Speaker 1: Got her again. It's business time, baby. You are listening
Speaker 1: to Solo Monster Sounds of I love you so Mama
Speaker 1: Monster con dude, I want your souldier. You got grown
Speaker 1: ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter. Come over here?
Speaker 1: Is that Pet Patterson? You have legs? I was ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent positive it was just chested up. Now, congratulations.
Speaker 1: Who hasn't beat Daniel Garcia. Welcome to episode nine three
Speaker 1: of the Solo Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, December twenty one,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Santa Solomonster is back. He comes bearing
Speaker 1: the gift of wrestling news and opinion. He does this
Speaker 1: every week, but it just so happens. He's a little
Speaker 1: more festive about it this week and a busy week.
Speaker 1: It was much love to the folks of Good Morning
Speaker 1: Football for having myself and some of the students from
Speaker 1: House of Glory on the show Tuesday Morning Live on
Speaker 1: the NFL Network. Imagine the surprise when some of you
Speaker 1: were watching NFL Network and saw my face on there
Speaker 1: freezing outside on a rooftop in New York City in
Speaker 1: twenty degree weather. It's too bad that wasn't one of
Speaker 1: the day seth rollins. Was there hosting the show. I
Speaker 1: think I want to say he does Thursdays. Maybe that
Speaker 1: would have been interesting, but it was all worth it.
Speaker 1: Kyle Brandt, he does his Angry Run segment on there,
Speaker 1: which I know is very popular. It was cool to
Speaker 1: be a part of that and get to promote our
Speaker 1: Winter Warfare show, which took place Friday night with a
Speaker 1: sold out crowd to close out twenty twenty five. That's
Speaker 1: how you always want to do it, and it was
Speaker 1: a very newsworthy show, with Andrade making a surprise appearance
Speaker 1: at the very end to confront our World Champion Charles
Speaker 1: Mason after his win over Mustafa Ali. Yes, Andrade, who
Speaker 1: has been barred from appearing anywhere by WWE, shows up
Speaker 1: at the NYC Arena and stakes his claim to the
Speaker 1: Hog World championship. So that'll be a story for Andrade
Speaker 1: to tell as far as his status goes. But this,
Speaker 1: I will tell you, this was something that came together
Speaker 1: relatively recently, and beyond that, I don't really want to
Speaker 1: say too much more. We're very happy to have him.
Speaker 1: He will be in action at our next New York
Speaker 1: City show, which is scheduled for Friday night, February twentieth.
Speaker 1: We had Matt and Jeff Hardy on Friday successful in
Speaker 1: their first defense of their hog tag team titles over
Speaker 1: the first time ever team of Zillafat two, who was
Speaker 1: already our Crown Jewel Champion and his cousin, his fellow
Speaker 1: Bloodline member Lance on Hawaii. With Lance turning on him
Speaker 1: right when it looked like they might bring home the gold,
Speaker 1: he kicks his cousin right in the face and then
Speaker 1: spears him out of his boots. That came out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that will not go unpunished. Amazing Red and
Speaker 1: Darren Richardson, they stole the show in my opinion. I
Speaker 1: thought their match was fantastic, not so fantastic when Darren
Speaker 1: put his hands on me. You know, at some point,
Speaker 1: when someone pushes you around, you got to push back.
Speaker 1: It's just the way it is. I lost myself there
Speaker 1: for a second, turned it into a notice qualification match,
Speaker 1: and it just got crazier from there. And shout out
Speaker 1: to Marcus Mathers, you know, for stepping up at the
Speaker 1: last minute. Matt Cardona was scheduled for a match with
Speaker 1: Ken Broadway. He could not make it due to travel issues,
Speaker 1: so we reached out to Mathers on God, what was
Speaker 1: it three or four hours notice? Maybe because he was
Speaker 1: in the opener that was going to be the opening
Speaker 1: match and he was able to step in. So thank
Speaker 1: you to everyone I met on Friday. Our first show
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six will be our Los Angeles debut.
Speaker 1: That's going to be from the Globe Theater, which is
Speaker 1: an iconic venue. That's on Friday night, January thirtieth, the
Speaker 1: night before the Royal Rumble. And we got a lot
Speaker 1: of other big plans coming up for next year. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Triple A had a show last night that aired on
Speaker 1: WWE's YouTube channel. Laparca brought a child into the ring
Speaker 1: after the opening match who was wearing his mask, and
Speaker 1: when he put the kid back over the guardrail into
Speaker 1: the front row, I don't mean he clotheslined the kid
Speaker 1: over the railing. He picked him up, placed him back over.
Speaker 1: Just to clarify. The kid's father was also wearing a
Speaker 1: Laparka mask. He took the mask off to reveal Canelo Alvarez,
Speaker 1: which got a big pop as you would expect from
Speaker 1: the crowd. Yeah, first we had Bad Bunny under a
Speaker 1: mask at the CMLL show. Watching in the front row.
Speaker 1: Now Canelo Alvarez is just really watching with his kid
Speaker 1: under a mask. We had Laredo kid beating Javon Evans
Speaker 1: and Jack Cartwheel. That was a Cruiserweight title match, and
Speaker 1: man javan Is is everywhere, isn't he? Ross SmackDown NXT
Speaker 1: Triple A the Wyatt Six they wrestled on the show
Speaker 1: and lost to the Psycho Circus. One might say the
Speaker 1: Wyatt six is a psycho circus, but this is the
Speaker 1: Mexican psycho circus. L e Hodel Vikingo pinned Dragon Lee
Speaker 1: after five business days? Can we talk about Booker t
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania in nineteen being pinned by Triple H after
Speaker 1: one pedigree and it took you know how many freaking
Speaker 1: hours for the referee to come over and make the cover,
Speaker 1: and of course he didn't kick out, so here it
Speaker 1: felt like five business days. This was following a ref
Speaker 1: bump and an assist from Omas So almost sapiens rise.
Speaker 1: Omas is back in Triple A. He came down to
Speaker 1: the ring in the middle of this match. He gave
Speaker 1: Dragon Lee a last ride power bomb, which coming from
Speaker 1: Omas probably felt like his last ride. I'm surprised he
Speaker 1: didn't get a fucking nosebleed from up there. Then Vi
Speaker 1: Kingo hit a six thirty cent on and he covered
Speaker 1: dragon Lee. But Omas had to then leave the ring.
Speaker 1: He was on the wrong side, so we had to
Speaker 1: then walk all the way around to the other side
Speaker 1: where the referee was laying, and he put the referee
Speaker 1: back in the ring, and then Vi king Goo got
Speaker 1: the pin. In this entire time, he was just covering Dragonly.
Speaker 1: So Omas is now aligned with Viking Go. I mean,
Speaker 1: the size difference with them next to one another is comical.
Speaker 1: I'm really digging heel Vikingo. You know what glimpses of
Speaker 1: it I've seen on these Triple A shows. He's embraced it,
Speaker 1: you know. Wwe made a mistake in pushing him like
Speaker 1: they did when they acquired the company, but it's it
Speaker 1: has unintentionally turned him into a huge heel and it
Speaker 1: just works. Penta was there. This was the show where
Speaker 1: originally we were going to get a Lucha Brothers reunion
Speaker 1: and it was going to be Penta and Ray Phoenix
Speaker 1: taking on Dominic Mysterio and El Grande Americano. Penta seemingly
Speaker 1: is moving along well in his shoulder rehab. I don't
Speaker 1: expect him to be out for too much longer, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't medically cleared, so we didn't get a Lucha
Speaker 1: Brothers reunion. In this match, raymis Stereo took Penti's place,
Speaker 1: tagging with Ray Phoenix, and they won with an assist
Speaker 1: from Penta, who came out late in the match. But
Speaker 1: there may have been a casualty because I'm watching this
Speaker 1: match and Dominic absolutely looked like he got hurt. He
Speaker 1: absolutely looked like he got injured. It was on a
Speaker 1: DDT spot from his deadbeat dad. He landed hard on
Speaker 1: his right shoulder, and from that moment on he kept
Speaker 1: grabbing at that shoulder, his shoulder collar bone area for
Speaker 1: the rest of the match. Now, the match continued only
Speaker 1: for a few more minutes, so he did other stuff.
Speaker 1: It's not like that instantly took him out of the match.
Speaker 1: He was okay enough to do all of his remaining spots.
Speaker 1: But you could see there was a lot of talking
Speaker 1: going on after that with him and the referee and Ray.
Speaker 1: He was making an effort to not use the right arm,
Speaker 1: and when he left, he left with the Triple A
Speaker 1: title over his left shoulder. But holding the Intercontinental title
Speaker 1: in the right, you know, the right hand. So he
Speaker 1: had given Kaiser Kaiser Americano a shove before he left
Speaker 1: the ring to go collect his belt, so those two
Speaker 1: may be on the outs. And then El Grande actually
Speaker 1: shook hands with Ray Maisterio and Rape Phoenix. So I mean,
Speaker 1: the guy's already a babyface in Mexico, may as well
Speaker 1: tournament at least down there. He could be a heel
Speaker 1: in the States. He could be a baby face in Mexico.
Speaker 1: It's like Brett being a babyface everywhere else in the
Speaker 1: world and a heel in the US. But yea, as
Speaker 1: far as Dom is concerned, man, I mean, they just
Speaker 1: got Live Morgan back from a shoulder injury. She was
Speaker 1: gone for months. The last thing they need is for
Speaker 1: Dom to dip out with a shoulder injury. And the
Speaker 1: guy's got two belts. We're heading into WrestleMania season and
Speaker 1: the guy's got two belts and he's part of all
Speaker 1: this storytelling that's involved with the judgment day. So anyway,
Speaker 1: that'll be something to watch for. Hopefully it's not anything
Speaker 1: too serious. Everything is already taped as far as television
Speaker 1: this week, so it wouldn't affect any of those shows,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I don't know when we're going
Speaker 1: to see him back in the ring after this. If
Speaker 1: you want to make a PayPal donation and support the
Speaker 1: show as we wind down this year, If you want
Speaker 1: to drop some holiday cheer on my ass, you may
Speaker 1: do so the Solomn Monster at gmail dot com. I
Speaker 1: sure do appreciate it. You can also get yourself a
Speaker 1: wrestling nickname if you don't already have one, ten dollars
Speaker 1: or more. I want to say thank you to the
Speaker 1: Portland pop star Paul Hamilton, wishing him and everybody a
Speaker 1: very merry Christmas, Big b Bryant, Visera, the Diamond, Dallas
Speaker 1: Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Chicago Slayer,
Speaker 1: Willie Eichord, night Stalker and if Alsa Far The Georgia Nightmare,
Speaker 1: Timothy Tillis, Shooting Star Cynthia Taylor, and killshot Keith Hart.
Speaker 1: I want to wish all of you a very happy
Speaker 1: holiday and into your new year. We still have another
Speaker 1: show left before we're done this year, but I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Now there's a lot I'm going to be getting into
Speaker 1: on the show. Here. This are a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: I'm getting into this week and a little bit later
Speaker 1: on because it is that time of year. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to be running through the top stories, the key
Speaker 1: stories that went down here in twenty twenty five, and
Speaker 1: then I will chime in with my awards for this year,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to tie it into the Sports Illustrated
Speaker 1: Awards that came out this past week and will compare
Speaker 1: and contrast because there was a lot of controversy it
Speaker 1: appears on social media around these awards that I think,
Speaker 1: frankly is unfounded and is just fucking embarrassing. But we
Speaker 1: will talk about all of that later on, But first
Speaker 1: I have to say we had some of the best
Speaker 1: debate in all one hundred and twenty five episodes of
Speaker 1: Tuesday Night Titans this week with JD and I over
Speaker 1: the finish to the John Cena Gunther match at Saturday
Speaker 1: Night's main event. I got a ton of great feedback
Speaker 1: to that, so thank you. SENA spent two hours talking
Speaker 1: to Cody Rhodes on his podcast this week. They actually
Speaker 1: recorded it the Monday after the match, and they talked
Speaker 1: about a lot of things, but one thing that Sina
Speaker 1: talked about was the finish and what he was trying
Speaker 1: to go for with it, as he said in the interview,
Speaker 1: as the artist, what it meant to him, and what
Speaker 1: he was trying to convey. You know, once he puts
Speaker 1: it out there, it's going to mean different things to
Speaker 1: different people. And as he said, it's no longer my
Speaker 1: art when I share it with everybody, It's no longer
Speaker 1: my He's just he's so weird, but like, it's no
Speaker 1: longer my art when I share it with other people.
Speaker 1: Hence the negative reaction to it in the building that night.
Speaker 1: But this is that's how he summed it up for
Speaker 1: the last five minutes. Everything I preach about story and
Speaker 1: drama and having a conversation with the audience. The ones
Speaker 1: I love are in the front row. I know my
Speaker 1: colleagues are watching on the monitor back there. We're just
Speaker 1: in a sleeper hole, man, But we're having that conversation
Speaker 1: with the audience as I essentially take my last breath.
Speaker 1: I have struggled. If you think of somebody, the natural causes, scenario,
Speaker 1: or however we picture loss in our life, all of
Speaker 1: us have been through it. They struggle, They hang on
Speaker 1: just long enough to make sure to say goodbye to
Speaker 1: everybody that's been meaningful in their lives. And the whole
Speaker 1: day rather was so many unbelievable, vulnerable, meaningful conversations. Then
Speaker 1: you realize I've connected with everybody I love. Physically, I
Speaker 1: feel great. I think it's time to take that last breath.
Speaker 1: And that's that. I hate to keep going back morbidly
Speaker 1: to obituaries, but like this person died peacefully knowing that,
Speaker 1: like man, we are in a good place. We're going
Speaker 1: to be great going forward. The bottom of the T
Speaker 1: shirts as I gave everything, thank you for everything, and
Speaker 1: in that one moment, that was that going peacefully again.
Speaker 1: My issue with it isn't that Gunther won and John
Speaker 1: Cena lost. It's how it was done. He got the
Speaker 1: tap out. But for me, I think Sena can convey
Speaker 1: that same type of story by going peacefully in the
Speaker 1: hold without tapping out. You know when he threw up
Speaker 1: the okay hand signal after the arm dropped twice, you
Speaker 1: do that, You flash that smile and you drop that
Speaker 1: arm slowly, staying true to your never give up mantra
Speaker 1: right right up until the very end. But you still
Speaker 1: accept your fate. You know you are essentially you know,
Speaker 1: in effact you are sort of taking a step back
Speaker 1: and no longer fighting as hard as you were before.
Speaker 1: But you can again, you could still do it without
Speaker 1: just completely throwing in the towel. To me, the way
Speaker 1: he did it, it felt like it wasn't earned. That's
Speaker 1: what it felt like. It felt like. You know, Gunther
Speaker 1: got the win, and he can go around and gloat
Speaker 1: that he's the guy who made John Cena give up,
Speaker 1: but it just didn't feel like it was fully earned.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he'll go around and talk about how he
Speaker 1: made Scena tap out like a little bitch. But if
Speaker 1: Sena chose to tap out with a smile on his face,
Speaker 1: you know what, it wasn't really earned the way that
Speaker 1: it could have been. It's an empty brag. He'll still
Speaker 1: get plenty of heat for beating John Cena regardless as
Speaker 1: he did on Monday. You know, get that heat, Get
Speaker 1: that heat and make some money off of it. But
Speaker 1: no matter how many movie analogies people come up with
Speaker 1: to try to justify it and to explain it away,
Speaker 1: I did not like the finish, and the people who
Speaker 1: didn't like it are plenty justified and feeling that way,
Speaker 1: you know, Sena could have gotten his closure while also
Speaker 1: giving the fans some closure, you know, and giving them
Speaker 1: something to feel good about through whatever sadness or disappointment
Speaker 1: that they may have had given that he lost. I
Speaker 1: think that that tells a great story too, And it
Speaker 1: doesn't radically alter the level of heat that Gunther has
Speaker 1: coming out of this, and he did have a lot
Speaker 1: of it on Monday. You know, it wasn't Roman Rains
Speaker 1: levels of heat the way that he had after WrestleMania
Speaker 1: when he beat the Undertaker, but you know, he still
Speaker 1: got plenty of it, and they even did a tease
Speaker 1: for a future match with Gunther and aj Styles. When
Speaker 1: he left the building, everybody was giving him the stink
Speaker 1: eye right he came out, did his his stick, his
Speaker 1: promo in the ring. He wasn't out there for very long.
Speaker 1: And he's leaving. He's going through the back and everybody's
Speaker 1: staring at him and giving him the side eye. And
Speaker 1: Adam Pierce comes up to him, I hope you're happy
Speaker 1: with yourself. You can leave now. So he's leaving the
Speaker 1: building and AJ Styles is leaning up against Gunther's rental car,
Speaker 1: so he got a little stare down before Gunther got
Speaker 1: in the car and he drove off, but not before
Speaker 1: rolling down his window to do that. You can't see
Speaker 1: me gesture and he's laughing like a cartoon villain, and
Speaker 1: then he drove off. That was great. I don't know
Speaker 1: if AJ is planning to work the whole year next year.
Speaker 1: He may need to extend his contract if he's going
Speaker 1: to do that, or if he's only working through WrestleMania
Speaker 1: and then hanging up the boots. But Gunther against AJ
Speaker 1: is the natural match, so they can give him another
Speaker 1: big name to brag about retiring. But I just want
Speaker 1: to see the match. You know. It's the match that
Speaker 1: they haven't done. Where I don't think he needs it
Speaker 1: is when you get into a name like Brock Lesnar.
Speaker 1: Cause Sina hinted recently that Lesner may be retiring in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and Minnesota is where Summerslim is next year. You know,
Speaker 1: if Brock even has a proper retirement match, I mean, Sena,
Speaker 1: I absolutely believe John Cena will never wrestle again. Brock Lesner,
Speaker 1: I am a lot less sure of. I think if
Speaker 1: the payday is big enough and they wanted him to work,
Speaker 1: let's say a Mania match or a Saudi Arabia match,
Speaker 1: he would do it. I don't get the impression that
Speaker 1: Brock is big on Oh I need my closure. I
Speaker 1: got to have a retirement tour. I gotta have a
Speaker 1: retirement match, and they're going to have a whole like
Speaker 1: celebrate like you're not going to get that. I don't
Speaker 1: think with Brock Lesner, I don't think he gives a shit.
Speaker 1: He's all about the payday. He's all about business. If
Speaker 1: there's business to be done and physically he feels like
Speaker 1: he can do it, then what the fuck is he
Speaker 1: going to retire for? He already missed two years. He
Speaker 1: got paid the entire time, by the way, but he
Speaker 1: already missed two years. They just brought him back. You
Speaker 1: think he's itching to leave, But let's say he does.
Speaker 1: Let's say he wrestles one last match at Summer Slim
Speaker 1: next year. Gunther does not need to be the man
Speaker 1: to retire him. Do the match next year if you
Speaker 1: want to, you know you want to do Gunther in Brock, fine,
Speaker 1: do it at media, but when it comes time for
Speaker 1: Brock to lose, it would be much more valuable to
Speaker 1: give that honor to someone like Bron breaker or Oba.
Speaker 1: Femi Oba would have to already be on the main
Speaker 1: roster and at least semi established, and that hasn't happened yet,
Speaker 1: but it should be. One of those two doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be Gunther now. For Gunther, it's on them now
Speaker 1: to treat him the way they treat Brock. He needs
Speaker 1: to be leveled up so that you know he retired Sena.
Speaker 1: He's got to be used as more of a special
Speaker 1: attraction when he's on the show. He shouldn't be on
Speaker 1: the show every week or anything, say make him a
Speaker 1: part timer, but they need to book him in a
Speaker 1: way where people see him similar to how they saw
Speaker 1: Brock for the last decade. And when he finally loses again,
Speaker 1: and maybe he doesn't even lose next year, but when
Speaker 1: he finally loses again, it should really mean something because,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a guy who lost to Sammy's
Speaker 1: Ain't at WrestleMania, he lost to Cody Rhodes, he tapped
Speaker 1: out to fucking Jay usso who's back in the tag
Speaker 1: team division. Now he got beat by Siam Punk at
Speaker 1: Summer Slim. It should be a long while yet before
Speaker 1: Gunther loses another match. Meanwhile, you got one fan and
Speaker 1: I put that in quotation. Marks here fan who tried
Speaker 1: to cash in on seeing his retirement with a very
Speaker 1: unusual item. On eBay this week, there was a listing
Speaker 1: that popped up, and it wasn't up for very long
Speaker 1: it was. It was pulled very shortly thereafter, but there
Speaker 1: was a listing from a user named Robbie Thompson, who
Speaker 1: does have a one hundred percent positive cellar rating on
Speaker 1: even But it was featuring a photo of a plastic
Speaker 1: ziplock bag with the label crisp air from John Cena's
Speaker 1: last match at WWE Saturday Night's main event. Yes, they
Speaker 1: were selling air from the show and the asking price
Speaker 1: a mere seventeen hundred dollars, and the person included two
Speaker 1: photos to verify its authenticity that it was in fact
Speaker 1: air collected from the Capitol One Arena in Washington, DC.
Speaker 1: I thought it was bad when someone bought a piece
Speaker 1: of chewed gum from Britney Spears for fourteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: seventeen hundred dollars for the stench of defeat and the
Speaker 1: stench of nineteen thousand wrestling fans. I think that tops that.
Speaker 1: I think it clears the Bar. I mean, look, I
Speaker 1: know there are a lot of fans out there that
Speaker 1: are oxygen deprived. I've seen them on social media. They
Speaker 1: could use the air, but it's gonna take a lot
Speaker 1: more than what's in that plastic bag to help those people.
Speaker 1: What else did Sena talk about in the interview with Cody.
Speaker 1: He confirm what I've been telling you all along. The
Speaker 1: heel turn at Elimination Chamber was just done for a
Speaker 1: viral moment. There was never any real story attached to it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could see it with your own two
Speaker 1: eyes if you just watch the product this year. But
Speaker 1: I know a lot of you have tuned out of
Speaker 1: the product. This is what he said in February. They
Speaker 1: just wanted to make a moment. I get it. The
Speaker 1: business is about making moments. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: You don't always have to have a nine month trajectory.
Speaker 1: You can understand that, Like, Yo, we've got a ton
Speaker 1: of eyes on us tonight. Let's do something impactful and
Speaker 1: then you as artists can run through the maize and
Speaker 1: figure it out. So basically, shoot first, ask questions later.
Speaker 1: That usually doesn't work out too well. He makes it
Speaker 1: almost sound like this is just any other storyline, any
Speaker 1: other star. Sure, there are times where you may want
Speaker 1: to pivot, you may have this great idea that pops
Speaker 1: into your head or something. Though was again, this was
Speaker 1: a little bit different. This is something that they knew
Speaker 1: was coming for months, and they had one shot to
Speaker 1: make it right. And it's as if they treated it
Speaker 1: like any weekly storyline, Like you can't compare this to
Speaker 1: any typical wrestling story on a wrestling show, he said.
Speaker 1: He told the WWE creative team, I'll do whatever the
Speaker 1: fuck you guys want. Just stay on the face longer
Speaker 1: than you think it's gonna feel weird. Just stay. That's
Speaker 1: in reference to them keeping the camera on his face
Speaker 1: so that he could sell the turn an elimination chamber
Speaker 1: without having to say a word. But there you have it.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest stars in the history of the
Speaker 1: business and certainly in the company, in the middle of
Speaker 1: his farewell tour, and they decide to blow the whole
Speaker 1: thing up because Ari Emanuel called Dwayne and said, hey,
Speaker 1: we need you. These tickets aren't selling as quickly as
Speaker 1: we'd like. You know, if Ari doesn't make that phone call,
Speaker 1: it's crazy to think. We probably don't get that heel turn.
Speaker 1: I mean, we can't say for sure one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: but it's very likely. You know, the wheels are not
Speaker 1: set in motion for Rock and Triple Ah and all
Speaker 1: of them to embrace this whole idea to begin with.
Speaker 1: For a company that loves to talk about story, they
Speaker 1: talk about story a lot. They seem to be more
Speaker 1: in love with the moments than the story itself. They
Speaker 1: seem to be more in favor of the moments, even
Speaker 1: sometimes at the expense of the story. Tell the right
Speaker 1: stories with the right people, and the moments will come naturally.
Speaker 1: But if there was one person I would have thought
Speaker 1: would be immune to this knee jerk shit, it would
Speaker 1: have been seen. But apparently not. So. He added this
Speaker 1: when it came to fans being critical of the retirement
Speaker 1: tour because of the Rock and Travis Scott not being
Speaker 1: around for the follow up of the Turn. Now, mind you,
Speaker 1: I couldn't care less about Travis Scott being there for
Speaker 1: the follow up. He never should have been there to
Speaker 1: begin with. And I say that as someone who didn't
Speaker 1: even mind him being in the ring that night when
Speaker 1: it happened. You know, he's a big star. They wanted
Speaker 1: a celebrity to be in the ring with them for
Speaker 1: it in the background. Fine, I had little need to
Speaker 1: see Travis Scott actually wrestling. But it wasn't about him.
Speaker 1: It was about the Rock. It was about Rock attaching
Speaker 1: himself to the story with the soul stuff and doing
Speaker 1: something with Cina, you know. So he decided here in
Speaker 1: this interview to take a walk down what he called
Speaker 1: hypothetical street. He told Cody, let's say everyone who showed
Speaker 1: up at the Chamber is active until August. That robs
Speaker 1: us of John Cena, Randy Orton, That robs us of
Speaker 1: John Cena, cm Punk, John Cena, Ron Cena, John Cena,
Speaker 1: AJ Styles, John Cena, Logan, Paul Me and you for
Speaker 1: the last one, Mono Amano. So yes, the story that
Speaker 1: might have been might have had star power and gravity
Speaker 1: and who knows what. But what we got by just
Speaker 1: being like these are the pieces left. What we got
Speaker 1: for me personally was beautiful. I'm not trying to change anybody,
Speaker 1: but he's mind. I've released art into the world. They
Speaker 1: can think what they want about it. I'm just also
Speaker 1: saying that, like, is it a wise investment in time?
Speaker 1: And what I've learned about like credible wrestling critiques. Of
Speaker 1: course it is because you want chatter and clickbait. But
Speaker 1: let's analyze what happened. I was in the ring with you,
Speaker 1: I was in the ring with Randy and Punk and
Speaker 1: Ron Sena Logan, Paul aj Styles. It was really loud.
Speaker 1: So judging by the wise man Sean Michaels, does that
Speaker 1: mean we did okay? Sometimes all these hypothetical things, let's
Speaker 1: just figure out what it is, why we're doing it,
Speaker 1: and climb that hill in front of you, because it's
Speaker 1: going to change. I have no idea what he's talking
Speaker 1: about when he's saying that. You know, if these guys
Speaker 1: are around, we're not getting all of these different matches.
Speaker 1: If Rock and Travis Scott are active in this story
Speaker 1: through SummerSlam, why does that have to rob us of
Speaker 1: getting John Cena against Randy Orton, or John Cena against
Speaker 1: CM Punk or AJ Styles or the rematch with Cody, which,
Speaker 1: of course that was always going to happen. You know,
Speaker 1: is it possible if one of those guys sticks around,
Speaker 1: one of maybe one of those matches ends up not
Speaker 1: happening and they go a different way. It's sure. I
Speaker 1: suppose it's possible. But do you honestly believe that even
Speaker 1: if those guys were around, we were not going to
Speaker 1: get one last John Seena Randy Orton match, that we
Speaker 1: were not going to get one last John Cena CM
Speaker 1: punk match. If Rock was actually around for some TV appearances,
Speaker 1: it would have enhanced it because think about what Rock
Speaker 1: said or Punk rather coming out of WrestleMania looking into
Speaker 1: the camera calling Dwayne a bald fraud like. If anything,
Speaker 1: it would have enhanced the build up to the fucking match.
Speaker 1: I don't know why he thinks that, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: if these guys were around, we would have been robbed
Speaker 1: of all of these matches. No, we wouldn't have. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's doing a lot of heavy lifting with that quote.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, this is Scena being seen, that
Speaker 1: this is seen of being as diplomatic about the whole
Speaker 1: thing as he can possibly be. I don't believe that
Speaker 1: he believed that. I don't. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of good stuff from this interview with Cody, a lot
Speaker 1: of knowledge being dropped in cool little anecdotes that they shared.
Speaker 1: But I also don't believe that he believes some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that comes out of his mouth when he
Speaker 1: answers these questions. I think he's trying to put lipstick
Speaker 1: on a pig, and you can do that. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, no matter how much lipstick
Speaker 1: you lather on and what color it may be, it's
Speaker 1: still a pig. You know. Sina may have retired from wrestling,
Speaker 1: but he's got a new career waiting for him as
Speaker 1: a contortionist with some of these answers. Of course they
Speaker 1: were going to do one more match with some of
Speaker 1: these people. They were musts. From the minute he announced
Speaker 1: his retirement and money in the bank, people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got to get Seena and Punk, we got to
Speaker 1: get Sena and Norton. He was going to have to
Speaker 1: defend his title against someone in those six months. Does
Speaker 1: he say that he wouldn't have wrestled in those six months.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm not following the logic there. Cody also
Speaker 1: put him on the spot and asked him about his
Speaker 1: favorite match, because Sina used to always say, when he
Speaker 1: would be asked that question, what's your favorite match, my
Speaker 1: next one, which again that's just such a John scene
Speaker 1: a way of answering that question. So now he's retired
Speaker 1: and sa he can hear him asking the question. He
Speaker 1: knows where he's going, and he's like, you son of
Speaker 1: a bitch. Good on Cody for thinking to ask it now, right,
Speaker 1: he says, all right, so you're retired now, there is
Speaker 1: no more next match. So let's see what his answer is.
Speaker 1: So first he runs through the highlights that fans would expect. Oh,
Speaker 1: I could say winning my first championship. I could say
Speaker 1: capturing my sixteenth and my seventeenth world titles. I can
Speaker 1: mention stepping into the ring with the Rock or the Firefly,
Speaker 1: funhouse match, all of these things. But no, you would
Speaker 1: be wrong, he said, I can't get past Phil Brooks,
Speaker 1: c I'm Punk, Saudi Arabia. That might be my favorite
Speaker 1: moment in wrestling. I thought that was going to a
Speaker 1: totally different place when he mentioned Punk. Then he mentioned Saudi,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, really, I'm like, all right, Well, maybe
Speaker 1: for him it was, you know, the experience of being
Speaker 1: back in the ring with him at all, which a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago would have seemed impossible. Maybe that
Speaker 1: is his favorite match, right, Maybe that is one of
Speaker 1: his favorite moments in wrestling. Standing across the ring one
Speaker 1: last time from CM Punk and Saudi and they didn't
Speaker 1: have a bad match, couldn't hold a candle to their
Speaker 1: earlier matches, but you know, they still had what I
Speaker 1: thought was a good match. And Cody is like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: you mean the match itself, and Seenas says no, and
Speaker 1: Cody goes no the promo because they had an n
Speaker 1: ring promo on Smackdom that was the one where Punk
Speaker 1: dressed up as the Doctor of the Doctor of Punkinomics.
Speaker 1: But you can see like Cody is like, oh, so
Speaker 1: you mean the promo and Seena says no. The pre
Speaker 1: show and Cody's reaction was like the pre show. I
Speaker 1: think Cody's reaction was everyone's reaction because the pre show,
Speaker 1: he said, it wasn't the match in Saudi that stayed
Speaker 1: with him. It was the pre show segment where Punk
Speaker 1: publicly apologized to a Saudi fan in the front row.
Speaker 1: That was for his tweet to the Miz back in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen where he told him to go suck a
Speaker 1: blood covered dick in Saudi Arabia, you fucking dork his words.
Speaker 1: He was also now Punk was also on the show
Speaker 1: Pardon My Take that year and when they asked him
Speaker 1: about working a Saudi show, one day he said, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do a single one of those, right,
Speaker 1: so we know what his position was six years ago.
Speaker 1: But then WWE went and they pulled the ultimate rib
Speaker 1: on Cmpunk. They booked the championship match with him and
Speaker 1: John Cena for Saudi Arabia at Night of champions and
Speaker 1: so on the pre show, he was being booed by
Speaker 1: a lot of people, including this one guy, Mohammad, who
Speaker 1: was up in front. He was very upset with Punk
Speaker 1: and he apologized and he said that when I said that,
Speaker 1: I was just crabby. He goes, I have no issue
Speaker 1: with the people of Saudi Arabia, and they all cheered him.
Speaker 1: It's like a switch got flipped. It was that easy. Apparently,
Speaker 1: this moment moved Seena so much that he now considers
Speaker 1: it his favorite moment in wrestling of all time. He said,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the match, it was the pre show promo.
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to have a promo with him
Speaker 1: that night and a match, So I'm attaching myself to
Speaker 1: that moment because I think it's one of the best
Speaker 1: moments in wrestling. There is no shortage of divide. You
Speaker 1: had someone who in a moment of frustration and reaction,
Speaker 1: said some pretty hateful things about a culture, and then
Speaker 1: you have that culture being like, fuck you, not in
Speaker 1: our house. Then you have a man who's brave enough
Speaker 1: to walk into the lions. Then, and in the right moment,
Speaker 1: Phil was accountable for what he said. He gave a
Speaker 1: good explanation for the why and what can we do
Speaker 1: after that? I'm sorry, and then you leave it. That's
Speaker 1: all you can do. Forgiveness takes time, but that gentleman
Speaker 1: forgave him and broke the ice. The forgiveness was infectious.
Speaker 1: So what I saw was holy shit. Wrestling just brought
Speaker 1: cultures together. Wrestling just brought people with different ideologies together
Speaker 1: in an embrace and excitement. Phil went out there and
Speaker 1: they forgave him. I don't know if there's a better
Speaker 1: moment than that. I love growth, I love accountability. I'm
Speaker 1: an advocate for love and forgiveness. And that hit me
Speaker 1: in every right place. And that wasn't even a match.
Speaker 1: That was a segment on a pre show boy that
Speaker 1: Taiwan flat with China really had an impact on him,
Speaker 1: didn't it. I mean, look, it is certainly his opinion
Speaker 1: and he is entitled to it, but wow, I don't
Speaker 1: even know what else to say to that. I just
Speaker 1: I think it speaks for itself. That's his answer. Now.
Speaker 1: One article on Bleacher Report gave seen as retirement toor
Speaker 1: and F grade. I think that's a little extreme. If
Speaker 1: we didn't get some of the matches that we did
Speaker 1: late in his run, after they flipped him back babyface,
Speaker 1: then I would agree. But yeah, the match with Cody
Speaker 1: at SummerSlam, the Crown Jewel match with aj Styles, you know,
Speaker 1: even the match with Guntherro up until the finish, I
Speaker 1: would bump it up to a D. I can't go
Speaker 1: higher than that. I wouldn't give it an F, but
Speaker 1: to me, a D sounds about right. The heel run
Speaker 1: really ruined what could have been a great story, you know,
Speaker 1: had they cared enough to tell a real story throughout
Speaker 1: the year instead of just piecing things together as they
Speaker 1: went along. Like it's not The Invasion or anything from
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, but the scene of retirement run
Speaker 1: is one of the company's all time creative blunders. Like
Speaker 1: they won't see it that way because they made a
Speaker 1: ton of money on t shirts and they sold a
Speaker 1: lot of tickets, which of course they were going to
Speaker 1: anyway because it's seen as farewell. It's the easiest money
Speaker 1: this company will ever make, so business wise it was
Speaker 1: a huge success for them. By every other measure, it
Speaker 1: was a massive disappointment. Now looking at TV this week,
Speaker 1: everything from Friday SmackDown on through this week shows is
Speaker 1: tape for the holidays. I'm not going to get into
Speaker 1: any spoilers here for those shows, I'll wait to watch
Speaker 1: them myself. The one thing I do know, I know
Speaker 1: the stipulation and the date for the Cody Roach Drew
Speaker 1: MacIntyre match for the WWE Championship. I will not get
Speaker 1: into what it is. I will just say that it
Speaker 1: is not January twod so we will find out what
Speaker 1: that is on the show this upcoming Friday. That's the
Speaker 1: day after Christmas. I watched SmackDown on Saturday morning because
Speaker 1: I was at the House of Glory show on Friday night.
Speaker 1: So just real quick here, Cody cut an impassion promo
Speaker 1: in the ring on Friday on General manager Nick All
Speaker 1: this reminding all this of who the hell he is,
Speaker 1: and he's going through his resume and all of his accomplishments,
Speaker 1: and he tells all this, don't forget you work for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he keeps talking to his boss like that. All this
Speaker 1: is liable to screw him out of that championship. In
Speaker 1: that match with Drew Alistair Black, he put Damian Prieste
Speaker 1: through a table with a meteora, not in a match,
Speaker 1: but Priest was interrupted by Zelena Vega during the opening
Speaker 1: segment and then Black attack from behind. So it all
Speaker 1: ended with Priest being put through a table and then
Speaker 1: he attacked Priest again backstage after a Black mass kick
Speaker 1: or with a Black mass kick. So this feud must continue.
Speaker 1: Why I don't know, but it must. I mean, where
Speaker 1: do you go after you do Last man Standing? That's
Speaker 1: the question I've had this entire time. We got a
Speaker 1: Last man Standing match months ago between these two. Where
Speaker 1: do you go from there? Helen a cell? This feud
Speaker 1: is not worthy of a Hell in a Cell match.
Speaker 1: If they do a cage match, I mean I guess
Speaker 1: they could do is they could just have Priests casually
Speaker 1: walk through the door again when he leaves, but only
Speaker 1: if they get Jesse Ventura back on commentary. That would
Speaker 1: make it all worth it. You want to do a
Speaker 1: cage match with Damian Priest, make sure you get Jesse
Speaker 1: Venturer back on commentary and let him walk through the
Speaker 1: door again and watch the magic unfold. Speaking of Damian Priest,
Speaker 1: he appeared as a guest on actor Nick Taturo show,
Speaker 1: Delivering Happiness. That's what I do on this show every week.
Speaker 1: I deliver happiness to all of you. That was actually
Speaker 1: the original name of the sound off before I change it.
Speaker 1: I bet you didn't know that. So he shed some
Speaker 1: light on why he hasn't made as many appearances in
Speaker 1: the ring this year, citing injuries and the company's desire
Speaker 1: to protect him from himself. Said, this past year, I've
Speaker 1: taken a step back, been banged up a little bit,
Speaker 1: kind of giving the bones and the joints and the
Speaker 1: ligaments and everything in between a little bit of a break.
Speaker 1: Same the company now this year decided let's take it
Speaker 1: easy on him because I've been going hard for a while.
Speaker 1: Tore my shoulder a couple of times within the last
Speaker 1: year and a half, my knees are banged up. My
Speaker 1: back is if I need a lot of work done,
Speaker 1: but I choose to not because if I don't have to,
Speaker 1: I won't. I'll just figure it out. Let's do rehab
Speaker 1: and just keep me in the game coach type of thing.
Speaker 1: This year. I think the company was like, we're happy
Speaker 1: with you, but we need to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: going to last year. So they've been forcing me to
Speaker 1: take it easy. Let's put it that way. Not the
Speaker 1: easiest thing to do when you want to just go
Speaker 1: out there and perform because you love what you do.
Speaker 1: He has definitely taken more of a back seat this year.
Speaker 1: He wrestled one hundred matches in twenty twenty three. Last year,
Speaker 1: he works seventy six matches. This year he only wrestled
Speaker 1: twenty four times. That is a steep drop off, and
Speaker 1: good on WWE for looking out for the guy and
Speaker 1: forcing him to take a back seat if they feel
Speaker 1: like it's better for his health in the long run,
Speaker 1: better for his hell them, better for WWI to get
Speaker 1: a more productive output from him. If he's not as
Speaker 1: banged up. That is still the issue, of course, of
Speaker 1: him not being over on SmackDown or as over as
Speaker 1: he was on raw. That's something that has to be
Speaker 1: addressed next year. Whether he works twenty four dates or
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty four dates. You got to get
Speaker 1: the creative to back him up that will give him
Speaker 1: the best chance of getting over at the level that
Speaker 1: he was at on Monday Nights. He just hasn't been
Speaker 1: able to replicate that on SmackDown. Also on the show
Speaker 1: with him and Nick Tto, the two of them talked
Speaker 1: about not knowing they were related to each other until
Speaker 1: they attended a New York Yankees game together. Toturo said,
Speaker 1: this is actually my nephew. We didn't know. We had
Speaker 1: to do some research. That was a good night. The
Speaker 1: Yankees won that night, we didn't get swept, and then
Speaker 1: you had to get on a plane to Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 1: you know. Nick Tatero was one of the celebrity guests
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania eleven. He did the guest ring announcing for
Speaker 1: the title match between Shawn Michaels and Diesel. He played
Speaker 1: Officer Martinez on ENDPD Blue. NYPD Blue was big back
Speaker 1: in the nineties. Funny enough, I only started watching the
Speaker 1: show this year. It was one of those shows, like
Speaker 1: The West Wing was another one of those shows I
Speaker 1: just never watched it. It got tons of praise and
Speaker 1: awards and stuff. I never watched it. So like last year,
Speaker 1: I finally got around to watching all the ten seasons
Speaker 1: whatever it was, and It's one of the greatest shows
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. So I'm like, you know what I
Speaker 1: need to watch. I need to start watching NYPD Blue.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I never watched it in the
Speaker 1: first place, Like I watched Law and Order in the past,
Speaker 1: and like The Shield is one of my favorite shows,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how did I miss this one? So
Speaker 1: I actually started watching it for the first time. So,
Speaker 1: you know, back then, I had no idea who this
Speaker 1: guy was. When he came out of WrestleMania, I knew
Speaker 1: who Jonathan Taylor Thomas was. He was also at that
Speaker 1: wrestle media. I knew him because I used to watch
Speaker 1: Home Improvement, but I had no idea who Nick was.
Speaker 1: And now I look at him, I go, oh, it's
Speaker 1: Officer Martinez. Julia beat Alba Fire in a match between
Speaker 1: two heels where the crowd mostly sat on their hands.
Speaker 1: It's just, it's said, if I had to sum up
Speaker 1: what watching Julia is like on those rare occasions when
Speaker 1: we see her on SmackDown, said, that's the word I
Speaker 1: think of. She's drowning out there. Like the pairing with
Speaker 1: Keana James has been an abject failure. It has not
Speaker 1: gotten either of them over any more than they already
Speaker 1: were before, which wasn't much to begin with. They just
Speaker 1: need a hard reset for her, and I've suggested a
Speaker 1: move to RAW. I mean, as much as SmackDown needs
Speaker 1: more women in that division, not less, I think she
Speaker 1: would do better working with some of the women they
Speaker 1: have on Mondays, and then to sort of replace her,
Speaker 1: they should be calling up some women anyway from NXT.
Speaker 1: So that's what I would do. I would get Julia
Speaker 1: the fuck off this show, move her to Monday, maybe
Speaker 1: even pair her up with some of the women there,
Speaker 1: you know, as a heel, because eventually she'll end up
Speaker 1: as a baby face. But I have no issue with
Speaker 1: her being a heal. But she just needs a change
Speaker 1: of scenery. She needs a change of something. Joe Henry
Speaker 1: is going to be wrestling the Miz on SmackDown this Friday.
Speaker 1: If you're upset about this, stop just stop. It's a
Speaker 1: fine first feud for Henri. Miss is the gatekeeper for
Speaker 1: that show. And if this is a full time call
Speaker 1: up for Joe, I don't know if it is. If
Speaker 1: it is, though, then good for him. You know he's
Speaker 1: worked hard to get there. As long as they keep
Speaker 1: the feud brief. I don't have an issue with it. Now.
Speaker 1: If three months from now Joe Hendry is still working
Speaker 1: with the Miz, you know, I may have a different opinion,
Speaker 1: but otherwise I have no issue with this and the
Speaker 1: Wyatt Six. They wrestled j C. Matteo and Tongaala of
Speaker 1: the MFTs on Friday. That was the main event of
Speaker 1: the show. I watched the match on fast forward and
Speaker 1: I was still bored. That was SmackDown not much of
Speaker 1: a show. Now, going back to Raw last Monday, outside
Speaker 1: of the gunther Heat segment that opened things up, and
Speaker 1: there was also a great CM Punk promo in there.
Speaker 1: Outside of that, there wasn't much else to get excited about.
Speaker 1: You know how disposable cameras used to be a big thing.
Speaker 1: These are disposable shows. That's how I would describe them. Now.
Speaker 1: We did get the Mystery Man reveal at the end
Speaker 1: of the show, which surprised me. I figured they were
Speaker 1: going to wait on that until January fifth, when Punk
Speaker 1: and bron Breaker have their championship match. But on Monday,
Speaker 1: the Mystery Man in Black struck again. He helped Logan
Speaker 1: Paul beat Ray Mysterio. Then CM Punk ran out with
Speaker 1: a chair, and so the mass Man high tailed it
Speaker 1: into the crowd before pulling off his mask to reveal Austin.
Speaker 1: Theory kind of gives it's me Austin. It was me
Speaker 1: all along a different kind of meaning, doesn't it. That's
Speaker 1: two angles that sucked the greater Power and the mystery
Speaker 1: man Angle. Theory has a shaved head. I mean, otherwise
Speaker 1: he looks the same, but the hair is the biggest difference.
Speaker 1: He never actually joined with the Vision, so the question
Speaker 1: is still, you know, is he with them or is
Speaker 1: he just auditioning for a spot with them. There's even
Speaker 1: some fan theories out there that maybe he's secretly aligned
Speaker 1: with Seth Rollins and he's gonna Screwbreaker out of the
Speaker 1: championship when he wrestles Punk on January fifth, which would
Speaker 1: ignore the fact that he helped the Vision win War Games,
Speaker 1: by the way, So I don't think it's that, But
Speaker 1: I also I'm not convinced that he is necessarily the
Speaker 1: only mystery Man that gets revealed here. Who's to say
Speaker 1: that there can't be somebody else on January fifth who
Speaker 1: shows up under a mask, right who says Theory has
Speaker 1: to be the only guy so far as far as
Speaker 1: theory goes. Look, I hope it all works out. I
Speaker 1: said this on Monday. I see this as a last
Speaker 1: chance for him. I mean, the man won money in
Speaker 1: the bank years ago and cashed in for a lesser
Speaker 1: title and lost. He beat John Cena at WrestleMania and
Speaker 1: it was rendered meaningless, and then he ended up in
Speaker 1: a mid card comedy team. That's three years of his
Speaker 1: career that he can never get back. But he's still
Speaker 1: only twenty eight years old. That's what's crazy. He's still
Speaker 1: a young guy. He can still be redeemed. He just
Speaker 1: needs the right creative to back him up. We got
Speaker 1: an accidental title change on NXT this week when THEA
Speaker 1: Hale pinned Blake Monroe to win the NXT Women's North
Speaker 1: American Championship, ending Monroe's run at just fifty one days.
Speaker 1: Permike Johnson, a PW insider, THEA Hale winning the NXT
Speaker 1: North American Women's title was not the originally planned finish.
Speaker 1: PW Insider can confirm based on those we have spoken with.
Speaker 1: Monroe had the wind knocked out of her when Hale
Speaker 1: came off the ropes and tried to recover to get
Speaker 1: her shoulder up, but wasn't able to do so in time.
Speaker 1: Since Hale is so young, we are told she likely
Speaker 1: did not realize that she needed to give Blake a
Speaker 1: moment to catch her wind and went right for the pin.
Speaker 1: Since referees are instructed to call pinfalls as if they
Speaker 1: are legitimate, the referee had no choice but to count
Speaker 1: the three. Monroe did try to get her shoulder up,
Speaker 1: which WWE later used as a storyline point. The plan
Speaker 1: going in was for Monroe to win. WWE played her
Speaker 1: music at the finish since she was planned to win,
Speaker 1: and then stopped it and played Hale's music. Fightful Select
Speaker 1: added this. The title change caused a backstage scramble. It
Speaker 1: also caused issues because there were creative plans in place
Speaker 1: with hal not winning the championship, which is now being
Speaker 1: immediately changed. The championship win has also affected several people's
Speaker 1: creative plans that were set for the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: One NXT staff member said the botch happened at the
Speaker 1: worst possible time, as NXT was finishing up filming so
Speaker 1: talent could go home for a Christmas break. Weeks of
Speaker 1: creative had already been finalized and filmed, and there was
Speaker 1: a frantic rush to correct things that had already been
Speaker 1: filmed in order to make sense of them. One NXT
Speaker 1: higher up said this was going to cause some heavy
Speaker 1: shit in policy among talent, with wrestler's book being required
Speaker 1: to stay until the end of the tapings moving forward,
Speaker 1: I believe Hale left the taping early and jumped right
Speaker 1: on her Twitch channel to celebrate with the belt. I
Speaker 1: saw part of her Twitch streams she had the belt
Speaker 1: around her neck. I don't know who the guy was
Speaker 1: that was their boyfriend. I don't know who was, but
Speaker 1: she's got a Twitch channel and I guess she jumped
Speaker 1: right on there. Sean ross Sapp says that policy was
Speaker 1: not added because she left, but I mean it's hard
Speaker 1: not to put two and two together. I mean, not
Speaker 1: that she's got heat or anything for it, but there
Speaker 1: was no policy in place already for such a thing beforehand,
Speaker 1: right and then in light of what happened, now there is,
Speaker 1: so you know, that way, if something like this should
Speaker 1: ever happen again, they want to make sure everybody sticks
Speaker 1: around in case they need to rectify it. To me,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. I don't know why they're not required
Speaker 1: to stay regardless until the show is over. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that should be required anyway. But it's clear
Speaker 1: if you watch it that Blake got the wind knocked
Speaker 1: out of her on the landing. I mean, if theya
Speaker 1: basically gave her a springboard sentin and came down on
Speaker 1: top of her with all of her weight. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know that Hail is not the biggest person, but
Speaker 1: it's still all of her weight coming down on someone's
Speaker 1: chest and she got the wind knocked out of her
Speaker 1: for a few seconds. Now, if you look really close,
Speaker 1: it looks like Blake got her shoulder up off the
Speaker 1: mat a little bit before the three count. But I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't overly noticeable. I don't blame the referee for
Speaker 1: counting three. That's that's what he should do, right. If
Speaker 1: someone is supposed to kick out and they don't, that's
Speaker 1: on them. This one, you know, it was it was debatable.
Speaker 1: You know, he could have stopped the count and slid
Speaker 1: his hand under her shoulder to kind of give her
Speaker 1: the out, like, oh, her shoulder came up off the mat,
Speaker 1: But he called it the way he saw it. I
Speaker 1: can't fault the guy for that. And look it happens.
Speaker 1: This is not the first time that there has been
Speaker 1: an accidental title change. Hardcore Holly, he was not supposed
Speaker 1: to win the Hard Corps title from Crash at WrestleMania
Speaker 1: two thousand. They had that Hardcore Battle Royal and he
Speaker 1: dropped it right back to him. On Raw the next night,
Speaker 1: Mickey James, she won the Women's Championship against Molina and Victoria.
Speaker 1: It was a triple threat match on a house show
Speaker 1: when Victoria was late in kicking out. That was actually
Speaker 1: the night after that Raw match in London where Shawn
Speaker 1: Michaels beat John Cena. They were on an international tour somewhere,
Speaker 1: so what did they do. They booked an impromptu match
Speaker 1: later that same night and Molina won the belt back
Speaker 1: all right. Kevin Owens, he was not supposed to win
Speaker 1: the US title from AJ Styles at that Battleground pay
Speaker 1: per view in twenty seventeen, but he did, and they
Speaker 1: switched the belt back to AJ a few days later.
Speaker 1: Our Truth. He wasn't supposed to win the US title
Speaker 1: from Shinske Nakamora on SmackDown in twenty nineteen, but he did.
Speaker 1: Mike Keyota actually tells a great story. About that, so
Speaker 1: truth ended up getting a little run out of it
Speaker 1: for a few weeks so again, and there's probably been
Speaker 1: other examples too. But now they're going to run it
Speaker 1: back at New Year's Evil on January sixth, and my
Speaker 1: guess is they will probably put the belt right back
Speaker 1: on Blake. Honestly though, you know what, she's been there
Speaker 1: for six months. May as well just leave the belt
Speaker 1: on THEA and call Blake up to the main roster,
Speaker 1: especially if they're not going to call up Jordan Grace,
Speaker 1: then get her up there. In the never ending saga
Speaker 1: of who wants Warner Brothers Discovery, on Wednesday, the company's
Speaker 1: board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the hostile
Speaker 1: bid proposed by Paramount Skydance, who are being a bunch
Speaker 1: of whiny little cry babies about the whole thing. As
Speaker 1: we know, they already announced the deal with Netflix worth
Speaker 1: more than seventy billion dollars for Netflix to acquire its
Speaker 1: movie and TV studios and all of the IP that
Speaker 1: comes with it. Netflix would not be acquiring the television
Speaker 1: networks like CNN, TBSTNT. Those will be off into a
Speaker 1: separate company which has been the plan all along, whereas
Speaker 1: Paramount would buy the entire thing. So they are urging
Speaker 1: shareholders to reject Paramount's one hundred and eight billion dollar bid,
Speaker 1: arguing that it creates significant risk and costs for the
Speaker 1: company and that Netflix's offer, while lower, provides better value.
Speaker 1: Paramount's CEO, David Ellison, has said that combining the assets
Speaker 1: of Warner Brothers Discovery with Paramount Skuiddance would face an
Speaker 1: easier path through the government regulatory process. Warner Brothers Discovery
Speaker 1: said its board concluded that the two offers pose an
Speaker 1: equal regulatory risk. It also said that its analysis found
Speaker 1: that Netflix's offer, which includes cash and Netflix stock, is superior.
Speaker 1: It raised concerns about Paramount Skuyddance's forty billion dollar equity commitment,
Speaker 1: for which Warner Brothers Discovery said there is no Ellison
Speaker 1: family commitment of any kind. Wbd's recommendation comes shortly after
Speaker 1: one of Paramount's Guiddance's financial partners in the deal, Affinity Partners,
Speaker 1: said that it had dropped out of the hostile bid.
Speaker 1: Affinity is the private equity firm founded by President Trump's
Speaker 1: son in lawge Aared Kushner. An Affinity spokesperson told CBS
Speaker 1: News that while it continued to believe in the strong
Speaker 1: strategic rationale for Paramount Skuydance's offer, it had decided to
Speaker 1: pull back because the dynamics of the investment have changed
Speaker 1: significantly since we initially became involved in October. In a
Speaker 1: letter sent to shareholders, Warner Brothers Discoveries Board said it
Speaker 1: believed Netflix's finances are also in better shape with a
Speaker 1: stronger credit rating and a larger market capitalization. The Netflix
Speaker 1: merger is fully backed by a public company with a
Speaker 1: market cap in excess of four hundred billion dollars with
Speaker 1: an investment grade balance sheet. The letter stated, Paramount Skuiddance's
Speaker 1: credit rating is at or only a notch above junk
Speaker 1: status from the two leading ratings agencies, while its market
Speaker 1: valuation stands at fifteen billion dollars. And then there's this
Speaker 1: from Collider dot com. Kkoplovitz, the founder of USA Network,
Speaker 1: recently sat down with Yahoo Finance to discuss who had
Speaker 1: the upper hand in the Netflix paramount battle. During the discussion,
Speaker 1: Koplovits revealed that she believes more bidders will come to
Speaker 1: challenge Netflix and Paramount for ownership of Warner Brothers Discovery.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's just Netflix and Paramount, she said.
Speaker 1: I believe other companies are going to be in the mix.
Speaker 1: The reason why other companies would enter the game lies
Speaker 1: in an asset that Netflix and Paramount are overlooking the
Speaker 1: cable companies. So look where this ends. Nobody knows. I
Speaker 1: mean by the way that that's a quote from somebody
Speaker 1: who founded, you know, USA Network, which is a cable channel.
Speaker 1: So she certainly has her own perspective on this. But
Speaker 1: where this ends nobody knows. What we do know is
Speaker 1: that this is not going to be resolved anytime soon.
Speaker 1: So as far as AW is concerned, in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future, they have nothing to worry about MVP.
Speaker 1: He announced last week that Bobby Lashley was injured. Although
Speaker 1: he did not reveal the nature of the injury, he
Speaker 1: did not reveal how long Lashley is expected to be
Speaker 1: out for fight Ful Select later posted an update stating
Speaker 1: that while they were told they were not told the
Speaker 1: specifics of the injury, they had heard that Lashley is
Speaker 1: expected to miss quite a bit of time. So that
Speaker 1: effectively ends the Hurt syndicate unless they add a new
Speaker 1: member without lashly, there is no hurt syndicate, and the
Speaker 1: last time he wrestled was the Casino Gauntlet match at
Speaker 1: full gear, so that would have to be when he
Speaker 1: got I mean, I guess he could have been hurt
Speaker 1: in training or something, but my guess is that's where
Speaker 1: he was hurt. What it is, I mean, look, if
Speaker 1: he's going to miss significant time, that sounds like surgery
Speaker 1: to me. You know, he may have torn something. I mean,
Speaker 1: who knows, but he's gone. And so now Shelton is
Speaker 1: on his own. He's got MVP with him and that's
Speaker 1: about it again unless they add new members that hurt
Speaker 1: syndicates on ice. Now, MVP also cannot get Triple H's
Speaker 1: name out of his mouth. He really hates this guy.
Speaker 1: He really hates this guy. I'm starting to wonder, does
Speaker 1: Jim Cornett hate Vince Russo more than MVP hes Triple eight.
Speaker 1: I think the answer is yes, But like it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of creeping up into that territory. So in an
Speaker 1: interview with Q one oh one, MVP discussed the differences
Speaker 1: between working for Tony Kahan and working for Paul Levec.
Speaker 1: This is what he said, Tony, he has his vision
Speaker 1: of what he wants, and he works with the talent
Speaker 1: and he allows a lot more input from the talent
Speaker 1: and to what creative path is going to happen. Whereas
Speaker 1: the nose that being a triple H, he is a
Speaker 1: little bit more dictatorial. Emphasis on Dick, it's this is
Speaker 1: what we're doing, this is how it's going to be,
Speaker 1: and this is what I want. Whereas Tony could say, well,
Speaker 1: this is what I want, and you can say, okay, Tony,
Speaker 1: but what about if we put this on it and
Speaker 1: Tony invites the input. With that guy, there's only a
Speaker 1: handful of people that I would say are allowed to
Speaker 1: have that kind of input. I think Tony, I'm just
Speaker 1: going to be blunt, is a better human being, a
Speaker 1: better person all around than this guy. So it's definitely
Speaker 1: a better person to work for in a much better
Speaker 1: working environment. When I was in WWE, you did have
Speaker 1: a lot of people who were really concerned about their
Speaker 1: future because at any given time you were gone on
Speaker 1: a whim and we saw it happen all the time.
Speaker 1: Tony doesn't operate that way. In addressing the rumor that
Speaker 1: he doesn't like speedball, Mike Bailey, he called that whole
Speaker 1: thing preposterous. He says, I don't have a problem with Mike.
Speaker 1: He's one of the nicest guys around. I don't know
Speaker 1: where that came from. And he also addressed rumors that
Speaker 1: the Hurt Synda Kid has refused to lose to certain
Speaker 1: teams in the aw Tag Team Division. He disputed that claim,
Speaker 1: but said matches involving Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin should
Speaker 1: not be fifty to fifty. He said Bobby and Shelton
Speaker 1: could destroy everybody in terms of how we approach him
Speaker 1: when you have smaller guys. I just try to explain
Speaker 1: to certain people that there's psychology. You should be chopping
Speaker 1: down the tree. It's not a fifty to fifty match. Somehow,
Speaker 1: somebody got this idea that the Hurt Syndicate don't want
Speaker 1: to lose to anybody, which is bullshit because we've lost
Speaker 1: to people. But there's psychology, there's a way to do it,
Speaker 1: and we had great matches with Jet Speed and Speedball.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of respect for the guy. He's
Speaker 1: a tremendous athlete and loves what he does. That's what
Speaker 1: he said of Mike Bailey boy, he's really going out
Speaker 1: of his way to try to extinguish the speedball stuff.
Speaker 1: For the record, when he says somehow people got the
Speaker 1: idea that the Hurt Syndicate refuses to lose, he says, oh,
Speaker 1: we've lost the people the Hurt Syndicate as a team,
Speaker 1: and really, Bobby Lashley in general had never lost a
Speaker 1: match in aaw never, not one. Shelton lost as a
Speaker 1: singles Shelton Benjamin got beat a few times in the
Speaker 1: Continental Classic last year, but Lashly and Benjamin had not
Speaker 1: lost a match until they dropped the belts to Bandido
Speaker 1: or Brodido in that three way at Forbidden Door, which
Speaker 1: took place a few weeks after that report initially surfaced. So, yes,
Speaker 1: they've lost, and since then they've lost to the demand. Right,
Speaker 1: They've had a few losses, but all of their losses
Speaker 1: came only after that report leaked. I'm not saying it's true,
Speaker 1: but he makes it sound like, oh, it's bullshit. Of
Speaker 1: course we've lost matches. Yes, after you were accused of
Speaker 1: not losing matches, then they suddenly started losing some matches.
Speaker 1: Does that mean that they refused I don't know, but
Speaker 1: he's not wrong when he talks about there being a
Speaker 1: certain psychology to smaller guys wrestling bigger guys. He says
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be fifty to fifty. I agree with that,
Speaker 1: you know, generally, but I think it depends on who
Speaker 1: they're in the ring with, right, how much credibility does
Speaker 1: that team have, How protected are those guys regardless of
Speaker 1: their size. I think there are exceptions to the rule,
Speaker 1: but as a general rule, I understand what he's saying
Speaker 1: and I don't disagree with it. Now, the Continental Classic
Speaker 1: is going to be coming to a close next weekend.
Speaker 1: Before I get into a discussion about that, I do
Speaker 1: have to mention the one big thing that happened on
Speaker 1: Dynamite this week, and then I'll get into some World's
Speaker 1: End predictions. And this actually ties in directly to the
Speaker 1: World's End main event. We have the return of MJF.
Speaker 1: And boy did that story go nowhere this year with
Speaker 1: MJF and Bobby Lashley talk about a dropped story there.
Speaker 1: But MJF was back. We haven't seen him in a
Speaker 1: few months, and he cashed in his world title contract
Speaker 1: that he won in the Casino Gauntlet match. Right that
Speaker 1: was back in Texas, and he's been carrying this thing
Speaker 1: around now for months, and he decided to cash it in. Now,
Speaker 1: now you can't. You got to give at least a
Speaker 1: week's notice. There's not money in the bank rules anymore.
Speaker 1: But he's like, I'm cashing it in and I'm going
Speaker 1: to be added to the triple threat match. I'm inserting
Speaker 1: myself into the main event at World's End on December
Speaker 1: twenty seventh. Now it is a fatal four way. Now,
Speaker 1: somebody would have said that to me, and I didn't
Speaker 1: watch the show on Wednesday, of course my reaction would
Speaker 1: have been like, well the fuck would he do that? Right? MJF.
Speaker 1: He's a heel. Last time we saw him, he comes back.
Speaker 1: You know what I think I'll do. I've got this
Speaker 1: guaranteed contract I've been walking around with and it's still
Speaker 1: valid into next year. But you know what I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do. Instead of wrestling one man for the championship,
Speaker 1: why don't I wrestle three? Right? Why would he do this?
Speaker 1: But in the promo, if you listen to what he
Speaker 1: said on Wednesday, they at least took the time to
Speaker 1: have him explain why he would do this, and he
Speaker 1: pointed out that Hangman has called him a coward, and
Speaker 1: people have called him names and they think, basically, in
Speaker 1: so many words, he's a giant pussy And so this
Speaker 1: is his way of throwing it back in their face
Speaker 1: by saying, Okay, I'm going to put myself in this match,
Speaker 1: and I'm willing to put my shot on the line
Speaker 1: here and when I beat you, when I beat all
Speaker 1: of you, then I'm going to be able to throw
Speaker 1: it back in your face and you're not going to
Speaker 1: have a word to say back to me. He almost
Speaker 1: came off more like a babyface, honestly in that promo
Speaker 1: than anything else. But this is him showing that he's
Speaker 1: got a set of nuts on him and that you
Speaker 1: know what you say that I need shortcuts and I
Speaker 1: need to cheat, and I need to take this and
Speaker 1: that way out, Like no, I'm gonna be in this
Speaker 1: match too, and I'm gonna beat all the your asses.
Speaker 1: So at least they took the time to try to
Speaker 1: explain it. You could still say that man, he's stupid
Speaker 1: for doing it, and I don't disagree, but they at
Speaker 1: least explained it. Now. The Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal that
Speaker 1: they did on Wednesday came down to ricochet and Bandido
Speaker 1: MJF was not in the Battle Royal. He's had that
Speaker 1: ring every year for the last six years, So it
Speaker 1: came down to the two of them and the fans
Speaker 1: there in Manchester. They had ten thousand people on the
Speaker 1: building of Manchester. By the way, I don't think they
Speaker 1: focused enough on that. You don't see dynamite crowds of
Speaker 1: ten thousand people anymore, Okay, it's very rare. That's very
Speaker 1: very rare, and I just think that they should have
Speaker 1: done a better job, especially when they came on the
Speaker 1: air really showing the venue and talking about how many
Speaker 1: people were there. I mean the way that they opened
Speaker 1: the show on Wednesday, it was literally like they're already
Speaker 1: in the ring, ding ding ding, right into action. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: you got three hours tonight, and it's almost like they
Speaker 1: were rushing from the start, and I'm like, why don't
Speaker 1: you take the time to show people where you are?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, it's so rare. They're
Speaker 1: always in these smaller intimate venues, so I just think, man,
Speaker 1: that was a drop ball there. But the fans in
Speaker 1: the building, they were upset because they just didn't realize
Speaker 1: that the way this works is that the last two
Speaker 1: men will then go on the following week to have
Speaker 1: a singles match. Now they are in the middle of
Speaker 1: taping television at the Hammerstein Ballroom this weekend here in
Speaker 1: New York City. They taped television yesterday. I think they
Speaker 1: might be in the middle of taping as I speak,
Speaker 1: or they will be in a few hours, because again,
Speaker 1: all these shows this week coming up, I think for everybody,
Speaker 1: it's all taped. I did not read the spoilers, but
Speaker 1: I had figured, just you know, watching who the last
Speaker 1: two men were, that Ricochet would win the ring because
Speaker 1: the gimmick would just fit him so well. But then
Speaker 1: I think, Okay, if MJF is winning the belt back,
Speaker 1: and I think that he probably is the winner of
Speaker 1: the Diamond Ring gets a guaranteed shot at the AW
Speaker 1: World Championship on the Maximum Carnage episode of Dynamite that's
Speaker 1: on January fourteenth. I could envision a scenario where MJF
Speaker 1: forces Bandido if he was to win, because it would
Speaker 1: make more sense than for a babyface to win the ring.
Speaker 1: I could see a scenario where MJF forces Bandido to
Speaker 1: put his ring up and make it title versus ring
Speaker 1: and that's how MJF backdoors his way to another diamond
Speaker 1: ring for the empteenth time. Because it was kind of weird,
Speaker 1: like he came back on television this week on the
Speaker 1: very night where they were having a battle royal for
Speaker 1: this fucking ring that I think he was wearing on
Speaker 1: his finger even I think he might have actually been
Speaker 1: wearing it during the promo, but there was no mention
Speaker 1: made of him having anything to do with the ring stuff.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, which is fine. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: kind of moved beyond that, but now I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: So wait a minute here. If he wins the belt,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be defending it against the winner of the ring.
Speaker 1: They're gonna turn this into a fucking ring for belt,
Speaker 1: aren't they. And they're gonna have him with the diamond
Speaker 1: ring anyway. So if band if Bandido should win that match,
Speaker 1: and we'll see on Wednesday, but if you should win
Speaker 1: that match, I don't think he's going to have that
Speaker 1: ring for very long. So anyway, as far as the
Speaker 1: Continental Classic goes, here is where things stand. After collision
Speaker 1: last night, Okata, Speedball, Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, and Pack.
Speaker 1: They are all tied up at six points each in
Speaker 1: the Gold League, so we got a five way tie.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's ever happened before. In the Blue League,
Speaker 1: Claudio and Taqusta they lead the charge with seven point each.
Speaker 1: John Moxley has six, so he's only one behind Claudio.
Speaker 1: On Collision last night, Kevin Knight or I guess yesterday
Speaker 1: afternoon is when it aired. But on Collision yesterday, Kevin
Speaker 1: Knight pinned Kazuchka Okada. I was not expecting that. And
Speaker 1: look at Kevin Knight. All of a sudden, this man
Speaker 1: has not even been on the roster for a full
Speaker 1: year yet, and he has clean wins over Okata and
Speaker 1: Darby Allen, and he got to wrestle Will Osprey on
Speaker 1: pay per view earlier this year. But Okata has not
Speaker 1: lost very many singles matches since signing with AW. He
Speaker 1: lost to Brian Danielson on Dynamite. He lost twice in
Speaker 1: the Continental Classic to Kyle Fletcher, once last year and
Speaker 1: once this year, and now to Kevin Knight. And that's
Speaker 1: it now. Kevin Knight is not winning this tournament. But
Speaker 1: Tony better have something real good in mind for him
Speaker 1: coming out of this thing, because this is this is
Speaker 1: not the sort of thing that you should squander like
Speaker 1: you could use this tournament as a way as like
Speaker 1: a launching pad for one or two people. So Kevin
Speaker 1: Knight is in prime position for that. A lot of
Speaker 1: it just depends on what happens coming out of this.
Speaker 1: You know, is he going to be the next Action
Speaker 1: Andretti or is he going to be the next Kyle Fletcher.
Speaker 1: Right choice is up to Tony Fletcher beat Okada in
Speaker 1: the tournament last year. He went on to have a
Speaker 1: breakout year for himself in twenty twenty five. That should
Speaker 1: be Kevin Knight in twenty twenty six. So here is
Speaker 1: what we got left. The matches that are coming up
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. We got two Blue League in one Gold League.
Speaker 1: In the Blue League we have Kenoski Takeshta against Orange Cassidy,
Speaker 1: so I'm guessing Takeshta wins. That. We have Roderick Strong
Speaker 1: against Mascariderrada. This, I mean, who gives a shit? I
Speaker 1: mean they've both been mathematically eliminated anyway. I know Roddy
Speaker 1: has at least and Jack Perry, who's been biting people.
Speaker 1: He bit Okata on the dick the other Nights when
Speaker 1: he was upside down at a tombstone position fucking sixty
Speaker 1: nine over here. So he bit him on the dick,
Speaker 1: and I saw he bit Speedball on the foot. He
Speaker 1: had his fricking toes in his mouth on televisions. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on with this guy. But anyway,
Speaker 1: Jack Perry is wrestling Pack, and I have Jack Perry
Speaker 1: beating Pack. So those matches are coming up on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: So then on Thursday, these are all the remaining matches.
Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of them. John Moxley against Orange Cassidy.
Speaker 1: I got Moxley winning that one. We have Masceror Dorada
Speaker 1: wrestling Kenoski Takeshda and I got Ta Keshda winning that.
Speaker 1: There's a match between Claudio who is the CMLL Heavyweight Champion.
Speaker 1: He is wrestling Roderick Strong who has zero points. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say that these two go to a draw. That's
Speaker 1: my prediction there. They go to a time limit draw.
Speaker 1: That way, nobody wins, nobody loses. We have Olkata taking
Speaker 1: on Mike Bailey, that should be a win for Okada.
Speaker 1: Pack takes on Kevin Knight. I'm gonna say Kevin Knight
Speaker 1: wins that match, and then Jack Perry wrestles Kyle Fletcher,
Speaker 1: and I'm undecided on how that's going to go. I
Speaker 1: was thinking maybe another draw. I don't know that they
Speaker 1: want to do two draws like that so close together.
Speaker 1: There's only been one other one, I think so far
Speaker 1: in this tournament, so I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: how that goes. But I will say this though, it
Speaker 1: is nice having a tournament with some unpredictability for a change.
Speaker 1: We've definitely had some unpredictable finishes in some of these matches.
Speaker 1: So this now leads into the World's End card. This
Speaker 1: is what we know so far. World's End is next Saturday.
Speaker 1: That is the final pay per view of the year.
Speaker 1: We have the aw Women's Tag team champions, Willow Nightingale
Speaker 1: and Harley Cameron defending their titles against Mercedes Monet and Athena,
Speaker 1: and this I predict will be and should be a
Speaker 1: win for Willow and Harley who just won the belts.
Speaker 1: And certainly the last thing Mercedes needs right now, as
Speaker 1: she is in the process of losing belts is to
Speaker 1: win another one. So I got Willow and Harley getting
Speaker 1: the win here now, speaking of Mercedes and her titles,
Speaker 1: she lost her rev Pro British was undisputed British Women's Championship.
Speaker 1: She defended it on the Holiday Bash edition of Collision
Speaker 1: yesterday she lost it to Alex Windsor, so that ends
Speaker 1: her reign with that title at just under a year.
Speaker 1: She actually won it from Mina Shirakawa at the Tokyo
Speaker 1: Dome at Wresselled Dynasty earlier this year. So now this
Speaker 1: is the second championship that she has lost. Technically I
Speaker 1: think it's two belts, but this is coming off of
Speaker 1: her losing the Ring of Honor Women's television title to
Speaker 1: Red Velvet at Final Battle a few weeks ago. So
Speaker 1: then Mercedes, she went on X and she asked Groc.
Speaker 1: She goes, what the hell happened? And Grok responded to
Speaker 1: Mercedes and Grox said, on Holiday Bash, Alex Windsor defeated
Speaker 1: you in a title match with a pinfall after a
Speaker 1: series of suplexes encounters, claiming the rev Pro Undisputed British
Speaker 1: Women's Championship. Congrats to the new champ. Tough loss, but
Speaker 1: epic bout some Mercedes responded and says, can you take
Speaker 1: back her congratulations because, as I said last week, I
Speaker 1: wanted to face a local from Manchester and she tagged
Speaker 1: Grock and she said where is Alex Windsor from? And
Speaker 1: Grok responded and said, Alex Windsor is from Happisburg, Norfolk, England,
Speaker 1: not Manchester. Fairpoint, CEO, consider those congrats retracted epic clash
Speaker 1: Either way, what's your next move? This is where we
Speaker 1: are in the world right now. We are having conversations
Speaker 1: with artificial intelligence. It's only gonna get worse. It's only
Speaker 1: gonna get worse from here. The two league finals and
Speaker 1: the finals of the Continental Classic will take place on
Speaker 1: this show next Saturday. Now. Last year, if you remember,
Speaker 1: there was a format change where the Gold League winner
Speaker 1: would face the runner up from the Blue League. That
Speaker 1: would be one semifinal, and the Blue League winner would
Speaker 1: wrestle the Gold League runner up in the other semifinal.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're following that same change that
Speaker 1: same format again this year. I'm going to assume that
Speaker 1: they are. If so, we could potentially get Okada against
Speaker 1: Takesha in the semi finals and not the finals, but
Speaker 1: only if the idea, I would say is for Takeshta
Speaker 1: to lose to then build up to a bigger match
Speaker 1: between them, maybe at Revolution in March. But I don't
Speaker 1: think they want to beat the IWGP champion, not in
Speaker 1: the semi finals of this thing. Everything has been building
Speaker 1: to Okada against Takeshta, and if it happens, I mean
Speaker 1: it has to be in the finals. There's no bigger
Speaker 1: match they could do in this tournament that Okada against Takeshta.
Speaker 1: So by those rules, I feel like Okada wins the
Speaker 1: Gold League and he wrestles Orange cast who comes into
Speaker 1: the runner up in the Blue League after beating John Moxley.
Speaker 1: So none of the Death Riders make it to the
Speaker 1: semi finals. That's where I think this is going. I
Speaker 1: said before, I think John Moxley beats Orange Cassidy. But
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm looking at these rules here I actually think, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking the Death Riders just don't make it. They
Speaker 1: just don't even make it into the semis, is what
Speaker 1: I'm thinking. Takeshta wins the Blue League and then beats
Speaker 1: Kevin Knight, who comes in as runner up in the
Speaker 1: Gold League. Right, he's the one who's been racking up
Speaker 1: upsets in this tournament. He just beat Okada, right, Canny
Speaker 1: beat Takeshta as well, and then he loses, and that's
Speaker 1: how we end up with Okada against Takeshta in the finals,
Speaker 1: and man, that could go either way. You know, Takeshta
Speaker 1: should triumph ultimately over Okada, but that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: it has to happen in their first match, Like they
Speaker 1: could definitely stretch this out to another match of Revolution
Speaker 1: if Takeshta wins. Think about it, right, there's not much
Speaker 1: of a reason to do that. So I am actually
Speaker 1: going to pick Kazuchka Okada to win the entire thing
Speaker 1: for the second straight year. I think Okada wins the
Speaker 1: Continental Classic, and I think that they hold off on
Speaker 1: the ultimate match between them, where Takeshta wins the championship
Speaker 1: from him. They hold off on that until Revolution. That's
Speaker 1: my prediction. We have Chris Statlander defending the aw Women's
Speaker 1: World Championship against Jamie Hayter. It should be a really
Speaker 1: good match here. It doesn't feel to me like it's
Speaker 1: time yet for Statlander to drop that belt. I still
Speaker 1: don't think Jamie Hater has been properly sort of built
Speaker 1: up to win the Championship. That could be something that
Speaker 1: happens next year. So I think Statlander gets the win
Speaker 1: and then the AW World Championship is on the line
Speaker 1: in a four way match, Samoa Joe defends against Swerve, Strickland, Hangman,
Speaker 1: Adam Page and MJF. And I'm going with MJF. I
Speaker 1: think he is going to close out the year as
Speaker 1: the AW World Champion. I think he's going to get
Speaker 1: his own measure of redemption and revenge for what happened
Speaker 1: at World's End two years ago when Joe beat him
Speaker 1: to win the title and we got the Devil reveal
Speaker 1: with Adam Cole. I think MJF wins the championship and
Speaker 1: then goes on to defend against the winner of the
Speaker 1: Diamond Ring on January fourteenth. So that's six matches so far,
Speaker 1: which is like half an AW pay per view, So
Speaker 1: you know there's going to be a lot more added,
Speaker 1: including with some of the people that end up being
Speaker 1: eliminated from the C two. But those are my predictions
Speaker 1: so far for the matches that we know. Speaking of
Speaker 1: big events, you know, if AW is closing the year
Speaker 1: with a big show, New Japan is opening the new
Speaker 1: year with one that is Wrestle Kingdom twenty on January
Speaker 1: fourth at the Tokyo Dome with fifty thousand people expected,
Speaker 1: making it the largest craft for a wrestling show anywhere
Speaker 1: in Japan since Antonio Poki's retirement in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1: It is a show that is built around the retirement
Speaker 1: of one person, Hiroshi Tanahashi, one of the greatest wrestlers
Speaker 1: of all time, and this is all coming just weeks
Speaker 1: after John Cena wrestled his retirement match where WWE positioned
Speaker 1: him as the greatest of all time. Tanahashi is truly
Speaker 1: one of the goats, and in Japan you could argue,
Speaker 1: you know, the greatest. But then you get into a
Speaker 1: discussion about Kobashi and Masawa, Liiger Mudha, some people may
Speaker 1: say Anoki. I mean, he's up there in that mix.
Speaker 1: Though for sure. I don't want to say that he
Speaker 1: alone saved New Japan Pro Wrestling, but he more or
Speaker 1: less did. After the fiasco of you know, the the
Speaker 1: Anoki tenure in the mid two thousands, that company was
Speaker 1: close to bankruptcy, and Tanahashi's work on top brought back
Speaker 1: a lot of fans. He brought in a lot of
Speaker 1: new ones, too, which led to the business boom that
Speaker 1: New Japan experience in the twenty tens. Then Okata came
Speaker 1: back from Excursion in TNA as the rain maker and
Speaker 1: he got over as a main event player, and so
Speaker 1: you had Tanahashi and Okada as the two top draws
Speaker 1: right the Austin and Rock in many ways of that
Speaker 1: New Japan era. Now he's also the president of the company,
Speaker 1: so it is hard to overstate how important to figure
Speaker 1: Tanahashi is to the history of New Japan. That is
Speaker 1: why they have sold fifty thousand tickets for this show. Now,
Speaker 1: Aaron Wolfe, who was a gold medalist in judo in
Speaker 1: the Olympics a few years ago, he is making his
Speaker 1: in ring debut. That is the reason why the show
Speaker 1: is airing on network television over there for the first
Speaker 1: time in twenty years. But it is also likely the
Speaker 1: reason why the show feels so truncated when you look
Speaker 1: at the card as compared to previous Wrestle Kingdoms. Even
Speaker 1: though the show is not airing live on TV right
Speaker 1: it's airing on TV Asahi. I believe it's airing on
Speaker 1: a delay, and I don't even think they're airing the
Speaker 1: whole show. They're airing less than two hours of it,
Speaker 1: just the top matches, but I guess they need to
Speaker 1: make sure they get those matches over and done with
Speaker 1: in time for them to then air the ones they
Speaker 1: want to air during the allotted time. So it is affecting.
Speaker 1: It is very likely affecting how many matches they have
Speaker 1: on this show, because usually these wrestle kingdoms have so
Speaker 1: many matches. They're five and a half hours and it's
Speaker 1: a long show. But you know, it's not like it's
Speaker 1: not like aw where they do that literally every other month.
Speaker 1: It feels like, yeah, you get your one big dome
Speaker 1: show every year that goes five hours, and you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes it could feel epic depending on what the matches are,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really feel that way this time. New Japan
Speaker 1: announced the full card and match order this week, and honestly,
Speaker 1: outside of the top two matches, the card looks like
Speaker 1: shit for a show this big. I'm sorry. I mean
Speaker 1: the women's match will be good, probably not great, because
Speaker 1: I doubt they get a lot of time. They usually
Speaker 1: get the short end of the stick on these shows.
Speaker 1: You know, Mayui Watani and they got like eight minutes
Speaker 1: last year. I think back a few years ago twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, Kyrie saying she wrestled tam Nakano and they
Speaker 1: got like five minutes. So I don't think these women
Speaker 1: are going to get a whole lot of time for
Speaker 1: their match. Otherwise, sure it could be great, but I'm
Speaker 1: not expecting it to be. Tanahashi and Okada. They're going
Speaker 1: on last, as they should. There won't be any Rock
Speaker 1: Hogan here in the middle of the show. But the
Speaker 1: card looks very weak. You know, for fifty thousand fans
Speaker 1: at the Dome, they've got seven matches with the new
Speaker 1: Japan Rambo on the main card, where it usually takes
Speaker 1: place on the pre show. This time there will be
Speaker 1: no pre show. The Rambo usually goes thirty minutes or more,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna take time away from some of the
Speaker 1: other matches. But Tanahashi and Okada they're gonna get all
Speaker 1: the time they need. And I'm sure there will be
Speaker 1: some sort of ceremony or speech from Tanahashi after. You know,
Speaker 1: we got no speech from John Cena after his final match.
Speaker 1: I mean, even Bill Goldberg got to say a few
Speaker 1: words before NBC cut him off. Sina just chose to
Speaker 1: say nothing. Took his clothes off and he just marched
Speaker 1: to the back. That will not be the case with Tanahashi.
Speaker 1: He'll be air guitaring his way all the way to
Speaker 1: the back. But I don't understand how this card was
Speaker 1: put together with that an eye towards the future. There's
Speaker 1: there's so many names missing from this who should be
Speaker 1: showcase with that many eyeballs on the show? And I
Speaker 1: say missing, I mean some of them are in multiman matches,
Speaker 1: some of them may be in the rambo. But outside
Speaker 1: of Yotasuji, who's challenging Kenoski Takeshta for the IWGP title,
Speaker 1: there's no one else outside of Tanahashi and Aaron Wolf
Speaker 1: really getting the spotlight here. And we don't even know
Speaker 1: how good Aaron Wolf is gonna be. It's his first
Speaker 1: fucking match. Shota Umino was literally in the main event
Speaker 1: of last year's show. He headlined the Tokyo Dome. He
Speaker 1: won forty five minutes with Zach Saber Junior. He isn't
Speaker 1: even on the card, at least not yet. Meanwhile, Saber
Speaker 1: is not listed for the show either. He just won
Speaker 1: the World Tag League. He's going to be headlining their
Speaker 1: New Year Dash show that's the night after the Tokyo Dome,
Speaker 1: whereas normally the winners of the Tag League would be
Speaker 1: challenging for the tag team titles at the Dome. It's
Speaker 1: just it's all very strange to me. It has to
Speaker 1: do with the time limitations. It just there's nothing else
Speaker 1: that makes sense. I just don't know why you would
Speaker 1: not want to take full advantage to put some of
Speaker 1: these other guys front and center who you want to
Speaker 1: build this promotion around going forward, and feature them in
Speaker 1: something meaningful on this card. On the undercard. You know,
Speaker 1: the Golden Age of New Japan is dead. It's over.
Speaker 1: Tanahashi is the last remnant of it, right, they got
Speaker 1: to go full bore with the New Guard. They have
Speaker 1: a four way match to decide the number one contender
Speaker 1: for the Junior Heavyweight title, but no actual junior heavyweight
Speaker 1: title match on this show. They have a number one
Speaker 1: contenders match at the Tokyo Dome after Dokie. He got
Speaker 1: injured at the Dome last year in his match with
Speaker 1: El Desperado. He doesn't even have a spot on the card,
Speaker 1: and he's the champion unless he's injured again. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything about that. But here's the full
Speaker 1: card with some of my predictions. I'm not doing them
Speaker 1: for every match, but my predictions tossed in for the
Speaker 1: key matches here. So this is the match order. They're
Speaker 1: opening with the first ever Tornado Rambo match with the
Speaker 1: never openweight six man tag team titles on the line.
Speaker 1: Toryano Yo and Master Wato are defending their titles. Teams
Speaker 1: will enter one minute intervals, and if one member is pinned, submitted,
Speaker 1: or thrown over the top rope, that team is eliminated.
Speaker 1: And Tomohiro e Shi will have a spot on the
Speaker 1: card in here. They just announced him for the match.
Speaker 1: He's been out with a dislocated shoulder that he suffered
Speaker 1: working for AEW in October. Second from the bottom is
Speaker 1: a double title match with the IWGP Women's champion, Shuri
Speaker 1: defending against Saya Kamatani defending her new Japan Strong women's title.
Speaker 1: I will go with Kamatani here. I see a lot
Speaker 1: of praise for her work. I have not seen much
Speaker 1: of it. I know that she won the voting for
Speaker 1: most Valuable Player in the Tokyo Sports Awards for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. That's basically their Wrestler of the Year Award.
Speaker 1: It's the first time a woman has ever won the award.
Speaker 1: Even Kenta Kobashi said that he voted for and Tanahashi
Speaker 1: came in second. So I'm going with Kamatani for the win.
Speaker 1: I just hope they get some some real time here.
Speaker 1: Then we have a Tony Khan special on this New
Speaker 1: Japan show. It's basically an all star ten man tag
Speaker 1: team match with Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, David Finley, Gabe Kid,
Speaker 1: and Drilla Maloney taking on Great o' Kan, Kalum Newman, Henare,
Speaker 1: who has been out for a year with a knee injury,
Speaker 1: and two mist partners representing United Empire. Callum Newman is
Speaker 1: a star on the rise. He's the youngest man to
Speaker 1: ever win an IWGP title, It's only twenty three years old.
Speaker 1: He's also the youngest to ever challenge for the IWGP
Speaker 1: World title. We have a four way number one contenders
Speaker 1: match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title with l Desperado, Kose, Fujita,
Speaker 1: Taiji Ishimuri, and Show Dokie is the champion and actually
Speaker 1: has two titles right now, including one half of the
Speaker 1: junior heavyweight tag team titles, and he is not even
Speaker 1: on the Damn Show, the first time since twenty twelve
Speaker 1: that the junior title is not being defended on a
Speaker 1: Tokyo Domb show. Desperado. He's had that title how many
Speaker 1: times now? And an Ishimuri too. I would go Fujita
Speaker 1: or show for the win. Here, I'll say Fujita wins.
Speaker 1: Now we have Aaron Wolf in his very first professional
Speaker 1: wrestling match seen by the entire world on their biggest
Speaker 1: show of the year, challenging Evil for the never open
Speaker 1: Weight Championship. Get ready for tons of interference from the
Speaker 1: House of Torture. Maybe he needs it, though I don't
Speaker 1: know how ready he is. He's only had a few
Speaker 1: months of training. I know he's an Olympic gold medalist
Speaker 1: in judo, but I mean that doesn't make you a
Speaker 1: great pro wrestler, you know. Does he have the instincts
Speaker 1: for this? Does he have the charisma to help carry
Speaker 1: him right? I haven't seen him, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: But there's an awful lot of hype around this guy,
Speaker 1: maybe an unfair amount of hype. But if he shows
Speaker 1: something here, they make an instant star on day one,
Speaker 1: and if he doesn't, he may end up as one
Speaker 1: of the biggest flops of all time. I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: beating him in his first match in front of a
Speaker 1: mainstream audience that's there to see him. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say that Aaron Wolf wins the Never title. In the
Speaker 1: second double tie match on this show, the IWGP Global
Speaker 1: Champion Yotasuji takes on the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and
Speaker 1: the winner of this year's G One Climax. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine if he wins the G One and the Continental
Speaker 1: Classic in the same year, And if he does, it
Speaker 1: would be just eight days before this match. Kenoski Takeshta
Speaker 1: I mentioned those Tokyo Sports Year end awards before. In
Speaker 1: the voting for Wrestler of the Year Most Valuable Player,
Speaker 1: Takeshta came in dead last with zero votes. Zero in
Speaker 1: a year where he won the G One and the
Speaker 1: IWGP World title and had some incredible matches. Zero votes,
Speaker 1: and you ask yourself, why, you know, how does he
Speaker 1: get not one single vote here? You gotta remember, also,
Speaker 1: he's not full time in New Japan, right, He's splitting.
Speaker 1: He's got three different contracts and he is splitting his
Speaker 1: time between AAW and New Japan and DDT as well,
Speaker 1: but between AW mainly in New Japan and AW always
Speaker 1: has first priority. I would think that has something to
Speaker 1: do with it. I can't speak to the mindset of
Speaker 1: the Japanese wrestling fan. I can't speak to what it
Speaker 1: is about this guy where they just have not fully
Speaker 1: made that connection with him. Yet He's never going to
Speaker 1: be He's an AW guy. He's never going to be
Speaker 1: full time with New Japan because you know, the yen
Speaker 1: is very weak right now and there's no way he
Speaker 1: would make anywhere close to what Tony kannam sure is
Speaker 1: paying him. Right if you were to go work for
Speaker 1: New Japan full time, why do you think Okada left?
Speaker 1: So maybe it's just the AW affiliation and they see
Speaker 1: him as an outsider and that works against him. But
Speaker 1: you know, I will also say, for as great as
Speaker 1: Takeshta is and I sing his praises all the time,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have the charisma that some of these other
Speaker 1: big names have. There's not a lot of depth there
Speaker 1: beneath him going out and having a good look and
Speaker 1: having great wrestling matches. One thing I know is that
Speaker 1: they are closing this show with back to back matches
Speaker 1: with an AAW star in it, and under no circumstances
Speaker 1: should both AW stars be winning their matches. I mean,
Speaker 1: at least one of them has to lose, and it
Speaker 1: is more important that Takeshta put Yotasuji over here and
Speaker 1: crown him his world champion and level him up because
Speaker 1: Suji is one of the younger guys. They should be
Speaker 1: building this company around in twenty twenty six. Now is
Speaker 1: it going to work? They tried with Sonata, it didn't work.
Speaker 1: Is it going to work with Suji? Is he going
Speaker 1: to be the draw the way that guys like Tanahashi
Speaker 1: and Okada and Naito were before. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: the old guard has been phased out. They have no
Speaker 1: choice but to try. They have already waited too long.
Speaker 1: I think Takeshta winning this match would be very damaging.
Speaker 1: But Yotasuji has said that if if he wins, he
Speaker 1: wants to bring back the old V four version of
Speaker 1: the IWGP belt, which is still the best version. It
Speaker 1: never should have been retired to begin with. I don't
Speaker 1: know what they were thinking, and also he wants the
Speaker 1: lineage of the current championship merged with the lineage of
Speaker 1: the previous title, because they started a whole new lineage
Speaker 1: when they merged it. I think was he Boushi who
Speaker 1: was the first one to kind of merge together what
Speaker 1: was the intercontinental title with the IWGP title, and then
Speaker 1: that's how we got the IWGP World Heavyweight title. So
Speaker 1: everything's kind of all muddied up now. So he wants
Speaker 1: to merge the lineage or lineages I guess of the championships.
Speaker 1: But the fact that he is claiming that he is
Speaker 1: going to do all of these things when he wins
Speaker 1: makes me think he's not winning because I don't see
Speaker 1: them bringing the old belt back. So they're gonna fucking
Speaker 1: beat them, aren't they. They are gonna beat this man.
Speaker 1: I'm picking to Kesha to win, right if I have
Speaker 1: to predict, I'm predicting a to Kesha win here, which
Speaker 1: I would not do. See if he would have just
Speaker 1: kept his mouth shut, I would have gone Yotasuji, But
Speaker 1: I have to kesht your retaining and in the main event,
Speaker 1: the real reason for the fifty thousand fans that they
Speaker 1: are going to have in that building, it is the
Speaker 1: final match in the career of the ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi
Speaker 1: against his greatest rival, the former IWGP champion in reigning
Speaker 1: AEW unified champion. I mean, is he still technically the
Speaker 1: unified champion or is he just the international champ? I
Speaker 1: don't even know anymore. Kazushka Okada, who has not wrestled
Speaker 1: in a New Japan ring in nearly two years. It
Speaker 1: is the end of an era. Tanahashi has been on
Speaker 1: rubber legs or knees for a while now. It's painful
Speaker 1: to watch him when he's walking out there, But when
Speaker 1: the man wants to, he can still put on a
Speaker 1: great professional wrestling match, and I think he's going to
Speaker 1: go all out here as much as his body will allow.
Speaker 1: And John Cena both they went on retirement tours this year,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's hard to judge which one was better,
Speaker 1: because I've had a couple of people ask me right
Speaker 1: now that we're at the end of the year, who
Speaker 1: had the better retirement tour. It's an impossible question to
Speaker 1: answer because they were so different. You know, Tanahashi will
Speaker 1: have wrestled over one hundred and forty matches this year
Speaker 1: by the time this show rolls around. Sina wrestled eighteen.
Speaker 1: That's a big difference. Tanahashi did it with a lot
Speaker 1: less fanfare than Sina. Sina had more moments, Tanahashi had
Speaker 1: more matches and output as far as that goes. And Tanahashi, again,
Speaker 1: he did it with a lot less fanfare and most
Speaker 1: of his matches, by the way, we're not even the
Speaker 1: main event on those shows. There were a lot of
Speaker 1: shows where his match was like in the mid card,
Speaker 1: but their importance to their respective companies puts them in
Speaker 1: the same category. But Tanahashi was far more important to
Speaker 1: the health of New Japan than Sena was to WWA.
Speaker 1: If Tanahashi does not get hot when he did and
Speaker 1: carry the company into a new era, who knows where
Speaker 1: New Japan is right now? Who knows if they're around
Speaker 1: right now. That's how bleak things were without Sena. It's
Speaker 1: not as if WWE was in jeopardy of going under.
Speaker 1: There's no championships on the line here in this match,
Speaker 1: just two old rivals going at it one last time.
Speaker 1: They've had this legendary rivalry for so many years. This
Speaker 1: will be their fourth Tokyo Domain event together. Tanahashi has
Speaker 1: him beat two to one. Right now, although Okada has
Speaker 1: more wins over him overall, I think it's like nine
Speaker 1: to five. Who wins here doesn't really matter as much
Speaker 1: as Tanahashi being able to go out with a great match.
Speaker 1: That's why he chose Okada to be his opponent. He
Speaker 1: wanted Shinsky Nakamora, but politically that was never going to happen.
Speaker 1: Okada is the better opponent for him anyway. Really, how
Speaker 1: could it have been anybody else? Right? I mean, the
Speaker 1: difference between this and John Sena's last match is that
Speaker 1: Sena lost with the idea of putting over Gunther for
Speaker 1: Busy and making him the biggest heel in the entire company. Here,
Speaker 1: he's wrestling someone who does not even work for New
Speaker 1: Japan anymore. He's an aw guy. So to me, the
Speaker 1: old school mentality of you always go out on your
Speaker 1: back and your retirement match doesn't really apply here. Okada
Speaker 1: winning does nothing for New Japan, not a fucking thing.
Speaker 1: He may want to lose to Okada, but I think
Speaker 1: Takesha is retaining, and if Takesha is retaining, then that
Speaker 1: paves the way I think for Okada to lose here,
Speaker 1: because if i'm New Japan, I'm not putting both AW
Speaker 1: guys over in the two biggest matches on my show.
Speaker 1: One of them, sure, but not both of them, let
Speaker 1: alone back to back like that. That would just be ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That's the only reason I say that. Otherwise, yes, I
Speaker 1: would say Tanahashi loses, But if I'm right on the
Speaker 1: other match, then Tanahashi should win this one. And if
Speaker 1: Takeshta does lose the championship, then I think it's okay
Speaker 1: for Okata to win. And actually, if anything, it allows
Speaker 1: him to then go out on AW television in the
Speaker 1: weeks that follow the Dome show and gloat and rub
Speaker 1: it in tanahat or rub it in to cash his
Speaker 1: face rather that you know, he lost and I won
Speaker 1: and you lost your championship, right, and then just build
Speaker 1: and build and build even more to the match of Revolutions.
Speaker 1: So I actually think that works better. As we get
Speaker 1: ready to close out twenty twenty five, let us look
Speaker 1: back at the key stories from the year. The year
Speaker 1: that was in the world of wrestling. You know, I
Speaker 1: came across this tweet from Elite Rockers, which has a
Speaker 1: lot of followers. This was from September nineteenth, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: WWE in twenty twenty five is going to be in
Speaker 1: god mode. Raw on Netflix is going to be uncensored,
Speaker 1: and Edgier SmackDown is going to be three hours, a
Speaker 1: megastar loaded Men's Royal Rumble match, John Cena possibly winning
Speaker 1: his seventeenth world title, the Rock and Roman Range Dream Feud.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited god mode, he said. If this year
Speaker 1: was god mode, then that term has lost all meaning.
Speaker 1: This year was supposed to be the retirement tour for
Speaker 1: John Cena, Hiroshi Tanahashi, which of course is culminating at
Speaker 1: the Tokyo Dome on January fourth, And if you remember
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year, Jeff Jarrett, now you know,
Speaker 1: it's rare that we see someone get an entire year
Speaker 1: to say goodbye in wrestling. If anything, it's a match, right,
Speaker 1: And even that's rare. A lot of wrestlers never get
Speaker 1: to have a proper retirement match. A lot of wrestlers
Speaker 1: they never actually retire. This year we had two of them,
Speaker 1: two major stars who announced their retirement in advance, and
Speaker 1: they got a year long tour. And regardless of what
Speaker 1: you thought of those tours, good for them that they
Speaker 1: got the chance to at least go out on their
Speaker 1: own terms or somewhat on their own terms. The Sena
Speaker 1: and a Tanahashi retire Ironman Tours again, they could not
Speaker 1: have been any more different for all the reasons that
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier in the podcast. Tanahashi he wrestled over
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty matches this year. Seena wrestled in
Speaker 1: eighteen matches. Most of those Tanahashi matches were not even
Speaker 1: main events on those shows, but still two of the
Speaker 1: biggest stars in the history of the business seen his
Speaker 1: tour very disappointing. Double j though. If you remember the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year, he started by announcing that he
Speaker 1: had signed a new one year deal with AW, which
Speaker 1: was going to be his final contract as an active
Speaker 1: professional wrestler. This was to have been his final year
Speaker 1: in the ring, and he made his intentions very clear
Speaker 1: that he wanted to win the AEW World Championship, and
Speaker 1: he started a feud with MJF that was quickly dropped
Speaker 1: I'm sure because Tony Khan saw the online backlash and
Speaker 1: Hee panicked, I mean, those are his people, and so
Speaker 1: the story was dropped and it was never mentioned again,
Speaker 1: which was for the better. Now Jared is talking about
Speaker 1: his upcoming fortieth anniversary in the business, which is coming
Speaker 1: up in April, and he says he still has certain
Speaker 1: in ring goals that he has left to fulfill, so
Speaker 1: evidently this will not be Jeff Jared's final year in
Speaker 1: the ring. A pro wrestler lying about his retirement, I've
Speaker 1: never heard of such a thing. But let us not
Speaker 1: forget the one retirement tour that never was but was
Speaker 1: supposed to be this year in double j Jeff Jarrett.
Speaker 1: We had Kenny Omega returning at the Tokyo Dome at
Speaker 1: wrestled Dynasty and stealing the show back on January fifth.
Speaker 1: That was against Gabe Kid. Now I want you to
Speaker 1: think about this. Omega almost died. I mean, that's how
Speaker 1: serious of a health situation he was in with the
Speaker 1: you know, with a diverticulitis and the surgery that he had,
Speaker 1: and it was a slow recovery. He was out of
Speaker 1: the ring for over a year. He opened the year
Speaker 1: against Gabe Kid with the kind of match that they had,
Speaker 1: which if you were to tell me that that was
Speaker 1: your match of the year, and this was on January fifth,
Speaker 1: If you were to tell me that was your match
Speaker 1: of the year. I wouldn't argue with you, that's how
Speaker 1: great that match was. He opened the year with that,
Speaker 1: and then the matches with Takeshta Revolution and Speedball and
Speaker 1: Ricochet at Dynasty, Anarchy in the Arena that he was
Speaker 1: a part of Okada at all in Texas. You know,
Speaker 1: he's been more downplayed and hasn't had a lot of
Speaker 1: big singles matches in recent months. But you know, his
Speaker 1: return at wrestled Dynasty was a big deal after being
Speaker 1: gone for so long. We had Monday Night Raw this year,
Speaker 1: premiering on Netflix. Right, that was the big what was
Speaker 1: it five billion dollar deal? Five billion, ten billion? What's
Speaker 1: another five billion? I think it was five billion. But
Speaker 1: we had the premiere on Netflix, which was the start
Speaker 1: of a new era for this show. Right. It had
Speaker 1: been on cable television ever since the show premiered in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, and for the first time now it
Speaker 1: was on a streaming service. It's very different, right, the
Speaker 1: world is changing. But on that night we had the
Speaker 1: return of the Rock, who really wasn't the Rock. It
Speaker 1: was more Dwayne the board member, and he was praising
Speaker 1: and putting over Cody Rhodes, the man that he was
Speaker 1: feuding with the year before that was weird sharing tequila
Speaker 1: with him. Hulk Hogan came out that night. He got
Speaker 1: booed by the crowd, even though he was there to
Speaker 1: promote his beer and he he was, you know, out
Speaker 1: there with Jimmy Hart waving the flag around, and man,
Speaker 1: he got booed out of the building. And how sad
Speaker 1: it is that will be the final appearance that people
Speaker 1: remember him for on WWE television. Why they even thought
Speaker 1: trotting him out there would be a good idea, I
Speaker 1: will never know, but that probably was the most memorable
Speaker 1: moment from that Raw premiere on Netflix. We had the
Speaker 1: debut of Penta debuted on Raw January thirteenth against Chad
Speaker 1: Gable and he got off to a hot start. I
Speaker 1: feel like in recent months they've definitely lost their way
Speaker 1: with Penta, but you know, he's still in a place
Speaker 1: where I think twenty twenty six, he should do better, right,
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard for me to believe that they
Speaker 1: won't find something worthy for Penta to do, or put
Speaker 1: a championship on him at some point next year. He's
Speaker 1: super popular. The way he got over almost instantly with
Speaker 1: the WWE audience was very cool to see and hopefully
Speaker 1: they have bigger things in my for him in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. I feel like he I forget the injury recently.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's definitely been you know, phased down
Speaker 1: in recent months to a level where he should be
Speaker 1: a little higher up on the card. There was some
Speaker 1: announcer drama earlier this year, if you remember, with Corey Graves,
Speaker 1: after he was demoted to NXT. He did not really
Speaker 1: react very well to that, and then he disappeared for
Speaker 1: a little bit. But in the end everything got smoothed over.
Speaker 1: And I just heard him last night on the Triple
Speaker 1: A show that was streaming on YouTube. He's doing that,
Speaker 1: He's doing you know, the stuff with Michael Cole working
Speaker 1: together again. So Corey is great. I'm glad everything got
Speaker 1: smoothed over. We had the announcement January sixteenth, WWE and
Speaker 1: TNA forming a multi year partnership. We got a press
Speaker 1: release and everything just to make it official. And boy
Speaker 1: has that been a big deal for TNA, more so
Speaker 1: TNA than for WWE. Although WWE has benefited from this
Speaker 1: arrangement as well. This is something that even a few
Speaker 1: years ago, let alone ten or fifteen years ago, when
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon was in charge, would have been unthinkable, like
Speaker 1: absolutely unthinkable. I remember that dumb match they did on RAW.
Speaker 1: I don't know what year it was, but it was
Speaker 1: like they had a fake Trump and a fake Rosie
Speaker 1: O'Donnell having some dumb match on Raw. Vince McMahon was
Speaker 1: sitting at ringside and the crowd is chanting TNA. And
Speaker 1: I remember reading about how like angry Vince was, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, good, because when you put out shit, that's
Speaker 1: the sort of thing that they should be be giving
Speaker 1: back to you. But there was a period of time
Speaker 1: where you know, you would hear those initials occasionally chanting right,
Speaker 1: and people backstage would not respond. Well. It would be
Speaker 1: the equivalent if like a WWE crowd suddenly broke out
Speaker 1: in an aw chen. Right, I'm sure Triple H would
Speaker 1: be back there smarting about it. Right. They were not
Speaker 1: on friendly terms with TNA, is the point I'm making.
Speaker 1: And so the idea that now not only are they
Speaker 1: working together and they have a talent exchange, but they
Speaker 1: have formalized it. They had a press release out for it,
Speaker 1: and there's a multi year partnership between these two companies,
Speaker 1: and we have TNA talents on fucking WrestleMania, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's and with their championships, and it's
Speaker 1: really been kind of lopsided in terms of the talents
Speaker 1: WWE has been able to feature. It's not like TNA's
Speaker 1: getting a lot of kind of upper level elite WWE
Speaker 1: names pop it up in wrestling matches on their shows.
Speaker 1: The closest thing they got was aj Styles, who just
Speaker 1: did a quick you know, a quick dip in and
Speaker 1: a quick dip out back at Slammiversary. But again, something
Speaker 1: that would have been absolutely unthinkable just a few years
Speaker 1: ago actually became a reality here in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Joe Hendry appearing as the TNA World Champion in the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble match this year on February first, Case in Point,
Speaker 1: Jay Usso winning the Men's Royal Rumble a very polarizing decision,
Speaker 1: but boy, it led to a lot of other shit
Speaker 1: in the months that followed. When it came to Jay
Speaker 1: in the World Heavyweight Championship. Some may like it, some
Speaker 1: may not, but that was one of the big stories
Speaker 1: of this year, was the Jay Usso push. We had
Speaker 1: Ricky Starks now Ricky Saints making his surprise debut on
Speaker 1: the February eleventh episode of NXT. The only surprise about
Speaker 1: it was how quickly it happened, because we had only
Speaker 1: learned it was only reported the day before. I think
Speaker 1: that he had gotten an early release from Tony Kahn,
Speaker 1: and then boom, He's on NXT the very next night.
Speaker 1: And now, of course he's a former NXT champion in
Speaker 1: the upper mix for that title, and I have every
Speaker 1: expectation that we will see him on Raw or Smacked
Speaker 1: Down by the middle of twenty twenty six. Hiroki Goto
Speaker 1: finally winning the IWGP Championships, something I don't think a
Speaker 1: lot of people ever expected to happen at nearly forty
Speaker 1: six years of age, beating Zach Saber Junior back on
Speaker 1: February eleventh. He held that title for one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty eight days. And now look at him. He's playing
Speaker 1: I Honda in the New Street Fighter movie coming out
Speaker 1: next year. You got Cody Rhodes in the movie, you
Speaker 1: got Roman Reigns in the movie, and now you got
Speaker 1: Hiroki Goto. The Rock was brought back to television. Remember
Speaker 1: when The Rock was on SmackDown on February twenty first,
Speaker 1: they were in New Orleans that night and they brought
Speaker 1: the Rock back to make the big announcement that Wresselmania
Speaker 1: forty two is coming back to New Orleans. And that
Speaker 1: was the same night where he said he also wanted
Speaker 1: Cody Soul and that whole fiasco again. But yes, they
Speaker 1: trotted the Rock out there to announce that they were
Speaker 1: bringing WrestleMania next year to the Big Easy, only to
Speaker 1: turn around what was it, two months, three months later,
Speaker 1: whatever it was, and say, psich, not so fast, New Orleans,
Speaker 1: We're coming back to Vegas. Unbelievable. And then, like I said,
Speaker 1: the Cody Sole nonsense. We had the elimination Chamber on
Speaker 1: March first. John Cena not only wins the chamber, but
Speaker 1: he does the unthinkable and turns heel in his retirement year.
Speaker 1: Years after people wanted to see him turn heel. They
Speaker 1: had accepted him. It had been years since he was
Speaker 1: being booed by the crowds and we were hearing let's
Speaker 1: go seea Sena sucks. Now they turn him heel and
Speaker 1: he sells his soul to the Rock after he had
Speaker 1: already won the chamber and guaranteed himself a World Championship
Speaker 1: match of WrestleMania. So you could also look at that
Speaker 1: and go, well, that doesn't really make sense. He already
Speaker 1: got his title shot. It would have actually hit a
Speaker 1: lot better if they would have waited, if they insisted
Speaker 1: on doing the heel turn to incorporate it into the
Speaker 1: finish of the match at WrestleMania right, very much like
Speaker 1: what they did with Austin and WrestleMania seventeen. It's not
Speaker 1: like they had It would be the equivalent of Steve
Speaker 1: Austin outlasting twenty nine other men and winning the Royal
Speaker 1: Rumble that year and then turning heel and then going
Speaker 1: to WrestleMania to wrestle the Rockets, Like, dude, you won
Speaker 1: the Rumble, you got your shot. You know, you didn't
Speaker 1: have to do the heel turn beforehand. Now they did
Speaker 1: it at the end of the match, and in hindsight,
Speaker 1: it was an absolutely terrible business decision, which Austin admits
Speaker 1: to this very day. He made a mistake. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things along this, said John Cena
Speaker 1: tour that week and look at and say it was
Speaker 1: a mistake. This was one of them. But in the
Speaker 1: moment It was one of the greatest things that they
Speaker 1: had ever done, right in and of itself, in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: the second best heel turn as a turn in wrestling history.
Speaker 1: Hogan will always be number one. Hogan the Red and
Speaker 1: Yellow going to the dark Side, joining and forming the nWo.
Speaker 1: That will always be number one. But they had it,
Speaker 1: they had something special. They had people buzzing in a
Speaker 1: way that people had not been buzzing in years, and
Speaker 1: it all got pissed away. We also had the announcement
Speaker 1: on April nineteenth that WWE was acquiring Triple A Wrestling
Speaker 1: in Mexico, a product that was already trying very hard
Speaker 1: to be like WWE for many years. All the Lucha
Speaker 1: Libre traditionalists who have talked about how worried they are
Speaker 1: about how WWE might change the product into more of
Speaker 1: a WWE type of product. The people that watch Triple
Speaker 1: A and No Triple A have said that they basically
Speaker 1: have been trying to be like WWE for decades. What
Speaker 1: WWE was able to do coming in right, they have
Speaker 1: upped the production values. It has provided more exposure for
Speaker 1: Triple A talents Mister Iguana on WWE shows, but also
Speaker 1: exposure for WWE and NXT talents in Triple A like
Speaker 1: Dominic Mysterio who headlined last night's show, El Grande Americano
Speaker 1: who headlined last night's show, Javon Evans Ethan Page right
Speaker 1: Lolavice who basically is on excursion down there. So those
Speaker 1: have all been positives. Now there are other changes that
Speaker 1: I'm sure could potentially be made or have been made,
Speaker 1: maybe behind the scenes, and maybe little minor things that
Speaker 1: change the product that go against the culture or something
Speaker 1: that people don't like. They were always going to come
Speaker 1: in and make certain changes. The question is, like, in
Speaker 1: the long run, what does this look like. It's still
Speaker 1: too early to know. We're not even out of the
Speaker 1: year yet, Like, is this effectively five years from now
Speaker 1: going to just be you know, NXT Mexico or are
Speaker 1: they truly going to try to keep it as independent
Speaker 1: as possible and continue running it the way they're running
Speaker 1: it now. We don't know the answer to that. What
Speaker 1: we do know is that WWE recently secured a Tell
Speaker 1: Division deal with Fox to air Triple A events, including
Speaker 1: Triple Mania, on Fox in Mexico, and there is talk
Speaker 1: that they may be closed to making an announcement about
Speaker 1: a TV deal for Triple A here in the US. Now,
Speaker 1: this stuff with Triple A has not in any way
Speaker 1: affected the year that CMLL has had. They just sold
Speaker 1: their one millionth ticket to Arena Mexico this year alone.
Speaker 1: You know, WWE may make more money this year than
Speaker 1: any other promotion in the world, but the hottest pro
Speaker 1: wrestling company in the world this year may well have
Speaker 1: been CMLL. When you can put fifteen or sixteen thousand
Speaker 1: people in the same venue every Friday night, week after week,
Speaker 1: and you're pulling in foreigners too, not just Mexican wrestling
Speaker 1: fans who show up to these shows, and they run
Speaker 1: three times a week in that building, just that one building.
Speaker 1: Not that they don't run other places. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: in that one building alone, they're running multiple sh shows
Speaker 1: a week and they're still putting all of these people
Speaker 1: in their week after week. They keep coming back. It's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible the run that they've been on this year.
Speaker 1: We have Paul Hayman betraying cmpunk and Roman Reigns to
Speaker 1: align with seth Rollins or WrestleMania that was on April nineteenth.
Speaker 1: Paul Hayman is not someone to be trusted I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the one thing we've learned about him over the years.
Speaker 1: He's turned on more people than Pamela Anderson did back
Speaker 1: in the nineties. And I don't know why these wrestlers
Speaker 1: haven't figured that out yet. Seth Rolins just found out
Speaker 1: right a couple months ago. But Paul Hayman turning on
Speaker 1: his best friend and turning on his tribal chief to
Speaker 1: align with Seth Rollins. And this was the beginning of
Speaker 1: the vision. And I can't say that this has been
Speaker 1: any great shakes, but that was the big storyline development
Speaker 1: coming out of WrestleMania. We had John Cena at that
Speaker 1: same WrestleMania the very next night, April twentieth, winning his
Speaker 1: record breaking seventeenth world championship in the world worst possible way.
Speaker 1: I don't think if you would pull fifty different wrestling
Speaker 1: fans going back six months, not six months, but like
Speaker 1: a year, two years, three years, and said, hey, you
Speaker 1: had the ability, you had the pen, You're gonna script out.
Speaker 1: John seen his big seventeenth record breaking world title wing
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania. How does it look, how does it go down?
Speaker 1: How do you build to it? What's the story you tell?
Speaker 1: I don't know that any of those fifty people would
Speaker 1: have done it the way the WWE did. It's like
Speaker 1: they did it in the worst possible way, Like even
Speaker 1: if you take Travis Scott out of it, and that
Speaker 1: was bad enough having him out there, even remove him
Speaker 1: from the equation to turn seeing a heel and have
Speaker 1: him win the seventeenth World Championship with a kick to
Speaker 1: the dick in a belt shot. I mean, could they
Speaker 1: have botched this any worse than they did? On May second,
Speaker 1: there was a wave of talent releases seventeen in total
Speaker 1: from the WWE and n T rosters, including names like
Speaker 1: Braun Stroman, Dakota Kai, Shana Basler, Kora, jade Gg Dolan,
Speaker 1: Jakara Jackson who's now marishad Day in TNA, and others
Speaker 1: as well. Trick Williams, he beat Joe Hendry to become
Speaker 1: the first WWE star to ever win a TNA title.
Speaker 1: That was on May twenty fifth. Trick Williams, by the way,
Speaker 1: get ready, he's main roster bound. I don't know what
Speaker 1: brand it'll be. I'm sure it'll be smacked down because
Speaker 1: that's where lash legend is. But he is going to
Speaker 1: be on the main roster. Starting at the beginning of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, we had WWE choosing not to renew
Speaker 1: Our Truth's contract, only to then bring him right back
Speaker 1: weeks later after the backlash not just from fans but
Speaker 1: also apparently from talent. Behind the scenes, they were very unhappy.
Speaker 1: Our Truth was like, he was an institution in this company,
Speaker 1: and I know, you watch him on television, he looks
Speaker 1: like he belongs in an institution. But he was an
Speaker 1: institution there for so long and so well life, just
Speaker 1: maybe the most well like member of that locker room.
Speaker 1: And it blindsided a lot of people when they saw
Speaker 1: that his name had been cut, because people thought man,
Speaker 1: not Truth. But yeah, now some people believe that it
Speaker 1: was never really you know, a reality, that he was
Speaker 1: actually released and it was something that they were just
Speaker 1: filming for WWE Unreal. I believe it is going to
Speaker 1: be a part of the Unreal season that's debuting. I
Speaker 1: think on January twentieth, I believe the new season drops
Speaker 1: on Netflix. I think it was absolutely real. I don't
Speaker 1: think that it was something that was manufactured just for Unreal.
Speaker 1: I think it's a real situation that happened. And of
Speaker 1: course now they're going to do an entire episode on it.
Speaker 1: But that happened in May, right, that had to be
Speaker 1: in May, and then it was only God maybe it
Speaker 1: wasn't even a matter of weeks. It was very soon thereafter,
Speaker 1: because I think when he showed up it was money
Speaker 1: in the bank. I believe when he ran into the ring,
Speaker 1: he was dressed up as the mystery man, pulled the
Speaker 1: mask off. Everybody cheered. We had Mariah May making her
Speaker 1: debut on NXT as Blake Monroe. It was on June third.
Speaker 1: I'm a big Mariah May fan. I don't know that
Speaker 1: she really needs to spend much more time down in NXT.
Speaker 1: She could definitely make some waves on the main roster
Speaker 1: right now. SmackDown can certainly use her. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I would have her on the same roster with
Speaker 1: Tiffany Stratton. I might want to separate those two out
Speaker 1: knowing them, they'll make them a tag team. But Mariah
Speaker 1: May is going to do big things in WWE. I
Speaker 1: think she's fantastic. Goldberg return to challenge Gunther in his
Speaker 1: retirement match at Saturday Night's main event. This was the
Speaker 1: same weekend as all in Texas. It was like the
Speaker 1: battle between WWE and AW on the same night, and
Speaker 1: Goldberg went out there, and you know what, it was
Speaker 1: not a quick, like three minute thing. I think it
Speaker 1: was like a thirteen or fourteen minute match. It was
Speaker 1: not a bad match, certainly, not by Goldberg standards. By
Speaker 1: Gunther standards. Yes, it was probably one of the worst
Speaker 1: matches he had all year, but it was still a
Speaker 1: good match. And Goldberg he did the honors on his
Speaker 1: way out, and then he was going to cut this
Speaker 1: heartfelt speech which was actually a good speech, but we
Speaker 1: only got to see maybe ten seconds of it before
Speaker 1: NBC cut the feed, and Goldberg was not happy about that.
Speaker 1: Goldberg was not happy about any of this. And you know,
Speaker 1: he did that podcast interview where it might have been
Speaker 1: with Ariel Helwani and teased that, you know, in two
Speaker 1: weeks I'll be able to say more. And two weeks
Speaker 1: went by and we never heard from Goldberg, And in fact,
Speaker 1: that was a hell of a lot longer than two
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and he's been silent on that ever since.
Speaker 1: I think he might have been gotten to by somebody.
Speaker 1: Ciampunk wrestled John Cena in Saudi Arabia and apologized to
Speaker 1: the fans in Saudi for comments that he had made
Speaker 1: years before. This is what John Cena has cited as
Speaker 1: his favorite all time wrestling moment CM Punk apologizing to
Speaker 1: the Saudi fans. On the pre show, Adam cole vacated
Speaker 1: the TNT Championship and delivered what may well end up
Speaker 1: being his retirement speech at all in Texas. His situation
Speaker 1: is very sad. He has just been plagued by injuries
Speaker 1: these last few years that have really derailed his career.
Speaker 1: I don't know that we're ever going to see him
Speaker 1: back in the ring again, and the only thing I
Speaker 1: hope for his sake is that you know, he can
Speaker 1: because he's still dealing apparently with some pretty bad symptoms
Speaker 1: I guess of this concussion that he sustained, and he's
Speaker 1: had some bad ones before. I don't even think he
Speaker 1: can fly still, you know, and this was in July.
Speaker 1: So my hope is that he can recover enough to
Speaker 1: where he can live, you know, a normal, healthy life.
Speaker 1: If that means he never gets back in the ring again,
Speaker 1: then so be it. You know, he doesn't have anything
Speaker 1: to prove to anybody, and I think, honestly, even if
Speaker 1: he never wrestles, again, He'll have a job for life
Speaker 1: with AW. They will find other things for him to
Speaker 1: do again. He is beloved, He's well liked by everybody.
Speaker 1: He's just the nicest guy. And there's any number of
Speaker 1: things that he could be doing beyond just training. If
Speaker 1: he wanted to start training people. You can have him
Speaker 1: as an announcer, you can have him as some sort
Speaker 1: of figure on the show if you wanted him to
Speaker 1: be in that role. I just hope, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: it is that he does, I hope he can get
Speaker 1: back physically to as close to one hundred percent as
Speaker 1: he was before. But the whole situation is just incredibly
Speaker 1: sad Aj Styles returned to TNA for the first time
Speaker 1: since twenty thirteen at Slammiversary, which was very cool to see.
Speaker 1: It would have been nicer to see him in a match.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that'll ever happen, but that was
Speaker 1: a big homecoming for him and big rub for Leon Slater.
Speaker 1: You know the way that Aj put him over on
Speaker 1: the mic. On July twenty fourth, Hulk Hogan Terry Bullay
Speaker 1: had passed away the age of seventy one. This ride here,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, as far as wrestling stories, of the year.
Speaker 1: This was the biggest story. Hulk Hogan dying this year
Speaker 1: was the biggest story because Hogan will go down as
Speaker 1: obviously one of the biggest and most popular, well known
Speaker 1: professional wrestlers of all time. He will be number one
Speaker 1: on many people's lists. He's on all the Mount Rushmore's,
Speaker 1: well maybe not all of them, but I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of people will have him on the Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1: They know and understand his place in history. You didn't
Speaker 1: have to be a Hull Hogan fan growing up. In fact,
Speaker 1: you could have hated Hulk Hogan and wanted to see
Speaker 1: him lose, but you cannot deny his place and history
Speaker 1: and the impact and influence that he had on that
Speaker 1: company when they went national. He was the right guy
Speaker 1: in the right place at the right time, and him
Speaker 1: and Vince they made the perfect combo and it took
Speaker 1: Hogan in the heights that vern Ganja could never imagine.
Speaker 1: And Hogan passing away was a surprise. It was major
Speaker 1: media headline news all over the world, and it was
Speaker 1: a very weird situation even to this day as far
Speaker 1: as exactly what happened and how it happened, and the
Speaker 1: surgery and the frantic nerve that we heard about being
Speaker 1: cut by accident and there might be a malpractice suit.
Speaker 1: We haven't heard anything about it since. But he was
Speaker 1: just getting started to be the figurehead, commissioner, the face
Speaker 1: of this new real American freestyle project that he and
Speaker 1: Eric Bischoff were a part of. And now it's just Bischoff.
Speaker 1: But that was what Hogan was about to embark on
Speaker 1: before he passed away. We had the return to brock
Speaker 1: Lesner returning to WWE at SummerSlam, which was a surprise
Speaker 1: to a lot of people. As the Janelle Grant lawsuit
Speaker 1: is still, of course raging on. It has not been settled,
Speaker 1: it has been has not gone to trial. We don't
Speaker 1: even know if it's going to go to trial or
Speaker 1: if it's going to go to arbitration. And again, he
Speaker 1: hasn't been accused of anything, but just his name being
Speaker 1: attached to it, and his name being attached to text
Speaker 1: messages in the suit that don't paint him in a
Speaker 1: very good light. That is the reason why WWE has
Speaker 1: had him on ice for two years now and with
Speaker 1: no movement really in the case. It was surprising that
Speaker 1: you know, there he is at the end of SummerSlam,
Speaker 1: They've decided to bring him back, and he gave John
Speaker 1: Cena an F five and then they went on to
Speaker 1: have a completely pointless, terrible match. At Wressell Palooza, we
Speaker 1: had WWE announcing a deal to move their main roster
Speaker 1: pls from Peacock to ESPN, multi billion dollar deal. That
Speaker 1: was a big deal up pun intended, and that led into,
Speaker 1: of course Wressell Palooza being announced, and Wressell Palooza was
Speaker 1: programmed up against aw all Out, so Tony Kahn said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to move the start time up,
Speaker 1: and as a viewer, I'm great he did that, but
Speaker 1: that was some big competition. That weekend. We had the
Speaker 1: moment I put this on my list because I just
Speaker 1: thought this was fantastic, just the visual of it. It
Speaker 1: didn't go anywhere, it didn't lead to anything in particular,
Speaker 1: but the visual of Omas and Microman from Triple Mania
Speaker 1: on August sixteenth, that to be I mean, that's pro
Speaker 1: wrestling is what that is. That is what that is.
Speaker 1: We had Naomi, who had quite the comeback year in
Speaker 1: terms of her character and her persona, announcing that she
Speaker 1: was pregnant and therefore had to vacate the Women's World
Speaker 1: Championship that she successfully cashed in her money in the
Speaker 1: bank for at Evolution, it just felt like, man, she's
Speaker 1: finally really settling into this heel turn and this character
Speaker 1: and she's getting going. And then Jimmy just did not
Speaker 1: proceed with caution, and so now we're not going to
Speaker 1: see Naomi for a while. But she was doing some
Speaker 1: of the best work of her career up until that point,
Speaker 1: but she announced her pregnancy and vacated the title back
Speaker 1: on August eighteenth. On August twenty third, Rajah Jackson, the
Speaker 1: son of Quentin Rampage Jackson, nearly beat Psycho Stu to death.
Speaker 1: That was at a Knox pro show. The fact that
Speaker 1: he is still out and about is a disgrace. But
Speaker 1: he has since been charged with one felony and one
Speaker 1: misdemeanor count of battery and he is facing potentially up
Speaker 1: to seven years in prison. I don't know that he'll
Speaker 1: serve a single year, you know, Psycho Stu. There was
Speaker 1: talked that he may not want to cooperate with prosecutors,
Speaker 1: which could be no action is taken, although you would
Speaker 1: think they have plenty of video evidence, you know, how
Speaker 1: is this guy going to get off without any kind
Speaker 1: of punishment. But we're still waiting to find out how
Speaker 1: this is all going to shake out. Aj Lee made
Speaker 1: her return to the ring after ten years in Chicago
Speaker 1: on SmackDown that was back on September fifth, something that
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure honestly was ever going to happen. That
Speaker 1: was a surprise even to me. Wressell Madia forty three
Speaker 1: was announced in twenty twenty seven for ri OD Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1: They made that announcement back on September twelfth. We had
Speaker 1: Andrade debuting on AW Dynamite and attacking Kenny Omega back
Speaker 1: on October first, only to then find out that WWE
Speaker 1: was executing a twelve month noncompete that apparently he was
Speaker 1: under and didn't even realize it. So therefore, he has
Speaker 1: not been seen on AW television ever since he came in.
Speaker 1: He laid out one of their top stars and he
Speaker 1: left like a boss. But now it sounds like Androde
Speaker 1: may be on the road to some sort of resolution
Speaker 1: with WWE. Hopefully that is the case, and I fully
Speaker 1: expect to see him back on television within the next
Speaker 1: few months. Kanelski Takeshta won the IWGP World Championship after
Speaker 1: winning the g One Climax. But he won the title.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm not waiting until the Tokyo dumb. I
Speaker 1: want my shot now, and he got it and he
Speaker 1: won the title. And that was back on October thirteenth.
Speaker 1: We had Mercedes Monet collecting even more champion chips and
Speaker 1: breaking Ultimo Dragon's record with eleven plus concurrent title reigns
Speaker 1: this year. That was a record that stood since nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven and it fell this year. And now Mercedes
Speaker 1: is falling. She's the beginning of her downfall. We had
Speaker 1: John Cena winning the Intercontinental title for the very first
Speaker 1: time and getting the Grand Slam. That was on Raw
Speaker 1: from Boston on November tenth. We had the first ever
Speaker 1: women's blooding Guts match in aw That was on November twelfth.
Speaker 1: TNA announced a new television deal with AMC Network starting
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. That announcement came down on December second,
Speaker 1: and honestly is the biggest announcement that company has made
Speaker 1: outside of the partnership with WWE. Their biggest announcement in years.
Speaker 1: It will be the first time they are on a
Speaker 1: real network that has actual viewers since the days of
Speaker 1: Spike TV, which was eleven years ago. So that will
Speaker 1: be a big, big way for TNA to kick off
Speaker 1: the new year. And last, but not least, John Cena
Speaker 1: closing out his retirement tour in a loss to Gunther
Speaker 1: and tapping out in his final match on Saturday Night's
Speaker 1: main event on December thirteenth. It will be a decision
Speaker 1: as it has been since it happened, that will be
Speaker 1: debated and argued whether it was good or bad. At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, John Cena he thought it
Speaker 1: was great, So to him, that's all the matters. Everybody
Speaker 1: else they can quibble and debate about it, but it
Speaker 1: was the end of an era. It was the end
Speaker 1: of one chapter in WWE. I do believe we will
Speaker 1: never again see John Cena back in the ring. And
Speaker 1: for all this talk about his retirement tour, that is
Speaker 1: how they closed it out with a loss to Gunther. Now,
Speaker 1: there were also a number of notable wrestling related deaths
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, and I wanted to make note
Speaker 1: of them here. The first one and this is not
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm missing some names here, but these are
Speaker 1: some of the key names that I have kept track
Speaker 1: of throughout the year, the first was a name from
Speaker 1: the Old Territory days. He also worked for both ww
Speaker 1: U and WCW. Black Bart died on January ninth, at
Speaker 1: the age of seventy six after battling stage four colon
Speaker 1: cancer that had spread to his liver. Mister Baseball Bob Yucker,
Speaker 1: a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, died on
Speaker 1: January sixteenth, ten days shy of his ninety first birthday,
Speaker 1: after battling lung cancer for the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: He won a World Series with the Saint Louis Cardinals
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four. He spent fifty four seasons as
Speaker 1: the play by play radio voice for the Milwaukee Brewers,
Speaker 1: and he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: in twenty ten after appearing in two different WrestleMania WrestleMania
Speaker 1: three as the guest ring announcer for the biggest match
Speaker 1: in WrestleMania history between Hulkogan and Andre the Giant, and
Speaker 1: again at WrestleMania four Colonel de Beers, who gained fame
Speaker 1: in the dying days of the AWA. He died on
Speaker 1: January twenty second at the age of eighty. Grand Hamada
Speaker 1: passed away on February fifteenth at the age of seventy four.
Speaker 1: One of the first men to be trained at the
Speaker 1: new Japan Dojo and first on excursion, which is how
Speaker 1: he became very proficient in Lucha libre, which he then
Speaker 1: brought back to Japan. He may well have been the
Speaker 1: first to bring it there, and he also held the
Speaker 1: WWF Light Heavyweight title on two occasions. This was through
Speaker 1: WWF's working relationship with the UWA. Paro Aguayo was actually
Speaker 1: the first champion, but I don't think WWE acknowledges him
Speaker 1: as the first champion. I think they considered Taka Michinoku
Speaker 1: the first when they brought the belt back in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven. But he was also the first and only
Speaker 1: WWF Intercontinental tag team champion alongside Pero Aguayo in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one. I'll bet you didn't even know those existed.
Speaker 1: That was until WWF severed ties with the promotion a
Speaker 1: few months later. I think the titles stuck around, but
Speaker 1: they no longer had the WWFA initials attached to them.
Speaker 1: Osamu Nishimura passed away on February twenty eighth, at just
Speaker 1: fifty three years old, after battling stage four aesophageal cancer
Speaker 1: for some time. Despite his cancer, he was still wrestling
Speaker 1: almost right up until the very end. He tagged with
Speaker 1: Dori Funk Junior last year in a double hell current
Speaker 1: Blast death match. Oh man's a little shiver going up
Speaker 1: Tony Kahan's spine. He's he's writing this down. And also
Speaker 1: wrestled a no ropes, barbed wire and giant electric explosive
Speaker 1: bat match. Okay, now that one, I think I have
Speaker 1: to add as a new stipulation for our be the
Speaker 1: booker segment on the streams no robes, barbed wire and
Speaker 1: giant electric explosive bat match. Wow. And he did it
Speaker 1: while he was sick. He had a first sign waivers
Speaker 1: allowing him to wrest and he had doctors stationed at
Speaker 1: ringside just in case. I guess you would have to though,
Speaker 1: whether you're sick or not, you'd have to have doctors
Speaker 1: somewhere in the vicinity if you're going to have a
Speaker 1: no robes, barbed wire, giant electric explosive batmtch Bill Mercer,
Speaker 1: the voice of World Class Championship Wrestling in the eighties.
Speaker 1: He made it all the way to the age of
Speaker 1: ninety nine before he died on March twenty third. Legendary
Speaker 1: newscaster really all around, not just in wrestling, but he
Speaker 1: even covered the jfk assassination as a Dallas TV reporter.
Speaker 1: While he may not have been a wrestler or a
Speaker 1: celebrity like some of the other folks on this list,
Speaker 1: On April seventh, we lost a friend and a fellow
Speaker 1: podcaster in Kevin Scondado, better known as Kevin Castle of
Speaker 1: the Don Toni and Kevin Castle Show, among the other
Speaker 1: shows that he did. That wasn't the only one, but
Speaker 1: he was only fifty six years old, and he had
Speaker 1: been dealing with health issues that were a lot more
Speaker 1: serious than a lot of people knew, myself included. I
Speaker 1: always enjoyed my interactions with keV and really wish that
Speaker 1: we could have met up, you know, once, just to
Speaker 1: shoot the shit in person, because I've had the chance
Speaker 1: to meet his brother John, and you know, DT and
Speaker 1: Mish and Joey and so many other people in this space.
Speaker 1: But keV was always kind of an island une to himself, right,
Speaker 1: always working at the club. He was, you know, the
Speaker 1: one responsible for booking the bands, but his death was
Speaker 1: just a shock to everyone and truly one of the
Speaker 1: ogs of the podcasting space. He has still missed even today.
Speaker 1: Hissashi Shinma, the former president quote unquote of the World
Speaker 1: Wrestling Federation. He passed away on April twenty first at
Speaker 1: the age of ninety. He was the on screen president
Speaker 1: of the company in the same vein as Jack Tunney
Speaker 1: and Guerrilla Mond soon after him, through part of the
Speaker 1: seventies and into the early eighties, so basically right before Tonny.
Speaker 1: More importantly, though, he was Antonio Minoki's right hand man
Speaker 1: behind the scenes in New Japan, and he was the
Speaker 1: booker there, and he was inducted into the WWE Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame as a legacy inductee in twenty nineteen. The
Speaker 1: World lost Mango Steve Mongo McMichael on April twenty third,
Speaker 1: at sixty seven years old after a battle with als.
Speaker 1: He spent most of his football career with the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: He won a Super Bowl there, but he was also
Speaker 1: a member of the Four Horsemen in WCW and he
Speaker 1: even had a short run as the United States champion.
Speaker 1: From Mongo to Ilyya Dragonov. At least the one thing
Speaker 1: they have in common is that they hit hard, because
Speaker 1: after that there ain't much else in common between those two.
Speaker 1: Saboo passed away on May eleventh at the age of
Speaker 1: sixty one. That's according to Rob van Dam, who would
Speaker 1: know better than probably anyone else, including Wikipedia. He was
Speaker 1: sixty one years old. One of the more influential wrestlers
Speaker 1: of all time, one of the greatest stars in ECW history.
Speaker 1: He worked for every major promotion in the world ECWWCWWWEE,
Speaker 1: New Japan, All Japan, AWTNA, TRIPLEA, CMLL, I mean, you
Speaker 1: name it, he worked there. And he had just wrestled
Speaker 1: his last match over WrestleMania Weekend against Joey Janella, and
Speaker 1: what a disaster that was. Rick Darringer died on Memorial
Speaker 1: Day May twenty sixth at the age of seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Died on Memorial Day and was the man who co
Speaker 1: wrote Hulk Hogan's Real American theme, which was not even
Speaker 1: originally intended for Hogan. He's also the man responsible for
Speaker 1: a Demolition's theme, two of the most iconic wrestling theme
Speaker 1: songs of the eighties. After that, it was WWE Hall
Speaker 1: of famer Ozzy Osbourne on July twenty second, who died
Speaker 1: at seventy six, the frontman for Black Sabbath for many years,
Speaker 1: who had just performed his farewell concert. Just three weeks
Speaker 1: before he died. He made an appearance of WrestleMania two.
Speaker 1: He guest hosted an episode of We're aw in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, and then two days later came the
Speaker 1: death of Hulk Hogan Terry Boleet. That was July twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: at the age of seventy one. As big a wrestling
Speaker 1: death as I have ever covered here on this show.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest names in the history of the
Speaker 1: business and the most famous pro wrestler of all time,
Speaker 1: you know, at least when you consider the amount of
Speaker 1: news coverage that his death generated. I know, yeah, not
Speaker 1: taking anything away from El Santo, and you can look
Speaker 1: at Japan and Ricky. I mean, there's so many different
Speaker 1: legendary names that had huge mainstream followings and other parts
Speaker 1: of the world. But I just I can't think of
Speaker 1: another pro wrestler that has generated the kind of national
Speaker 1: and global headlines that his death did when he passed away.
Speaker 1: Jerry Morrow passed away on July twenty eighth at the
Speaker 1: age of seventy five, a staple of Stampede Wrestling as
Speaker 1: well as New Japan and All Japan. Jonathan Ekivaria aka Jacka,
Speaker 1: as he was known on the independence scene for so
Speaker 1: many years, he passed away on September seventh, suffered a
Speaker 1: heart attack after a match. He was only thirty nine
Speaker 1: years old. On October nineteenth, it was Bobby Horn aka
Speaker 1: Mo of Men on a Mission who died at the
Speaker 1: age of fifty eight. Legendary announcer Bob Caudle, he died
Speaker 1: on November sixteenth at the age of ninety five. And
Speaker 1: rounding out the list is Larry the Dog, who died
Speaker 1: sometime shortly before Survivor Series last month. Cmpunk and aj Lee.
Speaker 1: They rescued him eleven years ago and he became world famous,
Speaker 1: especially after the brawl out fiasco in aaw And I'll
Speaker 1: close with this my annual year end Awards. Now. I
Speaker 1: know that there was a lot of drama around Sports
Speaker 1: Illustrated this week and their year end Awards. They had
Speaker 1: fourteen categories this year, with a panel of nine writers
Speaker 1: voting on the various categories, with an evaluation period of
Speaker 1: December sixteen, twenty twenty four to December thirteen, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Last year, their awards heavily skewed in favor of WWE.
Speaker 1: Aw only took home two awards and WWE one for
Speaker 1: Promotion of the Year. A lot of that had to
Speaker 1: do with Cody Rhodes finishing his story at WrestleMania and
Speaker 1: the Cmpunk Drew McIntyre feud that culminated in their Hell
Speaker 1: in a Cell match was it was well deserved. This year,
Speaker 1: their awards heavily skewed in favor of aw and of
Speaker 1: course it's gotten the expected reaction from various parts of
Speaker 1: the Internet and social media. And so for the people
Speaker 1: pissing and moaning about it, let's take this step by
Speaker 1: step and show you why it is not as ridiculous
Speaker 1: as they make it out to be. So what I'm
Speaker 1: going to do here, I'm going to go category by
Speaker 1: category based on SI And let me just say that
Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated is but one outlet, right, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a small paddle of people that work for the publication
Speaker 1: that put out these awards, and you're gonna have other
Speaker 1: websites and other publications and other podcasts that are gonna
Speaker 1: do the same thing. One does not have any more
Speaker 1: weight than the other. If Melter does it in the Observer,
Speaker 1: it does not have any more weight to me than
Speaker 1: the next one after it. And the same goes for
Speaker 1: me and my thoughts and opinions on who I would
Speaker 1: give various awards to. And so people do not need
Speaker 1: to get upset about this. It is not worth getting
Speaker 1: upset over. I don't know why people will get upset
Speaker 1: over this, but it will make for an interesting discussion here.
Speaker 1: So let me go category by category per SI, and
Speaker 1: I will chime in with my own thoughts in my
Speaker 1: own awards as we go along. Now, they had as
Speaker 1: the storyline of the year Hangman Adam Page's Redemption arc.
Speaker 1: Now they also listed as their runners up for this award,
Speaker 1: John seen Is retirement and the Downfall of the Death Writers. Okay,
Speaker 1: these are the runners up for best Stories of two
Speaker 1: twenty five, which shows you just how thin the stories
Speaker 1: were this year. If you have got John Cena's retirement
Speaker 1: tour and the Fall of the Death Riders in the
Speaker 1: top three for stories of the year, I'm still waiting
Speaker 1: for the actual fall of the Death Riders, by the way,
Speaker 1: like the full on fall seen as retirement only wins
Speaker 1: for second place. If there are exactly two stories in
Speaker 1: all of wrestling for the entire year, then yes, John
Speaker 1: Cen's retirement could be the runner up. That's the only
Speaker 1: way that that wins. This was not a great year creatively,
Speaker 1: especially for WWE. The stuff with Cody Rhoades and Kevin
Speaker 1: Owens that he was doing at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: year that was good, But that story really dates back
Speaker 1: to their first match of Bash and Berlin, and that
Speaker 1: was in August of last year. Right, the evaluation period
Speaker 1: would only cover the tail end of what they did.
Speaker 1: What other major stories did WWE tell this year that
Speaker 1: would make them worthy of Storyline of the Year. John
Speaker 1: Cena should have won for Story of the Year had
Speaker 1: the heel turned never happened, and had they told the
Speaker 1: correct story with him. They didn't do that. John Cena's
Speaker 1: retirement tour wins the award for Biggest Blunder of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. But is it really that far fetch that
Speaker 1: Hangman's Redemption arc would win for best storyline in a
Speaker 1: year that wasn't so strong on them to begin with.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't have an issue with them choosing that
Speaker 1: Hangman is the main character of aaw has been since
Speaker 1: day one. He went from being a crazed heel right
Speaker 1: spurred on by Swerve Strickland, back to being a babyface
Speaker 1: once he realized the error of his ways. And even
Speaker 1: if it wasn't Tony Kahn's first choice for Hangman to
Speaker 1: win the owen and get the shot at all in Texas, right,
Speaker 1: think about this, Daniel Bryan was not Vince McMahon's first
Speaker 1: choice to go to the main event of WrestleMania thirty
Speaker 1: and win the world title. But that's what ended up happening.
Speaker 1: And you can't tell me that Brian overcoming the authority
Speaker 1: to win the championship at WrestleMania was not the story
Speaker 1: of the year that year. Of course, it was the
Speaker 1: fact that it wasn't the original plan does not take
Speaker 1: away from the end result. Jay Usso's journey to the
Speaker 1: world title is not the story of the year. John
Speaker 1: cens heel turned and return to redemption is not the
Speaker 1: story of the year. There is no road to redemption
Speaker 1: when you push a button and in one night you
Speaker 1: flip the guy back to being a babyface because you
Speaker 1: realize you'd done fucked up. They could have told that story,
Speaker 1: but they didn't. The drama with Paul Hayman turning on
Speaker 1: multiple people and ending up with seth rollins, that is
Speaker 1: not the story of the year. Riar Ripley and EO
Speaker 1: Sky against the Kabuki Warriors and all of the soap
Speaker 1: opera shit that's been playing out on television with them
Speaker 1: for months now, that is not the story of the year.
Speaker 1: This Cody and Drew stuff is not the story of
Speaker 1: the year. So please tell me what from WWE would
Speaker 1: you consider to be the story of the year. The
Speaker 1: Hangman pick is the correct one. He is a character
Speaker 1: the fans are emotionally invested in. Their fans are. He
Speaker 1: went off the deep end coming out of the Swerve feud.
Speaker 1: He lost his way, but he found his way back
Speaker 1: in time to rescue the company and the championship from
Speaker 1: a group that had an iron grip on it for
Speaker 1: the entire year up to the point that Moxley tapped
Speaker 1: out and the belt finally came out of that briefcase.
Speaker 1: That match and I said this going into it, that
Speaker 1: match is going to be their Avengers endgame match. The
Speaker 1: way that Cody and Roman was a WrestleMania forty with
Speaker 1: all the baby faces coming out to fight off the
Speaker 1: death Riders and to give Hangman a clear path to
Speaker 1: the title. Me personally, my close runner up would have
Speaker 1: been the heat between Takeshta and Okada, and it is
Speaker 1: nothing too deep, like we haven't even gotten a match
Speaker 1: between them yet. We haven't had a single fucking match
Speaker 1: between takesha and Okada, right, we haven't gotten any cinema
Speaker 1: out of it, no long promos, and yet it's been
Speaker 1: a very simple star or a very simple storytelling, but
Speaker 1: it's been very effective in building interest in their eventual match,
Speaker 1: which hopefully we will get next weekend. In a year
Speaker 1: week on big stories, it's the one that I have
Speaker 1: had the most fun with, albeit in the second half
Speaker 1: of the year, but it's the one that I have
Speaker 1: had the most fun with. So I'm fine with the
Speaker 1: Hangman pick. But if I wasn't going to go with that,
Speaker 1: I would go with Takeshia and Okada and the very
Speaker 1: simple story that they have been playing out between these
Speaker 1: two and callous and the heat between them, and then
Speaker 1: the segments where Okada will just make these comments or
Speaker 1: he'll turn the TV or whatever it might be if
Speaker 1: not the Hangman stuff, that would get my vote for
Speaker 1: Rivalry of the Year. They went with Hangman, Adam Page
Speaker 1: and John Moxley. Now, last year was an easy choice
Speaker 1: with See I'm Punk and Drew McIntyre, it's a no brainer.
Speaker 1: This year, it's not as cut and dry. I don't
Speaker 1: think that there have been any rivalries in wrestling that
Speaker 1: have matched that one. It's been a down year for
Speaker 1: great rivalries, all right. Where where's the punkin Drew or
Speaker 1: the Hangman in Swerve of twenty twenty five? There is none?
Speaker 1: See I'm punkin Seth Rollins would be the closest thing,
Speaker 1: and that I can't say that excited me nearly as
Speaker 1: much as those other ones did. Neither did the actual
Speaker 1: feud with the Hangman in Moxley. I would give the
Speaker 1: edge to Punkin Rollins in this category, although Hangman and
Speaker 1: Moxley it had the better payoff. He'll Turn of the
Speaker 1: Year they went with a Naomi She won the voting. Now,
Speaker 1: some people are gonna look at this and go, what
Speaker 1: the fuck heal Turn of the Year. How are you
Speaker 1: gonna have you gonna go with anything other than John Cena.
Speaker 1: I actually don't disagree with this pick, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you why. If we are talking about the actual
Speaker 1: turn itself in the moment, the answer is John Cena
Speaker 1: unequivocally second best heel turn of all time if you
Speaker 1: just look at it for what it was on that
Speaker 1: night with the players involved. But if when you say
Speaker 1: heal turn, best heel turn of the year, and you
Speaker 1: include the story leading up to it, any character developments,
Speaker 1: what followed it, right, the evolution of the character by
Speaker 1: that criteria, then I believe yes, the answer is Naomi.
Speaker 1: So it really all depends on your definition of heal
Speaker 1: turn of the year. We're talking about a single moment
Speaker 1: where this person turned heel or are we talking about
Speaker 1: sort of the entire body of work that led up
Speaker 1: to it and what came out of it. Because what
Speaker 1: came out of the John Cena turn was absolute fucking
Speaker 1: garbage and there was nothing that led up to it. Nothing.
Speaker 1: It was a moment. As John Cena himself said in
Speaker 1: the interview with Cody Rhodes, they did it for a moment.
Speaker 1: There was no story involved, there was no hint of anything.
Speaker 1: There was nothing. There was a phone call from the
Speaker 1: head of Endeavor to the rock saying save us, we
Speaker 1: need help for the elimination chamber. But Naomi, she really did.
Speaker 1: She evolved that character, and they were playing stuff out
Speaker 1: on TV where it was kind of like, she looks
Speaker 1: like she's probably gonna turn, but I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: she won't, maybe they'll swerve us and go with somebody else.
Speaker 1: But then she did, and it was again the best
Speaker 1: thing that could have happened to her. And I think
Speaker 1: she would have gone on this great run had she
Speaker 1: not have had to vacate the championship when she did.
Speaker 1: I think her best work was yet to come. But
Speaker 1: what we did get of it, I don't argue with this.
Speaker 1: I would say, yes, he'll turn to the year. I'll
Speaker 1: give it to Naomi Best on the Mic. They gave
Speaker 1: the award to timeless Tony Storm. I disagree. I like
Speaker 1: Tony Storm. I think Tony she's very quick witted. She's
Speaker 1: certainly great on the microphone. I got to give this
Speaker 1: to CM Punk. I give this Best on the Mic
Speaker 1: award to Punk from the bald Fraud rant after WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: to his promo in the ring with John Cena, to
Speaker 1: the angry Punk that we got in the ring last
Speaker 1: Monday talking about bron Breaker. When Punk is especially when
Speaker 1: we get angry Punk on the mic, there is still
Speaker 1: nobody better with a live mic in wrestling, with a
Speaker 1: live mic in their hand than CM Punk. And we
Speaker 1: may not get that version of Punk on television every
Speaker 1: single week, but we're not exactly getting you know, legendary
Speaker 1: Tony Storm promos weekly either. Right, she has her moments,
Speaker 1: Punk has his. I think Punk's moments were stronger than hers.
Speaker 1: I give him the award Best in the Ring. They
Speaker 1: gave it to will Osprey. I certainly have voted similarly
Speaker 1: in the past. For me, it's close. I would give
Speaker 1: this to Kenoski Takeshda. I think Takeshta just clears him
Speaker 1: this year, in part because of the injury and so
Speaker 1: Osprey has missed a lot of time this year that
Speaker 1: Takeshta has only gotten stronger. Right, he won the g One,
Speaker 1: he won the IWGP title, He's got this stuff going
Speaker 1: on with Okada, He's having these weekly matches in the
Speaker 1: Continental Classic that are very good his body of work.
Speaker 1: I just think overall this year will end up being
Speaker 1: stronger and you can't go wrong with will Osprey. But
Speaker 1: I got to give the to catch Don this breakout
Speaker 1: Wrestler of the Year, Sports Illustrated went with Kyle Fletcher.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to argue it. This absolutely has been
Speaker 1: a breakout year for Kyle Fletcher. He even got his
Speaker 1: first pay per view main events, you know, a shot
Speaker 1: at the World Championship. He won the TNT Championship. He
Speaker 1: is one of the one of the crown jewels of
Speaker 1: that Don Kallis family, and he is someone who in
Speaker 1: the next few years should be an AW World champion
Speaker 1: and they could absolutely build around him as part of
Speaker 1: their core. We used to talk or hear talk about
Speaker 1: the pillars of AAW for so many years, right Darby
Speaker 1: and MJF and Jungle Boy and Sammy Gavara, and I
Speaker 1: feel like the pillars have changed over the years, but
Speaker 1: I could see Kyle Fletcher, if you want to use
Speaker 1: that term, if he isn't already being one of those
Speaker 1: pillars for them in the future, you know where the
Speaker 1: company sort of relies on him as one of their
Speaker 1: biggest stars and I think eventually one of their biggest
Speaker 1: baby faces. But this is the year they we will
Speaker 1: look back on and say, Okay, this is where he
Speaker 1: became that guy that you could see being in that role.
Speaker 1: This is where he took that one giant leap forward.
Speaker 1: And the matches that he has had this year on
Speaker 1: top of all of that have been phenomenal, Even in
Speaker 1: this tournament, even in this Continental Classic, it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: I would go with a close second. I would go
Speaker 1: with Javon Evans of NXT. I think this has absolutely
Speaker 1: been a huge breakout year for Javon. He's all over
Speaker 1: the place. I mean, Javon is not just in NXT,
Speaker 1: but he's on Raw, he's on SmackDown. They've got him
Speaker 1: in Triple A, they had him in TNA against Leon Slay.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is everywhere and still very very young.
Speaker 1: But as good as he already is, imagine how much
Speaker 1: better he'll be, you know, a few years from now.
Speaker 1: It's scary. Which is not to say that he can't
Speaker 1: be on the main roster right now. You know, he
Speaker 1: absolutely can be. I would put the NXT Championship on him,
Speaker 1: give him a run with it first before we elevate him,
Speaker 1: you know, to that level on a permanent basis. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a Gavan as a close second to Kyle Fletcher.
Speaker 1: Then we have Comeback Performer of the Year, and the
Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated voting gave it to Ilya Dragonov. I am
Speaker 1: going to go a different way with this and I'm
Speaker 1: going to give this to Bandido and so Dragonov. You know,
Speaker 1: he missed thirteen months with an ACL tear and he's
Speaker 1: been on a tear ever since he came back, right,
Speaker 1: but he's only been back since October. He hasn't been
Speaker 1: back for that long. He won the United States Championship
Speaker 1: his first night back from Sammy's Ain. He has had
Speaker 1: good to great matches almost every single week ever since.
Speaker 1: But it is still a limited body of wargo. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are we really talking about here? Ten matches and
Speaker 1: it just cannot compare to the body of work that
Speaker 1: Bandido has put together since returning. And it was a
Speaker 1: tough comeback for Bandido. You know, he suffered a broken
Speaker 1: wrist and this is going back maybe a couple of
Speaker 1: years now. Broke his wrist, had surgery, it didn't heal properly,
Speaker 1: he needed a second surgery. Then he finally comes back
Speaker 1: at the very end of last year, and what happens
Speaker 1: his first night back on a Ring of honor, right
Speaker 1: coming out to attack Jericho and the Learning Tree and whatever,
Speaker 1: and he suffers a concussion landed on the back of
Speaker 1: his own head coming off the top rope, and he
Speaker 1: concussed himself and that was his first night back. But
Speaker 1: since then he has been tearing it up in the
Speaker 1: ring Ring of Honor World Champion, an unexpectedly great tag
Speaker 1: team run with Brody King where they won the tag
Speaker 1: team titles, and honestly, he may genuinely be the most
Speaker 1: fun performer to watch in the ring in all of wrestling.
Speaker 1: So I'm going with Bendito for the comeback story of
Speaker 1: the Year. Kenny Omega would be my runner up, just
Speaker 1: for a match with Gabe Kid alone at Wressell Dynasty.
Speaker 1: I mean, this man missed over a year of action,
Speaker 1: almost fucking died, and in his first match back he
Speaker 1: goes out there and does that with Gabe Kid. Are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? After that, you know, you got the
Speaker 1: match with Takeshta a Revolution, the match with Okada and Texas,
Speaker 1: I mean those were just gravy. After that, I just
Speaker 1: wish he was healthy enough to have bigger singles matches
Speaker 1: since then, because since then you could tell they've kept
Speaker 1: him very limited. So that's what I would do. I'd
Speaker 1: give the award to Bandido. I'd have Omega as my
Speaker 1: runner up, and then after Omega, I would have Ilia Dragonov.
Speaker 1: I would have him third. On the list Tag Team
Speaker 1: of the Year, Sports Illustrated gave it to FTR. I
Speaker 1: think that was a mistake. FTR obviously is a great
Speaker 1: tag team and they are the tag team champions right now.
Speaker 1: They were not the Tag team of the Year. I
Speaker 1: believe Brodido was the tag team of the Year. Brody
Speaker 1: King Bandido a makeshift team that got put together legitimately
Speaker 1: because Tony Khan saw them do their gunfinger handshake backstage.
Speaker 1: That is how Brodido became a thing. And they were
Speaker 1: a revelation to team. There's so much fun to watch,
Speaker 1: great chemistry, great matches, and they got a tag team
Speaker 1: title run out of it for a few months. And
Speaker 1: so right behind Brodido, I'm actually gonna go with Matt
Speaker 1: and Jeff Hardy. And here's why. Not only did they
Speaker 1: win tag team titles across multiple promotions including NXT and TNA,
Speaker 1: but I think they were central to TNA getting a
Speaker 1: television deal with AMC. They are arguably the biggest stars
Speaker 1: in the entire promotion, and TNA has featured them. If
Speaker 1: you'll notice, not only has TNA featured them all year
Speaker 1: long without the Hardys. I don't think that they get
Speaker 1: that deal right. They have the WWE partnership, so it
Speaker 1: may have happened anyway. But even if you watch the
Speaker 1: commercials that have been airing on AMC four where they're
Speaker 1: previewing January fifteenth, right impact comes to AMC. Look who's
Speaker 1: in the commercials. Look who is all over the ad
Speaker 1: for the show. It's the Hardys. So they have been
Speaker 1: more important to their home promotion than Brodida. I've just
Speaker 1: had more fun watching Brodido come out of nowhere and
Speaker 1: do what they've been able to do over the past
Speaker 1: several months, and in ring, their body of work is
Speaker 1: much stronger. So I would go Brodido, and then the
Speaker 1: runner up for me would be the Hardys. Match of
Speaker 1: the Year. Sports Illustrated had it as Eo Sky, Rhea
Speaker 1: Ripley and Bianca bel Air at WrestleMania forty one. I'm
Speaker 1: going to reserve my pick for when I do my
Speaker 1: Top Matches of the Year countdown, probably next week, but
Speaker 1: I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with this choice. I
Speaker 1: might have been willing to give it to Javon Evans
Speaker 1: and Leon Slater a TNA bound for glory, had they
Speaker 1: not monumentally fucked up the finish. That match was on
Speaker 1: its way to being an all timer. But I have
Speaker 1: no issue with them picking that as their choice show
Speaker 1: of the year. Sports Illustrated shows aw Double or Nothing
Speaker 1: back in May, I agree with this pick. I would
Speaker 1: go with Double or Nothing top to bottom as the
Speaker 1: best show of the year. For me, it's between Double
Speaker 1: or Nothing and Elimination Chamber. As great as Elimination Chamber was,
Speaker 1: with the heel turn at the end, which again in
Speaker 1: a vacuum, all time great heel turn right number two
Speaker 1: all time, the best women's elimination Chamber match that I
Speaker 1: think they've ever done, a very good men's chamber, and
Speaker 1: it had an excellent Kevin Ohen Sammy's Aim match right
Speaker 1: that non sanction match. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's still a four match show. Four match pes are
Speaker 1: just not going to be able to measure up when
Speaker 1: you put them up against a pay per view with
Speaker 1: say six or seven five star quality wrestling matches, and
Speaker 1: then also a few others that are at least good.
Speaker 1: I just wish the shows weren't so damn long. I
Speaker 1: wish there was more of a happy medium, right. The
Speaker 1: happy medium actually would be Evolution in July, which was
Speaker 1: one of the best shows all year, but quality wise,
Speaker 1: I don't think it measures up to the best that
Speaker 1: Double or Nothing had to offer, or even Revolution, right,
Speaker 1: but that main event ruined it for me with Moxley
Speaker 1: and Copeland. Revolution was a great show until we got
Speaker 1: to the main event. So Elimination Chamber would be my
Speaker 1: WWE show of the year with Evolution right behind it
Speaker 1: nipping at its heels. You know what. For me, it's
Speaker 1: like one A and one B honestly, and for aw
Speaker 1: Double or Nothing would be tops, followed by All in
Speaker 1: Texas and then probably Revolution even with the dog shit
Speaker 1: ending Female Wrestler of the Year, Sports Illustrated went with
Speaker 1: Mercedes Monette. Mercedes had an excellent year with her match
Speaker 1: out put forty eight matches across multiple promotions, not just
Speaker 1: aw Eosky, who I think is just the best. She
Speaker 1: had had a little bit less. She had thirty five matches,
Speaker 1: one of which came against Mayu Ewatani and Marigold, and
Speaker 1: I did watch that, and that was excellent. EO to
Speaker 1: me is just on another level from everyone else in ring.
Speaker 1: And this was her breakout year in WWE, which sounds
Speaker 1: so silly because she's worked there for seven years, but
Speaker 1: it really was. It really felt like a breakout year
Speaker 1: for her. But you need to account for more than
Speaker 1: just who you think is the best in ring talent
Speaker 1: at any given moment. And I set this a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago when the PWI rankings came out with their
Speaker 1: top two hundred and fifty women's wrestlers in the world,
Speaker 1: they had Mercedes in number one, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of KFE mixed in there with that, but she had
Speaker 1: an impressive year. I don't care so much about which
Speaker 1: title she has. That's kind of irrelevant to me, but
Speaker 1: I can tell you when she's out there challenging for
Speaker 1: or going back and defending those other belts on the
Speaker 1: independent scene, it makes a difference to those promotions, Like
Speaker 1: she moves toickets. You could argue whether or not she
Speaker 1: does an AW, but she moves tickets that cannot be understated.
Speaker 1: You know, her shit goes up after the fact on
Speaker 1: YouTube or whatever, and it's got you know, a couple
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand views within five or six days. It
Speaker 1: cannot be understated. And the story, then, there's the story
Speaker 1: in aw of her not being able to win the
Speaker 1: Big One, because there is a story there. And I
Speaker 1: was telling you as we were going into the match
Speaker 1: with her and Statlander especially, like, Okay, this is what
Speaker 1: I think the story is, and this is where I
Speaker 1: think it is going. She's gonna win all of these
Speaker 1: other championships, and she's gonna gloat, and she's gonna drink
Speaker 1: champagne and have celebrations and eat cavir and all this
Speaker 1: other stuff. But at the end of the day, she's
Speaker 1: overcompensating because she cannot win the big One. She failed
Speaker 1: twice this year alone trying to go after that World championship.
Speaker 1: So if you pay attention, there is a story there. Now,
Speaker 1: as far as promos, EO's promos are not great, but frankly,
Speaker 1: neither are the ones we've gotten from Mercedes, So for me,
Speaker 1: it's a wash. But when I look at their body
Speaker 1: of work this year, EO had two of the best
Speaker 1: matches anywhere this entire year, but her run coming out
Speaker 1: of WrestleMania really hurt her. She didn't do much the
Speaker 1: booking hurt her in that top two fifty ranking. They
Speaker 1: had EO too low, they had her at number six.
Speaker 1: I will concede when you look at her overall body
Speaker 1: of work for the year across multiple promotions, I think
Speaker 1: Mercedes at number one is the correct choice. But I
Speaker 1: could go either way. I could go with her, I
Speaker 1: could go with EO. I would not have any issue
Speaker 1: with somebody saying EO Sky should be number one, But
Speaker 1: I don't see the problem with them having Mercedes at
Speaker 1: number one. Now as far as runners up, Timeless Tony
Speaker 1: Storm and the stuff that she did with Mariah May
Speaker 1: earlier this year, that alone puts her near the top.
Speaker 1: And then Becky Lynch. I was surprised she didn't get
Speaker 1: a mention here, but Becky Lynch did more for that
Speaker 1: Women's Intercontinental title this year then WWE has done for
Speaker 1: the women's United States Championship since the day it was conceived,
Speaker 1: so she at least deserves an honorable mention. She's also
Speaker 1: up there in that top three or four as far
Speaker 1: as the women go for the entire year. Men's Wrestler
Speaker 1: of the Year Sports Illustrated had it as Hangman Adam page.
Speaker 1: If you base it on business and in ring output.
Speaker 1: The answer is probably missed it go for all that
Speaker 1: he has done with CMLL. But I just have not
Speaker 1: seen enough of his work this year outside of a
Speaker 1: handful of matches to just and I don't watch CMLL
Speaker 1: weeks a week or anything. I cannot sit here and
Speaker 1: justify making him my Men's Wrestler of the year. When
Speaker 1: I look at character and I look at in ring
Speaker 1: taken together, I can't really disagree with the hangman pick.
Speaker 1: I really can't know there was an argument to be made.
Speaker 1: I think maybe for Seth Rollins in terms of again
Speaker 1: his in ring work and you know, forming the vision
Speaker 1: and leading the top heel stable on raw. Then he
Speaker 1: got hurt, so it's like, all right, well he got
Speaker 1: hurt at a bad time, and he got hurt closer
Speaker 1: to the end of the year, but he still got
Speaker 1: hurt and he's missing the last couple of months of
Speaker 1: the year. So I look at someone like Rollins and
Speaker 1: I think he's up there. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: he's my number two necessarily, but you know he deserves
Speaker 1: at least, you know, a mention here. But again, is
Speaker 1: it really out that outlandish that they would go with
Speaker 1: Hangman Adam Page as the Male Wrestler of the Year.
Speaker 1: When you take all of these other things, not just
Speaker 1: the in ring, but the inn ring and the story,
Speaker 1: the character, all that stuff, and what they had him
Speaker 1: doing this year into consideration, I know that once he
Speaker 1: won the championship, it kind of fizzled out after that
Speaker 1: because it was almost like it was about the chase, right,
Speaker 1: It's like the dog catching the car. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: now what. But again, I don't really have an issue
Speaker 1: with them going with Hangman as Male Wrestler of the Year.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's necessarily cut and dry for any
Speaker 1: one person slammed dunk. Oh yeah, absolutely, it's this guy.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. So I don't have a problem
Speaker 1: with that. And then last, but not least, promotion of
Speaker 1: the year. This is the one that I'm sure made
Speaker 1: some people's heads explode. It's actually kind of funny. Last
Speaker 1: year they went with WWE as the promotion of the year,
Speaker 1: and I thought that was well deserved. This year they
Speaker 1: went with All Elite Wrestling as the promotion of the year.
Speaker 1: Here's what I'll say about this. What is even the
Speaker 1: criteria for this? You're gonna have people that look at
Speaker 1: this and go, how can you say that AW was
Speaker 1: the promotion of the year when they are still barely
Speaker 1: filling buildings for some of their weekly television or they're
Speaker 1: filling buildings, but they're running buildings that fit like a
Speaker 1: thousand people. Where are the days of Dynamite when they
Speaker 1: would run bigger venues or NBA venues and they could
Speaker 1: put five or six or seven thousand people any given
Speaker 1: week into building for Dynamite. That is still very much
Speaker 1: a problem for AW heading into twenty twenty six, because
Speaker 1: if they felt confident that they could put that many
Speaker 1: people in a building for an episode of Dynamite, guess
Speaker 1: what they'd be doing it. Clearly they don't have the
Speaker 1: confidence to do so that's an issue. Dynamite used to
Speaker 1: be in a different place than it is now. Forget
Speaker 1: the N Ring stuff. I'm sure everybody would say, oh
Speaker 1: my god, the N Ring is so great. True, but
Speaker 1: if you're looking at it from like a business perspective,
Speaker 1: like do you factor that into your decision? Do you
Speaker 1: just look at it as what promotion gave me the
Speaker 1: best matches and the best stories, right, or do you
Speaker 1: incorporate all these other things? How much money did they make?
Speaker 1: How many tickets did they sell? Right? By that criteria
Speaker 1: I mentioned CMLL before. I don't know that there was
Speaker 1: any other promotion that had the kind of year that
Speaker 1: CML had where they moved over a million tickets in
Speaker 1: one fucking venue for the entire year. Like that is
Speaker 1: unheard of business wise. It would almost have to be WWE,
Speaker 1: or you can make the case for CMLL. But like
Speaker 1: when you take into account all of these other awards
Speaker 1: that I just went through, right, and the majority of
Speaker 1: them from SI went to AW and I think the
Speaker 1: majority of the ones I just gave out went to
Speaker 1: AW as well. When they win that many awards for
Speaker 1: Best Wrestler or the Best Story or whatever whatever I
Speaker 1: just went through here, then yes, the answer would be AW.
Speaker 1: If the majority of the answers came from AW, then
Speaker 1: that would make aw your promotion of the year. If
Speaker 1: most of your awards went to WWE, then your promotion
Speaker 1: of the year would be WWA. If you watch CMLL
Speaker 1: and all you watch is that or Lucha Libra, and
Speaker 1: you know you Mystico is going to be the biggest
Speaker 1: star of the world, and CMLL is in a hot
Speaker 1: period right now, and they would be your promotion of
Speaker 1: the year. It is such a subjective thing, no set
Speaker 1: list of criteria, that it's almost impossible to give an answer.
Speaker 1: It's all subjective anyway, of course, But in this case,
Speaker 1: just looking at all the awards that I just doled out, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'd have to go with aw And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you the other reason why, because this has
Speaker 1: absolutely I will not sit here and tell you that WWE,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, we're back to the bad old days, right,
Speaker 1: I know what the bad old days are like, We're
Speaker 1: not in the bad old days. But this was by
Speaker 1: no means triple h or WWE's strongest year in the
Speaker 1: last five years. Okay, I don't care what how many
Speaker 1: tickets they sold, how much fucking money they made. I
Speaker 1: watched these shows week to week. As I was sitting
Speaker 1: here going through these different categories, it was a struggle
Speaker 1: to come up with like rock solid WWE choices for
Speaker 1: every category that would win each category. There is a
Speaker 1: reason why a lot of them did not win. This
Speaker 1: was not their strongest year. So if I'm looking at
Speaker 1: WWE and I am struggling to come up with different
Speaker 1: categories to say like, oh yeah, WWE blew them away
Speaker 1: and blew them up. There's obvious winner here, obvious winter there.
Speaker 1: How the fuck can I sit here with confidence and
Speaker 1: tell you that the promotion of the Year is WWE
Speaker 1: when my overall feeling towards this company and the stories
Speaker 1: they've told throughout the entire year and the John Cena
Speaker 1: run and everything in between has largely been apathy. And
Speaker 1: there was a lot of that also with AW this year.
Speaker 1: Believe me, Oh, believe me, there was. But there is
Speaker 1: nothing about this year that WWE had as a fan,
Speaker 1: as a viewer of the show weeks a week that
Speaker 1: makes me go, hey, promotion of the year. I'll sit
Speaker 1: here and give AW Promotion of the Year honors, but
Speaker 1: I won't exactly be sitting here doing it with a
Speaker 1: whole ton of enthusiasm. Frankly, it had more to do
Speaker 1: with just how bad of a year creatively WWE had
Speaker 1: than anything else. But all this nonsense about you know,
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories and Tony you know the check clear the
Speaker 1: checks and the mail and all this other nonsense. You
Speaker 1: know what, at the end today I see all these
Speaker 1: people on social media. It's just a lot of people
Speaker 1: who just cannot accept opinions from other people, and it
Speaker 1: just blows their minds so much that they have to
Speaker 1: justify it and the most ridiculous, insane ways. Well, this
Speaker 1: simply cannot be possible. There's only one explanation for it. Clearly,
Speaker 1: Tony Kahan is grease in some palms here, and people
Speaker 1: take this shit seriously and it's fucking sad. Again. It's
Speaker 1: all subjective. Your awards and your opinions on these are
Speaker 1: probably going to be very different than mine. Mine are
Speaker 1: going to be different from yours, and the next person
Speaker 1: to the next person. I don't see anything on this
Speaker 1: list that is egregiously bad. I told you the ones
Speaker 1: I disagree with. Some of them are different, a lot
Speaker 1: of them I agree with. I don't see anything egregiously
Speaker 1: bad or like, oh my god, what were they thinking
Speaker 1: on this list? But next week we'll talk about what
Speaker 1: the best matches were of twenty twenty five, in addition
Speaker 1: to all of the news of the week. We'll save
Speaker 1: that for next week, probably do the predictions for the
Speaker 1: new year in a couple of weeks. You got to
Speaker 1: spread it out, you got to spread out the love.
Speaker 1: We've already gone almost three hours here on the show, well, look,
Speaker 1: hopefully you enjoyed it. You don't have to agree with
Speaker 1: all of the picks and all of the opinions and
Speaker 1: choices here, but hopefully you can at least you look
Speaker 1: at what I've laid out here. I at least try
Speaker 1: to explain where I'm coming from on this and accept that, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know what, that's where you're coming from on it.
Speaker 1: That's his perspective on things, and at least respect it
Speaker 1: that it ain't bought and paid for. It's coming from
Speaker 1: me and me alone, the way it always is. Email
Speaker 1: me the soolomn Monster at gmail dot com. You can
Speaker 1: follow me on x at solo Monster. Of course, you
Speaker 1: could also subscribe and follow along on the YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: I will be live Monday night, Wednesday night, and Friday
Speaker 1: night this week. Even though there's a lot of taped shows,
Speaker 1: I am still planning on being live if my voice survives.
Speaker 1: I have a very sore throat today. I'm a little worried,
Speaker 1: but hopefully it's just because I've been talking too much.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens there, but I'll be back next week.
Speaker 1: That'll be episode nine four, the final sound off of
Speaker 1: the year. That'll be next Sunday. Until then, be well,
Speaker 1: stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of your week.
Speaker 1: For those of you celebrating, I wish you all and
Speaker 1: your family a very merry Christmas. Come on back. We'll
Speaker 1: do it one more time this year next Sunday. Until then,
Speaker 1: take care, guys. The Solemn Monster Sounds Off. Lakers Pats,
Speaker 1: did you cry during Shawn Michaels tell me a live video?
Speaker 1: I didn't, But you want to know what I don't
Speaker 1: want to say. It's a little embarrassing, but I didn't
Speaker 1: cry during that video. But I did cry a little
Speaker 1: bit during the Macho Man and Elizabeth wedding song came
Speaker 1: into the large. Oh my God together, I Love Forever.
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