Speaker 1: It's business time, baby you. I'm listening to Solo Monsters
Speaker 1: Sounds Off. I love you, so, Mama monster, dude, woman,
Speaker 1: you got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Come over here. I have the best move set. You
Speaker 1: have legs. They've made Solo a monster.
Speaker 2: I was ninety nine percent positive. It was just chessed up.
Speaker 1: Now I want out of my contract if I don't
Speaker 1: care what I want. This is episode nine oh one
Speaker 1: of the Solemn Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, February sixteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty and twenty five. I am the solom Monster. See.
Speaker 1: My super Bowl prediction last week was right. I told
Speaker 1: you the Eagles would beat the Chiefs. See, you need
Speaker 1: to listen to me more off. Hey, I watched the
Speaker 1: match with Zach Saber Junior and Hiroki Goto at the
Speaker 1: New Beginning in Osaka for the IWGP World Heavyweight title,
Speaker 1: and Goto won the right to challenge for the title
Speaker 1: by winning the New Japan Rambow at the Tokyo Dome
Speaker 1: last month, which is usually treated as you know, comedy fodder,
Speaker 1: but they raised the stakes forward this year, and look
Speaker 1: what happened. It actually paid off. Now Goto, he's been
Speaker 1: a mainstay in New Japan for over twenty years. Always
Speaker 1: a bride's maid, never a bride. You've heard me use
Speaker 1: that expression before. He had done everything there is to do.
Speaker 1: You know, he won multiple singles titles and multiple tag
Speaker 1: team titles, g One Climax winner, New Japan Cup winner,
Speaker 1: tons of tournament wins, everything except for winning the big one.
Speaker 1: Every opportunity that he ever had to win it, he failed.
Speaker 1: And that was the rap on him. When he gets
Speaker 1: to the one yard line, he chokes. Great wrestler, but
Speaker 1: not good enough to be the guy. But not this time.
Speaker 1: And it was ten years since the last time he
Speaker 1: challenged for that championship, and Goto has finished his story.
Speaker 1: He defeated Zach Saber Junior to become IWGP champion for
Speaker 1: the very first time, just a few months shy of
Speaker 1: his forty sixth birthday, and he had his kids in
Speaker 1: the ring with him after the match, and he dedicated
Speaker 1: the win to his father who passed away last year.
Speaker 1: Just a great moment. And you know, I know some
Speaker 1: people were upset that Saber lost the title, has only
Speaker 1: had it for a few months, and they think New
Speaker 1: Japan did him dirty. They did not do him dirty.
Speaker 1: He's going to be champion again. But this was one
Speaker 1: of those, you know, kind of great feel good moments
Speaker 1: in wrestling that they felt they couldn't pass up, especially
Speaker 1: after tickets started moving when they announced Goto would be
Speaker 1: wrestling for the title on that show. You know, that's
Speaker 1: the best way to get a promoter's attention is to
Speaker 1: move tickets, over five thousand of them, to the point
Speaker 1: where they had to reconfigure the stage to accommodate more seats.
Speaker 1: So he's standing in the ring after the match and
Speaker 1: he says, you know, I know, I know my dad
Speaker 1: was watching and this is for him. Everyone, A lot
Speaker 1: of you probably know, but I'm an idiot. I've been
Speaker 1: an idiot as I've pursued this pro wrestling life. But
Speaker 1: now this idiot is a champion. Dad, I did it.
Speaker 1: So he wanted his first title defense to be against
Speaker 1: Hiroshi Tanahashi right this being Tanahashi's final year in the ring.
Speaker 1: At their anniversary show next month is when that match
Speaker 1: is going to take place. That Tanahashi beat him four
Speaker 1: times previously in IWGP title matches, so he's going to
Speaker 1: be looking for his first win if he wants to
Speaker 1: hold onto that title and Euji Nagada challenge the winner
Speaker 1: of that match. You know, Euji Nagada is fifty six
Speaker 1: years old and Goto is going to be forty six.
Speaker 1: Tanahashi is on his last legs. It's a nice story
Speaker 1: to tell and if it helps business, then more power
Speaker 1: to them. But coming out of this, whoever gets that
Speaker 1: title next, unless it goes right back to Zak, it
Speaker 1: should be one of the younger guys that they're building
Speaker 1: up who's never held it before. I have got a
Speaker 1: ton of stuff to get into this week. We had
Speaker 1: two great wrestling shows this weekend that I'm going to
Speaker 1: be talking about and reviewing. There was a ton of
Speaker 1: news this week. I even got some team news, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into it all. If you would like
Speaker 1: to make a PayPal donation and show your support for
Speaker 1: the SoundOff what I do every week, you may do
Speaker 1: so on the Solo Monster dot com. You will find
Speaker 1: it at the very top of the page. Ten dollars
Speaker 1: more will get you a nickname and a shout out
Speaker 1: here on this show, including these folks, the Diamond Dallas
Speaker 1: Dance Machine, Dancing the Night Away, Harrison's Soep, Velvet Revolver,
Speaker 1: Robert Murray, the Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, the Chicago Slayer,
Speaker 1: Willie Iicherd, Knight Stalker, and if Alsa far best in
Speaker 1: the game, Trey Porter, Killshot, Keith Hart, tough Guy, tem
Speaker 1: Gen Zephyr who bought a ticket to NXT Roadblock coming
Speaker 1: up on March eleventh, which is taking place at the
Speaker 1: Theater at Madison Square Garden, and he says that he
Speaker 1: is thrilled because he always wanted to see Julia Russel
Speaker 1: live and a few others Zaria Stephanie Vequer, Trick Williams.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Ricky Starks will appear, he said, I'm sure Ricky
Speaker 1: will be there. I don't know if they'll identify him,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure I'm sure he'll have a name by that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Ricky in a little bit too.
Speaker 1: But Temgin, thank you, Rebel. Jay Leonard wants to wish
Speaker 1: his best friend Cannonball Cam Jones a very happy birthday
Speaker 1: and eighteen years of friendship thanks to him. Jay says,
Speaker 1: he listens to my content daily and he means daily,
Speaker 1: and he had some very kind words for me as well.
Speaker 1: So Jay, I appreciate that. I'm very glad you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the content. I'm going to wish Cam a happy birthday
Speaker 1: as well. You're very lucky to have a friend like
Speaker 1: that for eighteen years and shared big Daddy boyd. I
Speaker 1: want to wish him a very happy birthday. And also
Speaker 1: to Jessica, stay strong. I hope your mom is doing better.
Speaker 1: Sending positive vibes your way, and don't forget you know,
Speaker 1: if you want to pick up a free audio book,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't mention this often enough, but we
Speaker 1: do have a special offer exclusively for sound off listeners,
Speaker 1: and there are a ton of great books. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be but there's a ton of great wrestling
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Speaker 1: Jim Ross's books, including his new one, business is about
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Speaker 1: any number of books. Guy Evans has that great Nitro book,
Speaker 1: make sure you take advantage of that audibletrial dot com
Speaker 1: slash solomn Monster. I did watch NXT Vengeance Day last night,
Speaker 1: but first we got to take it back to earlier
Speaker 1: in the week because there were three names, all of
Speaker 1: whom are likely WWE bound. One of them is already
Speaker 1: on NXT television, so we already know one of them
Speaker 1: is in WWE, but three names that Tony Kahn released
Speaker 1: from their contracts. Malachi Black is one of those people.
Speaker 1: He is no longer with AW and there was talk
Speaker 1: of his deal not being up originally until twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 1: because that came from Tony Kahn many years ago when
Speaker 1: he said, oh, I've got Malachi and Adam Cole locked
Speaker 1: up until twenty twenty seven. Well if he did, he
Speaker 1: doesn't anymore. Obviously, Malachi was able to negotiate a quicker
Speaker 1: exit because he's gone. Miro is also gone from AAW
Speaker 1: and per pw Insider we are told Miro and AW
Speaker 1: mutually parted way, setting the stage for his exit from
Speaker 1: the company. There was talk that he had asked for
Speaker 1: his release back in the fall of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: The two sides had been working towards an agreement for
Speaker 1: some time, and they also mentioned that Miro has signed
Speaker 1: with Paradigm for representation in all areas of Hollywood, as
Speaker 1: have many WWE stars by the way, Damian Priest and
Speaker 1: CM Punk, Tiffany Stratton, Drew McIntyre, Live Morgan, I think,
Speaker 1: Jade Cargill. They're all represented now by Paradigm, which is
Speaker 1: one of the top Hollywood agencies, so you could add
Speaker 1: Miro to that list. And Ricky Starks was given his
Speaker 1: release from AAW months before his contract was due to expire,
Speaker 1: So all those free Ricky hashtags, Ricky has been freed.
Speaker 1: And it didn't take very long, all of twenty four
Speaker 1: hours for him to show up on WWE television because
Speaker 1: right in the middle of Tuesday's NXT show, there he
Speaker 1: was coming through the crowd with a microphone in his hand.
Speaker 1: They never identified him by name, but they spoke like
Speaker 1: they all knew who he was, and he cut up
Speaker 1: promo saying that if NXT is the future of professional wrestling,
Speaker 1: then it needs a true superstar of the future. Everyone's
Speaker 1: been begging the question when will the Revolution be televised? Again,
Speaker 1: he said, I'm here, ain't I? And then last night
Speaker 1: of Vengeance Day he wasn't there live, but they are
Speaker 1: to pre tape promo where he said he would be
Speaker 1: signing his NXT contract this Tuesday, And again he nor
Speaker 1: the announcers made any mention of his name, and people
Speaker 1: are freaking out over them not mentioning his name. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna let him use it, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: saddle him with one of these terrible fucking names they
Speaker 1: just trademarked last week. It's quite the list. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen this list of names we have,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's O Sirius or Ozoris. I'll
Speaker 1: say Oziris Ozius. Griffin is one name that they trademarked.
Speaker 1: Hayes Jamison. I've been in a few hazes after drinking
Speaker 1: Jamison in my day. Trill London, Harley Riggins, Draco Knox.
Speaker 1: I think this one may be my favorite. Braxton Cole
Speaker 1: like they just fused Michael Cole together with Caleb Braxton.
Speaker 1: There's a photoshop for you. So anyway, you had people
Speaker 1: worry that Ricky Starks was going to be Trill London
Speaker 1: or some such thing. Not realizing they literally rushed him
Speaker 1: onto TV, Like he got out of his contract on Monday,
Speaker 1: and he was on television by Tuesday. Okay. And while
Speaker 1: I'm sure they had some sense that eventually he was
Speaker 1: going to leave and they were gonna be able to
Speaker 1: bring him in, they could not legally do anything until
Speaker 1: he was free, so on twenty four hours notice, I
Speaker 1: doubt they went through all the proper legal channels to
Speaker 1: license the man's name from him, because that is his name,
Speaker 1: so he can absolutely use it. See what I did there,
Speaker 1: But I would imagine the company has to go through
Speaker 1: a process to license it from him if they want
Speaker 1: to use it on TV, if they want to use
Speaker 1: it on merch. I would not have a panic attack
Speaker 1: just he had about the name. This all happened very quickly.
Speaker 1: You know, Ethan Page, he left AW and he came
Speaker 1: to NXT as Ethan Page. Sean Spears left AW and
Speaker 1: he came to NXT as Sean Spears. There is no
Speaker 1: reason that Ricky Starks cannot be Ricky Stark's now. I
Speaker 1: don't know why Tony Khan decided now was the right
Speaker 1: time to release them all in a bunch like this,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad he did. Ray Phoenix is still under contract,
Speaker 1: but Chris Featherstone, i saw of Sports Kita, says that
Speaker 1: negotiations between Phoenix and Tony Khan to end Phoenix's tenure
Speaker 1: with the company are progressing and a resolution is expected
Speaker 1: to happen soon, and he says he was also informed
Speaker 1: that Tony Khan has been heavily advised to put an
Speaker 1: end to this soon. Regarding Phoenix's holding period. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure who's advising him, But remember those tweets that Ray
Speaker 1: Phoenix put out and quickly deleted talking about inhumane treatment, right,
Speaker 1: we didn't know what he meant by that. If there's
Speaker 1: a there there with some of the things that he
Speaker 1: was tweeting about, and he's got some stories to tell,
Speaker 1: then yes, maybe it is in Tony Khan's best interest
Speaker 1: to put an end to this soon. I'm sure with
Speaker 1: a nice nda to go with it. But you know,
Speaker 1: if he let the other three go, there's really no
Speaker 1: reason for him to hold on to Phoenix if he's
Speaker 1: not going to use him, and that's that's the case
Speaker 1: with any of these guys, and that's been my whole
Speaker 1: thing this entire time. I understand not wanting to set
Speaker 1: a precedent or anyone who's unhappy and who's under contract
Speaker 1: can just go to you and say, hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm not happy. I want to leave, and they end
Speaker 1: up going to WWE. But if he's not going to
Speaker 1: use them, then work something out where they can leave
Speaker 1: and maybe they could work anywhere but WWE for a
Speaker 1: period of time, Right, if they really want out that badly,
Speaker 1: if it's not just hey, I want to leave so
Speaker 1: I can go work for you know, for mister Leveck
Speaker 1: over there, then maybe work it out in that way, right,
Speaker 1: if they're that adamant about leaving. But there's just no
Speaker 1: point in paying these people just to let them sit
Speaker 1: home and do nothing or just work indies, right, it's
Speaker 1: just wasteful spending. Starks was clearly going to go to WWE,
Speaker 1: and I think starting on NXT is actually the right move, right.
Speaker 1: If they were going to off on this debut for
Speaker 1: later in the spring or in the summer, I think
Speaker 1: I might feel differently about it. But you bring this
Speaker 1: guy in two months before WrestleMania, where he is not
Speaker 1: going to be factored into any major WrestleMania plans. You
Speaker 1: know what, It's better to start him off on the
Speaker 1: brand where he could be a top guy right out
Speaker 1: of the gate, instantly, instantly. Ricky Starks is a top
Speaker 1: star in NXT. That wouldn't be the case if he
Speaker 1: debuted on Row. That wouldn't be the case if he
Speaker 1: debuted on SmackDown. Anyone who's not familiar with who he
Speaker 1: is is going to become familiar very quickly, and a
Speaker 1: run on top would do him a lot of good
Speaker 1: for when he finally does get called up. Plus, let's
Speaker 1: be honest here, the NXTAM men's division could use someone
Speaker 1: like him right now, okay, because they they could definitely
Speaker 1: use the help on the men's side. Malachi, I've talked
Speaker 1: about him a lot already. He started out with a
Speaker 1: lot of promise and then just got stuck in tags
Speaker 1: and trios for a lot of his run there when
Speaker 1: there was still money to be made with him as
Speaker 1: a single star. Know, he was clearly frustrated at various
Speaker 1: points of his run. He even asked for his release
Speaker 1: at one point he got denied, right, there's no need
Speaker 1: for him to start with NXT. Triple H just needs
Speaker 1: to do what he did with him on NXT on
Speaker 1: the main roster, and I think he will do well.
Speaker 1: Someone like him could work on his own. Someone like
Speaker 1: him could work as the new leader of the Judgment
Speaker 1: Day and replacing Finn Balor, and that he could even
Speaker 1: feud with Balor. You know. Someone on the SmackDown Scream
Speaker 1: the other night suggested a Cody Rhodes like debut for
Speaker 1: him at WrestleMania, where he returns as the mystery opponent
Speaker 1: for someone who ends up not having an opponent, like
Speaker 1: a Drew McIntyre. Drew McIntyre is going to have an opponent,
Speaker 1: but I could see something like that. I don't know
Speaker 1: who you would put him in the ring with, but
Speaker 1: I could see something like that. Or just hold off
Speaker 1: on his return for the week after WrestleMania. You don't
Speaker 1: have to give everything away before WrestleMania. And then there's Miro,
Speaker 1: who has not read led a match for AW since
Speaker 1: a win over Andrade at World's End in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Then he was injured after that, Then he got divorced.
Speaker 1: I think he moved back to Bulgaria for a time,
Speaker 1: so he went through some shit personally, but that does
Speaker 1: not explain why in twenty twenty three he only worked
Speaker 1: seven matches, all of which were either on Collision or
Speaker 1: on pay per view. There were two of them on
Speaker 1: pay per view. He hasn't worked a match on Dynamite
Speaker 1: in three years. Three years he hasn't wrestled a single
Speaker 1: match on their flagship show. His only singles losses in
Speaker 1: five years working for Tony Kahan were to Sammy Gavarro
Speaker 1: when he lost the TNT title, and to Brian Danielson.
Speaker 1: That was in the finals of an eliminator tournament at
Speaker 1: full Gear. You know when that was. That was in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. That was the last time Miro lost
Speaker 1: a match if you don't count the four way that
Speaker 1: he was a part of at that first Forbidden Door
Speaker 1: pay per view. Like, these numbers in these stats are insane,
Speaker 1: especially for someone who you would not consider a top
Speaker 1: guy on the level of a Roman Raids or a
Speaker 1: John Cena, or in aw terms, a Kenny Omega or
Speaker 1: a John Moxley. Right, he was not at that level
Speaker 1: of stardom, but he seems to have had a lot
Speaker 1: of say in how he was booked, and that was
Speaker 1: one of the raps on him over the years, is
Speaker 1: that the company would pitch ideas to him and he
Speaker 1: would turn them down. Right. It's not that they didn't
Speaker 1: want to use him, but whenever they did, he didn't
Speaker 1: like what was being presented to him, and so it
Speaker 1: just never worked out. Right. There was a report, now
Speaker 1: it was from Dave, but a few years ago there
Speaker 1: was a report in the Observer that Miro was going
Speaker 1: to lose a Battle Royal. It would come down to
Speaker 1: him and Hangman Page and he was going to lose
Speaker 1: the Battle Royal, and supposedly he refused the idea. He
Speaker 1: didn't want to lose. And then his wife at the time, CJ. Perry,
Speaker 1: was doing an interview somewhere and said that russe v
Speaker 1: Day would be back in WWE one day. Everyone returns
Speaker 1: to WWE at some point. That's what she said, which
Speaker 1: I could understand Tony Kahan hearing that, even though it
Speaker 1: was his wife and not him who said it, right,
Speaker 1: they were husband and wife, and your wife is out
Speaker 1: there publicly saying, yeah, everybody goes back to WWE. He'll
Speaker 1: be back there one day. I could see that not
Speaker 1: sitting well with his current employer. Now that's one side
Speaker 1: of the story about him rejecting creative pitches. One day
Speaker 1: Miro will say his piece, and he may deny it,
Speaker 1: or he may have a different version of what happened.
Speaker 1: But his entire run from start to finish was just weird.
Speaker 1: And I don't think all of that can be laid
Speaker 1: at Tony Kahn's doorstep. I think there's blame to go
Speaker 1: around though why Miro's run in AW failed. Right, his
Speaker 1: redeemer character was really good. But when you look at
Speaker 1: his run from start to finish in this company, I
Speaker 1: don't see how you can classify it as anything other
Speaker 1: than a failure the redeemer character. I would love to
Speaker 1: see some adaptation of that in WWE if he goes back.
Speaker 1: There's talk of maybe Lana even rejoining him. If he
Speaker 1: goes back. I guess they must be on good terms
Speaker 1: even though their no longer husband and wife, if they
Speaker 1: want to work together, Meltzer says. Those close to MirOS
Speaker 1: say that he was constantly pitching ideas to AAW for
Speaker 1: the both of them, and they never went anywhere. And
Speaker 1: then when AW let her go. That was the kind
Speaker 1: of the straw that broke the Campbell's back and it
Speaker 1: led to him asking for his release. Obviously he didn't
Speaker 1: want to be there anymore. I've always said, you know,
Speaker 1: if he really wanted to work, if he wanted to
Speaker 1: work that badly, he would have been back on TV.
Speaker 1: If he wanted to work, he would have had more
Speaker 1: than seven matches in twenty twenty three, or if he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be on AAW television because there were
Speaker 1: creative differences, right, I'm sure he had the right to
Speaker 1: go out there and book his own independent dates. Right.
Speaker 1: We didn't see him working indies. He just wasn't working, right,
Speaker 1: not wrestling matches. If you wanted to work, he would
Speaker 1: have been back on TV in twenty twenty four. Miro
Speaker 1: did not want to be there, Ricky Starks did not
Speaker 1: want to be there. Ray Phoenix does not want to
Speaker 1: be there. So how long do you drag this out
Speaker 1: and pay them When you're not getting any return on
Speaker 1: your investment, It's best to just part ways and make
Speaker 1: room for other free agents, someone like Josh Alexander, for example, who,
Speaker 1: according to Fightful, is expected to sign with AW if
Speaker 1: he has not already done. So. He enlisted the help
Speaker 1: of superagent Barry Bloom to represent him in contract negotiations,
Speaker 1: which should have been a sign right there that he
Speaker 1: was looking to get paid number one and number two.
Speaker 1: Barry Bloom has represented a whole bunch of AW names,
Speaker 1: Chris Jericho, will Osprey, Young Bucks. I saw Jordan Grace
Speaker 1: tweeted to see you soon at Alexander after he finished
Speaker 1: up with TNA on Friday. But it looks like AW
Speaker 1: is going to be his landing spot, and he's super talented.
Speaker 1: But I actually think AAW is the better destination for him.
Speaker 1: I do. I don't know if he still wants the
Speaker 1: ability to work indies. I think he just wrapped up
Speaker 1: his indie commitments and sounded like he was pretty much
Speaker 1: done with it all. But maybe he wants to work
Speaker 1: New Japan, or maybe he just wants to get paid,
Speaker 1: you know. And Tony Kuhn was willing to pay him
Speaker 1: more than what WWE would have been willing to pay
Speaker 1: him for an NXT deal, which is where he would
Speaker 1: have ended up had he gone there. He would have
Speaker 1: done well in NXT on the main roster. I don't
Speaker 1: think he would have been nearly as big as he
Speaker 1: was in TNA in AW I actually feel like he
Speaker 1: has a better shot. I may eat those words, but
Speaker 1: that's how I feel.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's Chris Vanfleet and since you clearly enjoy great
Speaker 2: wrestling podcasts like this one was Solo Monster. When this
Speaker 2: one's done, if you're interested, go check out my podcast
Speaker 2: Insight with Chris Faanvlee. All my interviews that you might
Speaker 2: have seen on YouTube or maybe you've seen clips of
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Speaker 1: I just had Pent on.
Speaker 2: The show for his first full length interview since debuting
Speaker 2: in WWE. It's one of my favorite.
Speaker 1: Interviews I've ever done.
Speaker 2: And some other recent guests include seth Rawlins, Jordan Grace, Baron,
Speaker 2: Corbin Kurt Angle, Dan Housen, Michelle McCool, and so many more.
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Speaker 1: I watched NXT Vengeance Day and I thought it was
Speaker 1: a strong show, good crowd too. In DC. They were
Speaker 1: pretty hot for pretty much the entire show, and that
Speaker 1: energy is a big part of one made those old
Speaker 1: NXT takeovers feel so special. It was still only the
Speaker 1: second best show of the weekend, though behind Grand Slam Australia.
Speaker 1: They were both very good shows, but I give the
Speaker 1: edge to Grand Slam. Stephanie Viquier is the new Women's
Speaker 1: North American Champion with her win over Fallon Henley. I
Speaker 1: like Fallen. I think before the draft last year, I
Speaker 1: pitched for her to get called up. She's not on
Speaker 1: Stephanie's level, but she was good enough to hold her
Speaker 1: own in there and they had a good opener. I
Speaker 1: actually think the crowds are more invested in Stephanie than
Speaker 1: they are in Julia, and they liked Julia. I mean,
Speaker 1: so do I. But Stephanie's reactions are just a notch
Speaker 1: above and it's not hard to see why she's great.
Speaker 1: The announcers went on about how she just became the
Speaker 1: first ever South American born champion in WWE, but as
Speaker 1: someone pointed out to me, Ezekiel Jackson was born in
Speaker 1: Guyana and he was the Intercontinental champion, so the announcers
Speaker 1: on their own show were incorrect. She is the second
Speaker 1: South American born champion ever in WWE. Axiom and Nathan
Speaker 1: Fraser have quietly become one of the best tag teams
Speaker 1: in all of wrestling over the place. They always have
Speaker 1: good to great matches. They retain their NXT tag team
Speaker 1: titles over Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamora, who was on
Speaker 1: excursion from Pro Wrestling Noah. I take it that when
Speaker 1: they sent Briggs over there last year for like a month,
Speaker 1: the two of them struck up a friendship, and now
Speaker 1: they're tag team partners. I've seen a couple of their
Speaker 1: matches together on TV. They haven't had that many, but
Speaker 1: in Amora is still pretty new to me, so I
Speaker 1: don't know a whole hell of a lot about him.
Speaker 1: By the end of this match, though, even he had
Speaker 1: fans chanting his name, and I just I love how
Speaker 1: Briggs just traded one tag team partner for another. But
Speaker 1: I thought everybody looked good here. This turned into a
Speaker 1: hell of a match. I would even say the best
Speaker 1: on the entire show. I had this over the main event.
Speaker 1: I just love that they're more open to sending their
Speaker 1: talent to other promotions and inviting other talent in like
Speaker 1: you know, in Amora to work shows for a while
Speaker 1: before he goes back It's just something that I'm still
Speaker 1: not used to them doing. You know, every other promotion
Speaker 1: pretty much has always done this, but WWE they were
Speaker 1: always you know, no open voters here. You know, they're
Speaker 1: all very walled off, and I think we know why.
Speaker 1: But even if this is only for NXT and they
Speaker 1: don't really do this on the main roster, I like
Speaker 1: that they're doing it at all. After the match was over,
Speaker 1: both teams got jumped by a group of mystery men
Speaker 1: who had their faces covered and it gave me retribution vibes,
Speaker 1: which is not a good thing, and the fans chanted,
Speaker 1: who are you at them? So I guess I know
Speaker 1: they've been teasing this for a little while. I think
Speaker 1: they've had some teasers on TV and glitches and stuff,
Speaker 1: so it's not like it came completely out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: But that's all we got here. That was not the
Speaker 1: last time we would see them either. They put Eddie
Speaker 1: Thorpe over Trick Williams in a scrap match, and the
Speaker 1: fans in the crowd they were shook hands on their
Speaker 1: heads the whole deal because they could not believe that
Speaker 1: they had Trick Williams loose to this guy. Now I
Speaker 1: have not been following their story every single week. I've
Speaker 1: seen bits and pieces of it. I know Eddie was
Speaker 1: obsessed with trying to win the NXT Championship when Trick
Speaker 1: was still champion. They did that angle where he tricked
Speaker 1: no pun intended. He tricked Ava into giving him a
Speaker 1: title shot by pretending that he was attacked backstage by
Speaker 1: a mystery attacker and then revealed that he was never
Speaker 1: really attacked at all, right after he signed the contract
Speaker 1: to a title match, which was clever, even though it
Speaker 1: made Ava look like an idiot. So I know of
Speaker 1: some of the stuff going into it. I thought the
Speaker 1: match was decent, you know, he was still the weakest
Speaker 1: match on the entire show compared to everything else. Obviously
Speaker 1: for Eddie Thorpe, it's a huge win, and my expectation
Speaker 1: is that they'll run this back and Trick I'll get
Speaker 1: his win back. But I still thought it was the
Speaker 1: weakest of all the matches on the show. Ethan Page
Speaker 1: and Javon Evans, on the other hand, this I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: Javon Evans is he's something else. When he did that
Speaker 1: wild dive out of the ring in the first like
Speaker 1: thirty second, not even thirty seconds of the match, and
Speaker 1: he went soaring over Ethan Page and he overshot the
Speaker 1: announced desk. It reminded me of one of those amazing
Speaker 1: red dives that he's busted out a few times at
Speaker 1: hog shows, where he just goes flying into the third
Speaker 1: row and it always scares the shit out of me
Speaker 1: when he does it. But for someone as young as
Speaker 1: he is, you know, Javon is only twenty years old.
Speaker 1: He's already worked a match with Randy Orton, Like you
Speaker 1: see the potential there for him to be something special.
Speaker 1: And they worked the match around the jaw injury that
Speaker 1: Ethan gave him. In storyline, Evans was out there wearing
Speaker 1: a mouthpiece so big I'm surprised that that didn't dislocate
Speaker 1: his jaw, but it got knocked out of his mouth
Speaker 1: near the finish when Page smacked him out of mid
Speaker 1: air on a springboard and that led to a twist
Speaker 1: of fate by Page for the win. So I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed this. I thought, I thought it was good stuff.
Speaker 1: We had Obae defending his NXT championship against Austin Theory
Speaker 1: and Grayson Waller and this just reeked of. We don't
Speaker 1: have an opponent for Oba. So let's just make use
Speaker 1: of these two guys because we're not doing anything with
Speaker 1: them right now anyway. And that's really all this was. Now,
Speaker 1: this was what you would expect with Theory and Waller
Speaker 1: working together only for the cracks the show as the
Speaker 1: match progressed because each of them wanted to become the
Speaker 1: NXT champion, so you knew it would end that way.
Speaker 1: They've been teasing a breakup with these two since the
Speaker 1: Reagan administration, and they did it again here, which means
Speaker 1: that we'll likely get another six months of this before
Speaker 1: they finally pulled the trigger. But they ended up having
Speaker 1: a pretty good match here. Oba is the real deal.
Speaker 1: I've said that before. Oba Femi is just I mean,
Speaker 1: he's just got all the tools to be a major,
Speaker 1: major star on the main roster, and he will be
Speaker 1: the wanna be Retribution group came back out again. They
Speaker 1: attacked Oba when the match was over, for two of
Speaker 1: the guys actually flung him up into the air. It
Speaker 1: Ohpa is a big dude, and they threw him up
Speaker 1: into the air and another guy caught him on the
Speaker 1: way down for a power bomb, so that looked cool.
Speaker 1: You know, whether this New Faction hits. Who knows, But
Speaker 1: I just I can't help but look at them and
Speaker 1: think retribution. I just I just can't. I'm scarred. I'm
Speaker 1: still scarred to this day. I can't help it. And
Speaker 1: they closed the show with the four way match for
Speaker 1: the NXT Women's Championship, with Julia retaining her title over Bailey,
Speaker 1: Roxane Perez, and Corra Jade, who was a late addition
Speaker 1: to the match. I figured they added her to eat
Speaker 1: the pin, but Julia Pinnroxanne to retain the title. But
Speaker 1: if Roxanne is getting the call up soon, then it
Speaker 1: makes sense. So we got to see Julia and Bailey
Speaker 1: mix it up for the first time, and while not
Speaker 1: as messy as some of the work was with Bailey
Speaker 1: and Lyra on Raw last Monday, that was their first
Speaker 1: time in the ring together, there were moments here where
Speaker 1: these two clearly were not on the same page, and
Speaker 1: Bailey actually looked the roughest that of all four women
Speaker 1: in this match. There were a bunch of spots where
Speaker 1: she was just off, you know, just like in the
Speaker 1: Lyra match on Raw. But Julia retains in a very
Speaker 1: good main event. Stephanie Viquier, she walks out to the
Speaker 1: ring after with her North American Championship. They pose together, right,
Speaker 1: her and her BFF and Stephanie was definitely sneaking a
Speaker 1: peek at that NXT Women's Championship. But then right so,
Speaker 1: as they're doing this and I'm thinking, okay, they're setting
Speaker 1: up a champion against champion match for Stand and Deliver,
Speaker 1: then we hear the sirens and it's Jordan Grace, So
Speaker 1: now we know why they chose to close the show
Speaker 1: with this. Jordan Grace gets into the ring and they
Speaker 1: go off the air with all three women staring each
Speaker 1: other down in the ring. As if the NXT women's
Speaker 1: division wasn't strong enough, it's a lot stronger with Jordan
Speaker 1: Grace in it. I didn't think she needed to go
Speaker 1: back to NXT. I still think she doesn't need to
Speaker 1: go back to NXT. She already spent time down there.
Speaker 1: But if they have no WrestleMania plans for her, then
Speaker 1: at least she'll have something to do for the next
Speaker 1: few months and they could call her up whenever. Right
Speaker 1: whenever they're getting ready to call her up, she'll be
Speaker 1: ready to be called up. But they've got a women's
Speaker 1: division headed up by Julia, Stephanie, Vicaire and Jordan Grace
Speaker 1: and Roxanne is still down there for now Zaria and
Speaker 1: I forgot to mention the stuff they're doing with Zaria
Speaker 1: and sol Ruka. Sol Ruka is trying to humanize her.
Speaker 1: I actually get a kick out of it. But that
Speaker 1: division right now is in good hands. Now. The question
Speaker 1: is what's the match for Stand and Deliver? Right. They
Speaker 1: had a segment on the show last week in the
Speaker 1: back where Julia and Stephanie they wished each other luck
Speaker 1: at Vengeance Day and Stephanie said, after she wins the
Speaker 1: North American title, there's only one place left to go, right.
Speaker 1: They were teasing Champion against Champion, So would they do that,
Speaker 1: would they do Grace against or are we heading for
Speaker 1: a triple threat match with all three of them? I'm
Speaker 1: thinking Jordan Grace against Julia, but any combination of those
Speaker 1: three would be fantastic. So I enjoyed it. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a very good show on the whole. I've
Speaker 1: got another update on Vince McMahon, who was spotted at
Speaker 1: the super Bowl in New Orleans last weekend. He finally
Speaker 1: shaved off that fucking Boris Badanov mustache from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Speaker 1: He was hanging out with the Undertaker looking like happy Corbin.
Speaker 1: Shane McMahon was there as well. A federal appeals court
Speaker 1: ruled that a former lawyer for Vince McMahon was wrong
Speaker 1: to withhold documents related to McMahon's handling of two hush
Speaker 1: money settlement deals with former WWE employees. In September twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, federal prosecutors subpoened McMahon's lawyer, who was unnamed
Speaker 1: in court documents, along with their law firm, seeking all
Speaker 1: communications related to the settlements. One of the employees is
Speaker 1: believed to be Jenelle Grant, who reached a three million
Speaker 1: dollar settlement with McMahon. Another seven and a half million
Speaker 1: dollars settlement was made with an unnamed former WWE employee
Speaker 1: or talent. I think it was a talent, female talent
Speaker 1: that worked for the company in the mid two thousands.
Speaker 1: While some materials were turned over, McMahon's lawyer withheld two
Speaker 1: hundred and eight pages of documents, citing attorney client privilege.
Speaker 1: Prosecutors sought a court order for their release, and a
Speaker 1: lower court ruled in their favor on Monday, the Second
Speaker 1: US Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, stating that the
Speaker 1: documents were not protected by attorney client privilege due to
Speaker 1: the crime or fraud exception. The appellate judges wrote because
Speaker 1: the settlement agreements resolving the victim's claims were structured and
Speaker 1: negotiated to keep them hidden from the company, The District
Speaker 1: Court found that all communications about the claims and settlement
Speaker 1: agreements were made in furtherance of the criminal scheme to
Speaker 1: keep the company and its auditors unaware of the allegations.
Speaker 1: The court found reasonable grounds to believe McMahon and his
Speaker 1: lawyer circumvented WWE's internal controls, created false records, and misled
Speaker 1: auditors to keep the settlements hidden. As a result, WWE
Speaker 1: had to revise its financial settlements in August of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two to account for the previously undisclosed payments. Unless
Speaker 1: McMahon's team appeals to the Supreme Court, they would be
Speaker 1: required to turn over the documents to the grand jury
Speaker 1: investigating him. So they make mention of him being the
Speaker 1: subject of a grand jury investigation as if the case
Speaker 1: is still active and ongoing, and yet in the New
Speaker 1: York Post this week, it says. McMahon's lawyer, Robert Allen,
Speaker 1: dismissed the court's ruling as irrelevant, stating that the documents
Speaker 1: will not be reviewed as part of a criminal investigation because,
Speaker 1: according to him, the case has been closed. He said,
Speaker 1: this is simply the result of an appeal of a
Speaker 1: procedural matter that was argued five months ago. We have
Speaker 1: been inconsistent communication with the government since that time. I'm
Speaker 1: understand no ambiguity that the investigation has definitively concluded and
Speaker 1: will not result in charges. Also in the Post article,
Speaker 1: it states that prosecutors decided to drop the case sometime
Speaker 1: by or before January tenth, which is when the SEC
Speaker 1: announced that it had reached a settlement with McMahon to
Speaker 1: resolve the cover up claims now the Southern District of
Speaker 1: New York. They have not commented on whether the investigation
Speaker 1: is still ongoing because they usually don't comment on these things.
Speaker 1: So the only people that have said that it's no
Speaker 1: longer ongoing are Vince's lawyers. And if true, that decision
Speaker 1: comes despite a judge in this case, Judge Valerie Caproni,
Speaker 1: ruling previously that prosecutors had established probable costs to believe
Speaker 1: that McMahon and one of his former lawyers broke the law,
Speaker 1: and again in the appeal this week, all three judges
Speaker 1: uphel Caprony's ruling that interactions between McMahon and the lawyer
Speaker 1: were not protected by attorney client privilege because it was
Speaker 1: a key part of the investigation into a crime. So
Speaker 1: what we've learned is that the investigation was all about
Speaker 1: Vince and his lawyer allegedly concealing documents related to his
Speaker 1: many many settlements, and the government was not investigating him
Speaker 1: for sex trafficking or anything like that. That remains something
Speaker 1: he's accused of by Janelle Grant, and that's a civil case,
Speaker 1: not a criminal one. But through this we did also
Speaker 1: learn more about that seven and a half million dollar settlement,
Speaker 1: which is the largest one that we know of from
Speaker 1: all the settlements and the nbas around Vince. It was
Speaker 1: noted that on December third, twenty eighteen, the former talent's attorney,
Speaker 1: now the former talent in this case would be the
Speaker 1: woman who got the seven and a half million dollar settlement.
Speaker 1: The former talent's attorney sent Vince's lawyer a letter alleging
Speaker 1: that during her time with the company years earlier, McMahon
Speaker 1: had attempted to kiss her, expose himself to her, and
Speaker 1: obtained non consensual oral sex from her, all while she
Speaker 1: was employed by the company. She claimed she was retaliated
Speaker 1: against for refusing to have sex with McMahon, and she
Speaker 1: was seeking eighteen million dollars in damages on or about
Speaker 1: December tenth, twenty eighteen, which actually I December twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: I think, wasn't that the month where all the McMahons
Speaker 1: stood in the ring and lied to us about how
Speaker 1: the fans have the power and creative sucks and we
Speaker 1: recognized that creative sucks, and then they all blamed it
Speaker 1: on Baron Corbyn. Yeah, good times, Honor. About December ten,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, the filing states, the person being investigated and
Speaker 1: the former performer meant to discuss her claims and agreed
Speaker 1: on a settlement amount of seven point five million dollars.
Speaker 1: The parties met, or the parties agreed rather that McMahon
Speaker 1: would pay that out over five years in exchange for
Speaker 1: confidentiality and a release of any claims that she or
Speaker 1: her husband had or might have had against him or
Speaker 1: the company. Negotiations and revisions continued until the agreement was
Speaker 1: signed on February thirteenth, twenty nineteen. Now I know Dave
Speaker 1: and the observer. He also mentioned that there were discussions
Speaker 1: in the negotiations of the woman writing a book about
Speaker 1: her experiences, you know, regarding her turning McMahon down and
Speaker 1: being sent from the main roster to developmental and then
Speaker 1: having her contract not renewed. But she would not be allowed,
Speaker 1: I guess, to write a book so long as the
Speaker 1: person being investigated, which we presume to be Vince, was
Speaker 1: still alive. So I don't know if that was ultimately
Speaker 1: agreed to or not, but if so, then it's possible
Speaker 1: she may reveal her identity once Vince is no longer
Speaker 1: around and she writes a book about it. I mean,
Speaker 1: people have been speculating about who the woman is since
Speaker 1: it first came out in the Wall Street Journal. I
Speaker 1: have my suspicion about who it is, you know, as
Speaker 1: someone who was on the main roster and then got
Speaker 1: sent down to developmental around that time and then disappeared
Speaker 1: from the company. I have my suspicions, but I won't
Speaker 1: say who I think it is. As far as prosecutors
Speaker 1: not bringing charges against Vince clearly they had a case
Speaker 1: against him. The judges felt the same way, but it
Speaker 1: wouldn't have mattered because even if they did bring charges
Speaker 1: against him, there's not a chance in hell, there is
Speaker 1: not a chance in hell that this Justice Department would
Speaker 1: allow that to go anywhere. And even if it did, right,
Speaker 1: he would be pardoned anyway. So it would have been
Speaker 1: a gigantic waste of everybody's time, a gigantic waste of
Speaker 1: money and spent for what for nothing. Right, as soon
Speaker 1: as the results came in on November fifth, this case
Speaker 1: was effectively over. But this does not mean that he's
Speaker 1: still not facing a sex trafficking lawsuit. And there has
Speaker 1: been no update since the last one that I gave
Speaker 1: you about whether Janelle Grant's amended complaint has been accepted
Speaker 1: by the court. Because she did file an amended one.
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon, John Lorinidis and WWE they have until this
Speaker 1: Friday to respond to that amended lawsuit, and until that's resolved,
Speaker 1: there's no update as to whether or not the case
Speaker 1: is going to go to trial, which is what she wants,
Speaker 1: or going to binding arbitration, which is what all the
Speaker 1: others want, And that's going to be the most important
Speaker 1: decision made in this case, because if the decision is
Speaker 1: made that she should be free from the NDA that
Speaker 1: she signed and she could take this to trial, that
Speaker 1: makes it a whole lot more likely that the sex
Speaker 1: pest ends up offering her a nice, big fat settlement
Speaker 1: to make all of this go away. If it goes
Speaker 1: to arbitration, then that's a different story. But if it's
Speaker 1: ruled that this can go to trial, I very seriously
Speaker 1: doubt this ever ends up going to trial. Raw was
Speaker 1: better than SmackDown this week, but not by much. The
Speaker 1: in ring is what really carried Raw, but also by
Speaker 1: virtue of not being three hours that automatically gives Raw
Speaker 1: a leg up on SmackDown. And speaking of SmackDown, PW
Speaker 1: Insider is reporting that road Dog Brian Jane James has
Speaker 1: been named the new lead co writer for SmackDown, joining
Speaker 1: John Swakata an unfortunate last name because that's not how
Speaker 1: I read it in heading creative for the Blue Brand,
Speaker 1: and hearing this, I find myself filled with dread. Sounds
Speaker 1: like he's first taking over. Now, this triple H does
Speaker 1: not get a pass for this. SmackDown has not been
Speaker 1: great for a while. Now, it's not like the show
Speaker 1: couldn't use an overhaul. But road Dog, I guess the
Speaker 1: DX takeover of creative across the entire company is nearly complete.
Speaker 1: We just need Waltman now in charge of Raw. This
Speaker 1: is the same road Dog who took over as the
Speaker 1: lead writer on SmackDown at the end of twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: and the quality of the show nosedived after that, to
Speaker 1: the point where the fans even started a hashtag fire
Speaker 1: road Dog on social media. But that was also still
Speaker 1: the Vince McMahon era, and what we saw on TV
Speaker 1: was what Vince McMahon wanted us to see, or what
Speaker 1: they thought Vince McMahon wanted to see. So now the
Speaker 1: sex pest is gone and road Dog is writing for
Speaker 1: someone else, so we'll see how that goes, you know.
Speaker 1: Road Dog said, one of the reasons he quit his
Speaker 1: head writer the first time was that he was just
Speaker 1: sick and tired of Vince McMahon tearing his work apart.
Speaker 1: So was it a case where he had good ideas
Speaker 1: and Vince made them worse or did Vince change them
Speaker 1: because they sucked? And as bad as what we saw
Speaker 1: on television, was it would have been even worse had
Speaker 1: he not ripped it apart and changed it. See that's
Speaker 1: the question, right. He was one of the ones writing
Speaker 1: at the time for the KOFE Mania stuff. Heading into
Speaker 1: WrestleMania thirty five, he was writing for the Angle with
Speaker 1: Randy Orton joining the Wyatt family. But my god, I
Speaker 1: mean was there was so much bad shit during that period.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just SmackDown. It was both shows at
Speaker 1: various points between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen, like during
Speaker 1: that period. For all the good things things that we
Speaker 1: did get out of that period, because it wasn't all bad,
Speaker 1: but for all the good things we may have gotten,
Speaker 1: it was the absolute creative bottom for that company. Just
Speaker 1: dreadful at three hours. I don't know that anybody can
Speaker 1: save SmackDown. I don't think that show is going to
Speaker 1: get tolerable until it goes back to two hours in
Speaker 1: a few months, and we're just going to have to
Speaker 1: just grit our teeth and wait until we get there.
Speaker 1: That's not an excuse, though, to put on boring shows, right,
Speaker 1: you could certainly come up with some fresh ideas, but
Speaker 1: I really don't think SmackDown is going to benefit from
Speaker 1: any changes now in the way that it could until
Speaker 1: they reduced the show from three hours to two hours,
Speaker 1: because they're still working with a two hour roster and
Speaker 1: they're trying to stretch, and it's making for these long,
Speaker 1: boring stretches where maybe the third hour is good, but
Speaker 1: the first two are fucking terrible. Like it's just SmackDown
Speaker 1: has become the worst show of the week. So if
Speaker 1: they want to make changes to the show, I don't
Speaker 1: see how it can get much worse. You know. It's like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's see what happens. But I'm telling you, the three
Speaker 1: hours is not the only problem with smack Down, but
Speaker 1: it's a very big problem with that show right now. Now,
Speaker 1: going back to Raw Monday night, they opened the show
Speaker 1: with a hot angle with Jay Usso coming out doing
Speaker 1: his entrance. Everybody's going wild, and then Gunther comes out
Speaker 1: and trips him up and we got a brawl between them,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately Jay says, you know what, I've made
Speaker 1: my choice, Gunther. It's going to be you and me
Speaker 1: for the World Heavyweight Championship of WrestleMania. It was the
Speaker 1: obvious choice. Everybody knew he was going to pick. Gunther.
Speaker 1: That's not a surprise, but the way they did the angle,
Speaker 1: I thought it was well done. Then you fast forward
Speaker 1: to SmackDown on Friday. Charlotte Flair comes out after Tiffany
Speaker 1: Stratton's match with Naya Jacks and chooses Tiffany as her
Speaker 1: opponent to challenge for the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: which again not a surprise. I think most people expected
Speaker 1: that it was going to be Charlotte and Tiffany and
Speaker 1: not Charlotte and Rhea Ripley. Trish Gratis was on SmackDown
Speaker 1: Friday night as well. We come to find out that
Speaker 1: she's going to be teaming with Tiffany against Naya and
Speaker 1: Candace Lay in Toronto at the Elimination Chamber. So getting
Speaker 1: Trisha on that show in Toronto makes all the sense
Speaker 1: in the world. She tried to come to Tiffany's eight
Speaker 1: on Friday after her match with Naya, and so she
Speaker 1: got kind of all mixed up with Naya and Candace.
Speaker 1: Hence the tag team match that we're going to be getting.
Speaker 1: A Ria Ripley is not going to be defending against
Speaker 1: Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania. However, she will be defending her
Speaker 1: Women's World title against EO Sky, but it will not
Speaker 1: be at WrestleMania, but it will be on the raw
Speaker 1: after the Elimination Chamber. That does not mean that we
Speaker 1: still won't get it though. At WrestleMania, we still could
Speaker 1: very well end up getting Rihea Ripley and EO Sky.
Speaker 1: But if we do, it's going to have to be
Speaker 1: a triple threat match because the winner of the Elimination
Speaker 1: Chamber is guaranteed a shot at Rhea's championship. Now that
Speaker 1: we know that Tiffany has her opponent, that Elimination Chamber
Speaker 1: match comes a shot, a guaranteed shot at Rhea Ripley's title.
Speaker 1: EO Sky is not in the Elimination Chamber. So if
Speaker 1: you are someone who wants to see EO Sky challenging
Speaker 1: Riao Ripley at WrestleMania, then gonna you're hoping for a
Speaker 1: triple threat match is what you're hoping for, because that's
Speaker 1: the only way that it happens. And I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: into the media stuff here in a second, so we'll
Speaker 1: talk about what that might look like. But Logan, Paul,
Speaker 1: Damian Priest, Bailey, and Naomi they have all qualified this
Speaker 1: week for their respective elimination chamber matches, So there's only
Speaker 1: a couple of spots left. Lyra Valkyria and Chelsea Green.
Speaker 1: Those are your two women's mid car champions right now.
Speaker 1: In WWE. Lyra is the Intercontinental champion. Chelsea Green is
Speaker 1: the United States champion. They both got pinned in qualifying
Speaker 1: matches in the same week. It's just bad optics. Both
Speaker 1: of your champions get pinned and beaten in the same week.
Speaker 1: What does that say for what WWE and Triple AH
Speaker 1: thinks of these two titles that they established. This is
Speaker 1: this is the reason why I was not against the
Speaker 1: idea of them establishing an intercontinental title, okay, or a
Speaker 1: US title one of the other. Right, I would prefer
Speaker 1: IC because if you ask me, of all with the
Speaker 1: men's titles, even like, what do I look at better
Speaker 1: the Intercontinental title of the US. Well, I grew up
Speaker 1: with the Intercontinental title and watching those guys and watching
Speaker 1: those matches, so I will always choose the IC over
Speaker 1: the US. But I was in favor of trying it
Speaker 1: and saying, you know what, they have the talent for it.
Speaker 1: They just have to come up with good stories. But Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: you want to introduce an IC title, go for it.
Speaker 1: Don't do both. Just because you do one doesn't mean well,
Speaker 1: we got to do the other. Start out with one,
Speaker 1: even if the champion floats between shows, see how it goes,
Speaker 1: and if it goes well, you can always introduce a
Speaker 1: women's US title later in the year. You don't have
Speaker 1: to do them both at the same time. So what
Speaker 1: did they do. They did them both at the same
Speaker 1: time because we have we have to have, you know,
Speaker 1: parody here between the two brands. And I am unimpressed
Speaker 1: by what they have done so far. It's only been
Speaker 1: a couple of months. I am thoroughly unimpressed. Lyra Valcarry
Speaker 1: is going to be defending her title soon against Ivy Nile.
Speaker 1: That's what they seem to be building towards. But she
Speaker 1: won that championship on January thirteenth. I believe it was right.
Speaker 1: She beat Dakota Kai in the finals, and up until
Speaker 1: this past week, I'm not even counting the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 1: I mean, in terms of matches she had not wrestled.
Speaker 1: She won the title, and then she sat and did
Speaker 1: nothing for a month, and then her first match after
Speaker 1: winning the Championship. She fucking loses. What are we doing here?
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the state of those two titles right
Speaker 1: now as they currently exist. But you know, all this
Speaker 1: talk about wrestle media, Let's talk for a little bit
Speaker 1: here about wrestle media forty one because I see a
Speaker 1: lot of discourse on the line about WrestleMania. What do
Speaker 1: you think of the cards so far? I should point
Speaker 1: out that we legitimately only have two matches official. Okay,
Speaker 1: we only have two matches so far official for WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: so we don't know for sure where things are gonna land. Right.
Speaker 1: We could come back and have this conversation and run
Speaker 1: this back in a month and be like, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: well this is a hell of a lot better than
Speaker 1: what I thought it was gonna be. But I think
Speaker 1: we have a pretty good sense of where certain things
Speaker 1: are headed. So the question is, like, what do you
Speaker 1: think about the WrestleMania card so far? The way it
Speaker 1: looks like it's shaping up. Do you think it's good?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's lackluster. If you think the WrestleMania
Speaker 1: card feels lackluster, this is a good reason for that.
Speaker 1: And you got to remember where we were a year ago.
Speaker 1: A year ago, all of the talk was around the Rock.
Speaker 1: But what the Rock almost did to Cody Rhodes and
Speaker 1: his title match of WrestleMania, and then they had to
Speaker 1: blow up their plans and they had to pivot, right,
Speaker 1: That was the word of WrestleMania season. They pivoted, We
Speaker 1: have to pivot. Well, they made the pivot, and it
Speaker 1: was the right pivot to make because we ended up
Speaker 1: with Final Boss Rock, which injected an energy into the
Speaker 1: shows that just isn't there when he's not there because
Speaker 1: he's The Rock. So obviously when he's around and he's
Speaker 1: playing heel and he's healing on the fans, right, it's
Speaker 1: very entertaining and it's just a different vibe when he's around.
Speaker 1: So we have The Rock on TV on some weeks,
Speaker 1: and Cody Rhoades was finishing his story, this fucking story
Speaker 1: that he was going to finish, right, This story they
Speaker 1: were telling for two years. It was all culminating in
Speaker 1: that rematch with Roman Reigns a WrestleMania. That's the difference
Speaker 1: between the wrestle Media build from a year ago and
Speaker 1: the WrestleMania build from now. They had that coarse story
Speaker 1: that long term story with Cody that they paid off.
Speaker 1: They don't have anything like that this year, and they
Speaker 1: don't have the Rock, at least not yet. They don't
Speaker 1: have the Rock on the show. So you wonder what's
Speaker 1: missing from where we were a year ago. That's what's missing.
Speaker 1: And so you look at some of the matches that
Speaker 1: are being proposed, and some of the matches are more
Speaker 1: appealing than others. But I think that has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with why this card so far is feeling
Speaker 1: very lackluster compared to last year, because those are two
Speaker 1: very big things that we don't have going into this
Speaker 1: year's show. Cody Rose is now the defending WWE champion.
Speaker 1: Who is he going to defend his title against? There's
Speaker 1: still multiple options as to who that could be. The
Speaker 1: likeliest option is John Cena. John Cena is in the
Speaker 1: elimination Chamber. He didn't have to qualify for it because
Speaker 1: he's John Cena. He was in the Royal Rumble, he lost,
Speaker 1: He's going into the elimination Chamber. I don't want to
Speaker 1: get ahead of myself with predictions. I think it's a
Speaker 1: hell of a lot more likely he wins this time.
Speaker 1: So we're looking at Cody Rose against John Cena. That's
Speaker 1: probably if you had to rank them in terms of
Speaker 1: possible matches, the one that would be ranked number one
Speaker 1: as far as the likeliest to happen. Now, I will
Speaker 1: point out to you that last week on Pat McAfee's show,
Speaker 1: he had Ari Emanuel on right, he's the head of
Speaker 1: everything when it comes to Endeavor and Tko, he's the
Speaker 1: head Hans show, And he was talking about the elimination
Speaker 1: Chamber and ari Emmanuel said, March first, I think there
Speaker 1: are some pretty good things going to happen there. What
Speaker 1: did he mean by that? I'm sure Ari Emmanuel was
Speaker 1: not on Pat McAfee's show talking about how great the
Speaker 1: women's elimination Chamber is going to be. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be some pretty good things going on there. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get Tiffany Stratton and Trish Stratus against Naya Jackson Candas
Speaker 1: lore No. I don't think that's what he was talking about.
Speaker 1: What did he mean by that? Could we still get
Speaker 1: the Rock on the WrestleMania car. He's been awfully quiet lately.
Speaker 1: Is he going to show up in Toronto? I mean,
Speaker 1: unless he somehow ends up inside the chamber. I don't
Speaker 1: know what he would be there to do. But then again,
Speaker 1: he showed up a bad Blood and that didn't lead
Speaker 1: to anything either. So do I think The Rock is
Speaker 1: going to show up and end up wrestling Cody? No,
Speaker 1: I don't. Because they have a chamber match, We're going
Speaker 1: to have a winner. That's the person going on to WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: Could The Rock still have some kind of involvement in
Speaker 1: the show, even, you know, away from Cody, It's possible.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know what he meant by that comment,
Speaker 1: unless that was just, you know, the CEO and president
Speaker 1: of this big company just trying to hype up a
Speaker 1: big show coming out. It could have been as simple
Speaker 1: as that, but it caught my eye when I read
Speaker 1: what he said, because if that somehow led to Cody
Speaker 1: and Rock for the WWE title, let's just say hypothetically somehow.
Speaker 1: I don't see how that would happen, but somehow, if
Speaker 1: it led to Cody and Rock for the WWE Championship,
Speaker 1: that would open up John Cena to wrestle Logan Paul.
Speaker 1: Because right now I don't have a match for Logan
Speaker 1: Paul at WrestleMania. I don't know who he wrestles. If
Speaker 1: not John Cena, the only name I could come up with,
Speaker 1: and I actually I could see this, and I think
Speaker 1: it would be a great match is AJ Styles. I
Speaker 1: could see Logan Paul and AJ Style. AJ just got
Speaker 1: moved over to Raw. Logan Paul is new to raw.
Speaker 1: They've never worked before one on one. Actually, you know
Speaker 1: now that I mentioned that, I kind of liked that match,
Speaker 1: So maybe they could do Logan and AJ. But I
Speaker 1: think we're looking at Cody and Cina. Then you go
Speaker 1: further down the card. Roman Reigns, Right, Roman Reigns is
Speaker 1: not going to be back on television until after the
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber. They didn't want him in the chamber because
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to win the chamber and they didn't
Speaker 1: want to beat him. They didn't want to pin him. Right,
Speaker 1: It's one thing to be dumped out of the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 1: It's another thing to get your shoulders pinned to the mat.
Speaker 1: So Roman Reigns, CM Punk and seth Rawlins. When we
Speaker 1: last saw Roman and all those guys at the Rumble, right,
Speaker 1: they were all kind of tangled up together there when
Speaker 1: everybody got dumped out of the ring, and it seems
Speaker 1: very likely that Roman will be in the ring with
Speaker 1: at least one of them, But I don't really have
Speaker 1: a good spot for Punk if he's not a part
Speaker 1: of this, So I think we're looking at a triple
Speaker 1: threat match Roman, Rains, CM, Punk and seth Rawlins, all
Speaker 1: of whom have different issues with each so you can't
Speaker 1: say there is in history there with some of them.
Speaker 1: And Punk has that favor from Paul Hayman. Is he
Speaker 1: going to catch that in in some way or are
Speaker 1: they going to hold off on that. I think it
Speaker 1: would be a great match. I think it's a compelling match.
Speaker 1: I always in these situations, would much rather a singles match,
Speaker 1: you know, like a hot one on one match with
Speaker 1: some deep story to it. But that would be big. Look,
Speaker 1: you know, you put Rains, Punk and Rollins in the
Speaker 1: ring together, it's gonna be a big match. Gunther is
Speaker 1: going to be defending against jay usso we already know that,
Speaker 1: and there's a story there to be told. Tiffany Stratton
Speaker 1: is going to be defending against Charlotte Flair. That's been confirmed,
Speaker 1: and that's the match I've been figuring going back to
Speaker 1: probably last fall, that that was the match that we
Speaker 1: were going to end up with Rhea Ripley defending her
Speaker 1: Women's World title against who to go back to what
Speaker 1: I was saying before, She's going to defend against EO
Speaker 1: sky On. I guess that would be March third, on
Speaker 1: the March third episode of Raw. We don't know the
Speaker 1: women yet who are going to be in the elimination chamber.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the elimination chamber and the name I'm
Speaker 1: looking at is Live Morgan. Live Morgan winning the elimination
Speaker 1: Chamber to wrestle Ria Ripley or WrestleMania would be ridiculous
Speaker 1: because they have played out the Rhea Ripley and Live
Speaker 1: Morgan story already and they blew it off on the
Speaker 1: Netflix premiere and that should have been the end of it.
Speaker 1: But if we get Live Morgan winning in the chamber,
Speaker 1: and then if Live Morgan gets involved in the Rio
Speaker 1: Ripley EO sky match, right Ria or Live in Raquel.
Speaker 1: Let's say they get involved and we get no winner,
Speaker 1: we get no definitive winner between Rio Ripley and Eoski,
Speaker 1: and March third, then what I think we're looking at
Speaker 1: is a triple threat match with Ria Ripley defending her
Speaker 1: title against Live Morgan and Eosky. So that to me
Speaker 1: is the likeliest scenario here. There are other options because
Speaker 1: Bianca Belair, for example, has qualified for the elimination Chamber.
Speaker 1: I would love to get Rhea Ripley and Bianca bel
Speaker 1: Air at WrestleMania, but at this point it would just
Speaker 1: feel rushed, right because they've had no interaction. Bianca has
Speaker 1: involved in a completely different storyline right now, and so
Speaker 1: I hate to say it, but I think they've already
Speaker 1: kind of missed the boat on doing that match this year.
Speaker 1: Probably better off holding off until forty two at this point.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm looking at this going Rhea live
Speaker 1: an EO is what I think the match is going
Speaker 1: to be at WrestleMania. Kevin Owens and Sammy's ain They're
Speaker 1: headed for yet another battle. Kevin Owens was on SmackDown
Speaker 1: in a pre recorded video as Sammy was, but Kevin
Speaker 1: Owens said, in response to the video that Sammy sent
Speaker 1: in talking about his injuries and how we're going to
Speaker 1: do the dance again, I'm gonna get my hands on you,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, Owen said, Okay, let's do it. He
Speaker 1: invited him to Toronto cleared or not, because Samy's Ain
Speaker 1: is not medically cleared. You come to Toronto and we'll
Speaker 1: do it in Toronto. I don't know that Sam's Ain
Speaker 1: is going to be medically cleared on TV to have
Speaker 1: a proper match elimination chamber, but they're definitely shooting an
Speaker 1: angle or doing something unsanctioned at that show, which makes sense.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be in Canada, and it's kind of where
Speaker 1: they both started out together. Big crowd in Toronto. I
Speaker 1: mean they're at the SkyDome. You know they're not gonna
Speaker 1: have sixty or seventy thousand people. I think they basically
Speaker 1: have it set up for thirty thousand, but it's going
Speaker 1: to be a big show. So the question is if
Speaker 1: they don't do a proper match, are they saving the
Speaker 1: actual match between them for WrestleMania And what the hell
Speaker 1: does that mean for Randy Orton? Because we have not
Speaker 1: seen Randy Orton since he got taken out by Kevin
Speaker 1: Owens with a pile driver. He has not been seen,
Speaker 1: he has not been heard from, He was not in
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble. Is he going to show up in
Speaker 1: Toronto and go after Kevin Owens. It doesn't feel like it.
Speaker 1: So are we going to get some kind of an
Speaker 1: angle instead of a proper match in Toronto? And then
Speaker 1: do Owens and Zane in Las Vegas. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that means for Randy Orton. If you do that,
Speaker 1: it doesn't make any sense to me. For Randy Orton
Speaker 1: to eventually come back and not target Kevin Owens for
Speaker 1: what he did to him and just ignore it. That
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense to me. It just doesn't unless
Speaker 1: Cody retains at WrestleMania. Randy Orton makes a surprise return
Speaker 1: on SmackDown that week after Mania, and the first thing
Speaker 1: he does is he drops Cody with an RKO out
Speaker 1: of nowhere, and we're left to wonder what the fuck why?
Speaker 1: And then the following week we get the promo from
Speaker 1: Randy explaining how he came to agree with Kevin Owens.
Speaker 1: He sees things the way that Ko does. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: Cody is duplicitous and Cody is a terrible friend and
Speaker 1: doesn't care about anybody but himself, and that's how we
Speaker 1: get Cody and Randy. Randy just sort of comes around
Speaker 1: to the same idea. Maybe that's the plan. Drew McIntyre
Speaker 1: is another one. I wish Drew McIntyre had something better,
Speaker 1: like a much bigger match than he's obviously gonna end
Speaker 1: up having on this show, because he had just incredible
Speaker 1: year last year and he's one of the more compelling
Speaker 1: characters on the show. He deserves better than this. But
Speaker 1: it looks like he's either going to be wrestling Damian
Speaker 1: Priest or maybe someone like La Knight, because there was
Speaker 1: apparently talk this week internally about them, you know, considering
Speaker 1: maybe we should be doing McIntyre a night and playing
Speaker 1: off the real heat right coming out of the Royal
Speaker 1: Rumble when Drew was all upset with La Knights and
Speaker 1: LA Knight made that little dig in his promo last week. Oh,
Speaker 1: I forgot to get my stuff in, right. I think
Speaker 1: that if you give me the choice, if I could
Speaker 1: book one or the other, it has to be one
Speaker 1: or the other for Drew McIntyre. I personally, I'm going
Speaker 1: with l A. Knight, and I think Damian Priest is great.
Speaker 1: I think he's fine. But I just think the build
Speaker 1: up and the promos and playing off you know, that
Speaker 1: real situation just makes it a more interesting match. It
Speaker 1: just makes it a more interesting build if that's what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do. The history though, is there with Damian
Speaker 1: Priest if you go back to rest media last year,
Speaker 1: Damian Priest cashed in his money in the bank and
Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre and then they had another match, a clash
Speaker 1: at the Castle. But even that was kind of a
Speaker 1: fuck finish because you had seem Punk interfering as the
Speaker 1: guest referee. So we really have not had a decisive
Speaker 1: winner between these two men. And then, of course at
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble, who eliminated Damien? Who eliminated Drew McIntyre
Speaker 1: rather Damian Priest, everything is set up for Damian Priest
Speaker 1: to be the opponent, Like logically, historically it makes far
Speaker 1: more sense for it to be Damian Priest. I just think,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of the week to week build up,
Speaker 1: I would find it more entertaining if it was La
Speaker 1: Knight going out there cutting promos and Drew and Drew
Speaker 1: cutting promos on him. He's already doing that on social media.
Speaker 1: He's already he's already lighting him up on social media.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see more of that, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you. So let's say Damian Priest gets that match Okay,
Speaker 1: what do you do with La Knight? He's still over.
Speaker 1: You got to give him something on that show. He
Speaker 1: has made it very clear, as he did this week,
Speaker 1: he wants to get back his United States Championships. So
Speaker 1: do they just rematch him in Shinsky Nakamora and he
Speaker 1: wins the belt back? Like, if you're an La Knight fan,
Speaker 1: I would argue that a match with Drew McIntyre would
Speaker 1: actually be a bigger spot for him on the show
Speaker 1: than just wrestling Knackamora and winning the US title. But
Speaker 1: that maybe what ends up happening. But then there's Jimmy Usso.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about Jimmy. There was a segment on
Speaker 1: SmackDown Friday Night where Drew McIntyre again was mocking Jimmy.
Speaker 1: Right low, look at your brother. Your brother's going to WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: He's challenging for a championship, and like, poor Jimmy, Jimmy's
Speaker 1: got nothing going on. I think maybe they're building to
Speaker 1: Jimmy Usso winning the US title and you could have
Speaker 1: both USO celebrating at the end of WrestleMania one with
Speaker 1: each title, right, Jimmy with the US title, Jay with
Speaker 1: the World title. I think that may be what they're
Speaker 1: going for. So are we looking at another triple threat
Speaker 1: match here? This could easily be a multi man match.
Speaker 1: It could be a three way, it could be a
Speaker 1: four way. Get a bunch of people in there, challenge
Speaker 1: for the US title. That's what this feels like to me.
Speaker 1: All this fantasy booking of WrestleMania and all these potential
Speaker 1: multiman matches and having flashbacks to WrestleMania two thousand, that's
Speaker 1: not a good thing. Bron Breaker, He's the Intercontinental champion.
Speaker 1: They have teased a couple of matches for him, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be WrestleMania, but they've teased something
Speaker 1: with him in Penta right. It was just a one
Speaker 1: off in the back many weeks ago, and they did
Speaker 1: the same thing this week where he confronted aj Styles
Speaker 1: and they stared at each other and Bron told them,
Speaker 1: see year around, is that the Intercontinental title match for WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: I would rather it be Seamus. I've made that very
Speaker 1: clear before. There's a story to be told with Seamus
Speaker 1: finally winning the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania. No one's been
Speaker 1: talking about him for WrestleMania. I'd prefer Shamus, not that
Speaker 1: AJ wouldn't be a great opponent for him, but I
Speaker 1: would still prefer Breaker and Seamus. And you know what,
Speaker 1: Gunther's going to lose that World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see Gunther working AJ coming out of
Speaker 1: that show, because they've never worked together before. That would
Speaker 1: be a great program Gunther and AJ styles. That could
Speaker 1: be what Gunther does coming out of Mania. Then you
Speaker 1: have the bloodline, right Timu Bloodline, Jacob Fa Tu, Tomataga,
Speaker 1: Solo so CoA. You see that there is a drama
Speaker 1: from within the bloodline after what happened on SmackDown Friday Night.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get Solo Socoa against Jacob Fa tw at
Speaker 1: some point, probably WrestleMania. I think that's the WrestleMania match
Speaker 1: for those guys. You've got Penta. You've got to get
Speaker 1: Penta on the WrestleMania card. They shot an angle at
Speaker 1: the end of Raw Monday Night after Raymisterio lost his
Speaker 1: Chamber qualifier to Logan Paul, where the New Day ran
Speaker 1: out to attack him and they went off the air
Speaker 1: two seconds later. We got to see none of it. Now,
Speaker 1: there was a video that was uploaded, I guess to
Speaker 1: YouTube after the fact of the attack on Ray. They
Speaker 1: went after his knee. They took a chair to the knee.
Speaker 1: It felt like an angle to write him off for
Speaker 1: a while. And what I'm thinking here is that and
Speaker 1: I talked about this on Monday in my raw review,
Speaker 1: and I see the vision here. I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is Triple H's vision, but this is my vision
Speaker 1: of where this is headed. You have the New Day.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to take out each member of the LWO.
Speaker 1: You know, Dragon Lee came out after the show Monday
Speaker 1: night to try to rescue Ray, and he got beat
Speaker 1: down too. But you got Dragon Lee, You've got Cruise
Speaker 1: Del Toro, You've got Jokin Wilde. They're gonna have to
Speaker 1: take each member out because if Ray comes back and
Speaker 1: he needs a partner to go after the New Day,
Speaker 1: He's got three guys right there, right, You've got to
Speaker 1: come up with a way to get them out of
Speaker 1: the picture. And it looks like Ray has nobody right.
Speaker 1: The New Day has gotten rid of every member of
Speaker 1: the LWO. Ray finally comes back sometime in March, whenever
Speaker 1: it is he returns, and it's two on one, he's
Speaker 1: got nobody to help him, and that's when Penta comes
Speaker 1: to the aid of Raymistereo and we get Ray and
Speaker 1: Penta again. To the new day at Wrestlemdia. You look
Speaker 1: at the SmackDown tag team title situation, I think we're
Speaker 1: headed for a multi team match, probably a ladder match,
Speaker 1: which is kind of you know, that'd be kind of lazy, honestly,
Speaker 1: because that's what they did last year when they merged
Speaker 1: the titles. But I think that's where we're headed something
Speaker 1: with the Street Profits and pretty Deadly and Los Garza
Speaker 1: and Diy, they're all gonna lump them into one match together.
Speaker 1: So then the question is what about Bianca, What about Jade?
Speaker 1: What about Naomi? Right, we had a segment on SmackDown
Speaker 1: where Nick Aldo he received some anonymous cell phone video
Speaker 1: and he showed them and it showed when Jade was
Speaker 1: attacked and they were loading her into the ambulance in
Speaker 1: the parking lot. We see Live Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
Speaker 1: on the side like scurrying away, and of course the
Speaker 1: dumb babyfaces just take that to me, Well, they must
Speaker 1: have done it. We know who the culprit is. Boy
Speaker 1: Naomi looked awfully nervous when all this was about to
Speaker 1: show that video, So it's a misdirect. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: end up being Live Morgan in Raquel as the perpetrators.
Speaker 1: I still say it's gonna be Naomi. It could be
Speaker 1: Naomi and Bianca. I don't see them turning Biyanca heel.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be Naomi. I don't know when
Speaker 1: we're gonna get the ultimate reveal. I don't know when
Speaker 1: Jade is going to be back on TV. I would
Speaker 1: assume it would be in time for a WrestleMania match,
Speaker 1: But what's that match? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Is it Jade against Naomi? What the hell does Bianca do? Right?
Speaker 1: Who's Bianca going to be in the ring with? Are
Speaker 1: they still gonna be Women's tag team champions come WRESTLEMANI
Speaker 1: maybe they're defending and losing the women's tag team titles
Speaker 1: on that show. That's what I'm not sure of. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the match for Mania is going to
Speaker 1: look like. The women's mid titles, they haven't been booked
Speaker 1: for shit so far. I don't even know that they're
Speaker 1: going to be defended on WRESTLEMANI and then the last
Speaker 1: thing is we have not heard one name mentioned for
Speaker 1: this show, and that name is Guldberg. We have not
Speaker 1: heard about Goldberg for WrestleMania, even though he did say
Speaker 1: he's going to be having his retirement match in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five and teasing at the time that it would
Speaker 1: be against Gunther, although they never actually said who it
Speaker 1: would be against, so they haven't mentioned Goldberg. Goldberg has
Speaker 1: not appeared. I don't know that the match is happening
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania. Maybe it's going to happen on one of
Speaker 1: the Saudi shows. But that's just something to keep in
Speaker 1: mind because I think a lot of people assume that
Speaker 1: if he was going to be retiring, it would be
Speaker 1: on a big show like WrestleMania. It still could happen,
Speaker 1: but we have not heard his name mentioned at all.
Speaker 1: So when I look at this potential WrestleMania card, I
Speaker 1: could see where people would be underwhelmed. I do think
Speaker 1: that what they did last year has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with why this year feels less than But again,
Speaker 1: we have two matches confirmed. I don't know where half
Speaker 1: the card is going to end up. There's so many
Speaker 1: different potential paths to take with some of these people.
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting to follow in the next i'd say
Speaker 1: two or three weeks when they start locking shit in
Speaker 1: what the wrestle may be you card this year is
Speaker 1: actually going to look like today's episode is sponsored by Factor.
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Speaker 1: notes before I get to aw both wrestle Votes and
Speaker 1: Fightful reported on Thursday that New Orleans, Louisiana is the
Speaker 1: likely spot for WrestleMania next year, with wrestle votes, adding
Speaker 1: that the announcement will come before WrestleMania forty one in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. Fightful noted that New Orleans had been the
Speaker 1: plan for years and that some WWE partners were made
Speaker 1: aware of the location as well. If it happens, this
Speaker 1: would be the third time that New Orleans gets WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: the last two times being twenty fourteen and twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: And I swore that if they went back, I would
Speaker 1: be there, so it would be my third trip there too.
Speaker 1: They just hosted the Super Bowl last weekend before a
Speaker 1: crowd of sixty five thousand, but believe that's what they claimed,
Speaker 1: So of course WWE would have to announce a number
Speaker 1: higher than that for each night, even if it isn't true.
Speaker 1: That's just how the game is played. We have our
Speaker 1: second name confirmed for the WWE Hall of Fame class
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, joining Triple H, will be Michelle McCool.
Speaker 1: During it appearance Friday morning on ESPN's Get Up, McCool
Speaker 1: was surprised with the news by Triple H, who was
Speaker 1: not there with her but appeared on screen while she
Speaker 1: and the Undertaker were in studio, and Triple H said
Speaker 1: that since the Undertaker and Sean Michaels they surprised him
Speaker 1: about his induction into the Hall of Fame, this was
Speaker 1: his way of basically getting him back, which made it
Speaker 1: sound like she was only going into the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame this year because he wanted He wanted to get
Speaker 1: the Undertaker back, but she got very emotional and even
Speaker 1: the Undertaker started wiping away tears. K Fabe is deater
Speaker 1: than he used to be, So that would make them
Speaker 1: the third husband and wife couple to be inducted into
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. I know Edge and Beth Phoenix
Speaker 1: are both in, and Booker t and Charmel are in,
Speaker 1: and I think that's it. Taker and Michelle would be
Speaker 1: the third. I really thought that somebody like Mickey James
Speaker 1: or Victoria would go in this year, especially with Mickey
Speaker 1: being a part of that LFG show which premieres tonight
Speaker 1: on A and E. But I guess Michelle is on
Speaker 1: there too. She's in at least one of the episodes. Look,
Speaker 1: it's not like she wasn't going in at some point.
Speaker 1: Four time Women's Champion part of the first ever women's
Speaker 1: table match as part of Lay Cool against Beth Phoenix
Speaker 1: and Italia. She really was more associated with her run
Speaker 1: as one half of Lake Cool with Leila l than
Speaker 1: her singles run, which is what makes me laugh, because
Speaker 1: she just did an interview with Chris van Vliet and
Speaker 1: like it literally just dropped this week and the video
Speaker 1: version went up on YouTube on Thursday, and Chris asked
Speaker 1: her about the possibility of going into the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame one day, and she said, of course it would
Speaker 1: be an honor, but lay Cool is what put her
Speaker 1: on the map, and she had hoped that when she
Speaker 1: got or if she ever goes in, she wanted to
Speaker 1: be together with Layla, And then like forty eight hours later,
Speaker 1: she's announced as a solo inductee for the Hall of Fame. Like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: she's not wrong, though, if she was going in, they
Speaker 1: really should have put her in with Laila. They should
Speaker 1: have gone in together. Layla hasn't done anything with the
Speaker 1: company in years since she left. She's kept a very
Speaker 1: low profile. The thing with Michelle McCool, you know, and
Speaker 1: I always have fun with like when we land on
Speaker 1: her and be the booker on the streams and stuff.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll hit the buzzer and it's not because of her.
Speaker 1: It's not like I land on Rosa Mendez or something.
Speaker 1: But the thing with Michelle McCool is that she was
Speaker 1: very athletic like growing up and it showed in her matches,
Speaker 1: like some of the moves that she would do. She
Speaker 1: played softball and volleyball when she was younger, She did
Speaker 1: fitness contests, she taught kickboxing, so, like you know, she
Speaker 1: was very athletic and very active. Today they have tons
Speaker 1: of women who come from athletic backgrounds right their recruit
Speaker 1: being nil athletes and all of this stuff. She came
Speaker 1: to WWE I think ten years too soon because when
Speaker 1: she was there, it wasn't about how good of a
Speaker 1: wrestler you were. It wasn't about how athletic you were.
Speaker 1: It was about how hot you were. Right, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of blonds like her running around. You know,
Speaker 1: Vince had a type. That's what it was about. It
Speaker 1: was about that, and it was about what dumb storyline
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon could come up with where he can make
Speaker 1: out with you on TV. I can't think of many
Speaker 1: matches outside of that Tables match, you know in lay
Speaker 1: Cool that she had that really stand out to me.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that she was a bad wrestler. Right,
Speaker 1: she wasn't. There just wasn't a whole lot that stands
Speaker 1: out for me from that Diva's era. I actually liked
Speaker 1: the finish of that tables match, by the way, because
Speaker 1: if you remember it, and I won't fault you if
Speaker 1: you don't. But Michelle and Layla they get shoved the
Speaker 1: like on the ropes and they get shoved backwards by
Speaker 1: Natty and they land on this table and the table
Speaker 1: it doesn't fully break, It just sort of SAgs like
Speaker 1: it bends a little bit. And because of course they
Speaker 1: don't weigh enough to break the table, and the crowd
Speaker 1: could have shit all over it. You know, you fucked
Speaker 1: up or whatever. But I remember the crowd. They started
Speaker 1: going crazy and they're yelling for Natty like to jump off,
Speaker 1: just like dive off, And finally she dives off the
Speaker 1: top rope with a splash and she puts them through
Speaker 1: the table and it got a great reaction. I know,
Speaker 1: lay Cool they did that terrible Piggy James angle. And
Speaker 1: you know there was a Royal Rumble match with Michelle
Speaker 1: McCool and Mickey James that went like twenty seconds. It's
Speaker 1: like the women's matches back then, they were routinely put
Speaker 1: in the depth spot on pay per views, like if
Speaker 1: you wanted a piss break, Oh, they got the women's match,
Speaker 1: it's time to go to the bathroom, Like that's that's
Speaker 1: what they were put there for, right before the main
Speaker 1: event every show, and if the matches on TV, he
Speaker 1: got more than two minutes. It was a miracle. And
Speaker 1: given their experience level, for some of the divas, maybe
Speaker 1: that was for the better, but for the ones who
Speaker 1: could actually work, I'm sure it was frustrating as fuck.
Speaker 1: And she told some stories on Undertaker's podcast. She was
Speaker 1: on his show last year and she told one story.
Speaker 1: She had a match with Molina and it was a
Speaker 1: Night of Champions match and they got in trouble for
Speaker 1: doing a DDT spot on top of the barricade, which
Speaker 1: was a no no for the women back then, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't do that. You can't outshine the boys, right,
Speaker 1: the women are not supposed to be doing that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. So they got heat for that when they
Speaker 1: got to the back. And then there was a match
Speaker 1: with her and Victoria where they got to the back
Speaker 1: and they're changing out of their gear and somebody comes
Speaker 1: in and tells them you need to go back out
Speaker 1: and redo your match, and they're like, what why, And
Speaker 1: this person says, well, your punches look too good, right,
Speaker 1: because you can't have the women out there throwing better
Speaker 1: punches in the guys. And she said, even, you know,
Speaker 1: Chris Jericho heard what was going on and stood up
Speaker 1: for her and said, well, if they're punching better than
Speaker 1: the guys, then you know what that's on. The guys
Speaker 1: throw better punches, which is one hundred percent right. So
Speaker 1: they had to go out and redo the entire match
Speaker 1: all over again, which I'm sure confused the hell out
Speaker 1: of the crowd. But she said from that point on,
Speaker 1: they instituted a no punching and no kicking rule for
Speaker 1: the women's matches. Right, So that's what she claims anyway,
Speaker 1: But that's the kind of bullshit that the divas were
Speaker 1: up against back then. Right then came the era of
Speaker 1: the Belas and the thirty second matches where they were
Speaker 1: getting their time cut right before they walked out to
Speaker 1: go to the ring, and then came the you know,
Speaker 1: give divas a chance hashtag and we all know what
Speaker 1: happened after that. That's why I say like she's one
Speaker 1: of those women who came along ten years too early,
Speaker 1: so maybe they can have Leyla be the one to
Speaker 1: induct her. But that's the second Hall of Fame name
Speaker 1: for this year's class. And we took one giant step
Speaker 1: this week towards another Hall of Fame induction that is
Speaker 1: long overdue, because this week we learned that WWE has
Speaker 1: signed Bill Edy and Barry Darso Demolition to WWE Legends contracts.
Speaker 1: They are back in the fold, which means new action
Speaker 1: figures and video games if they weren't already in the
Speaker 1: video game and they could take their rightful place in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame right They each had very accomplished
Speaker 1: careers outside of Demolition. You know. Bill Ady was the
Speaker 1: Mass Superstar and I think had a couple of other gimmicks.
Speaker 1: Barry Darso was Crusher Khrushchev and the NWA and then
Speaker 1: Repo Man many years later. I guess accomplished is not
Speaker 1: a word I would use to describe Repo Man. I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, though, I still get a kick out
Speaker 1: of those old Repoman vignettes. Yeah, they've been putting out
Speaker 1: coliseum videos on the Vault YouTube channel. They had one
Speaker 1: I just watched it last week, and in it they
Speaker 1: had a bunch of repo men vignettes where I don't
Speaker 1: know what, I don't know where he was, but like
Speaker 1: he ran into like a regular person on the street
Speaker 1: who was filming something with his camera, and he's like
Speaker 1: he was gonna steal the camera. He goes, I won't
Speaker 1: steal the camera. I won't repoe the camera from you
Speaker 1: if you just come with me and film me. And
Speaker 1: the guy follows him around and he's like repossessing various things.
Speaker 1: So like he just goes around and like he steals
Speaker 1: a little girl's bike, and then he breaks into someone's
Speaker 1: garage and says they missed their their last payment. They
Speaker 1: were a day late on their last their last payment.
Speaker 1: He goes, you know, you know what I always say,
Speaker 1: you know what, what's mine is mine, and what's yours
Speaker 1: is mine too, and that fucking cackle. How can you
Speaker 1: not be entertained by that? It was a ridiculous gimmick,
Speaker 1: But like he tried to make the most of it,
Speaker 1: you know, Smash Acts left and so he had nothing
Speaker 1: to do. He needed a job, and so that's what
Speaker 1: they had him doing. But uh oh, and don't forget
Speaker 1: whole one. Darso holand won Darso at the golf gimmick
Speaker 1: in WCW. But forget all that shit. When I was
Speaker 1: a kid, Demolition was the shit. Now if you watch
Speaker 1: the NWA, if you grew up on that, you have
Speaker 1: the Road Warriors. Okay, I knew of the Road Warriors,
Speaker 1: but I didn't really gru u watching the Road Warriors.
Speaker 1: I read about them in the magazines and stuff. But
Speaker 1: if I were like me, I was watching the WWF,
Speaker 1: it was Demolition. Demolition and the Heart Foundation. Those are
Speaker 1: my two favorite tag teams. Three time tag team champions.
Speaker 1: Their first run as champions lasted four hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: eight days, which was a record that stood until the
Speaker 1: New Day beat it in twenty sixteen. That record stood
Speaker 1: for twenty seven years. And as he was blackballed from
Speaker 1: the company after he sued them years ago over the
Speaker 1: rights to the Demolition name and the two of them
Speaker 1: they signed on to that big concussion lawsuit, the CTE
Speaker 1: lawsuit that ended up getting dismissed but billy ed. He
Speaker 1: is seventy seven years old now, Barry Darco is sixty five.
Speaker 1: It's time before it's too late, It's time it's time
Speaker 1: to hear that theme music one more time. I figured
Speaker 1: their chances of going in were pretty good after Darso
Speaker 1: did that interview a few months ago where he said
Speaker 1: they were invited to attend the Hall of Fame as
Speaker 1: guests last year in Philadelphia, but they had to turn
Speaker 1: it down because they had a prior commitment. So if
Speaker 1: they were invited to attend, even if it was only
Speaker 1: as guests, then that meant that the ice had thawed,
Speaker 1: And you know, with Vince McMahon being gone, it was
Speaker 1: only a matter of time. This is the next logical
Speaker 1: step towards an induction, and I hope they do it
Speaker 1: this year. They were part of my predictions for this
Speaker 1: year's Hall of Fame class when I made them last year,
Speaker 1: Remember said John Cena, Right, So I was wrong on
Speaker 1: that Mickey James, which is not happening. But I think
Speaker 1: the other ones have a shot. I had Demolition, I
Speaker 1: had Sid Vicious, and I had Haku, and I still
Speaker 1: think they have a pretty good shot. And Hulk Hogan,
Speaker 1: speaking of Hall of Famers, has been sued. Is your
Speaker 1: weekly hul Cogan update here Hulk Hogan has been sued.
Speaker 1: Him and his real American beer company by a woman
Speaker 1: claiming that she was injured at an event last summer
Speaker 1: that required ten stitches in her head. This is the
Speaker 1: story from the Fox affiliate in Akron, Ohio. An Akron
Speaker 1: woman is suing WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan and
Speaker 1: his Real American Beer Company. The Akron resident, Michelle har Lukowitz,
Speaker 1: alleges in a complaint that Hogan or one of his
Speaker 1: fellow promoters at a Real American Beer event in Medina,
Speaker 1: Ohio last August, threw a can of beer into the
Speaker 1: crowd that struck Harlukawitz and caused an open wound on
Speaker 1: her head that require ten stitches to close and will
Speaker 1: cause permanent scarring. The alleged incident happened on Augus nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, at the Thirsty Cowboys Bar. R Lukawitz
Speaker 1: says that Hogan and event organizers were throwing cans of
Speaker 1: beer into the audience when one struck her from a
Speaker 1: distance of about fifty feet. Police were called to the
Speaker 1: scene at the time, but refused to file charges as
Speaker 1: they could not determine with certainty who threw the beer can.
Speaker 1: The bar and the bar owner are also being sued
Speaker 1: along with Hogan and Real American Beer. R Lukawitz seeks
Speaker 1: financial compensation from Hogan, Real American Beer, Thirsty Cowboys, and
Speaker 1: its owner for her medical expenses as well as emotional
Speaker 1: distress and pain and suffering. So his shitty beer has
Speaker 1: claimed another victim. I'm telling you, I was fine until
Speaker 1: I had that fucking beer, and then I got sick.
Speaker 1: That's one hell of a coincidence. And now this woman
Speaker 1: has been permanently disfigured. This is some final destination shit
Speaker 1: is what this is. Don't drink Stone Cold's new Broken
Speaker 1: Skull ips. He's got a new Broken Skull three sixteen IPA.
Speaker 1: It's out this week. I haven't tried it yet, but
Speaker 1: at least it won't kill you. And I'm not sure
Speaker 1: why this is first being reported now, as the podcast
Speaker 1: that she was on is from November, but it was
Speaker 1: only first report. I guess people only caught onto it
Speaker 1: this week that former WWE referee Rita Chatterton, the first
Speaker 1: female referee in WWE history, spent a year under contract
Speaker 1: with AEW, although she did, in her own words, absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing during her time with the company. Chatterton she's the one.
Speaker 1: If you Recall, who has always alleged that she was
Speaker 1: raped by Vince McMahon in the back of his limousine
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty six, appeared on Power and Glory the
Speaker 1: podcast and recounted the story of how she started making
Speaker 1: wrestling appearances again after decades away from the business, What
Speaker 1: happened and was She agreed to receive an award, the
Speaker 1: Trailblazer Award from the International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty one. That led to Chatterton being
Speaker 1: contacted by Tony Kahan and signing a contract with aw
Speaker 1: and She says that Tony was very nice during their interactions.
Speaker 1: But this is how she recounts how this all came together.
Speaker 1: She said, I turn around and I do this event
Speaker 1: for the International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame President Seth Turner.
Speaker 1: I get the Trailblazer Award, and you know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like riding a Harley. It's in your blood and
Speaker 1: it started creeping back into my blood. Well, a few
Speaker 1: weeks after that, Seth calls me and says, Rita, there's
Speaker 1: this guy that's trying to get a hold of you.
Speaker 1: He wants your phone number. And I said, well, who's
Speaker 1: that And he says, well, his name is Tony Kahan,
Speaker 1: and Rita says, who the hell is Tony Kahan? And
Speaker 1: he says, no, no, Rita, you should probably take his call.
Speaker 1: And I say, well, why do I want to take
Speaker 1: his call? Says well, he owns the Jacksonville Jaguars. And
Speaker 1: she says, well, why the hell would anyone who owns
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville Jaguars want my phone number? And he says, well,
Speaker 1: he also owns AEW wrestling and she says, well, all right,
Speaker 1: give him my phone number. So he gives him my
Speaker 1: phone number. I don't hear anything, and a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks later, I get this phone call and I look
Speaker 1: and I don't know the number. Then I get to
Speaker 1: thinking about it, I say, well, let me call that
Speaker 1: number back. So I call it back and it's Tony Kahan.
Speaker 1: So Tony and I had a nice long talk, and
Speaker 1: I was under contract with him for a year. Very
Speaker 1: nice man, a gentleman, very very nice man. And apparently
Speaker 1: talent scout is what her role was. I guess that
Speaker 1: was the role listed on her aw contract. But she
Speaker 1: never did anything while she was with the promotion. And
Speaker 1: she said that she did go to a couple of
Speaker 1: Jacksonville Jaguars games, though she said, you know what, I
Speaker 1: was under contract with him for a year and I
Speaker 1: did absolutely nothing. I did absolutely nothing, but he wanted
Speaker 1: me under contract, and so I was under contract with him.
Speaker 1: And during the interview is a video interview with her
Speaker 1: was Mario Mancini, who spent time in the WWF. He
Speaker 1: was a journeyman guy for many years. I think Mancini
Speaker 1: was one of only two people that she confided in
Speaker 1: back in eighty six after the incident with Vince and
Speaker 1: the other person that she told about what happened and
Speaker 1: confided in Andrea the Giant. It was Andrea the Giant
Speaker 1: of Mario Mancini that she says she told about that.
Speaker 1: But Mancini said that Chatterton had a talent scout contract
Speaker 1: and he would put wrestlers in front of her to
Speaker 1: potentially recommend to the powers that be at aw And
Speaker 1: these days he helps out at the Paradise Alley Pro
Speaker 1: Wrestling School, which I believe he runs with Paul Roma,
Speaker 1: who was hosting the podcast. So there you go. Rita Chatterton,
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to anybody, was under contract for a year to
Speaker 1: aw And I'm sure a lot of people are gonna
Speaker 1: look at this and they're gonna rant. And why would
Speaker 1: he sign someone to a contract like that and then
Speaker 1: have them do nothing? You know what? If Tony wanted
Speaker 1: to pay this woman for a year, that's basically all
Speaker 1: this was. It sounds like it's just he wanted to
Speaker 1: give her a paycheck for a year. Great, and she
Speaker 1: had nothing but positive things to say about him. She
Speaker 1: said he was a perfect gentleman. But if that's what
Speaker 1: he wanted to do, more power to him. I got
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Speaker 1: Monster aw held its Grand Slam Australia show in Brisbane,
Speaker 1: which did not air too late last night. I finished
Speaker 1: up with it this morning and I thought it was excellent,
Speaker 1: the best show all weekend, and it continues the streak
Speaker 1: that they are on right now of good shows, this
Speaker 1: being the best of the bunch. To show you just
Speaker 1: how expensive tickets were for this show, and this may
Speaker 1: not be across the board. I'm sure some people got
Speaker 1: in for a lot less, but with eleven thousand fans
Speaker 1: said to be in the building, Tony Kahn says that
Speaker 1: it is one of the biggest live gates in the
Speaker 1: history of the company, so probably behind only the two
Speaker 1: shows they did at Wembley Stadium, which had considerably more
Speaker 1: people each time. So I don't know where they are
Speaker 1: right now as far as the gate for Texas in July,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure in the end that'll end up ahead
Speaker 1: of this one. At least they didn't glaze themselves in
Speaker 1: front of the fans about how much money they made
Speaker 1: off of them. Fans there were loud though, and because
Speaker 1: they ended up running an arena and not a stadium.
Speaker 1: And again I've talked about the journey that they took
Speaker 1: from the moment the show was announced right on through
Speaker 1: the show itself. It honestly was one long, embarrassing journey,
Speaker 1: and we've already talked that length about that. But the
Speaker 1: show itself, I mean, it was in a smaller arena.
Speaker 1: It was not in a big stadium like it was
Speaker 1: originally supposed to be, but they were able to pack
Speaker 1: it in because it was a smaller venue. So it
Speaker 1: looked mostly full. I don't know that it was sold out,
Speaker 1: but they had a lot of people there. And the
Speaker 1: first thing I noticed, other than the crowd was the ring.
Speaker 1: The ring looked a little bit different. It was noticeably
Speaker 1: smaller than the ring they usually use, not quite as
Speaker 1: small as the ring that TNA used when they ran
Speaker 1: Webster Hall that one time. I have no idea, still
Speaker 1: to this day, how the wrestlers were able to do
Speaker 1: anything in that ring. It looked like a fucking hasbro ring,
Speaker 1: but this one was definitely smaller. They had a ton
Speaker 1: of extra space around the ring outside, more than I've
Speaker 1: ever seen before. I saw tweets about them having to
Speaker 1: borrow a local ring from an independent promotion. I don't
Speaker 1: know what happened, and I'm certainly not assuming anything I
Speaker 1: see on fucking Twitter to be true. It may be,
Speaker 1: but it's not like the ring skirts were hanging off
Speaker 1: the edges of the ring. It looked like it fit
Speaker 1: the ring. So they had to have some sense of
Speaker 1: what size the ring was going to be, which is
Speaker 1: why I'm not taking anything I see on Twitter at
Speaker 1: phase value. But they had just a little less room
Speaker 1: to do all their shit, and they opened with Kenny
Speaker 1: Omega and will Ospray against Kyle Fletcher and Knewski Ta Keshta.
Speaker 1: Anyone wondering if they would cheer Fletcher and boo the
Speaker 1: baby faces, I don't know why anybody would think that
Speaker 1: they would boo Omega and Osprey, but they did not,
Speaker 1: and in fact, Kenny Omega was treated like a god
Speaker 1: when he came out. Unfortunately, he came out to his
Speaker 1: shitty new music, so that was disappointing. The match was not.
Speaker 1: The match was awesome, and I would expect nothing less
Speaker 1: from these four. This was the match of the night
Speaker 1: right here, and I loved the combo finish from the
Speaker 1: baby Faces. Omega had Takeshta up on his shoulders for
Speaker 1: the One Winged Angel as Ospray came off the top
Speaker 1: rope with a hidden blade to the back of the
Speaker 1: head right as Omega dropped him, and Omega pins to Keshta.
Speaker 1: So they spared Fletcher. I mean, they did pin the
Speaker 1: champion here, although it is leading to a title match,
Speaker 1: so that's good. If you're gonna pin the champion, then
Speaker 1: at least it should lead to a title match. But
Speaker 1: they spared Fletcher the pin in his home country, and
Speaker 1: then later on in the show in the back, Omega
Speaker 1: challenged Takesha to a match at Revolution for the international title,
Speaker 1: wanting to see if Takesha could beat him for a
Speaker 1: third time, because remember Takeshta pined Omega. Not only did
Speaker 1: he pin him, well, he pinned him twice, but he
Speaker 1: pinned him in a six man tag at Wembley Stadium
Speaker 1: at that first all in show that was back in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and in the same week right the
Speaker 1: following weekend they had All Out and we had a
Speaker 1: singles match between then, and he pinned Omega there too,
Speaker 1: So Kenny is daring him to do it for a
Speaker 1: third time, and that feels like an Omega title win.
Speaker 1: And then they build to Omega versus Okada Champion against
Speaker 1: Champion in July at All In, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if they would want to merge the titles or not,
Speaker 1: but that's what this feels like to me. Will Osprey
Speaker 1: then cut a promo challenging Kyle Fletcher to a steal
Speaker 1: cage match at Revolution. So those are two huge matches
Speaker 1: now added to that pay per view. Mercedes Monet against
Speaker 1: Harley Cameron for the TBS Championship in Harley's home country.
Speaker 1: Harley was super over and Mercedes gave her the best
Speaker 1: match of her career. She carried a very inexperienced wrestler.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, Harley's only been wrestling for three years,
Speaker 1: carried her to a good match. And let's not kid
Speaker 1: ourselves here, Okay, Harley Cameron has not been doing this
Speaker 1: for very long. She came into this show with one
Speaker 1: win her entire aaw run. That first singles win was
Speaker 1: just recently against Tye Valkyrie, and she's been there for
Speaker 1: a few years now. Her first win, which is why
Speaker 1: it was ridiculous seeing so many people advocating for a
Speaker 1: title change here, because that would have been the wrong move.
Speaker 1: The right move, which is what they did, was to
Speaker 1: give Harley a nice showcase and have her come close
Speaker 1: but then fall short. And this was not the best
Speaker 1: Mercedes match of her run or anything like that, but
Speaker 1: it was. I thought it was perfectly fine for what
Speaker 1: it needed to be, and if they want to now
Speaker 1: there is a longer term story they could tell with
Speaker 1: Harley eventually winning the title, that this was not the
Speaker 1: time to do it. This was the time to show
Speaker 1: people that for all the comedy that she does, she
Speaker 1: could be taken seriously as a wrestler, and I think
Speaker 1: they accomplished that. I could have done with less of
Speaker 1: the puppet Mercedes stuff during the match, though, but that
Speaker 1: would really be my only critique about this. Adam Copeland
Speaker 1: and Jay White against John Moxley and Claudio Castignoli in
Speaker 1: a Brisbane brawl. Very cool moment where the crowd kept
Speaker 1: singing Copeland's theme song even after they stopped playing it.
Speaker 1: This was your your typical garbage match with weapons and
Speaker 1: plunder and brawling in the crowd. Copeland did a balcony
Speaker 1: dive spot in the crowd onto Claudio, which is crazy
Speaker 1: for a fifty year old who just came back from
Speaker 1: a broken leg diving off the top of the cage.
Speaker 1: This was still a lot safer though it wouldn't be
Speaker 1: a death Rider's match without Wheeler fucking Udah getting involved.
Speaker 1: But he got dropped by White with a blade runner.
Speaker 1: You know, you would think that the babyfaces would bring
Speaker 1: their friends with them, given the death Riders always have
Speaker 1: the strength in numbers, right, Copeland's got friends in FTR.
Speaker 1: Jay White has friends and the guns, but they were
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. I mean, I know Australia has
Speaker 1: strict gun control laws down there, but I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: get it gun control anyway. For the finish, Copeland teased
Speaker 1: the concerto using a chair wrapped in barbed wire, but
Speaker 1: you to pull the chair away. Claudio hit the neutralizer
Speaker 1: for a near fall, but Moxley locked on the bulldog
Speaker 1: choke as you to held White back. Copeland tried to
Speaker 1: fight out of it. Moxley tightened the choke and Copeland
Speaker 1: went out for the rep stoppage and the crowd did
Speaker 1: not like that finish. And I was surprised by the
Speaker 1: finish because I figured they would give Copeland the wind
Speaker 1: and then he would lose at Revolution, but with him
Speaker 1: losing here, especially the way that he did, that would
Speaker 1: make a win at Revolution a lot more likely. And
Speaker 1: I don't like that idea. I mean, I'm all forgetting
Speaker 1: the title away from the Death Riders, but Adam Copeland
Speaker 1: ain't the right choice, you know, unless Christian immediately cashes
Speaker 1: in his contract on him to win. But honestly, you know,
Speaker 1: either of those outcomes would feel like an anticlimactic way
Speaker 1: for Moxley's run to end. It always felt like this
Speaker 1: was building to an aw original or a younger guy
Speaker 1: being the one to get the rub and to take
Speaker 1: that championship away from Moxley, you know, Adam Copeland winning
Speaker 1: the title, or even Christian Cage winning the title. You know,
Speaker 1: just it feels wrong. It really should not be either
Speaker 1: one of those guys Kazuchka Okada against Buddy Matthews for
Speaker 1: the continental title. Another Aussie goes down in flames here.
Speaker 1: If anything surprised me, it was how many people in
Speaker 1: the crowd seem to really think that Matthews was gonna
Speaker 1: win that championship? Have they not paid attention to the
Speaker 1: teases for Texas retaining was more obvious than any of
Speaker 1: the other champions on this show, retaining, even Mercedes. I
Speaker 1: thought there was a small chance with Mercedes they might
Speaker 1: take the title off for her. There was no chance
Speaker 1: in this match, but they got the crowd to buy
Speaker 1: into it. Matthews was favoring his ankle. I didn't see
Speaker 1: how or why. Hopefully he was just selling. But even
Speaker 1: after the match people said that he was helped to
Speaker 1: the back. If he was heard, it certainly didn't affect
Speaker 1: the quality of the match. I thought this was a
Speaker 1: very good match. Ocatta hit the rain Maker and to
Speaker 1: his surprise, Matthews kicked out and ending it there would
Speaker 1: have been very underwhelming, but he kicked out, and maybe
Speaker 1: that's why the crowd thought he was winning, because he
Speaker 1: kicked out of the rain Maker. Matthews hit Murphy's Law
Speaker 1: a few minutes later, his or I guess Matthew's Law, right,
Speaker 1: I guess that's what it would be called now. His
Speaker 1: Matthew's Law finish. But Olkatta got his foot on the
Speaker 1: middle rope at the very last second and fans chanted bullshit.
Speaker 1: So from where they were sitting, it may have looked
Speaker 1: like a three, but it wasn't. Matthews got Rhea Ripley's
Speaker 1: prism lock applied to a big pop Ocatta got out
Speaker 1: of it, had the referee, but Mule kicked Buddy Matthews,
Speaker 1: which the referee did not see, and then he finished
Speaker 1: him off with the rain Maker to retain the title.
Speaker 1: So kind of a lame finish there. It didn't take
Speaker 1: away from how great the match was. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a very good match, and the correct match got
Speaker 1: the main event spot. It was not the best match
Speaker 1: on the show that was the opener, but given where
Speaker 1: they were and given how long this feud has been
Speaker 1: going on for, it was the right choice to close
Speaker 1: the show, especially with the title change timeless. Tony Storm
Speaker 1: beat Mariah May to regain the aw Women's World Championship
Speaker 1: for the fourth time. This is why Harley Cameron and
Speaker 1: Buddy Matthews lost. I mean they were probably losing anyway,
Speaker 1: but the two ossees lose to make Tony winning in
Speaker 1: the main event mean more. And Mariah gave Tony a
Speaker 1: may Day on the floor, which had to have sucked
Speaker 1: in the ring. Later, Tony hit Mariah with may Day
Speaker 1: for two. Then came the running hip attacks, which from
Speaker 1: Tony's Storm just looked absolutely brutal more than anyone in
Speaker 1: the bloodline. When they do it, I don't know how
Speaker 1: she does it without scrambling her opponent's brains. She hits
Speaker 1: Storm zero, but Mariah kicks out. Mariah comes back, hits
Speaker 1: may Day not once but twice, but Tony kicked out,
Speaker 1: and it got a little ridiculous with all the finish kickouts.
Speaker 1: Tony hit a running power bomb and then another Storm zero,
Speaker 1: but Mariah rolled out to the floor to avoid the pin.
Speaker 1: Tony went to go get her but got yanked into
Speaker 1: the turnbuckle and Mariah hit Storm zero, but she didn't
Speaker 1: go for the pin, and she opted instead to try
Speaker 1: another may Day when Tony rolled her up and pinned
Speaker 1: her the dreaded roll up of doom. I actually did
Speaker 1: not hate the finish as much as I thought I would,
Speaker 1: because there's gonna be a third match. There has to be.
Speaker 1: There has to be a third match between these two,
Speaker 1: So if they wanted to hold off on a more
Speaker 1: decisive finish for the next one, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 1: You know, Mariah can turn around and say that you
Speaker 1: you know she won on a fluke, you didn't really
Speaker 1: beat me, and she calls for a rematch, which they
Speaker 1: can do at Revolution in a few weeks with a stipulation, right,
Speaker 1: maybe something like last Woman Standing or something like that.
Speaker 1: So they had a very good match. It just felt
Speaker 1: like they were saving their very best for the blowoff,
Speaker 1: and they really need to do this at Revolution. They
Speaker 1: need to blow this off at Revolution, not in Dynasty,
Speaker 1: not a double or nothing, not in Texas. These two
Speaker 1: women have had that world title. Think about this, okay.
Speaker 1: As great as they are, these two women have had
Speaker 1: that world championship on lockdown since November of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Think of all the women in the division and the
Speaker 1: world title has been centered around two of them, and
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed it. But after Revolution, it's time to move
Speaker 1: on to new stories and get some new women involved
Speaker 1: at the top of the card. They have a ton
Speaker 1: of talent in that women's division just waiting for the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Mercedes has had the TBS title locked up for almost
Speaker 1: a year now. Two it can't just be about Tony
Speaker 1: and Mariah with the world title for another six months.
Speaker 1: Let's get it done at Revolution. But this was a
Speaker 1: great show, right, Not everything was great, Just like on
Speaker 1: the NXT show, not everything was great but on the whole,
Speaker 1: we got two very enjoyable shows this weekend. I just
Speaker 1: happened to enjoy this one more. There were some big
Speaker 1: changes internally at TNA this week, with Anthony Chacone who
Speaker 1: works for Anthem and took over as TNA president when
Speaker 1: they fired Scott de Moore getting ousted from the position
Speaker 1: this week, so he lasted a year. He is still
Speaker 1: with Anthem that they have moved him out of that spot.
Speaker 1: And the new TNA president per pw Insider is Carlos Silva,
Speaker 1: and absolutely no additional information about the men was given,
Speaker 1: so I don't know who he is. I don't know
Speaker 1: where he's from, what his background is, he has any
Speaker 1: prior wrestling experience. I have no idea, but that's who
Speaker 1: the new president of TNA is. They also fired Josh Matthews,
Speaker 1: who had been there for over a decade and he
Speaker 1: did commentary for a very long time in recent years.
Speaker 1: He worked in the truck, he worked behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: and Christy hemy was let go as well. She also
Speaker 1: worked behind the scenes. She was running TNA social media.
Speaker 1: In their place, they have brought in George Varies in
Speaker 1: an executive producer role, so effectively what leaf fitting is
Speaker 1: to WWE and Kevin Dunn used to be. He's someone
Speaker 1: that has worked in the past for ABC Sports, NBCCBS,
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns, So the belief is that he'll be putting
Speaker 1: his own team together, which is why we saw those
Speaker 1: other names. Let go p w Insider says Mark Brown,
Speaker 1: who was a director with Ring of Honor back in
Speaker 1: the Sinclair days and worked with New Japan Pro Wrestling
Speaker 1: on their US events, is coming in as a director,
Speaker 1: and Fightful is reporting that Andrea or Andre Andrea could
Speaker 1: just be Andrea. It's probably just Andrea, see but Andrea
Speaker 1: Andrea sounds so much more eloquent. Andrea Pagnanelli has been
Speaker 1: named Senior VP of Margie. See what I did? They
Speaker 1: see how great I made that sound. I should be
Speaker 1: like an announcer or something. This is all said to
Speaker 1: be part of a restructuring by Anthem, and there is
Speaker 1: not said to be any concern from talent or anybody
Speaker 1: upset like they were when Demor was fired. And this
Speaker 1: ride here is the best damn news all week, and
Speaker 1: I'm happy to share it with you all. TNA star
Speaker 1: Chris Bay, one half of the Tag Team ABC with
Speaker 1: Ace Austen was paralyzed in a match back in October
Speaker 1: against the Hardys, and ever since then there really have
Speaker 1: not been any updates on his condition, which seemed to
Speaker 1: be a bad thing right. A lot of people very
Speaker 1: worried about the fact that there was no new information
Speaker 1: about his condition. We didn't hear from him directly. There
Speaker 1: was a GoFundMe set up for him that currently is
Speaker 1: north of one hundred thousand dollars in counting, and different
Speaker 1: promotions have been holding fundraisers for him. So it all
Speaker 1: sounded very bad and we had no updates until now.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, Chris posted to his social media on his
Speaker 1: birthday a video of him standing up out of a
Speaker 1: chair and walking towards the camera and with it, he
Speaker 1: included this message today I turned twenty nine, blessed to
Speaker 1: see it. On October twenty seven, twenty twenty four, I
Speaker 1: suffered a life altering injury in Detroit at a TNA
Speaker 1: event while sharing the ring with my partner, Ace Austen
Speaker 1: and some of my idols, the Heartys. This was the
Speaker 1: scariest moment of my life. I tried to get up
Speaker 1: and finish the match, only to realize I could move
Speaker 1: I was laid out paralyzed in the middle of the ring.
Speaker 1: I felt ashamed for not being able to finish the match,
Speaker 1: embarrassed and terrified. Thanks to our incredible ringside doctor and
Speaker 1: the team at TNA, I was rushed to a nearby
Speaker 1: hospital and quickly underwent surgery to fuse my neck at
Speaker 1: C six C seven, along with a spinal cord fusion
Speaker 1: at C six T one. If it wasn't for TNA
Speaker 1: and their quick response, I might not be here today.
Speaker 1: They have been so supportive throughout this entire journey. When
Speaker 1: I woke up the next day, I was overwhelmed by
Speaker 1: the love surrounding me in the outpouring of support from
Speaker 1: the wrestling community. But I was also devastated by the
Speaker 1: thought that my lifelong dream, an eight year wrestling career,
Speaker 1: might be over. I lay there paralyzed from the neck
Speaker 1: down with no promise of ever walking again. Doctors told
Speaker 1: me it wasn't likely, just a ten to twenty five
Speaker 1: percent chance. I had no use of my hands, which
Speaker 1: made it impossible for me to post or respond to anything.
Speaker 1: I spent about a week in the ICU and then
Speaker 1: fifty days in a spinal cord rehab facility in Detroit,
Speaker 1: doing therapy se days a week for three hours a day,
Speaker 1: sometimes longer. On December twenty eighth, I was finally able
Speaker 1: to go home. Since then, I have been in therapy,
Speaker 1: working as hard as I can. I've had an incredible
Speaker 1: support system. There are so many people I want to think,
Speaker 1: but if I had to narrow it down, I must
Speaker 1: thank my family, my TNA family, the dedicated staff in Detroit,
Speaker 1: my brother Ace Austin for never leaving my side, and
Speaker 1: my amazing girlfriend Britney Brooks for being there every step
Speaker 1: of the way while I was at my lowest. If
Speaker 1: you've reached out, donated, bought merch, said a prayer, or
Speaker 1: even just shared a thought about me, thank you. I
Speaker 1: am eternally grateful for every single one of you. Because
Speaker 1: of you, even on my hardest days, I never gave up.
Speaker 1: Because of you, I've lived my dream and in my opinion,
Speaker 1: helped inspire others to do the same. There's so much
Speaker 1: more to the story, and I will share all the
Speaker 1: details soon, but please allow me the time to get there.
Speaker 1: Today you see me celebrating life and taking the steps
Speaker 1: they said would be unlikely. For three weeks, I've been
Speaker 1: out of my wheelchair, learning to walk again. Nothing is impossible.
Speaker 1: You just have to believe and do the work. I
Speaker 1: thank God every second. I thank you every second. Will
Speaker 1: I ever wrestle again? Never say never. I'm just so
Speaker 1: grateful to be alive. I don't know what my purpose is,
Speaker 1: but I know that there's something meant for me to do.
Speaker 1: For now, I just hope to continue healing as my
Speaker 1: body is still in a lot of pain. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a long road, but I will not give up.
Speaker 1: This will be the greatest story ever told. I love
Speaker 1: you all. To see him up and walking was just incredible.
Speaker 1: And whether he ever wrestles again or not, you know,
Speaker 1: like Biggie, if he can get his quality of life
Speaker 1: back and live pain free, since he says he's still
Speaker 1: in pain right now, that really is all the matters.
Speaker 1: Like everything else will work itself out, everything else will
Speaker 1: fall into place the way that it should. Tommy Dreamer
Speaker 1: on Busted Open Radio said that he broke down in
Speaker 1: tears when he saw him stand up in that video.
Speaker 1: He was there when Chris got hurt, he said. Chris
Speaker 1: asked that no one share any details about what happened
Speaker 1: to him and everybody banded together and kept quiet about it,
Speaker 1: well all except RVD, who went on his podcast a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago and said Chris was paralyzed but was
Speaker 1: starting to get everything back. But outside of that, everybody
Speaker 1: kept quiet, which is a hard thing to do these days, right,
Speaker 1: to keep something like that so close to the vest.
Speaker 1: That's what happened after, you know, Brodie Lee got sick
Speaker 1: those two months. You know, from the time he had
Speaker 1: that last match and got sick to the time that
Speaker 1: he passed away, there was really no information being released
Speaker 1: and nobody knew what was going on with him. And
Speaker 1: that was because his wife asked, you know, all the
Speaker 1: folks in aw not to say anything, and everybody kept
Speaker 1: their mouth shut. You know, they were respectful of her
Speaker 1: wishes and respectful of the family, and they didn't let
Speaker 1: anything get out. So it sounds like this was a
Speaker 1: similar situation. And I think this is pretty cool and
Speaker 1: maybe you will too. Gerald Brisco worked for WWE for
Speaker 1: many years as a wrestler. He was a road agent,
Speaker 1: a talent scout, he was a local promoter. I mean,
Speaker 1: this all dates back to the early eighties and he
Speaker 1: was one of the Vince McMahon's right hand men, and
Speaker 1: he has kept a lot of items over all of
Speaker 1: these years. Some people just throw away all their stuff,
Speaker 1: their memorabilia and everything they didn't know like these days,
Speaker 1: they can make so much money off that stuff. So
Speaker 1: imagine all the guys with their gear and old belts
Speaker 1: and all kinds of stuff that they could have held
Speaker 1: on too. They could have made a fucking fortune off
Speaker 1: that stuff. So many of that stuff has lost the time,
Speaker 1: and so many of that stuff was thrown away. It's
Speaker 1: like those promoters that and I think Jerry Jerry used
Speaker 1: to do this, these promoters that would tape their weekly
Speaker 1: shows like in their territory and use those same tapes
Speaker 1: to just record over the old shows to tape the
Speaker 1: new ones. So a lot of those are not available
Speaker 1: anymore now. If they would have had the foresight to
Speaker 1: know that one day they'd be able to make a
Speaker 1: lot of money off those tapes, they wouldn't have recorded
Speaker 1: over them. Well, Gerald Briscoe he kept a lot of
Speaker 1: his stuff from over the years, old programs, magazines, run sheets,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and over the past week or
Speaker 1: so he's been posting a lot of it on his
Speaker 1: Twitter page. Not that he's giving it away. He just
Speaker 1: posting pictures of it. His handle, by the way, is
Speaker 1: at FG Briscoe if you want to go follow him.
Speaker 1: And there were a few things that jumped out at
Speaker 1: me that I thought I would share because you may
Speaker 1: find this as interesting as I do.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: For instance, he posted a letter sent by Vince McMahon
Speaker 1: to all company talent, dated January fourth, nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: This was just two months before the first Wrestle Medium
Speaker 1: and it reads as follows. As was last year's custom,
Speaker 1: all wrestlers and managers that work under the WWF banner
Speaker 1: are required to sign contracts. Those of you who were
Speaker 1: with us last year have obviously suffered no ill effects
Speaker 1: of such signing. As has been customed for three generations,
Speaker 1: this office has maintained an acute sense of fairness and integrity.
Speaker 1: Since all of you have had ample opportunity to review
Speaker 1: our standard contract, we must ask for immediate acceptance or rejection.
Speaker 1: Those of you rejecting the contract will be deemed to
Speaker 1: have given this office a four week notice of leaving.
Speaker 1: Those of you accepting the contract will undoubtedly live happily
Speaker 1: ever after along with me in Fairyland. Remember that today
Speaker 1: is just another day in Paradise. Please return the signed
Speaker 1: contract signifying your acceptance or the unsigned contract signifying rejection,
Speaker 1: and notice to the appropriate agent tonight, who will issue
Speaker 1: last week's paycheck. This office has maintained an acute sense
Speaker 1: of fairness and integrity. I wonder if Wendy Richter felt
Speaker 1: that way the previous year. I love that if you
Speaker 1: signed the contract, you will undoubtedly live happily ever after
Speaker 1: with me in Fairyland. You'd have to be living in
Speaker 1: fairyland to believe that. But if you were someone who
Speaker 1: rejected the contract and then WrestleMania happened two months later,
Speaker 1: I could see how that might have ended up being
Speaker 1: a bad business decision. So then he posted a WrestleMania
Speaker 1: four sheet with the tournament bracket for the World Championship tournament,
Speaker 1: and like at the top, it's got contact information for
Speaker 1: their director of media relations at the time, and it's
Speaker 1: got a contact for the public relations manager for Trump Plaza.
Speaker 1: All the names on the sheet are printed for the
Speaker 1: opening round right in the bracket. Plus you have Hogan
Speaker 1: against Andre in the quarterfinal round because those two got
Speaker 1: an automatic buy into the next round. And Brisco wrote
Speaker 1: in pencil the results or the planned result of the tournament.
Speaker 1: So you can see where he wrote in like Elsewhere
Speaker 1: on the sheet he wrote in like six man tag
Speaker 1: with the Bulldogs and the Islanders, and he wrote in
Speaker 1: icy title match with Honky tonk Man and Brutus Beefcake.
Speaker 1: In the tournament bracket itself, above each opening round match,
Speaker 1: he wrote in I assumed this was before it even happened,
Speaker 1: what the planned finish, what the planned result was gonna be,
Speaker 1: So he wrote in like pin DQ, and he wrote
Speaker 1: in the results to each subsequent round. And what caught
Speaker 1: my eye about this was when he gets to the
Speaker 1: Ricky steamboaug Greg Valentine match. The winner of that match,
Speaker 1: which ended up being Greg Valentine, met macho man Randy
Speaker 1: Savage in the next round, and it was such a
Speaker 1: missed opportunity to run that match back Savage and Steamboat,
Speaker 1: this time with Savage going over. All of the matches
Speaker 1: in the tournament were very short though, I mean, so
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have gotten the time that they had at
Speaker 1: WrestleMania three to go out there and have a classic
Speaker 1: or anything, but Savage Steamboat would have been a hell
Speaker 1: of a lot better than Savage and Valentine. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying Valentine was a bad wrestler, but I'm just saying
Speaker 1: Savage and Steamboat sounds much more attractive as a match.
Speaker 1: But he wrote Steamboat's name in as the one advancing
Speaker 1: to the next round, only to cross it out, and
Speaker 1: he wrote Greg in right above his name, which means
Speaker 1: that the original plan may well have been for Steamboat
Speaker 1: to advance to the next round to face Savage. I
Speaker 1: never knew that, so I wonder what changed unless this
Speaker 1: was just Brisco fantasy booking his own tournament and then
Speaker 1: as it played out, he simply crossed out the wrong
Speaker 1: results and wrote the right ones in. But I'm just
Speaker 1: in the role that he would have been in behind
Speaker 1: the scenes at the time. I would imagine in his position,
Speaker 1: he would have known what the plan was and he
Speaker 1: filled out the bracket accordingly. But it's interesting to think
Speaker 1: that Ricky may have been planned to win that match,
Speaker 1: and maybe that day it got changed right, which is
Speaker 1: too bad. He also wrote Bam Bam Bigelow in into
Speaker 1: the next round with a win over one man Gang
Speaker 1: in the opener, but Gang up winning that match, and
Speaker 1: so Bam Bam is crossed out in the next round,
Speaker 1: and he wrote Gang above his name. And he also
Speaker 1: had Rick Rud going over on Jake the Snake Roberts.
Speaker 1: So it would have been Rick Rude against Bambam in
Speaker 1: the next round, Rude going over and wrestling Randy Savage
Speaker 1: in the semi finals, and then Savage wins, and we
Speaker 1: get what we got with Savage against Dbiasse in the final.
Speaker 1: So we could have had Randy Savage against Ricky Steamboat
Speaker 1: and Randy Savage against Rick Rud in the tournament on
Speaker 1: the same night. According to this, that would have made
Speaker 1: for a better tournament. But again there were there were
Speaker 1: so many matches because they did the entire thing in
Speaker 1: one night. It's, you know, sixteen man bracket. It's not
Speaker 1: as if they would have gotten a whole lot of time.
Speaker 1: But it's fascinating to see what the original plan may
Speaker 1: have been here. And he also shared I mean, he
Speaker 1: shared like so many things, but this is the last
Speaker 1: one I'll mention here. He shared a newspaper clipping from
Speaker 1: the Tampa Tribune dated New Year's Day nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: in a story titled drug charges fell Wrestling manager says
Speaker 1: Raymond Bobby the Brain heenan a manager with the World
Speaker 1: Wrestling Federation, was arrested on drug charges Monday after passing
Speaker 1: out a board of flight bound for Tampa International Airport.
Speaker 1: Heenan of fifteen oh five Kyle Court in val Rico,
Speaker 1: which that's very encourage you. They just put it all
Speaker 1: out there. Here you go. You want to knock on
Speaker 1: his door and say hello, there you go, says Heenan
Speaker 1: was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia,
Speaker 1: according to an arrest affidavit. He was released from the
Speaker 1: Hillsboro County Jail on three thousand dollars bail. The forty
Speaker 1: six year old wrestler turn manager was a passenger on
Speaker 1: Northwest Airlines flight four seventy five from Detroit that arrived
Speaker 1: in Tampa at ten to fifty am, according to Lieutenant
Speaker 1: James Klem of the Airport Police Department. Northwest spokeswoman Christy
Speaker 1: Klapp said that Heenan passed out as the flight was
Speaker 1: making its approach. The flight crew was unable to revive him,
Speaker 1: so emergency crews were called before it landed. Heenan was
Speaker 1: taken to Saint Joseph's Hospital after airport police and rescue
Speaker 1: workers found him unconscious in his seat aboard the airliner.
Speaker 1: At the hospital, he was still unconscious, so he kept
Speaker 1: his bags for him while he was there, said Clem.
Speaker 1: Doctors from Saint Joseph's then called airport police, asking them
Speaker 1: to check Heenan's luggage for any medication that he may
Speaker 1: have been taking. During the search, police found forty eight
Speaker 1: grams of marijuana, two pipes containing marijuana residue, and a
Speaker 1: pipe tool. After being treated and released from the hospital,
Speaker 1: Heenan returned to the airport at three pm to pick
Speaker 1: up his luggage. He was then arrested. Heenan wrestled and
Speaker 1: managed in the American Wrestling Association in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: He retired, but he returned to manage wrestlers in the WWF.
Speaker 1: Hospital officials would not say what Heenan, who who could
Speaker 1: not be reached for comment, was treated for. I don't
Speaker 1: think I ever knew about this story. In checking The
Speaker 1: Observer from the following week in nineteen ninety one, this
Speaker 1: is what Meltzer reported at the time. Bobby Heenan was
Speaker 1: arrested on Tuesday, one day after he collapsed on an
Speaker 1: airplane coming home for New Year's Heenan was coming home
Speaker 1: to Tampa from Detroit when he passed out just as
Speaker 1: the plane was landing. Airport. Police found him unconscious and
Speaker 1: rushed him to Saint Joseph's Hospital with his heartbeat down
Speaker 1: near thirty five beats per minute. The doctors asked police
Speaker 1: to check his luggage, and they found forty eight grams
Speaker 1: of marijuana and two pipes containing marijuana resin. After Heena
Speaker 1: regained consciousness and was released from the hospital, he was
Speaker 1: arrested where he went to when he went to claim
Speaker 1: his baggage, and according to the story in the Tampa Tribune,
Speaker 1: Heenan did not appear surprised and was very cooperative when
Speaker 1: police arrested him and charged him. Heena went back on
Speaker 1: tour without missing any scheduled appearances for a Thursday night
Speaker 1: show in Tucson. Because of the storyline, and Heenan's current
Speaker 1: house show program with Big Boss Man is that if
Speaker 1: he fails to appear, he will be suspended for life
Speaker 1: by the WWF. Heenan was not pulled from any shows immediately,
Speaker 1: to the best of my knowledge, with the exception of
Speaker 1: the Tampa Tribune newspaper, the incident did not make any
Speaker 1: press until this past weekend when on Sunday went out
Speaker 1: over the wires and was picked up in Monday newspapers
Speaker 1: all over the country. I knew that Bobby smoked years
Speaker 1: later because Jim Ross told the story on his podcast.
Speaker 1: This was years ago about smoking weed with Bobby the
Speaker 1: brain in the WWF because Bobby would get very upset.
Speaker 1: You'll find this funny. Bobby apparently would get very upset
Speaker 1: and worked up over some of the booking back then.
Speaker 1: This would have been like his last year or two
Speaker 1: in the company before he went to WCW. So he
Speaker 1: was just announcing at that point. I have been doing
Speaker 1: some producing backstage also, but he was announcing he wasn't
Speaker 1: managing anymore. And Jr. Said that Bobby was old school,
Speaker 1: so him having to make sense out of gimmicks like
Speaker 1: repo man and then go out and talk about them
Speaker 1: when they would do their voiceovers, it made them crazy, right,
Speaker 1: They were just so ridiculous. So they had a code word,
Speaker 1: which was or two words, I guess, which was chocolate cake.
Speaker 1: And so when Bobby would ask if Jr's wife was
Speaker 1: making some chocolate cake, he knew what he meant, and
Speaker 1: they would go off to go smoke and calm down
Speaker 1: before they did their voiceovers for Wrestling Challenge or whatever
Speaker 1: show they were doing. Because back then you couldn't smoke
Speaker 1: marijuana like it was. It was absolutely prohibited. You would
Speaker 1: get fined, you could get suspended. They had all the
Speaker 1: heat on them from the steroid stuff and everything, and
Speaker 1: they had that. They had a drug policy back in
Speaker 1: the late eighties for you know, for cocaine because it
Speaker 1: was just so out of control. But they would not
Speaker 1: let the boys, you know, smoke marijuana. Would is not
Speaker 1: to say that they didn't, but if you got caught
Speaker 1: with it, you would you get in trouble. And that's
Speaker 1: probably what drove a lot of them to drink. And
Speaker 1: so now they're taking pills in their drinking, whereas if
Speaker 1: they were smoking marijuana. It makes you wonder how many
Speaker 1: of those wrestlers might still be alive today. But that
Speaker 1: was the policy back then. I think Brett Hart has
Speaker 1: talked about that too. How oh, you can't smoke weed
Speaker 1: because he also smoked weed. Can't smoke weed? And so
Speaker 1: what did the boys do? They did more drinking, right
Speaker 1: or if they didn't drink, now they drank and you know,
Speaker 1: drinking and taking pills is not a good combination. But
Speaker 1: there you go. If you didn't know, now you know Jr.
Speaker 1: And Bobby Heenan. I almost set a safe word. Holy shit,
Speaker 1: now they had a secret Oh my god, they had
Speaker 1: a secret code. Work Jesus. They had a secret code word,
Speaker 1: which is very different from a safe word. Let's move on,
Speaker 1: shall we We have some mail bag Let's do that.
Speaker 1: Let's do some mail bag questions and forget all about this.
Speaker 1: You could email me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Please include your name, but where you are from you
Speaker 1: write in let's get through this here. David from Chicago.
Speaker 1: I have a question, he says, regarding AW. Do you
Speaker 1: think it's too late for AEW to get back to
Speaker 1: the way they were before. I'm noticing that it's getting
Speaker 1: cool to hate AW. Yeah, I mean it's cool if
Speaker 1: you're a geek on Twitter. I don't think it's cool
Speaker 1: to just blindly hate on anything. Like if you want
Speaker 1: to hate on something because it legitimately sucks and you
Speaker 1: didn't like it, then go ahead speak your mind. If
Speaker 1: you think it sucks, then say so. And if it's great,
Speaker 1: then say so. If they need to. I think AW
Speaker 1: needs to worry less about getting back to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one and just put out a compelling, exciting product. And
Speaker 1: you know what, it's never too late for that. Kenny
Speaker 1: from Cottontown, Tennessee. I know this feels way too early
Speaker 1: to speculate, but where do you rank Ricky Stark's debut
Speaker 1: appearance on NXT in terms of surprise wrestler debuts. I
Speaker 1: know it will never beat Scott Hall's surprise appearance on
Speaker 1: NITRO nearly three decades ago, but considering how quick he
Speaker 1: happened to show up as soon as he was released
Speaker 1: from AW, it was an amazing appearance for sure. I
Speaker 1: also put brock Lesnar's WWE television debut in Sting's WWE
Speaker 1: and AW debuts in the same category as shocks surprises,
Speaker 1: as well as John Moxley's AW debut in the same conversation, Kenny,
Speaker 1: I love you, brother. They're not even in the same stratosphere.
Speaker 1: And I like Ricky Starks and I'm glad that he
Speaker 1: got his release and he finally made it to WWE,
Speaker 1: which is where he's obviously wanted to be. Like, that's
Speaker 1: great and all, and there, look, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of people in the audience who were genuinely shocked to
Speaker 1: see him in the crowd on Tuesday. The Ricky Starks
Speaker 1: debut doesn't compare to any of the ones you just mentioned.
Speaker 1: Like again, it's not even in the same coma. Kevin
Speaker 1: from Washington, DC. Something tells me that John Cena is
Speaker 1: not going to win the Elimination Chamber and instead will
Speaker 1: be eliminated by Logan Paul and setting them up one
Speaker 1: on one. It sucks as seen as last media match,
Speaker 1: but they want Logan Paul to face a big name
Speaker 1: and I don't see any other baby face on Raw
Speaker 1: right now. That being said, I think Drew Well, I
Speaker 1: just named one earlier, I said aj Styles. That being said,
Speaker 1: I think Drew McIntyre is going to win. That way,
Speaker 1: Paul and McIntyre have a path to the Big Show.
Speaker 1: Do you feel this idea is plausible Logan Paul against
Speaker 1: John Cena. Yes, it's plausible. Drew McIntyre winning the Chamber
Speaker 1: and challenging Cody for the title. No, I don't see
Speaker 1: that happen. Dominic from Connecticut. Assuming the participants of the
Speaker 1: Men's Elimination Chamber are John Cena, Cmpunk, Drew McIntyre, Logan Paul,
Speaker 1: seth Rawlins, and Damian Priest. I think it is clear
Speaker 1: that the Chamber will be the catalyst for all six
Speaker 1: of these men's matches leading into WRESTLEMANE. While I had
Speaker 1: originally thought we would get the official kickoff to Damien
Speaker 1: and Drew's feud in the Chamber, with recent reports the
Speaker 1: WWE is now reconsidering Drew's program. Perhaps instead we can
Speaker 1: see the start to Drew and John Cena.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: I can see Sena rolling up Drew for a quick elimination,
Speaker 1: leading to Drew snapping and attacking Sena post elimination, possibly
Speaker 1: even leading to Sena having to exit the match now
Speaker 1: that Damien is no longer working Drew. Instead, they can
Speaker 1: pivot to a feud but Logan Paul possibly using brass
Speaker 1: knocks to eliminate Damien, launching their feud into WrestleMania. Both
Speaker 1: their upper mid card workers, and while they may be
Speaker 1: on opposite shows, WWE can make it work and I
Speaker 1: think they could have a very good match. Logan is
Speaker 1: then eliminated by Punk getting his revenge for the Logan
Speaker 1: for Logan tossing him out of the Rumble, and the
Speaker 1: final two are seth Rawlins, and Cmpunk. Roman then makes
Speaker 1: a surprise return and spears Rollins call him the match,
Speaker 1: and Punk wins the Chamber, and then it's revealed the
Speaker 1: favor was having Hayman instruck Roman to interfere in the
Speaker 1: match and assure that Punk's ashore Punk's victory in the chamber. Eh,
Speaker 1: you lost me there. Therefore, coming out of this, we
Speaker 1: have set up Logan against Damien, Drew against Sena, Seth
Speaker 1: against Roman, and Punk against Cody at WrestleMania. What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts? Yeah, I mean the Roman thing just it
Speaker 1: still doesn't make any sense to me. I don't buy it.
Speaker 1: I think that's a weak explanation. I think the other
Speaker 1: things that you've set up here are are at least plausible.
Speaker 1: You know, like Drew against Sena I think would be great,
Speaker 1: Logan against Damien would be fine. Seth and Roman's fine.
Speaker 1: Punkin Cody I have no problem with that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'd rather see punkin Cody than Sena and Cody. I
Speaker 1: don't see any of this happening. I mean, Seth and Roman,
Speaker 1: there'll be some form of Seth and Roman at many
Speaker 1: of the other stuff. I don't see any of this happening.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you lost me at the Roman explanation, you know,
Speaker 1: coming into the chamber and helping Punk and that being
Speaker 1: the favorite, it would just feel like a waste of
Speaker 1: a favor. I feel like, like, why would Punk instruct
Speaker 1: Hayman like he thinks so little of his ability to
Speaker 1: win the elimination Chamber that he instructs Roman Reigns to
Speaker 1: interfere in a match where, by the way, no one
Speaker 1: is supposed to be able to get inside. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know people do like to waste the favor on that, Like, No,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like that at all. Uh Kobe
Speaker 1: from Dothan, Alabama with an idea on how to spice
Speaker 1: up the Royal Rumble. How would you feel about WWE
Speaker 1: bringing back the lottery with the ball roller for the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble, except they bring it back in the weeks
Speaker 1: leading up to the Rumble. They can have the obvious
Speaker 1: big names draw their spots, but they can have other
Speaker 1: contenders trade or make deals for the spot in the Rumble.
Speaker 1: Some can offer promises or other incentives such as title
Speaker 1: shots if they are a mid tier champion to trade
Speaker 1: or get their entry number. They can treat it like
Speaker 1: how teams trade up in sports drafts. Someone could draw
Speaker 1: number thirty in advance of the rumble, but there's no
Speaker 1: guarantee that someone like the Rock wouldn't come in and
Speaker 1: offer them a deal where they get or where they
Speaker 1: give up their entry completely. It would still give you
Speaker 1: the mystery on if anyone drew their number would actually
Speaker 1: keep their entry. It would be a lot more entertaining
Speaker 1: than people just declaring themselves for the rumble or saying
Speaker 1: that they're going to win. It can have people running
Speaker 1: around making deals with everyone to add a little more
Speaker 1: mystery into what was traded to get such a good spot.
Speaker 1: You know, that's actually a very creative spin on the roller,
Speaker 1: And I don't hate the idea, especially if you keep
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to know who number thirty is going
Speaker 1: to be, so like I would still want there to
Speaker 1: be some mystery behind who's in some of these spots.
Speaker 1: But the idea that I remember it was either the
Speaker 1: first or the second. I think I think it might
Speaker 1: have been the second Rumble, but it was a Royal
Speaker 1: rumble where DEBIASI drew a poor number because they did
Speaker 1: the roller. Even back then, in eighty eight or eighty nine,
Speaker 1: they were doing the roller and he picks his ball
Speaker 1: and he looks and he was not happy about his number,
Speaker 1: and so he went off with somebody else who drew
Speaker 1: a better number, and then ultimately, you know, DEBIASI came
Speaker 1: out I think at number thirty. So like, that's the concept.
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. It would
Speaker 1: make things a little more interesting. I think going into
Speaker 1: the rumble Dak from Saint Paul, Minnesota, who says he
Speaker 1: is in the process of losing his voice similar to
Speaker 1: what I recently dealt with. So I'm sorry to hear that. Brother,
Speaker 1: You'll get yours back quicker, so long as you're not
Speaker 1: doing six shows a week like I do, so feel better.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the greatest wrestling character created
Speaker 1: that Vince McMahon had no hand in creating. I say
Speaker 1: that because when you add in Vic, the answer is
Speaker 1: obviously the undertake. Well, yeah, obviously, and Kane Cain would
Speaker 1: have been the second one that I would have gone with.
Speaker 1: You take Vince out of the equation, I think Big
Speaker 1: Van Vader, which was the brainschild of Antonio Andoki. I
Speaker 1: love that character. I think the look of it with
Speaker 1: the helmet and the steam coming out of it, just
Speaker 1: the whole visual of Vader and that whole character. I
Speaker 1: would go with Big Van Vader. I think that you
Speaker 1: could throw in some other ones like Liger, you know,
Speaker 1: Jusi and thunder Liger. Great Muda has to be on
Speaker 1: that list, but I'm gonna go Big Van Vader. Secondly,
Speaker 1: since you believe Mariah May will win in Australia and
Speaker 1: we can forget about that, what if Tony Khan has
Speaker 1: Mercedes lose to Harley Cameron to give the crowd the
Speaker 1: hometown winner. You can have Mercedes move on to the
Speaker 1: world title picture. Harley holds the TBS title for a
Speaker 1: few weeks before losing it to Meghan Bain. She can
Speaker 1: be a big star for aw's women's division, and this
Speaker 1: could be a good way to showcase her, similar to
Speaker 1: what they did with Jade as the TBS champion. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously Mariah May did not win in Australia and I
Speaker 1: would not have done it this way. Meghan Bain just
Speaker 1: debuted like she is just now entering her very first
Speaker 1: program with Chris Statlander. They're going to have a match soon,
Speaker 1: maybe at Revolution. There's no need to rush a title
Speaker 1: onto her. And I said what I said earlier about Harley.
Speaker 1: I don't think putting the title on her for a
Speaker 1: few weeks would have done her any more good than
Speaker 1: the good that was done by just putting her in
Speaker 1: a serious match and having a good match with Mercedes,
Speaker 1: which she did. I think it accomplishes exactly the same
Speaker 1: thing without having to change the title. William from Calgary,
Speaker 1: my question for you is the WWF King of the
Speaker 1: Ring Championship belt. I saw a photo on the internet,
Speaker 1: but I never recalled the belt ever being used on
Speaker 1: TA or pay per view. Do you have any backstory
Speaker 1: on why the King of the Ring belt never debuted
Speaker 1: and who the belt was originally for. Well, it's a
Speaker 1: good thing you've come to the beltmark here because I
Speaker 1: actually do know the answer to this. It was never
Speaker 1: used because it wasn't WWE that had the belt made.
Speaker 1: That was Mabel. Mabel personally went and had the belt made.
Speaker 1: He paid for it. That was all him. That was
Speaker 1: in ninety six. After they let him go. Mabel won
Speaker 1: the King of the Ring in ninety five. That ended
Speaker 1: up being his big claim to fame in his career
Speaker 1: was being King Mabel. So after they fired him, he
Speaker 1: personally reached out to Reggie Parks about creating a King
Speaker 1: of the Ring belt that he could use on the indies.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it was Reggie who made the belt.
Speaker 1: It might have been Dave Millikan, but they made the belt.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the photo of the belt,
Speaker 1: if you look closely, it's got the WWF letters on it,
Speaker 1: but it's not the logo because he didn't have the
Speaker 1: rights to use their logo because it wasn't a company belt.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad it wasn't. I mean, the King of
Speaker 1: the Ring winner does not need a championship belt, but
Speaker 1: this thing was fucking huge. So he had the belt
Speaker 1: made and he took it around with him on the
Speaker 1: indies and he would charge for photos with it. William
Speaker 1: from New Jersey, big fan of your podcast. Since I
Speaker 1: stopped watching WWE in twenty fifteen, I unfortunately was at
Speaker 1: that Royal Rumble when Roman won and Rock tried to
Speaker 1: get him cheered. Man, that killed my spirit to where
Speaker 1: I stuck with indies for a long time. So thank
Speaker 1: you for sticking around for this long. You were more
Speaker 1: honest and reliable to listen to. One of my friends
Speaker 1: asked if I knew about Wrestling Society X, MTV's attempt
Speaker 1: at doing a wrestling show that only lasted ten episodes,
Speaker 1: although only four of them actually aired due to the
Speaker 1: network finding it too violent, as if their network hasn't
Speaker 1: aired violent stuff before on Jackass and Celebrity Deathmatch. I
Speaker 1: have the DVD and I watched it again recently, and
Speaker 1: I find it the most bizarre wrestling show that I've
Speaker 1: ever seen, but not a terrible one. Have you seen
Speaker 1: MTV's Wrestling Society X. Would the show have lasted longer
Speaker 1: if it wasn't thirty minutes and aired online instead of
Speaker 1: on television. I do remember it. I remember another one too,
Speaker 1: called Matt Rats, although I don't think they had TV
Speaker 1: for that one. I don't think that ever aired anywhere.
Speaker 1: I know Eric Bischoff was involved with Matt Rats in
Speaker 1: some way, either as an investor or a producer. Better
Speaker 1: to call it Matt Rats, I guess, than Ring Rats,
Speaker 1: but it never really went anywhere. Wrestling Society X aired
Speaker 1: on MTV. Like he said, it didn't last very long,
Speaker 1: and in some ways you know what it was. In
Speaker 1: some ways it reminds me of now that I think
Speaker 1: about this. It was a precursor in some ways to
Speaker 1: Luca Underground, just it wasn't nearly as good. One thing
Speaker 1: I remember about the show, I remember the explosions. They
Speaker 1: had explosions, at least at least in one match with Vampiro.
Speaker 1: I vaguely remember there being a casket. I don't know
Speaker 1: who he was wrestling, and there was an explosion of
Speaker 1: some kind. Do I think it would have done better
Speaker 1: if it aired online instead of on TV? Back then?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. Today I'm gonna say still probably not. It
Speaker 1: would have fared better a little bit because back then,
Speaker 1: I mean streaming, I mean, did it even exist. I
Speaker 1: still don't think it would have done that well. In
Speaker 1: it being thirty minutes, it didn't help. I remember the
Speaker 1: oh my god, those MTV commercial breaks. Good lord. I
Speaker 1: used to watch Beavis and butt Heead on MTV and
Speaker 1: they would go to commercial, and I swear I could
Speaker 1: make a sandwich. I could go to the bathroom, answer
Speaker 1: the doorbell, sign for a package, have a phone conversation
Speaker 1: with someone. I could trip and fall. I could bandage
Speaker 1: myself up and pour a dren to go with my sandwich,
Speaker 1: and by the time I got back to my seat,
Speaker 1: that show would still be on a fucking commercial. Those
Speaker 1: ad breaks were brutal, So really it wasn't a half
Speaker 1: hour show. It was closer to a twenty minute show.
Speaker 1: And what can you even do in twenty minutes? You know,
Speaker 1: you can't develop characters in twenty minutes. You could do
Speaker 1: high spots and explosions. That's about it. But if you
Speaker 1: watched it, I think you could see where I don't
Speaker 1: want to say Luca Underground borrowed from Wrestling Society CX,
Speaker 1: but you could see where Luca Underground took elements, not
Speaker 1: directly from it, but like the way that they did
Speaker 1: that show was very similar to some of the things
Speaker 1: they were trying out on Wrestling Society Act. They took
Speaker 1: what they tried to do and Luca Underground made it better.
Speaker 1: James from Staten Island. Every once in a while, we
Speaker 1: hear questions about dream matches like Hogan versus Austin or
Speaker 1: Undertaker versus thing, But what about those dream matches that
Speaker 1: don't get talked about? Fantasy matchups that what ever happened,
Speaker 1: But when you think about them, probably would have been
Speaker 1: very fun to watch. Buy or sell on the fantasy
Speaker 1: matchup that you would have been most interested in seeing
Speaker 1: the Road Warriors against the Dudley Boys or Samoa Joe
Speaker 1: versus Brock Lesnar inside Helen a cell. Oh that's easy.
Speaker 1: I mean Joe and Brock Helena Cell. They had one match.
Speaker 1: It was like a six minute match. It was fucking great.
Speaker 1: Take those two. Lock them in the cell. At least
Speaker 1: double the match time. That's all I need. Good buy
Speaker 1: on that one. Cell On the other and David from
Speaker 1: Sacramento has put together some Be the Booker supercards in
Speaker 1: the past. You've heard me talk about them. He combs
Speaker 1: through all of the Be the Booker matches that I've
Speaker 1: booked over the last few months on the various YouTube streams,
Speaker 1: and then he comes to us after polling all of you.
Speaker 1: I pined the polls in the chat the other night,
Speaker 1: and we have the results of those polls for what
Speaker 1: he is calling Alla Monsters Supercard ten. So he held
Speaker 1: a poll with one hundred and thirteen matches to determine
Speaker 1: the undercard, and a second poll to determine who would
Speaker 1: win the first ever Sound of Rumble. And here's what
Speaker 1: he came up with based on those results. With twenty
Speaker 1: three percent of the votes for the Be the Booker
Speaker 1: Tag Team titles rated Rko takes on the Shield, Seth
Speaker 1: Rollins and Roman Reigns with sixteen percent of the votes
Speaker 1: for the be the Booker World Heavyweight Championship, Kurt Angle
Speaker 1: against Jeff Hardy with fifteen percent of the votes for
Speaker 1: what he is calling the Hardy the Horse, Hardy the
Speaker 1: Workhorse Championship, the Bruiserweight Pete Done against Johnny Gargano at
Speaker 1: eleven percent of the votes. For the Mama Monster Championship,
Speaker 1: Julia from her stardom run against Mako Sodamora. That reminds me,
Speaker 1: I think, isn't Mako's having her retirement match in April?
Speaker 1: I think I forgot all about that. So it's not
Speaker 1: just Jeff Jarrett and John Cena this year, Mako sotomore
Speaker 1: and the main event an unprecedented two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: one men. That's a lot of rings. Two hundred and
Speaker 1: forty one men. Sound off, rumble, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stick to the highlights here. Highlights include the final four,
Speaker 1: he says the winner at thirty eight percent of the vote,
Speaker 1: Brett the Hitman heart Well, of course, last eliminated at
Speaker 1: twenty nine percent Kurt Angle at twenty seven percent, Stone Cold,
Speaker 1: Steve Austin at fifteen percent, Drew McIntyre the Iron Man
Speaker 1: is mister Perfect Unlucky. Number one and two is Sammy
Speaker 1: Gevara and Dominic Mysterio. The diesel spot goes to Swerve
Speaker 1: Strickland and Dan Housen curses Bob Backland and then he's
Speaker 1: got manager madness here with all different kinds of managers. David,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for putting the time into this,
Speaker 1: and everybody who voted David thanks you as well. It's
Speaker 1: always quite the undertaking here, but I wanted to read
Speaker 1: all of this so that you can visualize what such
Speaker 1: a card might look like. Next week is going to
Speaker 1: be episode nine oh two of The Sound nine o
Speaker 1: two one zero of the Sound Off. We're going to
Speaker 1: be doing Elimination Chamber predictions because next weekend is the
Speaker 1: final weekend before the Chambers, so we'll probably do predictions
Speaker 1: on that show. We'll cover all the news of the week,
Speaker 1: the good, the bad, and the ugly, like we always do.
Speaker 1: I want to thank you guys for all of the support,
Speaker 1: for all of the emails, for all of the tweets,
Speaker 1: for all of the interaction for all the nice comments. Hey,
Speaker 1: you know Tuesday Night Titans. This week over on JD's channel,
Speaker 1: we did What's Closing In on sixty thousand views, the
Speaker 1: most successful episodes yet of TNT. Will be back at
Speaker 1: it this Tuesday. I have a feeling we have a
Speaker 1: difference of opinion on the NXT and AW show, so
Speaker 1: that'll be coming up on Tuesday. I'm gonna be live
Speaker 1: on YouTube of course on Monday night, Wednesday night, and
Speaker 1: Friday night for all the usual streams, and then back
Speaker 1: here next Sunday for episode nine oh two. So until then,
Speaker 1: be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great week, and
Speaker 1: I will see you back here for more sound off
Speaker 1: next weekend, like every weekend until then, take care, guys.
Speaker 3: The solemn Monster sounds off Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1: It is, of course, the holiday where all of the
Speaker 1: reading card companies and all the florists, all the chocolate companies,
Speaker 1: they make a killing every single year, because that's just
Speaker 1: the way it is. Somewhere along the line, it was
Speaker 1: determined that this is what defines Valentine's Day. You buy flowers,
Speaker 1: and you buy chocolate, You go out to em and
Speaker 1: it's dinner. Ain't nothing wrong with taking taking your lady
Speaker 1: friend out to dinner or whoever. But man, they make
Speaker 1: a killing off this shit, and for what. So the
Speaker 1: flowers could die a few days later and the chocolate's
Speaker 1: get eaten, you gain six pounds. That's Valentine's Day. Hope
Speaker 1: you get a good one.
Speaker 3: The Solo Monster sounds off, bringing you the good, the bad,
Speaker 3: and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
Speaker 3: content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 3: and X The Solo Monster.
Speaker 1: I love you so long.