Latest / Solomonster Sounds Off / Sound Off 966 - Nick Khan LIES About WrestleMania, Chad Gable's Push And LA Knight SPEAKS

Transcript

Sound Off 966 - Nick Khan LIES About WrestleMania, Chad Gable's Push And LA Knight SPEAKS · Solomonster Sounds Off

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monsters
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Sounds off. I love you so, mama, monster, dude, I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: want your soul a woman.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Come over here, hot May is that pet Madison? You
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: have legs? The weekend I was ninety nine percent positive
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: it was just chessed up. Now I have been begging
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: him for a job on every every platform I can,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and I want to know the reason why you won't
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: part me. Welcome to episode nine to sixty six of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: These Solemn Monsters Sounds Off for Sunday, June seventh, twenty
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: twenty six. I am the Solemn Monster. Nick Fever has
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: taken over the city and they are headed to Madison
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Square Garden tomorrow night. It's too bad that the NBA
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: has a game tomorrow. They're gonna get crushed by Monday
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Night Raw on Netflix. Boy, I feel sorry for them,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: but the Knicks have won thirteen straight games being uncursed
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: by Dan Hausen. Now I'm just gonna say this, if
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: they win the championship, WWE is coming to Madison Square
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Garden on July eighteenth for Saturday Nights main event. If
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Dan Housen's music hits on that show. It's gonna be
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: like Austin in the nineties. Okay, they're gonna rename it
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the Dan Housen Pop if he comes out on that show.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you right now. He cursed another team, by
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the way. They showed him on the big screen last
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: night during Game three of the Stanley Cup Finals between
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Carolina Hurricanes and the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: he cursed the Hurricanes, who then lost the game in
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: double overtime five to four. Now they trail in that
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: series two games to one. They almost blew it though.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Vegas was up four zip when Carolinas scored three goals
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: in the span of forty seconds, and then they scored
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: again to tie it, which sent it to overtime. But
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Vegas was able to hang on. They went up five
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to four. See that's the power of Dan Hausen. This
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: is getting a little creepy now, I can't lie. Also,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I saw the trailer for season seven of Dark Side
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of the Ring. They got Tony Kahan for the show
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: this season. I don't know for which episode, probably one
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of the Jeff Jarett TNA ones. There's three of them.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: To open the season. But he's in there, and Jim
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Cornett is back. He always does a great job contributing
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to these things. We are exactly one month away, one
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: month from today from the premiere date, which means the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Dark Side of the Ring reviews are coming back next month.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I can't wait for that. You know what I can't
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: wait to do. I can't wait to thank all of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you who contributed this week in support of the show.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it very much. If you would like to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: make a PayPal drop get your name shouted out here
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: on the show, you may do so. Go to the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: solomonster dot com. You'll see the PayPal link at the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: top of the page. Ten dollars or more, we'll get
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you a nickname and a shout out like Rachel from
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: The Badger's State. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed chasing
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: those waterfalls, even though TLC said that you should never
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: do that. Big b Bryant Vissera, the Portland pop Star,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Paul Hamilton, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Chicago Slayer, Willie
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: iicherd Q, The Destroyer, Big Time Boris Weinman, Knight Stalker,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: NIF Alsafar and kill shot Keith Hart with the double drop. Keith,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Quick reminder. This not this coming Friday,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: but Friday, June nineteenth, House of Glory returns to Logan
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Square Auditorium in Chicago. We have our Hog Inferno Show.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: First time ever, Ricky Sosa debuts to take on the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Amazing Red. That's going to be something. Shatzi Blackhart puts
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: her Hog Women's Championship on the line. Boys. This is
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a grudge match against Steph de Lander after some of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the high jinks that have gone on recently and also
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: just announced must have fun Ali. He wanted it, he
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: made the call, and I have made the match official.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: He will be defending his TNA International Championship on this
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Hog Show against Rich Swan, so that is official. Gringo Loco.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: He's going to be teaming with the debuting Vengador, who
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: he has worked with elsewhere but never an Hog. Very
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: limited tickets are still available at Hog Wrestling dot Net
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and JD and I will be in Chicago to call
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the action live on Triller TV Plus, so it should
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: be a good time. Of course, there's something else going
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: on on that night as well in wrestling, which I
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: will talk about later, But last week I talked about
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Vince McMahon and Nick Kahn being sanctioned by the judge
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and the ongoing WWE shareholder lawsuit. They were sanctioned for
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: destroying evidence. I mean, let's not sugarcoat it. They were
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: destroying evidence and they thought they could get away with it,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and they got called out on it. Text messages that
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: were supposed to be preserved and were deleted anyway, which
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: then shifted the burden of proof away from the plaintiffs
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and onto the defense, which was going to make their
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: case a lot harder. And the plaintiffs were seeking damages
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: ranging from as little as four hundred and sixty million
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: dollars to as much as nine hundred and forty nine
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: million dollars. So that trial was supposed to commence this
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: week tomorrow, in fact in Delaware, was supposed to go
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: four days, and key names like Vince McMahon, Nick con Ari,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Emmanuel Mark Shapiro, Paul levec they were all expected to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: have to testify under oath. It was on the docket
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: full speed ahead, and then it was pulled from the calendar.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And now we find out that the trial has been canceled.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: This according to court administrator Tamara Burton, in response to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: an inquiry from Brandon Thurston, who has been all over
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: this story, I can't say I'm shocked. I think they
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: knew mcmahnon con. They really screwed up here, you know,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the signal chat stuff. It was a very embarrassing mistake
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and there was a very good chance they were going
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: to lose that case, and they didn't want to have
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: all of these high profile executives dragged into court to testify.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So I'm sure there is a settlement at least being discussed,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: if it hasn't already been reached, and they will buy
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: their way out of this so they can just put
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: this to bed once and for all. And if the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: judge in the Janelle Grant case rules that her case
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: is going to be going to trial and that arbitration,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I would expect a very similar result there as well.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: This stuff is just too embarrassing for them not to settle,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: you know. But nothing changes in TKO Land. Like even
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: if this would have gone to trial and they lost,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Let's say, it's not as if they lose the company, right,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: they'd have to pay through the nose and then after
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that it would be business as usual. If they lost
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of money, they would just cut people. They
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: would make cuts, and life would go on for them.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: But in this case, it looks like their arrogance was
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: their undoing, and so they're going to pay whatever they
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: need to pay, and they're going to move on, just
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: like they did with that thirty nine million dollar payout
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: to their investors over misleading them about their dealings with
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia. That was another case a few years ago.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: When you have enough money, you can pay to make
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: anything go away or anyone now. I didn't get a
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: chance to talk about the Triple A show last weekend
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: because I had to record the sound off a day
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: early thanks to Clash in Italy being in the middle
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: of the day on Sunday. I did talk about it
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: at length on The Uncrowned Wrestling Show though on Tuesday,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: which is where that show comes in very handy in
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: situations like that. It's right at the top of the show.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I encourage you to go back and check it out
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: if you missed it, but I will give you the
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: cliffs Notes version here. I loved it, and there has
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: been no better spectacle. Just start to finish soup to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: nuts entrances to exit in anywhere in wrestling all year.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: The closest thing would be Tanahashi's retirement match against Okada
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: at the Tokyo Dome, which was also very emotional, just
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the pure emotion of it all. That postmatch was also
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: very special, with all the names coming out to the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: ring to pay respect to Tanahashi and then him celebrating
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: in the air guitar and then him on the parade
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: float around the around the stadium like all that was great.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: That's the closest thing that I could think of. But
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: in terms of the level of just pure hatred and
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: animus between two people that didn't have it in the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: way that this match did. The match it was so great.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: They replayed it on Netflix. It was so great at
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the end of Raw and Monday Night, they kept pushing
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that replay boy over and over again. So all told,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: when you add up the total number of views that
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it got on the various YouTube channels WWE's channel, Triple
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: A's channel, the solmost Fox channel, which has almost a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: million subscribers, we're talking well over three million views. Somewhere
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: between three and four million views at a minimum. That
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: does not include whatever it did on Netflix on Monday
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: or since Monday. So a lot of people saw that
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: match more than what normally watched wrestling these days. You
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: saw why that match had to happen when and where
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: it did. WrestleMania would not have been the right place
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: for the United States would not have been the right
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: place for it. Those fans were invested in a way
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that the fans here simply were not. You could see
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: it whenever these guys were on Raw. It was just
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: another feud, It was another match. Even just the idea
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: of seeing an American masquerading around as a Mexican luchador
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: feuding with a German who was masquerading around as the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: American fake luchador, all in the name of Mexican pride
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: like it is a completely ridiculous premise. It should have failed.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It should have been nothing more than a comedy feud
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that wrapped up in six weeks, and instead it turned
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: into this cultural phenomenon down there, and it created a
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: legitimate star in El Grande Americano Kaiser gott to be
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: specific here, El Grande Americano Kaiser. That doesn't happen if
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Chad Gable doesn't tear his rotator cuff and need surgery.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Best thing that ever happened to either one of these
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: guys was Gable getting hurt. As weird as that is
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to say, it was a happy accident, you know. For Kaiser,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: he spoke the language, which was a big reason why
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: he got over the way he did. Gable couldn't have
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: done that. He spoke to them, literally spoke to them,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and they've embraced him in a way that nobody could
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: have ever predicted. In my opinion, he should keep that
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: mask on for the rest of his career and never
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: take it off. He will never be as over as
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Ludwig Kaiser than he is right now as El Grande
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Americano undertaker Jeremy Borash. They all deserve credit for running
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: with this and creating this really special night. I didn't
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: think the rest of that Triple A show was anything special.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: It was good, it was fine. You know, Ray Phoenix
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and Laredo Kid got eleven minutes for their match. They
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: should have gotten more. But that was about as much
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: of a one match show as we've seen in a
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: very long time, probably since Saturday Night's main event last December.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Because we all knew that was about John cenas final match, right.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: We got some other cool things on that show, but
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, it was all about one match. It
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: was about John Cena against Gunther. It was a one
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: match show. But the match itself was just fantastic, just
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: this great dramatic pro wrestling match with tons of cameos
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: from people that had been part of this storyline going
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: back many months. The blind comedian Pimpyinella s Carlotta, returning
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Kaiser's girlfriend who was fired but showed up in the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: front row with a ticket. Ryo and Bravo and Julio
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and Bruto and the blood. I mean Gable more than Kaiser.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Gable is just bleeding like a faucet because he knew,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: right this may be the only chance in this company
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that I get to use the blade, I'm gonna make
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the most of it. And so, after thirty three minutes,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: blood dripping down his face, as he pulls the mask
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: off to reveal the worst kept secret in wrestling. You know,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: he says his name, which really is still his work name,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: but his his other name, and his birthday and where
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: he's from the sort of thing that you would see
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: with the traditional unmasking in Lucha libre, and for what
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: started as comedy, they treated it at the end with
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the respect that it deserved. And he hands the mask
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: off to Kaiser and he announces that somehow someway, I
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: don't know how, I don't know when I will be
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: back in Triple A and he gets cheered like a hero.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: He entered as the villain, but he left a hero.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: You cannot have asked for a better ending than that. Now,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I wish the announcers were all there together live. I've
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: seen differing accounts about whether or not Corey Grays was
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: legitimately there and then flew to Italy, or if he
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: did this, if he did commentary remotely from Italy at
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning for the show, which is
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: what I think happened. Raymisterio was there live. JBL clearly
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: was not. He was sitting in his bunker in Texas
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: or wherever he lived New York. I don't fucking know.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I don't fucking care. But they usually do the commentary
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: for the shows remotely. You could tell just by listening
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: to it, and you could tell when they do it
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: doesn't sound the same. Their calls on some of the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: spots are off by a few seconds because there's a delay,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and when they're in studio like that, something else I've
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: noticed it ends up muting the crowd noise a little bit.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So I just wish they would have found a way
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: to get all three of them together to call the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: show from ringside, even if it meant subbing Wade Barrett
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: in for Corey Graves on commentary with Michael Cole in Italy.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: You know, because if ever there was a time for
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: them to be there live for a big show, this
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: was it. You know. This is going to go down
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: as one of the best matches this company has ever produced.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I think they should have been there at ringside for it.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: But that would be my only real critique about any
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of this. Now. Chad Gable did not appear on Monday Night.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: They did plug the shit out of the replay of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that match about half a dozen different times, but he
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: did show up on SmackDown in a couple of backstage segments.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: He was there to meet with Nick all this, but
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: not before having this tense face off. No words were exchanged,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: just kind of staring at each other, him and Sammy's
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: before all this ushered him into his office for a chat.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And I don't get the sense they're setting up anything
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: with him and Sammy. This was just their way of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: kind of showing him initially on screen. Later on, we
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: saw Gable in the back looking for Ray Phoenix. Ray
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Phoenix was just hanging out backstage with his new Triple
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: A Cruiserweight title. He was talking to Axiom and Nathan Fraser,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: and so then Gable walks over. He says, can I
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: just talk to Phoenix alone? And he did what Roman
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Reigns could never do with his own family. He asked
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: for forgiveness for his past transgressions and because he mocked
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Lucha libre right, but he says he has learned to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: respect it, and he wanted to fly all the way
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: to Italy just to look Ray Phoenix in the eye
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and ask for forgiveness, and Phoenix gave it to him,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: but he also cautioned him, I'm not the only luchador
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: that you need to be asking forgiveness from. And so,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: as I said in my SmackDown review, he's talking about Penta,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: He's talking about his brother, and so are we looking
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: at Chad Gable challenging Penta for the Intercontinental title. At SummerSlam,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: because I think that's the play, and if it's not,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it should be. Now Penta is defending that championship tomorrow
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: night on Raw. They're going to be in Paris. He's
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: defending it against raymys Stereo. So I don't expect Penta
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to be losing the championship. Although look, I mean, if
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: they wanted to give raymys Stereo one more token run
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: with the IC title, I'm sure it would get a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: huge reaction in Paris. Look at the reaction he got
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: on Raw in Italy this past Monday. The fucking hardcam
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: was shaking when he tagged in. It was him and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Dragon the Lee against Ethan Page and Russev, so they
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: could do it. I'm not anticipating it. I don't really
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: see the point of doing that. Ray's already got the whole,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you know, the GM gig with Triple A. He doesn't
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: need the Intercontinental title. But they're gonna have that match.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: It should be good and Penta will win, and then
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the question becomes who's next. Right I mentioned Ethan Page.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I think he ultimately ends up with that championship than
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: not too distant future. I think he's perfect for that
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Intercontinental title. But even more than that, you know, we're
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: in a position now where we're heading into this two
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: night Summer Slam us Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and guess
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: where Chad Gable was born. Guess where Chad Gable is from, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And so you could not have set up a better
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: place for a Chad Gable win over Penta or whoever
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to win the Intercontinental Championship. It's in his hometown. If
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the timing had worked out better, To be honest with you,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I would have had him in the King of the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Ring tournament. I would eleap frog right over this Intercontinental
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: title stuff. And I would have had him in the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: King of the Ring. You talk about taking advantage of
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: like the moment and the momentum that he has immediately
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: coming out of that Mass versus Mask match that again
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: was so great they replayed it on Netflix, which was
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: not the original plan. I would have had him in
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the King of the Ring, give him the crown, let
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: him challenge Cody Roads at SummerSlam, but it's too late
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: for that. So this is the next best thing. If
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: they were ever gonna get serious about a Chad Gable push,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: this is it. There's no more excuses, there's no more delays,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: there's no more well, I don't know. Let's wait and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: see all that bullshit is over. It's over. The single
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: most underutilized, underappreciated talent on the entire WWE roster, and
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of them, is Chad Gable. And
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Chad Gable ain't getting any younger. This is the point
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I made the other night. What is he now forty?
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: If not he's forty ish. When he joined the company,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: he was thirty. Because American alpha man, that goes back
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: to like twenty, that's gotta go back twenty fifteen, twenty
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: sixteen at XT it's been a decade. What are you
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: waiting for? You were just handed another opportunity to do
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: something with this guy. Take it. It's now or never.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It's up to Triple H. Don't fumble this raw On
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Monday Night saw Jacob fa Tou acknowledge Roman reigns and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: join the New bloodline. Hopefully this goes better than the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: New Coke many years ago. He even dropped to a
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: knee on bended knee, he acknowledged his tribal chief, so
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: he loses too straight and then bows down to the winner.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: You talk about coming out of a month weaker than
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: you went into it. I trust that there is a
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: longer payoff in mind here that will end with Jacob
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: taking Romans spot, maybe even as soon as summer slim.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: We may not even have to wait months and months
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and months to see it, because Jacob, here's the thing
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: about it, Jacob Fatu is part of the Bloodline, legit.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: He's part of the family. Roman looks out if nothing else,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Roman looks out for family. We know that. So I
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: have to believe that Fa too is going to come
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: out on the other end of this stronger on the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: back end. But that's for later. For the time being,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: he's in a worse position than he was in before,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and here we are running it back again with the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Bloodline now. He also had a really good main event
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: with Seth Rollins against bron Breaker, who was all banged
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: up after his match. There's fan video out there of
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: him limping around at the hotel afterwards. He's fine. He
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: wrestled unsmacked Down a few days later, and I think
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: he had a couple of street fights at the live
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: events on the European tour in between with Seth Rollins,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: but they had a hell of a match. I thought
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: it was better than the one they had a backlash
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Breaker won that one, Rollins won this one. So they're
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: all tied up at one win apiece. And it wasn't
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: lost on me watching Oba Feme lose clean a Clash
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: in Italy. That we also had Jacob Faughtu lose at
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Clash in Italy and then bron Breaker lose on Raw
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the next night. This was not lost on me. Brock Lesner, Roman, Reigns,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: and Seth Rollins all picked up wins. We're going to
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: party like it's twenty fifteen all over again. Actually, you
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: know what, It kind of reminds me of Fully Loaded
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: in two thousand, which was an excellent pay per view,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: but if Fully Loaded, it was kind of like even
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: at that time, I remember it was sort of like, oh,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: it's like the new generation facing off with the old generation,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: but like the current generation. Because they had Rock and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Ben wih in the main event for the title that night,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and then they had Jericho against Triple H and a
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: last man Standing match, and then they had Undertaker against
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Kurt Angle. And in two thousand, these were all new guys.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, Angle and Jericho had debuted for them later
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: in ninety nine. Benwa had come in earlier that yearon
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Benwah wasn't a rookie or anything. But in the year
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: two thousand, those three guys had not even been there.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: They had not even been on television for a full year.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: So they were the new guys, and it was almost
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: like a test. Let's put each of them in a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: pay per view match against these more established talents and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: see how they do. And then you kind of look
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: at the results of all of those matches. Undertaker beat
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Kurt Angle, Triple beat Chris Jericho, Rock beat Chris Benoir,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: and all of those cases except one where you know,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: if you look a little bit longer down the road,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: it didn't end up well. But in all three of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: those cases they all went on to have I would
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: say a fair amount of success in WWE. I can
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: only hope for the same. I can only hope for
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the same here for Obafemi, for Jacob Fatu, and for
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Bron Breaker. That it's a similar situation minus the ben
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: was stuff years later now, because Rollins and Breaker are
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: all tied up to one win apiece. What they could
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: have done, they could have rematched them in the finals
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: of the King of the Ring if they wanted to,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: but that would have been another win for Seth Rollins,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and we know that's not happening now anyway, after what
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: we saw on Friday. Now, Paul Hayman also got speared
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: through the barricade by accident by bron Breaker, so he's
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: likely going to be off TV for a bit. You
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: can add Hayman, I guess to the Visions injured list now.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: That makes Paul Hayman, Logan, Paul, and Bronson Reid. Bronson Reid,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: by the way, who got rear ended in his car
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: this week, thankfully and his family are okay, and he
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: sat on social media. People stop driving on your damn phones.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Pay attention. People have kids in their cars. I co
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: sign that, put your fucking phones down and pay attention
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: to the road. On SmackDown, Gunther was on the warpath
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: after the Italian screwjob last weekend. He had his foot
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: underneath the bottom rope. The referee didn't see it and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: he got pinned. Now, we all saw replays of it
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: immediately after. It was clear as day, So too did
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: all of the viewers that would have been watching at
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: home on ESPN. Who get to see instant replay in
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: sports all the time, but in pro wrestling, instant replay
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean shit. They're probably watching this going how come
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the referee didn't just restart the match? Well, that's pro
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: wrestling for you. And Cody Roads came out and he
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: agreed with Gunther. He said he got screwed and he
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: was ready to throw down right then and there, but
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: then Sammy's Aim came out. Things degenerated from there. They
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: all started brawling. Now later in the show, we learned
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: that Gunther's lawyers had been in touch with Nick all this,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and next week Gunther gets to pick the stipulation for
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: their rematch, which will then take place not at Night
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of champions but on the June nineteenth episode of SmackDown.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: June twenty sixth, by the way, is when the show
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: is supposed to revert back to two hours. I'm counting
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: down the days, but June nineteenth, I'm gonna be in
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Chicago for House of Glory, so I will not get
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: to see the match live. The last time they had
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a WWE Championship match on SmackDown was March sixth, Cody
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Rhodes beat Drew McIntyre to win the belt back. I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: was also in Chicago for House of Glory that night.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: See now Triple h is counterprogramming against Hog. This is
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: starting to piss me off. I'm feeling that Tony Kahn rage.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: It is very interesting how they have kind of weaved
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Sammy's Zain into this, and it tells me the reason
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: that they're doing the rematch on the nineteenth and not
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: saving it for the twenty seventh, I think is one
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Night of Champions is The reason they're not saving it
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: for that show is because we may be getting a
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: triple threat match at Knight of Champions and we've got
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the finals of the King of the Ring that night,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: which means the winner may be challenging for the WWE
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Championship at SummerSlam. Yeah. Again, based on what we've heard
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: on television, Gotta Live Morgan talking about how she's going
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: to be a double champion, that's why she's in Queen
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of the Ring, and Roman Reigns is telling jay usso, hey,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you go get the other belt. So that tells me
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the rules have changed this year and that the winner
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: could very well challenge the champion of the other brand
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: if they want so. You got all of these things
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that are sort of culminating there on that show. So
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know what they're gonna do. I can't imagine
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: they take the belt off Cody at this point and
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: that he's not in the title match in August, which
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: would seem to not vote very well for Gunther's chances
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: of winning the championship. But speaking of the King of
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the Ring, that was the other highlight of the show
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: on Monday night, the fatal four way first round match
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: with Obafemi, Penta, Carmelo Hayes and Solo Socoa. No one
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: needed a strong night coming off his first loss, and
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: he got it. He looked like a monster out there.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: He got the win. The fans were solidly behind him.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: They could have beaten him without taking the loss if
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: they wanted to, given that it was a four way,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and they chose not to do it. I'm glad they didn't.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I think that would have been a cheap way out.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: But now he's either winning this tournament or Brocklesner is
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: screwing him out of that crown. It's got. It's one
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of the other Oba was to have met the winner
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: of the bron Breaker, Dominic Mysterio trick Williams and Damian
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Priest four way on SmackDown Friday Night, which I thought
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: for sure was going to be bron breaker, especially coming
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: off that loss on Monday Night in the main event.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: But we got our first upset of the tournament and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: they gave it to Dominic Mysterio. They really want to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: keep Hope alive for this whole king Dom Queen Live thing,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: don't they. And look, there is something to be said
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: for not going with the predictable outcome. It definitely was
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: not predictable. But an oba Femi domint Mysterio match does
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: not interest me nearly as much as an Obafemi bron
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: breaker match would interest me. Right now, Look, the fans
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: are gonna have fun, I think watching Dom out there
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: running for his life trying to figure out how the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: fuck am I gonna get out of this because it's
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: a total mismatch now. I mentioned this in my SmackDown
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: review on Friday Night. A couple of years ago, there
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: was a post wrestling report that said that Dom was
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: supposed to eliminate brock Lesner from the Royal Rumble, which
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: would then lead to a singles match between them in
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Australia at elimination chamber, and that tracks because they basically
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: just gave the Brock spot in the rumble that year.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: It's a bron breaker and Dom eliminated breaker instead, and
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: had we gotten Brock and Dom, it would have been
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a glorious squash. Right, it's the same premise as what
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: we have now, where Okay, you know he's not gonna win,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: He's gonna it's like the lamb being led to slaughter.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: But the fun part is trying to figure out how's
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: he gonna weasel his way out of this. Right, this
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is giving me those vibes. But the difference is that
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: was not a King of the Ring match. And so
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: if Oba gets screwed and Dom, let's say where to
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: somehow make it to the finals, that would be terrible
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: because we know he's not winning the crown. He's got
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: zero percent chance of that happening. You've just killed your
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: final match if you do that, which makes it a
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: lot more likely that Oba is going to do what
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: we all expect him to do. He's going to kill Dom,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: He's going to fly to riod and he's going to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: wrestle probably seth Rollins. I would say in the finals
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of this tournament, and that is likely where they save
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the brock Lesnar interference to get him on the Saudi Show.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: They're also leaning very heavily into the Judgment Day stuff.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: You know, Dom went to the Semis, Raquel Rodriguez is
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: going to the Semis and the Queen of the Ring,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: so like, it's all about the Judgment Day right now.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Now we look at the other side of the men's bracket,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Seth Rollins against Javon Evans, against Talatanga, against Ricky Saints.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: They had Talatanga Pin Royce Keys on SmackDown Friday Night.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: That's the only win that Tallatanga should be getting. God
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: forbid they do Taalatanga and jay Uso in the semi finals,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: they may as well call the entire tournament tribal combat.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: That should be a Rollins win, and then he would
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: meet the winner of the jay Usso La Knight, Royce Keys,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Finn Balor four Way, Finn Balor, by the way, who
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: has officially been traded to SmackDown traded for who? They
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: didn't say. They specifically use the word traded, which implies
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: that one goes this way and then one comes back
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the other way. I don't know. Maybe Jacob Fatu counts
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: as the trade since he's basically on raw now, but
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: that'll be the last of the first round matches on
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the men's side that takes place on SmackDown next Friday.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking it's Rollins against jay Uso. I mean, La
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Knight is the possibilities. Sure, I feel like we should
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: all know better though with La Knight I'm gonna have
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: more on La Night in a few minutes. Roman Reigns
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: on Monday, though, told jay Usso go win the King
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: of the Ring and go challenge for the other belt
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: at SummerSlam. So again that when I talk about them
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: changing the rules, I don't believe King of the Ring
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: has worked that way in the past. So that's kind
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: of an interesting little wrinkle that they have added. Look,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I can't see jay Usso getting bounced out of the
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: first round though after Roman gave him that little pep talk.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I think he loses in the next round and that's
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: how we get Rollins against Oba at Night of Champions
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: In the Queen of the Ring, Eo Sky advanced to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the semi finals on Monday with a win over Julia
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Roxanne Perez and lash legend Eo was the correct choice,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: and so now she's going to revisit her rivalry with
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Raquel in the next round, who won a four way
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: on Friday over Bailey, j C Jane and Keana James.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Now on the other side of the bracket tomorrow Night
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Live Morgan, the women's World Champion fifty days, is the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: women's World Champion, not a single title defense. Now Jade
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Cargill has her b because Jade did double that without
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: a single title defense. But again, it's not Jade's fault
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and it's not Live's fault. You could blame the people
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: that are behind the creative direction of these individuals holding
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: championships and carrying them around and not defending. And I
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: understand that they're waiting for Stephanie to come back, but
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: still you've had this woman doing nothing. She's been a
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: fucking manager ever since WrestleMania. This has been truly the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: worst Women's World Championship reign in the history of that belt.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: And the funny thing is it has nothing to do
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: with liv Morgan. It's not even her fault, but it
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: is by far the worst World championship. And I thought
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Stephanie's run was very underwhelming. This is worse than that.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: But liv says she's gonna win the crown and then
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: she's gonna win the other belt from Ria Ripley. At
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Summerslim she's gonna be in there with Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and Chelsea Green, and they're pushing that maybe Livin Raquel
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: could meet in the finals. I think this is where
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: we see Stephanie Viquerre return. She costs live Morgan a win,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and then really it's either Becky or Alexa who I
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: think move on to the next round. That could go
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: either way. I'm gonna go with Alexa Bliss because the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: winner then meets the winner of the match this Friday
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: with Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargills, sol Ruka and Lyra Valkyrie,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking we get a Charlotte Flair Alexa Bliss
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: semi final. But they could also have Becky advance, and
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: they could have Soul Ruka advance and they could rematch
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: them in the semis if they want, and then Becky
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: could go to the finals to wrestle Eo. So I
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: would say things are a little less predictable on the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: women's side, but I'm pretty confident Eo Sky will make
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: at least make it to the finals. I mentioned La
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Knight a minute ago. La Knight was backstage on Raw
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Monday night. He was giving Adam Pierce hell for cozying
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: up to Roman Reigns in the Bloodline. He's talking about
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Roman's Ufalafa. It was actually very entertaining, as was his
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: interview with Chris van Vliet this week. It was a
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: very good watch. I encourage you to go check it out.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: One takeaway is that he feels his crowd reactions are
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: not as strong as they used to be because creatively,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: he's been a man without a direction. This was his
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: full quote. I think there were a lot of people
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: leaning on the idea that that was going to be
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a fad. There were a lot of people leaning on
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the idea that that was going to be a flavor
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: of the month, that that was going to be a
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: passing thing. Here we are in twenty twenty six. I
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: walked in the ring last night. Now you could argue, yeah,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: maybe the reactions are not quite as big as they
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: were at that time. I'm going to tell you why
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: that is in a second. But if you notice last night,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I still circle around. I get the thing, and I
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: stand there and they still chant the name. Now, you
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: could say that's programming, you could say that's passion, you
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: could say it's whatever it is. Bottom line is it's
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: still there. However, the reason it's not as big as
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: is is because right now I'm just kind of a
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: man without a country, so to speak. Oh, he's like
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Slaughter in nineteen ninety two. I don't have a
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: set trajectory at this moment. If you look at last year,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: last summer when I started, all of a sudden, me
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: and Seth were going at it for the title, it's
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: me and the vision there it is renewed again. So
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: it's a matter of just making sure I've got direction,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I've got somewhere to go, and I've got somewhere that
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: people care about, something that people can sink their teeth into.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: That then takes it up from an eight to a
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: ten and beyond. And so I think that's really just
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the key to the whole thing. And it's kind of
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: crazy that it's kept on this long when I don't
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people were counting on that being
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: the case. From an outsider perspective, you look at here's
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: this force that came in, and I took this thing
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: by storm. And people make comparisons. They say Steve Austin
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: got real hot and Daniel Brian got real hot. You
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: could even say Obafemi whatever. You look at these things.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: But all these guys, by the time they had gotten
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: hot and started getting the big pops, they had had
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: big victories, big pushes, they had had titles, even Austin.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Austin didn't really start getting the mega pops until he
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: was already champion. Like it started building up and he
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: was the Intercontinental champion, he was tag team champion, all
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: that stuff, But it wasn't like the crazy megapops that
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: you got in like ninety eight, ninety nine, Daniel Bryan's
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: same thing. He'd already been multiple time Intercontinental champion, tag
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: team champion. What was I doing? I was middle bottom
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of the card, getting beat every week. But I had
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: thirty seconds, sixty seconds to talk. And when you look
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: at it from I'm able to take that and then
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: become the number one merch seller. I'm able to be
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you know, all of a sudden, now I'm the favorite
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: for money in the bank. All of a sudden, Now
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I'm the guy that the people are demanding, not because
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: I was pushed in that direction, not because the machine
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: got behind me. At some point, the machine had to
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: get behind me. You can't deny that. At some point
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: you want to talk about undeniable, that was me. But
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: at the same time, there's still some resistance, Yes there is.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Anybody with two functioning eyeballs can see that there is
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: still some resistance. We could talk about why that is right.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of reasons why maybe WWE has been
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: you know, gun shy on La Night. He's not the
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: flashiest guy in the ring. But let me just say this,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: he's not the flashiest guy in the ring. But I
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: do see people like, oh well, maybe if La Knight
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: learns how to wrestle, he would get a push or
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: La Knight's not that good La Knight. I don't know
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: where people are pulling this shit out. What like orifice
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: they're pulling this out of La Knight. As a wrestler,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: he's fine. He's not a bad wrestler. Yes, he's not
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: will Osprey in the ring, but this idea that, oh well,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: he can talk and he's got charisma, but he's not
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: a great wrestler. I don't know where this narrative is
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: coming from. It's not like every time he goes out
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: there and has a match he shits the bed, right.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: There isn't anything about him in the ring that's gonna
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: be dynamic. There isn't anything about him in the ring
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: that's like overly exciting, nothing flashy. Maybe that works against him,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: But this whole notion of him being a bad wrestler,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know where this comes from, but it needs
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: to stop. It could also be he's forty three years old, right,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: He's no spring chicken anymore. Whatever it is, he's not
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: wrong when he says that the machine has never fully
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: gotten behind him. They have been resistant to pushing him
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to that highest level, even when he was getting the
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: reactions that he was getting. You know, he was sort
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: of straddling that line, but they never fully committed to
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: keeping him there because they don't see him as that guy.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: For whatever reason. It's like, all right, we'll push this guy.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: There's something there, but we'll still keep him at an
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: arm's length. Like the money in the bank stuff is
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: probably the biggest example of that. Like two three years
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: in a row where people thought he was going to
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: win and he had it literally fingertips away and then
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: they took it away from him, and it was very
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: deflating for a lot of people who are hoping to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: see him at least win the briefcase. Now it's La Night,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: so like he'd win the briefcase and then he would
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: have probably a Baron Corbin cash in. Just because he
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: wins money in the bank does not guarantee that he
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: would end up being world champion. But they couldn't even
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: give him the briefcase right now. If you're an La
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Knight fan, that's incredibly frustrating. He has been without a
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: direction for a while. He was not a priority for them.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: He still isn't now. I don't know if this stuff
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: with the vision, not the vision, but with the bloodline
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: is leading anywhere meaningful. But they seem to have some
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: sort of direction now for him because he keeps bringing
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: it up every single week. He's yelling at him, Pierce
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: trying to tell him, like, you're gonna let these guys
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: gain power again, what are you doing? He's trying to
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: warn him. He's out there confronting the USO's I don't
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: know where it's leading other than probably more disappointment. I mean,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, but the reality is, like to first
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: make him a world champion or get him to where
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: his fans want to see him get to, he's probably
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: aged out, which sounds crazy when you consider most of
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: their top guys are also in their fucking forties, but
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: they've already been champion multiple times. That's the difference. You
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: could talk about Roman Reigns being forty, Cody Rhodes being forty,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre being for like all these guys, Damian Priest,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: he's been a world heavyweight champion. All these guys have
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: already been there, and so they continue in some cases
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: maybe not Priests lately, but like they continue to sort
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: of mill I mean punks mpunk's what forty seven, forty eight. Again,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: there's multiple examples of this, but they've already been to
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the top of the mountain. La Knight is not. He's
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: in that same age range, but he never got there
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: in the first place. They'd first be pushing him now
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: as a world champion when they never did before, and
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: that's the biggest difference. So when I say he's probably
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: aged out, not because I don't want to see him
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: as champion. Always too old, I'm just saying, like, in
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: their mind, I could see that sort of being well,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's kind of too late for the guy,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: but like, you know, we'll push him anyway, but we
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: won't push him at that level. And I think that's bullshit.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: But to first get him there now probably is not
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: going to happen. I wasn't joking when I said, like
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: months ago and I said that him falling off the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: top rope an elimination chamber and that elimination chamber match
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: was the death knell for him. I really think it
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: was like I could picture people sitting back there, certain
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: people at Gorilla watching that and it just sort of
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: like shaking their head or laughing or just looking over
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: at this guy. And you know, say, I told you
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: like I could see that sort of thing happening, because
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: when he fell off the top rope, I'm like, oh man,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: it's sort of a metaphor, you know, for his career.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: In many ways, it was sort of the perfect illustration
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: of his run where he reaches the top, like literally
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the top rope, and he gets to work with some
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: of the top guys, but then he falls off. Now,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I still think he's got a main event level. He'll
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: run in him. They're not gonna push him his baby face,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: and I know people still like him, they still cheer
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: for him. It's like, why would you turn him heel.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying I think at some point he has
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: got a main event caliber heel run in him. People
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: love to say his name. He's still popular. I don't
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: know how much merch he sells these days, but I'm
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: telling you, a heel La Knight could do him some
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: good now. He also revealed that he nearly came into
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: NXT as Eli Drake, which was the name that he
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: used in TNA and in the NWA. He said, when
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I first signed to NXT and twenty twenty one, they
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: were like, we want to bring you in as Eli Drake.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like, great, perfect, and then three days before they're like, oh,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: never mind. Hunter wants to change it. He wants to
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: start completely fresh and new. And then that's when between
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: all of us we came up with La was from me,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Night was from them, and there we had La Night.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I know, in this business, you want to keep a
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: simple name. He says. They pitched La Donovan at one
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: point and I was like, ah, that's awful. No, that's
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: so awful and terrible, and I feel like it pigeonholes
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: me and it's shit. I'm forever a douche man. All
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the people listening to this right now named Donovan are
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: just in shambles listening to this. He goes, I can't
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: do that. But you want a simple name, what do
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: you do with La Donovan? Finally we settled on La Night.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: You know, somehow I think getting the crowd to chan
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: La Donovan, Yeah, it just doesn't work. It just doesn't
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: work the same. Right. That would have been terrible. But
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: then we have WWE president Nick Kahn, who was a
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: guest at the Sports Business Journals caa World Congress of
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Sports event in Los Angeles back on April fifteenth, but
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it was only released this week. Released
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: the video was of his appearance, and so it made headlines.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: As part of that interview, and this is why it
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: made headlines. He claimed that things ended up happening at
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania forty in Philadelphia two years ago exactly the way
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: they were supposed to. Boof shit. Oh, I'm sorry, I
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: just hate I hate when I sneezed like that on
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the air. Sometimes it just comes out. I can't help it.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: This is the WrestleMania where Cody Rhoades finished his story
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: on Night two. This is after he lost a tag
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: team match on Night one with Seth Rollins to Roman
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Reigns in The Rock, a loss that Cody still has
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: yet to avenge, by the way, but it almost didn't
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: happen at WrestleMania. After Cody won the Royal Rumble. If
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: you remember, he voluntarily surrendered his main events spot at
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania to The Rock so that The Rock could wrestle
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Roman Reigns and we could get the big dream match.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: And then the fans rebelled against it, and rather than
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: run the risk of the match and the build being
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: sabotaged by all the Cody cry babies, as Rock called them,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Rock made the call to turn heel instead, and the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Final Boss was born and Cody got to finish his story.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: They even produced a documentary where Rock admitted that the
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: fan backlash directly resulted in them pivoting to a different
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: direction because the last thing he ever wanted to do
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: was upset the fans. We can't have that, so why
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: don't we do this? But to hear Nick Khan talk
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: about it. That was always the plan the way it
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: worked out. Yes, just like Daniel Bryan main eventing WrestleMania
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: thirty and winning the championship was always the plan, he
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: said by the away, The plan was always how it
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: ended up in Philly two years ago. Sometimes it's a
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: predetermined outcome in wrestling. You want to throw the fans off,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: you want to let things bake, and then boom, it
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: ends up the way that we wanted it to end up.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: It never changed. That was just online rumors and gossip
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: that we were changing. It never changed. We convinced Dwyane
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Johnson to come back. He's on our board of directors.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: It was a tag team match. He's about the same
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: age that I am, so two years ago, let's say
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: he was fifty. He was obviously in phenomenal shape. He
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: did everything that we asked of him and then some.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: But that was always the result that we were looking for. Now,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: I want you to keep in mind this is coming
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: from mister Langis himself. Okay, mister, let's make sure all
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: of our messages are encrypted and then deleted. Even though
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: we were warned by our lawyers to preserve all of
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: our messages. This is who we're supposed to believe, the
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: picture of honesty that he is. It is impossible for
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: them to admit that many times things don't go according
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: to plan, whether it's their own fuck up or injuries
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: or just circumstances, and you need to pivot, you need
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to change course. So long as you end up in
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the right place, none of that really matters. But they
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: just cannot bring themselves to admit that they always need
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: to control the narrative. All you need to do is
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: look at Cody Rhodes and his creative at WrestleMania for
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: the last few years. It has changed every single year
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: since he headlined the first time with Roman Reigns. Now,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: if some reports are to be believed, I don't know
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: that this was ever confirmed, but it was certainly talked
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: about that Cody was supposed to go over originally in
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Hollywood at thirty nine, until Roman Reigns pitched a different
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: outcome that Vince McMahon loved and he went for it. Right,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: We're gonna make Cody overcome some adversity before he eventually wins.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: I think I should win, and then he should win,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: and so things got changed. Then you have forty they
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: were going to do Rock in Roman because they finally
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: got the Rock after all of these years, to commit
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: to doing a match WrestleMania. And once the Rock commits
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: to doing a match, it doesn't matter what else you
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: have planned, right, you know it's going out the window.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Until Rock saw the social media reaction online, he read
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: the room he had already had some pr blunders. I
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: don't think he wanted another one, and he said, you
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: know what, on second thought, I got a better idea,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: and we saw how that played out. Forty one was
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: the Sena and Cody stuff, with the ill fated John
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Cena heel turn and the Travis Scott cameo. We don't
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: need to relitigate all of that. And then forty two,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: what should have been a straight wrestling match between Cody
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Rhoads and Randy Orton turned into celebrity deathmatch with Pat
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: McAfee and Jelly Roll in the build up, where the
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: actual wrestlers took a backseat to the celebrities. Really, Randy
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Orton more so than Cody Rhodes. They fuck with this
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: guy's matches every single year, But we're supposed to believe
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: that it's a whole part of some well orchestrated plan.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Cody himself has said that if the fans knew what
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: the original plan was actually going to be with him
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: at WrestleMania forty, they would have been even more angry.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: They would have been livid. Brian Goertz said the same thing,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: and he's Rock's right hand man, He's the man on
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: the inside. He said, the fans would have hated the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: og plan more than anything else in life. But then
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Cmpunk got hurt coming out of the Royal Rumble and
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: they had the infamous segment where Cody brings out the
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Rock on SmackDown and just the dominoes began to fall
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: from there. I know there was a very strong rumor
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: at that time, if you remember around that same time period,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: that the plan was to do an injury angle with
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Cody after he won the Rumble as a way to
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: keep him off of WrestleMania altogether. That may have been it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: That may have been the plan they're talking about, but
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: it's never been confirmed. Maybe Cody can tell us in
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: his book someday. But to believe Nick Cohn is to
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: believe that it's everyone else who's lying, lying in these interviews,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: lying in their own documentary that they made. They're the
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: liars and he's the truth teller. He's more full of
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: shit than a toilet bowl at a taco bell. The
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: thing is, what they ended up doing at forty was brilliant,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: the way that the night one main event bled into
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: the night two main event, like it worked out great.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I don't understand this incessant need to lie about how
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: they got there. I mean, I guess it's an ego thing.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's like the constant harping on social
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: media as being a vocal minority of fans. I've heard
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: two or three different interviews where Nick Cohn has said this,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: he doesn't even look at social media. I don't look
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: at social media. I'm not on it. I don't pay
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: attention to it. And we don't book our product based
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: on social media. And nobody is saying you should book
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: strictly based on social media. Right. That's painting with a
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: very broad brush. But he's always like, oh way, I
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: don't look at social media. We don't pay any attention
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: to it. TRIPLEH did an interview where he said the
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Internet is just the opinion of a few people, like
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: there's only fifteen people on the internet. The funny thing is,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: there are far more WWE fans on the Internet than
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: there are and the actual arenas. Even if you were
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: to add up their total attendance for the entire year,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: there are still more fans on the internet. As he
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: calls it, oh, we ignore it, we ignore it, we
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: ignore it. Yet they can never seem to shut up
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: about it for something they don't pay any attention to,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: they sure do talk about it a lot. In that
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: same interview, Nick Conn referred to Shawn Michaels as a
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: guy named Shawn Michaels when he was talking about who
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: runs their developmental because you know, he was addressing a
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: non wrestling audience, and but just the way it came out,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: it was so funny, like, yeah, some guy named Shawn
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Michaels runs our developmental. That Shawn Michaels guy. Released the
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: video on social media this week announcing that the NXT
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Great American Bash is going to be taking place on Sunday,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: June twenty eighth at seven pm Eastern Time, airing live
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: on the CW network, which will be the first ple
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: as part of their deal with the CW to air
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: all nxtplees going forward in the US on the CW
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: it will be airing internationally on Netflix. That is the
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: same day that TNA is running its Slammiversary pay per
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: view at three pm Eastern, which, according to Matt Hardy,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: the company specifically moved to avoid competing directly against NXT,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: and AAW is airing its Forbidden Door pay per view,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: which has a seven pm Eastern start time as well.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: That's for the pre show. So WWE has chosen to
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: go head to head with Forbidden Door. They could have
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: picked any other nights. They specifically chose that one and
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: we all know why. But it will not make a
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: lick of difference to the AW audience because none of
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: them were watching NXT anyway, anymore so than the NXT
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: fans were planning on watching Forbidden Door. Now. On the
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: AAW side, when Mick Foley signed with AW, I told you,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: I said there was a zero percent chance that he
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: does not wrestle for them. Absolutely one hundred percent he
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: would be back in the ring at least one more
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: time because he knows the WWE will never clear him,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: they will never let him back in the ring again.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Tony Khan will well wrestle votes Radio and Fightful Select
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: this Week reported on Thursday that, according to AAW sources,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Mick Foley had his mind made up that he would
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: wrestle once more and that it would take place in
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: AW and the report also noted that if Foley is
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: cleared to wrestle, and I can't imagine he won't be,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Tony Kahn would be very eager to book him for
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: a match now. Foley appeared on the Aerial Helwani show
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: this week, saying that he views himself as a kind
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: of a Swiss army knife in AAW who can help
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: in a variety of different ways, even as a manager,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: potentially for some mid card babyfaces or mid card heels,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: and in the ring in a match. He said, it's
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: definitely crossed my mind. You know, the cinematic matches have
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: opened the door for guys whose cardio may be suspect.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, this loss of one hundred
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: pounds has made my life so much easier. Like I
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: used to have to stop a couple of times just
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: walking up a moderate hill, and now I don't even
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: realize I'm walking up hills when I do them because
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not really getting winded like I used to. I
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: don't know. I think that clearly, if I had a match,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: it would have to be a match that would avoid
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: trauma to the head. Luckily, there's a whole lot of
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: me to traumatize below the neck. So I think I
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: have one last good match in me. I just believe
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: all the stars would have to align, All the stars
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: would have to align, and it would have to make
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: sense if I can come up with enough of those
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: types of moves that allow me to risk a little
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: bit less while still giving fans a good match, and
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: if I feel like I'm up to it, then maybe
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of years down the road we will look
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: into that. Stranger things have happened. I'm going to make
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: a prediction right now, it will not take a couple
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: of years for McK foley to have a match at AAW.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: I would not be shocked if he had a match
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: this year, but certainly by next year we will see
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: AAW hosting a mc foley return match. One hundred percent guaranteed,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: it will not take a couple of years down the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: road to make it happen. Now, fourteen years ago, horologists
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: told him flat out, you should not ever wrestle again.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: This is why he had to stop riding roller coasters,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: which he loved to do. He would always tour all
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: these different theme parks. I don't know if he still does,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: but he doesn't ride the roller coasters anymore if he does,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: because he would get concussed just by riding the roller coaster.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: But this is wrestling, right doctor. They say stuff all
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: the time and wrestlers routinely ignore them. It's why they're
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: wrestlers and they're not fucking brain surgeons. Nck Foley should
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: not be wrestling, but he's going to and Tony Khan
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: is not going to say no. He's made that very clear.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: He's going to be marking out over it. So hopefully
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: they do it in a way that is similar to
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: what WWE did with Brett Hart in twenty ten, where
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: he never took any shots to the head, never took
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: a soup plex, he never did anything where his head
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: would take any impact. I think that might have been
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: a condition of his Lloyd's of London insurance policy no
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: shots to the head, because there was a whole controversy
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: over that at the time where I think they didn't
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: want to pay or whatever. But that's what they should
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: do with McK foley, and honestly, a tag team match
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: would probably make a lot of sense. I could see
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: him in Darby as tag team partners, just like Darby
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: and Stingwore. Let Darby take all the wacky bumps, let
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Darby take all the real punishment. But me personally, I
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: just cannot envision any scenario under which I would be
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: dying to see Mick Foley back in the ring. I mean, God,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: bless him. Hey, if this is what he wants to do,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: he's going to do it. He's going to do it,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: and they're going to allow him to do it. But
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: I just hope they do it in a safe way. Now.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: I thought Dynamite on Wednesday was a really good show.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Really good title defense by MJF against Rusche, A real
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: good one with Kevin Knight and Speedball for the TNT title.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Not even the best that they could do, but it
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: was still good. One hell of a promo from Mark Brisco.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: We had the return of Mercedes Monet, who had a
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: solid outing with Alex Windsor in the Owen Hart Tournament,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: and a batshit crazy main event between Will Ospray and
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Mark Davis also in the Owen which broke down into
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: an overbooked spectacle that turned out to be a lot
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: of fun. It's not the sort of ending that we
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: get very often on an aw show. You can't do
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing all the time, but in the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: context of the Kallus family against the Death Riders, it worked,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: and even though we all knew what the finish was
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: going to be, it created some late drama in what
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: otherwise would have been a very predictable you know, hidden
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: blade finish one, two three or arm bar submission game over.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: So they tried to pat it with some other shit
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: to try to make it a little less predictable. Now
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: I mentioned MJF. He just won the belt back from
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: Darby Allen a double or nothing. No one expected a
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: title change here, but they're continuing a theme from the
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: beginning of the year where there is a lot of
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: competition around the World Championship, with people coming for Mjf's
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: head and a lot of people praise that at the
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: beginning of the year, right, it was nice to see
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: so much focus and emphasis on the world title. That's
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the way it should always be. Well to me, this
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: is no different. There's a ornament going on right now
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: to decide who gets to challenge for that very title
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: at Wembley Stadium. That's gonna be Will Ospry. But Kenny
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: Omega still has his sights on the world title, as
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: does the TNT champion Kevin knight Right. He wants to
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: be Jet two belts. He keeps calling himself that Androde
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: is calling out mjf Rouche had his shot on Wednesday.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: Mark Briscoe just called his shot and he's got a
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: pinfall win on pay per view over the champion dating
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: back to last year. MJF wasn't the champion back then,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: but now he is, and so Briscoe wants his shot
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: before he got hurt. We even had Kyle Fletcher putting
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: mjfun noticed that he was coming for the world title,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: and that looks like it's on the back burner for now.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: I don't need to see him doing what Darby Allen
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: did in defending the title every single week like a
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: revolving door. But where there are opportunities to have MJF
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Wressell and to promote a world title match on your
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: television show, it makes the shows more exciting rather than
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: just having him come out and cut the same promo
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: for four weeks straight to build to one match. There's
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with world title defenses on TV, you just
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: need to be strategic about it now. We got a
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: pre match promo from Rouche before his match on Wednesday,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: androde even walked in and gave him a little pep talk.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Then they had their match in MJF one Rush passed
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: out in a LaBelle lock after flipping them off. But
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: evidently he did not come out of that match on
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: scathe because on Thursday, Beyond Wrestling announced that MJF suffered
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: a hyper extended knee on Dynamite and would not be
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: able to wrestle Bobby Orlando on their Friday show on
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Rhode Island or in Rhode Island. I'm so used to
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Long Island, on Long Island, in Rhode Island. Whatever. As
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: a replacement, Beyond was able to bring in Andrade, and
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: they also got Leo Rush and they got Wheeler Unis,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: so they made up for it, and the promoter even
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: said that he had people in WWE exploring options on
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: how to help them out. Brian Alvarez is saying the
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: injury is legit, the knee is swollen. Aw is hoping
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: it's not serious. Fightful says it happened during a spot
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: in the corner where Rusche delivered a knee. It's being
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: regarded as a freak accident. There's no heat on him
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: over it. Hopefully a hyper extension is all it is,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: because losing him would be a disaster, especially a couple
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: of months out from all in, That would be terrible.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Mark Briscoe got a quick win over Leo Rush who's
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: getting over with the black car gimmick, or he's getting
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: it more and more over each week. Now they're doing
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: a thing where if you don't move, he can't see you.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: He can't see you whoever he is. And I said,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: it's like it's like red light, green light. Like if
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: he turns away, you can run, but if he turns
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: back around, you got to stay perfectly still. It's getting over?
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: Like is it getting over in a way? There there were,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: you know, more chants for him. I felt like this
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: week than I've heard recently. Is it getting over in
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: a way where Tony Khan can make money off of it?
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: The way the WWE has made money off Dan Housen
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: and turned Dan Housen into a cash cow. I don't
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: know about that, but if you listen to the crowds.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: It is getting over bit by bit. He just needs
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: insistent time on television, specifically on Dynamite, and maybe some
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: backstage stuff with him, you know, would be nice. It's wacky,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: but I dig what he's doing. I know it's not
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: for everybody, and there's some wacky shit that I hate,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: but I dig what he's doing. He'll get more over
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: with it than he would if he just walked out.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: There was Leo Rush. You got to admit that if
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: you just kept coming out his Leo Rush, he ain't
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: gonna get over. At least with this he might get
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: over more. But after the match, we got a promo
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: from Mark Brisco to sell us on the idea of
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: him challenging MJF for the World Championship, because it's not
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: ideal that so much time has passed since the last
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: time they feuded. I mean we're talking September of last
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: year when he beat MJF and that Tables and Tax match.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: That was all out right Now we're in June, so
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: it's cooled off. How do you heat it back up?
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: That's how the way that he did in that promo
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, that's how you do it, talking about losing
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: his brother three years ago and how he never knew
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: if he would ever feel that joy again in wrestling
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: until the conglomeration came in. They took him in, they
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: made him part of their family, and then MJF started
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: running his mouth about him and his family and his brother,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: and he came to hate this guy. He's never hated
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: anybody in wrestling more than he hates MJF. But he
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: beat him, He shut him up, and then MJF disappeared
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: and his heart was full again. But then he came
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: back and it just made him angry all over again,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: even worse now that he's the world champion, right and
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: he's going on and on, he's looking right in the camera.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: This was fucking great. His best promotion is coming to
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: aw It still doesn't feel like a big pay per
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: view title match to me, but I think on a
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: show like Forbidden Door, they're not relying on that match
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: to headline the show. That's not gonna like that headline
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: spot at Forbidden Door. If they do this match of
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Forbidden Door, that headline spot is not going to belong
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: to MJF and Mark Brisco. It's going to belong to
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: will Osprey and Swerve Strickland in the finals of the Owen.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: I would be shocked if anything other than that closes
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: that show. When they had the Owen Final a double
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: nothing last year, That's what closed the show is will
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Ospray and Hangman Adam Page. So they can get away
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: with doing MJF against Mark Brisco on that pay per
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: view if they want to. The bigger question is does
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: well There's two questions. Number One, how injured is Mjf's
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: knee is going to take him out of wrestling at
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: all at Forbidden Door? But beyond that, does MJF mega
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: to Wembley as the champion at all? Because they have
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: their Redemption pay per view in Montreal next month, right
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: July twenty sixth. If we get MJF against Kenny Omega,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: let's say that's the match that gets booked on that show.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Omega wins the title. He's got to win the title.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Why would you do Kenny Omega and MJF at Dynasty
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: in Vancouver and have him beat Kenny to run it
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: back in Montreal a few months later and have him
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: beat Kenny again. It doesn't make any sense. It's all
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: in the name the name is Redemption. Omega gets his redemption,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: that would then deny us, though, of an MJF Andrade
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: match that they've been teasing a lot. Because Grand Slam Mexico,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: which is where I think the match should happen, that
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: has now been confirmed for Arena Mexico, but not until
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: August fifth, Wednesday, August fifth, which is after Redemption. So
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: if MJF were to lose that championship on that pay
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: per view, then we don't get MJF and Andrede on
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: that show. Now, if Andrede does challenge for the title
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: on that show, maybe it's against Kenny Omega, which kind
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: of still works because the last time they wrestled, Andrede
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: pinn Kenny Omega. But I mean, Androdi's going to walk in.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: There is this huge babyface if he gets that title
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: match on that show, and I just think it works
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: a lot better if MJF is in that spy right
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: as hated as he was the last time we saw
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: him wrestling at Arena Mexico. Holy shit, that's old school
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: heat that he was getting. But Tony Kahan has to
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: put together a card for August that he thinks is
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: going to sell the most tickets. They've only got twenty
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: five thousand tickets sold so far for Wembley Stadium. Wembley
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Stadium fits a hell of a lot more than twenty
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: five thousand. That's a lot less than what they move
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: by this point ten or eleven weeks out. The last
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: couple of times that they went to Wembley Stadium last
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: time they ended up doing about fifty four thousand. They
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: got a lot of ground to make up if they're
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: gonna come anywhere close to what they did last time. Now,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: right now, there's no card announced. There's not a single
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: match that's been announced so far. For all In, as
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: he puts one together, he has to keep that in mind.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: What matches are going to get people excited enough to
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: buy a ticket. Is that Kenny Omega against will Ospray?
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: Or is that MJF against well Ospray? Or is that
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Kenny Omega against them JF against well Ospray. Is it
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: MJF against Mick Foley? Is it the New Day against
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: the Young Bucks first time ever? Right, he's got a
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: lot of options for what he can do on that show.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: This week's episode is sponsored by Wicks. If you run
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: a business, you probably have a website. If you don't,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: then you need one, and if you already do have one,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: it may not be all that you think think it's
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: cracked up to be. Remember, it's the first thing that
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: visitors are going to see, and if they don't like it,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: they may never click onto it again. First impressions are everything,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: which is why you want to be using Wix's Harmony
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: editor to create your website. Wix Harmony is an AI
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: website builder that allows you to get your site up
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: quickly while making sure it stays true to your vision
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: of what you want it to be. The AI component
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: is the difference maker here, but it's not the only
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: way for you to build your site. You still have
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: the ability to edit manually and create the look and
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: feel that you want right down to the most minute detail.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: But Aria, your personal AI agent, is going to be
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: there to help answer your questions and just help get
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: stuff done. Click anywhere on your site and ask her
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: to make changes instead of entering one prompt after another.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: It's going to save you a lot of time and
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of grief. Believe me. Join the more than
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty million businesses around the world that
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: already use Wix and try wix harmony right now to
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: see for yourself at wix dot com slash harmony. That's
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: wis dot com slash harmony. Kevin Knight is the newest
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: addition to the ever expanding don Kallus Family. You can
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: start your own wrestling promotion just by building your roster
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: out of don Kallus family members. Kevin Knight is now
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: one of many as opposed to being one of one.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: And he'll be fine because Tony Kahan likes him and
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: he's been pushing him all year. He's not gonna stop now.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: In fact, Tony loves the Callous Family so much it's
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: probably the best endorsement that he could give the guy.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, look at how much fucking television time they
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: get every single week. They're all over the shows, the
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Callous Family. I mean, look, it's worked out pretty well
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: for Okada and Takeshta and Kyle Fletcher, even Mark Davis Androte.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: I can take it or leave it. He's probably better
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: off for being with them rather than being on his own.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: But he hasn't benefited from it like those others I'm
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: talking about Androte right now. But he hasn't benefited in
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: the way that the other people have. This is going
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: to be a way to see thing. I just think,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: you know, Kevin Knight, he just went heal, He just
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: went heel and they didn't even give him a chance
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: to stand on his own two feet. It was just
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: straight to the callous family. Now, Knight says that Callus
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: is the one who can bring him to the promised Land,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: right because he wants to be Jet two belts. He's
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: out there putting MJF on notice. The only problem is
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: Don Kallas has not managed an aw world champion since
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: Kenny Omega, and that was five years ago. So how
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: come nobody ever brings that up? Like, where is Kevin
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Knight getting this from it? He needs Don Kallus to
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: help get him a world title. Uh. Mercedes Modet is
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: back for the first time this year. She returned as
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: the wildcard in the Owen against Alex Windsor. It surprised
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: me for this reason. If Mercedes was going to be
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: the wildcard, why bump that match from the pay per
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: view last month? That would have been a better place
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: to do it in New York. But I'm glad she's back.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: It's a big name for them to get back in
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: that division, and now it sets up a final at
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Forbidden Door. You would think between Mercedes and Athena. I mean,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: how could it be anything else? Now, I said, the
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: other night, Mercedes goes back to back, she wins the
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: OZ and again is she gets Tecla at all? In
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: some of you guys countered with this. Athena beats Mercedes
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: in the final, which means that they each have one
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: win over each other. Athena is the one who goes
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: to London. Mercedes gets Tecla at Redemption instead, and maybe
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: maybe she wins a Battle Royal or something for the
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: number one contender spot. Mercedes then wins the championship from
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Tecla in Montreal and she defends against Athena in London
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: in the rubber match between them. I don't hate that.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: I don't hate that at all, except that you know,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: Tecla gets iced out of the title match then. But
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, even if she drops the belt in July,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: like July August, that's a solid five or six months
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: as champion for Techlo. Like, that's a healthy run. Not
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: everybody needs to hold the belt hostage for a year.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: I fully expect Tecla is going to drop that belt
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: by Wembley at the latest anyway. So I mean, I
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: don't hate the idea. You may be right. You may
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: be right, and I'll tell you something else. Here's another
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: thing that supports your theory. Mercedes was never supposed to
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: return in the Owen. The only reason she ended up
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: in the Owen is because Willow Nightingale got hurt. And no,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that her injury is a work. They
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: wouldn't do that to her and pull her off that
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: New York show where she has all of her family there.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: So if the idea was for Mercedes to come back
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: after the Owen, it is entirely possible that she was
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: going to win the title from Tekla before London anyway
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: and walk in defending against the winner of the Owen
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Hard Tournament. And then we had the will Osprey Mark
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: Davis semi final match in the Owen closing the show,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: and what a match. It was. Second week in a
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: row that Mark Davis has closed Dynamite in the main event.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: This guy continues to give us quality output every single week.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: He has made the most of the time he's been given.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: He maximizes his minutes once that bell rings, we got
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: a ref bump and then all hell broke loose. Trent
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Barretta and El Klone ran out to attack Ospray. Here
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: comes Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Youda to fight them off,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: and then Lance Archer shows up, but then Claudio shows
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: up and takes him out. Brian Cage takes out Claudia.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: Then Pack takes out Cage, and then Jake Doyle runs
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: out and he pulls the referee out of the ring.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Before Osprey can win, Marina Shaffir jumps on Doyle's back
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: he tosses her down. Moxley shows up, Paradigm Shift enter
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: Kyle Fletcher with the screwdriver, but here's Takash Dea to
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: put a stop to that. And then a few more
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: near falls later. I mean the pile driver one annoyed
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: me because Davis murdered him with this great pile driver,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: and Osprey just kicked out the guy with the bad
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: neck just kicked out. But Osprey gets the win with
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: his new death Ground finish, which is a little something
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: he picked up from the Death Riders. It's fucking arm bar.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: Twenty three minutes this went, and it was a lot
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: of fun. It was a lot of fun, just great
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: stuff here hot ending to what I thought overall, WI
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: a strong show. Now some other news and notes. A
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: few weeks ago, I told you guys about the x
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: account and the YouTube channel for Luca Underground all of
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: a sudden coming back to life after years of inactivity,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: and they were teasing something. They were teasing a return
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: of some kind. Well that's something turned out to be
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the slow rolling of the old episodes to their YouTube channel.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: There is no rebirth of Luca Underground. There is a
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know what what would you call this? Not
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: a rebirth, but it's sort of a replay I guess
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: of the best of the first two episodes from season
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: one have already been uploaded, which is awesome right easy
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: access for anybody who wants to watch them now, but
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: it'll take time before they get them all posted. I
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: don't know if they're going to do one a week.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the schedule is. Fight Ful Select
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: also had news this week that MGM and Amazon hold
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: a controlling interest in Luca Underground, with Amazon having acquired
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: MGM in twenty twenty two. The belief is that Amazon
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: is very happy with the library and does not have
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: any real interest in selling it, despite past inquiries about
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: such a deal. So all of the teasers were just
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: to generate a buzz for them uploading the old episodes
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: to YouTube, so I guess they can monetize them with ads.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: Nobody should have been expecting anything else, really, because I mean,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: who would even be available anymore for them to use
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: if they wanted to reboot the show. I mean, those
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: first few seasons are not going to be topped, right,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Just enjoy the classics. All you really need to do
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: is subscribe to the WWE Vault, the WCW channel, and
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: the Luke Underground channel on YouTube, and then keep listening
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: to the SoundOff. Subscribe to the solomn moster sounds of
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: those four channels. That's it, That's all you need. You're
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: all set. And I never bought WWE two K twenty six,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: but if you did get a load of this, there
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: is a new character that you can play. The CEO
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: of Take two, the parent company and publisher of the
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: WWE two K series. His name is Strauss Zelnick. He
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: is the latest addition to the list of playable characters
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: in WWE two K twenty six. Right down to his
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: own unique entrance, using Frank Sinatra's classic My Way as
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: his entrance music, which cannot be used for any other
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: superstars in the game. So yes, this man paid for
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: the rights to the song to be able to use
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: it exclusively for himself. And I don't put much stock
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: in these stupid scores, but for those of you who
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: do care. He's also rated a seventy seven overall in
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: the game, which is higher than William Regal, Ring of
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: Honor era CM Punk and nineteen ninety seven Eddie Guerrero.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: He's also rated higher than Johnny Gargano, but I mean
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: that tracks because all he does is lay around on
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: a crate. Anyway. This is the same Strauss Zelnick, by
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: the way, who has a pending lawsuit against him alleging
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: fraud and second rual misconduct. You can now play him
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: in the game. That His addition comes after Zelnik spoke
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: to IGN recently about the success of two K twenty
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: six and his desire to improve the two K games
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: overall quality. He said, I do think there's ongoing opportunities
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: to improve the quality of the game. I do think
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: that we can get consumers more of what they want
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: and I know our team at Visual Concepts always wants
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: to do better. We're never in the business of patting
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: ourselves on the back. We believe that arrogance is the
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: enemy of continued success, and I think that I think
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: that title could be double or tripled the size that
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: it is. As long as we delight customers and as
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: long as we give them something new and not expected
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: that's consistent with the brand that they love, that is
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: our job. Now, let me ask all of you who
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: have purchased two K every year, maybe you still play it.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: You know more about the games in the series, and
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: I do, I'm not consistent with it. Would you describe
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: it as a delight to play two K? Would you
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: describe it as something new every year when a new
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: version of the game comes out, Because that's not what
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: I hear from people that every year they give you
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: something new, that every year it's just such a delight.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: But that's their goal. They're not doing their job, he says,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: unless they are delighting you and giving you something new
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: every year. I have a suggestion, maybe start by not
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: adding yourself to the fucking game. Although on the plus side,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: that means you could also beat the snot out of
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: him now, so feel free to bust them wide open.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: He's got more important things to worry about anyway, because
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: Take two is the company behind the Grand Theft Auto games,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: and GTA six is due to be released on November nineteenth,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: until it gets pushed back again. Hi, I'm not trying
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: to jink that. I'm just saying. I'm just saying that
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: that date is not etched in a stone tablet, okay,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: So don't get your hopes up too much. Whatever he
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: paid for the rights to that Sinatra song, though, he'll
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: make that back on GTA pre sales in thirty seconds,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: so I don't think he's too concerned about that anyway.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: Let's take some questions. We got a big old mail
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: bag here. I want to hear from you guys. Thesolomn
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: Monster at gmail dot com is where you can write
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: in with your name and where you are from. We're
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: gonna start with Mike from Delaware, Ohio. I always love
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: it when two states are just merged together. I was
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: bored and did some research. He says, for about eighty
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: five percent of this decade, a Shield member has been
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: a world champion in WWE AW or New Japan has
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: there ever been another group or stable that has dominated
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: the main events scene of wrestling or of wrestling to
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: the extent that they have? Not that I could think of.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, there have been some big factions before. I mean,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: you could say the nWo, just because it ended up
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: having so many big names in there. So if you
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: look at the overall scope of their career, I mean
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: you had Hogan, you had Sad, you had Bret Hart,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: I mean Staying technically joined the nWo eventually. Scott Hall
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: was never a world champion anywhere, but Nash was. It's
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: the only thing I could really think of. It's it's
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: pretty incredible when you think about it. T Dub from Virginia.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: I've been a fan since the TV tracks days and
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: finally decided to send an email. Due to all of
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: the confusion surrounding the upcoming inclusion of Laparca in WWE
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: two K twenty six, Gee, I wonder if Laparca's score
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: is higher than strauss Zelnik. He says, first off, the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: original WCW Laparka currently wrestles as La Park due to
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: him leaving Triple A and the company owning the character.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: The second Laparka then took over the gimmick for many years,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: even appearing in the video game Lucha Libre Triple A
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: Heroes del Ring. He would unfortunately pass away in January
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty due to a terrible injury from a match.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: This leads us to Laparca three, who is making his
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: video game debut, and with all of that, everything should
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: be more transparent than Seamus in the early twenty tens.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Leave the jokes to me t dub, but that's very insightful.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: So there you go. If you were wondering about the
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: confusion around the lapark and now you know Green from
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: Morocco and Mauritania. My question is simple, with all the
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: hype and good faith around Chad Gable right now, do
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: you think that he could win a world title in WWE?
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: I'm the main roster, not Triple A, And do you
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: think the WWE could actually go through with it? Do
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: I think he could win a world title? Absolutely? Do
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: I think WWE would go through with it? Absolutely not.
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: Can't answer it any more directly than that. Carlos from
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: New York. With the recent report that WWE sees Ilia
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: Dragedov as an interchangeable piece in the mid card and
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: not a top guy. What do you think caused them
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: to slot him that way? Do you think Ilia becomes
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: a to eventually? So I want to clarify this because
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: there was no report. I think context is very important here.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: This is another example of something that Meltzer said on
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: his radio show, on his podcast that was quoted as
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: fact or a report quote unquote, when if you watch
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: the video and I did, he was answering a question
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: just like I am answering a question right now, and
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: he's giving his thoughts about how he thinks wwec's Ilia Dragon,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: of which could be right or it could be wrong,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: but it was his opinion. That's very different than saying
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: that there was a report. Right. It's not a case
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: where somebody in WWE told Meltzer, hey, we don't see
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: this guy as anything more than a mid carter. He'll
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: never be a top guy. Now that being said, I
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: don't think they see him as someone who can draw
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: real money for them, like a top guy. Do I
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: see him as someone who could be a top guy. Yes,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: he has the potential to be that right building a
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: brand around him. No, he's not going to be a
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: Cody Rhods. He's not going to be a cmpunk, He's
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: not going to be a Roman reigns, but to be
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: world champion one day and to work with other main eventters. Absolutely.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: He reminds me of Chris Benoan that way, like the
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: smaller guy who's technically sound, he's technically excellent, and he's
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: super intense in the ring. Ben Wa was a world
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: champion when they had two world titles. There is no
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: reason that Ilyya Dragonov cannot be a world champion at
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: a time when they have two world titles. He brings
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: an intensity to what he does that nobody else in
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: that company brings. That's what makes him unique, right. There
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: are a lot of great wrestlers on the roster, but
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: what makes him unique, what makes him stand out his intensity. Right,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: His selling when he's in there feels like this guy's
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: in a fucking battle. Every time he's in there, he's
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: battle tested. It's what made his matches with Gunther work
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: so well. And if you gave those two a chance
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: to replicate that on the main roster, they would tear
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: the house down. Guaranteed. It's gonna be a crime if
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: we never get a main roster match between Gunther and
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: Ilia DRAGONOV and I don't just mean some random fucking
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: SmackDown match. I mean, like a pl match doesn't have
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: to be a main event. But if we don't get
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: that at some point, then these people are out of
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: their mind, especially now they're on the same brand. Chris
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: from Toronto I had a question about tag team wrestling
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: in WWE. One narrative was that Vince McMahon hated tag
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: team wrestling. I believe there was a quote somewhere from
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: Vince saying something to the effect of why the hell
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: would I pay four guys for one match, or something
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: to that effect. Paul London and Brian Kendrick also tell
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: a story about the time they visited WWE headquarters and
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: Shane McMahon said they haven't cared about tag team wrestling
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: since the Legion of Doom. Do you feel like this
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: feeling was passed on to his son in law. It's
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: weird because he was the same guy booking teams like DIY,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: The Ascension, Enzo and Cast, the Vaude, Villins, FTR, et cetera.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: In Black and Gold n XT. Now, I have no
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: idea what's going on with the main roster tag team division.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: What do you believe would fix the division. It says
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: ps every morning I get up to drive to a
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: toxic job, but I stick through it for my fiance
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: and I. You now seem to have a show damn
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: near every day between this, the arial Helwani thing, the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: JD thing, and all of the streams. It's good to
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: have these podcasts in the cars and outlet during a
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: very stressful twenty twenty six. So thank you for all
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: that you do. Well, Chris, I'm sorry that the job
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: is so toxic. I know there's a lot of them
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: out there, but hey, if the shows can help pass
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: some time and take your mind off it, then I
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: love hearing that. As far as tag team wrestling and WWE, look,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: if they wanted to place a focus and emphasis on
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: tag team wrestling, it would not be very difficult for
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: them to do that. It's just a matter of you know,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: they have their whiteboard, right, We've seen that whiteboard on
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: WWE unreal in the writer's room, right, Start scribbling down
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: teams on the whiteboard that you want to use to
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: populate your tag team division. Let's see how many of
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: them you have actual tag TIS teams, and then just
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: take stock of where you are. It's like, okay, we
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: have four real teams, we have seven real teams, and
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: then what makeshift teams do we have or is there
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: a makeshift team or two in mind that we would
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: like to be part of this Who do we have
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: an NXT who's out there in the free agent market
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: right now who we might want to add to the
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: tag team division in this company or bring back to
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: the tag team division in this company. That's the first
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: thing that you do. And then if you insist on
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: having two sets of tag team belts, then you're going
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: to have to divide them up. But I think that
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: they don't have enough for that, and so I still
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: maintain they should re merge the two tag team titles
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: into one. You only need one set of men's tag
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: team championships, just like you have one set of women's
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: tag team championships, and you have one giant tag team division,
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: and they could do their thing un raw, they could
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: do their thing on SmackDown, but you have the traveling
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: floating champions across brands, and that's the first order of
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: business right there. Because they simply do not have a
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: big enough division or big enough focus on either division
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: to sustain having two sets of tag team belts. You know,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm watching SmackDown on Friday night. Our Truth
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: must have a legitimate injury because he hasn't been wrestling
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: in weeks, but he and Damian Priest are the tag
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: team champions, and Damian Price has been mostly doing singles matches.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: He was part of a four way match and the
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: King of the Ring on Friday. Our Truth is just
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: sort of milling around in the back, and then we
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: saw Our Truth get confronted by the Viking Raiders or
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: the war Raiders, whatever the hell they are these days.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: They just won the Triple A tag team titles last weekend,
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: so they show up, they got their Triple A tag belts,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: they get no pop. Chad Gable shows up in the back,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: and the crowd in the building in Italy, then Bologna,
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: they go crazy for him. They show the war Raiders
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: on screen and nobody gives a shit, and why should
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: they because when was the last time we even saw
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: them on raw SmackDown, Right, It's been long enough, and
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: even when they were there, nobody cared even then. But
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: they show up with their Triple A tag team titles, like, oh,
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: we got these belts? Now. So now we're forced to
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: be reckoned with and they're talking to our truth about
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: how you let us know when you want to do
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: the WWE Tag Team titles against our TRIPLEA tag Team titles,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: and I go, So this is what we've been reduced to.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: Here we have a makeshift team on SmackDown holding the
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: WWE Tag Team titles and now they are teasing a
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: match against Now it's one of their teams, but they
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: now hold tag team belt from a different company, and
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: they're teasing that is the next direction potentially for the
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: tag team champion. They're like, this is the state of
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: where we are right now, at least on SmackDown. Raw
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: is no better. They got the belts on the Vision
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: that wasn't even the team when they won the belts,
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: Logan Paul got Hurts, and now bron Breaker has a belt,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: and who do they have to work with? Probably a
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: bunch of other makeshift teams. Again, the division in this
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: company is in shambles right now. You've got to just
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: start from the ground up. But if they really cared
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: about tag team wrestling, and we saw that they did
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: not that long ago. We saw at the beginning of
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: last year end of twenty twenty four into the beginning
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, and you saw that Tag Team
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: Division on SmackDown Man and they were hot. They were hot.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: It was the hottest thing going on smack then, in
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: the way that the US Title Open Challenges eventually became
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: the hottest thing on SmackDown. Before that, it was the
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: Tag team division. And they tried to weave some stories
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: in there with the team. I mean, they weren't very
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: compelling stories, but they at least were making an effort.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: But you had Phraxium, and you had DIY, and you
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: had the Street Profits, and you had the MotorCity machine Guns,
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: and you had Lost Guards, and I'm sure I'm missing
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: one or two others. They have demonstrated that they can
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: do it. They just choose not to because tag team wrestling,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: in their mind, doesn't sell, so they deemphasize it. They're
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: all about making money. They're motivated by making money. If
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: the Tag Team Division or tag team wrestling demonstrated to
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: them that they can make money off of it, or
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: the numbers spiked because they look at all these metrics,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: then they would put a greater emphasis on it. But
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that they should just give up on it.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: And if you're gonna give up on it, then you
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: certainly don't need two sets of tag belts. Chris from
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: Northern New Jersey. I've been hearing that AW has been
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: getting better. To me, AAW has been the same since
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: it's a inception, great in ring wrestling, lots of dream
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: match scenarios. I believe it hit a low point with
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: a combination of the CM punk stuff and the Death
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: Rider's story with Moxley's reign of terror. Is AW really
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: getting better or is the wrestling getting more and more
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: disenchanted with WWE and TKO. I think he's talking about
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: the fans getting disenfranchised with the product. I think it's
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: a combination of both. You absolutely have fans who are
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: disenfranchised with the WWE product right now, but they're not
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: ready to give up on wrestling. They're looking for an alternative.
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: So I've said, this is Tony Kahn's opportunity to strike.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: You know, WWE Believe me, they're still making a lot
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: of money, but there are definitely fans who have tuned
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: out who I think were also turned off by how
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: commercialized WrestleMania was this year and they're looking for an alternative.
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: They want to watch pro wrestling, but this is not
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: their version of pro wrestling that brings them joy anymore.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: So if I'm Tony Kahan, hey we got a big
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: tent over here. You're all welcome, you know, come on
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: and dip your toe in the water, that sort of thing,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: I think that's part of what's going on. I do
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: think AW. You know, they kind of peeked out and
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: then they kind of dropped off a little bit, and
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: the CM punk stuff didn't help. With Brawl Out and
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: all the controversy around that that spilled over into twenty
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: twenty three, and the product just wasn't as exciting. It
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: just wasn't as interesting to me. No, it's no different
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: than WWE or any other company that has its peaks
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: and valleys. You can give me all the fucking dream
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: matches you want to, but that doesn't mean it's going
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: to be an exciting television show. So AW has gone
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: up and down like any other wrestling company has, but
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: right now they seem to be on an upswing. They
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: have some momentum. They're selling tickets a little bit better
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: than they were a year ago. You could see it
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: in some, not all, but like some of these markets.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, the pay per views do well as far
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: as the pay per view attendance and the pay per
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: view buys, and that's still like the bread and butter
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: of their business. They're the last ones really as far
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: as major promotions that are still in the pay per
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: view business. But it goes up and down. It does
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: feel like it's on an upswing. Now. Hopefully they can
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: continue that momentum. We need a healthy alternative. Derek from
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: Arkansas wanted to get your thoughts on this. I think
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: they could improve SmackDown by having Becky drop the Intercontinental
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: title to Soul Ruka. You could tell this question came
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: in before last weekend. Have Seth Rollins lose to bron
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: Breaker ha ha ha huh and then move them both
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: over to the blue brand leaf font two on Raw?
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: And I feel like if you move Seth, maybe you
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: want to leave Punk on Raw. However, I think an
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: eventual three way feud of Rhodes, Punk and Rawlins for
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: the WWE Championship would be money. I don't you know.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: I don't think they are not the ones that I
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: would move. I don't think they have to be moved.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: I do think Punk should end up on SmackDown. I
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: do think the big money match there eventually is going
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: to be Cody and Punk, and I don't know that
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: they do that at SummerSlam this year. That seems a
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: little quick. Remember what cmpunk said to Cody the last
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: time we saw him on TV. He said, you never
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: know when an opportunity might fall out of the sky.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: And the only implication from that is money in the bank.
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: So are they setting up for a CM punk money
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: in the bank win? Which if CM Punk was to
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: win money in the bank, he would have to be
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: the all time record holder, right, He's already won it twice,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: hasn't he. I don't think anybody's ever won it three times.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: But that was kind of what I and a lot
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: of other people kind of got out of that promo.
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: And so I think eventually we get to Cody in Punk.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: It just it's probably something we're gonna have to wait
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: a while to actually see. Jim from Pennsylvania. Four years ago,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: Tony Kahan established the Ring of Honor Hall of Fame
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: with a very strong and appropriate inaugural class that included Samoa, Joe,
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: Brian Danielson, CM Punk, and the Briscoes. But for whatever reason,
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: we've heard nothing about the ROH Hall of Fame or
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: potential inductee since then. Tony is a busy guy, but
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: I seriously think he forgot that he established a Ring
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: of Honor Hall of Fame in the first place. What
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: would be the next four names that you would induct?
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: He said. My four would include Adam Cole, Nigel McGinnis,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: Christopher Daniels, and the Kings of Wrestling. You know, I
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: had completely forgotten about the Ring of Honor Hall of
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: Fame until you brought it up. I think Tony khn
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: did forget. That's crazy that he launched this thing four
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: years later. That's still the only class we've had that
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: I think he legitimately forgot. We have to remind him.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: Let's use this as an opportunity to remind him. Hey, Tony,
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: you got a Ring of Honor, Hall of Fame. Why
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: are you putting more people in? Well, I'll say this though,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: if that ends up being the only class that Tony
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: ever puts in, that's a hell of a class. Like
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: he got those initial names right. I think Nigel McGinnis, though,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: would be just a gimme as far as the next
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame class is Concerned Strong is another name
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: that comes to mind. Look, there are names that make
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: sense that are just not gonna happen for political reasons,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: you know, like l Generico Kevin Steen should absolutely be
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: in a Ring of Honor Hall of Fame. They're not
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: gonna be in there any more so than Chris Jericho
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: or the Big Show are going into the WWE Hall
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: of Fame until they leave. Aw But like Generico Steen,
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: I said, Roddy, Nigel, Jay Lethal, Jay Lethal belongs in
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: the Ring of Honor, Hall of Flame, Hall of Flame,
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Actually a Hall of Flame would be
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. So so yeah, those are some of the
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: names right there that you can put the young bucks
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: in there. I don't think they have to go in
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: next Chris Hero and Claudio is the Kings of Rest Like.
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: I like that. I'd be cool with that, But I
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: think before that you would have to look at names
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: like Roddy and Nigel and Cult Cabana, God the Homicide
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: I was there for homicide title all those years ago.
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: That was a big deal when he won the championship.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of names that he could put in there.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: I think he legitimately forgot, because so did I. I
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: can't believe it's been four years. Aaron from Boston. I
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: was thinking about the Undertakers WRESTLEMANI a streak and it
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: got me wondering who in the current erow would be
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: your top candidates to beat the streak, or if you
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: would prefer not to break the streak, who would be
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: the most intriguing opponents to challenge him? Assume it would
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: be late twenty twenty. Tens Taker, not old man Taker, well,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: I mean tribal chief Roman Reigns would be the most
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: obvious one, especially if it was during his run as champion,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: a title versus streak, right, that would have been a
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: big draw. Gunther is the other obvious one. I think
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: even Undertaker has said that Gunther is his guy, like
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: that's the guy he most wishes he was able to
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: get in the ring with. I would throw and Drew
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: McIntyre in there. I think that would be a good one,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: and maybe Oba Femi Julius from the Bronx. How come
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: Elijah Burke did not wind up becoming a bigger star
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: than he was. It seemed like he had a lot
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: of potential. Do you think if Burke came along a
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: decade later, that he would have had a better shot
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: at becoming a big name. Maybe not if all of
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: the rumors about him being a diva backstage are true.
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: I know Ciampunk famously named him as the worst opponent
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: of his entire career, like he was the one that
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: he hated being in the ring with the most, and
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: he called him a diva. Apparently the guy could be
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: up his own ass backstage a little too much and
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: that rubbed people the wrong way. I can't say if
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: that's how he was. I mean, I never met the guy.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe he was just advocating for himself and that's what
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: rubbed people the wrong way. But I think it's safe
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: to say that it was less a matter of him
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: not having any talent and more an issue of him
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: having heat with the wrong people. So if that's true
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: and he came along a decade later, he would probably
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: get heat with those people too. I don't think it
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: would be any different. Jose from Medicine Lake, I wanted
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: to ask you why why you think Sting never gets
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: blamed for his WrestleMania loss to Triple H. The match
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: layout and finish have been criticized by fans for years,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: but nobody blames Sting for agreeing to it. Even Scott
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: Hall said at the time that he and Hogan were
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: shocked at Sting willingly agreeing with the actual finish. If
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: Sting really wanted the Undertaker match, you would think that
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: he would make it a caveat in order to sign first,
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: instead of being a good soldier and assuming that he
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: would eventually get it. Where do you stand on this? Yeah,
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, he deserves some of the blame for that,
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: I guess because he could have pushed back on it.
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: I could see why he wouldn't because he was the
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: new guy, you know. I mean the first thing you do,
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: your first match, you're coming in, you're going to be
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: at WrestleMania, and already you're trying to politic your way
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: out of the finish. I never got the impression from
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: many stories anybody's ever told that Sting was like a
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: big political guy, that Sting was somebody who was really
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: changing match finishes or being a pain in the ass
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: to work with, or pushing back on creative that he
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: was given. So kind of like John Cena in that regard.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: So I think that was part of it. Could he have,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: you know, advocated for himself a little bit better? Yes,
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: he does. He doesn't get the lion's share of the
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: blame for that, but you could argue that, sure he
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: should have stood up for himself a little bit more.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: You know, the position that he was in, he could
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: have done that. Brendan from Long Island. If you could
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: pick a team for a three or four month feud
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: with bron Breaker and Bronson Red leading up to a
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: pay per view match, which would you choose FTR L A.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: Knight and Scott Steiner, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens or
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: Cia I'm Punk and Ricky Saints. It's kind of a
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: random question for a feud with bron Breaker and Bronson Reed.
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm so inclined to go with l. A.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: Knight and Scott Steiner just because the Scott Steiner promos
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: on Bronson Reed would be hilarious. I'm gonna go with
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens. Jason from Sacramento, California. I
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to get your thoughts on Mick Foley's heel Turn
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six. Personally, I really enjoyed that run.
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: It wasn't on the level of Hollywood Rock, but it
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: reminded me of that character shift in the sense that
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: it was relatively short lived but very impactful. Seeing Folly
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: go from the lovable underdog to this bitter, resentful veteran
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: who felt underappreciated by the fans was a refreshing change
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: of pace. I especially enjoyed his work with Rick Flair.
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: The promos felt personal and fully seemed to be taking
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: shots that went beyond a typical wrestling storyline. Looking back
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: twenty years later, what were your thoughts on that heel
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: turn and did you enjoy it at the time and
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: has your opinion changed over the years. Also regarding the
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: Folly and Flair feud, were there any genuine feelings of
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: heat between the two or were they simply good at
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: making their rivalry feel real? Oh, it was very real.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: So like the Folly heel turn in two thousand and
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: six is one of those things that I think kind
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: of gets forgotten about. I thought it had its moments.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed the stuff with him and Edge as partners
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: leading into the One Night Stand pay per view. The
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: stuff with Flair I wasn't really a big fan of,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: although the match they had at Summerslim that year was
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: really actually pretty brutal, But there was legitimate heat between
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: them years earlier, and it's themed from something that Foley
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: wrote in his first book. He wasn't a fan of
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: Flair's booking in WCW in the early nineties. He said
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: Flair was every bit as bad on the booking side
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: as he was great on the wrestling side. And so
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: years later in his book, Flair took a shot at Foley,
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: which is where he called him a glorified stuntman. I
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: know Foley was not happy about it. Now, supposedly Foley
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: got to read a copy of the original manuscript for
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: Flare's book and what he said about Foley and there
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: was even worse. So Foley was not a fan. I
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: don't know how he got a copy of it. But
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: Foley was not a fan of Rick Flair. And there
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: was an incident I want to say it was in
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: two thousand and four backstage at raw where Flair punched
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: him in the face. Folly had walked up to him.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: Flair put his hand out for a handshake. Folly would
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: not shake his hand, but he had a book and
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it was mixed book or I
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: assume it was Flair's book. He had a copy of
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: the book, he wanted Rick to sign it so that
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: he could auction it off for charity, and because Foley
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: didn't shake his hand, he punched him in the face,
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: which sounds like a perfectly rational response, and the two
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: of them had to be pulled apart. Yeah, we get
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: pull apart brawls on TV every week, and apparently we
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: get them backstage as well. So to answer your question
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: on that, I wasn't a huge fan of it, but
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: I will say if you were looking for promos that
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: came across as like men, this sounds like these two
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: guys really don't like each other. It's because at the
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: time they really did not like each other. James from
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: Staten Island. Are there moments in wrestling that meant a
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: lot to you as a fan that most people don't
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: talk about. For me, that moment is from twenty ten.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: It was during the feud between the Undertaker and Kane,
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: where Kin had just beaten Undertaker in a street fight,
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: and on the next SmackDown we have the return of
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: Paul Bear. I will be the first to admit that
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: their matches during the time were really nothing to be
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: excited about. But that moment where Undertaker knelt down and
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: Paul raised the urn high above his head, and the
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: lightning and the music and everything gave me chills because
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: it reminded me of their original run from when I
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: was a child. I think that they're the greatest manager
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: wrestler combo of all time. There's just something about Undertaker
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: and Paul bar together that always felt right sure. I
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: mean I felt the same about brock Lesner and Paul Hayman.
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: You know, they're like peanut butter and jelly. They just
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: go together so well for wrestling moments. I wouldn't say
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: it's something people talk about all the time, but I've
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: always loved after the Mounty lost to the Big Boss
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: Men at summerslimon ninety one, the jailhouse match they had
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: when they cuffed the Mounty and they drag him out
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: in the paddy wagon or or drag him out to
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: the paddy wagon and then they drive him to the
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: precinct and they fingerprint him and they take his photo
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: and then they throw him in the cell with the
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: guy in the leather jacket. Mounty was just fantastic in
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: that like that. That always makes me laugh whenever I
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: go back and watch that, or when a ripoman stole
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: Macho Man's hat, like just so, it's so ridiculous. It's
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: just such a silly, stupid little story for like one
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: week on maybe two weeks on raw, but like, how
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: can you not laugh at that?
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: Ted Dibiassi walking into the jewelry shop to pick up
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: his new million dollar belt. He's wearing a fucking cape
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: and he swings the door open. He just yells I'm here,
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: like the top of his lungs. He's scared everybody shitless
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: in the store, Like, dude, There's so there's so many
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: little moments and like little gems like that that I
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: can't possibly remember them all. But those are those are
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: a few of them. Anyway, keep emailing me the Sola
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: Monster at gmail dot com. I saw the Masters of
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: the Universe movie this week. I saw it on Friday
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: before SmackDown, and again, no spoilers here, but I enjoyed it.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: I really did. I wrote up a little review for
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: it on my letterbox to count at the Sola Monster
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: on there, and they let you rate the movies as well,
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: from like one star to five stars. The only movie
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: I've given five stars to this year so far as obsession.
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: I gave Back Rooms four stars. I give Masters of
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: the Universe four stars. But you got to remember, like
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: when I was a kid, for me, he men and
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: ThunderCats were the shit, Like that was life. I had
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: the toys, I had the sword, I had this inflatable
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: battle cat that I would ride around the house in.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: I had everything. And then the cartoon was what I
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: grew up on. And then in eighty seven is when
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: the live action movie with Dov Lunggren was made, and
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: I remember, like I liked it, but it's so weird,
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: like when we look back when we were younger and
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: we have these memories. The thing that really stands out
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: to me about that movie is in that movie, Courtney
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: Cox is a character in that movie, and as I recall, God,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen that movie in years, but I think
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: her parents, her parents die in that movie, and I
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: remember that making me very sad. For whatever reason, that
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: like that has stuck with me for all these Yeah,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: maybe because my parents have since died and I know
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: how sad that made me, I can kind of relate
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: to it even more now, Like I don't know, but
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: like I liked the movie, but there were just things
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: about the movie that that kind of bothered me. This
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: movie was to me, this movie is better than that.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: This is a better live action he Man movie than
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: that one was. I think they're pretty faithful to the
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: og material. If you were a fan of like the
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: cartoon from back then, and you get a lot of
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: the character, not all the characters. You get a lot
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: of the characters in the movie. They're not afraid to
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: poke fun at some of the more ridiculous names. I
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: will tell you right now, there are multiple instances of
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: Fisto jokes in this movie, because there is a fucking
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: character named Fisto. And I'm sorry, like there is. As
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: an adult, you cannot hear that and just your mind
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: does not go to a dirty place and you can't,
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: like not help but look at that and just laugh
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: at how ridiculous it is. Dude, you have two characters
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: in this movie interacting with each other. One is called
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: Fisto and the other is called ram Men. Okay, like,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: come on, the people who created these characters, they knew
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: exactly what they were doing. Okay, you have he Men,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: you have Fisto, You have ram men, so you're gonna
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: get jokes in the movie, and then so they blend
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: the humor in there. It's not a comedy, but there's
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: definitely comedic elements to it. If that bothers you, then
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: I guess you won't like it. But the action scenes
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: I thought were very well done. There's a lot of
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: really good action scenes in the movie. Skeletor one of
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: the all time great villains. I thought they did him
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: justice in the movie. I think he looks great, sounds great.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: I know what's Jared Letto behind Skeletor. I don't really
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: care for him. You don't see him though, Like if
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: you didn't know Jared Letto was cast as Skeletor, then
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: you would never know he's even in the movie. So
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: I thought they did well by him. And I said
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: this in my review on Letterbox, I said, the only
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: thing about the movie I really didn't like was Alison
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: Brie as Evil Lynn. And it's not really a knock
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: on her. Maybe it's just the way they had her
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: portray the character. I hated that character, or at least
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: her portrayal of it. That's the one big thing about
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: the movie that I hated. But Outside of that, I
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: had a really good time. You know, it's a fun movie.
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: I will say, if you're planning on seeing it, you
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: got to stick around for the credits. There's like three
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: post credit scenes. Is like one and then in the
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: middle of it there's another scene, and at the very
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: end there's another one. So if you care about that
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: sort of thing they went, they went all more here
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: on these movies. Stick around for that. But I had
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: a good time. I had a good time with it.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: There's there's a scene in the movie, like I don't
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: want to give too much away, but there is a
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: scene in the movie with it's not really like a
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't call it. It's not a dream sequence, but
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: we get like flashes of skeletor in these like real
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: life situations, including like Jim bros. Skeleton. Like I was
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: not expecting this, and it was the best, like my
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: favorite scene in the entire movie, and it was like,
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know, fifteen seconds maybe. But it also made
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: me kind of long for there to be some sort
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: of sketch comedy show where they would start doing skeletor skits.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: It's one of the things I used to love about
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: Robot Chicken whenever they would parody skeletor stuff. It's fucking hilarious.
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: We need something like that now, like some sort of
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: live action sketch show where it's just skeletor but in
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: like everyday situations, like in the office, in traffic. I'm
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: telling you, man, there's comedy gold in there. And if
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: somebody who is already doing this I'm like ig or
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: TikTok and I'm not aware of it, please turn me
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: onto this. I would love to know. But I had
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: fun with it. I think you will too, especially if
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: you're a fan of the source material. And so this
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: week now we have this new Spielberg movie, Disclosure Day,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: which some people are saying is his best work in
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: twenty years. So I'm going to see that, and then
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: the new Toy Story movie. I feel like I'm required
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: to see it like I saw the first four. There
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: has yet to be a bad Toy Story movie. I
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: think they should have ended it after three, but four
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: was great. I'm sure five will be fun. And then
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: the big one I'm looking forward to is in August,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: the end of Oak Street. That looks tremendous. I'm not
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: sure about this Odyssey movie. Everyone's talking about The Odyssey,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: which is this new Christopher Nolan movie. I may see it.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean favorite movie of all time
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: he directed, so I mean, I gotta give him credit
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: for that at least. But it's like over two and
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: a half hour. It's like The Batman all over again.
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like, does this movie need to be this long?
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, one more thing on the Masters
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: of the Universe movie, This movie did not need to
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: be as long as it was. It was a two
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: hour and twenty minute movie. This movie did not need
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: to be two hours and twenty minutes. I will say
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: that it was a little overly long, but I still
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it anyway. You never know what I'm gonna sound
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: off on here on the I always said, from like
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: the beginning, there was a reason why I never put
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: the word wrestling in the title of the show, because
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: I could just sound off on it. I could talk
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: about the Nicks, I could talk about movies, can talk
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: about anything. I could talk about Greek mythology. We'll save
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: that for next week. We'll save that for episode nine
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: sixty seven. That's the next time I'm with you here
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: for an episode of the Flagship show. Of course, during
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: the week, I'll be live on YouTube for the Raw
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: Post show on Monday, Dynamite on Wednesday, SmackDown on Friday.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: You know, Game three is on Monday night. A lot
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: of people aren't gonna give a shit about Monday Night Raw.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. Raw is in
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: Paris and I don't remember now. I think it's a
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: God is it a two pm East? I think it's
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: a two pm Eastern start again or is it three pm?
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: I get that mixed up with the London show later
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: in the month. It's either two or three pm Eastern.
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: I went live abround eight o'clock this past Monday. I'm
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: probably gonna do the same thing again, but I don't know, man,
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: I kind of want to check out the game. I
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: don't know what I'm doing. I'll definitely be live. I
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's going to be eight o'clock or
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock. I'll let you guys know. Maybe we'll stick
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: to the normal time. But then Dynamite, I think everything
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: is normal this week. SmackDown on Friday is I think
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: back in the States, so that's back to its normal
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: time there, and then nine sixty seven next weekend to
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: do it all over again. So until then, be well,
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: stay saved, have yourselves a great week, and I will
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: see you back here for more sound off next weekend
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: and on the streams on YouTube all week long until then,
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: Take care, guys. The Solemn Monster crashes out. I don't
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: know why we are still sitting here and why we
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: are watching La Night and the Ussos still after all
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: this time feuding with the Vision rinse repeat with this shit.
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: Do you realize how long La Night has been feuding
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: with the Vision for the first time that he started
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: getting into the ring with members of the Vision June
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: of last year. Money in the bank eight months, nine months,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: and he's certainly no better off for it. I mean,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: it's almost like there's not a creative thought in their
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: head when it comes to some of these people. And
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: you know, I just realized something here. If that match
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: happens at.
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 2: Wrestle Manie, I was gonna sit here and say, well,
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 2: at least if he wrestles brock Lesner at wrestle Mania,
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 2: at least it's someone different, right, But technically, if he
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 2: were to wrestle Brocklesner, would brock Lesner not be technically
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 2: considered part of.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: The Vision, he would still be working with the Vision.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: Fuck God, I'm not going to make it. I'm not
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: going to make it. Through this review, The Solo Monster
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: sounds off bringing you the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: Check out the weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers,
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and x
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: The Solo Monster. Fuck