Latest / Solomonster Sounds Off / Sound Off 961 - Why It's A GREAT DAY For The New Day, Backlash PREDICTIONS And More!

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Sound Off 961 - Why It's A GREAT DAY For The New Day, Backlash PREDICTIONS And More! · Solomonster Sounds Off

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Goods. Business time, Baby, you are listening to Solo Monsters
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Sounds Off. I love your mama, Monster, dude, I want
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: your soul. Woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: back going on Twitter. Come over here, Hotday. Is that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: pet patison you have legs? Weekend I was ninety nine
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: percent positive it was just chessed up. Now I have
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: been begging him for a job on every every platform
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I can, and I want to know the reason why
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you won't park. This is episode nine sixty one of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the Solemn Monsters Sounds Off for Sunday, May three, twenty
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: twenty six, with a very jet lagged Solemn Monster crossing
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: three time zones to California on Friday and then turning
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: right back around and doing it again on Saturday, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: then realizing, shit, I have no notes for Sunday. I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: can't sleep, I have to get to work, and so
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: here I am. I caught up with SmackDown also, although
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I bothered, I do have news
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: about SmackDown though, as well as thoughts on the latest
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: names gone from WWE. Yeah, that New Day story had
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: me doing a double take the other day when I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: saw that pop up on my phone. I'm gonna be
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: talking about that. I've got thoughts on Nick Conn's comments
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: at that WWE town hall meeting. I've got a preview
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: in predictions for Backlash next weekend. And at the very end,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: for those of you who may have missed it on
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the YouTube channel, I am including my Hulk Hogan Netflix
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: documentary review. So there was a lot to dive into. First, though,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I wanted to send my well wishes to Rebel from AW.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: This made me tear up when I watched her video.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, what this woman has been through over the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: last few years, I would not wish on anybody. She
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: has not wrestled since twenty twenty four, even longer than that,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: in AW you'd have to go back to twenty twenty two,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: last time she had a match for them. But she's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: been with them this entire time. And starting about two
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: years ago, she began experiencing some health issues and her
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: doctors they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: which is almost as bad as finding out that you
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: have some terrible diagnosis. I mean, it's the not knowing
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and not being able to treat it. And she got
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to the Mayo Clinic, which I Believe. At one point
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: she credited to Tony Kahan helping her get into I Believe.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And finally she got diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And she had been in the hospital the year prior
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to that with what she thought was pneumonia. They put
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: her on some anti fungal meds for a year. She
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: had all kinds of infections and ruptures, and she had
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: surgery to remove a mass on her lung and then
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: she finally got the diagnosis from the Mayo Clinic that
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: she had cancer, and she was treated for that cancer.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: She was still having very serious issues and it was
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: getting worse by the week, and she had applied for
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a clinical study at m D Anderson Cancer Center but
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: didn't qualify for it. But she was about to undergo
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: surgery to remove the other masses on her lungs when
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: she got hit with a far more devastating diagnosis. Her
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: doctors have diagnosed her with als and this is what
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: she said. First, I want to say thank you for
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: all your prayers, because for those who know, I spent
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a two year medical journey trying to find out what
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: is wrong, and finally our prayers have been answered. The
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: thing is sometimes we don't hear the answer to our prayers.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And so while I was waiting to have lung surgery
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: for the masses on my lungs, the doctors that may
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: have found finally found what's going on. The doctors have
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: diagnosed me with terminal ALS. There is not a lot
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of research behind als, and we don't know how long
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I have but it explains why I have trouble walking
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and talking, and all my functions will soon decline. But
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: now we can prepare for the future and what is
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: to come. And I want to say thank you to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Tony Kahan and aw for supporting the this medical journey.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: It has been a blessing that is unheard of. And
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: from the bottom of my heart, thank you and thank
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: you to all of you for your prayers. Please continue
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to pray for a peaceful journey and a peaceful passing.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I love you. Yeah, I got emotional watching her video.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, how can you not. You can hear it
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in her voice. She's had trouble speaking for some time now,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: she can't walk on her own. She has to get
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: around these days in a walker. ALS is about as
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: bad of a diagnosis as you can get. It scares
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: of this shit out of me just thinking about it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: ALS destroys the nerve cells and the brain and the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: spinal cord. So that's why people with it end up paralyzed.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: They're unable to speak, they're unable to breathe at some
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: point on their own, and your body just slowly starts
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: to fail. It is just an insidious disease. ALS is
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: what Steve Mango McMichael died from last year, and he
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was sixty seven. Rebel is only forty seven. At any age,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: it's a death sentence. It's just a matter of when.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: She says she doesn't know how much time she has left.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And I can only wish that, if God forbid I
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: ever have to face something even remotely like this, that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I can do so with as much grace as she
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: did in her statement. You know, she's a strong lady,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and I wish her as much peace as possible. You know,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: given the circumstances, she's been getting a lot of love
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: from her colleagues, and I know Tony Shavani said something
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: on Collision last night there were fans in the crowd
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: holding Rebel signs. I hope that continues, and I hope
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: she sees it, and I hope she knows that she's
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: got a lot of people thinking about her right now.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys for all the support this week. It
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: is much appreciated, especially with all my travels of late.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: If you want to make a PayPal donation, you may
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: do so on thesolo monster dot com. Ten dollars and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: more will get you a nickname and a shout out.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: First and foremost, I have to give a shout out
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: to the angel of Anarchy, Lucas Kroll. Finally got to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: meet Lucas at the Hog Show on Friday. I got
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to thank him in person for his generosity, but I'll
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: do it again here. Thank you, brother, it was great
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to finally meet you. The same goes for James Hollywood Herrera.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Remember Deadpool Deadpool James Herrera, that's him and I finally
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: got to meet him as well on Friday. And Max
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the Axe Volado, thank you for the drop this week.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: It was like a PayPal pow wow out in Los
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Angeles this weekend. I love it. The Portland pop star
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Paul Hamilton. Paul was not there in Los Angeles, although
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: he was missed. Paul, thank you for that very kind
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: don'no this Week, Big b Bryant Bessera, The Diamond, Dallas
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Dance Machine, Harrison Soet, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The Chicago Slayer,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Willie Eicherd, Big Time, Boris Weinman, c the Destroyer Pull
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: No Punches. Alan Regassa says he's hoping to see Hog
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: come to the Houston area. I can tell you that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: those discussions have happened, and it is a matter of when,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: it is not a matter of if, Especially with Zillah
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: being from Houston, it only makes sense. Junkyard Jeff Richardson
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: shout out to the astonishing Ashley Richardson. I hope you
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: two are doing well. Night Stalker Nif Alsafar showing up
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: as always as is kill Shot, Keith Hart and Recond
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Russell Bulwaar, who is rooting for the Mets to turn
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: things around, even though he's not from New York. You know, Russell,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: it's a nice thought, but they've got the worst record
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: out of all thirty teams in baseball. They lost their
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: shortstop for at least another month, and their backup shortstop
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: just broke his thumb last night sliding into first base.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: And he's on the DL now. So if anyone listening
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: to this can play shortstop, let me know and I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: will pass word along to them. A World Series is
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: not in the cards this year, and it's rare to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: come back and win it the following year when you
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: have as much of a disaster as this year has been.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: But it's been done before, it's been done before. Anything
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: is possible. But this year, this year is not possible.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: This year is a lost cause. Now. The reason I
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: was in Los Angeles on Friday was for House of Glory.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: We had our second LA show at the Globe Theater,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: which is an iconic venue out there. It's hosted many
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: wrestling shows before, many PWG shows in the past. This
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: is my first time there, really, my first trip out
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: to Los Angeles period. I mean, I was in Santa
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Clara many years ago for WrestleMania, but that was about it.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: And I got to meet Lucas and James and Max
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: angel Osuquay. It was so good to finally meet Osaque
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in person. And I apologize, I know I'm missing a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: few more, but I'm so glad that you guys were
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: able to make it out. It was the hell of
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: a show to be on the call for It was
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: funny at the beginning of the amazing Red Speedball Mike
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Bailey match which opened the show, you'll notice it took
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit for the bell to ring to get
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: things underway, and so a little inside baseball for you.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: It's because someone left the damn bell up in the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: balcony on the desk where we were doing commentary. And
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: so the match is about to begin, and again I'm
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: doing commentary and I look down at the desk and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I realized the fucking bell and the hammer is still
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: sitting there. And when the bell finally rings to start
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the match, that was me. That may be the first
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: time in history that the play by play announcer in
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: mid commentary also plays timekeeper, commentator, commissioner, timekeeper. Are there
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: any other jobs you'd like to throw my way? That's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: going to be a bitch to fit all that on
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: my business card. But it was a great night Red
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and Speedball. That was a highlight for sure. But really
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: up and down the card you got some quality matches.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Zillafat Too and Lance on Hawaii. They put their family
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: feud to bed once and for all. Charles Mason, he
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: retains the hog World championship over Jonathan Gresham. And what
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: a comeback it's been for him, you know, suffering two
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: strokes last summer, making his way back this year. We
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: are going to be back in New York on May
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: twenty second, that's a Friday night for Waging War with
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the Hardys. And then back in Chicago at Logan Square
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Auditorium on June nineteenth. And given that I had about
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: twelve hours to kill between my two flights, I watched
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: three movies. Okay. One of them was The China Syndrome.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: It's an older movie, great movie from nineteen seventy nine,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Jack Lemon. I had that one
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: sitting on my iPad for a while. I had never
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: seen it before, so that was very good. I knocked
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that out. I knocked out the Mortal Kombat movie from
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, I believe is when it came out
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: right about five years ago. Because I plan on seeing
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the new one that comes out this week. I may
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: not see it until next week, but Mortal Kombat two
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: is coming out this week. Carl Urbin, he plays Johnny Cage,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: looks really good and I was told that you should
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: really watch the first one before I watched the second one,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and so I did, and I liked it. I mean,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I know, so it got some hate. I didn't think
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: it was a bad movie. I thought it was a
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: fine little action flick. And then on the way back
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to New York, I finally watched The Batman. I never
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: saw it. I never saw it after it first came out.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know why. I know. I saw that runtime
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: and I was like, ew, Now the Dark Night is
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: around two and a half hours, but it never felt
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: overly long to me, and it's the greatest live action
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Batman movie ever made. It's my favorite movie of all time.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: So I thought, well, maybe this one won't feel like
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: it either, and it'll be a good way to kill
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: time on the plane if nothing else. Not the best
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: conditions to watch it on my iPad, but I watch
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: everything else on that iPad. I watched Raw, I watched
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: SmackDown Dynamite all the plees like it sits right next
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to me on my desk, right next to the laptop,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: so I could work on my notes and watch the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: show at the same time. I don't have a big
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: TV in here, so I'm like, what the hell, right,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I mean most movies, unless I'm actually going to the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: theater to see them, I end up watching either on
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: my laptop screen or the iPad screen, So what difference
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: does it make? But lucky me the woman in the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: window scene. I was in the aisle see the woman
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: in the window scene next to me would not pull
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: her shade down even though three different people asked her to.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It was the only row I think, on the fucking
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: plane that had beaming light shooting out, so it was
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: tough to see some of the things in some of
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the scenes. A lot of dark scenes obviously in this movie.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: But now that I've seen it, I thought Robert Pattinson
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: did a good job in the role Jeffrey Wright. I
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: didn't realize he was the commissioner. I mean, he's good
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in pretty much everything I've ever seen him in, And
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: if I didn't already know that Colin Farrell played the penguin,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I never would have guessed that was him. Under all
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the prosthetics. They nailed the tone that I would expect
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: from a Batman movie, but even more depressing somehow, like
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Gotham is a depressing place as it is. I don't
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: know why anybody would want to live there, and somehow
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: they found a way to make it even more depressing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Someone described it to me this movie when they were
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: telling me about it, as like a film noir, and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: that's pretty bang on for what this is. And you
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: know what, it reminded me of a little bit. It
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: reminded me of the old Dick Tracy movie. And I
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: liked it. I thought it was good. I don't think
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: it's the best live action Batman movie ever made. Dark
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Knight is in a league of its own. For me,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: that movie never lets me down. It never lets up
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: all the way through. It keeps the suspense going the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: entire way through, right on until the very end. And
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to me, it has great replay value. I've watched it
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: many times. I cannot see myself going back and watching
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: this again. It's definitely longer than it needed to be
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: two and a half hours. I think, like Dark Knight,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: that would have been more than enough to tell the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: story they wanted to tell. Because they lost me a
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: few times in that last i'd say third of the movie.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: There were a couple times where it was like, you know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I started to I don't say lose interest, but they
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: were kind of losing me there a little bit, but
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I like the little ad with the backstory for Bruce's father.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: And Pattinson's Batman voice is better than Christian Bale's. I'll
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: give him that. It's the one thing in The Dark
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Knight that annoys me is that fucking voice. Although Bail
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: is a much better Bruce Wayne than Robert Pattinson. And look,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I hate to keep comparing the two. I know I
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: shouldn't do that. I can't help with them. I mean,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: you see enough Batman movies you're going to compare them.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: It's just it's unavoidable. But it's a good movie. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: just I can't sit here and rave about it, like,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm so pissed. I waited so long
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to see it. I'm glad I saw it, and I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: probably will see the new one when it comes out
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: next year. But I don't ever need to watch this
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: one again. It just it didn't grab me the way
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: that I was hoping it would, and the ending didn't
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: justify investing three hours in this basically the way I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: feel at the end of SmackDown every week. But I
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: will happily watch The Batman over SmackDown. You give me
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: the option of those two, I will watch The Batman
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: ten times out of ten over SmackDown next flight, I
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: take I'm gonna starred the Penguin series on HBO Max.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: They didn't do nearly enough with his character in the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: MOVIEO though maybe that was by design because they knew
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: all along they were going to make a TV series
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: out of it. But I'm going to check that out.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: That one looks good now. Last week, the big news
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: was the two dozen or so talent cuts in WWE,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: which wasn't too much of a surprise given this usually
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: happens after WrestleMania, but it was the sheer number of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: names and some names like Kyrie Sain being on there
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a key storyline on TV, that
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: was a hard one to wrap my head around. That
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: just the timing of it. Dave Meltzer then speculated, which
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: is all it was, that it may have been a
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: case of Kyrie expressing her interest in returning to Japan,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: because that's what happened the last time she left the company.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: She wanted to go back home. Even if that was
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the case though this time around, and she was always
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: going to, you know, be here temporarily. I mean, she
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: has said that before. But even if that's the case,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the timing of it doesn't make any sense. It was
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: just so sudden. I reput those rumors seemingly to bed
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: with a post on social media saying what I can
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: say is, I know there's been a lot of speculation,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: but I truly love this work, my teammates and my fans.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I've never walked away, and I've given my all and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: everything I do. I hope you're all doing well. So
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: that makes it sound like, you know, more like it
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: was not her decision. And even if wwe had knowledge
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: of her desire to go back to Japan, as Dave
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: says in this week's Observer, why get rid of her
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: two weeks before backlash when you could at least pay
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: off the angle on the show, Like, is there some
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: rule that stipulates that all of the talents that you're
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: going to release have to be released at the same time.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: You know, they can get rid of her anytime they want.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Paula Beck and Nick con they put her name on
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: that list, And I would still love to know why,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: because we have a match between EO Sky and OSCA
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: coming up next weekend that isn't going to hit quite
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the same way now, and Mike Johnson in his PW
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Insider Q and A said that there has been a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: story bouncing around among talents in WWE that someone in
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the Tko realm, like the Shadow realm, isn't a fan
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: of darker characters, and that's been blamed on why the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Wyat's six and Alistair Black, for example, We're all let go,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: And also that one person even suggested to him that
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the Undertaker coming out as the American Badass and not
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: as the dead Man since he retired is proof of this,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: where in actuality that is proof of nothing. Since Undertaker
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: made it very clear when he retired that we would
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: never see him again donning the dead Man gear. If
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: we saw him on TV, it was going to be
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: on his motorcycle. And I think outside of one appearance
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: unrelated to WWE in Saudi Arabia a few years ago,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: because the Saudis are going to get what they want.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: If they want the dead Man, they're going to get
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the dead Man. So he did make one appearance to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: present some sort of trophy. I forgot what it was for.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: But outside of that, he's always come out on the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: motorcycle since he retired or just as the American badass
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that has absolutely nothing to do with TKO. So the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: fact that anybody in WWE would even think that immediately
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: casts out on the rest of this story. All the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: spooky character banned nonsense. I don't believe that for a second.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I think it's all bullshit. They did not want to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: pay them for doing nothing. WWE was doing next to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: nothing with these people. Collectively. That's a lot of money
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: off the books for them now, and that's why they're gone.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: It all comes down to dollars and cents with these people.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Case in point, the big news of the week. As
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: shocking as it was to see Kyrie's name on that
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: cutlass last week, this takes the cake here as the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: biggest shocker of all of them. The New Day Kofi
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Kingston and Xavier Woods gone from WWE, second longest reigning
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: tag team champions on the main WWE roster in history,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: behind only the Ussos, and two guys who I figured
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: were as close to lifers in that company as you're
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: ever gonna find. Of course, we know, especially in the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: TKO era, there's no such thing as a lifer. They
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: don't exist. They're like those unicorns that the New Day
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: used to talk about. But truly, New Day will go
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: down as one of the most successful, not even just
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: tag team acts, but just successful groups in WWE history.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Their longevity is unmatched. Even the Ussos broke up there
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: for a while, and they're actual brothers. New Day stayed
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: together for well over a decade since twenty fourteen. They
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: made that company a lot of money, a lot of
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: merch money. The Kofe Mania story in twenty nineteen was great,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: The payoff was great. Winning the WWE title of WrestleMania.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I mean that story kind of came out of nowhere.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Didn't end well for Kofe Kingston, but you know, he
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: could always say that he won the ww Championship at WrestleMania.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: How many people can say that? Not too many. His
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: name is on a very elite listen now, a list
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that includes names like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage and
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the Ultimate Warrior and Brett Hart, Sean Michaels, Stone, Cold
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Steve Austin. The Rock, I guess would have been on
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: that list had he won the belt at sixteen and
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: not at Backlash. Yeah. Shockingly, The Rock is zero for
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: four in title matches at WrestleMania, but Triple H is
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: on there, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Cody Rhoades, all of
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: these men have won that title of WrestleMania, and Kofee's
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: name will forever be on that list. Kofe signed with
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: them in two thousand and six, so twenty years ago.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Woods he had been there since twenty ten. Biggie was
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a very big part of what made the New Day
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: work and ever since he got dropped on his head
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and he was forced into an early retirement, New Day
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: has never been the same. They kept it going, but
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: it just wasn't going to work with anybody else. So
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: once they dropped, and look, we can go back to
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: when it looked like they were going to be adding
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Odyssey Joan and obviously that went nowhere because they got
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: rid of Odissey Jones. Would that have gone on to
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: become some big success. Would he have been able to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: successfully take that third spot in the group? Probably not
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: looking at WWE Creative, probably not. We'll never know, but
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: it was just never going to be the same, you know,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: without Big Ee in there. So once they just became
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: a tag team only and not a trio, it just
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: lost a lot of its luster. But also the longer
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: you know that things go on for people get tired
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: of it. It doesn't hit quite the same way anymore
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: when you're doing the same shtick over and over again,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: unless you change it, if you evolve it, maybe you
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: go from babyface to heel. Something has to change. I mean,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: you look at characters that have stood the test of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: time in that company over the I mentioned the Undertaker before.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: To his credit, the Undertaker, who had been there forever
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: as an active performer, he just change. He evolved his character.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking babyface to heel. Heel to babyface.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: He evolved over the years. If you don't evolve, you
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: die eventually. And so that was also a problem with
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the New Day. It's like you get tired of the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: same stick after a while if you don't change it up.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: But then came the heel turn. At the end of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, they were celebrating ten years of the
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: New Day, and they turned it into a pissing contest
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: about how abandoned they felt by Big E after he
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: got hurt and how he wasn't there for them, and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: they because they had been having all these issues and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: it looked like Kofee and Woods were headed for a
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: big breakup, a big fight, and then they just turned
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: around and blamed it all on Big E, which was
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: a stretch. I'm not going to say that it was
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: some great storyline. I mean, it wasn't a great story,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: but they were able to take that and generate a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: ton of heat using Big Ee. They found a way
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to use Bigie to get heat on Kofee and Woods,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and so it made for great TV that night. It
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: was a different side of the New Day that we
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen before, the more serious side. Right, finally we're
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: going to drop the silliness that had kind of played
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: itself out and get a little more serious here. It
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: was time for a fresh coat of paint. And I
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: thought for sure this meant that Big Ee was either
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: cleared or they thought he was about to get cleared,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and they were building to something with him, a wrestle
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Mania That return never came because Biggie was not cleared,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and Biggie in fact is retired and he will never
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: wrestle again. Not only was he not cleared, but they
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: clearly had no plans on how to follow up on
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: such a hot angle. And they let it fizzle out.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: One of the great fumbles of the Levec administration. They
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: can come up with a great idea, but they don't
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: know how to follow up with it and stick the landing.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: They know how to execute the initial idea and not
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: much else after that. That happened in December of twenty
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: twenty four, not even three months later, they turned John
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Cena heel and the same thing, hot opening angle, absolutely
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: no good idea on how to follow up on it,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and it sucked. That is his greatest fumble is the
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Johnson Heel turn. The New Day turn isn't too far
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: behind that, And looking back at it now now that
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I talk about it, like because they happened so close together,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you know what, they would have been better off pairing
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: New Day up with John Cena, like all the good
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: guys are suddenly breaking bad. You know, they could have
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: had a similar like similar motivations where they felt like
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: people had turned their backs on them. I wouldn't call
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: them lackeys for Sena, but I guess you could kind
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of look at it that way. But it would have
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: put Kofe and Woods in a much more prominent position
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: on the show and on those weeks where John Cena
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't there because remember we only had what was it,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: thirty six dates, then they could have stood in for
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: him like the USO's do when Roman isn't around. But see,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: this would have required some actual forethought to be put
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: into it, and I don't get the sense there's a
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: whole lot of advanced planning going on when they come
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: up with some of these ideas, Like they get really
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: excited about it, like, hey, we got this great idea,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and again they can execute it, but then they have
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: no idea what to do next, like the dog catching
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: the car. Now what didn't help that the tag team
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: division is dead in this company and clearly is not
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a priority for them. New Day had not had a
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: pl match together since WrestleMania last year, and the only
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: reason they even got that was because their match was
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: tied into a video game sponsorship that they had. You
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: remember that was with them against the Viking Raiders and
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: there was some fucking game I don't remember what it was.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Literally the only reason that match even made the wrestle
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Media card last year because at the time it would
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: have made a lot more sense for the SmackDown team.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: SmackDown was killing it in the tag team division. And
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I remember looking at this going, wait a minute, you
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: put the raw tag team title match on the Wrestle
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Media card and you bumped the SmackDown guys to television,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And it didn't make any sense until you realize now
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: they had a video game sponsorship. That's why they got
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: on the show. So what the hell happened here? Well,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez is reporting that in the case of the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: New Day, it was their decision to leave only after
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: TKO came to them about restructuring their existing contracts. Evidently
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: they didn't like those deals that were being offered to
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: them and they did not agree to this, and instead
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: they requested their release and it was granted and per
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: fight for the belief is that they had just signed
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: brand new contracts last year, which were not due to
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: expire until two thousand and thirty, so their deals weren't
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: even up. They were still in year one of a
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: five year deal for each of them, and it sounds
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: like TKO wanted them to take a pay cut and
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: they said, no, we're going to take our business elsewhere,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: thank you very much. Now please let us go, And
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: so they're bound by the same ninety day period that
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: anybody else on the main roster would be if they
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: were given their release again, it's technically a ninety day
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: notice of termination. They will still be paid for those
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: ninety days, at which point they will be free to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: sign wherever they wish. Kofe and Woods, I mean, look,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: they make well into the seven figure range. They were
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: being paid a lot, and they were doing very little
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: on TV. So it's very possible that ww and TKO
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: looked at the roster and they saw the New Day
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: and they say, well, we're not getting a lot of
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: return in our investment here. Whose fault is that? It's
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: not their fault. It's not a failure of the New Day.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I'm sure if it were up to the New Day,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: they'd booked themselves in fucking multiple segments on the show
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: every single week. That's the failure of WWE and TKO.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: You signed these men to top dollar contracts and you
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: treated them like bottom dollar bitches who you would parade
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: out there most of the time during commercial breaks. And
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: if that's all you were going to do with them,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: then you shouldn't have signed them for that much money
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: in the first place. It's not like TKO just acquired
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the company last year. We're in year three now of
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: this new ownership. Why were they offered so much money
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to resign if they had no plans for them? Why
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: was Santos Escobar who rejected their offers to resign and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: allowed his contract to expire last year? Why was he
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: offered so much more money to lure him back in
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: only for them to fire him six months later At
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: a time, mind you, when he is out injured after
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: two surgeries, since the first one apparently got botched up,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: he had to go under the knight for a second time.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Why is no thought put into how they actually plan
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: to utilize these talents before signing them, instead of just
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: throwing money at them just to keep them from leaving
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and going somewhere else, and then giving them the thought
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that they had some level of job security, only to
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: turn around and say, you know what, on second thought,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: we don't want to pay you that much money. Goodbye.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: But this is how Endeavor operates. Look at what happened
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: when they bought the UFC. They fired Chuck Lddel and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Matt Hughes, two UFC Hall of famers who Dana White
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: put on the payroll after they retired. He put them
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: in some kind of executive position. It was largely ceremonial,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: but it was like their way of saying thank you
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: for your service. And as soon as Endeavor took over,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: they were shit can They were the first on the
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: chopping block. They don't care about that sort of thing.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: It is purely business for them. They don't care how
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: long you've been there. They don't care what your contributions
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: have been, or how well liked you may be with
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: your peers or the fans. You know, the sweat equity
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: that you've put in. They don't give a shit. This
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: isn't the first time that somebody in the history of
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: wrestling has been asked to renegotiate their deal in the
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: middle of their contract. I mean that's not like an
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: it's not exclusive to Endeavor or TKO. I mean sometimes
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: it works the other way, and if somebody gets super
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: over or the company is really happy with the work
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: they're putting out, they may be asked to renegotiate at
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: a higher salary so they can lock them in for
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: more years. That's what happened just recently in aw with Tecla.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I think she was one year into what may have
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: been a three year deal, and apparently Tony Kah went
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: to her and said, hey, want to offer you more
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: money and lock you in for longer. So she signed
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: a higher money deal. She was maybe a year into
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: her existing one. So it can go the other way too,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: although that's rare. I mean, usually you hear about it.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: It's the other way around. I mean. Brett Hart was
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: famously asked to renegotiate the twenty year contract that he
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: signed with Vince McMahon. He was a year in and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: on a twenty year deal. Times were tough for WWE
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, so he went to Brett and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: he asked Brett to, you know, restructure his deal in
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: a way that would defer a lot of the money
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: that he was owed to the back end of the deal,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: basically take a pay cut for a while. And Brett
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: told him to go kick rocks, and he was right, mean,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: think about it. Put yourself in his shoes. If times
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: are that tough and things are very dire, and the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: company was very close in ninety seven to one point
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to having to file for bankruptcy, and your boss comes
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: to you and says, hey about that deal that you
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: signed last year, all that money, he owed, why don't
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: we defer that to the back end of the deal? Right?
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: You don't even know if the come but he's going
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: to be around a year from now. You may not
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: end up getting that money. You'd have to be an
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: idiot to say yes to that. I don't blame him
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: for saying no. He told him to go kick Rocks,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: as was his right, so Vince gave him permission to
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: go negotiate with WCW. He goes, look, I'm gonna have
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: to breach your contract and I'll give you permission to
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: go negotiate with Turner, which is what he did. And
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, which Bread didn't want to do,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: but then he signed with them, got himself a sweetheart deal.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: And then after that, all of a sudden, Vince came
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: back to him and said, hey, you know what, We've
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: turned things around. Don't need to worry. I can afford
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to pay you. It's like, what the are you fucking
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: kidding me? I already signed with them, But these things,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: they become a lot easier to understand when you realize
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: that they don't really care about you. That's why Vince
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: famously never liked to deal with lawyers or agents. I
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: want to deal with the talent directly. I don't like lawyers.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I don't like agents. Of course he doesn't. He's the
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: fucking head of the company. No CEO loves to deal
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: with lawyers or agents because with your lawyer or your agent,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: their priority is you, not your employer. They're supposed to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: look out for your best interests. Your employer's goal is
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: to look out for their own best interests. You're a
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: distant number two. So when you think about it like that,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: these things become a little bit easier to understand. Make
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: no mistake, New Day chose to walk not because they
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: didn't want to be there, but because wwe didn't want
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: them there anymore. Bad enough, because if they did, they
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: never would have asked them to restructure their deals in
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the first place, knowing that this would likely be the
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: end result. Now they can say, well, you know, they
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: chose to lead, we didn't fire them, which is technically true,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: but I mean it's still bullshit. Well, the way I
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: see it, this is the best thing that could have
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: happened to those two guys. Honestly, Now they have the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: freedom to control their own destiny. And they are going
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: to clean up. Like PW Insider says, there's already a
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: lot of excitement as I'm sure there is in AAW
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: about the possibility of them coming in. We've already he's
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: seen a number of AW talents on social media posting
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things about New Day. Even MJF was like, Oh,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: it's a new Day, Yes it is. They're all excited
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: about this, the New Day against the Young Bucks. Amean,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: are you kidding me? That's a dream match for those
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: two teams. They've been talking about it for years. Kenny
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Omega has wanted to work with those guys for a
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: long time. They I don't remember what video game convention.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: It was something street Fighter related probably, but they all
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: ended up in the same place once a few years
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: ago doing video game shit and everybody was losing their
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: minds about it, like, oh my god, one day this
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: is going to be a dream match. Well guess what
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: that dream is about to become a reality. They have
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: contracts ready and waiting for them. All they need to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: do is put pen to paper after their ninety days
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: are up, and just in time for Wembley Stadium. By
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the way, that's a no brainer to me. You add
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: in the MotorCity machine Guns, and WWE just did more
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: for Tony Kahn's Tag Team Division than they did for
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Nick cons. The WWE Tag Team Division is dead. Two
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: sets of tag belts for a division that, if you
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: were to merge them together from Raw and SmackDown, would
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: still be near the bottom of the all time list
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: of worst tag team divisions in history. Meanwhile, aw could
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: be looking at a division in a few months that
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: has the Young Bucks, the New Day FTR, the MotorCity
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: machine Guns, the Hurt Syndicate, and about half a dozen
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: other teams. I can't even name them all right now,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: not to mention for a New Day got the independent circuit,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: You've got the gaming conventions. I mean, think of all
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the things that these guys are going to have the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: freedom to start doing in a few months. WWE did
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: these two guys a favor. They should send Ari Emanuel
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and Mark Shapiro a gift basket full of bootios. Instead
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: of wasting away the rest of their careers in ad
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: breaks on Netflix, They'll actually be able to write their
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: own ending to their story. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: though they chose to leave two men who did not
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: choose to leave as we know, but they are in
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: fact on their way out. You can add them to
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the cutlist are J C. Matteo and Tongaloa. Yes, the
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Great Tongaloa gone from WWE. Talatoga he missed SmackDown last week.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: That wasn't a good sign, but apparently he was in
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: concussion protocol, which is why he was back on the
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: show this week. But the MFTs were down to two
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: on Friday. I don't know where Tomatonga was on Friday night,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: but we had Solo Socoa and we had Talatanga on
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: SmackDown wrestling the USOS in the main event of SmackDown,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: because of course they did. It's not enough to have
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the key storyline on Mondays. We need more bloodlined lore
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: on Fridays because this company is devoid of any fresh ideas. Look,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: you know my thoughts on the MFTs. The group was
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: very boring. They're few, but the Wyatts was boring. It
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: made for boring, terrible television, but that is how WWE
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: chose to present them and utilize them on TV. Jeff
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Cobb debuted with them last year of Backlash, so he
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: fell just short of one full year on TV. And
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: you mean to tell me that in that year that
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Jeff Cobb was with this company, this is the best
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: they could come up with for the guy. I'm not
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: saying he was lighting it up on TV every week
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: with his charismatic personality. If it was there, he never
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: got a chance to show it. But slapping that dumb
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: face paint on him and keeping him as a mute
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: was not going to get him over. What got him
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: over in New Japan or in Lucha Underground where they
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: put him under a mask was his work in the ring.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: In w w E, this is more of an emphasis
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: on characters and personalities and promo time. He never even
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: got that, So I was excited to see what he
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: could do when he first came in, with guys like
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Seamus and Drew McIntyre and Bronson Reid and Sammy Zain
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: and Penta and so on. He had one match with
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: La Knight in his street clothes, his first match in
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: a match with Our Truth, and two fucking matches Jimmy
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Usso that's it in one year. That was it the
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: entire year he was there. The rest were tag matches
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: with the MFTs, most of which came against the Wyatts.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: That is how Jeff Cobbs spent his one and only
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: year in WWE. But I also pointed out when the
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: rumors first started flying last year about the possibility of
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: him signing with the company. How you know he was
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: forty two years old right now he would be forty three,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I think going on forty four this July, and for
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: him it may have been an hour never type of
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: deal where and I think the MotorCity Machine Guns would
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: fall into the same category. Why did they choose WWE
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: over AW even though AW seemed like it would be
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: a better fit. Right, They never worked for WWE, and
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: they're not getting any younger. It's now or never, right,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: I have to try this because if I don't, I
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: don't want to look back years from now and say, man,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: what could have been? I missed my shot to see
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: how I would do in WWE. And it may have
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: been that way for Jeff Cuss Well, he tried it.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: It didn't work out, but he's gonna have plenty of
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: opportunities out there for him after these ninety days are up.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: He moved from Japan to the United States. I don't
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: know that he would want to move back there. I
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: know he lived over there for seven or eight years,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: so I don't know if a full time return to
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: New Japan would be in the cards for him, But
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: aw does have the working relationship with New Japan. If
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: he ends up there, he could still work some New
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Japan dates if he wants to. Tondaloa. He debuted Backlash
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four in spectacular fashion. Okay, he didn't
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: get out from under the ring fast enough to break
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: up one of the near falls in the match. I mean,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: what can I say? You know, I mean, you can't
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: be surprised by this. I was surprised when they first
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: brought him back, and good for him. He got a
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: short run out of it. But I mean, this never
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: felt to me like it was going to be a
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: long term thing. Now. WWE held a town hall on Monday,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: and WWE President Nick Cohn was a among the executives
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: in attendance. You mentioned there that Paul Levek is going
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to continue in his role as the head of Creative.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: This was according to sources who viewed the town hall
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and inform Post Wrestling, who had the story Post Wrestling,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: which also obtained audio of the call, and it was
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: mentioned there that a number of us is a Nick
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: conspiegg A number of us, including Mark Shapiro and Andrew Schlimer,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: who's the CFO of TKO. We're able to get Paul
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Leveck to extend with us in a multi year deal.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: As we've seen though with all of these talent releases,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: whether you're a talent or an executive, doesn't usually matter
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: how many years you signed for. The minute they want
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: to get rid of you, you're gone. But he also
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: addressed Nick con did online criticism of WWE because he
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: was prompted by a question that was read by Mark
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Shapiro asking how WWE is addressing quote concerns about over
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: commercialization and creative direction, which are two very valid things
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: to criticize WWE for. But he pushed back on recent
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: criticism of WWE's product, and Nick Con does what Nick
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Con always does, and he characterized it as coming from
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: a vocal minority. He said to me, if you make
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: business decisions based on online sentiment, just know that you're
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: going to be making said decisions on a minority percentage
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: of voices, a vocal minority. Allow me to give you
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: an example. Now, let me stop it before I even
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: get into the rest of this bullshit, let me stop
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: right there. Nobody is saying the wwe should make important
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: decisions or all of their important decisions based strictly upon
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: online sentiment or what people are saying on X at
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: any given moment. Right, nobody is saying. Nobody that you
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: should take seriously is saying that. But as you'll notice here,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: as I get into these examples that he gives, he
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: makes these very broad generalizations, like you can't expect us
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: to make decisions based on what people are saying on X.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on, now, that would be ridiculous, as
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: if there is no valid criticism of the current products
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: or their business model, or any sort of valid criticism
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: to at least consider that maybe there is a segment
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: of your fan base who feels a certain way, who's
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: up in their feelings for whatever reason about your product.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: But because it's a vocal minorities he describes it, it's
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: basically irrelevant and we don't even pay any attention to
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: it because Nick con has said, I don't read any
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: of that stuff, right, That's what he has said before.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: But then he goes on to produce various examples of
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: what he is referring to. He goes, allow me to
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: give you an example, and he was reading online. Now,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: maybe one of his assistants put this together for him,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but he read. What he said was
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a comment about Roman Reigns from six years earlier. He said,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: but I can't remember the last time the WWE universe
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: hated a wrestler this much. He will never work reading
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: what I have to assume is a tweet. This was
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: from when Roman was still doing the big dog stuff.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: So then he goes on to recount the negative fan
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: reaction to Roman after his Royal Rumble win in twenty fifteen,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: and again credit to Post Wrestling for this story here.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: But con made a comment. He said, when Roman Reigns
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: won the Royal Rumblin twenty fifteen, fans went to Twitter
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: with the hashtag cancel WWE network. It trended for two days.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Now let me stop there. Same thing applies. If you
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: were to read off every hashtag that people start on
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: social media, right, you would come up with just hundreds
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: of them for various things that they want to see.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Cancel this fire this person, push this guy. They conveniently, though,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: you know, he gives an example like this, Well, you
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: know there was a cancel WWE network hashtag and you
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: know it trended for two days and next to nobody
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: actually canceled the WWE network. Why doesn't he talk about
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: the hashtag give Divas a Chance, which I think was
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: from that same year. I didn't see anything here in
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: this little transcript of him mentioning the give Divas a
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Chance hashtag, which they themselves acknowledge. It's part of their
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: documented history now when they pat themselves on the back
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: for the Divas Revolution in twenty fifteen, when they called
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: up all these women from NXT and they got rid
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: of the Butterfly Belt and they brought back the Women's Championship.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Is that not an example of this so called vocal
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: minority actually making a difference, a positive difference in this company. Now,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: we don't talk about that. We only talk about the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: bullshit like cancel WWE Network. He read another tweet, why
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: does WWE insult fans like this with a bum like
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Roman Reigns. Then he read a response that was related
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: to bad Bunny. I'm losing my mind. Why is bad
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Bunny in the WWE? Bad Bunny single handedly ruined the
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Royal Rumble. This is from a commet that referred had
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: to be from the twenty twenty two Royal Rumble, by
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the way, I mean compared to especially the recent like
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Pat McAfee stuff and everything that we had to sit through.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I don't recall there being quite as much disdain for
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the involvement of Bad Bunny, especially heading into that match
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: and coming out of that match that he had at
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Backlash a few years ago in Puerto Rico with Damian Preeze,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: which was fucking awesome, but he found one of the
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Bad Bunny tweets where people were shitting on him at
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: the time. Then there's this one on the Rocks return
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: to WWE. The people don't want the People's champion. The
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Rock came back one too many times and now people
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: are sick of him. Again, Let's think back two years ago,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: because some of us have selective memory. Here, the Rock
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: came back, The Rock was gonna wrestle Roman reigns at WrestleMania.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: They had Cody Rhoades win the Royal Rumble. With knowledge
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: that this is what was going to happen, they still
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: had Cody win the Royal Rumble. All for Cody Rohase
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: to go out there on television looking like his dog
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: died and voluntarily hand over his title match a WrestleMania,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: A Roman reigns, and so the Rock, of course hears
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: and sees all of the negativity online in what I
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: was told was a vocal minority. You would think, why
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: would the Rock care about this? We're just the vocal
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: minority here. He doesn't give a shit about what we
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: have to say. Evidently he does, and the people around
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: him were like, hey, this is kind of bad for
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: your image here, and to his credit, the Rock said,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: we got to change this. We got to go a
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: different way. That's how we ended up with the Final
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Boss and the build to that Wrestle Media a couple
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: of years ago actually turned out to be a hell
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: of a ride. We have not seen anything like that since.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Does that happen though, if people don't react negatively to
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: it on social media? The answer is no. The answer
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: is no, But that doesn't never get mentioned here. So
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: then Nick con he cited criticism of John Cena, says,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: on John Cena's retirementur, who needs a John Cena retirement tour?
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Haven't we seen enough of him? John Cena's retirementor was
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: so random. Yes, he's actually using examples now to deflect
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: from the horrendous booking of one of the biggest stars
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: in the history of their company, his booking in his
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: final year. It's the fans' fault because they were just
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: shitting all over this, on and on and on and
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: on with this. And so when you see this, you
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: realize just how disingenuous he really is being, because Nick
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: con is not a stupid person. He knows exactly what
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: he's doing here. He is deflecting away from genuine criticism
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: about the state of this product. Right, the company's still
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: making all this money, right, they're talking about all these
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: different records that they keep shattering. But the fact is
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the on air product has not been this bad in
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: a very long time, especially on Fridays. Monday is a
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: more enjoyable, tolerable show generally. But let's not sit here
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: and pretend that the WWE product right now, man, it's
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: on fire. No, it's a dumpster fire. It's not on fire.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Or if it is on fire, it's not in the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: way that you mean. But like the over commercialization of
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania this year, are you trying to insinuate that it's
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: a vocal minority that are saying that. Did you not
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: have people on fucking television on ESPN that were saying
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: the same thing. You have people coming out of WrestleMania,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: people you had legends and Hall of famers who worked
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: for your company or used to work for your company,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: who said the same fucking thing. The show felt soulless,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: So Kevin Nash said there were a lot of people
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: who were talking about the over commercialization of WrestleMania this year.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: It didn't feel like a WrestleMania. It felt like a
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: commercial that was interrupted by the occasional wrestling match. But
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to hear him talk about it, it's like, no, you know,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: these criticisms don't really hold any water because it's a
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: very vocal minority that's saying it, and you and I
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: both know that is complete bullshit and he is being
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: completely disingenuous when he says that. Now, also at this
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: town hall, there were other things discussed, including the situation
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia because they're going to be going back
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia at the end of June for Night
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: of Champions, and Nick Cohn said that they are monitoring
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: the situation in the Middle East, given that that show
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: is coming up here in a couple of months, actually
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: not a couple of months, coming up in the end
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: of June next month. But according to audio obtained by
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Post Wrestling of the internal call, con stated that WWE
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: would only run Night of Champions in Saudi and would
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: not hold the surrounding Raw or SmackDown events there, which
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: is something they usually do. Locations for what would be
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: SmackDown and Raw respectively on June twenty sixth and June
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: twenty ninth are not currently announced. He said, We're only
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: going to go if it's safe or if we're allowed there.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: We are monitoring with our heads of security internally and
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: with our government affairs folks externally. If US citizens were
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: allowed in at this moment in time, it is declared
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: and deemed safe, then we will all be going there.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Saudi is deeply desirous of getting WWE back there and
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: getting events restarted, especially those that come from the United States.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: They also seem to acknowledge the challenge of running WrestleMania
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: in the same location back to back years. He said,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: that was ultimately my decision. Maybe we don't do that
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: one again. In terms of back to back, but ultimately
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: it ended up being a successful event. And that's about
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: as much of an admission as you're ever going to
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: get from him. So that's saying a lot where he's
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: basically like, yeah, maybe we won't do that again. We
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: made a lot of money, which, yeah, that's the whole
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: reason they went back. I mean, they got some sweet
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: tax incentives. That's why they went back to do Vegas again.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: And they pulled it, you know, yanked it away from
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: New Orleans. But you're in between the lines there he's
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: basically saying, yeah, that was my call, and maybe we
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: don't do that again. But then he also had a
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: little teaser to the stay there about the location announcement,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: and there's no sense of when this announcement will be made.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: It will probably be leaked at some point, but the
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: location not for next year, but for twenty twenty eight
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: for WrestleMania. This is what he said, Wait until you
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: hear the announcement on where we're going to be for
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania in twenty twenty eight. And he offered no further
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: hints or anything about the location. But then we also
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: get this this week from Post Wrestling, The Nashville Convention
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: and Visitor's Corps confirmed to Post Wrestling on Thursday that
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the organization, which serves as the city's tourism agency, is
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: making an effort to bring WrestleMania to Nashville, and when
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: asked by posts about the possibility of Mania coming to
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: Nashville in twenty twenty eight, a communications representative for the
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: agency wrote back to us and said, we are working
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: on a future date with them. This follows reports from
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: both Brian Alvarez and Wrestle Volts Radio on Fightful Select
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that have recently stated the WWE is in active negotiations
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: re guarding a future WrestleMania possibly taking place in Nashville, Tennessee.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: If finalized, WWE would take its biggest event of the
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: year to the new Nissan Stadium, the future home of
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: the NFL's Tennessee Titans. The seventy thousand seat capacity venue
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: is scheduled to open next year, and city officials hope
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: that an announcement regarding the event could be made very
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: soon that comes. According to fight Full, if WWE hosts
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania in Nashville, it likely won't be for some time.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Next year's show is scheduled in Riod and then WWE
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: is also expected to eventually give New Orleans, Louisiana another Mania,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: although it has not been specified how long they will
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: have to wait before getting that event, because again, they
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: were originally going to host the event this year. The
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: latest reports aren't the first time that news has surfaced
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: about Nashville trying to bring WrestleMania to the city. Earlier
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: this month, tourism groups and others involved with trying to
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: attract the event to Nashville told Fox seventeen that they
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: were hoping to be the host city in twenty twenty seven,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: but that it did not work out for the event.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: And I mentioned that last week where it was kind
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: of weird. There was a story about that that came out.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, we already knew this, like it
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: was announced for Saudi a long time ago, and it
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: was almost like Nashville had just found out that it
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: fell through. So that was a little weird the way
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: that Nick con was hyping up the announcement here. I
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: would be very surprised if it was just Nashville. I mean,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: no offense to Nashville. I'm sure it's a beautiful city,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: but he's talking about this like, wait until you find
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: out where this is going to be. And it's like
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: if they announced New Orleans or they announced in Nashville,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, all right. Like I heard that, my
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: first thought was London, and I'm sure there's a lot
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: of UK fans out there dying for a WrestleMania They
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: were also hoping and are still hoping for the same thing.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: The more I think about it, though, do you really
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: think that WWE would want to run back to back
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania is outside the US. I mean, it would be
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: hard for me to imagine that coming out of Ria.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: They wouldn't want to bring it back here and then
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: maybe after that go back overseas. But then again, I
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: mean they're motivated by money. They would run Saudi Arabia
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: and Uzbekistan back to back if the offer was big enough.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: TKO Financial Officer Chief financial Officer Andrew Schleimer spoke at
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: the town hall about the company's use of AI. This
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: became a big story during the week. Yeah, I saw
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: the company's use of AI myself when I saw that
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Tsaria and sol Ruca segment from NXT on Tuesday Night.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: They were doing Tuesday Night Titans on JD's channel, and
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: everybody in the chat was like, this is terrible AI
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: soul Ruka. I'm like, what, like, is there a fucking
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: hologram or something on TV of sol Ruka. So I
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: went back and I watched it after and dude, it's
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: fucking terrible. It looked like something out of a video game.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: It didn't even look like her. Then the sees are
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: partying for AI. It looked like something that James Cameron
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: would put together, although he would want to have nothing
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: to do with WWE, I'm sure. And it's like, really
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: like this, this is the future of vignettes on these
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: television shows. You have all of this money, and you
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: have all of this talent, and you resort to this
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: bullshit for your heype packages. I mean, we're not talking
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: about a graphic or a thumbnail or anything like that.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: We're talking about a full ass promo video. I don't
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: really understand what the purpose of this is. It just
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: looks fucking terrible. But that's not the use of AI
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: that we're necessarily talking about here. Andrew Schleimer. He noted
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: that they've only run tests and pilots and are still
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: in the early stages of their usage of AI when
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: it comes to WWE. He cited the use of AI
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: for data and analytics on WWE and UFC consumers, as
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: well as minor uses to enhance broadcasts. Mark Shapiro called
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: the company's embrace of AI a major priority, emphasizing how
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: AI could help employees become more efficient and productive, and
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: he noted how the UFC uses AI for fighter rankings
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and explain We's use of it this way, Nick Con
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: and Triple H are using AI for storylines with WWE.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: What's resonating, what superstars are resonating, what pockets of the
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: country are they resonating. That helps us with obviously our content,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: our editorial, our creative our mapping, our touring, and of
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: course maximizing revenue and getting our product out to the
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: fans most in need of it, most in need of it.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Nobody needs WWE, that's number one. WWE. It's like when
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: they were one of the only businesses to be deemed
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: an essential business in the pandemic. Give me a fucking break.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: I don't care what your thoughts were about, you know,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: wrestling going on during the pandemic, And look as somebody
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: who covers this for a living and is also a fan.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: I was very grateful to have wrestling when there wasn't
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: anything else going on. All the other sports were shut down,
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: other television shows were in reruns, right Hollywood shut down.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: As a wrestling fan and a content creator, it was
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: great that we had wrestle during the pandemic. But like
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: in the State of Florida, the idea that you would
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: deem WWE in essential business is a fucking farce. You
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: have to admit that nobody needs WWE. But I knew
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: this was going to make headlines here, and sure enough
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: it did. And you have all these people who were like, oh,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: this is proof that WWE is using AI to you know,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: write their storylines. And that's not how I read this,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I read this as they're using it for analytics.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: They're using it for you know, to determine what's working
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: and what's not, what's what's resonating, as Shapiro said, with
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: audiences and what's not. They're not actually utilizing AI in
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: the writer's room to write the stories themselves. Although as
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: bad as their television is gotten, I can see why
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: people would think that they have AI writing their shows,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: But this is not the big you know, breaking news story.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: I think some people were making it out to be,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: which is not to say that at some point we
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: won't hear the They are starting to sort of toy
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: with that. I mean, I think in the past they've
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: said that they kind of toyed with it just to
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: see what the output would be and it was fucking terrible.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: But no, we're not yet at the stage where they're
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: just having AI write all of their storylines for them.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: And if you're someone who works for WWE as a writer,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that you are pushing back on that very hard,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: because the last thing you want is for AI to
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: take your job away from you, which is happening unfortunately
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: in a lot of other industries right now. Some other
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: news here, all future nxtplees have found a new home,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: actually two new homes. First, the CW Network and WWE
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: announced that all NXT premium live events will be airing
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: exclusively on the CW, beginning with the Great American Bash
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: later this summer. The CW will broadcast twenty plees in
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: their entirety live on both coasts over the next several years,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: including Stand and Deliver, Deadline of Vengeance Day, with the
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: addition of those ples. The network is now the exclusive
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: home for all NXT programming, and that word exclusive is
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: doing a lot of heavy lifting, because the day after
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: this was announced, came word that those same plees, as
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: well as the weekly NXTCW show, will also be available
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: on ESPN Unlimited for domestic subscribers. This is part of
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: a deal for all CW sports programming to air on
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: ESPN Unlimited, so basically those two parties made their own deal.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Can it really be NXT's exclusive home though? If they're
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: airing in two different places, that's not really what exclusive means.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: The NXT events will stay on the ESPN Unlimited service
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: for thirty days and then they will disappear, so they
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: won't be archived there for very long, but you will
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: still be able to find them on the CW's streaming service.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: You know. Stand and Deliver aired on WWE's YouTube channel,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: and the live numbers were not great. Was somewhere in
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: the one hundred and fifty thousand range, although last I checked,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: the video was now up over eight hundred thousand views. Selfishly,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: I wish they would have kept it on YouTube like
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: they do with those weekly Triple A shows because it's
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: free and it allows for easier access. But I mean,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: whatever they're making off the deal with CW is obviously
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: more than they think they will make off of the
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: ad revenue from YouTube. Those Google ad Sense checks just
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: weren't going to cut it for them, I guess. But
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: the bigger programming news of the week was SmackDown moving
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: back to two hours. Bodyslam dot Net broke the news
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: saying sources indicate to body Slam that Smackdom will be
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: leaving the three hour format and going back to two
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: hours in a few weeks. Excuse me as I do
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: my happy dance. I'm gonna do the Dance of Joy.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: All you Perfect Strangers fans, you remember Balki and the
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: Dance of Joy. I'm doing it right now. You just
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: can't see it. Brian Alvarez on X said, WWE's contract
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: with USA Network stipulates three hour shows from January until
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the end of June every year, so this will be
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: an ongoing thing, and we have two more months of
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: three hour shows to survive. July through the end of
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: December will be two hours. So the first three hour
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: SmackDown that was in January of twenty twenty five, and
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: it was on July fourth last year that the show
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: reverted back to the two hour format, and then again
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: this year at the beginning of January it went right
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: back to three hours. So this is going to be
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: an ongoing thing every year, which sucks. But I'll take
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: my victories where I can get them. Two more months
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: of this shit, but then we'll be back to two
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: hours on Fridays, which means I can go live on
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: YouTube an hour earlier. Of course, the thing of it
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: is as great as this news is, as happy as
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: I am. This does not mean the show is going
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: to all of a sudden get better, but I will
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: always say it, two hours of bad television is always
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: going to be better than three hours of bad television.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it still comes down
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: to creative It comes down to the talent that you have,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: the hand that you have to play. Who is availed
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: and what are we going to do with them? Whether
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: the show is an hour, two hours, three hout I
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: was going to say four hours. I don't want to
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: give them any ideas no matter how long the show is.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: What dictates how great the show is or how terrible
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: the show is is how are you utilizing the talents
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: that you have at your disposal, what are the stories
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: that you are telling, Who are you pushing, who are
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: you not? This doesn't change any of that. What it
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: does do it takes an hour away, which means there
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: may be certain talents who ordinarily would get a spot
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: on the show who now either won't or it's going
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: to be a lot harder for them. And I got
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: a couple of comments, not too many, but a couple
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: of comments. You know, Oh, the hypocrisy of criticizing the
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: company for releasing talents, but then you're happy that there's
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: one less hour of TV. And I always say it
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: comes down to this, You're never going to be able
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: to get it, except maybe you're very very top guys.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: You're never going to be able to get everybody that
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: you want to on the show every single week. Not
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: everybody has to be on the show every single week.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: There is a way you look at the active roster.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: You decide, Okay, what talents do we want to use,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: what stories are going on, and then you rotate talents
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: in and out as needed. That might mean every other week.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: It might mean that somebody shows up for three weeks
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Missus two and then comes back whatever they are able
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: to come up with, there is a way to rotate
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: people in and out as opposed to I don't know.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: I'll just throw a name out there for you, someone
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: like Ray Phoenix on SmackDown, who simply never shows up
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: on the show. Do you honestly believe that if SmackDown
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: was going to continue to be three hours until the
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: end of the year, that all of a sudden, Ray
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Phoenix is going to magically show up on the show
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: every single week? Where is he now? The show has
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: been three hours for many months. What were they doing
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: with the MotorCity machine guns before they fired them? What
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: are they doing right now with Ray Phoenix? What are
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: they doing with Los Garza, all these middle of the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: card people right now? That some of these folks who
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: post shit like this are like, oh yoh, the hypocrisy
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: of it. What about these folks who are not going
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: to have that extra hour of television time? What does
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: that mean if they're not being used anyway, It's an
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: hour less for them to be sitting on their ass
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: in the back. It doesn't change anything. So yes, I
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: would much rather the show be two hours than three hours.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: They still have to get their shit together and figure
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: it how to actually used these people. I see Ray
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Phoenix now wants to challenge for one of the championships
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: in TRIPLEA good. I hope they put the belt on him.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: I hope they do. At least there he'll be used
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: because it's not like he's doing anything on SmackDown right now.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: This won't change that. No CM Punk on WWE television
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: this week. He was not on Raw, he was not
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: on SmackDown. But we're still talking about his very eventful
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: trip to Las Vegas where he had that outstanding main
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: event on Night two of WrestleMania, lost his World Heavyweight
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: Championship to Roman Reigns, and apparently had a few other
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: matches that we were not aware of. Because now there
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: is a second fan that is a QCM Punk of
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: shoving him in Las Vegas over WrestleMania a weekend. Now,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: shortly after WrestleMania their there were reports that came out
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: about Punk slapping, and we saw the video of Punk
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: slapping a phone out of a fan's hand in the
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: lobby of had to be the MGM Grand because they
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: were filming his wife and Bailey. They were kind of
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: hugging and saying goodbye to each other, and this person
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: was following them around for a period of time, and
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Punk saw this and he went over and he slapped
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: the fucking phone out of the guy's hand because he
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: was right up in their shit. Well. TMZ is now
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: reporting that a separate incident in Las Vegas led to
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: another fan calling nine to one one on Punk. On Friday,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: TMZ published audio from a nine to one to one
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: call placed on Monday, April twenty at featuring a man
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: speaking in Spanish and communicating through an interpreter. In the audio,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: he accuses Punk of pushing him and chopping him in
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: the chest. So, so I was here waiting for the
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: WWE Superstars, and I was trying to get a picture
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: and maybe an autograph from them. When I got close
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: the star CM, Punk pushes me and chops me from
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: my chest. Man said this took place at twelve thirty
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: in the morning at the MGM Grand He also stated
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: that he did not need medical attention. When asked if
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: he felt Punk was intoxicated, which is just fucking hilarious,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: the man replied that his face was red and his
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: eyesight was full of anger. His eyesight was full of
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: Now I mean this was translated to it interpreted, and
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering if this article was translated from fucking AI
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: asked if Punk had a weapon, the man responded none,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: He only had a briefcase on his left hand. The
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: idea of an intoxicated yet straight edge CM Punk wandering
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: the lobby of the MGM Grand after this epic WrestleMania
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: main event, because this would have been that night, early
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: in the morning, and he's walking around just filled with
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: rage and drugs and booze and god knows what else.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: And this poor guy was just trying to mind his
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: own business and get a photo in an autograph and
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: CM Punk comes over and chops him in the chest.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: He called nine to one one for this. This is
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: what people are calling nine to one one for. They're
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: calling the cops for what? Because you were an asshole.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, I've taken Punk to task before for
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: beating up coworkers, but I'm I'm on his side when
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: it comes to this stuff. Now, we don't have any
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: video of what happened here, to be fair, although after
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: seeing video from the first incident, I'm willing to bet
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: that this guy hit He wanted autographs and photos yeah,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he was sitting there very or standing there
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: very politely off to the side, waiting for his photo
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: and his autograph. But here comes see I'm punk, filled
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: with rage and drugs, you know, roaming and ravaging through
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: the lobby of the MGM grant looking for people to
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: slap and punch and bump into me. A fucking break.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Call nine one one for real emergencies. Okay, don't call
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: nine one one for this bullshit. Don't be like this moron. Now,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: he wasn't on TV this week. Roman reigns and Jacob
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: fought too. They were though. I got another segment between
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: them the end of Raw Monday Night, and Jacob actually
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: put the Tonguan death grip on Roman rains. They're actually
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: building this up as like a big finish, so this
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: is going to play into their match now with backlash,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: and he puts Roman down with he didn't you know,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: knock him out or anything, but he just physically put
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: him down on the mat with the Tonguan death grip
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: and Roman looked like he was sweat and bullets. Now,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: apparently I found out after the fact that there was
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: some sort of issue with the air conditioning in the
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: venue on Monday night, So that may have had something
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: to do with why Roman was. I mean, he just
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: went from standing there to one tonguan death grip. Later
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: he looked like he was just dripping buckets and then
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: he grabbed the mic and he said Jacob. He yelled
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: for Jacob, who was on his way out of the building,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: and he says, you want me a backlash, He got
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: me a backlash. And the fans are booing Jacob fatu.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: They were booing him. Why. I don't know, other than
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: they are just brainwashed that Roman reigns. He's the OTC
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: and you know, he's the best thing since sliced bread,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: and so we have to boo Anybody who comes after
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Roman reigns now has to be booed. I guess. So
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: that that was very weird. Now. Jacob was back on
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: SmackDown again also on Friday, but before the show, WWE
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: posted video on their social media of him on the
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: phone backstage with a mystery caller. Stop me. If you've
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: heard this shit before, it's just it's unbelievable. They really
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: are creatively bankrupt. All they do is run the same
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: shit back over and over and over again. But after
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: a while people stop expecting a different result, I mean
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: the usual engagement farming accounts of course, will post their
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: typical slop. You know who's on the phone with the
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: little googly eyes emoji or a fire emoji. Oh we're
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: eating good tonight, this is fire, let them cook. Shut
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: the fuck up. Oh it's this person. Oh it's that person.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: It's xilophad too. Do you realize they never resolve the
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: last mystery angle they did with Jacob for who kicked
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: his teeth out? I mean he accused Drew McIntyre. Drew
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: always denied it. We still never got confirmation of what
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: happened with that angle. Now they're running another mystery angle
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: with him now. The key to happiness in life is
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: to find someone who loves you as much as Triple
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: H loves his mystery angles. Last time it was Pat
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: McAfee on the phone. Maybe this time it can be
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith. I see he's been in the news lately.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: There's lots of celebrities out there for them to choose
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: from for their next crappy storyline. Also on Monday, we
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: had not one, but two open challenge or challenge announcements.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: We had an actual open challenge with Becky Lynch, who
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: ended up putting her Intercontinental title on the line against Eosky,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: and they had a very good match. I don't know
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: if that gimmick is going to continue. It should not
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: because later in the show, Oba Femi after his very
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: quick battle with Grayson Waller and now without New Day
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: there if I'm Grace and Waller maybe out answering my phone.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: But Oba Femi got on the mic and he said,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: from now on, we're gonna start the Oba Femi Open Challenge.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know why you would want to have two
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: open challenges on the same show. The Oba one would
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: trump the Becky one. So if they're going to continue
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: to do this, hopefully they'll get rid of the Becky
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: one and they'll just do the Oba one. And it's like,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: you know, the week before, Trick Williams and Lil YACHTI
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: were on SmackDown talking about the end of the US
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: Title Open Challenge, and as soon as they end one,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: they pop up with two fucking more. You can't win.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: You just can't win. I'm not even really against the
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: idea of doing one with Oba Femi. I'm against the
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: idea of doing them as much as they do them,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: but doing one with Obafemi is not like the worst
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: idea in the world. And I pitched this the other day.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: You know, Wwe just confirmed Night of champions for Saudi
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: Arabia at the end of June, as they did last year,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: and we had the finals of the King and Queen
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: of the Ring on that show, right, Cody beat Randy
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: become King of the Ring. I think this year that
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: spot should belong to me and then it should be
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: Oba Femi challenging Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight title
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: at SummerSlam, and you go with the Brock push, because
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: if anybody was worthy of the Brock Push, I would
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: say Obafemi he fits that bill. Some people think it
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: might be too soon. Look, if you wanted to hold
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: off until Wrestle Many in next year, fine, that's that's great.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: But my question would be, especially under this current creative regime,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: what do you do with Obafemi over the next year.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: If he is not being featured in the World Championship picture,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: then what realistically do you have him doing on the show.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: I don't trust these people. They've done right by him
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: so far, but that could go south very quickly. There's
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with taking somebody that you really believe in
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: and you see is the next big thing and pushing
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: him to the mood. It doesn't have to be a backlash.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: But SummerSlam is still a few months away. There is
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: time to build him up for that. It's an idea now.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: On SmackDown, Ricky Saints made his main roster debut and
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: he came out at the beginning of the show to
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: interrupt Cody Rhodes. Ricky Saint ain't going to be beating
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: Cody Rhods anytime soon to win the WWE Championship. He
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: came out there they were in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He did
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: not get a great reception. He got a very lukewarm reception.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: So maybe not the best place to debut him. But
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: I do like the idea of pairing him up right
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: out of the gate in a big segment with your
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: top star. I mean, they've done this a lot recently,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Live Morgan in Soul Ruk as an example, Rhea Ripley
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: and J. C. Jane, even Brock and Oba. Right, you're
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: trying to establish the new Guard as big players and
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: people that the fans should want to see as opposed
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: to just debuting them the traditional way against lower level talents,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: which I still think you can do. By the way,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: you don't have not everybody can debut against the world
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: champion in their first match, but like they've done this
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: a lot recently. Jacy Jane even got a pinfall win
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: on Friday over Charlotte Flair, and good for her. Jac
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: Jane is very good. But the match between Cody and Ricky,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: they made a match after the opening promo segment. They
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: made a match between them, non title obviously for later
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: on in the show. Ricky took up brutal landing on
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: that Crossroads for the finish before he got pinned, And yes,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: he got pinned, but it's fine. It's Cody Rhodes, It's
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: the WWE champion. If you expected any other outcome here,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: you're an idiot. But he took a crossroads and man,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: the way he landed, you know, this guy already broke
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: his neck once. I didn't need to see it twice.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: That was brutal. But then as soon as the match
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: is over, Gunther shows up and he attacks Cody and
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: puts him down with a sleeperhold. He picks up the
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: wwee Championship and he holds it high above his head.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: And it makes me wonder because there were some murmurs
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: about this, not just storyline, but that Randy Orton may
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: have an injury. He may have a legitimate injury of
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: some kind coming out of WrestleMania. He may have had
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: one going into WrestleMania. We don't know, And I just
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: I think about that now because to not follow up
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: on that punt kick from the end of Night one
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: would be creative malpractice unless they were forced to pivot
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: away from Orton into something else, because otherwise it just
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. Cody is still wearing the wounds
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: on his face, he still has a black eye. They're
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: crediting it to the punk kick. Again. I didn't think
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: it happened with the punk kick. It happened with one
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: of the punches that Orton threw at him in the match.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: But still he got punk kicked in the fucking skull.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: If not backlash, you would have expected that to be
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: the clash in Italy match, and that clearly is not
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: going to happen now, which makes me think Randy might
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: be heard and also gunther the idea that Randy's not
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: heard they're just giving Cody something to do until they're
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: ready to plug Randy back in there. Gunther, of all
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: people should not be used as a placeholder contender for
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: somebody else. So then moving on to Cody, and Gunther
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: tells me Orton is going to be gone for a
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: while now. The question is is this the favor that
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: Paul Hayman owes to Gunther. Hayman, you could see him
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: in the background on Friday night. He was speaking with
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Nick all this earlier in the show during one of
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: the backstage segments. Maybe it's not so much that he
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: got him a title match, because Hayman would have I mean,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: he would have no such power to get that done.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: He's not even on SmackDown. Why would all this give
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: a shit? Maybe it's as simple as he got Gunther
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: a transfer from Raw to SmackDown and he is now
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: full time on Friday nights, because why waste a favor
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: on trying to get him a title match. Cody Roach
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: just gave a whole last speech the other week, welcoming
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: people to step up to him. Right, I'm not hard
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: to find, but I'm hard to beat. Right, isn't that
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: what he said? It's like his new catchphrase. Why the
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: fuck would gun There need Paul Hayman to get him
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: a title match when he could just ask for one himself.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: A transfer to SmackDown that would make a little bit
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: more sense. And if that's the case, then you've got
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: to move Jacob fought To over to Raw full time
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: after Backlash. It's got to be an even swap. Raw
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: has to get something in return if they lose gun there,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: because right now we have someone from SmackDown challenging for
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: the World Heavyweight title on Raw, and we have someone
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: from Raw going after the WWE Championship on SmackDown. None
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: of this shit makes any sense. This sounds to me
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: like they got some bad news about Randy Orton and
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: they had to make a quick change. Because on Monday,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: we saw La Night backstage interrupt a Gunther promo like
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: they were teasing a Gunther La Night match, and Gunther
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: was also talking about wanting to be the World Heavyweight Champion.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Now all of a sudden, he's attacking the WWEE champion
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: on SmackDown, and I'm sure La Knight somewhere breeds a
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: sigh of relief. Disaster is averted for him, But that's
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: a pretty sudden change, and if they had a pivot
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: to somebody else, I don't hate the move, because it's
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: not like they had anybody else lined up for Cody
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: right now. Gunther wasn't challenging Roman Reigns anytime soon, and
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: he wasn't getting in the ring anytime soon with Obafemi.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: A move to SmackDown is not a bad thing. It
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: also would put him on the same brand with Iliadre.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying. I'm just saying, but that makes it
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: very interesting now who wins the match, because Gunther has
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: not taken a loss since they started the whole career
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: killer gimmick. I hate that gimmick. I would be happy
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: for them to move away from it, But for him
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: to fight Cody and lose, I don't see what that accomplishes.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: He has to win, even if all it does is
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: set up Cody to win the belt back from him
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: at Summer Slim. Moving Gunther over to SmackDown just to
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: wrestle Cody and lose again, because remember Cody already beat
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: him once at Crown Jewel a couple of years ago.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: I don't see how that makes any sense, But I
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: could see this headlining Clash in Italy on the thirty first,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: and I think if they do that match as I
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: sit here now, and we'll let the story play out
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: over the next week and find out if he is
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: full time on SmackDown of what's going on. But I
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: look at that and I go, that's got to be
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: a gunther win right there. Let's talk about backlash. Backlash
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: is this coming Saturday in Tampa, with the first hour
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: kicking off at six Eastern simulcasting live on ESPN two.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: We have five matches currently scheduled. Let's assume they have
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: two on that first ESPN hour. And let's say you're
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: one of those people who doesn't get ESPN Unlimited for free,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: like this guy here, they expect you to pay thirty
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: bucks for the other three matches. You can fuck right
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: off with that. You have got to be out of
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: your mind now. One match that I would have assumed
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: was going to be on the Backlash card if you
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: would have told me or asked me coming out of WrestleMania,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: and now we know that it will not be Stephanie
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: Vequer against liv Morgan because they wrote Stephanie off television
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: on Monday night. She has a legitimate sprain of her
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: ac joint in her shoulder, so she's going to be
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: out for a little bit. I didn't read anything about
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: her needing surgery or anything like that, but Wrestle Votes
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Radio did have a report that the internal speculation is
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: that she could be out for a minimum of six weeks.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: That's a minimum, and there is said to be optims
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: and that she could be back in time for Summer Slam.
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: SummerSlam is the very beginning, like first and second day,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: I think of August, so she's gonna miss a chunk
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: of time. As of this moment, they'll live. Morgan is
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: not on this show, but these are the matches that
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: we know of. We know that EO Sky will finally
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: get her one on one match with Osca. Now I've
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: been looking forward to this match for a long time.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: I still think it's going to be a very good match.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: This will not hit quite the same way, though, because
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: we are not going to be getting the payoff that
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: we were all hoping to get unless they pull a
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: last second Ron Killings on us here and then Kyrie
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: makes a shocking appearance and helps EO win the match.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: You can't discount that one hundred percent, but that seems
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: very unlikely at this point, so it's just hollow. You know,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: it'll be a good wrestling match. I'm still looking forward
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: to it, but it's just, you know, it is what
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: it is. You know there was a story there, now
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: there isn't, and it's like, let's do the match and
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: then coming out of the match, I guess we'll just
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: kind of move into a different direction with these two women.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: But I'm going with EO for the win. Dan Housen
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: was laid out by them Is and Kit Wilson on
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: SMACKD on Friday night, and he is going to have
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: to find a partner, a partner of his, choosing for
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: a tag team match against the Miz and Kit Wilson. Now,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: this feels like a spot designed for Royce Keys to
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: step in and whoop some ass. Instead we'll get jelly roll.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: Either way, Team Housen wins. I don't mind the Dan
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Housen stuff, but fucking hellman, Like, there is not a
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: single women's title match on this show, women's world titles
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: or mid card titles, but they have time for this shit.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe they'll add Soul Ruka against liv Morgan tomorrow night
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: on Raw. Maybe they'll add that to the pl I
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: don't know. Soul is on the show tomorrow night. She's
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: gonna be signing her raw contract. But when you really
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: think about it, right, four women's championships, not counting the
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: tag belts, and not a single one announced for this show.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: But they have time for this. We have sammy's Ain
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: challenging Trick Williams for the United States Championship on SmackDown
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: Friday night. I didn't again watch the show live because
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: I was coming home from Los Angeles after the Hog Show,
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: so I watched SmackDown after the fact. I was not
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: aware of the gingerbread stuff. This was all new to
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: me when I watched the show back and I see
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: Sammy Zain in the ring with a giant gingerbread man.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: It's nobody's in the costume. I don't know what they
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: had underneath, a pole or a mannequin, probably a mannequin,
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: whatever it was. He beat the shit out of the
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: gingerbread man was ripping shit off of his face, and
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: Trick Williams, the United States Champion, had to do a
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: run and he had to make the save for an
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: inanimate object. And then later on in the back. They announced.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: They told Trick the trainer or the doctor, whoever it was,
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: came out of the locker room and he wanted to know, no,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: what's his condition? What's up with the gingerbread Man? And
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: the guy just shook his head. They did everything they could,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: they could not save the gingerbread Man. And then later
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: in the show we had an in memoriam graphic rest
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: in pieces for the gingerbread Man. Countless wrestlers that have
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: actually worked for this company don't even get a graphic
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: when they die, but the gingerbread Man he gets one.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: So now they're going to be doing a funeral I
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: think on TV this week for the gingerbread Man. Yes,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: I will say. When they had Joe Tests and Wade
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: Barrett at the booth narrating over the in memoriam graphic
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: for the gingerbread Man, with that dramatic, sad solemn music
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: playing in the background, I did find that amusing. That's
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: about the only aspect of this that I found amusing.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: I am going to go in a way that is
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: probably going to be different than most people. I think
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: that Sammy's aing wins back the United States Championship. If
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: I'm booking this, I'm putting the bell back on Sammy.
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: I think you go with Sammy for the win, and
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: I think you just continue to play this out. I'm
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: trying to kind of revert back to the idea that
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: I had for WrestleMania, or I thought Sammy should win there,
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: and you drag this out, you stretch this out a
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: little bit longer, and then you know, eventually you give
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: Trick the win. Instead, they just put the belt on
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: Trick in a very kind of nothing seven minute match
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: on the card, and he got his moment and his
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: parents were there and that's great, but it wasn't really
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: anything special. And now I'm like, Okay, well they're still
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: working together here, and they're still doing the angle with
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: Sammy's ain where he's acting like a babyface or thinks
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: he's a babyface, but the fans are booing him. Lean
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: into that as much as possible. That's kind of what
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: they did on Friday with having him beat up the
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: gingerbread may right. Keep leaning into that, have him cheat,
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: have him take a short cut, have him bust out
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: some gingerbread cookies and hit Trick Williams in the fucking
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: eye with one of them. When the referees not looking
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, put the US title back on him
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: and let Trick chase after him to try to get
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: it back. You might even be able to stretch this
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: out all the way to Summer Slim if you want.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying you have to go that far with it,
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: but it's possibility. Right Summer Slam is a few months
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: away to the beginning of May, I think, or the
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: beginning of August. We're in the beginning of May. You
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: could get away with it. To me, I think it
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: would actually make things more interesting now if you put
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: Trick in the position to Chase, and you would help
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: solidify the babyface turn. He came out there on Friday
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: Night and it's like, I'm still not sure exactly what
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: he's supposed to be on this show. I think this
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: would help kind of fill that role out a little
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: bit more and help better define it by having him
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: in Chase mode. So I'm going with Sammy's ain to
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: win the United States Championship bron breaker and actually to
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: go back to that for a second, you know what,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: if they do stretch this out to SummerSlam, it would
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: remind me very much of the Randy Orton Christian feud
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: from twenty eleven that also started around like late April
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: right May, some time after WrestleMania went. Orton beat him
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: to win the title, and they kind of went back
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: and forth with it, but they got a few months
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: out of it until the big payoff at Summer Slim.
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: No reason you can't do the same thing here with
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: Sammy's A and Trick Williams, Seth Rollins and bron Breaker.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: They had a face to face at the beginning of
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: ron Monday Night, a promo segment. It was fine. It
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't anything you know that you have to go out
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: of your way to watch or anything. They both got
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: their digs in at each other and they made the
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: match official. I don't see this. I know Seth lost
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: already at WrestleMania because of Braun. I don't see this
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: as a match that bron Breaker could really afford to lose.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: You know, for him, it's his first match back from injury,
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: and I don't see the benefit in having him go
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: in there and lose to Seth Rollins at his first
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: match back. I'm going with bron Breaker for the win,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: even though I don't expect this to be the end
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: of this between them, but I'm going with Breaker for
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: the win. And then in the main event, we have
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: Roman Reigns defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Jacob Fatu.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: They ended up going to this a hell of a
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: lot faster than anybody thought they would. I hate to
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: see Jacob lose this. I don't think though, that he
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: is walking out with the belt. I do think there
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: is a path for that. The Ussos were curiously absent
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: when Fa Tu put that Tonguan death grip on Roman
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: on Monday Night, even though we know they were backstage
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: they were there, they never came out to help Roman,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: and then multiple times on SmackDown over the last couple
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: of weeks, the Ussos have come out during Jacob's segments,
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: but they have kept them apart. They have not attacked
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: each other. There's been no physicality with them. The setup
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: is there for a shock title change and the USOS
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: aligning with Jacob Fatu, a backlash, and then you have
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: this which is only going to fuel that speculation. Roman
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: Reigns is no longer being advertised for any raw dates
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: in the month of June. He has been wiped from
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: the calendar. Originally he was listed for Turin, Italy on
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: June first, Paris, France on June eighth, Baltimore, Maryland on
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: June fifteenth, and London, England on June twenty second. So Italy, France,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: Baltimore and London, which one of these is not like
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: the other. That's kind of a random stop in the
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: middle of an international tour. Don't you think let's just
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: throw Baltimore in the middle of all of that? Now,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: Roman did say that we were going to see him
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: full time through the summer, so it looks like that
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: may no longer be the case. Something happened. I don't
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: know what it is now. There are fans that are
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: speculating that this was only done to make people think
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: that font two was going to win the title of Backlash. No,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think that has anything to do with it,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: or else they would not have announced him for those
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: dates in the first place and had people buying tickets
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: thinking that they were going to be seeing Roman Reigns live.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's what this is now. There's also
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: speculation on social media about TKO possibly asking Roman to
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: take a pay cut like they did with The New Day,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: and he's actually dropping the belt to Jacob and leaving
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: the company rather than restructuring his deal. They would never
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: allow that to happen. The entire reason they even put
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: the belt back on him in the first place is
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: because they think he is one of the only real
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: draws that they have and they want him front and
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: center on these shows. You really think that they're gonna
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: let him walk away? Come on, now, use your brain.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: I think there is definitely something going on with the USSOS.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: I just I can't sit here and predict a Jacob
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: fought to title win. I think Roman keeps it and
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: then whatever happens, I think they'll use it, you know, postmatch,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: they'll use it to further the bloodline stuff. But I'm
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: going with Roman reigns to retain the World Heavyweight title,
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: and that's the card as of right now. Still one
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: Raw and one SmackDown left to go. They could potentially
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: add a sixth match. I mean, I was just speculating
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: maybe Live Morgan and soul Ruka gets set up just
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: to get a women's title match on the show. They
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: have none right now. Hopefully we'll get that six match, though.
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: I will be on YouTube after the show for the
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: live review on Saturday. This week's episode is sponsored by Wicks.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: I know there's quite a few of you who listen
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: to this podcast who are small business owners as I am,
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: and I don't have an active Detica website at the
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: moment like I used to, but I may have to
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: jump back in feet first soon because wix Harmony is
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• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: Wicks dot com slash Harmony. TNA president Carlos Silva has
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: commented on TNA pulling talent from independent matches recently. Last month,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: several matches involving wrestlers from TNA who were in the
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: ring or supposed to be in the ring with people
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: from AW they got pulled even though they were originally
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: approved by both companies. That included the MJF Nick Nemath
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: match that was planned for Creator Pro this weekend. In fact,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: I think that match was supposed to take place and
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: Leon Slater against Ricochet at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial show
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: over WrestleMania week. Those matches were canceled. There was another
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: match I think planned involving Moose that was never announced
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: but was also pulled. So Carlos Silva appeared on Sirius
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: XM's Busted Open Radio on Wednesday and he was being
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: interviewed by Dave Lagreca, and when asked why TNA talents
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: were pulled from working with aw wrestlers on indies, he
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: said this, All of these business decisions are tough. I
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: don't like being called a little bitch on social media
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: more than anybody else. But it's okay. You do take
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: the good with the bad, and you've got to make
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: some hard decisions. My job sometimes is to make hard
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: decisions for the fans and all of you and Mike
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: referring to Michael Bokikio, Wrestle Kan and our locker room,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: We're going to make decisions that are good for TNA.
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: You've got to protect TNA. Now, by the way, let
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: me stop there for a second. Michael Bokikio actually was
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: interviewed about this, but I think by Poe's Wrestling shortly
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: after they pulled Leon Slater from that match with Ricochet,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: and he was he was clearly angry. I mean, he
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: was trying not to show it, but you could tell
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: he was just fed up with the whole situation, and
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: he admitted publicly he goes guys like Leon was not
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: losing that match. So I ask you if Leon Slater
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: was going in there and winning, or at least not
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: losing to Ricochet. Then that was something, frankly that you know,
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: would have been nice for Dave to follow up on
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: and say, well, actually, you know, Michael kind of came
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: out with his own interview and said that Leon wasn't
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: losing that match. Now, maybe that's something that wasn't communicated
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: to Carlos Silva. I find that hard to believe, but
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: I suppose it's possible. But I would have loved to
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: have seen a retort to that. And the follow up question,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: naturally would be how does that hurt TNA, if anything
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: that would help DNA, But that question never got asked.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so Silva continued. He says, you know, Kevin
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: Plank and under Armour used to say, you've got to
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: protect this house. It's a real slogan. We've had some
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: other folks come at us and they've moved into our nights.
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: This is in reference to an episode of Collision recently
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: airing on TNA Impacts Night of Thursday. Said they've made
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: some decisions. They being aw they've tried to block us
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: in arenas and venues. That stuff is real and it's
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: out there. No it's not and it's okay because everyone's
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: got to make decisions for their business. But we're also
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: not just going to lie down and not make decisions
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: that are good for our business. Unfortunately, sometimes those decisions
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: are tough. We're very thoughtful about them, and we try
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: to do the best we can to make good when
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: we have to make those decisions. In the case of
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: Nick and Leon and a few of the matches they
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: had to get shut down, we tried to make good
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: and make calls and take care of the businesses as
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: best as we could. It was my decision, and I
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: take full ownership. And that was basically the gist of
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: the quote. Now, wrestle Khan Mike Bokikio did confirm that
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: TNA reimbursed the promotion for Leon Slater's travel and hotel
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: accommodations after that match got pulled, and good on them
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: because that's the least they could do. But they did
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: do that. They did at least reimburse them for that.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know as far as the people who bought
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: tickets expecting to see that match, I don't know if
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: there were people who as for refunds. There may have
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: been a few. I don't know, and I don't know
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: that TNA reimbursed those refund But you know, let me
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: go back to this point that he made, because this
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: is the second time now that he's made reference to
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: folks moving in on their night. I don't buy this
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: excuse at all. I think it's one hundred percent bullshit
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: because this is not the first time recently that TNA
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: has been faced with AAW running collision on a Thursday.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: It's not like collision on a Thursday is some new
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: phenomenon that's never happened before. But for the last few weeks,
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: the one time that it happened, and when it does happen,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: it's not Tony Kahan or AW saying hey, you know what,
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: I think we should move collision to Thursday this week.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: Typically it's because they get bumped from the weekend because
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: they have some sort of sporting event. And I would
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: imagine it's ultimately not a Tony khn call. It it's
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: a Warner Brothers Discovery call. It's or a TBS call
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: or a TNT call or whatever it is. He makes
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: it sound like this is something that's actively, you know,
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: being done to harm impact by AW. And so the
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: more he uses this excuse. I just sit here and
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: I go, what is he covering for? Because it doesn't
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: even make any sense to hold them responsible for a
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: decision that's being made above their head does not hold water.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: Every time he says this, he mentions they've tried to
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: block us in arenas and venues. That's new, that's something
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: he's never said before. But he says it's out there.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: That's something that's real, and it's out there. No, it's not.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: That's the first time any of us have heard about this.
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: If it's legitimate, it would have been nice to hear
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: a little more information about that, even if there's specific
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: venues or examples that he feels like he doesn't want
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: to give. Again, I don't know why that wasn't a
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: follow up question like oh really, like that's the first
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: time we're hearing about this. Can you shed some more
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: light on that? And that mean it's up to him
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: whether or not he wants to answer the question. To me,
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: that was the most interesting thing to come out of
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: what he said there in that interview, and it was
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: just sort of glossed over. It's like, how do you
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: you know? Follow up on that? Let's find out some
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: more information about that, and instead he just kind of
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: spews it and he just goes on. I would find
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: that very hard to believe, but I sure would love
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: to know more about that if that sort of thing
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: is happening. We've heard of WWE doing shit like that
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: in the past. Now. Will Ospray recently spoke to Josh
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: Martinez of Z one hundred Radio here in New York.
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: He was asked about this whole situation. Ospray has worked
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: for TNA in the past. He said, TNA, of all people,
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: who the fuck do you think you guys are. I'm sorry,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: all the fucking talk that they were giving about being
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: number two and you want to get permission for these
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: guys to do that match and then pull them. I
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: think that's cowardly shit. I think that says everything about
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: what you view your talent, as you view them as
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: less than aw talent, and that they don't want to
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: grow and they don't want to develop, and they don't
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: want to give back to the fans. So Silva spoke
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: to Josh Martinez as well. Later on, he was asked
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: about Ospray's comments, and this was his response. Business is business.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: Every pro wrestling business is going to protect themselves and
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: we're going to continue to do that. What I would
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: say to the fans is I got a lot of heat,
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: and it's okay. The fans can bring the heat, but
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: there is only one reason that I did it, and
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: that was to protect TNA and have our house protected.
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: If people are going to come at us, we're going
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: to do things to protect TNA. We were asked when
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: we were looking at our TV deal, what would be
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: the best night. We started looking at all the nights,
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: and we said, everyone has their nights. We're on Thursday night.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: We should be on Thursday night. So if someone is
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: going to come on to Thursday Night against us, we're
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: going to take that seriously. If someone is going to
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: block us from going into a venue because they are
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: not allowed to talk to us because another organization is there,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: we're going to take that seriously. That's the kind of
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: stuff that happens. When I hear all of the chatter,
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: I smile. It's okay, Will Osprey and everyone can come
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: at me, but we're going to do what's best for TNA,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: our champions and the fans. So again he's still harping
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: on the this whole thing about somebody else invading their
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: space on Thursday, is if this was a decision that
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: was made on the part of this company to try
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: to destroy TNA and encroach on their territory. And if
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: that really, I mean, like, if you take what he
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: is saying here at face value and you say, Okay,
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: the only reason that he did this is because of that,
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: That's the dumbest fucking reason I could possibly think of.
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: Hearing he had Matt Hardy, who was just in studio
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: with Ariel Helwani this week. Matt Hardy's position is that
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: he says, in his honest opinion, if we are partners
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: with WWE, and WWE has kind of laid it out
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: how we're working together with TNA, and AAW is kind
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: of its own entity, we probably from that point on
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: should have said, if you're doing any bookings, we probably
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: shouldn't do TNA or TNAAW things, is what he's referring to.
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: He says, that would have been my guess. These things happen,
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: and I think in these finishes they had things that
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: they were going to work work out for both parties.
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: When it was all said and done, it probably should
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: never have been set, is what I would say from
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: the beginning, and I think going forward that would be
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: the case now, and you know what, that's a perfectly
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: legitimate opinion to have. If it's going to potentially create
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: problems politically, then you're absolutely right, and from now on
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: there should no longer be any TNA versus AW matches.
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: That does not change the fact that these matches were approved. Basically,
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: what he's saying is he would have handled it a
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: different way. Yeah, I think a lot of people would
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: have handled it differently, and going forward, that makes all
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: the sense in the world. But these matches were approved.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: That's why people got so upset about this. That's why
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: the promoters were so upset, because they had locked these
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: matches in and they had approval from both companies that
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: it was going to be okay, only for it to
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: be snatched away the week of when they had already
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: sold tickets for those matches, and then to get some
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: sort of bullshit excuse where it has to do with
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: the night of the week some other show was working.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: You'll notice Matt didn't say anything in there about that.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: Only Carlos Silva is talking about the Thursday Night. Thursday Night,
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: AJ Francis he went on social media, he was praising
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: Carlos Silva's recent explanation for pulling Leon Slater and he
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: and when he was asked if Carlos was wrong for
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: pulling his talents, he said no, because nobody had a
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: problem with aw not allowing Powerhouse Hobbs to lose to
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: me at a fourth Rope event, even though the next
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: night in the same building, I was in a sold
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: out main event against Nicknamath for the TNA World title cut.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: That victim bullshit out. Every company protects interests, which of
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: course is completely ignoring everything that Carlos Silva has been
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: saying in these interviews about the legitimate reasons why they
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: pulled those talents from those shows. He didn't address that.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: He didn't address the Thursday night garbage or any of
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: this other bullshit. You know, again, he works for TNA.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: I understand he's going to be part of the TNA team.
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: You know, raw, Raw, He's going to cheerleader for them.
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: I understand it. The whole situation was just handled very
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: poorly from the very beginning. And it's not a stretch
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: or an offensive thing to say that if the matches
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: were approved in the first place, you should have allowed
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: those matches to go on, and then going forward, if
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: you want to, you know, have a new policy that
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't allow for these matches to happen, then that's fine.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: That's fine. But people are twisting themselves into pretzels here
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: to try to make excuses and stand up for Carlos
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: Silva in this situation. And he's talking about how he's
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: been beaten up but that's okay, I'll be the bad
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: guy here and everything. Yeah, Well, because the situation is
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: fucked you fucked up. It's a bad look for you,
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: and it's a bad look for TNA, and there really
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: is no legitimate defense of this. But I sure would
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: love to hear more about this whole notion of them
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: being blocked from running in certain venues that it doesn't
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: really sound kosher to me, but I'd love to know
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: more about that if that is a legitimate thing that's
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: been going on. Let's take some mail bad questions, and
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: then we're gonna get into the audio from my hulkog
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: and Netflix documentary review that I promise you guys, you
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: can email me the Solo Monster at gmail dot com.
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: Please include your name of where you are from when
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: you write in Robert from Massachusetts with last week's roster cuts.
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: Is there a reason why WWE does not utilize Triple
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: A or its relationship with Pro Wrestling Noah more often
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: to let underuse talent work on excursions with partners. It
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: seems like a great idea to allow wrestlers to polish
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: their skills, do more character work, etc. Ludwig Kaiser is
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: over big as El Grande Americano, Lolavice and dom or
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: Champions in Triple A. They send NXT talent over to Japan,
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: but Omas was in Noah for almost two years. There
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: was only so much time on Rossmackdown and NXT, and
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: apparently only so much the writers can do. Yeah, I
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: think that would be a great idea. I don't know
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: if that's what they necessarily want to be paying people
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: to do, is to pay them to go on excursion
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: to work somewhere else. They're just more likely to cut you,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: so they don't have to pay you if you're not
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: being utilized. But they're the ones who are not utilizing you.
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: It's a whole fucked up situation. Omas was apparently, you know,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: doing really well for himself over in Japan. He was
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: one half of the GHC Tag Team champions, and very
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: very suddenly they pulled him and they wanted him back
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: in the States. He never actually lost the title. He
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: had to sort of vacated for him to come back
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: and do absolutely nothing. And I know he's doing stuff
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: in Triple A now, but this was before he even
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: showed up in Triple A. I still don't know why
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: it was so important that they pull him from his
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: Noah commitments to come back to the States to do nothing.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that's a great example. Ludwig kaiser Man, he's
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: super over. He's one of the hottest baby faces in
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: all of Mexico right now. So I agree with you
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent. If there are certain talents who are
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: open to the idea, you can't force them to go
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: overseas and go work for some other promotion if they
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: don't want to. But if it's something that they are requesting,
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: or if it's something that they're open to and you
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: are not doing anything with them, then absolutely why not.
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: You know, you forge these partnerships. Why not take advantage
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: of them, let them go over there, let them and
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: not just hone their skills. I mean, some of these
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: guys don't necessarily need to hone their skills, but just
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: to try to get something going and maybe they get
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: hot and maybe that can somehow translate back here to
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: the States when you eventually bring them back. I don't
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: see any harm in asking them, Hey, would you be
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: interested in this, Aaron from Cape Girardo, if you could
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: snap your fingers and instantly bring one wrestling division back
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: to life or make it amazing again. Which would you pick?
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: Tag team division, cruiserweight division, hardcore division. I assume you're
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: talking about WWE specifically, because other promotions their tag team
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: division is thriving. In WWE, their tag team division is shit.
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: So I would go tag team division. We don't need
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: a cruiserweight division. We got enough cruiserweights on the shows
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: where we don't need a division to pigeonhole them into.
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: And the hardcore division, I mean maybe in WW I suppose, yeah,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: it would be nice to get some more of that
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: old school sort of hardcore title. I mean, it really
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: ties more into the whole twenty four to seven concept.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: I think it was a moment in time. I was
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: going to say, though, like inn aw, we certainly don't
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: need a hardcore division. The whole company's a hardcore division. Yeah,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think any of this is necessary
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: other than trying to reignite the tag division. I think
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: the others are kind of pointless honestly at this point.
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: Marco from Seattle, Washington. My friend and I were discussing
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: Kurt Angle's career the other day, and we both agreed
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: that his best years in ringwise were in TNA. But
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: in talking about which company and brand we associated him
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: with the most, while he said TNA and I said WWE,
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: we both agreed that SmackDown was the first show that
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: we thought of when thinking of him and his WWE run.
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: That's when it hit me that, aside from the short
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: period from junevo five to January of six that he
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: was on Raw and the month or so he was
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: in ECW, he was always a SmackDown guy. Whenever I
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: picture Kurt Angle on Raw five, something just feels off
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: to me. Are there any other wrestlers you would say
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: you associated with Raw or SmackDown during that first era
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: of the brand split, or even a particular company so
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: much so that when they got drafted to the opposing
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: brand or went to a different promotion, something just did
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: not feel right about it to you. Yeah, we're gonna
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: feel that way about the New Day in a few
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: months when they show up on Dynamite. I mean the
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: initial red and yellow Hogan in WCW just felt wrong
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: to me. Bret Hartch in WCW always felt wrong to me, Sting,
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was the franchise guy in WCW, and
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: even for all the years he spent in TNA, it
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: was when he went to WWE, it just felt it
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: felt weird, right, It didn't feel right within WWE. Seeing
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: Roman reigns on Raw is still a little bit weird
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: to me because the bloodline stuff was associated with SmackDown
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: for so long, literally for years. But the biggest one
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: would be Shawn Michaels. I mean it's on Michael's when
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: he came back in two. He stayed on Raw the
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: entire time that he was with the company in that
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: second run. I remember reading the taping days for SmackDown
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: conflicted with his Bible study class, and that's why he
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: was on Raw and not SmackDown. Whatever it was. He
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: was a raw guy and he never went to SmackDown
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: full time that I can recall, But if he had,
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: I would imagine that would have felt a little bit weird.
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: And Andrea from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Are you angri or
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: at Triple H and Nick con for ruining WWE or
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: David Stearns for ruining the Mets? Which is more tortuous
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: to watch for you right now? Mets baseball or weekly
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: WWE shows? Oh man, that's a tough one, she says. Personally,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: I'm entertained by the Mets collapse. It's like watching a
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: cyber truck explode and watching its TACKI owner have a
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: complete meltdown over it. I didn't love the Mets, taking
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: two out of three from my twins. Raw and SmackDown
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: are borderline unwatchable to me. I usually check out your
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: recaps clips on social media. The Uncrowned Wrestling Show is great,
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: by the way, Well, thank you, Andrew. I appreciate that
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: there'll be a new episode coming up this week. Hopefully
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: you'll be tuned in for that. I mean, which one
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: is more torturous to me? I mean they're both. They're
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: both pretty torturous right now, but both of them have
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: their their moments where I can actually kind of laugh
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: at it. I think I quote tweeted something the other day.
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: It was a clip from the Mets game, one of
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: the recent ones where I don't even remember the exact play,
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: but they fumbled the ball around so much that somebody
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: I think went from first to home. It was like,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: how the hell did that happen? It should It's just
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: one of those things that should not have happened. But
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: only the Mets. And then for WWE. I mean again,
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: they have their moments where I get great entertainment value
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: out of the product lately, but unfortunately, more often than not,
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: I really can't say that it's pretty torturous to sit
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: through three hours of SmackDown, though not as much watching RAW.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: I would say watching the Mets right now is more
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: torturous unless we're comparing it to SmackDown. Then I would
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: really have to stop and think about it. But keep
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: emailing me the solom Monster at gmail dot com, and
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: you could also subscribe on the YouTube channel Solemn Monster
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: Sounds off over ninety two thousand, two hundred subs and
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: counting as we climb towards ninety three. I will be
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: live this week, I think for all the usual streams
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: right Monday night, Wednesday night, Friday night, Tuesday, brand new
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: episode of the Uncrowned Wrestling show. I believe that's episode thirteen.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: Tuesday Night back with JD on his channel for Tuesday
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: Night Titans. So it should be a pretty normal week,
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: I believe in terms of the content. And then back
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: here with you next Sunday for episode nine sixty two
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: of the Solemn Monster Sounds Off. That'll be the Mother's
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: Day episode of the sound Off next weekend. Now, I
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: did mention that the Hulkogain Netflix documentary review it dropped
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: the week before last. I had a chance to watch
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: all four episodes. I he did not have time to
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: talk about it on the sound Off last week, so
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: I did something separate for the YouTube channel, and I
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: talked about it a little bit as well on Uncrowned,
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: but I spent more time on it in the YouTube
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: exclusive clip that I put up, and I had some
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: people ask me even earlier today on Twitter, Am I
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: gonna include the audio here in the sound up? I said, sure,
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do here to close things out?
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: It's about thirty minutes long. I will include my full
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: review of the Hulkgan Netflix documentary Real American give you
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: my thoughts on what I liked what I didn't like,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: what I thought was missing. I will point out the
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: creators of the documentary, they said that they have enough
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: unused footage to produce more episodes, even though it looks
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: like that's not going to happen. So Brian Storkel, he
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: was the director of the project, and he was on
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: the Ham Radio show on Friday and he said, there's
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: definitely more that you could cover. I mean, there's so
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: many things that got cut out, but we decided on
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: four parts and like that, it's four hours worth and
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: we just put in the best stuff or the stuff
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: that we could fit. I think there's so much more, though,
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: but he says there is definitely or there has definitely
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: been no talk at all of using that footage to
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: produce any additional episodes. And you will know, like if
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: you watch it, you will notice that there is definitely
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: some glaring omissions from the documentary but on the whole.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: As far as what I thought about it, I will
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: leave you now with my review of Real American and
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: again I will see you guys back here for more
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: SoundOff next Sunday. So until then, take care, guys, enjoy
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: the review. Like I'm sure many of you I grew
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: up a hulkamaniac. I became a wrestling fan during a
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: period where Hogan was on top of the world nationally,
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: he was the biggest star in wrestling. It was the
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: peak of the Hulkamania boom. I had all the toys,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: you know, the action figures, the wrestling buddies, all that stuff,
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: and all the other personalities as well, Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior,
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: Andre the Giant Jake, the Snag, million Dollar Man, Mister Perfect.
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: It was the golden era of wrestling. But Hogan was
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: the guy. And then you see where his career took
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: him over the years, where you know, the red and
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: yellow stuff started to wear thin. Then he goes heel
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: reinvents himself. We have this whole other wrestling boom. Then
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: he's back to the red and yellow. Then he comes
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: back to WWE briefly and then leaves again. Then later
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: on TNA and a lot of really sad stuff later
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: on in his life, a lot of itself inflicted. And
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: he wasn't the Hulk Hogan that you remember from when
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: you were a kid. Right. Rarely does that happen, I think,
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: where when you are a kid, these people that you
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: watched on television or these people that you looked up to,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: they kind of maintain that image, right, you learn more
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: about them, you learn more about the people behind them.
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: They fall on tough times, they get broke, or their
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: body breaks down, whatever the case may be. And it's
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: a very sad story. So I watched this Hulk Hogan,
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: real American Netflix docu series. I wanted to see what
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: kind of job they would do, what they would cover,
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: what they wouldn't cover. Four parts, I would say, totals
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: around four hours or so, give or take maybe a
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: little bit more, which was not nearly enough to cover
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: all of the aspects of this man's life and career.
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of talking heads, you know, they
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: talk to a lot of people. You know, it's missing
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: comments from some of his contemporaries who worked with him,
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: squabbled with him, were friends with him, and enemies, you know,
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: Macho man, Randy Savage not around anymore. Andre, I mean
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: Andre has been gone for ages, Roddy Piper, unfortunately, there
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: were a lot of people who simply are no longer around.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: But they did interview a whole bunch of people. I
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: may be leaving a few out, but just to give
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: you a sense of some of the names. Eric Bischoff, Booker,
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: t Ted d Biassi, Jim Duggan. He's not in there
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: a lot, but he is in there. Brett Hart, Jimmy Hart.
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: Hogan's family member is obviously his ex wife, his son, Brooke,
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: his daughter, is not interviewed for this, but they use
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: audio from previous interviews with her instead. Jerry Lawler is
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: in there, Paul Leveck, Kevin Nash, Bruce Pritchard, Jake Roberts,
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: Jesse Ventura, Donald Trump. Christopher Lloyd is in there. If
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: you remember that they co starred in Suburban Commando together,
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: which I'm not afraid to admit again. In my younger
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: days of fandom, No Holds Barred and Suburban Commando, those
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: VHS tapes were played a lot in my household, so
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: that was cool to see Christopher Lloyd, doctor Emmett Brown
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: here in this. Warner Herzog pops up in here. The director,
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, that was kind of random. Vince McMahon
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: is not interviewed for this, but like Brooke, they use
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: audio from him from previous interviews. There's no mention anywhere
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: in this of Hogan's second wife, Jennifer, who he was
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: married to for over a decade, and I've seen her
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: credited with helping him get clean and sober when he
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: was deep into his addiction. She's not mentioned at all,
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: so she doesn't even exist. Kevin Nash I mentioned that
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: he was interviewed for this, and Kevin Nash has chimed
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: in and said that he was interviewed for about three
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: hours and he went in depth on a lot of topics,
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: and he ended up getting like thirty seconds of airtime
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: in the documentary. And I would imagine it was the
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: same with others that they spoke with, which is disappointing
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: to hear. And I understand stuff gets, you know, cut
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: out and edited down for time reasons, but I mean,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: if you're being interviewed for three or four hours and
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: they're putting you in there for twenty five seconds, you're
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: gonna be a little upset. But it featured the last
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: interview with Hogan on camera before he passed away. He
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: sat with them for twenty five hours and he was
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: supposed to come back for a follow up interview a
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: few months later, and in that time is when he
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: ended up passing away. He had gone in for a
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: neck procedure. There were complications during the procedure. I know
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: there were reports that they had accidentally severed his frenic nerve,
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: which I believe regulates breathing in the body. I don't
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: know if it was a case of malpractice. They was
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: taught that maybe the family would file a malpractice lawsuit.
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: They still have not done. So something went wrong during
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: that procedure and we never heard from him again. We
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: never saw a picture of him. He never posted a
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: video on social media to let people know he was
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: okay because he couldn't. And there were a lot of
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: friends and family members who were covering for him and saying, oh,
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: you know, he's getting better, but the reality is he
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't getting better, and then he passed away a couple
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: months later. I thought, on the whole, the documentary was
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: well done if you were looking for them to cover
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: the key aspects of his life and career. And the
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: addition of all the home movie foot had a lot
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: of home movie footage in there from Linda. I would
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: presume it gave an insight into him that we've not
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: seen before. It's just stuff that has never been publicly,
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: you know, visible before, so it was nice. You get
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: to see a different side of him and the family aspect,
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: so that was nice. And I also like the use
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: of music for some of the montages they use like
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: Real Wild Child by Iggy Pop and Broken Wings by
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: Mister Mister, like as a child of the eighties. That
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: was much appreciated. But I felt like the way they
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: synced it up to certain parts of the documentary was
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: very well done. But it is definitely for a more
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: casual audience who may have heard the name Hulk Cogan
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: or they watched him as a kid, but then they
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: fell out of it. Maybe they don't know too much
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: about the man. It didn't dive too deeply into the negative,
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: but they didn't shy away from it either, Like you
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: can't not talk about his divorce, you can't not talk
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: about the steroid stuff. The Hogan knows best to backle
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: his prescription drug abuse, the sex tape, like that's all
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: touched upon. It would have been nice to have more
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: on his time in the AWA, you know, working for Verngania,
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: which is really where the whole Comania stuff started, and
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: it's why yeah, and also why he left and what
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: was behind that and the way Vince kind of you know,
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: got him like in the middle of the night to
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: come on over and then that's where the whole national
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: expansion started. But it's a WWE produced documentary, so of
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: course they're not going to give you Awa too much
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: credit for anything. But there were other things also, and
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna just kind of jump around here. I'm not
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: going to dive too deeply into anything specific, but this
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: is just top of mind stuff. You know, they showed
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: Hogan when he left WWE and he went to WCW,
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: the ticker tape parade and all that. The very first
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: match he had was that Bash of the Beach match
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: in ninety four Rick Flair, and they put the World
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: Heavyweight title on him. And they're showing Hogan's first match
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: in WCW and they're painting it as you know, Oh,
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: this is so sad, Like they have Cody Rhodes talking
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: about like how old he looked, and David Schumacher is
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: on there talking about how tired the was, and that
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: became true, you know, as time went on, those early
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: Red and Yellow years in WCW. After a while it
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: was just them bringing in a bunch of guys that
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: Hogan could just be right. That's where the whole dungeon
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: of doom thing came in. And so yeah, as time
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: went on, I mean that that was true. But like
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: the way they were talking about this here, you would
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: think that this entire thing, like from the moment he
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: came into the company, was just one huge misfire, when
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: in reality, you know, that match with Flair, a Bash
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: of the Beach was one of the better matches that
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: he had in WCW and was actually very successful for them.
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: It showed that Hogan still had a lot of drawing
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: power left even though Vince McMahon had written him off.
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: You know, they were talking in the documentary about how
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: Vince had moved on and he didn't want to use
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: Hogan anymore. I guess didn't see the value in him.
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: And yet he goes to WCW and WCW sure saw
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: the value in him, and they did very well with
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: that pay per view, So that was certainly a choice.
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: They're framing of things WWE's framing of things because this
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: was a WWE produced documentary, right, they were cooperating on this.
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: They gave the director full access to their vault and
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of footage, so they absolutely had input into this.
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: Their framing of things can be very frustrating. And I'll
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: give the Shawn Michaels documentary on Peacock as an example.
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: I saw that recently as well, and I thought it
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: was very good. But they talk about the Montreal screwjob
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: and they frame it in the documentary the way that
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: you would expect WWE would frame it, where it was
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: like this big betrayal and he was going to the competition,
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: he was leaving them, he was going to the competition,
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: and he was going to leave with the belt and
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: show up on Nitro with the belt. And they have
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: you know, Bruce Pritchard in there saying that, well, you
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: know Brett was able to get a deal with WCW.
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: He was our champion and his final date was going
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: to be in Montreal at Survivor Series, which is not true.
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: That is not at all true. But it's their retelling
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: of the truth. And it's just stuff like that that
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: just drives me up the wall. But you know, look,
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: the winners in history, they get to set the narrative,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: They get to tell history the way they want to
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: tell it. People are going to watch this stuff and
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: they're gonna take their word of face value, and they're
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: gonna think, well, this must be the way it went down,
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: and in fact, that's not the way it went down.
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: They're leaving out some very important details, and so there
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: was a little bit of that in this documentary as well.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: You know, when they talked about the Summer Slam two
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: thousand and five match that Hogan had with Shawn Michaels,
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: they left out some important context as to why Sean
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: was comically over selling for this guy, and they portrayed
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: it as well. Hogan was old and he couldn't do much,
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: and so Sean felt he had to make the match entertaining,
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: which is not totally untrue, but it is completely neglecting
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: all of the behind the scenes stuff that was reported
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: to be going on heading into the match and that
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: were being played, which would have been nice for them
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: to mention, right, just to give it that added context.
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: Sean got out politicked by the Master. It's basically what happened.
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: He who has creative control usually gets what he wants,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: and Hogan did not want to do the job for HBK.
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: The idea was that there would be two matches between them.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: I think one of them was I think The rematch
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: was going to be a cage match the following month
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: and they would each win one, but Hogan wasn't much
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: interested in running it back again after he won. Jesse
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: ventra I mentioned his name. He was one of the
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: talking heads in the documentary. He was great in this
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: and very complimentary of Hogan and his accomplishments. But to
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: leave out why they had their falling out and why
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: Jesse has been so critical of him over these years
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: was crazy to me considering the potential impact that it
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: had on WWE and really wrestling as a whole if
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: you think about it. Had he been successful in his
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: efforts to unionize the roster, and I'm sure a lot
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: of you know the story, but for those of you
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: who don't, and this is the reason why I think
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: it would have been worth mentioning. Wouldn't be shocked if
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: Jesse did mention it. And that's some of that footage,
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: like the Kevin Nash stuff that got left on the
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: cutting room floor. But again, the two of them were
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: very tight, like Hogan and Jesse. Then they came up
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: in the Twin Cities. They worked for Vern in the AWA.
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: Clearly they both took a lot of inspiration from superstar
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: Billy Graham and probably a little bit of Dusty Rhodes
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: and they were friends. And when Jesse left the company,
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: you know, he had issues with Vince McMahon over royalties
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: and he sued him and there was a deposition and
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: Vince had to sit down for a deposition. Right under oath,
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: you got to tell the truth, but in the deposition
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: you can have your lawyer ask anything you want. So
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: there was a break and Jesse said, you know, find
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: out from Vince who ratted me out that I tried
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: to get the boys to unionize. Because back in eighty six,
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: this was right before WrestleMania two, there was some event
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: out in La Vince wasn't there, and Jesse stood up
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: in the line and he tried to convince these guys
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: that they needed to ban together and unionize. Jesse he
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: may have already filmed Predator by that point and got
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: his SAG card and probably knew about all this stuff
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: and is like, well, we should have this in wrestling. Well,
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: the very next day he got a very angry phone
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: call from Vince McMahon, who somehow found out that he
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: had tried to unionize and he wanted to know to
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: find out from him, you know, who ratted me out?
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: And without any hesitation whatsoever, the lawyer asked Vince. Vince
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: didn't even he didn't even blink. He was like hul
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: Cogan told me. And Jesse was floored. He had no idea.
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: He was friends with Hogan for all these years and
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: had absolutely no idea that it was Hogan who snitched
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: on him, and that really changed his entire viewpoint of
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: hul Cogan as a human being. And that's really why
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: he was so critical of him for so many years.
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: So that wasn't talked about here at all. But think
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: about it, right, Think about if Jesse's efforts had been successful.
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: And that's a big if, right, because there have been
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: opportunities over the years for wrestlers to unionize if they
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: wanted to, and clearly they don't, or it would have
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: happened by now, but at the time, who knows. You know,
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: if he was successful, how different things might look. And
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: you could say that Hogan had a direct impact on that, right,
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: It's pretty important. Brett Hart, he was a talking head
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: in this also no fan of Hulk Hogan's, but like Jesse,
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: he gives the man credit where it's due, right, But
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: he also doesn't hold back because Brett Hart has no
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: problem telling you exactly how he feels about people. And
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: he certainly does that too in the documentary. Now, outside
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: of the documentary, there was an interview that the director
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: Brian Storkel had given and I thought it was cool
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: to mention here he was talking about Brett. Brett is
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: or was very good with like these cartoon illustrations that
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: he would draw in the locker room. And Brett had
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: said that he gave an illustration many years ago that
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: he did to Hogan and it was signed by most
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: of the roster, and Hogan was, you know, blown away
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: by this and he thought it was such a great gesture. Well,
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: I guess they found the illustration. It was framed and
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: it was in his storage unit. This is after Hogan
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: passed away. And Nick Hogan said, yeah, you know, my
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: dad had that picture on the wall framed for so
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: many years. It meant so much to him. So the
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: director texted Brett to let him know, and he said
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: Brett was really happy to know that because he wasn't
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: sure if Ulk just kind of threw it away right
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: after he gifted it to him. So I thought that
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: was kind of a cool story. They got Trump to
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: sit down for this. He said that they pulled him
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: out of a big Russia meeting. M good to see
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: he's got his priority straight to be pulled away for this,
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: you know, for such a big get. He didn't offer
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: anything of any real value here. They can say, hey,
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: we got the sitting US President to sit for an interview, right,
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: So I guess that's kind of cool. But yeah, he
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: could have offered something interesting from his experiences with Hogan,
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: and he just spoke in these very broad strokes, wouldn't
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: do the Hogan finger wag when the producer or whoever
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: it was, you know, kind of playfully asked, hey, you
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: want to do the finger point and he didn't do it.
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: He didn't do it because he doesn't know what it is.
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: Like I guarantee you, he has no idea what the
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: finger wag even is. So he didn't really offer anything here.
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: In the last episode they had Hogan, this was after
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: he gave his speech for Trump at the RNC. He
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: played a voicemail that Trump left for him on his
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: phone that he was obviously proud of, and he was
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: showing it off outside of that there was really nothing there.
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: But it was interesting to learn that Hogan going to
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: TNA was an Eric Bischoff idea. It was something he
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: put together, something he negotiated to save Hulk, who was
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: drowning financially coming off the divorce from Linda, because he
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: had no money. He was broke, but his body was
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: so ravaged by that point, you know, Bischoff would have
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: to help help him out of bed in the morning.
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: This man was taking fentanyl leg it was candy. He
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: was stuffing him under his gums. He had three hundred
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: milligram fentanyl patches on his legs. He had fifteen hundred
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: milligram fentanyl lollipops that he would suck on. He was
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: in so much pain. He should have been dead from
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: all the fentanyl that he was taking. Now, they didn't
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: mention the rape accusation against him in ninety five by
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: the woman. Now I didn't think they would, but in
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: that last episode, when they were getting into the negative
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: stuff and a lot of his skeletons, I was curious
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: if they would mention this. She was a publicist for
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: his Postamania restaurant. This would have been the weekend before
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: the nitro debut at the Mall of America. They were
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, and she alleged that she was sexually assaulted.
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: She wanted a public apology, she wanted a million dollars.
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: He turned around and sued her and her lawyer for extortion,
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: and then the case got settled out of court. I
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: don't know how much traction that got nationally. I know
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: locally it was a big story. Nationally, It probably made
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: a few headlines, but they squashed that pretty quickly, so
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: that was never brought up here. But again, I didn't
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: think it would be nothing on the John Graziano stuff,
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: and I understand that had more to do with Nick
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: than it did Hulk. Nick is all over this thing,
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: and he's portrayed like a saint, and it was a
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: big news story involving the family at that time, and
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: I remember talking about it on the sound off. This
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: would have been I don't know, two thousand and nine,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: I mean somewhere around then. And I really I never
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: looked at Hogan or his wife or his son the
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: same after that. Less so Brooke. I never really had
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: an issue with her. She seemed like she at least
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: had a decent head on her shoulders. Unlike everybody else
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: in that family. But this was the story that just
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: it really like made me angry when I first heard it.
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: And for those of you who don't know, many years ago,
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: Nick was drag racing with his friend Jehan grazse Giana
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: was in the passenger seat, and he had an accident.
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: Nick was fine, his friend was not, and his friend
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: suffered a traumatic brain injury. Hasn't been this I don't
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: even know if he's I think he's still alive, I'm
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: not sure, but was never the same after that and
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: was going to require twenty four hour, round the clock
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: care for the rest of his life, like very very
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: very serious injuries. So he ended up in jail. Nick
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: did for a period of time, and the jailhouse recordings
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: came out where Hogan was on the phone talking to
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: his son who was in jail, and he's freaking out
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: and Nick is already thinking about like all these ideas
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: for when I get out, Like you know, he wants
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: like a reality TV deal, we'll call it reality well
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: and like this this is how his mind is working.
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: But the really egregious stuff, because you could always argue, well,
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: you know, Hulk was just indulging his son who was
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: freaking out. He was trying to calm him down and
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: put his nerves at he But then there's audio on
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: there where Hulk is basically like throwing this Graziano kid
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: under the bus and saying, boy, you know, he must
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: have done some real bad stuff or he must have
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: been a really bad person for God to lay all
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: this shit on him. Basically victim blaming. That's basically what
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: he was doing. His son turned his friend into a vegetable,
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: and they're blaming the victim. And then there were the
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: other racist comments on there where he's kind of joking
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: around with Nick and saying, you know, hopefully we don't
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: get reincarnated as two black guys, and I mean just
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: really really like disgusting stuff. That said a lot about
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: that family, and none of this was ever mentioned, and
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: this did make news. This did make headlines. I understand
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: there may be certain things they don't want to talk
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: about or they refuse to talk about. If you want
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: to have their cooperation, you have to agree to leave
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: certain things out. To me, that was a glaring omission
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: in that final episode when they were going into all
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: of the family drama. The Hogan knows best stuff, his marriage, failing,
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: the sex tape, everything else that they do cover his
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: racist comments from the sex tape without ever saying what
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: those comments were or giving any kind of context, Like
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: you would never know if he just said one word
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: or several things that he said, which is what it was.
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: And that's pretty crazy because it colored no pun intended
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: so much of the way people viewed him in the
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: last decade of his life. Again, there are just certain
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: things where, Okay, this is important enough that we should
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: spend a little more time on this. Him being booed
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: at the Netflix debut when Monday Night Raw came to
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: Netflix in LA and they do show highlights of it,
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: some backstage highlights and then highlights of Hogan walking out
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: there with Jimmy Harton being booed out of the building.
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: And they had Paul Avec interviewed and he admitted that
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: he thought there was a chance there was a good
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: chance the crowd in LA would boo this man out
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: of the building, and he put him out there anyway.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: And I know Vince McMahon told TMZ after Hogan died
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: that he would never have done that. I would never
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: have put him in that situation in the first place right,
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: basically throwing shade at the way the Triple h handled
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: that situation, and Hogan claimed didn't bother him because the
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: producer asked him, like, did that bother you? Getting that reaction?
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: He goes, no, it didn't bother me, and he, you know,
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: he claimed he looked at it as a wrestler getting
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: great heat, and I could have gotten back in the
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: ring and I would have gotten great he brother. Yeah. Meanwhile,
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hart said that it did bother Hogan. Of course
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: it did. He wasn't out there as a heel, like
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: this isn't nineteen ninety seven anymore. He was roundly rejected
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: by a building full of people as he tried to
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: shill his beer like Undertaker, could hardly contain his joy
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: when he first talked about that on his podcast. It
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: was embarrassing and that will forever be remembered as his
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: final appearance on a wrestling show. But the documentary has
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: the usual Hogan lies and exaggerations that he became known for.
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: You know, him talking about how Dusty Rhodes was such
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: a big hero of his and influence on him. I'm
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: sure Dusty was an influence on him, especially in terms
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: of his promos, Like the way he talks about this,
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: he would think he was a little kid looking at
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: Dusty on TV for the first time, and like Dusty
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't that much older than Hogan, Like they were that
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: far apart in age, and like Hogan, I think it
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: was his second book, talked about like he was six
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: years old and he was looking for like wrestling on
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: TV every week, and his hero was Dusty Rhodes, the
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: American Dream And like when Hogan was six, Dusty would
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: have been what twelve thirteen something like that, Like it's ridiculous,
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: you know. They talked about the famous story of hero
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: Matsuda breaking his ankle and training. Hogan sprained his ankle
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: on the first day of training and he came back
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: and was trying to work on it, and Matsuda saw
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: it was all fucked up, it was all black and blue,
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: and said you should probably sit out for about a week.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: And then he came back to hear Hogan tell the
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: story he broke his ankle on purpose. He came back
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: six weeks later and showed, I want to do this.
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: I'm serious about this, And there were a lot of
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: people who were really fucked up like they would intentionally
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: break people's arms and legs and break bones to try
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: to run them off. But like Jerry Briscoe was there
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: that day. He's told the story at least once before
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: on a podcast and said, no, this is the way
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: it actually happened. But it sounds a lot better if
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: you tell people, oh, yeah, this guy broke my leg
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: and I came back, and as a story, it makes
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: for a better story. But he made a comment in
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: this because they showed some highlights of him on the
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: Arsenio Hall Show in ninety one. I guess it would
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: have been when he lied about his steroid juice when
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: Arcinio and his producers thought he was coming on the
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: show to do the exact opposite, so they were not
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: very happy with him. But in the course of talking
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: about Arcinio Hall, he made a comment about how he
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: got Arcinio Hall his job. Now I'm going to need
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: Arcinio Hall to chime in on social media and fact
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: check this one, because if I was drinking something when
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: he made that comment, I would have spat it up
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: all over my fucking screen. But one of the more
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: I would say honest sort of confessions from him that
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: I can one hundred percent believe and I agree with it.
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: He admits that he wishes he would have retired after
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: his WrestleMania eighteen match with The Rock, and if you
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: think about it, that would have been the perfect sendoff
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: for him. And like him and Rick Flair are both
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: very similar in that regard, in that there are two
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: of the biggest names in the history of the business
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: and should have been regarded as wrestling royalty like right
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: up until the day they died. Right, but they each
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: did more to tarnish their own legacies than anybody else
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: ever could for a lot of reasons, right, but they
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: also didn't know when to let go. Eighteen in Toronto
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: would have been a great finale for Hogan, twenty four
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: in Orlando would have been a great finale for Flair,
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: and it was supposed to be, right, but he's got
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: alum to pay to, like sixteen X wives, so he
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: had to work and he went to TNA. That's to
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: say nothing of his last match a few years ago
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: where he almost died in the ring. He told Ariel
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: Helwani last week that he had a heart attack in
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: the ring that night. I know he said that before,
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: but he still talks about it like he's bragging about it.
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I had heard a heart attack that night.
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: I had two heart attacks in the ring that night.
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: Like these will be the final lasting images of these men,
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: Hogan being booed out of the building at the raw
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: Netflix debut and Flair almost croaking in the ring. It's sad,
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: but they are a product of their own choices. Like
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: nobody is perfect, right, people are flawed. They're flawed creatures.
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: Hogan is no different. But people are entitled to feel
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 1: the way they want to feel about the man. For
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of people, they want to look at Hogan
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: and they will always look at Hogan as this mythical
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: figure that they grew up with. They want to remember
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan is that guy from their youth. And you
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: can do that, and that's how a lot of people
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: are going to choose to remember this man. But there
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: are a lot of people out there. You can't ignore
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: what they have learned about Hogan over the years. Because
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: guess what, when you get older and you become an adult,
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: you hear things, you see things, You'll learn things, right
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: the mask slips a little bit. You'll learn things that
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 1: maybe you wish you didn't learn, but you do. And
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: so it's hard to reconcile that person from the one
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: that you now know. But that's life, right. We all
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: learn things we probably wish we didn't know. But you
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: can't run from me, you can't ignore it. This is
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: who he was. I can still look back fondly on
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: those old days. I can go back and watch old
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: Hogan matches and promos. I can give the man his
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: flowers for doing something that no other wrestler has done. Right.
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: He ushered in two boom periods for two different companies
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: ten years apart, as a babyface and one is a heel.
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: And for that alone, he is on Mount Rushmore. But
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: it was sad to see how broken down he was there.
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: By the end, we all get old. We're also not
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: three hundred pounds jumping up in the air crashing down
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: on our tailbone every single night, year after year after year.
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: Especially back then, in those old boxing rings that WWF had,
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: they were like landing on concrete. They had no give
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: to them. By the end, I mean he was getting
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: around with a walking stick like Gandalf. This man was
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: the face of the superhero era for a lot of
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: older fans. This comic book character come to life with
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: the exaggerated physique and the big muscles, and to see
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: him and so many of these guys later in life
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: all crippled up in pain. It's the antithesis of what
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: we grew up with. And that's a hard pill to
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: swallow when you watch stuff like this. But on the whole,
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: I thought the director did a very good job with
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: the documentary. If you're kind of on the fence about
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: whether or not to watch it, there may be parts
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 1: of it that he don't enjoy. But I think if
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: you're an older fan, or if you were familiar with Hogan,
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: you know, back back in the day, I enjoyed the
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: trip down memory lane. As far as the earlier stuff goes,
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed some of the like the whole movie footage,
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: and then when it gets into the stuff later in
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: his life, again, I have sympathy for the guy as
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: far as the pain, the physical pain that he was in,
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: which I don't wish on anybody. In terms of a
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: lot of the other stuff that he ended up going through,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: and a lot of the controversies and chaos around his
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: family life and all that stuff. You know, Look, we
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: make choices. In life, and sometimes, you know, those choices
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: will come back to bite you on the ass. And
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, that's exactly how it played
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: out for hul Cogan. The highs were very high and
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: the lows were extremely low. But at the end of
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 1: the day, he's going to go down as one of
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: the key figures in wrestling history. You know, again, tied
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 1: into two of the biggest business booms that wrestling has
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: ever seen. You know, he was a very big part
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: of that, and that in addition to all of the
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: other stuff that came later in his life, that is
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: part of his legacy. The solemn monster sounds off dog shit.
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: That is what SmackDown has become. This is a horrendous
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: television show. I know that they have the Real Housewives
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: of Orange County, and the Real Housewives of Brenton, New Jersey,
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: the Real Housewives of Osh Bagosh Wisconsin or whatever the fuck.
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: I'm sure every single one of those shows are light
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: years ahead of Friday Night SmackDown. This is the worst
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: show on television. You gotta stick dynamite in this show,
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: and I don't mean aw dynamite, actual dynamite and blow
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: the whole fucking thing up and start all over again.
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: This show sucks. The solom Monster sounds off bringing you
• 2:21:29
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• 2:21:32
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• 2:21:35
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• 2:21:40
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