: the WWEID program gives them a competitive advantage when it
Speaker 1: comes to recruiting indie talent. Right They've got first dibbs
Speaker 1: now early on the people they might want to bring in.
Speaker 1: Trust me, this has more to do with benefiting WWE
Speaker 1: than it does benefit lucha libre. Okay, if you think
Speaker 1: they give a shit about traditional lucha libre, you've got
Speaker 1: a lot to learn. But what it also does is
Speaker 1: it puts WWE now in direct competition with CML, which
Speaker 1: is the oldest promotion in the world. This is basically
Speaker 1: a declaration of war on CMLL, Triple A and CML.
Speaker 1: They already didn't get along, but this takes it to
Speaker 1: a whole new level, and it makes more sense now
Speaker 1: why CMLL would want a partner with AW. But this
Speaker 1: is only just the beginning. We're going to see more
Speaker 1: of this as the months and years go on. They're
Speaker 1: going to go from partnership mode to acquisition mode when
Speaker 1: it suits their needs. So right now they have a
Speaker 1: multi year partnership with TNA, and I think that works
Speaker 1: for them. I really don't see the need for them
Speaker 1: to acquire TNA right now, but it could be a
Speaker 1: precursor to them doing just that at some point. Same
Speaker 1: with Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan, right they have a
Speaker 1: partnership with them, has the partnership with New Japan. AW
Speaker 1: has worked with Stardom, So WWE goes and works with Marigold.
Speaker 1: It's all very interesting, isn't it. That's not a coincidence. Now,
Speaker 1: it was WrestleMania Week, so there have been tons of
Speaker 1: WWE names out doing press and giving interviews to various outlets,
Speaker 1: and what a shit show it turned into talking about
Speaker 1: politics and Vince McMahon and aew, these people have spent
Speaker 1: more time talking about Tony Kahn than they have WrestleMania yet.
Speaker 1: John Cena speaking with The New York Times, doubling down
Speaker 1: on his love and affection for Vince McMahon, which is
Speaker 1: nothing new. I mean, he already did this once before
Speaker 1: on the Howard Stern Show. We know how he feels,
Speaker 1: and you know, if he wants to publicly profess his
Speaker 1: love for Vince, he's certainly entitled to do so, just
Speaker 1: as people are entitled to be repulsed by it. And
Speaker 1: he chose to say what he said. He wasn't prodded on,
Speaker 1: like how do you feel about Vince McMahon. The question
Speaker 1: was how does it feel to be at the end
Speaker 1: of your career without Vince being around for it? And
Speaker 1: he went out of his way to profess his love
Speaker 1: for the men because that's how he really feels, and
Speaker 1: of course he does. He was homeless at one point.
Speaker 1: He was sleeping in his Lincoln town car when he
Speaker 1: first drove out to la to make it big. He
Speaker 1: went from being homeless and sleeping in his car to
Speaker 1: being a multi millionaire because Vince McMahon chose him to
Speaker 1: be the face of his company. Now he's a big
Speaker 1: movie star, he's making more money than he'll ever be
Speaker 1: able to spend. Of course he's going to love that man.
Speaker 1: But I have far more respect for people like Seth
Speaker 1: Rollins and Kevin Owens and Brett Hart who also made
Speaker 1: millions working for Vince McMahon and have had the decency
Speaker 1: to say, you know what, if the allegations are true,
Speaker 1: it's disgusting and the people involved should get what's coming
Speaker 1: to them. I think that was what Seth said. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's really all that needs to be said. And the
Speaker 1: fact that some people are not able to bring themselves
Speaker 1: to do that is disappointing, but it's not surprising. Now.
Speaker 1: Nick Con was a guest on the Bill Simmons podcast,
Speaker 1: and Simmons asked him whether he feels WWE has a rival,
Speaker 1: and specifically citing AW when he says that, you know,
Speaker 1: he feels their moment came and went and they're firmly
Speaker 1: number two now, to which Con responded like this, We're
Speaker 1: always the underdog at WWE. We always feel that people
Speaker 1: underestimate us, that we are looked down upon, and we
Speaker 1: like it that way. Bet against us. We prefer that
Speaker 1: and allow us to show you what we can do.
Speaker 1: If you look at the stock price now, it's far
Speaker 1: in excess of what it was when we all started
Speaker 1: together five years ago, and we're quite proud of that.
Speaker 1: At the same time, we have to keep re earning
Speaker 1: our keep on a daily basis here, so we feel
Speaker 1: like it's a good moment, but we feel like there
Speaker 1: is a lot of room for growth. You know. It's
Speaker 1: one thing to say that there's room for growth. It's
Speaker 1: another to frame yourself as the underdog, which of course
Speaker 1: is laughable, he said, in terms of the other wrestling
Speaker 1: promotional company, which is certainly one way of putting it.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of talented wrestlers, and we're happy
Speaker 1: about that. When contractually they're able to be talked to
Speaker 1: and have conversations with. Assume a number of them will
Speaker 1: come over, and nothing but respect for the father who
Speaker 1: finances it and owns the Jaguars and all of those
Speaker 1: other things. Wow, if you want to know how little
Speaker 1: respect they have for Tony Kahan, just the contempt that
Speaker 1: they have for him and for what he has done
Speaker 1: with aw there it is. I mean, it's all laid
Speaker 1: bare right there in that quote, like even the stuff
Speaker 1: would not inducting Lex Luger into the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: this week, Like they could have made the first contact
Speaker 1: and reached out to Tony to see if he would
Speaker 1: allow Sting to do it. You know, Luger was very
Speaker 1: public and said he told the company he specifically asked
Speaker 1: for Sting he was his first choice to be his inductor.
Speaker 1: But they never did because they cannot even bring themselves
Speaker 1: to pick up the phone and reach out. They have
Speaker 1: such a disdain for them. I mean, it just jumps
Speaker 1: off the page, and hey, fair play. It's not like
Speaker 1: Tony Khan hasn't taken shot to them before, you know,
Speaker 1: calling them the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling and all that.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of bitterness and pettiness on both
Speaker 1: sides of the coin. Him saying he respects the father
Speaker 1: who finances it implies that he has no respect for
Speaker 1: the son who is only using daddy's money. You know,
Speaker 1: as if Tony was just laying on the couch eating
Speaker 1: Cheetos and watching reruns of Beavis and butt Head when
Speaker 1: he got the idea to start aaw I mean, this
Speaker 1: is right out of the Vince McMahon playbook. Vince did
Speaker 1: the same thing in the nineties, only back then it
Speaker 1: was Eric Bischoff spending Ted Turner's money and throwing shade
Speaker 1: at them for that. You know, maybe they're upset that
Speaker 1: they have to pay their talent a lot more now
Speaker 1: than they used to, because guess what, that's what competition does.
Speaker 1: That's why I've always said competition is a great thing.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to watch AW. Just be happy
Speaker 1: that competition exists. You don't have to watch a single
Speaker 1: second of Dynamite to be able to appreciate the fact that,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's a good thing that there is
Speaker 1: at least one other promotion with a national presence or
Speaker 1: a global presence that can compete on some level, even
Speaker 1: if only for talent, that can compete with WWE. And
Speaker 1: maybe that's what they're ultimately really upset about, because Tony
Speaker 1: has the money to throw around to compete for the
Speaker 1: same talent. Because remember, whatever you think about WWE being
Speaker 1: so much bigger and stronger than AW, they're both competing
Speaker 1: for talent from the same talent pool. You know, WWE
Speaker 1: is competing with AW every single day for the same talent.
Speaker 1: You saw some of those talents on the WrestleMania card
Speaker 1: this year. You saw some last night. You had Ricky
Speaker 1: Starks at stand and Deliver Ray Phoenix on WrestleMania. And
Speaker 1: when you have a competitor with money to throw around,
Speaker 1: what it does is it forces you to spend more
Speaker 1: money even when you don't want to. That's why you
Speaker 1: heard the reports about WWE allegedly, and I have to
Speaker 1: stress allegedly this wasn't something that was said publicly, but
Speaker 1: there were reports last year. You know, they were throwing
Speaker 1: shade at Swerved Strickland getting so much money from AW
Speaker 1: on his new contract when he resigned with them last year.
Speaker 1: How they're paying him so much more above market value
Speaker 1: and so much more than what he's worth. It's going
Speaker 1: to force them to have to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's part of it. I'm sure that's part
Speaker 1: of the disdain they have for this man. You know,
Speaker 1: you had Stephanie Viccaier on a radio show this week
Speaker 1: talking about how she turned down more money from AW
Speaker 1: to sign with WWE, and when WWE found out, they
Speaker 1: told her to go sign with them, like they weren't
Speaker 1: going to be able to match what Tony was offering,
Speaker 1: but it was Shawn Michaels who convinced her not to
Speaker 1: do it. Is her going out there and saying that
Speaker 1: part of a concerted effort on WWE's part to put
Speaker 1: stories like that out there, to tell people, Hey, the
Speaker 1: grass isn't always greener on the other side. We may
Speaker 1: not offer you the same amount of money those guys are,
Speaker 1: but look at what we've done with Stephanie. Look at
Speaker 1: all the success that she's had so far, Look at
Speaker 1: what we can do for you. Maybe maybe it is.
Speaker 1: But even if it's not part of some concerted effort,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they love her putting that story out there.
Speaker 1: So when Simmons then warned nick Con about signing too
Speaker 1: many people to the point where others in the roster
Speaker 1: may end up sitting in the back and not being used.
Speaker 1: You know, you only have so many spots to go around,
Speaker 1: this was nick CON's response, Look, that's something we won't do.
Speaker 1: We won't sign and bench people. We sign people who
Speaker 1: we want to use. And when Simmons pointed out that
Speaker 1: that's happened in the past in WWE, maybe before CON's time,
Speaker 1: he said, perhaps, but in terms of the other wrestling
Speaker 1: promotional company. If another entity signs and benches people, that
Speaker 1: is not something that we would do. So two things
Speaker 1: on that. First of all, he's being disingenuous when he
Speaker 1: says that we don't sign people just to bench them
Speaker 1: like AW does. He's obviously referring to people like Ricky
Speaker 1: Starks and Phoenix and Miro, all of whom are now
Speaker 1: with WWE. Bigie the other day let the cat out
Speaker 1: of the bag and he flat out said that Russev
Speaker 1: was back with the company, even though nothing's been announced.
Speaker 1: We may see him tonight. It's not like Tony Kahn
Speaker 1: literally signed all of those people and then never used
Speaker 1: them like you can throw Camille in there too. All
Speaker 1: of them were used at one time or another, but
Speaker 1: then yes, they ended up on the bench and they
Speaker 1: were never heard from again. The Camille thing is still
Speaker 1: something I don't understand. I mean, they even went out
Speaker 1: of their way to not talk about her when they
Speaker 1: were promoting Queen of the Ring, which she started had
Speaker 1: a pretty significant role in, but they used her for
Speaker 1: a few months and then they took her off TV.
Speaker 1: Ricky Starks, he won the FTW title, He won the
Speaker 1: owen Hart Tournament, he even got a win over Cmpunk,
Speaker 1: who just headlined WrestleMania last night. He was one half
Speaker 1: of their tag team champions, and then he got benched
Speaker 1: when Tony realized that he wanted to leave and go
Speaker 1: to WWE. Same thing with Ray Phoenix. And there's no
Speaker 1: excuse for keeping people on ice for months on end
Speaker 1: just because you think, oh, they want to leave, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad he ended up giving them all an
Speaker 1: early release from their contracts. They would still be sitting
Speaker 1: at home right now if he had not done that.
Speaker 1: So he's being somewhat disingenuous when he says that in
Speaker 1: the way that he does, but he's also a hypocrite.
Speaker 1: That was the most hypocritical part of the entire interview
Speaker 1: when you have someone like Omas being called back from
Speaker 1: Japan so urgently, he had to vacate his half of
Speaker 1: the GHC tag team titles right just to come home
Speaker 1: and do what exactly nothing. They've done nothing with him
Speaker 1: on TV, and even before that they were doing nothing
Speaker 1: with him then, like legitimately, the last time he competed
Speaker 1: in a WWE ring was last year's Andre the Giant
Speaker 1: Battle Royal, And I know Muda had said he wanted
Speaker 1: him there in Noah, but I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: that was something that Omas himself lobbied for to go
Speaker 1: over there. You know, send me to Japan. If you're
Speaker 1: not going to use me, this guy wants to use me,
Speaker 1: Send me to Japan. I can improve, I can learn.
Speaker 1: It's not like they have him working house shows, which
Speaker 1: for him is something he could probably benefit from. They
Speaker 1: hardly even do how shows anymore. Fucking Alexa Bliss comes
Speaker 1: back at the Royal Rumble, gets one of the biggest
Speaker 1: reactions of anybody on the entire show. Then she works
Speaker 1: the elimination chamber, and then she hasn't been seen since,
Speaker 1: and all because why one member of the Wyat six
Speaker 1: got hurt sucks to be the other four people in
Speaker 1: the group. They haven't been seen or heard from either.
Speaker 1: Maybe they will this week coming out of WrestleMania, right, Hicculeo.
Speaker 1: What the fuck ever happened to Hicculeo? He got signed
Speaker 1: last year, he hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Speaker 1: Did he get lost on his way to the PC?
Speaker 1: Did he get kidnapped in the NXT parking lot? And
Speaker 1: nobody bothered to send a search party to find him.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw seandros Sap. He had a great idea.
Speaker 1: These wrestlers need to start working with their agents to
Speaker 1: get inactivity clauses included in their contracts. I think that's
Speaker 1: a great idea. I don't know what the language would
Speaker 1: have to be on that, but I think that's something
Speaker 1: that should be explored in both companies. At least in
Speaker 1: AAW though, you do have the ability to get yourself
Speaker 1: booked on the indies, so you can still work somewhere.
Speaker 1: If let's say Tony isn't using you, you could still
Speaker 1: technically work somewhere else. In WWE. That's very rare, but
Speaker 1: I think that's a great idea, honestly, that should be
Speaker 1: explored with both companies. It is interesting, though, you know
Speaker 1: how things have flipped from four or five years ago
Speaker 1: when people were fleeing WWE to come to AAW and
Speaker 1: now it's the reverse. And as was the case with AW,
Speaker 1: if WWE is not careful, they're going to sign so
Speaker 1: many people that they will have no choice but to
Speaker 1: make roster cuts. I think that's exactly what's going to
Speaker 1: end up happening, possibly as soon as post WrestleMania. I mean,
Speaker 1: they do cuts periodically anyway, but you're going to see
Speaker 1: a wave of them if this keeps up. And then
Speaker 1: you had Triple H mister Hall of Fame being interviewed
Speaker 1: by Peter Rosenberg and going off on fans who criticize
Speaker 1: the product. I always love this. He also talked about
Speaker 1: websites that leaks surprises and how they ruin it for
Speaker 1: everybody else. See that I can understand, but he specifically
Speaker 1: popped off on websites and on podcasts like this one
Speaker 1: and people who consider themselves critics. He wishes he could
Speaker 1: tell all of the critics to fuck off with being
Speaker 1: a critic and just be a fan. Just watch the
Speaker 1: product and be a fan. Just shut up and enjoy
Speaker 1: the ride, basically, and then he used this terrible movie
Speaker 1: analogy to try to make his point. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: thought it sounded good when he came up with. It
Speaker 1: sounds to me like someone isn't getting the glowing praise
Speaker 1: that he got last year for the WrestleMania build, and
Speaker 1: it's gotten under his skin because I didn't hear this
Speaker 1: out of his mouth last year. Only now after he's
Speaker 1: been taking it on the chin for the bill to
Speaker 1: this year's show, he sounded awfully defensive this week. There
Speaker 1: are critics and then there are so called critics who
Speaker 1: deal in bad faith. Okay, you have those two. I
Speaker 1: think you have way more of those with AAW than
Speaker 1: you do the WWE product, Because for all the things
Speaker 1: that I could criticize AW for and I have, there
Speaker 1: are people who will literally shit on the product no
Speaker 1: matter what, like without even watching it. It's just very
Speaker 1: bizarro behavior. So I just find that to be pathetic.
Speaker 1: But there's nothing wrong with being a critic, Like just
Speaker 1: speaking for myself, I'm not someone who's critical for the
Speaker 1: sake of being critical. I will criticize something when it
Speaker 1: deserves to be criticized, and I will praise it when
Speaker 1: it deserves praise. You know. I don't come on these
Speaker 1: shows and feel obligated to criticize something. If there's something
Speaker 1: let's say, if there's a show that I absolutely just
Speaker 1: unabashedly love from top to bottom, which was not Night
Speaker 1: one of WrestleMania last night, but let's say there is,
Speaker 1: And I think, man, if I don't find something to hate,
Speaker 1: they're gonna skewer me for being a dick rider, right.
Speaker 1: I don't think like that if I like the show,
Speaker 1: I love the show. I'm going to tell you I
Speaker 1: love the show, and if that's what they want to say,
Speaker 1: then so be it. I get it the other way too,
Speaker 1: where there'll be a show that I hate and then
Speaker 1: I'm oh, you're just a hater. You just hate on everything.
Speaker 1: You just hate for the sake of hating, right. I
Speaker 1: always say when I get it from both sides, I
Speaker 1: know I'm doing something right, but I'm just giving my opinions.
Speaker 1: You could agree with them, you can disagree with them,
Speaker 1: but that's what I do. No different than sports talk radio,
Speaker 1: or movie critics or literally every other fucking form of
Speaker 1: entertainment on the planet. I don't know why Crado's over
Speaker 1: here things wrestling should be any different. Like I get it.
Speaker 1: He wishes Kfae was alive and well and that we
Speaker 1: could go back to the Stone Age where there was
Speaker 1: no internet. I would also love to go back to
Speaker 1: when I was seven watching wrestling and didn't know that
Speaker 1: half the roster was made up of absolute fucking brain
Speaker 1: dead idiots in real life. But that's not how life works.
Speaker 1: This week's episode is sponsored by Express VPN. When you're
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Speaker 1: extra four months of ExpressVPN free. Last night was WrestleManias Saturday,
Speaker 1: which was a very middle of the road show capped
Speaker 1: off by an excellent main event with Seth Rollins beating
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns and CM Punk and pinning Roman Reigns after
Speaker 1: a triple cross by Paul Haman, who leaves with Seth
Speaker 1: Rollins at the end of the night. He didn't just
Speaker 1: double cross Punk, he double crossed his tribal chief as well,
Speaker 1: which ends a five year partnership that completely transformed Roman's career.
Speaker 1: It was the beginning of the Tribal Chief and the
Speaker 1: death of the Big Dog when they linked him with
Speaker 1: Haman for the first time, and they got more mileage
Speaker 1: out of it than I thought they would. I mean,
Speaker 1: they lasted together about as long as The Undertaker and
Speaker 1: Paul Behar did five years right before Paul Bhar turned
Speaker 1: on him, something about people named Paul you can't trust them.
Speaker 1: But CM Punk finally got his WrestleMania main event, and
Speaker 1: it's up there with his Hell and a Cell match
Speaker 1: with Drew McIntyre as one of the best matches he's
Speaker 1: had since coming back to the company. I still put
Speaker 1: the Hell at a Cell match above this one, but
Speaker 1: it's right behind that one. Punk was on the mass
Speaker 1: Man Show this week. He said WWE is trying to
Speaker 1: get him to side a five year deal and he's
Speaker 1: not sure. I don't know if he's got five more
Speaker 1: years of matches like this one in him, but this
Speaker 1: one was great. And he also said that if he
Speaker 1: was in TRIPLEHS spot, he would have had Rhea Ripley,
Speaker 1: Bianca Belair and Eo Sky main event WrestleMania, although he
Speaker 1: didn't say which night. Obviously he's referring to his spot
Speaker 1: in Night one because Cody and John Cena were always
Speaker 1: going to get Night two. But it's funny, you know what,
Speaker 1: the whole narrative of him wanting to headline WrestleMania. He
Speaker 1: did want to headline WrestleMania twelve years ago, and he
Speaker 1: said the reason he wanted to main event wrestle Media
Speaker 1: was because when you main evented, you got paid more money.
Speaker 1: Today you don't have that issue, you know, And he's
Speaker 1: making a lot more money now that he was back
Speaker 1: then anyway, But you don't get a big bonus, you know,
Speaker 1: for main eventing WrestleMania, I don't think. And he makes
Speaker 1: plenty of money as it is, so he really legitimately
Speaker 1: does not give a shit whether he made events WrestleMania
Speaker 1: or not. That's just the storyline. But it was the
Speaker 1: highlight of an otherwise very mid show. The match itself had.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of dramatic near falls, a lot
Speaker 1: of finishers spam. Some people like that, some people don't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't always bother me. There are times it really
Speaker 1: just depends on the match. It's kind of a case
Speaker 1: by case thing with me. If they structure the match
Speaker 1: in a certain way, they tell a certain story, I
Speaker 1: can overlook it. Did they go overboard with the near falls? Yeah? Probably,
Speaker 1: But like the Osprey and takeshta match from Dynamite this
Speaker 1: week where you had that same issue, Like, I loved
Speaker 1: it and it didn't really it didn't take me out
Speaker 1: of the match. It didn't bother me. The fans certainly
Speaker 1: didn't seem to mind. They were hanging onto every near fall,
Speaker 1: but really all built to Paul Hayman's involvement. What was
Speaker 1: Paul Hayman going to do at the end of this match?
Speaker 1: And sure enough a chair and Roman is on the
Speaker 1: mat and he's looking out at Hayman. Punk's on the mat.
Speaker 1: He's looking at at Hayman and they both want Hayman
Speaker 1: to hand him the chair. What is he going to do?
Speaker 1: And he slides the chair to Punk and it looks
Speaker 1: like he's made his choice, and then he climbs into
Speaker 1: the ring, so that right there, screamed angle alert, something's
Speaker 1: about to go down because why is he getting into
Speaker 1: the ring. And Punk is limping over towards Roman who's
Speaker 1: on the mat. He's going to hit him with this chair,
Speaker 1: and then Hayman drops to his knee and he delivers
Speaker 1: a low blow to CM Punk, which I don't believe
Speaker 1: is the first time that that's happened. I know he
Speaker 1: hit him in the head with the latter once at
Speaker 1: one of the Money in the Bank shows. I want
Speaker 1: to say he gave him a low blow too, but
Speaker 1: I don't remember. But you would think this guy would learn.
Speaker 1: So this is the second time now that Paul Hayman
Speaker 1: in his career has turned on CM Punk. And it
Speaker 1: looked like he was going to hand the chair off
Speaker 1: to Roman Reins, which he did, and he was just
Speaker 1: going to be back with Roman, and Roman really laid
Speaker 1: into Punk with that chair, and then Hayman looked over
Speaker 1: and saw Seth Rollins pulling himself back up to his feet,
Speaker 1: and he starts telling Roman, my tribal chief, look, look
Speaker 1: the shield. The shield right, because Seth was in the
Speaker 1: same position that Roman was in years ago with his
Speaker 1: back turned. And now Roman can dish out the same
Speaker 1: thing to Seth as Seth did to him when he
Speaker 1: broke up the shield, and he's getting ready to do so.
Speaker 1: And that's when Paul Hayman he lowers the boom, and
Speaker 1: boy did he ever on Roman Reins. He gave him
Speaker 1: a low blow the likes of which I have not
Speaker 1: seed it a very long time. He got all up
Speaker 1: in Roman's business. I mean he got all of it.
Speaker 1: I mean he was going back and forth. And so
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns now goes down to the mat and this
Speaker 1: all leads to seth Rolins pinning Roman Reigns and winning
Speaker 1: the triple Threat match, and Paul Hayman had a big
Speaker 1: fat smile on his face. He had made his decision.
Speaker 1: We don't know how long it advanced, but he made
Speaker 1: his vision clearly long ago, it looks like. And the
Speaker 1: two of them left together. So I thought the way
Speaker 1: that they executed it was was flawless. It came across
Speaker 1: just great. What are the all time like WrestleMania's shocking moments?
Speaker 1: Even if you saw it coming, it was just executed
Speaker 1: very well. And with nothing on the line coming into
Speaker 1: the match, you kind of felt like something big has
Speaker 1: to go down here at the end, and they did.
Speaker 1: They gave you the biggest possible thing they could do
Speaker 1: with no title on the line. So now where to next?
Speaker 1: Is this going to be tied into tonight's main event,
Speaker 1: because we got John Cena and Cody Rhodes yet to
Speaker 1: come tonight. It's only hours away from now, and I
Speaker 1: was left last night with the impression that this may
Speaker 1: tie into that in some way. I'm trying to connect
Speaker 1: the dots here, and maybe I'm connecting dots that aren't there,
Speaker 1: but I just feel like this is going to play
Speaker 1: into the main event tonight in some way. Are we
Speaker 1: looking at Seth Rollins assisting John Cena in winning Number
Speaker 1: seventeen tonight and an alliance of Sina Rollins and Hayman?
Speaker 1: So I do think Rock is going to be on
Speaker 1: the show, you know? Is that what we're looking at?
Speaker 1: Are we looking at some kind of new unholy alliance here?
Speaker 1: Is this going to force Roman Reigns and see I'm
Speaker 1: Punk and Cody Rhodes to put all of their differences
Speaker 1: aside and come together to fight them off. And I
Speaker 1: got to give a shout out to the Wickerman on
Speaker 1: Twitter who wrote me with the idea that, you know,
Speaker 1: if Roman and Punk do team up eventually to fight Rollins,
Speaker 1: if he needs a partner, maybe Drew McIntyre can fill
Speaker 1: that spot, because who hates Roman and Punk? As much
Speaker 1: as he does. So there's a lot of fun possibilities
Speaker 1: here if they explore them. I'm approaching this with great
Speaker 1: caution because what we got coming out of See is
Speaker 1: He'll turn an elimination chamber was anything but fun. It
Speaker 1: was very underwhelming, That's what that was. But the potential
Speaker 1: is there for them to do some fun stuff coming
Speaker 1: out of this. Now. We also had three title changes
Speaker 1: on the showuz So is the new World Heavyweight Champion
Speaker 1: with a win over Gnther. Not only did he beat
Speaker 1: Guther and win the title, he tapped him out a
Speaker 1: little too quickly. Gunther tapped out almost immediately in the sleeperhold.
Speaker 1: So that was my one thing I didn't like about it.
Speaker 1: But jay Uso is now the new world champion, and
Speaker 1: so with Rollins going heel with Hayman, and Rollins is
Speaker 1: a raw guy, he should be the one to take
Speaker 1: that title away from jay I don't see jay Uso
Speaker 1: having that title for very long. In fact, I think
Speaker 1: he may have just wound up with the championship to
Speaker 1: be a transitional champion just to get the belt onto
Speaker 1: South because you need a babyface to do that, which
Speaker 1: is why Gunther losing it makes sense that and for
Speaker 1: the story they told with Jay, Gunther had to lose.
Speaker 1: I know that upsets a lot of people because they
Speaker 1: didn't want to see Gunther lose to this guy. They
Speaker 1: didn't want to see him lose to the yeat Man.
Speaker 1: It's a day of mourning for all the Gunther fans
Speaker 1: out there. But he had to with the story they
Speaker 1: were telling, he had to lose. If Jay went in
Speaker 1: there last night zero for three and lost again, he
Speaker 1: was done for as a top guy that anybody could
Speaker 1: take seriously. At that point, he really does just become
Speaker 1: the yeat Man and nothing more. Like he had to
Speaker 1: go in there's like the Rocky story. He had to
Speaker 1: go in there and get his redemption and finally win
Speaker 1: and prove that he could hang. And that's what they did.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I said this in my review last night
Speaker 1: and again the full review where I get into more
Speaker 1: in the weeds on this that's up right now on
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel. I'll put the audio out separately. But
Speaker 1: you know what I said was this, to me, the
Speaker 1: whole Jay Uso thing was more about the moment. It
Speaker 1: was more about the payoff. It's the dog catching the
Speaker 1: car and then once the dog catches the car. It's
Speaker 1: like the dog doesn't know what to do because he
Speaker 1: got the car, Like you already saw the best part.
Speaker 1: That's how I look at this Jay Usa thing. I
Speaker 1: look at it as a situation where he's not meant
Speaker 1: to have any sort of lengthy title run. We already
Speaker 1: saw the peak. The peak was last night, that great moment,
Speaker 1: been in front of you know, sixty thousand people. His
Speaker 1: brother comes out and embraces him at the end of
Speaker 1: the match. It's very much like Kofe Mania in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Kofe Mania took the world by storm and they leaned
Speaker 1: into it, and he had this match with Daniel Bryan
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania thirty five, and it was this great moment
Speaker 1: when he beat Brian and won the championship. You have
Speaker 1: people in the crowd crying, and Kofe's family's in the
Speaker 1: ring with him. His son is in the ring. The
Speaker 1: New Day guys are in there, and Kofe had been
Speaker 1: even then. He was kind of like the elder Statesman.
Speaker 1: He had been there for so long. So it was
Speaker 1: this great moment. But I don't know that anybody honestly
Speaker 1: expected Kofe Kingston to go on and have some kind
Speaker 1: of tremendously successful, long, historic, memorable championship run. It was
Speaker 1: all about the moment. They capitalized on the emotion of
Speaker 1: the moment. They didn't have some kind of long term
Speaker 1: plan for him as the champion. Now he had the
Speaker 1: title for six months. It was a very uneventful six months,
Speaker 1: but he held it for six months, and then of
Speaker 1: course they did him dirty with the way he lost it.
Speaker 1: But that's really all it was going to be. It
Speaker 1: was about the moment, and it's the same thing I
Speaker 1: feel with jay Uso. It's about the moment. And now
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of when how soon do they
Speaker 1: take that title off of him and put it, most
Speaker 1: likely on seth Rollins. I give it until summerslim of
Speaker 1: the absolute latest. I'm not even sure he'll make it there.
Speaker 1: I feel like backlash would be too soon. But he's
Speaker 1: not going to have that title for very long. The
Speaker 1: jay Uso story arc, though, from five years ago to now,
Speaker 1: has been pretty fun to see because you remember those
Speaker 1: empty arena shows they were doing when the Bloodline story
Speaker 1: really began, and it was all about you know, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Usso he got hurt at WrestleMania thirty six, wrestling in
Speaker 1: that empty building and he tore his ACL. And so
Speaker 1: many times with these tag teams, one guy gets hurt,
Speaker 1: the other guys fucked, the other guy's just sitting on
Speaker 1: the shelf until his partner is ready to come back.
Speaker 1: And in this case, and I'm sure you know Jay
Speaker 1: being part of that family, you know Roman, you know
Speaker 1: he had family going to bat for him. Not everybody
Speaker 1: has that, but they kept him on TV and they
Speaker 1: incorporated him into this bloodline story and that's where we
Speaker 1: first got to see this character development in jay Uso,
Speaker 1: which is something I never expected because I never saw
Speaker 1: jay Usso doing more than what he was doing. But
Speaker 1: to go from that to where he is now winning
Speaker 1: a world championship at WrestleMania five years later is pretty
Speaker 1: cool stuff. You know, whatever you think of him as
Speaker 1: a wrestler. And if Jimmy doesn't tear his ACL at
Speaker 1: WrestleMania that year, I don't think any of this happens.
Speaker 1: But we had three title changes. That was one. The
Speaker 1: other one was the New Day beating the war Raiders
Speaker 1: to win the World tag team titles, a very very
Speaker 1: basic match, really nothing out of the ordinary. About it.
Speaker 1: Nothing overly special about it. The other tag team title match,
Speaker 1: they're doing that on TV on Friday. They're doing a
Speaker 1: TLC match for the WWE tag team titles that did
Speaker 1: not get the WrestleMania treatment that is going to be
Speaker 1: on SmackDown this Friday. This match was chosen for the
Speaker 1: WrestleMania card instead. It was what it was. Jacob thought
Speaker 1: to the new United States Champion with a win over
Speaker 1: La Night. They had the second best match I thought
Speaker 1: on the entire show, the first of many titles to
Speaker 1: come for Jacob. And then there was Charlotte and Tiffany.
Speaker 1: Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Championship.
Speaker 1: I was very curious to see how these two would
Speaker 1: work together. And there's gonna be a lot of differing
Speaker 1: opinions on this match, whether or not Charlotte was taking
Speaker 1: liberties with Tiffany, Tiffany was taking liberties with Charlotte. One
Speaker 1: thing I will say is when this match was over,
Speaker 1: Tiffany more than Charlotte looked like she was in a fight.
Speaker 1: She had a bruise on her forehead, it looked like
Speaker 1: she may have chipped a few teeth. Apparently her teeth
Speaker 1: were fine. I guess maybe it was lipstick that rubbed
Speaker 1: off on her teeth, but she just when they put
Speaker 1: her on camera, she just looked like, Okay, this woman
Speaker 1: was in a real struggle here in this match. But
Speaker 1: she won, and Tiffany Stratton is still the women's champion,
Speaker 1: and she got a clean pinfall win in the middle
Speaker 1: of the ring over Charlotte Flair, which was refreshing to see,
Speaker 1: and it was the right finish. It was not the
Speaker 1: finish I was expecting at all, so it was a
Speaker 1: pleasant surprise for me. But I already see the comments
Speaker 1: that you know, they were shooting on each other or
Speaker 1: Charlotte was sandbagging her. I didn't get the impression that
Speaker 1: anybody was taking liberties with anybody else. They definitely worked
Speaker 1: a very snug match. It felt very gritty. I also
Speaker 1: didn't think it was all that great. I see some
Speaker 1: people saying, oh, this was the match of the night
Speaker 1: or the second match of the night after the main event.
Speaker 1: I hey, to each their own. I really didn't like
Speaker 1: this match. I think it was a good match for
Speaker 1: Tiffany as far as her being able to say that
Speaker 1: she beat Charlotte that's a nice feather in her cap.
Speaker 1: But I was kind of bored watching the match. This
Speaker 1: is not a match that will have any replay value
Speaker 1: for me whatsoever. And whether or not this was one
Speaker 1: and done and they're going to kind of separate these two,
Speaker 1: or if this is the first in a series of
Speaker 1: matches they're going to have, we'll find out. On Friday,
Speaker 1: I was not a fan of this, and they had
Speaker 1: Ray Phoenix subbing for Raymistereo, trading one Ray for another
Speaker 1: against Elgonde Americano because Raymisterio got hurt on SmackDown on
Speaker 1: Friday night. Apparently he tore his groin, which sounds very painful,
Speaker 1: and so he was out and about. He was on
Speaker 1: the pre show and everything. He was part of the
Speaker 1: Triple A announcement on the pre show set on Saturday.
Speaker 1: It's not like he's hobbling around on crutches or anything,
Speaker 1: but he was not medically cleared. So instead they put
Speaker 1: Ray Phoenix in there, and so here he goes into this.
Speaker 1: Ray Phoenix just debuted two weeks ago. He was in
Speaker 1: purgatory for months in aaw he got his early release
Speaker 1: that sounded like he was released from prison. He got
Speaker 1: paroled and so he ends up in WWE. He only
Speaker 1: debuted in Chicago two weeks ago, and on less than
Speaker 1: twenty four hours notice. He goes from not having a
Speaker 1: match at WrestleMania to being in a singles match on
Speaker 1: the WrestleMania card for the very first time. And it's
Speaker 1: very cool that both him and his brother are going
Speaker 1: to have their debut WrestleMania matches in the same year.
Speaker 1: Penta will make his debut tonight, so that's very cool.
Speaker 1: But it was on short notice because you know, Mysterio
Speaker 1: couldn't go. Phoenix and El Gdandi. They went out there,
Speaker 1: they had a good match. I probably I would have
Speaker 1: that behind the main event and behind the US title match.
Speaker 1: I thought this was the third best match on the show.
Speaker 1: I wish it had more time. It got barely ten minutes,
Speaker 1: if even that. I think some of the matches got
Speaker 1: short changed here. This was one of them. But you know,
Speaker 1: they had a good match for what it was. They
Speaker 1: did the plate gimmick, the metal plate under the mask,
Speaker 1: and Elgonde Americano wins, which he had to. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not ideal that Ray Phoenix went in there and lost,
Speaker 1: but again, it's fine. Because Ray Phoenix was not even
Speaker 1: supposed to be on the Wrestle Media card. I am
Speaker 1: sure nobody is happier about the fact that he was
Speaker 1: able to get onto this card. I'm sure he feels
Speaker 1: badly for Raymysterio, but believe me, nobody is happier that
Speaker 1: he got his WrestleMania moment than Ray Phoenix. I don't
Speaker 1: think he gives a shit that he lost this match
Speaker 1: because he wasn't even supposed to be in the match,
Speaker 1: and Elgreande Americano had to win. It's part of his
Speaker 1: whole gimmick. He's using the loaded mask. Eventually, they will
Speaker 1: do a mask versus mask match, whether it's him in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: whether it's him and Raymisterio or the Kingo or whoever
Speaker 1: it ends up being, and he will lose the mask.
Speaker 1: This was not the time for him to lose, so
Speaker 1: I don't have any issue with what they did here.
Speaker 1: They had to come up with a plan B, slotting
Speaker 1: in Ray Phoenix or Dragon Lee that would have made
Speaker 1: the most sense. They decided to go with Ray Phoenix.
Speaker 1: I have no issue with it now. Tonight is Night
Speaker 1: Too of WrestleMania, which on paper looks like the stronger
Speaker 1: of the two nights, and I certainly hope it ends
Speaker 1: up being the better night. Overall. What we have here
Speaker 1: is Randy Orton is going to have an open challenge.
Speaker 1: Here's another plan B. We were supposed to get Randy
Speaker 1: Orton and Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens went down with a
Speaker 1: neck injury. I did see him. I saw him in
Speaker 1: the crowd of the Hall of Fame. So he's there,
Speaker 1: has not had his surgery yet. Supposedly he was getting
Speaker 1: a second opinion from another doctor that Randy Orton recommended.
Speaker 1: But he's out. And no, I don't think it's an
Speaker 1: angle and Owens is going to show what would even
Speaker 1: be the fucking point of that. But who is going
Speaker 1: to be the mystery opponent answering the open challenge? It
Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's going to be Nick all this.
Speaker 1: I feel like if it was going to be all this,
Speaker 1: there would have been some kind of hint towards that
Speaker 1: on Friday, and there really wasn't. It's not impossible, but
Speaker 1: I'm not expecting it. Solo Sokoa. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: going to be him. They kind of got away from
Speaker 1: that this week. So who does that leave Alistair Black.
Speaker 1: It looks like is going to be returning on SmackDown
Speaker 1: this Friday. We actually got a date in the latest
Speaker 1: vignette for this mystery person, whoever it is. The Smoky
Speaker 1: vignettes that have been airing now for weeks, so it
Speaker 1: looks like they're saving his debut for Friday, which I
Speaker 1: think is absolutely appropriate. You know, you just wait until
Speaker 1: those post rawn SmackDown shows. You could debut somebody new.
Speaker 1: That's perfect who ends up in this spot though you're
Speaker 1: doing an open challenge, it needs to be somebody either
Speaker 1: a big name or it needs to be someone who
Speaker 1: is returning or debuting, but someone the people will know,
Speaker 1: somebody that will get a reaction when they come out
Speaker 1: or when they're music hits. And I think Russev fits
Speaker 1: the bill. We know Rusev is back, he's back under contract.
Speaker 1: It's only a matter of how do they re debut him.
Speaker 1: I think Russev gets the spot, so yeah, he will
Speaker 1: go in there and likely lose, because I don't think
Speaker 1: Randy Orton should be losing. I think whoever answers this
Speaker 1: open challenge is going to lose. But I don't have
Speaker 1: an issue with Rusev. Losing as much as I would
Speaker 1: if it was Black. I just feel like Black has
Speaker 1: the higher ceiling. I wouldn't be beating him in his
Speaker 1: first match. If riceb goes in there and has a
Speaker 1: competitive match and loses to Randy Orton, you know, off
Speaker 1: An RKO, who cares like it's not going to kill him,
Speaker 1: It's fine, It's really not a big deal. He's my pick.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be him AJ Styles against
Speaker 1: Logan Paul. I've got aj winning in that match. Then
Speaker 1: we have Live and Raquel defending the women's tag team titles.
Speaker 1: They were supposed to defend the titles against Bailey and
Speaker 1: Lyra Valkyria, who won a gauntlet match on SmackDown last week.
Speaker 1: They survived the entire gauntlet. They wrestled like five other
Speaker 1: teams and they won. And Bailey they shot an angle
Speaker 1: yesterday where she was attacked by a mystery attacker backstage.
Speaker 1: She was laid out on the ground holding her shoulder
Speaker 1: and it didn't look like she was going to be
Speaker 1: medically cleared. And by the way, it was so ridiculous
Speaker 1: the way they did this, because they cut to the
Speaker 1: back and Bailey is on the ground and then Lyra
Speaker 1: shows up, Oh my god, what happened? And Adam Pierce
Speaker 1: comes in and immediately they're talking about how okay, you've
Speaker 1: got twenty four hours to find her replacement, Like, she
Speaker 1: hasn't even been diagnosed. How do they know that Bailey
Speaker 1: can't go? No doctor has seen her yet, They've already
Speaker 1: eliminated her from this match. So she got double fucked
Speaker 1: in this angle. And so now Lyra is going into
Speaker 1: WrestleMania with no partner, and Adam Pierce has given her
Speaker 1: twenty four hours to find someone. Gee, I wonder who
Speaker 1: that will be, especially with all the talk in the
Speaker 1: last few days about Becky Lynch being on her way
Speaker 1: back soon. Gee, I wonder who it will be. The
Speaker 1: last time we saw Becky on TV, she was buddying
Speaker 1: up with Lyra Valkyria. In fact, the last time we
Speaker 1: saw Becky in a match was against liv Morgan when
Speaker 1: Live beat her in the cage and then Live was
Speaker 1: gloating that she retired. Becky Lynch makes all the sense
Speaker 1: in the world. This is how they're going to re
Speaker 1: debut Becky Lynch. This is how she returns. They're going
Speaker 1: to challenge for the tag team titles as far as
Speaker 1: what they're gonna do here, I didn't think that they
Speaker 1: would bring Becky back just to have her lose in
Speaker 1: this situation. But there was somebody and I forgot who
Speaker 1: it was last night, who pitched an idea, and I
Speaker 1: actually the more I think about it, the more not
Speaker 1: only do I like it, but I think there's a
Speaker 1: very good chance we see it, which is that Becky returns.
Speaker 1: We come to find out that it was Becky who
Speaker 1: attacked Bailey, and Becky ends up going heel on Lyra
Speaker 1: and then Livin Raquel would retain the tag team titles.
Speaker 1: And what it does is it sets up a program now,
Speaker 1: an actual proper program, which is something that Lyra has
Speaker 1: not had since winning the championship for the Intercontinental title,
Speaker 1: because I don't need to see Becky lynn shed A
Speaker 1: wrestling for the world title right out of the gate,
Speaker 1: but her working with Lyra, and even if she wins
Speaker 1: the Intercontinental Championship, I don't think that would be a
Speaker 1: bad idea. Put the title on somebody that has big name,
Speaker 1: and at the end of it, she puts Lyra over
Speaker 1: in the biggest way possible. What a win that would
Speaker 1: be for Lyra. You could do a whole proper program
Speaker 1: with the two of them. I could see that happening.
Speaker 1: Now where that leaves Bailey, I have no idea. I
Speaker 1: do feel bad for her now, Bailey is not hurt.
Speaker 1: This is not a cover for a real injury. Apparently
Speaker 1: they've had this idea in mind for weeks. So I
Speaker 1: assume Bailey must have known that she was not really
Speaker 1: going to be wrestling a WrestleMania but even so, she
Speaker 1: was announced, you know, for a WrestleMania match. I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's very shitty for her. There's no defense of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a shitty situation for her, But they
Speaker 1: have their idea. We'll see how it plays out tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Bailey will be there. She'll have
Speaker 1: her arm in a sling. If she's not going to
Speaker 1: be on the show at all, I have no idea,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be Becky. Do they have Becky
Speaker 1: as a heel or a face? I don't know, But
Speaker 1: I like that idea about her going heel and then
Speaker 1: being revealed as the attacker, and that way when Bailey,
Speaker 1: you know, heels up and is ready to come back,
Speaker 1: you know she can work with Becky as well, we
Speaker 1: have Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest in a Sin City
Speaker 1: street fight. This could be a sleeper match on the
Speaker 1: show tonight, and I feel like these two were going
Speaker 1: to have something to prove going out there. It's just,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a mid card match on the show.
Speaker 1: How happy they are about being in the spot they're
Speaker 1: in where it kind of feels like, Hey, we didn't
Speaker 1: have anything for these guys to do, so we'll just
Speaker 1: sort of put them together. You know. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I kind of feel like they're going to have
Speaker 1: something to prove going out there, and this should be
Speaker 1: a Drew McIntyre win. Bron Breaker defends the intercom Meental
Speaker 1: Championship in a four way match against Penta in his
Speaker 1: first WrestleMania Dominic Mysterio and Finn Balor. I'm going with
Speaker 1: Dirty dom to win the title. I think he steals
Speaker 1: the pin on Balor to do it continues their story
Speaker 1: gets the title off Breaker without him having to be
Speaker 1: pinned Penta. He'll be fine. I think Dominic Mysterio wins
Speaker 1: the title. Eo Scott defends the Women's World Championship at
Speaker 1: a triple threat match against Rhea Ripley and Bianca bel Air.
Speaker 1: I got EO walking out with the championship, she's walking
Speaker 1: in the champion. I think she's walking out the champion.
Speaker 1: I don't see Bianca bell Air going on Monday Night Raw.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think Bianca is going to be thrust
Speaker 1: right back into this whole story with Naomi and Jade
Speaker 1: on SmackDown. In fact, I think Naomi will be making
Speaker 1: her presence felt in this match, and that will be
Speaker 1: part of what costs Bianca. So I fully expect to
Speaker 1: see Naomi and EO is going to retain the championship.
Speaker 1: And in the main event, John Cena goes for number
Speaker 1: seventeen in his very last WrestleMania match against Cody Rhoades,
Speaker 1: And you would think for somebody who has been in
Speaker 1: this company as long as he has and has had
Speaker 1: as many WrestleMania matches in WrestleMania main events as he
Speaker 1: has had, that he would have some more you know,
Speaker 1: classics to his name, But he doesn't have as many
Speaker 1: as you would think. So this is his last chance
Speaker 1: to go out there at forty six or seven or
Speaker 1: whatever he is and try to have one of the
Speaker 1: better wrestle Media matches from like a match quality standpoint
Speaker 1: that he's ever had, because I mean, he's had big
Speaker 1: matches before. You know, he's wrestled The Rock and you
Speaker 1: know he's had big wrestle media matches, but he hasn't
Speaker 1: had that many great ones. He really hasn't. And Sena
Speaker 1: as an in ring performer is not what he used
Speaker 1: to be. He's not. I can't remember the last truly
Speaker 1: great John Cena match that I saw. It's been many,
Speaker 1: many years. I think he's got a great opponent in there,
Speaker 1: and Cody Rhodes, I think you have enough smoking mirrors.
Speaker 1: Is the Rock going to be there? Is the Rock
Speaker 1: going to get involved? Is Seth Rollins or anybody else
Speaker 1: gonna get involved? This could end up being a great match,
Speaker 1: or this could end up being a disappointment. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's going to be a disappointment, but we'll see.
Speaker 1: I just I remember watching his match with Austin Theory
Speaker 1: and thinking, man, that sucked, right, So we don't know
Speaker 1: what we're gonna get out of Sena at this point.
Speaker 1: Singles match. It's not a tag match, it's not a
Speaker 1: chamber match, it's not a royal rumble like he looked
Speaker 1: fine in the elimination chamber, you know, but he was
Speaker 1: one of six guys, and he was either the last
Speaker 1: guy or one of the last guys out of the pods.
Speaker 1: So you can't judge that in the same way that
Speaker 1: you would judge a singles match. So this is gonna
Speaker 1: be a test to see what kind of John Cena
Speaker 1: are we gonna get in a big, main event singles
Speaker 1: match like this. I hope it's the best John Cena
Speaker 1: that we've gotten in a long time, because I have
Speaker 1: him winning number seventeen, making history and leaving as the
Speaker 1: WWE Champion. There's gonna be some kind of big angle
Speaker 1: they shoot at the end of this show. I would
Speaker 1: be shocked if the Rock is not there. Fucking Travis
Speaker 1: Scott may be there. I'm still trying to connect the
Speaker 1: dots and thinking that we're gonna have some kind of
Speaker 1: tie in to last night's main event with this one.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be some kind of big angle they shoot here.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, I think Sena stands tall in wins
Speaker 1: number seventeen, and we won't have to wait very long
Speaker 1: because we're only a matter of hours away here as
Speaker 1: I am recording this, So I hope you will join
Speaker 1: me live on YouTube immediately after night two is over.
Speaker 1: We had upwards of forty three hundred people live last
Speaker 1: night on YouTube. Let's see if we can top that tonight.
Speaker 1: And I did watch NXT Stand and Deliver. I didn't
Speaker 1: take any notes. I was doing work while I was
Speaker 1: watching it, trying to get all prep for the show.
Speaker 1: But I did see it. I enjoyed it. I thought
Speaker 1: it was an excellent show. In fact, I think NXT
Speaker 1: Stand and Deliver top to bottom is a show was
Speaker 1: better than Wrestlemni a night one that was a great
Speaker 1: main event. Oba Femei retaining the NXT championship over Trick
Speaker 1: Williams and Javon Evans. I love the women's four way.
Speaker 1: Stephanie Vaquier still the NXT Women's champion with a win
Speaker 1: over Julia, Jada Parker, and Jordan Grace, all of whom
Speaker 1: when the time comes, I think are gonna do very
Speaker 1: well on the main roster. I think Jada Parker needs
Speaker 1: some more time and some more seasoning in NXT. But
Speaker 1: I mean they could call Stephanie, Julia, and Jordan up
Speaker 1: tomorrow and they would fit right in in either women's
Speaker 1: division on Raw or SmackDown and they would kill it.
Speaker 1: So that was a great match. Ricky Saints still the
Speaker 1: NXT North American Champion with a win over Ethan Page.
Speaker 1: I thought they had a good match, and they had
Speaker 1: a ladder match to Cranny brand new NXT Women's North
Speaker 1: American Champion. As ladder matches go, I thought this was
Speaker 1: a good one. Again, it's hard to differentiate yourself because
Speaker 1: I were just so numb to seeing these types of
Speaker 1: matches and all the big spots and hoping they don't
Speaker 1: kill each other. Soul Ruca though, was the winner. She's
Speaker 1: the new champion. Sol Ruka is awesome. That's soul Snad.
Speaker 1: I love that soul Snatcher. She's another one. When the
Speaker 1: time comes, she's gonna be a big, big player on
Speaker 1: that main roster. And Nathan Fraser and Axiom are no
Speaker 1: longer the NXT Tag Team Champions, losing the titles to
Speaker 1: Hank and Tank. See this surprised me. I was not
Speaker 1: expecting a title change here. What I saw here from
Speaker 1: Hank and Tank though very impressive. They're a fun, big
Speaker 1: man team and they are the new tag team champions.
Speaker 1: And then they had the DiAngelo Family against their new
Speaker 1: Dark State group, and you had stacks turning on Tony
Speaker 1: d I mean whatever, I'm not fully into the whole
Speaker 1: di Angelo family drama here. I've seen bits and pieces
Speaker 1: of it, but I'm not as invested in the story
Speaker 1: as maybe some of you are. But again, what I
Speaker 1: saw of the show, everything was at least good, if
Speaker 1: not great, and as a show collectively it was better
Speaker 1: than Wrestlemani at Night One. Today's episode is sponsored by
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Speaker 1: website for full details and important safety information. I was
Speaker 1: actually gonna start the show with some big New Japan news,
Speaker 1: but then the WWE Triple A news broke. But there
Speaker 1: was big New Japan news because in just the last
Speaker 1: week we got the news that three names are headed
Speaker 1: for the exits, including one of the biggest stars in
Speaker 1: the promotion. Tetsuyaito, Boushi and Jeff Cobb are all leaving
Speaker 1: New Japan Pro Wrestling. Cobb was not a huge surprise
Speaker 1: because there was a talk last month that he was
Speaker 1: possibly leaving. But Nito, I mean, that's a different story.
Speaker 1: Nitto was a huge shock. New Japan announced on Wednesday
Speaker 1: that they were unable to come to terms on a
Speaker 1: new contract with the former five time IWGP champion, six
Speaker 1: time Intercontinental Champion, three time G One Climax winner. He
Speaker 1: will continue to make appearances through their May fourth Wrestling
Speaker 1: Duntaku show in Fukuoka. Their statement reads as follows. In
Speaker 1: recent weeks, conversations have been ongoing between New Japan Pro
Speaker 1: Wrestling and Tetsua Nito regarding Nito's future wrestling activities. As
Speaker 1: a result of those conversations, both parties have mutually agreed
Speaker 1: not to renew Nito's contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Speaker 1: Both parties have arrived at this decision after careful consideration
Speaker 1: and lengthy conversation. Nito's contract ends on the best possible
Speaker 1: terms with NJPW, which joins fans in wishing him further
Speaker 1: success in any and all future endeavors. They call it
Speaker 1: a failure to reach a contract extension, while Meltzer and
Speaker 1: Sean Ross sap they claimed Nito has been working without
Speaker 1: a contract recently. Brian Alvarez says the impression he got
Speaker 1: was that he simply wanted a lot more money than
Speaker 1: they were willing to pay him and fight full Select
Speaker 1: reports that Nito had been exploring his options over the
Speaker 1: past month or so and he is not expected to
Speaker 1: join AW. I can't imagine WWE having any interest in
Speaker 1: him at this stage. I mean, they did in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: and supposedly they made him an offer that he turned down,
Speaker 1: but I mean that was seven years ago, and he
Speaker 1: was he was pretty washed even then. Now imagine him now.
Speaker 1: I mean he's still a big name, but to their audience,
Speaker 1: you know, the WWE audience, he's not going to mean anything.
Speaker 1: You know, physically, he's just completely washed. His knees are shot.
Speaker 1: He's had the eye issues. He's had three surgeries on
Speaker 1: his right eye, and I think he's had one on
Speaker 1: his left. And he admitted to Tokyo Sports in December
Speaker 1: that people talk about his knees, but it's his eyes,
Speaker 1: you know. That of the biggest issue. I've talked about
Speaker 1: this before. He was having issues with triple vision. You know,
Speaker 1: when he looks down, he sees a flat surface and
Speaker 1: he sees a slanted one. So working in the ring,
Speaker 1: especially when he tries to run, it's a challenge for him.
Speaker 1: He can't trust his footing in there. And so he
Speaker 1: had surgery on his left eye because of the macular
Speaker 1: degeneration he has in the right one, and he could
Speaker 1: only see straight if he shut one eye because they
Speaker 1: were imbalanced, so that most recent surgery was to try
Speaker 1: to balance them out. So he had surgery to make
Speaker 1: the healthy eye worse just so the two would match up.
Speaker 1: But there are limits on the number of surgeries that
Speaker 1: he could have on the right eye, and he's already
Speaker 1: hit that limit. He can't have any more. But this
Speaker 1: is very different than when WWE brought in Shinsky Nakamora.
Speaker 1: You know, I just I don't know what Nito adds.
Speaker 1: If let's say they were to bring him in in
Speaker 1: Knew Japan. He's a legend and he sells a ton
Speaker 1: of merchandise, all that Llied Jane merch which is why
Speaker 1: this is a big blow to New Japan. But if
Speaker 1: the issue was money, you know, whatever New Japan was
Speaker 1: offering him, I don't know that he's going to get
Speaker 1: that from any other Japanese promotion, Like what other promotion
Speaker 1: is going to be able to pay him what he's
Speaker 1: looking for? Where else is there for him to go?
Speaker 1: You know, he could freelance over there if he wants to,
Speaker 1: Like Minora Suzuki does. Suzuki freelance is there? He does?
Speaker 1: Indis over here. I saw Minora Suzuki had a match
Speaker 1: with Yoshihiko the blow up doll the other night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she made the doll bleed. I didn't see how it happened,
Speaker 1: but I saw the doll had blood on it, which
Speaker 1: figures when you're in there with Suzuki Nito could do
Speaker 1: something like that. You know, who's to say he still
Speaker 1: doesn't work shots here and there with New Japan, right,
Speaker 1: that's certainly possible. It doesn't have to be a permanent break.
Speaker 1: But I mean if this was like five, six, seven
Speaker 1: years ago and Naito became a free agent, he would
Speaker 1: be getting big offers to go elsewhere today. With his
Speaker 1: body in the shape it's in, I mean, he could
Speaker 1: work in He's gonna make a killing, But as far
Speaker 1: as big money from a major promotion outside of Japan,
Speaker 1: I just don't know where he's gonna go. You know,
Speaker 1: that match he had with John Moxley at Forbidden Door
Speaker 1: last year was the worst thing on the entire show.
Speaker 1: It was sad watching that. His match with Hromu Takahashi
Speaker 1: at the Tokyo Dome this year that was not good either.
Speaker 1: I mean I was just bored watching it. He just
Speaker 1: can't go at a high level anymore. It's sad watching
Speaker 1: the old guard age out or leave. You know, Okata
Speaker 1: was a gigantic loss for them. Tanahashi is retiring at
Speaker 1: the Dome next year, and he's not the same performer
Speaker 1: either that he used to be. Nitho's been falling apart
Speaker 1: for years now. He's out the door. Nakamora, I mean
Speaker 1: they lost him years ago, and Shabata. Then you have
Speaker 1: the foreign talent. They've lost will Ospray and Jay White.
Speaker 1: It's sad to see. And meanwhile, his fellow LIJ member
Speaker 1: Bushi is also so finishing up with New Japan on
Speaker 1: May fourth. He's been with the company since twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: He is said to be leaving, possibly strictly out of
Speaker 1: loyalty Tonito. Bushi is not a star at Nito's level,
Speaker 1: but he's been with the company for a long time,
Speaker 1: and he had been announced for the upcoming Best of
Speaker 1: the Super Juniors, which I assume now is not going
Speaker 1: to happen. Jeff Cobb is also leaving, and that news
Speaker 1: comes barely a week after he won the IWGP Tag
Speaker 1: team titles as part of United Empire. New Japan wrote
Speaker 1: this on its website. New Japan Pro Wrestling has come
Speaker 1: to terms with the departure of Jeff Cobb at his request.
Speaker 1: With Cobb one half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions,
Speaker 1: those titles have now been vacated. Cobb's final match in
Speaker 1: New Japan will take place in Corkinhall on April nineteenth
Speaker 1: against Hiroshi Tanahashi. New Japan Pro Wrestling profoundly apologizes for
Speaker 1: the sudden nature of this news and joins fans in
Speaker 1: wishing Cobb the best in all of his future endeavors.
Speaker 1: And he did wrestle Tanahashi yesterday and lost, so the
Speaker 1: suddenness of it clearly caught them by surprise. Although there
Speaker 1: have been reports that New Japan knew he was leaving
Speaker 1: and going to WWE even before they put the tag
Speaker 1: belts on him, they just may not have known that
Speaker 1: they were going to pull the trigger and pull him
Speaker 1: as quickly as they did, so they appeared to have
Speaker 1: been caught off guard by this. Otherwise, I don't really
Speaker 1: know why they would have put the championship on him,
Speaker 1: and supposedly he was scheduled to challenge Hiroki Goto for
Speaker 1: the IWGP title on May fourth, and that is obviously
Speaker 1: not happening now. Cobb is a very good wrestler. He
Speaker 1: has been with New Japan for many years. He lives
Speaker 1: in Japan, but he's also turning forty three in July,
Speaker 1: and he probably realized, Hey, this could be my last
Speaker 1: chance to make some big money working for one of
Speaker 1: the two major promotions in the States, so he is
Speaker 1: said to be WWE bound. He worked his final match
Speaker 1: last night, so I would assume he's freeing clear to
Speaker 1: appear in WWE as soon as tonight. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he's going to be at WrestleMania. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's going to be at WrestleMania. Maybe the Raw after
Speaker 1: MANI or the SmackDown after Many, assuming he goes straight
Speaker 1: to the main roster. Very interesting that he would choose
Speaker 1: WWE over AAW given that he has worked matches for
Speaker 1: AW before. But it could be just as simple as Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, this is a challenge that I would
Speaker 1: like to try. They want me. I can make good
Speaker 1: money there. I've never worked there before. I've already done
Speaker 1: this other place. Could be as simple as that. This is, also,
Speaker 1: by the way, the third time in recent months that
Speaker 1: WWE has signed someone quick enough that it forced that
Speaker 1: person to have to surrender a championship that they held
Speaker 1: for another promotion. Okay, look at Stephanie Vecaierre. Last summer,
Speaker 1: she was a double champion. She held the CMLL women's
Speaker 1: title and women's tag team title when WWE signed her
Speaker 1: and they booked her. They booked her debut in Mexico
Speaker 1: on the same night that CMLL wanted her to drop
Speaker 1: at least one of those titles and do business on
Speaker 1: her way out. WWE, if they wanted to, they could
Speaker 1: have allowed that to happen. They don't give a shit.
Speaker 1: They don't. Not only do they not give a shit,
Speaker 1: they booked her for a show in Mexico that very
Speaker 1: same night. So instead of dropping the titles, she was stripped.
Speaker 1: Omas I mentioned him earlier. Omas. They sent him to
Speaker 1: Japan to work for Pro Wrestling Noah. He became one
Speaker 1: half of the GHC Tag Team Champions. He was booked
Speaker 1: like a monster. He destroyed everybody he worked with, only
Speaker 1: for WWE to call him back before he had the
Speaker 1: chance to drop the titles. So what happened? They had
Speaker 1: to be vacated and what was so urgent that WWE
Speaker 1: needed him back? They have not used him since. I mean,
Speaker 1: by all accounts, he was enjoying his time there. I
Speaker 1: don't think it was a case where he was dying
Speaker 1: to come back, and if it was so, what they
Speaker 1: would have had him drop the belts on the way out.
Speaker 1: But again WWE, they don't care. They don't give a
Speaker 1: shit Noah. Noah is not going to say anything because
Speaker 1: they're just happy that they could have any kind of
Speaker 1: working relationship with WWE. Ricky Starks the day after the
Speaker 1: news broke that he finally got his aw release, he
Speaker 1: showed up on NXT television. This was just after he
Speaker 1: had won the DeFi Wrestling title. He ended kent To's
Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty six day reign as the DeFi Champion.
Speaker 1: Three weeks later, the title had to be vacated because
Speaker 1: WWE would not let him drop it. Now here we
Speaker 1: have Jeff Cobb having to vacate the IWGP Tech Team title.
Speaker 1: If Cobb was working without a contract, or even if
Speaker 1: he was and it was about to expire with all
Speaker 1: the talk about him possibly leaving, then it was very
Speaker 1: stupid of New Japan to put a title on him
Speaker 1: in the first place. They kind of set themselves up
Speaker 1: for that. But again, it just illustrates how little regard
Speaker 1: WWE has for other promotions. You know, when it comes
Speaker 1: to this stuff, when it comes to doing quote unquote business,
Speaker 1: the only business they care about is their own and
Speaker 1: how it affects them. And I think it's very important
Speaker 1: when you hear about these stories or even the Triple
Speaker 1: A stuff, and we don't know how that's all going
Speaker 1: to work out or what their plans are, but I
Speaker 1: think it's very it's very important to look at that
Speaker 1: from that perspective. How can this benefit WWE. That is
Speaker 1: the number one priority that they have, and they should be.
Speaker 1: They should be concerned about how this is going to
Speaker 1: benefit their own company, But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that's really all they care about. Now, let's talk about
Speaker 1: some AW here, because there are some AW news and
Speaker 1: notes I need to get to. It looks like a
Speaker 1: former AW Women's World Champion may soon be leaving the
Speaker 1: company and headed to WWE, as in Mariah May Dave
Speaker 1: Meltzer and Brian Alvarez first reported this week that Mariah,
Speaker 1: who has not worked a match since forre loss to
Speaker 1: Tony Storm at Revolution, wants to go to WWE, and
Speaker 1: the belief is that her contract is up sometimes this summer.
Speaker 1: Alvarez said he's of the impression that she signed a
Speaker 1: two year deal and that even within AW the belief
Speaker 1: is that she is headed to WWE as soon as
Speaker 1: she becomes available. For his part, Mike Johnson on PW
Speaker 1: insiders said that Mariah still has significant time left on
Speaker 1: her deal, with one source believing her deal could run
Speaker 1: through November of this year, while another believe there may
Speaker 1: be additional time beyond that. And he also noted that
Speaker 1: there was a rumor making the round within days of
Speaker 1: her program with Tony Storm, ending that she had requested
Speaker 1: her release from her AW deal, but he just wasn't
Speaker 1: able to confirm the accuracy of that rumor, so he
Speaker 1: didn't run with it, and she obviously hasn't gotten her
Speaker 1: release yet even if she did ask for it. Then
Speaker 1: there's Fightful Select, which had a report saying that even
Speaker 1: though Mariah did not make her AW debut until November
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, she was actually signed in August
Speaker 1: of that year, and it was indeed a two year deal,
Speaker 1: which means she could potentially be a free agent in
Speaker 1: less than four months unless they either reach a new
Speaker 1: deal or they extend her I guess like an option
Speaker 1: year because she hasn't missed any time due to injury
Speaker 1: that I'm aware of, so they couldn't tack on any
Speaker 1: injury time. You know, usually you hear about three year deals,
Speaker 1: five year deals with AW or even WWE. I mentioned
Speaker 1: before Cmpunk said that they want to sign him to
Speaker 1: a five year contract. I wonder if Mariah asked for
Speaker 1: a two year deal on purpose for this very reason.
Speaker 1: You know, she grew up a wrestling fan. She grew
Speaker 1: up a WWE fan. You know, back then there was
Speaker 1: no AAW and this is one of the competitive advantages
Speaker 1: that WWE has over aw just their mere existence. You know,
Speaker 1: for so long, you have a lot of guys and
Speaker 1: girls who grew up wanting to be a superstar in WWE.
Speaker 1: What do you want to do when you grow up.
Speaker 1: I want to be a WWE superstar because that's what
Speaker 1: they watched on TV and they want to be at WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: There's a photo of Mariah in the parking lot outside
Speaker 1: WrestleMania when the show came to Dallas, the year that
Speaker 1: Steve Austin came out of retirement to wrestle Kevin Owens.
Speaker 1: She was there. That was the year before she signed
Speaker 1: with AAW. And if it's her dream to work for WWE,
Speaker 1: and look, she'd knows she's gonna get paid either way,
Speaker 1: then it may not matter what Tony Kan offers her.
Speaker 1: If her heart is set on going there, then that's
Speaker 1: where she's going to go. It doesn't mean that Tony shouldn't,
Speaker 1: you know, she just lay down and let her go
Speaker 1: without making an offer and give her a nice pay
Speaker 1: raise or something. But you know, money is not the
Speaker 1: end all be all for some people. Look at Jade Cargill,
Speaker 1: Tony wanted to keep her. They were negotiating, and she
Speaker 1: wanted a bigger offer. So what did he do. He
Speaker 1: increased his offer. He actually came up to a number
Speaker 1: that was higher than what she originally asked for, and
Speaker 1: she still left and went to WWE. There's only so
Speaker 1: much you can do. I'm sure Tony is going to
Speaker 1: make her a great offer to keep her if he
Speaker 1: hasn't already. But if she wants to, then she's going
Speaker 1: to leave now. There's also the possibility that she's really,
Speaker 1: really smart and she's using this to leverage a better
Speaker 1: deal and she ends up staying in aw That's also possible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's only twenty six years old. It's not like she
Speaker 1: isn't going to end up in WWE at some point.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be right now. But the fact
Speaker 1: that she hasn't been featured on TV at all in
Speaker 1: six weeks. Since she wasn't included in the owen Hart Tournament,
Speaker 1: which she won last year, that should have been a
Speaker 1: sign that something was going on. You know, Tony has
Speaker 1: demonstrated that when someone wants out or he thinks they
Speaker 1: want to go to WWE, he will not hesitate to
Speaker 1: pull them off television and bench them until their contract
Speaker 1: is up. He did it with Ricky Starks, he did
Speaker 1: it with Penta, he did it with Ray Phoenix, and
Speaker 1: they all ended up in WWE. If he loses her,
Speaker 1: that is a big loss for that AW women's division
Speaker 1: because Mariah is I think she's fantastic. She's not afraid
Speaker 1: to get down and dirty in the ring. I mean
Speaker 1: this woman taped her fits then dipped it in glass
Speaker 1: in her last match. Okay, she can do that stuff.
Speaker 1: She's not afraid to get hardcore. But she's also just
Speaker 1: a really good wrestler. She's got incredible sex appeal, she's
Speaker 1: got incredible charisma, she's a great heel. I mean, this
Speaker 1: woman slapped her own mother across the face at Wembley
Speaker 1: last year. She's part of one of the best storylines
Speaker 1: in AW history with Tony Storm. They played that out
Speaker 1: for months before that savage attack on Tony one of
Speaker 1: the best dynamite endings you'll ever see. If I'm surprised
Speaker 1: about anything, it's that her friend Mina Mina Shirakawa, she
Speaker 1: just announced that she's leaving New Japan or New Japan.
Speaker 1: She's leaving Japan to sign with AW, and now Mariah
Speaker 1: may be leaving, so they'll be like two ships passing
Speaker 1: in the night. But if Mariah does go to WWE,
Speaker 1: she'll do very well and it'll be a blow to AW.
Speaker 1: But it's not as if they don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of other talent in that division, with Tony Storm and
Speaker 1: Mercedes and Athena and Chris Statlander and Jamie Hayter and
Speaker 1: Willow Nightingale, Megan Bain, Billy Starks. She's a star on
Speaker 1: the rise, Harley Cameron. I'd say Deanna Pirazzo, but they
Speaker 1: barely use her, So I mean they're gonna be fine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But Mariah is the kind of talent that you could
Speaker 1: build around in that division. There is something to be
Speaker 1: said for too much too soon, you know. Less than
Speaker 1: a year after she debuted, she won the world title,
Speaker 1: not even the TBS title, the world title, and she
Speaker 1: had the great story with Tony. After that, it's like
Speaker 1: where is there to go? Really, everything else just feels
Speaker 1: like a lateral move. Megan Bain is another example, only
Speaker 1: you know Meghan Baine didn't win the title, but she
Speaker 1: got a shot at Tony pretty damn quick. So if
Speaker 1: there's a story that makes sense, then I say do it.
Speaker 1: But I do think it will give Tony Khan pause
Speaker 1: the next time somebody comes in how quickly they get
Speaker 1: pushed to the top, for fear that if you give
Speaker 1: them everything, they may feel like they have nothing left
Speaker 1: to really achieve. A this week announced its first ever
Speaker 1: show in Mexico, So then, of course WWE goes and
Speaker 1: buys a Mexican promotion. You can't make this shit up.
Speaker 1: You just can't make this shit up. But they announced
Speaker 1: their first show in Mexico, and where it is taking
Speaker 1: places I think is actually very cool. They're going to
Speaker 1: be running a live episode of Dynamite from Arena Mexico,
Speaker 1: which is owned by CMLL and is one of the
Speaker 1: more legendary wrestling venues in the world. No US promotion
Speaker 1: has ever run a show like this at Arena Mexico before.
Speaker 1: CMLL has rented the building out to other promotions in
Speaker 1: the past, but for a US company, this is a first.
Speaker 1: It'll be AW Grand Slam Mexico on Wednesday, June eighteenth.
Speaker 1: Tickets go on sale April twenty sixth. They're not running
Speaker 1: any pay per views in June. It was the same
Speaker 1: thing in February. They ran Grand Slam Australia instead, and
Speaker 1: so this time it's Grand Slam Mexico. And I am
Speaker 1: sure it will include talent from CMLL because on the
Speaker 1: poster they show me Mystico and Masacadrata. They also show
Speaker 1: Hologram Commander, Kenny Omega and will Osprey. They also confirmed
Speaker 1: the location for this year's Forbidden Door pay per view
Speaker 1: on Sunday, August twenty fourth. We already had the date,
Speaker 1: so we knew the show was taking place on the
Speaker 1: twenty fourth in London, we just didn't know where it
Speaker 1: will be. Emanating from the Two Arena featuring talent from
Speaker 1: AW New Japan and CMLL and the O two was expected,
Speaker 1: but apparently because WWE already had a contract with the
Speaker 1: arena for shows last month that was during its European tour.
Speaker 1: In the contract, it stipulated that no other wrestling promotion
Speaker 1: could announce a date in the building for two weeks
Speaker 1: after their last show, so AW wasn't allowed to make
Speaker 1: any announcement until this week. But with that we also
Speaker 1: got some terrible what I think is terrible news. AW
Speaker 1: is running back to back weeks with a four hour
Speaker 1: block of programming Kill me now. Actually, they already announced
Speaker 1: the first four hour block two weeks ago, but I
Speaker 1: missed it. But when they announced the second one this week,
Speaker 1: I noticed that there was another one schedule for the
Speaker 1: week before. So on Wednesday, June fourth, they're going to
Speaker 1: be airing four straight hours I assume on TBS, basically
Speaker 1: with Dynamite and Collision back to back from Denver, Colorado.
Speaker 1: That will be their fighter Fest special, which would be
Speaker 1: the first one they've done in two years. Again, they
Speaker 1: have no pay per view in June, so we're getting
Speaker 1: fighter Fest and then we have Grand Slam Mexico two
Speaker 1: weeks later. But in between those two, on Wednesday, June eleventh,
Speaker 1: is another four hour block of television just announced. They're
Speaker 1: calling it Summer Blockbuster from Portland, Oregon, so another back
Speaker 1: to back Dynamite and Collision in the same night. The
Speaker 1: reason for this is that Collision is not going to
Speaker 1: be airing on a Saturday from May twenty fourth to
Speaker 1: June twenty first. I assume it has to do with
Speaker 1: sports programming airing on TNT. They've got the NBA and
Speaker 1: the NHL Playoffs coming up. Whatever the reason, they're experimenting,
Speaker 1: and I don't like this experiment. I don't like this
Speaker 1: one bit. You know what I did like, though, I
Speaker 1: actually really liked Dynamite. On Wednesday night, they had their
Speaker 1: Dynamite Spring Breakthrough show, which was one of the best
Speaker 1: episodes of aw television that they have ever produced. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just the best Dynamite of the year, it is
Speaker 1: one of the best episodes of Dynamite that they have
Speaker 1: ever done. And it emanated from the MGM Music Hall
Speaker 1: at Fenway in Boston, which was a very cool, very
Speaker 1: intimate venue. We have new Trios champions, the Death Riders
Speaker 1: have been dethroned and in the place of Hook, who
Speaker 1: was not medically cleared. And the last we saw Hook,
Speaker 1: he was in the main event the week before vomiting
Speaker 1: in the middle of the ring. So whether it was
Speaker 1: a concussion or something else, he was not medically cleared
Speaker 1: for a reason, and so in his place, teaming with
Speaker 1: Samoa Joe and Katiori Shabata was Powerhouse Hobbs, who is
Speaker 1: now I guess he's the newest member of the Ops
Speaker 1: because he is now one third of the Trioch champions.
Speaker 1: And they did this finish in a way. It was
Speaker 1: very much and I said this in the review on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: it was very much patterned after Lex Luger beating Hollywood
Speaker 1: Hogan on the one hundredth episode of Nitro. This this,
Speaker 1: by the way, was a milestone episode for them, just
Speaker 1: like Nitro was that night. This was the two hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty ninth episode of Dynamite, which officially surpassed WCW
Speaker 1: Monday Nitro's two hundred and eighty eight episodes. But on
Speaker 1: that one hundredth episode of Nitro back in ninety seven,
Speaker 1: Luger submitted Hogan with the torture rack and won the championship.
Speaker 1: It's one of the all time great moments on Nitro.
Speaker 1: And I mean the place just erupted. I think they
Speaker 1: were in Detroit. The Roster came out to celebrate with him,
Speaker 1: and finally someone had gotten one over on the nWo,
Speaker 1: even though we all knew the direction was still Hogan
Speaker 1: against Sting, So a lot of people probably weren't expecting
Speaker 1: there to be a title change on that show, but
Speaker 1: it was just this great celebratory moment, right and like
Speaker 1: here we know the ultimate direction here is not Samoa,
Speaker 1: Joe and John Moxley in Texas at all. In but
Speaker 1: you could absolutely do that match a double or nothing.
Speaker 1: You could do that match on TV between now and
Speaker 1: then with Joe as sort of a lame duck challenger.
Speaker 1: That's what it felt like to me. When the show
Speaker 1: was over, and then on Collision the next night they
Speaker 1: had a live Thursday Collision in the same venue, Moxley
Speaker 1: challenged Joe to a match. The champion issued the challenge
Speaker 1: to the challenger, which at least here makes sense since
Speaker 1: Moxley is pissed off and embarrassed that he got Not
Speaker 1: only did he get beaten by this man, he got submitted.
Speaker 1: Joe put him to sleep. That's how they won the
Speaker 1: trios titles. So now he wants to get Joe back
Speaker 1: in the ring, and he said he would even put
Speaker 1: the a to be a world title on the line.
Speaker 1: So when this match happens, it will only be the
Speaker 1: second match these two have ever had. The only other
Speaker 1: match they had was on Raw back in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: and that was a match that Joe won. There's so
Speaker 1: much time though, between now and double or nothing. I
Speaker 1: could see this being a television match and then Moxley
Speaker 1: ends up being a part of anarchy in the arena
Speaker 1: at the pay per view instead, and maybe Joe too.
Speaker 1: Maybe Joe will be on the baby Face team. But
Speaker 1: they're definitely having a championship match. We just don't have
Speaker 1: a date on that yet. But the way they structured
Speaker 1: that main event and everything, it was very well done.
Speaker 1: And they had the roster just like Nitro in ninety seven.
Speaker 1: They had members of the roster come out and they
Speaker 1: were popping bottles and celebrating, and Joe did a promo
Speaker 1: when the show went off the air, and so it
Speaker 1: was this great moment for the people in the venue.
Speaker 1: If they wanted to turn hook Heel right, because I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about Hook now and we don't know when Hook
Speaker 1: is going to be back. He could be back this week.
Speaker 1: If they wanted to turn Hook Heel out of this
Speaker 1: him being the one to Joe after feeling betrayed by
Speaker 1: Hobbs taking his spot, that could be one way to
Speaker 1: go or hook could just simply come back and now
Speaker 1: they have four members of the Ops instead of three.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying if they wanted to turn him
Speaker 1: heel out of this, that would be, I think, the
Speaker 1: way to do it. They also had a bunch of
Speaker 1: owen Hart Foundation Tournament matches and we had for the
Speaker 1: very first time Mercedes Monette and Athena one on one,
Speaker 1: and they had an excellent match. I did not realize
Speaker 1: until later. I didn't mention it during the review because
Speaker 1: I just didn't realize it that they took that finish,
Speaker 1: that roll up finish that they did right out of
Speaker 1: the match where owen Hart pinned the Rock to win
Speaker 1: his first Intercontinental title, or at least it wasn't exact,
Speaker 1: but it was a very similar finish, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that wasn't unintentional given this as the owen Hart Tournament,
Speaker 1: So that was very cool. But this is one of
Speaker 1: the best matches Mercedes has had yet in AW. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I would rank it above her last
Speaker 1: match with Chris Statlin, but it's up there as one
Speaker 1: of the best matches that she's had, so even in
Speaker 1: their first match where you know, they weren't given everything away.
Speaker 1: They still went out there and had a great match,
Speaker 1: which is why I hope they turned this into a
Speaker 1: series with at least one more match, if not two
Speaker 1: more matches, because I know they got even better matches
Speaker 1: in them. I know there's a story there to tell. Instead,
Speaker 1: when the match was over, they were teasing that Mercedes
Speaker 1: would be wrestling Tony Storm. Tony Storm was up in
Speaker 1: the crowd. They were looking at each other, very heavily
Speaker 1: teasing that match. Because the winner of this tournament will
Speaker 1: challenge Tony for the title in Texas. Tony for the
Speaker 1: title in Texas. That's a lot of teas. But that's
Speaker 1: what they're going to be doing at all in and
Speaker 1: they may have teased it, but I'm still hopeful that's
Speaker 1: not what they're going to do. I just don't think
Speaker 1: that's the right move to make. I think the right
Speaker 1: move to make would be to run things back with
Speaker 1: Mercedes and Athena, and you could save Tony for someone else,
Speaker 1: like a Jamie Hayter. I would have Jamie Hater win
Speaker 1: this tournament and set that matchup for Texas, and there's
Speaker 1: history there between those two. Maybe Athena gets involved in
Speaker 1: the finals and cost Mercedes the Cup. I mean, it's possible.
Speaker 1: I didn't really catch it right away, Mercedes grabbing her
Speaker 1: tights on the roll up at the end of their match.
Speaker 1: It almost looked like she was just grabbing her ass.
Speaker 1: To me, I didn't necessarily look at it as oh,
Speaker 1: she's got the tights, because when the match was over,
Speaker 1: the announcers didn't even mention it. They didn't even really
Speaker 1: focus on it, like she cheated or anything. They just
Speaker 1: quickly pivoted to Tony Storm in the crowd, and they
Speaker 1: really didn't say anything about it. But I mean, I
Speaker 1: suppose Athena could have an issue with how that all
Speaker 1: went down and could end up getting involved. We had
Speaker 1: will Ospray and Knoski Takeshta on the men's side of things,
Speaker 1: and they absolutely tore the house down. They found a
Speaker 1: way somehow to top their match from Revolution last year,
Speaker 1: which was one of the best matches all year. These
Speaker 1: two went out there, they just fucking killed it. It
Speaker 1: was great Osprey advance as he goes to the finals.
Speaker 1: We had the debut of Josh Alexander. He was the
Speaker 1: wild card against Hangman Adam Page. He lost, even though
Speaker 1: it was his first match. But what I do like
Speaker 1: is that he joined the don Kallis family, and I
Speaker 1: just think that's gonna be a good move for him.
Speaker 1: Ospray against Hangman in the finals, I think that's the
Speaker 1: way it's shaping up. I could see Hangman being involved
Speaker 1: in anarchy in the arena though at double or Nothing,
Speaker 1: and they run back Ospray and Fletcher on that show
Speaker 1: instead in the finals one more time. But what good
Speaker 1: would it do for Fletcher to just go out there
Speaker 1: and lose again to Ospray. Also with Ospray against Hangman,
Speaker 1: you have the drama of not being sure who's winning,
Speaker 1: because I could plausibly see either man challenging for the
Speaker 1: title in Texas. I still think it's going to be
Speaker 1: well Ospray, but you can make an argument that Hangman
Speaker 1: wins and the Cowboy rolls into Texas to challenge for
Speaker 1: the championship and try to be the savior of the
Speaker 1: entire company. It could go either way. Spray wins though,
Speaker 1: and we get Swerve and Hangman in a tag team
Speaker 1: against the Young Bucks. But there's just more drama and
Speaker 1: unpredictability if it's Ospray against Hangman than there is if
Speaker 1: we get Ospray against Fletcher again and the Hurt Syndicate.
Speaker 1: They had a tag team title defense on the show
Speaker 1: against the Gates of Agony. We had a segment with
Speaker 1: them in MJF who continues to court them and is
Speaker 1: trying to become a member of the Hurt Syndicate. Is
Speaker 1: this leading to a Pinnacle reunion or actually somebody suggested
Speaker 1: a Dynasty reunion from the MLW days with Richard Holiday
Speaker 1: and Alexander Hammerstone. The thing is Hammerstone recently returned to MLW,
Speaker 1: so I'm not sure how likely that is. His contract
Speaker 1: with TNA ended a couple of months ago, he went
Speaker 1: right back to MLW. I mean, I guess that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he's signed there. He could be on a per
Speaker 1: appearance deal. But ultimately, I don't know where this is going.
Speaker 1: It feels to me like MJF is going to end
Speaker 1: up with his own group to go up against the
Speaker 1: Hurt Syndicate. It's been an interesting story. I don't know
Speaker 1: where it's going, but I like the element that Bobby
Speaker 1: Lashley just doesn't trust this guy at all, and it's
Speaker 1: MVPUS trying to talk him into it. Like, look, look,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, but if there's anything amiss, then
Speaker 1: we'll put a beating on him. And so Lashley now
Speaker 1: is starting to warm up to it. But that's what happens, right,
Speaker 1: He starts to warm up to it, and that's when
Speaker 1: he gets fucked over, and then we end up with
Speaker 1: whatever the feud is going to be. But from from
Speaker 1: top to bottom again, this was an excellent episode of Dynamite.
Speaker 1: It was better than any of the WWETV shows this week.
Speaker 1: Dynamite was a clear and easy number one. And if
Speaker 1: we get more Dynamites like that, if we can get
Speaker 1: shows like that on a more consistent basis, and if
Speaker 1: they're fortunate enough to end up in front of a
Speaker 1: crowd like the one we had on Wednesday, you know,
Speaker 1: people talk about restoring the feeling with Dynamite, that would
Speaker 1: go a long way towards restoring that feeling. I mean,
Speaker 1: not every week can be a Grand Slam Home, but
Speaker 1: I would like to see more shows like that because
Speaker 1: that show is fucking great. All right, So again, tonight
Speaker 1: is WrestleMania Night too, and I'm gonna be live on
Speaker 1: YouTube with the full recapt talking about the entire show
Speaker 1: and all the happenings and what goes down in the
Speaker 1: main event. I hope you'll be able to join me.
Speaker 1: We had a late night last night, but it was
Speaker 1: a fun night again. We had upwards of forty three
Speaker 1: hundred people at the peak. Hopefully we can top that tonight.
Speaker 1: I will be back with you live tomorrow night as
Speaker 1: well for the Raw post show, the Big Raw after WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: and for Dynamite on Wednesday. There will be no SmackDown
Speaker 1: review this Friday. More importantly, there will be no podcast
Speaker 1: next Sunday, so expect to get a new podcast episode
Speaker 1: nine to eleven in two weeks because I will be
Speaker 1: away in Chicago next weekend. If anything changes on that front,
Speaker 1: I will be sure to let you guys know on
Speaker 1: X what I'm gonna do right now is I'm going
Speaker 1: to include my WrestleMania nine documentary review, which went up
Speaker 1: on YouTube several days ago, but I wanted to include
Speaker 1: it here as well. I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: wanted to know my thoughts on the documentary. They enjoyed
Speaker 1: the documentary. I did two but I did have a
Speaker 1: lot to say about it, and so right now We're
Speaker 1: gonna end this week's show with my full review. The
Speaker 1: making of WrestleMania nine and I will see you live
Speaker 1: tonight on YouTube for Night two of the WrestleMania Review.
Speaker 1: When I heard that WWE was releasing a documentary on
Speaker 1: WrestleMania nine, I geeked out because this is the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff that speaks to me. This is the kind
Speaker 1: of thing I wanted out of the WWE network when
Speaker 1: it launched. A lot of people call WrestleMania nine the
Speaker 1: worst or one of the worst of all time. Eleven
Speaker 1: is the worst, twenty seven was bad, twenty nine was
Speaker 1: abysmal outside of the Undertaker see on punk match nine
Speaker 1: is among the worst, for sure, but I can't call
Speaker 1: it the worst. It's got a certain charm to it,
Speaker 1: even though most of the match is sucked. It didn't
Speaker 1: feel like a WrestleMania, but it's got its own unique
Speaker 1: identity that no other WrestleMania has outside of I guess
Speaker 1: the empty Arena one they were forced to do for
Speaker 1: thirty six, Peacock dropped a nearly two hour documentary called
Speaker 1: WrestleMania nine Becoming a Spectacle, and I really enjoyed it
Speaker 1: for all of the unseen footage, mostly, you know, more
Speaker 1: than anything else. We even got a shot of a
Speaker 1: young Nick Kahn, who now runs the entire company. He
Speaker 1: was working for Caesars as an usher for the show,
Speaker 1: and I know he's talked about it before, but I've
Speaker 1: never actually seen a freeze frame of him working the show.
Speaker 1: But there he was. They had a camera following people
Speaker 1: around in the days leading up to the show as
Speaker 1: they constructed a small arena. Really is what they did
Speaker 1: in the parking lot of Caesar's Palace. That's where they
Speaker 1: did WrestleMania nine in the parking lot. And these thirty
Speaker 1: tapes have been sitting in their vault since nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: a vault that has over five hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: thousand hours of footage. Like, my god, the fun I
Speaker 1: could have spending a week in that vault just going
Speaker 1: through just random tapes. But the real stars of the
Speaker 1: show aren't even the talent so much. It's all of
Speaker 1: the crew and the production members responsible for putting on
Speaker 1: the show. These are sort of the unsung heroes of
Speaker 1: WWE who don't get the credit. Like literally, they didn't
Speaker 1: even get any on screen credits back then, the way
Speaker 1: Paul Levec and leaf Fitting do now. At the end
Speaker 1: of every raw and smackdout episode. They're the ones who
Speaker 1: made everything happen and brought that show to life, and
Speaker 1: we get the chance to hear from them and see
Speaker 1: them in action and in the planning stages of the show,
Speaker 1: which is fascinating to watch. I also love that George
Speaker 1: and Adam still work for WWE after all these years.
Speaker 1: If you were watching WWE television in the I'd say
Speaker 1: mid nineties, George and Adam were the two like obsessed
Speaker 1: WWE super fans that they would show. Sometimes they would
Speaker 1: feature them in commercials. I think they even presented at
Speaker 1: the the Slammy Awards Once. They weren't paid actors, they
Speaker 1: actually worked for the company. It was either on the
Speaker 1: production end or their home video department. I know Adam
Speaker 1: at one point was responsible for some of the promo
Speaker 1: packages that we would see because Shawn Michaels thanked him
Speaker 1: by name once for always making him look good. George
Speaker 1: Germanacos and Adam Panucci. George is featured in this documentary
Speaker 1: right from the get go. He's the one playing the tapes.
Speaker 1: He's the one sitting in the archives playing the tapes
Speaker 1: for us and giving us a little intro before each
Speaker 1: one to let us know what we're about to see.
Speaker 1: He works in the archives for WWE. He's got the
Speaker 1: best job. Adam Panucci is not featured in this documentary,
Speaker 1: but when I saw George, I immediately thought of Adam,
Speaker 1: who is currently their head of global production. You know,
Speaker 1: ninety three is an interesting time. Business was in the
Speaker 1: shitter really for both companies that year, WWEN, WCW It
Speaker 1: was really ninety two and ninety three. But there was
Speaker 1: a lot of good stuff from those years. You know,
Speaker 1: even in WCD, Vader as the champion. His matches would Sting.
Speaker 1: They had that great War Games match of Wrestle War
Speaker 1: with Sting Squadron against the Dangerous Alliance, which I still
Speaker 1: say is the greatest War Games match of all time.
Speaker 1: Rick Rude, after he left WWE, had a really good
Speaker 1: run there, and then you look at WWE. You know,
Speaker 1: ninety two is Rick Flair's first full year, really his
Speaker 1: only full year. During that initial run, we got the
Speaker 1: greatest Royal Rumble of all time. I really liked WrestleMania eight.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite manias. He had SummerSlam at
Speaker 1: Wembley Stadium, eighty thousand fans. They couldn't do that kind
Speaker 1: of business in the States, but they were still very
Speaker 1: popular overseas. You know, the buildings were not full during
Speaker 1: that period. It was the land of a thousand gimmicks.
Speaker 1: Everybody had to have a gimmick, and it felt like
Speaker 1: they were in a period of transition, especially from ninety
Speaker 1: two into ninety three, and a lot of that was
Speaker 1: out of necessity. You know, Vince McMahon had the federal
Speaker 1: government breathing down his neck. The steroid stuff. A lot
Speaker 1: of those giant physiques magically started to shrink or people
Speaker 1: just disappeared altogether. The era of Hulkamania was over. It
Speaker 1: felt like it was over, and they were ushering in
Speaker 1: a new era with guys like Bret Hart and Sean Michaels,
Speaker 1: and they brought in Raised Ramone into Tanka. It just
Speaker 1: felt different. And that's the thing about this documentary. It
Speaker 1: feels like they're stuck between these two eras and they're
Speaker 1: not quite sure yet what they want to be. Because
Speaker 1: for all the new faces, by the time WrestleMania is over,
Speaker 1: they're back to the oldest face of all and it
Speaker 1: feels like they're taking a step backwards. When they were
Speaker 1: trying to move forward, But there are times watching this
Speaker 1: where they go way over the top talking about the
Speaker 1: significance of WrestleMania nine. You know how without WrestleMania nine,
Speaker 1: Mania as it is today doesn't exist, which is completely laughable.
Speaker 1: If WrestleMania and nine never happened, WrestleMania exists today exactly
Speaker 1: the way that it does, with all the bells and
Speaker 1: whistles and pageantry and everything that comes with it. What
Speaker 1: it was was the first WrestleMania they did that had
Speaker 1: a specific theme. You know. They billed it as the
Speaker 1: world's largest toga party. So they created this venue and
Speaker 1: they kind of did it up like something out of
Speaker 1: ancient Roman times. They had Caesar and Cleopatra. They had elephants,
Speaker 1: and they had vultures and all kinds of animals. It
Speaker 1: was the first WrestleMania with a custom set. That is true.
Speaker 1: A lot of the WrestleManias that came before it had
Speaker 1: much bigger crowds because they hosted it in much larger
Speaker 1: venues in WrestleMania three, WrestleMania six, WrestleMania eight, even the
Speaker 1: year before. But for the most part, they all looked
Speaker 1: the same. I mean, the ones from Trump Plaza. They
Speaker 1: had a different look to them because that was a
Speaker 1: very unique venue, But a lot of the other WrestleMania
Speaker 1: is they all just looked the same. WrestleMania eight the
Speaker 1: year before, had sixty thousand people in the Hoosier Dome,
Speaker 1: even though it was it was he papered. I mean,
Speaker 1: a lot of those sixty thousand didn't pay to get in,
Speaker 1: a lot of freebies given out. But as for the
Speaker 1: look in the feel of the show, it was very bland.
Speaker 1: You know, this was something unique that they created from scratch,
Speaker 1: and you could tell they had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: making it. Vince McMahon has featured a good amount not
Speaker 1: new footage obviously, but just you can't avoid it, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't really do a documentary like this and show
Speaker 1: all this old footage without using the footage with him
Speaker 1: in it. He was obviously intimately involved in the planning
Speaker 1: of the show, but I do wonder if not having
Speaker 1: access to him today played a part in how little
Speaker 1: time they spent on What I was looking forward to
Speaker 1: the most and what I thought would be the most
Speaker 1: interesting part of the entire documentary, which was the decision
Speaker 1: to go with Hulk Hogan at the very end, getting
Speaker 1: the surprise win over Yoko Zuna and transitioning the title
Speaker 1: over from Brett Hart to Yoko to Hulk. They covered it,
Speaker 1: they didn't avoid it. I mean they covered it, but
Speaker 1: they avoided any real discussion about what went into the decision.
Speaker 1: You know, ultimately it was Vince McMahon's decision. You know,
Speaker 1: Brett has said certain promises were made to him and
Speaker 1: he was backstabbed. You know, that's his story. Hogan has
Speaker 1: his version of events, which it's Hogan. So right off
Speaker 1: the bat, I've been conditioned to not believe anything the
Speaker 1: man says. Because they didn't have Vince sit down for this,
Speaker 1: we couldn't get his perspective on what went into the decision.
Speaker 1: Like of all the people, all the talking heads in
Speaker 1: this documentary, you've got Bruce Pritchard, and you've got Basil DeVito,
Speaker 1: and you've got all these people, these these current and
Speaker 1: former WWE executives and people directly involved in the planning
Speaker 1: of this show. And it was great that they were
Speaker 1: able to get their perspective. But the number one guy,
Speaker 1: you know, if he even remembers a lot of this stuff,
Speaker 1: I mean, who the hell knows he almost eighty years
Speaker 1: old now, but would have been Vince right, because this
Speaker 1: was Vince's show, and so he would have known why
Speaker 1: we did this and why we did that. Obviously, they
Speaker 1: were never going to get him sit down for an
Speaker 1: interview for this for obvious reasons. But we were missing
Speaker 1: that perspective, you know, as far as what went into
Speaker 1: that decision. How far back was the decision actually made.
Speaker 1: Was there ever really a plan in place to do
Speaker 1: Brett Hard against Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam in ninety three,
Speaker 1: Because there's been a lot of conflicting stories on that,
Speaker 1: you know, over the years. It was disappointing that they
Speaker 1: didn't dive deeper into that. Instead we get kind of
Speaker 1: like bits and pieces from different people to basically say
Speaker 1: it came down to business, which I'm sure it did.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, that's really
Speaker 1: what it comes down to. So, I mean we could
Speaker 1: kind of piece it together ourselves, you know. Was it
Speaker 1: simply a case of Evin's falling back on his tried
Speaker 1: and true to try to give the business a jolt?
Speaker 1: Was it Hogan playing politics to get the belt back
Speaker 1: or else he wouldn't work the show? You have undertaker
Speaker 1: in this saying there was a lot of politicking going
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes, but we don't get any further
Speaker 1: discussion about it. You know, is that something he was
Speaker 1: aware of or is that something he heard like, we
Speaker 1: don't know. The other thing focus a lot on is
Speaker 1: Hogan's black eye that he showed up sporting the day
Speaker 1: of the show, and how he got that black eye. Now,
Speaker 1: Hogan claims it was a jet ski accident, the urban
Speaker 1: legend has always been that he got punched in the
Speaker 1: face by the macho Man, Randy Savage. Savage and Hogan
Speaker 1: were not friendly during this time period. Savage's marriage to
Speaker 1: Elizabeth had fallen apart the year before, and he blamed
Speaker 1: Hogan and his wife for it. Yeah, because they would
Speaker 1: invite Liz to come stay with them when she wanted
Speaker 1: to get away from Randy, who was an insanely jealous husband.
Speaker 1: I don't know the inner workings of their marriage, but
Speaker 1: you hear enough stories and look, I love the macho man,
Speaker 1: but the guy was a lunatic. You know, he would
Speaker 1: lock her in the dressing room. It shows when he
Speaker 1: had to go do something to make sure that she
Speaker 1: couldn't leave. And none of the other wrestlers could talk
Speaker 1: to her like, this isn't normal behavior. There was nothing
Speaker 1: normal about Randy Savage. Whatever her reasons were, Liz would
Speaker 1: leave and she would go spend days at a time
Speaker 1: with Hulk and his wife, Linda, and wouldn't tell Randy,
Speaker 1: you know, where she was going, and he wouldn't know
Speaker 1: where she was. You take someone who's paranoid as it is,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it's enough to drive them even crazier.
Speaker 1: You know, Hogan told the story once and it's Hogan,
Speaker 1: so again, take it for what it's worth. But it
Speaker 1: would have been around the time of this show, maybe
Speaker 1: maybe a little before, and she went down to Miami
Speaker 1: with Hulk and his wife. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: were staying at a resort or where they were. Phoned
Speaker 1: Randy Liz did and told him to get a lawyer
Speaker 1: because she wanted a divorce, and he panicked and he
Speaker 1: flew to Miami to go find her. Only, as Hogan tells,
Speaker 1: at the hotel they were staying at, he had seen
Speaker 1: Liz go into her room earlier with another man, a producer,
Speaker 1: guy that Hogan was friends with. Savage shows up looking
Speaker 1: for her, and you can his reaction when he knocks
Speaker 1: on her door and the producer opens the door. Long
Speaker 1: story short, you can see why Savage would have blamed
Speaker 1: Hogan for manipulating his wife into thinking that she could
Speaker 1: do better and that she should leave Randy. Now, is
Speaker 1: it plausible that he would have punched Hogan in the eye. Sure, absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's plausible. The guy was fucking crazy and he didn't
Speaker 1: like Hogan. But I never really bought the story that
Speaker 1: Savage did it. Like, even if you believe that Savage
Speaker 1: did it, and Hogan maybe kept it a secret from
Speaker 1: Vince right and concocted the jet ski story not to
Speaker 1: get Randy in any trouble. You know, boys will be boys,
Speaker 1: don't be a snitch, that sort of thing. There's footage,
Speaker 1: and they didn't show it in the documentary. I thought
Speaker 1: they would, But there is footage of when Wrestlemannie and
Speaker 1: Nine went off the air that night of Savage climbing
Speaker 1: into the ring because he was at ringside doing commentary,
Speaker 1: and he climbs into the ring to raise Hogan's hand.
Speaker 1: And this was after the show went off the air.
Speaker 1: This is not something that aired on TV. This is
Speaker 1: you know, Vince, I want you to go in the
Speaker 1: ring and I want you to celebrate with This was
Speaker 1: Randy just going into the ring and he's raising Hogan's
Speaker 1: arm and he's celebrating with him. I just can't imagine
Speaker 1: Savage doing that. If he was so angry with Hogan
Speaker 1: that he would punch the guy in the face. I mean,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't want to be within ten feet of this guy.
Speaker 1: And if Vince did know what happened, he did know
Speaker 1: the real story. I can't imagine Hogan not telling Vince
Speaker 1: what he got to the venue. Hey, I'm not going
Speaker 1: out there. If he's out there now, I want him
Speaker 1: off commentary from my match. It's not like Hogan wouldn't
Speaker 1: have had the stroke to make it happen. I mean.
Speaker 1: In the documentary, Scott Steiner is one of the people
Speaker 1: interviewed because he wrestled on the show, and Scott Steiner said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't see it myself, so I can't
Speaker 1: say for sure, but he claimed Randy told him that
Speaker 1: he did it. He punched Hogan, he got Matt Bourne
Speaker 1: Joink the Clown, has said that Randy did it, but
Speaker 1: Matt Bourne also said that Doink was going to be
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan's original opponent for WrestleMania nine, so Matt Bourne
Speaker 1: may not be the most reliable source on this. Somebody
Speaker 1: asked Eric Bischoff the other day on Twitter about the story, though,
Speaker 1: the whole jetski story, and Bischoff said that it was
Speaker 1: definitely a jet ski accident because he was negotiating with
Speaker 1: Hogan at the time when it happened, and that he
Speaker 1: heard immediate first hand accounts from people who were involved. Now,
Speaker 1: no one is more in love with Hulk Hogan than
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan himself, but a close number two would be
Speaker 1: Eric Bischoff. Bischoff, on his own podcast two years ago
Speaker 1: said that he first became executive producer for WCW in
Speaker 1: either February or March of ninety three, okay, just before
Speaker 1: WrestleMania nine. And he said, and this was two years ago.
Speaker 1: He said that it wasn't until ninety four that he
Speaker 1: started talking to Hulk Hogan. Now he claims he was
Speaker 1: negotiating with Hogan in ninety three, right before wrestle Mania.
Speaker 1: I don't believe him. I don't believe that man. That
Speaker 1: timeline makes no sense. What do I think happened? I mean,
Speaker 1: hell if I know. I mean, I've never been in
Speaker 1: the camp of Oh Savage definitely punched him. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's a myth that's taken on a life of
Speaker 1: its own over the years. Hogan did claim that his
Speaker 1: eye was so bad he would never be cleared by
Speaker 1: the doctor to wrestle because Nevada was a commission state.
Speaker 1: So he lied to the doctor that day by telling
Speaker 1: him that Savage had punched him as part of a
Speaker 1: storyline that they were starting, and that it was all
Speaker 1: just makeup, and the doctor rolled with it and he
Speaker 1: signed off on the physical, so Holpe was able to
Speaker 1: wrestle that night. I wonder if it's a case where
Speaker 1: he really did tell that story to the doctor and
Speaker 1: maybe some other people, and over time it just became
Speaker 1: accepted as you know, Savage punched him for real. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know, and we're never gonna know.
Speaker 1: None of the people involved in this, trustworthy Savage himself
Speaker 1: obviously is dead. You're not gonna get Vince to talk
Speaker 1: about this, right, they weren't gonna interview him, so and
Speaker 1: everybody else involved here. Again, I don't trust the word
Speaker 1: out of their mouth, but I would like to believe
Speaker 1: that Randy Savage really did haul off and punch him
Speaker 1: in the face. I like that story better than the
Speaker 1: jet ski accident. Like even the way Hogan describes the
Speaker 1: accident here in this documentary, it just sounds so phony,
Speaker 1: like he pushed the wrong button and he got thrown
Speaker 1: over the jet ski and then it came down and
Speaker 1: hit him in the eye. Like he'd be fucking dead
Speaker 1: if that happened. Okay, he was knocked out, he was
Speaker 1: floating unconscious in the water. But when he came to,
Speaker 1: he told Jimmy Hart, I'm not missing WrestleMania, brother, because
Speaker 1: he's from the old school, and you make your towns,
Speaker 1: you don't miss your shots. Give me a break. One
Speaker 1: thing I liked that they did is when they interview
Speaker 1: these people. They interviewed a lot of stars in this,
Speaker 1: you know, most of whom were involved in the actual show,
Speaker 1: so Hogan, Brett Hart, Undertaker, Lex Luger, Shawn Michaels. They
Speaker 1: had an iPad and they would be showing them clips
Speaker 1: that they had never seen before and then getting them
Speaker 1: to comment on it. So that was cool. I like that,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of to see their reaction in real
Speaker 1: time to this stuff. They interviewed Colin Cowherd for this documentary.
Speaker 1: Like what the fuck? That was my reaction as soon
Speaker 1: as I saw him on screen. I'm like, why is
Speaker 1: this guy being interviewed for this? And then I see
Speaker 1: that he used to work as a sports director at
Speaker 1: a TV station in Las Vegas, So I guess there's
Speaker 1: the Vegas connection. That's why Colin Cowherd, the guy who
Speaker 1: once called all wrestling fans booger eating nerds on his show.
Speaker 1: You notice when WWE got back in bed with Fox
Speaker 1: a few years ago and he works for Fox, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden he changed his tune. You ever noticed
Speaker 1: that he became a big wrestling fan. It's funny how
Speaker 1: that works, isn't it. Anyway, he offered nothing of value
Speaker 1: in this documentary. We got to see floor plans for
Speaker 1: the show again. This is one of the cool elements
Speaker 1: to this. I lovec and stuff like that. Their goal
Speaker 1: was to do a million dollar gate, which they did
Speaker 1: with a top ticket price get this of two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars all the way down to twenty five bucks.
Speaker 1: They said it was very important to keep that twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars price point so that people still felt like
Speaker 1: they could attend the show. That's what's lost with WWE today. Like,
Speaker 1: for two hundred and fifty bucks, you might be able
Speaker 1: to get a seat up in the nosebleeds. And that's
Speaker 1: by the time they add all the taxes and fees.
Speaker 1: They have completely priced people out of going to their shows,
Speaker 1: especially if you have a family, if you have a kid,
Speaker 1: if you have two kids, I forget about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously some people can afford it. I mean people can
Speaker 1: afford it, But some people look at it and go,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spend my money on this. Like
Speaker 1: you just get to a point where it's like it's
Speaker 1: not even worth it. It's just very difficult. And they
Speaker 1: can get away with it because the product is hot
Speaker 1: and they can still sell those tickets. So long as
Speaker 1: people are willing to pay those prices, they have no
Speaker 1: incentive to change their strategy. Hey, people want to spend
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars for a shitty seat, then hey, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not going to stand in their way. But when
Speaker 1: I saw that top ticket price for this show, like
Speaker 1: it really drove home just how much things have changed.
Speaker 1: And after eight days of tickets being on sale, Basil
Speaker 1: DeVito sent a memo to Vince McMahon letting him know
Speaker 1: that they had only sold two thousand tickets and he said,
Speaker 1: not bad, but not great either, And that had a
Speaker 1: lot to do with why they went back to hul
Speaker 1: Cogan because Hogan was not advertised for this show. This
Speaker 1: was going to be the first WrestleMania without their biggest star.
Speaker 1: Last time we saw Hogan WrestleMania eight and he had
Speaker 1: to go away, and they didn't talk about why he
Speaker 1: had to go away. They talked about always making TV
Speaker 1: shows and movies and okay, sure, yeah, that's true, but
Speaker 1: they didn't really get into why he had to go away.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of heat on Hogan with the
Speaker 1: steroid stuff, and it was just a bad look, and
Speaker 1: it was agreed upon that it would be best for
Speaker 1: all involved, probably to just let things cool down a
Speaker 1: little bit. Hogan's gonna go off and do his own thing,
Speaker 1: which is what happened, and so he hadn't been seen for,
Speaker 1: you know, a very long time. They were off to
Speaker 1: a very slow start, and so what do you do
Speaker 1: in that situation, right, you go back to your tried
Speaker 1: and true. I loved all the footage of them setting
Speaker 1: up their little Roman colisseum. It's it's pretty wild to
Speaker 1: think that they were. There was a WrestleMania held in
Speaker 1: a parking lot, like the first Indie mud show. WrestleMania
Speaker 1: was WrestleMania nine. They talked about Brett Hart against Yoko
Speaker 1: Zoo being the WrestleMania main event and how they were
Speaker 1: unproven in that spot and there were concerns about that. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's why you go with Brett Hart defending against Randy Savage.
Speaker 1: Savage had just won the world title the previous WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: Now he's sitting at ringside doing commentary. Why not have
Speaker 1: Savage in there? He's been to the dance before. If
Speaker 1: you're worried about these guys being unproven in the main event,
Speaker 1: Savage has been to the main event a few times before.
Speaker 1: Have him put Brett over in a passing of the
Speaker 1: torch moment to give Brett some more credibility, right beating
Speaker 1: one of the big stars of the WrestleMania era, like
Speaker 1: it was right there. How do you not have Randy
Speaker 1: Savage in a match on this show main event or not? Like,
Speaker 1: how do you not have him in a match on
Speaker 1: this show? Especially when you're trying to sell tickets. But
Speaker 1: business is business, and the call was made to go
Speaker 1: back to Hogan. They had sixteen thousand seats to fill.
Speaker 1: Hogan was still a name and a name that had
Speaker 1: been gone for a while, so they can make money
Speaker 1: off the chright, the return of the Hulkster. The other
Speaker 1: side to that is that you have a roster of
Speaker 1: full time guys and new talent that are trying to
Speaker 1: get over and here they're bringing back someone from the past.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what the Undertaker said in this and that's
Speaker 1: pretty rich coming from him, of all people, the guy
Speaker 1: who the last seven or eight years of his career
Speaker 1: was built around coming back once a year for WrestleMania. Like,
Speaker 1: my eyes rolled back in my head almost as far
Speaker 1: as his used to. There was a part where they
Speaker 1: show Howard Finkel in the ring during rehearsals as Finkus Maximus,
Speaker 1: and someone off camera shouts, hey, Howard, Pizza, Pizza, and
Speaker 1: I laughed my ass off Like that was the funniest
Speaker 1: part of the whole documentary for me, Like I got
Speaker 1: the reference. You have to be a certain age to
Speaker 1: get it, but I got you know, I got it
Speaker 1: immediately because they used to have commercials for Little Caesars
Speaker 1: with the little mascot guy that would go Pizza, Pizza
Speaker 1: at the end of every commercial. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I probably laughed more than I should have, But to me,
Speaker 1: that was the funniest part of the whole documentary, watching
Speaker 1: the camera crew walk around filming guys and yeah, that
Speaker 1: was cool to see the Undertaker just shooting them a
Speaker 1: death glare, Like what the hell is this for? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because he was so protective of the gimmick for so long,
Speaker 1: especially back then, it's weird to see grey Glove Undertaker
Speaker 1: out of character like that. They had footage of his
Speaker 1: entrance rehearsal with the giant Vulture. He said that it's
Speaker 1: all he was thinking about. This bird's gonna shit on me?
Speaker 1: Is this bird gonna shit on me? He was not
Speaker 1: thrilled about this, Like, imagine the bird shitting on him
Speaker 1: during the show, and there's just nothing he could do,
Speaker 1: like he would have to no sell it and there
Speaker 1: it is just like dripping down his shoulder. But they
Speaker 1: also had the brilliant idea to carry Yoko Zuna to
Speaker 1: the ring, and they very quickly realized that this is
Speaker 1: not going to work, so they scratched that idea. They
Speaker 1: showed clips of the dark match the day of the show.
Speaker 1: It was Tito Santana against Papa Shango. Papa Shango. He
Speaker 1: was thrilled about, you know, just being on the show
Speaker 1: because godfather lived in Vegas, so he was just happy
Speaker 1: to get a match and his friends and family were there.
Speaker 1: You know, if you count that match, even though it
Speaker 1: didn't err on TV, if you count it, Hogan is
Speaker 1: not the only one who worked the first nine WrestleManias,
Speaker 1: so did Tito. Jim Ross made his debut on this night.
Speaker 1: He had to wear a toga. Hell of a first impression.
Speaker 1: Here we had Bobby Heenan riding a camel backwards to
Speaker 1: the ring where Bruce Prichard is talking about it. He
Speaker 1: says that was Bobby's idea because Bobby thought it would
Speaker 1: be funnier. And then they went kind of match by match.
Speaker 1: We had some highlights and they talked about the matches
Speaker 1: on the show. What they didn't mention is that Bam
Speaker 1: Bam Bigelow and Kamala were supposed to have a match
Speaker 1: on this show, but it got bumped for time. Sean
Speaker 1: Michaels defended the Intercontinental title against Tatanka, and they didn't
Speaker 1: focus on Luna Vashan in sensational Sherry's involvement in this match.
Speaker 1: This was the last Mania that Sherry ever worked. I
Speaker 1: have this as the best match on that show, even
Speaker 1: with the disappointing shitty finish that we got. They did
Speaker 1: a count out finish here. You know, the best match
Speaker 1: on this show on any other WrestleMania would be right
Speaker 1: in the middle, but on this show, it was the
Speaker 1: best match. The second best match is the tag team
Speaker 1: title match. It was the Headshrinkers and the Steiner Brothers.
Speaker 1: They didn't show the spot where Scott Steiner almost died.
Speaker 1: I think the spot was supposed to be a stun gun,
Speaker 1: but he went flying too far and the top rope
Speaker 1: got pulled down, and man, I mean he took a
Speaker 1: header out to the floor. He is a very lucky
Speaker 1: guy because you can't see how he lands. The camera's
Speaker 1: not on that side. You just see him go over
Speaker 1: at an angle that looked like he was about to
Speaker 1: spike himself into the floor. How he didn't get hurt,
Speaker 1: I'll never know. But the Rick Steiner power slam spot
Speaker 1: off of fat two shoulders to Sam mood. That was cool.
Speaker 1: Razor Ramone and Bob Backland. They had a nothing match
Speaker 1: Crush against Doink. I mean, I maintain Evil Doink one
Speaker 1: of the greatest gimmicks they've ever done. The double Doink
Speaker 1: finish was very clever. It was the only good thing
Speaker 1: about this match. Hogan and Beefcake against Money Inc. For
Speaker 1: the tag team titles. They dubbed this one half of
Speaker 1: the double main event, because if Hogan's on the show,
Speaker 1: he's the main event, and if he can't be in
Speaker 1: the main event, then you got to make it a
Speaker 1: double main event. Actually that's what they did the year
Speaker 1: before too. WrestleMania eight had a double main event. Hogan
Speaker 1: actually closed the show and it wasn't the title match,
Speaker 1: but they were billing it as potentially his retirement match.
Speaker 1: So I mean, when you have a star as big
Speaker 1: as Hogan, if it's possibly his last match, then you know,
Speaker 1: I understand it. But this was the second year in
Speaker 1: a row with this double main event stuff and Brutal.
Speaker 1: He says the goal was just to get through the
Speaker 1: match without dying. Hogan had his eye, Brutus had his
Speaker 1: broken face. This had another lame finish with money Ink
Speaker 1: retaining by disqualification. This was an issue up and down
Speaker 1: the card, all the bad finishes. I mean, there were
Speaker 1: so many bad ones. They so they head to the
Speaker 1: back after the match is over, and Jimmy Hart, who
Speaker 1: was also interviewed for this, says that Hogan gave him
Speaker 1: a heads up said, I might be doing something else
Speaker 1: tonight too. Gee, I wonder what that could be. They
Speaker 1: had Lex Luger against Mister Perfect, who could barely speak
Speaker 1: straight in his promo before the match. He was tripping
Speaker 1: all over his words. Lex says, Kurt must have been
Speaker 1: over caffeinated that day. Yeah, that or he was on something,
Speaker 1: because once the bell rang, he grabbed Lex in a
Speaker 1: headlock and he asked him what are we doing? Like
Speaker 1: he forgot the entire match. He had no idea what
Speaker 1: they were supposed to do. So Luger had to be
Speaker 1: the ringleader and lead him through the match. Match and
Speaker 1: it was not a great match, but they got through it.
Speaker 1: It was okay. It was not at the caliber of
Speaker 1: what you would hope a Mister Perfect match would be.
Speaker 1: Then there was the Undertaker against the Giant Gonzales, My God,
Speaker 1: one of the worst matches in WrestleMania. History and yet
Speaker 1: another shitty DQ finish, just so they could run it
Speaker 1: back at Summer Slim and have another shitty match and
Speaker 1: then and that's all I have to say about that.
Speaker 1: The less said about that match, the better Undertaker did
Speaker 1: what he could, but I mean, there's only so much
Speaker 1: you can do. And then came the other half of
Speaker 1: the double main event, Brett the Hitman Heart in his
Speaker 1: first WrestleMania main event, defending the title against Yoko Zuna.
Speaker 1: I like this more than I like their WrestleMania ten match.
Speaker 1: I think that this is the superior of the two matches.
Speaker 1: Brett in the past has blamed Yoko Zuna for cutting
Speaker 1: out or forgetting a bunch of things they were supposed
Speaker 1: to do late in the match, basically all of Brett's
Speaker 1: big comeback spots. He was pissed at Yoko for it,
Speaker 1: like even here in the documentary he said it was
Speaker 1: Yoko getting tired and they hit the ending sooner than
Speaker 1: Brett wanted them to. Even mister Fuji, like when Brett
Speaker 1: has Yoko Zuna in the Sharpshooter, Fuji wasn't ready with
Speaker 1: the salt yet, so Brett felt like he was holding
Speaker 1: him there forever, just waiting for Fuji to pull out
Speaker 1: the salt and throw it in his eyes. Bruce Pritchard
Speaker 1: on his podcast years ago said that Vince McMahon made
Speaker 1: the call mid match to cut their time, and it
Speaker 1: was communicated to the referee while they were in the
Speaker 1: ring wrestling, because they were very worried about running out
Speaker 1: of time, Like if you weren't off the air, I
Speaker 1: think it was like five minutes before the top of
Speaker 1: the hour, the pay per view companies would just cut
Speaker 1: you off and the fans wouldn't be able to see
Speaker 1: the finish. I don't know if Brett knew that, because
Speaker 1: he still blames Yoko for the finish being rushed, but
Speaker 1: he gets hit with the salt. Yoko pins Brett and
Speaker 1: he wins the title. And here comes Hulk Hogan to
Speaker 1: cash in his money in the bank, and how do
Speaker 1: they get there? They get there with mister Fuji challenging
Speaker 1: Hogan to get in the ring and wrestle Yoko Zuna
Speaker 1: the champion. After a hard fought match, wins the title
Speaker 1: and then issues a challenge to the challenger to get
Speaker 1: in the ring and fight him for the championship. Yoko
Speaker 1: should have dumped Fuji right then and there, like a
Speaker 1: bad habit for doing that. And it all sounds so stupid,
Speaker 1: but you can't say the fans in the building didn't
Speaker 1: buy into it, because they went crazy for the finish.
Speaker 1: It was still Hulk Hogan back after a year away, right,
Speaker 1: giving them the happy ending they weren't going to get
Speaker 1: if they would have just gone off the air with
Speaker 1: the Evil Foreigner, you know, stealing the title from the
Speaker 1: not so evil Foreigner. This is the finish that would
Speaker 1: put the smile on everybody's face, right. And I also wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, they were in Vegas and tickets were not
Speaker 1: selling great initially when they were advertising all the other
Speaker 1: stars on the show. Once they advertised that Hogan was
Speaker 1: coming back and Hogan was going to be there, obviously,
Speaker 1: tickets started selling a lot quicker. I do wonder what
Speaker 1: the percentage was of people in the building or in
Speaker 1: you know, the building, in the little makeshift stadium there
Speaker 1: of actual like regular WWF fans or like hardcore WWF
Speaker 1: fans and people who were either casual at best or
Speaker 1: not even wrestling fans so much as they were in
Speaker 1: Vegas and they were looking for something to do and
Speaker 1: they saw that Hulk Hogan was going to be there,
Speaker 1: and they bought tickets. Like there has to be a
Speaker 1: decent number of people that are in the stadium that
Speaker 1: night who really aren't big WWF fans, and they probably
Speaker 1: didn't even know who some of these guys were, but
Speaker 1: everybody would have known who Hogan was, So I'm sure
Speaker 1: there was a little bit of that going on too.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'll tell you, as a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't super duper young at that point, but
Speaker 1: as a kid, it was an exciting finish. Was it
Speaker 1: a dumb way to get the belt onto him? Yes,
Speaker 1: it was. You know, both of those things can be true.
Speaker 1: It was an exciting moment, and it was very dumb.
Speaker 1: Hogan said, he got a lot of heat for it.
Speaker 1: He said, Savage was pissed, and Savage said, why don't
Speaker 1: you give him the tag belts too? Why don't you
Speaker 1: give him the whole show? You know what. I'm surprised
Speaker 1: he didn't get the tag belts that night. He could
Speaker 1: have been a double champion, but then that just means
Speaker 1: he has to do two jobs instead of one to
Speaker 1: drop them all. Luger says there was some eyebrows raised
Speaker 1: in the back by that finish. Sean Michael says, they
Speaker 1: felt they were moving to a new generation, and Brett
Speaker 1: was very upset that day. He let them all know
Speaker 1: that he was very upset, and they were all in
Speaker 1: agreement with Brett. Undertaker says he sees both sides. He
Speaker 1: sees the drawing power of Hogan, but he also sees
Speaker 1: the side of the guys who are working to be
Speaker 1: the next hul Cogan and Brett said it went against
Speaker 1: everything Vince had told him up to that day. Vince
Speaker 1: told him, Look, it's just a change of direction. Hogan
Speaker 1: says he pitched the idea of Vince, but he notes
Speaker 1: that Vince wanted him to pass the torch to Yoko Zuna.
Speaker 1: So the idea was for him to win it at
Speaker 1: WrestleMania and then drop it back to Yoko at the
Speaker 1: next pay per view. Now, remember that, if what Hogan
Speaker 1: says is true, this was all laid out well in advance,
Speaker 1: right him winning the belt so that he could then
Speaker 1: drop it to Yoko Zuna at the King of the Ring. Okay,
Speaker 1: what they did not get into here is what Brett
Speaker 1: has said happened after the match and he talked about
Speaker 1: this in his book. Brett says, in the back Hogan
Speaker 1: came up to him and he thanked him and he
Speaker 1: told him he's I'm not going to forget it, and
Speaker 1: that he would return the favor. And Brett says, he
Speaker 1: looked him in the eye and he said, I'm going
Speaker 1: to remember that, Terry. Fast forward to the end of May.
Speaker 1: I believe, Brett says, Vince McMahon calls him and tells
Speaker 1: him that he was going to get the belt back
Speaker 1: and Hogan was going to be used more as a
Speaker 1: special attraction. Ten days later, Vince tells Brett that Hogan
Speaker 1: was refusing to put him over and he decided that you, Jokozuna,
Speaker 1: will get the belt back instead, and Brett would work
Speaker 1: with Jerry the King Lawler at SummerSlam. Now that's a
Speaker 1: very different version of events than the one that Hogan gave.
Speaker 1: And Brett says, you know, he showed up at the
Speaker 1: King of the Ring in a very bad mood. He
Speaker 1: drew a cartoon because Brett Brett's actually a very good illustrator,
Speaker 1: and he would do that back then, like in the
Speaker 1: locker room, he would do these drawings and you know,
Speaker 1: leave them up sometimes. So he got to the building
Speaker 1: and he drew a cartoon of Brutus beefcake with his
Speaker 1: face buried in Hogan's ash cheeks, with the caption be careful, Brutus,
Speaker 1: you don't want to loosen the screws in your face
Speaker 1: speaking of screws, and he says he felt bad because
Speaker 1: he was taking his frustrations out on beefcake, which wasn't
Speaker 1: the right thing to do. Hogan did an interview a
Speaker 1: number of years ago with Peter Rosenberg, and in that interview,
Speaker 1: he claimed that he made a deal to drop the
Speaker 1: belt to Yoko Zuna, but Vince told Brett that he
Speaker 1: was getting the belt, and when Brett confronted Hulk, Hogan
Speaker 1: says that he told he told Brett, look, it's not
Speaker 1: that I don't want to drop the belt to you,
Speaker 1: which just not the deal that I made with Vince,
Speaker 1: and he says that they both met with Vince and
Speaker 1: McMahon told Brett this is according to Hogan, Now, McMahon
Speaker 1: told Brett, you getting the belt is what you thought
Speaker 1: you heard, And he said, oh, Vince had asked me
Speaker 1: to drop the belt to Brett, I would have done it,
Speaker 1: you know. No questions asked, but since he asked Hogan
Speaker 1: to drop it to Yoko, Hogan felt, well, that's what
Speaker 1: had to be done. I love it. It's like it
Speaker 1: was some blood oath that he made that just could
Speaker 1: not be changed. Hogan defending against Brett at SummerSlam and
Speaker 1: then passing the torch there. That was the play, especially
Speaker 1: if Hogan was leaving anyway. But there's no way he
Speaker 1: ever would have gone for that, because there's always been
Speaker 1: rumors about there was a photo shoot for I think
Speaker 1: the magazine during that period. It was either in the
Speaker 1: spring or the early summer. They did a photo shoot
Speaker 1: with Brett and Hogan doing a little tug of war
Speaker 1: over the championship. I don't think it ever saw the
Speaker 1: light of day. There may have been solid plans for
Speaker 1: the two of them to work against each other at Summerslim,
Speaker 1: That's what I mean, Like, I wish they would have
Speaker 1: dove a little bit deeper into it, talked to Bruce,
Speaker 1: talked to I don't know other people who may or
Speaker 1: may not have heard things at that time. Again, you
Speaker 1: can't get Vince, so it's tough, but that would have
Speaker 1: been the play, that would have been the biggest match
Speaker 1: that they could do. You know, was Brett the star
Speaker 1: of this new up and coming you know era here
Speaker 1: in the WWF taking on the biggest star of all
Speaker 1: time and the star of the past era. But the
Speaker 1: idea that Hogan would actually go in there and do
Speaker 1: a job for a guy like Brett, like a smaller
Speaker 1: guy like Brett, there's just no way not back then,
Speaker 1: and it honestly would not have hurt Hogan one bit.
Speaker 1: But there's no way he ever would have agreed to that. Like,
Speaker 1: I cannot stand Brett being upset and feeling like he
Speaker 1: was screwed. You know, there's that word again. Brett's been
Speaker 1: screwed so many times. He should have been a light bulb.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality of the situation. Okay, And I
Speaker 1: say this as a Brett Hart fan. He had every
Speaker 1: right to be upset and feel blindsided when Vince told
Speaker 1: him the night before what they were gonna do. You know,
Speaker 1: you get this huge opportunity, all this pressure is, you know,
Speaker 1: put upon your shoulders, and now you just feel like
Speaker 1: a fucking failure. You know, there's like a shame to it.
Speaker 1: I wasn't good enough. That's why you're taking this away
Speaker 1: from me. But you look at every single WrestleMania before
Speaker 1: this one, every single one of them ended with the
Speaker 1: Babyface or babyfaces celebrating. It was a Babyface territory. Vince's
Speaker 1: mindset was, we have to send the fans home happy
Speaker 1: at the end of the show. He didn't want Brett
Speaker 1: beating Yoko, so Yoko had to win. But then how
Speaker 1: do we give the people the happy ending? Right? This
Speaker 1: is what he came up with. Can you add to
Speaker 1: that how business was doing at the time, which was
Speaker 1: not great, Like, I don't think it's fair to lay
Speaker 1: all of this at the feet of Brett Hart just
Speaker 1: because he was the champion, but he was the champion
Speaker 1: at a time when business was down and him on
Speaker 1: top was not doing enough to change that. Vince tried
Speaker 1: to build for the future without Hogan in ninety two
Speaker 1: and it didn't work, and so he felt he needed
Speaker 1: Hogan back or else WrestleMania was going to be a
Speaker 1: dud like a lot of the other pay per views.
Speaker 1: They were not doing as well by rate wise, they
Speaker 1: as they did with Hogan on top, and he was
Speaker 1: very worried that the same thing would happen to WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: You know, they were having trouble moving tickets. Once Hogan
Speaker 1: was announced, tickets started to sell. The buy rate was low,
Speaker 1: but not as low as they expected it might be.
Speaker 1: You know, Hogan may not have been the draw that
Speaker 1: he was in eighty six in eighty seven, but he
Speaker 1: was still a draw and he was still the biggest
Speaker 1: name in wrestling. And Vince made a business decision. You know,
Speaker 1: Brett looks at it like a personal offense to him.
Speaker 1: It wasn't you know. It came to down to dollars
Speaker 1: and cents, like how can we make the most money
Speaker 1: on this thing without losing our shirts. This is different
Speaker 1: from what happened to Montreal, where you know, Brett had
Speaker 1: creative control written into his contract and he was flat
Speaker 1: out told, like even the day of the show, like
Speaker 1: what the finish was going to be, and they double
Speaker 1: crossed him. That's a very different situation. Like Vince never
Speaker 1: told him here that he was going over at WrestleMania nine.
Speaker 1: I mean Brett may have assumed that he was, but
Speaker 1: he was never told that. Brett Hard in nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: three was not the draw that he would go on
Speaker 1: to become, and even the draw that he would go
Speaker 1: on to become. He was never the draw that hul
Speaker 1: Cogan was. And when you're a promoter and business is down,
Speaker 1: you fall back on your top attraction. It may not
Speaker 1: be the most popular move. And I think Hogan is
Speaker 1: a selfish asshole who didn't give a single fuck about
Speaker 1: helping build new stars. He was interested in keeping hul
Speaker 1: Cogan strong. Yeah, he didn't care about what the WWF
Speaker 1: roster was going to look like in the future because
Speaker 1: he was leaving anyway. He wasn't sticking around. But as
Speaker 1: a business move, I understand why they did what they did.
Speaker 1: What really would have been best for business would have
Speaker 1: been to have Hogan put their next big star over clean,
Speaker 1: whether that was Yoko Zuna, whether that was Brett Hart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he lost to Yoko Zuna. He put him over, but
Speaker 1: only after a camera exploded in his face. That's who
Speaker 1: Hogan is. Had he stayed, the new generation that followed
Speaker 1: never would have been able to climb the mountain the
Speaker 1: way they did with Brett Hart and Sean Michaels and
Speaker 1: Diesel and all of these guys. Hogan never would have
Speaker 1: allowed it. Never. He had to leave so that a
Speaker 1: new era could could thrive, and it didn't happen right away.
Speaker 1: It took several years. There were some lean years there
Speaker 1: during the New Generation period fucking nineteen ninety five, Like,
Speaker 1: there were some tough times. But the best thing that
Speaker 1: ever happened to Vince McMahon during that period, outside of
Speaker 1: being acquitted, was Hogan leaving, which sounds kind of weird,
Speaker 1: but it's true, Like he probably didn't feel that way
Speaker 1: at the time, but look at everything that followed, like
Speaker 1: even Hogan going to WCW, in forming the nWo. All
Speaker 1: of that played a role in the eventual rise of
Speaker 1: stars like Stone Cold and The Rock. They were getting
Speaker 1: their asses handed to them. They had to create new stars.
Speaker 1: They were forced, they had their backs against the wall.
Speaker 1: The company could have gone under. They had to create
Speaker 1: new stars. Imagine if Hogan stuck around, do you have
Speaker 1: people like Austin on the Ascent? Do you think he
Speaker 1: would have allowed Stone Cold to get as big as
Speaker 1: he did. He had to leave. But I enjoyed this
Speaker 1: and if you're into the behind the scenes stuff you
Speaker 1: will too. There's some of the usual fluff, but I
Speaker 1: think they kept it to a minimum. Again, WrestleMania nine
Speaker 1: may be the worst WrestleMania when it comes to match finishes.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many terrible finishes on the show,
Speaker 1: but I can't call it the worst WrestleMania of all time.
Speaker 1: Even the bad stuff, it's never boring. There's nothing worse
Speaker 1: than a boring WrestleMania. There's some bad stuff here, but
Speaker 1: it's never boring. The solemn monster sounds of John Moxley,
Speaker 1: in case you couldn't tell, is still the aw World
Speaker 1: Heavyweight champ. That means we have another month of this
Speaker 1: death rider's bullshit and I could barely stomach swarm. Strickland
Speaker 1: is going to Dinas. He will challenge John Boxley for
Speaker 1: that title, and he better fucking win. He's the right
Speaker 1: man for the job. Honestly, anybody would be the right
Speaker 1: man for the job. The Maytag man would be the
Speaker 1: right man for the job. Right now. The Orcan man
Speaker 1: would be the right man for the job. Right now.
Speaker 1: I could walk out my front door, right now, I
Speaker 1: could go five blocks down the street. First fucking guy
Speaker 1: that I see, maybe he's got a bottle of beer
Speaker 1: in a brown paper bag, whatever it is, I'll grab him.
Speaker 1: He would be the man for the job. I would
Speaker 1: have preferred the wristler come out and sign his name
Speaker 1: to that contract and pin John Moxley to win the
Speaker 1: AW World title. I would have taken Big Boom Aj
Speaker 1: as the AAW World Champion. Can you imagine the heads
Speaker 1: that would explode if that happened. Anybody but what they're
Speaker 1: doing now, Anybody but Moxley, anybody but the Death Riders stuff.
Speaker 1: We need to move on from this. The Solo Monster
Speaker 1: sounds off bringing you the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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Speaker 1: The Solo Monster. I Love you so long.