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Sound Off 924 - BLOCKBUSTER WWE/ESPN Deal, Brock Lesnar's Return And Bret Hart SHOOTS! · Solomonster Sounds Off

0:01
Speaker 1: It's business time. Baby. You are listening to Solo Monster
0:05
Speaker 1: Sounds Off. I love you so, Mama monster, dude, I
0:11
Speaker 1: want your soul. Woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in
0:15
Speaker 1: the back going on Twitter. Come over here is that
0:18
Speaker 1: Pet Patterson? You have legs? I was ninety nine percent
0:24
Speaker 1: positive it was just chessed up. Now, congratulations. Who hasn't
0:28
Speaker 1: beat Daniel Garcia. Welcome to episode nine to twenty four
0:36
Speaker 1: of The Solo Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, August tenth,
0:40
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. I am the Solo Monster. A week
0:44
Speaker 1: removed from Summer Slam. I can honestly say the best
0:48
Speaker 1: thing I saw all week wasn't any of the wrestling
0:51
Speaker 1: shows that I watched, and it definitely wasn't the Mets.
0:55
Speaker 1: It was the New Fantastic Four movie. I enjoyed it.
1:00
Speaker 1: Galactus was awesome. See that takes me back. I used
1:02
Speaker 1: to collect all the cards, all the comics and stuff
1:06
Speaker 1: Galactus Silver Surfer like that's part of my childhood. You know,
1:11
Speaker 1: I haven't seen a Marvel movie since the first Guardians
1:14
Speaker 1: of the Galaxy came out. That's how long it's been.
1:17
Speaker 1: But it also goes to show this was not one
1:19
Speaker 1: of the strongest weeks of wrestling on TV. It was
1:22
Speaker 1: a very newsworthy week though, with the news of WWE
1:26
Speaker 1: and ESPN reaching a deal for all of their plees,
1:30
Speaker 1: and there has been a lot of confusion about what
1:33
Speaker 1: it all means, so I'm going to break it down
1:35
Speaker 1: for you. This week we also had the return of
1:38
Speaker 1: brock Lesner at SummerSlam after a two year layoff, why
1:43
Speaker 1: some people are upset and what it does and does
1:46
Speaker 1: not mean for the Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit. I'll
1:50
Speaker 1: talk about that backstage heat in aw on MVP and
1:54
Speaker 1: the Hurt Syndicate. More Hogan family drama coming out of
1:58
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan's funeral this week, and Brett Hart has chimed
2:02
Speaker 1: in with a heartwarming eulogy for the Hulkster as only
2:06
Speaker 1: the Hitman can. So let's get into it. If you
2:10
Speaker 1: want to make a PayPal donation, you may do so
2:12
Speaker 1: on Thesolomonster dot com. Ten dollars from more will get
2:15
Speaker 1: you a nickname and a shout out. I want to
2:17
Speaker 1: say thank you to the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton. Paul,
2:21
Speaker 1: thank you, Ms Madness, Michelle Mills, Michelle, thank you very much.
2:27
Speaker 1: Big B, Bryan Pisera, The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soap,
2:33
Speaker 1: Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, Fast Blast, Tim Banks, Daredevil, Doug Lippert,
2:39
Speaker 1: Night Stalker, I f Alsaphar, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iichord Killshot,
2:44
Speaker 1: Keith Hart Best in the Game, Trey Porter, the Wichita Workhorse,
2:49
Speaker 1: Clayton Nettleton, who says he turned off SmackDown this week.
2:54
Speaker 1: I wish I would have done the same. Simon Costello,
3:00
Speaker 1: Simon nick is Nick con is always in the front
3:02
Speaker 1: row for those big shows, and no, I don't think
3:04
Speaker 1: he becomes an on air personality, nor do I want
3:07
Speaker 1: him to become an on air personality. Shout out to
3:11
Speaker 1: Big Bad Ben Beckett, who has a GoFundMe set up
3:15
Speaker 1: for his band, the ben Jammers. They're a Fokish band
3:19
Speaker 1: from Melbourne, Australia, hoping to record their debut album. They've
3:22
Speaker 1: got seven songs they're very proud of, but now they
3:25
Speaker 1: need the funds to help make it a reality. So
3:27
Speaker 1: if you're interested in helping out, just search for the
3:30
Speaker 1: ben Jammers on gofundb and the campaign should come right up.
3:35
Speaker 1: And Tyler from England whose brother runs a YouTube channel.
3:39
Speaker 1: Both of them have been fans of the podcast for
3:41
Speaker 1: over a decade, but his brother plays versions of the
3:44
Speaker 1: Total Extreme Wrestling Emulator Emulator Simulator. I used to be
3:50
Speaker 1: into all that stuff EWR and all that stuff, but
3:52
Speaker 1: this is TEW And he's got a series up there
3:55
Speaker 1: on his YouTube channel called a Challenge Run where he
3:59
Speaker 1: books was but every so often he has to take
4:02
Speaker 1: challenge requests from the comments section, and once a list
4:05
Speaker 1: of challenges has been curated, he has a specified timeline
4:09
Speaker 1: to try to make sure the challenge is met or
4:11
Speaker 1: he will give himself an in game punishment. And he
4:14
Speaker 1: just wrapped up his WrestleMania forty one show. He created
4:17
Speaker 1: five hours of content around it. Sounds like he puts
4:21
Speaker 1: more effort into it than Triple H does with the
4:23
Speaker 1: creative these days. So if you're looking for more variety
4:27
Speaker 1: in your wrestling content, or you just want to see
4:29
Speaker 1: an alternate WWE timeline, go subscribe to his channel. It's
4:33
Speaker 1: called Connell tw that's co n N E L tew
4:38
Speaker 1: All one word. Now's a good time to join too,
4:41
Speaker 1: because WrestleMania acts as his season finale and he'll be
4:45
Speaker 1: doing a state of the Universe video soon catching everybody
4:48
Speaker 1: up on everything they may have missed, so again, just
4:51
Speaker 1: search for Connell tw on YouTube. The big news of
4:57
Speaker 1: the week came on the media rights front, as WWE
5:00
Speaker 1: and ESPN reached a deal for one point six billion
5:05
Speaker 1: dollars over five years, which works out to three hundred
5:08
Speaker 1: and twenty five million dollars per year to air WWE's
5:12
Speaker 1: premium live events as part of ESPN's new streaming service
5:17
Speaker 1: that is launching on August twenty first, which is called
5:21
Speaker 1: How's this for an original name? ESPN? And now this
5:26
Speaker 1: only affects the US market, All of the plees will
5:28
Speaker 1: continue to air internationally on Netflix even though this deal
5:33
Speaker 1: wouldn't kick in until next year. They have not announced
5:36
Speaker 1: when it will kick off, but the Peacock deal I
5:38
Speaker 1: believe is through March, which means this would start with WrestleMania.
5:43
Speaker 1: That three hundred and twenty five million dollars a year
5:45
Speaker 1: would mean they nearly doubled what they are currently getting
5:48
Speaker 1: from Peacock. NBC Universal had the right of first refusal,
5:53
Speaker 1: so they had the chance to match ESPN's offer, they
5:56
Speaker 1: obviously did not. ESPN will also simulcan what they are
6:01
Speaker 1: calling select events on ESPN's linear networks. By the way,
6:06
Speaker 1: that could very well include ABC, which is also owned
6:09
Speaker 1: by Disney. They could brand these events under the ESPN
6:14
Speaker 1: on ABC banner and actually air something like WrestleMania Live
6:17
Speaker 1: on ABC, which is a broadcast network, and that's never
6:21
Speaker 1: been done before. I'm not saying they will, but it's
6:24
Speaker 1: at least possible now it's at least plausible that they
6:27
Speaker 1: would show a portion of it. But if you would
6:30
Speaker 1: have told nineteen ninety nine meters that one day WrestleMania
6:34
Speaker 1: would air on ESPN like that would have been unbelievable.
6:38
Speaker 1: If you would have told me that pro wrestling would
6:40
Speaker 1: even be covered on ESPN or on Sports Center, that
6:43
Speaker 1: would have been unbelievable. But that's been going on for
6:46
Speaker 1: a few years now. Imagine what that integration is going
6:50
Speaker 1: to look like now, like live SportsCenter covered from the
6:53
Speaker 1: actual venues for each event. They're going to treat it
6:56
Speaker 1: like a real sport. ESPN may also be streaming the
6:59
Speaker 1: pre post shows for all the ples, although WWE is
7:02
Speaker 1: going to continue to produce them themselves, so they're not
7:06
Speaker 1: outsourcing that to ESPN. WWE president Nick Cohn has clarified
7:12
Speaker 1: that while the number of shows can always grow, the
7:15
Speaker 1: current deal is for ten plees held over twelve nights,
7:19
Speaker 1: since WrestleMania and Summer Slim next year are going to
7:23
Speaker 1: remain two nights because Summer Slim next year was already
7:26
Speaker 1: scheduled for two nights. They're going to be in Minneapolis,
7:29
Speaker 1: so I mean that's not a surprise. And I mean
7:31
Speaker 1: they just sold one hundred and thirteen thousand tickets for
7:34
Speaker 1: two nights of Summer Slim at MetLife Stadium, right, So
7:37
Speaker 1: those two nights are here to stay. But just because
7:39
Speaker 1: those are the terms of the current deal does not
7:41
Speaker 1: mean that they can't expand the Royal Rumble and other
7:43
Speaker 1: events to two nights at some point. I fully expect
7:46
Speaker 1: that to happen. I mean I would be shocked if
7:48
Speaker 1: it didn't happen as early as twenty twenty seven. Now,
7:52
Speaker 1: this new ESPN streaming service that launches later this month,
7:55
Speaker 1: again on the twenty first, It will be priced at
7:58
Speaker 1: twenty nine to ninety nine per month or three hundred
8:01
Speaker 1: dollars annually. But the key is that if you are
8:04
Speaker 1: someone who already has ESPN as part of your cable
8:07
Speaker 1: package or your satellite package, you would not need to
8:11
Speaker 1: pay extra for the streaming service. You would already have
8:13
Speaker 1: access to it. You'll just need to go through there.
8:16
Speaker 1: There's gonna be an authentication process, so you'll have to
8:19
Speaker 1: just log in whatever your cable or satellite log in is.
8:22
Speaker 1: You put that information in, and then you'll be able
8:25
Speaker 1: to access the service for free. Existing ESPN Plus subscribers
8:30
Speaker 1: will automatically be enrolled as subscribers to the new service.
8:34
Speaker 1: It's basically being absorbed into this new service, and after
8:39
Speaker 1: a period of time, ESPN Plus will be completely phased
8:42
Speaker 1: out in favor of this new one. Now. Alex Sherman
8:45
Speaker 1: of CNBC explained how everything is going to work. This
8:48
Speaker 1: is how he explains it. Anyone who currently pays for
8:52
Speaker 1: a bundle of TV networks that includes ESPN will eventually
8:56
Speaker 1: get ESPN's direct to consumer service for no extra charge.
9:01
Speaker 1: You'll download or click on the ESPN app on your
9:03
Speaker 1: mobile device or you're smart TV. There will be a
9:06
Speaker 1: login screen that asks you if you are a PayTV subscriber.
9:10
Speaker 1: You will then be able to authenticate that you do
9:12
Speaker 1: in fact pay for traditional PayTV and get ESPN in
9:15
Speaker 1: your bundle. Once you authenticate, you'll get access to the
9:19
Speaker 1: new service with everything in it. That means that's starting
9:22
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. You'll get access to all the
9:24
Speaker 1: WWE premium live events as well as everything else that
9:28
Speaker 1: is on ESPN Monday Night Football, NBA games, etc. You
9:34
Speaker 1: won't get NFL network yet, that deal needs to close first,
9:38
Speaker 1: but once it does, the NFL networking games at air
9:40
Speaker 1: on it will be integrated into the service as well.
9:43
Speaker 1: The WWE live events will not be available on ESPN Plus.
9:47
Speaker 1: You'll need to upgrade to the twenty nine to ninety
9:49
Speaker 1: nine ESPN product. But again, just to be clear, if
9:52
Speaker 1: you're a cable subscriber that gets ESPN, you will get
9:56
Speaker 1: it for no extra charge and ESPN will not charge
10:00
Speaker 1: an additional fee for the live events, so there's no
10:03
Speaker 1: return to pay per view here, like ESPN has done
10:07
Speaker 1: with some UFC events on ESPN Plus. And that's an
10:11
Speaker 1: important point because some people were worried that you would
10:14
Speaker 1: have to pay a fee on top of a fee,
10:16
Speaker 1: so you pay for the ESPN service and then pay
10:19
Speaker 1: an actual pay per view fee on top of that,
10:21
Speaker 1: like you do for some of the UFC events, But
10:23
Speaker 1: that is not the case here. That there's been a
10:26
Speaker 1: lot of confusion about this. I mean I was confused
10:29
Speaker 1: the day that this news broke. Everyone was confused. The
10:32
Speaker 1: rollout has just been very confusing. It has not been great,
10:37
Speaker 1: and people wondering how is this all going to work?
10:39
Speaker 1: So a few important points to make. For one, not
10:44
Speaker 1: everyone who gets ESPN will necessarily have access to this
10:49
Speaker 1: for free. Now take me, for example, I'm on YouTube
10:53
Speaker 1: tv and that is one of the services that they
10:56
Speaker 1: have not reached a deal with yet. YouTube tv does
10:59
Speaker 1: not even offer SNY anymore. Okay, Sportsnet New York they
11:04
Speaker 1: used to, but they don't anymore. SNY is the network
11:08
Speaker 1: that airs in New York Mets games. We have not
11:10
Speaker 1: had access to SNY for the last two years, which
11:14
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. You know, my brother has a subscription through
11:18
Speaker 1: the MLB Network app, so we can watch the games
11:20
Speaker 1: through there. But they took SNY away from US and
11:24
Speaker 1: MLB Network as well two years ago, and they still
11:26
Speaker 1: have not reached any kind of agreement to bring them back.
11:29
Speaker 1: It's been two years, but the subscription price sure keeps
11:33
Speaker 1: going up. We get less content than we did before,
11:37
Speaker 1: yet we pay more. I mean, I do like the service,
11:41
Speaker 1: and I really don't have any interest in ever going
11:43
Speaker 1: back to cable. I would just as soon toss my
11:45
Speaker 1: television out the window then ever go back to cable.
11:48
Speaker 1: I cut the cord five years ago and I have
11:50
Speaker 1: never looked back. Now, if you have Spectrum, if you
11:55
Speaker 1: have Direct TV, Fubo TV, Hulu Live TV, or Verizon FiOS,
12:00
Speaker 1: you're good to go. You'll have access. But if you
12:02
Speaker 1: have Exfinity, which is Comcast, YouTube TV, Dish TV, or Sling,
12:08
Speaker 1: you will not have free access to the service. You
12:11
Speaker 1: will have to pay the twenty nine to ninety nine
12:12
Speaker 1: a month for now, that could change before WWE even
12:18
Speaker 1: migrates over there. They seem to believe that it will
12:21
Speaker 1: that this will all be taken care of in time.
12:24
Speaker 1: They'll have everybody on board by the end of the year.
12:27
Speaker 1: It'll all be worked out, and if it is, then
12:30
Speaker 1: you'll be able to get access to the service for
12:32
Speaker 1: free like everybody else. But they have to come to
12:35
Speaker 1: terms with those platforms first. Now, another important point is
12:39
Speaker 1: that ESPN is going to be simulcasting select events on
12:44
Speaker 1: their linear networks like ESPN, and it's a little confusing
12:48
Speaker 1: because apparently that's what they're also calling their new streaming service,
12:52
Speaker 1: ESPN but again, I'm talking about the actual ESPN network,
12:57
Speaker 1: and so if the pls are airing on there so
13:00
Speaker 1: some of them, does this mean that we are going
13:04
Speaker 1: to start getting commercials mid match during ples. I mean,
13:08
Speaker 1: we're already getting tons of ads on the ples anyway.
13:11
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fucking twenty five minutes in between matches.
13:14
Speaker 1: But the idea of hearing Michael Cole in the middle
13:17
Speaker 1: of the Wrestlemaniam main event telling us Cody Rhodes is
13:20
Speaker 1: down on the outside Wrestle Matias Sunday rolls on, and
13:25
Speaker 1: then cutting to a Snicker's commercial like Picture and Picture
13:30
Speaker 1: is absolutely nauseating to even think of, right just the
13:33
Speaker 1: thought of it, and for everyone else streaming it. I mean,
13:37
Speaker 1: they could just fade out and fade right back into
13:40
Speaker 1: the match while the ad plays for all the other
13:42
Speaker 1: people who are watching. I don't know. I'm not saying
13:45
Speaker 1: that's what's gonna happen, but again, there's still a lot
13:47
Speaker 1: of questions that have to be answered. It's at least
13:50
Speaker 1: plausible that they could start doing that on some of
13:53
Speaker 1: these ples, So I don't know if that's what we're
13:56
Speaker 1: in for. Maybe it'll be limited to in match advertising,
13:58
Speaker 1: in other ways that don't don't, you know, disrupt the
14:01
Speaker 1: actual matches too much. But rest assured like they will
14:05
Speaker 1: find a way to integrate more advertising and more sponsorships
14:09
Speaker 1: into those pls. You can set your watch to that now. Also,
14:20
Speaker 1: we don't yet know if the full plees will be
14:23
Speaker 1: simulcast on those linear networks. Mark Shapiro of TKO said
14:26
Speaker 1: that for some events, ESPN may only air the first
14:29
Speaker 1: hour or two and then you would be forced to
14:32
Speaker 1: switch over to the new service. So honestly, you're better
14:35
Speaker 1: off just streaming them and not even watching them on
14:37
Speaker 1: basic cable, because that sounds like a pain in the ass.
14:41
Speaker 1: Another important point is that this package that ESPN is
14:45
Speaker 1: paying WWE for does not include NXT events or any
14:50
Speaker 1: of the library content, because I've been getting a lot
14:52
Speaker 1: of tweets and emails about what happens to the library,
14:54
Speaker 1: what happens to the classic content. Even Netflix hasn't had
14:58
Speaker 1: the full raw episodes months, which is true, and so
15:03
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of concern about that. If you
15:06
Speaker 1: are a fan of the classic content on Peacock right now,
15:09
Speaker 1: and Peacock doesn't even have again the classic raw episodes anymore,
15:13
Speaker 1: I mean at least not all of them. If you
15:15
Speaker 1: are a fan of that stuff, they are very likely
15:19
Speaker 1: going to make a deal with another streaming service completely
15:22
Speaker 1: separate from this one for that content. I mean, they're
15:25
Speaker 1: going to slice and dice and carve this shit up
15:27
Speaker 1: to squeeze every last penny out of it that they can.
15:31
Speaker 1: Maybe they make a new deal with Peacock for that,
15:34
Speaker 1: maybe it moves to Netflix, maybe it moves to another streamer,
15:39
Speaker 1: but that will not be part of the ESPN deal.
15:42
Speaker 1: They're going to have to make a deal soon for
15:44
Speaker 1: the nxtpls, right, they can't wait until next year to
15:47
Speaker 1: make that deal. But if the classics are not included,
15:50
Speaker 1: that stuff may be in limbo for a while. And
15:53
Speaker 1: the reality is like that content, I hate to say it,
15:56
Speaker 1: but that content doesn't move the needle for them because
15:59
Speaker 1: I don't even need to look at the numbers. I
16:02
Speaker 1: don't have any inside track of what the viewership numbers
16:05
Speaker 1: are for all the classic library content, all the archival content.
16:10
Speaker 1: Like if it did good numbers, more people would be
16:13
Speaker 1: watching it, And viewership for the classic stuff clearly is
16:17
Speaker 1: not great, where they would be doing a better job
16:19
Speaker 1: of updating it more frequently. The fact that they're not
16:21
Speaker 1: tells everything you need to know. There's no focus on it.
16:24
Speaker 1: They don't mention it, they don't advertise it. Like the
16:28
Speaker 1: pace of updates has slowed, if not just completely been halted.
16:34
Speaker 1: I mean they don't really post anything new as far
16:36
Speaker 1: as like the classic stuff, and it's not like everything
16:38
Speaker 1: is up there. It's just not a priority for them. Thankfully,
16:43
Speaker 1: we have the Vault channels on YouTube, which I love.
16:45
Speaker 1: I think the Vault channels all of them because they
16:48
Speaker 1: have multiple vaults. The WWE Vault is my personal favorite,
16:52
Speaker 1: but I think the Vault is awesome. They have one
16:55
Speaker 1: for WCW, they have one for NXT, probably very soon
16:59
Speaker 1: for E. But it would be nice to have one
17:02
Speaker 1: centralized place with everything archived and know where everything is.
17:06
Speaker 1: And that's why I tweeted this week. I was not
17:10
Speaker 1: even really joking. I mean, it's true, you really don't
17:13
Speaker 1: know what you have until it's gone. And the original
17:16
Speaker 1: WWE network was fucking awesome because you had and we
17:21
Speaker 1: didn't have all of the library fully digitized and uploaded
17:27
Speaker 1: at that point, but there was a ton of classic content.
17:30
Speaker 1: It was easy to access. You had access to the
17:32
Speaker 1: pay per views, you paid nine to ninety nine. You
17:35
Speaker 1: got everything you needed, and they had original content as well.
17:38
Speaker 1: They had the Edging Christian Show, they had what was
17:41
Speaker 1: that show Camp WWE, they had some other stuff and
17:45
Speaker 1: it was a bargain. And it's not even that I
17:48
Speaker 1: necessarily took it for granted. I mean I remember talking
17:51
Speaker 1: about it on the podcast at the time and talking
17:54
Speaker 1: about what a steel it was for all the content
17:57
Speaker 1: you were getting and the just the search function and
18:01
Speaker 1: the kind of the chapters. When you would go to
18:04
Speaker 1: like a pay per view, they would have them divided
18:07
Speaker 1: by match, you know, so you can go to the
18:09
Speaker 1: match that you wanted. It was incredible and then they
18:14
Speaker 1: migrated over to Peacock and it all went to shit
18:18
Speaker 1: and it's only gotten marginally better still. I still hate
18:21
Speaker 1: the search function on Peacock. Now we're talking about, you know,
18:25
Speaker 1: not even knowing if we're going to have access to
18:27
Speaker 1: all the classic stuff and where it's gonna go. Is
18:29
Speaker 1: it going to be better, is it going to be worse?
18:32
Speaker 1: And it makes me long for those days of the
18:34
Speaker 1: original WWE network. They really were, you know, ahead of
18:37
Speaker 1: the curve on that, and I long for those days. Man,
18:40
Speaker 1: nine ninety nine is all you needed to pay. That's it.
18:43
Speaker 1: I mean, they advertised their shit out of that. They
18:45
Speaker 1: had T shirts, they had T shirts made with nine
18:49
Speaker 1: ninety nine on it. One thing they're very good at,
18:51
Speaker 1: They've always been very good, is at marketing. Even that
18:56
Speaker 1: fucking Cane movie that came out See No Evil right
18:59
Speaker 1: May nineteen. What year was that? What year did that
19:02
Speaker 1: movie come out? It had to be two thousand and six,
19:05
Speaker 1: right somewhere around then. We're talking twenty years and still
19:10
Speaker 1: I remember it. I still choke. People still joke about
19:13
Speaker 1: May nineteenth every year. So they're very good at that.
19:17
Speaker 1: But I do miss those days. So it would be
19:20
Speaker 1: very nice to have one centralized place where everything is housed.
19:26
Speaker 1: Now on the YouTube channels, they do have playlists on
19:28
Speaker 1: the vault channels and that does help, but it can
19:31
Speaker 1: still be tough, you know, to find stuff that you
19:33
Speaker 1: may be looking for. So if YouTube ended up being
19:36
Speaker 1: the place for all that content, you know what, I
19:39
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind it. I'm sure they can rake in plenty
19:42
Speaker 1: of ad money on there. I'm sure they are raking
19:44
Speaker 1: in plenty of ad money. They have well over two
19:47
Speaker 1: million subscribers already on the WWE Vault channel I think
19:50
Speaker 1: the WCW one has like three hundred thousand, but again
19:55
Speaker 1: it's not like they're really advertising them or promoting them.
20:00
Speaker 1: I ever ever said a word about it on TV.
20:03
Speaker 1: So right now they're airing the big Triple A shows
20:06
Speaker 1: on YouTube as well on their main channel. Would future
20:10
Speaker 1: Triple A events be part of any streaming deal that
20:12
Speaker 1: they make, Maybe for an XT It's possible maybe the
20:16
Speaker 1: Triple A shows end up on a streaming service. SmackDown
20:20
Speaker 1: is going to remain on USA networking on Peacock. That
20:23
Speaker 1: deal runs through twenty twenty nine, so that is unaffected
20:27
Speaker 1: by the ESPN stuff. Alex Sherman also reports that he
20:31
Speaker 1: was told by his source that there was another bidder
20:35
Speaker 1: that bid slightly higher for the wwepls than ESPN did,
20:40
Speaker 1: but ultimately WWE opted to go with ESPN anyway, And
20:44
Speaker 1: it makes sense when you consider all of the exposure
20:47
Speaker 1: that WWE is going to get on the ESPN networks
20:51
Speaker 1: over these next five years plus the advertising ESPN is
20:54
Speaker 1: going to be doing for all of those WWE shows
20:56
Speaker 1: during big events like Monday Night Football, right they're going
20:59
Speaker 1: to be plugging the shit out a WWE, not unlike
21:03
Speaker 1: the way Warner Brothers. Discovery promoted aw during the NBA playoffs, right,
21:08
Speaker 1: that was huge for them, and this will be even
21:10
Speaker 1: bigger for WWE. I don't know who the other bidder was,
21:14
Speaker 1: but Amazon can't do that, right, They can't provide WWE
21:20
Speaker 1: with what ESPN is going to give them. Netflix can't
21:24
Speaker 1: do that. Hulu can't do that. Hulu isn't even going
21:27
Speaker 1: to be around much longer. That was also in the
21:29
Speaker 1: news this week. Disney is shutting down Hulu next year
21:33
Speaker 1: and they're going to just integrate it and absorb it
21:37
Speaker 1: into Disney Plus. Brian alvarezs Peacock made a bid to
21:42
Speaker 1: keep WWE for somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred
21:45
Speaker 1: and seventy five million dollars a year, although he doesn't
21:48
Speaker 1: know if that was for five years or if that
21:51
Speaker 1: would have also included the video library like they currently have.
21:54
Speaker 1: But WWE got fifty million a year more from ESPN
21:57
Speaker 1: for less content. Now they can just sell off the
22:01
Speaker 1: rest to someone else like Peacock if they still want it. So,
22:05
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a lot to digest. It's a lot
22:07
Speaker 1: of moving parts here, and frankly, not all of it.
22:10
Speaker 1: I think has been completely ironed out. Yet, if you
22:13
Speaker 1: are WWE, this is a great deal that is gonna
22:17
Speaker 1: net them a ton of money for business. It's great
22:22
Speaker 1: for the consumer. A lot of it depends on your
22:25
Speaker 1: individual situation and whether you already have ESPN. If you
22:30
Speaker 1: already have ESPN, theoretically you will be able to see
22:33
Speaker 1: all of the pls now for free. And if you
22:36
Speaker 1: are paying for Peacock just for that. If you have
22:39
Speaker 1: no other need for Peacock, if you're not watching the Office,
22:44
Speaker 1: so whatever the fuck else they have on Peacock and
22:46
Speaker 1: you just have it for the WWE shows, you could
22:49
Speaker 1: ditch Peacock and just pay nothing extra. So if you
22:53
Speaker 1: fall into that category, it's actually not a bad deal.
22:57
Speaker 1: I say that without knowing it. Where they apes and
23:01
Speaker 1: the classic content is going to end up, you'll have
23:03
Speaker 1: to pay for those. But if you're a hardcore sports fan,
23:06
Speaker 1: you're going to have access to a ton of other
23:08
Speaker 1: sports through the ESPN app. Now, if you're not a
23:12
Speaker 1: big sports fan, or if you don't have ESPN right
23:15
Speaker 1: now and you need to pay the twenty nine to
23:17
Speaker 1: ninety nine a month, then it's not such a great deal,
23:21
Speaker 1: and you have every right not to be happy about it.
23:24
Speaker 1: Not that WWE gives a shit, but if it bothers you,
23:27
Speaker 1: then it's completely understandable, especially if you're already subscribed to
23:31
Speaker 1: lots of other services. And I'm not just talking video services.
23:35
Speaker 1: We're not just talking about Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime.
23:40
Speaker 1: There's audio streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music. Maybe you
23:46
Speaker 1: have a serious XM subscription. Right, All of that costs money.
23:51
Speaker 1: There are so many streaming services these days, I mean,
23:54
Speaker 1: it's impossible to keep up, and costs are rising us.
24:00
Speaker 1: They're not going down anytime soon. When was the last
24:02
Speaker 1: time you got a notification from one of your streaming
24:04
Speaker 1: services saying, great news, your subscription fee is going down
24:08
Speaker 1: next month. Right, Yeah, that just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen.
24:14
Speaker 1: It's going up. It's going to continue to go up.
24:17
Speaker 1: Especially as we see more of this type of consolidation
24:21
Speaker 1: and there are fewer options, prices are going to rise.
24:23
Speaker 1: Look at Peacock, they're increasing their prices again. Peacock Premium
24:29
Speaker 1: is going from seven ninety nine to ten ninety nine
24:31
Speaker 1: a month, Premium plus is going from thirteen ninety nine
24:35
Speaker 1: to sixteen ninety nine, and so on. Their annual packages
24:39
Speaker 1: are also going up. You know, at what point do
24:42
Speaker 1: people tap out? At what point do people have to
24:46
Speaker 1: make a list and say, Okay, I'm subscribed to these
24:48
Speaker 1: six services, and I've got to cut them in half.
24:51
Speaker 1: Which ones stay and which ones go? What's important to
24:54
Speaker 1: me and what's not important to me? I mean, for
24:57
Speaker 1: a content creator like me, that could be a good thing,
25:01
Speaker 1: because there may be people who give up on watching
25:03
Speaker 1: the shows altogether and they just tune into shows like
25:07
Speaker 1: this to keep up with what's going on. There's already
25:09
Speaker 1: a lot of people doing that. Nick Cohn believes that
25:13
Speaker 1: the WWE audience is loyal and will follow them wherever
25:16
Speaker 1: they go. They will follow them to the ends of
25:19
Speaker 1: the earth and gladly pay the toll at each end.
25:23
Speaker 1: He claims that ninety six percent of the USA Network
25:26
Speaker 1: audience moved with them to Sci Fi when they were
25:30
Speaker 1: shifted there on short notice during the Olympics. He claims
25:33
Speaker 1: every WWE network subscriber, every single one, shifted over to Peacock,
25:41
Speaker 1: so he is confident that all of their fans will
25:44
Speaker 1: be there when they move to ESPN. In a challenging economy.
25:48
Speaker 1: If it gets worse, that theory is going to be
25:51
Speaker 1: put to the test. But you know what, he's not wrong.
25:56
Speaker 1: For all of the moaning and all of the bitching
25:59
Speaker 1: about having to spend thirty bucks a month to watch
26:01
Speaker 1: these pls, the vast majority of those people will end
26:06
Speaker 1: up paying the money. Like I've said this before, and
26:10
Speaker 1: in light of this news, I think it's actually truer
26:13
Speaker 1: now more than ever. You know, Nick Khn is Vince
26:17
Speaker 1: McMahon's greatest signing after Hulk Hogan. Nick Con has made
26:21
Speaker 1: this company more money than Hogan ever did. But without
26:24
Speaker 1: Hogan as the face of their national expansion, they may
26:28
Speaker 1: not even be in a position to be making these
26:30
Speaker 1: types of deals. So I can't rank him above a Hulk,
26:33
Speaker 1: But when it comes to talent, when it comes to
26:37
Speaker 1: the executive end, nick Con is his greatest acquisition. I
26:43
Speaker 1: don't think this deal happens without his relationships and his
26:48
Speaker 1: contacts at ESPN. The last set of television rights negotiations,
26:53
Speaker 1: he led the charge on those two. All these billion
26:56
Speaker 1: dollar deals, he led the charge on those. If you're
27:00
Speaker 1: a WWE shareholder, you're loving this. As a viewer, There's
27:05
Speaker 1: a lot that I dislike about the current WWE product
27:09
Speaker 1: and how overly corporate. It has gotten, but I accept
27:13
Speaker 1: that it's the way of the world. Now. You know,
27:15
Speaker 1: you got to get that money before the well drives up.
27:18
Speaker 1: All these media rights deals, these astronomical fees that are
27:22
Speaker 1: being paid to WWE and NASCAR and MLB and NBA
27:26
Speaker 1: and NFL and all these different organizations. Like that money
27:29
Speaker 1: is not always going to be there. It's not always
27:31
Speaker 1: going to be that way, right, You got to get
27:34
Speaker 1: it while the going is hot. And as a publicly
27:38
Speaker 1: traded company, they have people to answer to, and those people,
27:42
Speaker 1: more so than even the fans themselves, will always come first.
27:45
Speaker 1: You know, does WWE give a shit that you have
27:47
Speaker 1: to pay for three or four different services now if
27:49
Speaker 1: you want to watch all of their content now, they
27:52
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck because, as Nick con said, he
27:56
Speaker 1: knows that you're going to pay for it regardless. I mean,
28:00
Speaker 1: look at their ticket prices. Their ticket prices have increased astronomically.
28:07
Speaker 1: They have priced a lot of people out, a lot
28:09
Speaker 1: of families out of attending WWE events. Or maybe they
28:13
Speaker 1: still go, but they don't go to as many as
28:15
Speaker 1: they used to, or they sit in the cheap seats
28:18
Speaker 1: now instead of sitting closer to the I mean, I
28:20
Speaker 1: say cheap seats. I'm not sure those even exist anymore
28:23
Speaker 1: at these shows. You know, over time, I think their
28:25
Speaker 1: audience is going to change. I think the audience already has.
28:30
Speaker 1: You know, they don't care so much about the matches
28:32
Speaker 1: as much as they do the moments, right, It's what
28:35
Speaker 1: they've been conditioned to expect. They wait for the moments
28:38
Speaker 1: so that they can react. Maybe they get their face
28:41
Speaker 1: on TV with their phony reaction. But as you price
28:45
Speaker 1: certain people out, it's inevitable that the makeup of their
28:48
Speaker 1: audience is going to change to some extent. The demographics
28:51
Speaker 1: of their audience are going to change to some extent.
28:54
Speaker 1: What will be very interesting is, you know, that first
28:57
Speaker 1: turn down in business whenever it comes, and it is
29:00
Speaker 1: going to happen. I mean it may take years, but
29:02
Speaker 1: it will happen when it does. How loyal are those
29:07
Speaker 1: new fans going to be? Right? Are they going to
29:10
Speaker 1: be as loyal as the diehards right now? Are they
29:12
Speaker 1: going to stick with WWE the way those other fans would,
29:16
Speaker 1: the ones that they priced out. That's an interesting question
29:20
Speaker 1: that I don't know the answer to. And another question
29:24
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer to is when we see
29:27
Speaker 1: the day that comes where that business turned down happens.
29:31
Speaker 1: Who's going to be the first scapegoat? Right, is going
29:35
Speaker 1: to be Triple h. He sure has positioned himself as
29:39
Speaker 1: the face of this brand. But that's a whole other question.
29:44
Speaker 1: But whether you can afford to go to their events
29:47
Speaker 1: is really of no concern to them because those tickets
29:49
Speaker 1: are still selling. They just put tickets on sale for
29:52
Speaker 1: Survivor Series at Petco Park and already they move twenty
29:55
Speaker 1: five thousand seats. This event is not until the end
29:58
Speaker 1: of November, it's after Thanksgiving. The building fits forty seven
30:02
Speaker 1: thousand people. They've already sold over twenty five thousand tickets
30:06
Speaker 1: and they may well come close to that forty seven
30:08
Speaker 1: thousand before all of said and done. So you're looking
30:11
Speaker 1: at even more stadium shows in the future. Stadiums for
30:14
Speaker 1: Survivor Series is going to become the norm, just like
30:16
Speaker 1: they have for SummerSlam. So long as the demand is
30:20
Speaker 1: there and people are willing to pay those prices, they
30:23
Speaker 1: have no incentive to lower them. Why would they. So
30:28
Speaker 1: if you don't like this ESPN deal, WWE has one
30:32
Speaker 1: point six billion reasons not to care because I've gotten
30:37
Speaker 1: those tweets too this week. You know, Well, I guess
30:41
Speaker 1: I'm done with WWE. No more WWE for me. I'll
30:46
Speaker 1: stick to the news sites and podcasts for my Phil. Well,
30:51
Speaker 1: see you. For every fan that sticks to their guns
30:55
Speaker 1: and leaves, they'll just replace them with five more. You know.
30:59
Speaker 1: They get to be in bed with Disney at ESPN. Now.
31:02
Speaker 1: It's always been about status with this company. That was
31:05
Speaker 1: always the story with Vince McMahon. He was always upset
31:07
Speaker 1: that there were no car companies who wanted to advertise
31:10
Speaker 1: with them and sponsor their shows. Instead of seeing Audi
31:13
Speaker 1: commercials during raw or hearing John Cena's voice on those
31:17
Speaker 1: Honda commercials, it would be Burger King and Snickers like
31:21
Speaker 1: those were the types of ads that you would see
31:22
Speaker 1: on their shows over and over and over again. Only
31:27
Speaker 1: in recent years has that really changed, Right, They're a
31:30
Speaker 1: lot more accepted now in the mainstream and they're pretty
31:35
Speaker 1: much covered in every realm of media. Right. They don't
31:38
Speaker 1: have It's not like they have only cable shows, right.
31:42
Speaker 1: I mean, they have the linear aspect of the deal
31:45
Speaker 1: on lock, they have NXT on the ECW network, and
31:48
Speaker 1: they have smacked down on USA network right, So they
31:51
Speaker 1: have the basic cable aspect covered, and they've got the
31:53
Speaker 1: streaming aspect covered. They've got their hand in everything instead
31:58
Speaker 1: of just limiting themselves to one thing, which is smart.
32:01
Speaker 1: You know, they've got guaranteed money coming in now more
32:04
Speaker 1: than ever before. Even if you think the product is boring, like,
32:08
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. They're getting paid either way. You might say, well,
32:13
Speaker 1: you know they're getting paid, but the shows are very bland. Okay, sure, yeah,
32:17
Speaker 1: they're getting paid for mediocrity, but they're getting paid. But
32:21
Speaker 1: if you have ESPN already and you have free access
32:24
Speaker 1: to the streaming service after it launches the WWE shows,
32:28
Speaker 1: they're not going to cost you a thing. So a
32:30
Speaker 1: lot of fans are actually going to save money on
32:32
Speaker 1: this deal. If they ditch Peacock. Unless you want to
32:36
Speaker 1: watch the nxtpl s wherever they land, then you may
32:38
Speaker 1: not be so lucky. And international fans don't have to
32:42
Speaker 1: worry because nothing is changing for them. And to that point,
32:46
Speaker 1: you know, WWE airs a lot of its content outside
32:49
Speaker 1: the US on Netflix, And if you are worried about
32:52
Speaker 1: having to pay more for another service, you do always
32:55
Speaker 1: have the option of using a VPN, right, I mean
32:59
Speaker 1: until unless Netflix builds in a mechanism to stop people
33:04
Speaker 1: from doing so, you have the ability to use a VPN.
33:09
Speaker 1: It is always an option. You just select a different country,
33:12
Speaker 1: you connect, and then you refresh your Netflix and that's it,
33:16
Speaker 1: so long as you already have an account with them,
33:20
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it'll cost you money, it's not free,
33:23
Speaker 1: but I talk about Express VPN. Obviously they're a sponsor
33:27
Speaker 1: for the show, but I pay for it. I use it.
33:30
Speaker 1: It comes in very handy for me. And I've got
33:33
Speaker 1: that offer where you could get an extra four months free.
33:37
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm promoting it, but I mean, I'm serious
33:40
Speaker 1: like this, This is the time to look into it.
33:43
Speaker 1: If it's something you've never done before. And even if
33:44
Speaker 1: you don't go with that one, you know, because there
33:46
Speaker 1: are other ones out there. But it's going to be
33:49
Speaker 1: an option that a lot of people are going to
33:50
Speaker 1: flock to now, you know. But I've been mentioning it
33:52
Speaker 1: a lot recently because of this European tour the WWE
33:56
Speaker 1: is going to be going on this month leading up
33:58
Speaker 1: to Clash in Paris. They're going to be doublin for
34:00
Speaker 1: SmackDown on the twenty second. That's the first time ever
34:03
Speaker 1: that they've done TV from Ireland. Then they have a
34:06
Speaker 1: bunch of UK dates, mostly live events, but there is
34:09
Speaker 1: a live RAW they're doing from Birmingham and then SmackDown
34:12
Speaker 1: from Leon, France, and then Paris, France for RAW on
34:15
Speaker 1: September first, And for at least some of those shows,
34:19
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna be watching them earlier using the VPN.
34:23
Speaker 1: That way I can do earlier reviews, just like I
34:25
Speaker 1: did back in March before WrestleMania. Speaking of big events,
34:31
Speaker 1: I should mention this here. The chairman of the General
34:34
Speaker 1: Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia Turkey, Al al Shehic, tweeted
34:39
Speaker 1: this week that he just signed a deal to bring
34:41
Speaker 1: a giant entertainment event to Saudi Arabia in twenty twenty seven,
34:47
Speaker 1: a big surprise, he says, to be announced soon. That
34:51
Speaker 1: he did not say WrestleMania, but when someone replied and
34:55
Speaker 1: asked if it was WrestleMania, he responded with an upside
34:58
Speaker 1: down smiley face and is smiley with shades on. They're
35:03
Speaker 1: getting WrestleMania before London, aren't they. Oh, that's going to
35:08
Speaker 1: make a lot of people mad. That's going to make
35:11
Speaker 1: a lot of people of the UK very angry, but
35:15
Speaker 1: you know what they're willing to pay for it is
35:18
Speaker 1: far more than what the UK or anybody else is.
35:21
Speaker 1: It'll be more money than anybody has ever paid for
35:23
Speaker 1: WrestleMania in the history of WrestleMania. Dave Meltzer says he
35:28
Speaker 1: knows people in the country who believe that it is
35:31
Speaker 1: WrestleMania and that they are pushing for the rock to
35:35
Speaker 1: headline the show. He also says there's been talk of
35:38
Speaker 1: having two WrestleManias in one year, so maybe they don't
35:43
Speaker 1: get WrestleMania proper. Maybe we have WrestleMania here and then
35:47
Speaker 1: a few months later they get the Greatest WrestleMania, just
35:51
Speaker 1: like they got the Greatest Royal Rumble. Or maybe they
35:54
Speaker 1: get Super WrestleMania. It's a great game, by the way,
35:58
Speaker 1: I had it on my Super Nintendo. To WrestleManias in
36:02
Speaker 1: one year is honestly the perfect way to highlight what
36:08
Speaker 1: TKO is all about. More than anything I could ever
36:12
Speaker 1: put into words, it is all just so ridiculous. Today's
36:17
Speaker 1: episode is sponsored by Better Help. These days, it feels
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38:26
Speaker 1: e lp dot com slash solom Monster. Brock Lesner returned
38:33
Speaker 1: to WWE last Sunday at SummerSlam in the big surprise
38:37
Speaker 1: of the weekend, more so than even the seth Rollins
38:39
Speaker 1: cash in the night before. Because I figured he would
38:42
Speaker 1: be cashing in a lot of people did but I
38:44
Speaker 1: didn't hear anyone mentioning Lesner even as a possibility for
38:47
Speaker 1: the show. The Rock, yes, but not Brock. Brock had
38:52
Speaker 1: not been seen since his loss to Cody Roads at
38:54
Speaker 1: SummerSlam two years ago, and there were plans for him
38:57
Speaker 1: to be in the Royal Rumble last year. I remember
39:00
Speaker 1: there was talk about him being dumped by Dominic Mysterio
39:04
Speaker 1: of all people, which would lead to a match, a
39:06
Speaker 1: squash match, I mean, what else would it be at
39:10
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber and then from there he would wrestle gun
39:12
Speaker 1: through at wrestle Mania. And then the week of the
39:15
Speaker 1: Rumble is when the Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit was filed,
39:20
Speaker 1: and it was like a bomb went off and Vince McMahon,
39:24
Speaker 1: you know, he might still be running the show had
39:26
Speaker 1: Slim Jim not threatened to pull their sponsorship. They had
39:29
Speaker 1: just announced a new sponsorship with Slimjim, very lucrative one,
39:33
Speaker 1: and then this happened, and if you remember, they announced,
39:37
Speaker 1: they put a statement out that they were putting a
39:39
Speaker 1: pause on their partnership. And that's when Ari Emmanuel got
39:44
Speaker 1: on the phone with Vince McMahon and convinced him that
39:47
Speaker 1: it's best to step aside, because Slim Jim would probably
39:51
Speaker 1: just be the first in a very long line of
39:53
Speaker 1: sponsors to fall if he didn't. And so Vince left.
39:57
Speaker 1: So thank you, Slim Jim. I will never make fun
40:01
Speaker 1: of your stupid tables ever again. Actually I probably will,
40:05
Speaker 1: but thanks anyway. And so they pulled Brock as well.
40:08
Speaker 1: They replaced him with bron Breaker in that rumble, and
40:11
Speaker 1: Dominic eliminated him instead, and Gunther went on to lose
40:14
Speaker 1: his Intercontinental title to Sammy's Ain Or WrestleMania. So they
40:18
Speaker 1: pulled Lesner from the video game like he was. He
40:21
Speaker 1: was gone. It looked like he was just on ice indefinitely,
40:24
Speaker 1: at least until the lawsuit was resolved in some way.
40:28
Speaker 1: There's a reason that he was gone for two years. Okay,
40:31
Speaker 1: that wasn't by accident. And then there he is at
40:35
Speaker 1: MetLife Stadium last weekend. And when I heard the music
40:39
Speaker 1: and I saw him come out, you know, there he is,
40:43
Speaker 1: there's Cowboy Brock. I felt nothing seeing him out there,
40:49
Speaker 1: like no excitement. It was just more like, this is
40:54
Speaker 1: a man that is named forty four times in a
40:57
Speaker 1: sex trafficking lawsuit. Sena not Roman reigns, not seth Rollins.
41:04
Speaker 1: Brock Lesner is, though he is not accused of committing
41:08
Speaker 1: a crime, nor is he named as a defendant in
41:10
Speaker 1: the lawsuit. Vince McMahon is, WWE is John Laurinidis was
41:16
Speaker 1: before he cut that deal that he be dropped as
41:19
Speaker 1: a defendant in exchange for providing evidence against McMahon, and WWE.
41:24
Speaker 1: Brock Lesner is not. And that is an important distinction
41:27
Speaker 1: to make. But his name is all over this thing,
41:30
Speaker 1: and it's pretty disgusting stuff. And so to clear up
41:33
Speaker 1: any confusion as to what he is alleged to have
41:35
Speaker 1: done or not have done, and why his name is
41:38
Speaker 1: listed forty four times in this suit, let's just run
41:42
Speaker 1: through it here once and for all. Janelle Grant alleges
41:46
Speaker 1: that Vince McMahon recruited Brock for a sexual encounter with
41:51
Speaker 1: her to be her next playmate, as he put it,
41:54
Speaker 1: or as she puts it in the lawsuit. Supposedly that's
41:56
Speaker 1: how Vince put it at a time when Vince McMahon
42:00
Speaker 1: allegedly told her that he was trying to sign Brock
42:02
Speaker 1: to a new contract. So if she quote helped him out,
42:07
Speaker 1: it would be really helpful to him, so he had
42:10
Speaker 1: her create sexual content for Brock that Vince could then
42:15
Speaker 1: send to Brock, which she did. She produced the content,
42:20
Speaker 1: she sent it over, and Brock likes what he sees, right,
42:24
Speaker 1: or at least that's what Vince told her. Brock likes
42:26
Speaker 1: what he sees. I don't know that she ever actually
42:30
Speaker 1: met with Brock, although there's a passage in the suit
42:32
Speaker 1: that makes mention of Vince flying him into Connecticut and
42:35
Speaker 1: Brock stopping by her building for a visit, but that
42:40
Speaker 1: he didn't return because he was too intoxicated and he
42:43
Speaker 1: was taken back to the plane. So that almost makes
42:47
Speaker 1: it sound like they did initially meet, but they just
42:49
Speaker 1: didn't have sex. But again I'm a little questionable on that.
42:53
Speaker 1: But she alleges that Vince gave Brock her cell phone number,
42:56
Speaker 1: and so there would have been text messages between Lesnar
42:58
Speaker 1: and Grant. I don't recall seeing any of those screenshots
43:01
Speaker 1: in the lawsuit, only the phone messages between her and Vents.
43:05
Speaker 1: Those are in there. But that's where she claims that
43:08
Speaker 1: Brock requested that she send him a video of her urinating,
43:13
Speaker 1: and then later she claims Brock wanted to have sex
43:16
Speaker 1: with her and they allegedly sent her the address of
43:18
Speaker 1: the hotel that he was staying at in Connecticut because
43:21
Speaker 1: ww we had a show at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
43:24
Speaker 1: That's the meeting that ended up not happening because there
43:26
Speaker 1: was a snowstorm it changed his travel plans. And then
43:30
Speaker 1: she also claimed that she had COVID anyway just as
43:33
Speaker 1: an excuse to back out. And there's more in the suit.
43:36
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into every single detail. I
43:39
Speaker 1: think we could leave it there, but for all the
43:41
Speaker 1: people asking like, what did brock do? What did Brock do?
43:45
Speaker 1: I genuinely don't know what he did. That's what she
43:48
Speaker 1: alleges in the lawsuit. The point is, if this indeed happened,
43:54
Speaker 1: she was being trafficked to other people for sex and
43:56
Speaker 1: sex related acts by her boss. It's an issue of
44:01
Speaker 1: power and exploitation. That's the real crux of the lawsuit.
44:05
Speaker 1: Exploitation that brock Lesner may have potentially benefited from. Had
44:11
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon paid her the money that he was supposed
44:13
Speaker 1: to as part of the non disclosure agreement they signed,
44:17
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be talking about this right now. We never
44:19
Speaker 1: would have known about any of this. That's true. I've
44:22
Speaker 1: seen people mention that that's true, because I see people
44:26
Speaker 1: using that as an excuse to bash the woman and
44:29
Speaker 1: call her all kinds of names. But if this happened
44:32
Speaker 1: in the way that she describes, it's still wrong and
44:36
Speaker 1: it's still disgusting all the same, and Vince McMahon should
44:39
Speaker 1: never be allowed back into that company ever again. He
44:42
Speaker 1: should never be in a position of power ever again.
44:47
Speaker 1: Though I fully believe that if they were to hit
44:49
Speaker 1: No Chance in Hell one day and he walked out
44:52
Speaker 1: on TV, you would have thousands of idiots in the
44:54
Speaker 1: crowd bowing to the man. You know, It's true. Brock
45:00
Speaker 1: at worst was a willing party to all of this,
45:04
Speaker 1: and that he's named forty four times in the complaint,
45:07
Speaker 1: you would think since nothing has changed on the lawsuit front,
45:10
Speaker 1: it would give them pause to use him again until
45:11
Speaker 1: the case is resolved. Depending on what the outcome is.
45:15
Speaker 1: It's still in this state of suspended animation until a
45:18
Speaker 1: judge decides whether it should go to private arbitration, which
45:22
Speaker 1: is what Vincent wwe want, in which case it never
45:26
Speaker 1: goes to discovery and whatever happens happens behind closed doors
45:30
Speaker 1: and that's it, or it goes to trial as she wants,
45:35
Speaker 1: which means discovery, which means things could get even uglier
45:39
Speaker 1: for Vincent, for WWE, and potentially for Brockeleisner too, if
45:42
Speaker 1: there is more that we don't know about and if
45:45
Speaker 1: she has the receipts to prove it. For whatever reason,
45:48
Speaker 1: WWE decided enough time had gone by that it was
45:51
Speaker 1: safe to bring Brock back, and on the Summer Slam
45:55
Speaker 1: post show, Paul Leveck said this about Brock's return. This
45:59
Speaker 1: is John seen as wish list. It's him writing the
46:02
Speaker 1: last chapter of his book. And I think people saw
46:05
Speaker 1: a conversation with us where he said that we'd have
46:08
Speaker 1: to screw it up pretty badly to ruin his career.
46:11
Speaker 1: That's yeah, they use that clip on Unreal, But he said,
46:16
Speaker 1: it's not about that. For me. It's about John being
46:18
Speaker 1: able to go out the way that he wants to
46:21
Speaker 1: write his chapter. I know what that's like as a performer.
46:25
Speaker 1: I know what that's like for everybody to feel that,
46:27
Speaker 1: and I think for John to be able to do
46:29
Speaker 1: what he wants to do, one of the very first
46:31
Speaker 1: things I said to him is who do you want
46:34
Speaker 1: and how? And we're working through that so you hear that,
46:40
Speaker 1: and it sounds like he's putting it on John Cena,
46:43
Speaker 1: that this is something John Cena requested for his retirement tour,
46:48
Speaker 1: which even if he did so, fucking what like who
46:52
Speaker 1: gives a shit, doesn't mean you have to say yes,
46:55
Speaker 1: I don't care who he is, but he's putting it
46:58
Speaker 1: back on John Cena. Meanwhile, John was asked about Brock's
47:01
Speaker 1: return and his response was simply, they deal them. I
47:05
Speaker 1: play him, which implies what he's always said for years,
47:09
Speaker 1: which is that he does what his boss tells him
47:11
Speaker 1: to do. He's always said he doesn't lobby for matches,
47:15
Speaker 1: he doesn't lobby for opponents. Maybe all of a sudden
47:18
Speaker 1: it's different because he's in the twilight of his career,
47:20
Speaker 1: but that he has been consistent in that for years.
47:24
Speaker 1: He comes to work, they pitch an idea to him,
47:25
Speaker 1: and he says yeah or nay. They laid it all
47:27
Speaker 1: out on Unreal when they talked about the heel turn.
47:30
Speaker 1: They came to him and said, hey, what do you
47:31
Speaker 1: think about turning heel? He's like, I like it, Okay,
47:34
Speaker 1: let's do it. Like I don't get the sense that
47:37
Speaker 1: he's actively, you know, showing up at these shows with
47:40
Speaker 1: a list of ideas. Oh, you know, I want to
47:42
Speaker 1: do this, and I want to wrestle this guy and
47:43
Speaker 1: I want to do that. Like he shows up and
47:46
Speaker 1: he does what they tell him to do, and all
47:50
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we're supposed to believe that he has
47:52
Speaker 1: this wish list of opponents. I mean, they've had him
47:56
Speaker 1: outside of Cody playing the hits with people like Randy
47:59
Speaker 1: Oh and Cmpunk. It's not surprising they would want to
48:02
Speaker 1: run him and Brock back one more time. I mean,
48:04
Speaker 1: the two of them have a lot of history together,
48:07
Speaker 1: going all the way back to the OVW days. They've
48:10
Speaker 1: had three classic matches together, Wanted Extreme Rules in twenty
48:13
Speaker 1: twelve when Brock came back, the SummerSlam Squash in twenty fourteen,
48:19
Speaker 1: and the Triple Threat match with Seth Rollins at the
48:21
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble in twenty fifteen. That was ten years ago.
48:26
Speaker 1: I don't know what a Brock lesnar John Cena match
48:28
Speaker 1: looks like in twenty twenty five, but I can't say
48:31
Speaker 1: it's something I was clamoring for. If Sina was then
48:35
Speaker 1: good for him. He got his wish when Brock walked
48:39
Speaker 1: out at SummerSlam, the place went nuts for him, right.
48:42
Speaker 1: I Mean, the reality is most fans aren't going to
48:45
Speaker 1: care about any of this. A lot of them probably
48:47
Speaker 1: don't even know from this lawsuit you think they, I mean,
48:52
Speaker 1: like even know it exists. But even the ones who
48:55
Speaker 1: know kind of the basics of it, Like, how many
48:57
Speaker 1: people do you think actually sat there and read through
49:00
Speaker 1: sixty nine pages of that initial complaint pdf? I mean, really,
49:07
Speaker 1: they just want to watch the show for the big
49:09
Speaker 1: moments and be entertained. Brock coming out was a moment.
49:14
Speaker 1: They talked about the seventy five million social media views
49:16
Speaker 1: that it generated. That's what they care about. Dave Meltzer
49:21
Speaker 1: says Lesner was under contract with them this entire time
49:24
Speaker 1: and was paid his guarantee for the past two years.
49:27
Speaker 1: Even though he never made a single appearance, he was
49:30
Speaker 1: still one of the highest paid wrestlers in the entire company.
49:33
Speaker 1: To sit home, he was never suspended, he was never fired,
49:38
Speaker 1: and about a month ago WWE's legal department the same
49:42
Speaker 1: legal department. Funny enough that once employed Jenelle Grant, the
49:47
Speaker 1: legal department cleared him for a return. Now cleared him
49:52
Speaker 1: has caused some confusion. Cleared him doesn't mean he was
49:55
Speaker 1: cleared of any wrongdoing. This is not a legal case,
49:58
Speaker 1: so like in the legal aspect of things, it just
50:02
Speaker 1: means that they gave the ok for him to come back.
50:05
Speaker 1: A spokesperson for Janelle Grant issued his statement regarding Lesner's return,
50:10
Speaker 1: saying for far too long abuse was allowed to thrive
50:13
Speaker 1: under WWE's leadership. Instead of writing this wrong, WWE has
50:18
Speaker 1: done nothing to ensure those responsible are held accountable. This
50:22
Speaker 1: attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug will backfire. We
50:25
Speaker 1: look forward to the full set of facts, including those
50:28
Speaker 1: about mister Lesner, coming out in a court of law
50:31
Speaker 1: where they belong. But in the meantime, we refer you
50:34
Speaker 1: back to Janelle Grant's updated complaint, which outlines in detail
50:39
Speaker 1: the abuse that she endured by McMahon and others while
50:42
Speaker 1: employed at WWE. Either WWE is confident that this case
50:48
Speaker 1: is not going to trial, or they simply don't care
50:51
Speaker 1: and they are willing to take the risk that nothing
50:54
Speaker 1: else is going to come out. As it relates to
50:56
Speaker 1: Brock Lesner, maybe they spoke with Brock, maybe he shared
50:59
Speaker 1: his own TIS messages with their lawyers. We don't know.
51:03
Speaker 1: You would assume their legal team knows more than we do.
51:05
Speaker 1: But again, it could just be as simple as we're
51:08
Speaker 1: paying this man a lot of money and we want
51:11
Speaker 1: to get a return on our investment. He's not accused
51:15
Speaker 1: of any crime, so we're going to bring him back.
51:19
Speaker 1: If her legal team is to be believed, there may
51:21
Speaker 1: be more that comes out that paints him in a
51:23
Speaker 1: bad light, but that only happens if the case goes
51:26
Speaker 1: to discovery. Right now, it's fifty to fifty whether or
51:28
Speaker 1: not that happens. Wwe clearly believes they have nothing to
51:32
Speaker 1: worry about. This could also be settled before it ever
51:35
Speaker 1: goes to trial, with her getting a big fat payday
51:38
Speaker 1: out of it. Like if the judge rules in favor
51:40
Speaker 1: of a trial, there's definitely a settlement offer coming. And
51:44
Speaker 1: if it's high enough, I think she takes the money
51:47
Speaker 1: and runs and then this all goes away. I just
51:50
Speaker 1: don't see what's in it for her to do it
51:52
Speaker 1: any other way. You know, Again, this is a civil case.
51:55
Speaker 1: No one's going to jail. This is a civil case.
51:58
Speaker 1: It's not a criminal case. Vince McMahon reneged on money
52:02
Speaker 1: that she feels was owed to her. It comes down
52:04
Speaker 1: to money. If the money is high enough, why wouldn't
52:08
Speaker 1: she settle, Like that's what started this entire thing in
52:11
Speaker 1: the first place. And no other women have come, at
52:15
Speaker 1: least publicly. No other women have come forward to kind
52:19
Speaker 1: of join onto this or support her on this. It's
52:22
Speaker 1: like this has turned into a gigantic class action lawsuit.
52:25
Speaker 1: No it hasn't. There was talk at the start that
52:30
Speaker 1: more women might come forward. I mean, if they have,
52:33
Speaker 1: they might have done so privately, but they haven't attached
52:35
Speaker 1: their names to it. That's a tough position to be
52:38
Speaker 1: in when you're fighting against a billionaire and a multi
52:41
Speaker 1: billion dollar company. I mean, this woman is not Aaron Brockovich.
52:46
Speaker 1: I mean, she's not going to take down the evil
52:48
Speaker 1: empire here. The only thing that really matters to WWE
52:52
Speaker 1: are their sponsors. You know, even if more bad stuff
52:55
Speaker 1: comes out, I just don't see it having any appreciable
52:58
Speaker 1: impact on their business. Unless it's something so bad that
53:02
Speaker 1: sponsors threatened to pull out. They probably look at it
53:05
Speaker 1: as more of a nuisance than anything else. And if
53:07
Speaker 1: they have to crack open the checkbook or Vince does
53:11
Speaker 1: to make it all go away, then that's what they're
53:12
Speaker 1: gonna do. Now. Brock was not on SmackDown. This week.
53:17
Speaker 1: The only mentions of him came in the highlights of
53:20
Speaker 1: what happened to the end of SummerSlam and a brief
53:23
Speaker 1: mention by John Cena and his promo about how he
53:25
Speaker 1: never backs down from a fight and if brock Lesner
53:28
Speaker 1: wants some, he can come get some. So after that
53:32
Speaker 1: big angle, that's all they gave us. They want to
53:35
Speaker 1: stretch this out. I don't even know if the target
53:39
Speaker 1: is Perth in October. You would think, Okay, they're not
53:41
Speaker 1: gonna do Paris at the end of the month, and
53:45
Speaker 1: then you go through all of September and surely by
53:47
Speaker 1: October in Perth they'll do the match. I'm not totally
53:51
Speaker 1: convinced of that. I could see Brock being seen his
53:53
Speaker 1: final opponent at this point in December. Would they actually
53:57
Speaker 1: drag this out that long? I mean, that would be
54:01
Speaker 1: disappointing because I'd like to see that spot go to Gunther,
54:05
Speaker 1: But Brock would certainly be the more marquee match beyond Seno.
54:09
Speaker 1: We don't even know for sure that Brock is back
54:11
Speaker 1: for anything more than that. If he is, then you
54:13
Speaker 1: start thinking of other potential opponents for him heading into
54:16
Speaker 1: WrestleMania season, and Gunther's name is at the top of
54:19
Speaker 1: that list right because that was the match they were
54:21
Speaker 1: going to do last year before those plans got scuttled
54:25
Speaker 1: by the way. Roman Reigns was asked by ESPN who
54:29
Speaker 1: his favorite all time opponent is, and he named Brock Lesner.
54:34
Speaker 1: He said everything changed for him once he stepped into
54:36
Speaker 1: the ring with Brock. And the funny thing about that
54:40
Speaker 1: is the best matches those two ever had together were
54:44
Speaker 1: their first and last ones. Like almost almost everything, not everything,
54:48
Speaker 1: almost everything in between was terrible. I have to say
54:52
Speaker 1: almost because they were part of that great four way
54:54
Speaker 1: match at Summerslim in twenty seventeen that was great, but
54:58
Speaker 1: all the terrible shit in between. They booke ended it
55:02
Speaker 1: with two excellent matches Wrestle Mannia thirty one and then
55:05
Speaker 1: the Last Man's Standing match at Summerslim. To go back
55:09
Speaker 1: to SmackDown for a second, I thought SmackDown was awful
55:12
Speaker 1: this week, just a chore of a show to sit through.
55:15
Speaker 1: I enjoyed Dynamite more than I did smack That at
55:17
Speaker 1: least we got that fun match with the Young Bucks
55:20
Speaker 1: Brody Kingdom Bandito. But they set up two matches. They
55:24
Speaker 1: set up two directions here for Clash in Paris one
55:26
Speaker 1: with John Cena against Logan Paul, which has already been confirmed,
55:31
Speaker 1: and they shot an angle at the end of the
55:33
Speaker 1: show with Drew McIntyre delivering a Claymore kick to Cody
55:36
Speaker 1: Rhodes through the bottom part of the announced desk as
55:39
Speaker 1: Cody was sitting there propped up against it. He was
55:43
Speaker 1: laid out dead, So it felt like a way to
55:45
Speaker 1: write him off TV, maybe to go film for Street Fighter,
55:49
Speaker 1: but it felt like the setup to a title match
55:51
Speaker 1: in Paris, and I like that. I think McIntyre makes sense.
55:54
Speaker 1: Is Cody's first challenger after his match with Logan. John
55:59
Speaker 1: Cena will have eight dates left on his retirement tour
56:03
Speaker 1: unless they add more, which is always possible. But you
56:06
Speaker 1: figure three of those eight are actual matches on the
56:09
Speaker 1: Plees or special events like Saturday Night's main event, which
56:13
Speaker 1: is probably where his final match is happening. We know
56:16
Speaker 1: one of those three, at least one is Brockeleisner, so
56:20
Speaker 1: unless he's in the Wargames match at Survivor Series, that
56:23
Speaker 1: leaves as little as two opponents other than Brock left
56:27
Speaker 1: for John Cena to work with. That's not a lot
56:31
Speaker 1: That's why I'm hoping Gunther is one of them, and
56:34
Speaker 1: another one with AJ would be cool. I mean, I
56:36
Speaker 1: honestly don't think it's going to happen, but I think
56:39
Speaker 1: Sena in AJ styles, you know, one more time, would
56:42
Speaker 1: be pretty neat. We also had a brief backstage interaction
56:46
Speaker 1: with Tiffany Stratton on Friday, her and Jade Cargill, so
56:49
Speaker 1: that direction is continuing. I'm still thinking we get healed
56:53
Speaker 1: Jade out of this. There was no hint of that
56:55
Speaker 1: at all on Friday, but I still feel like that's
56:59
Speaker 1: probably the direction here, and the rest of the show
57:02
Speaker 1: on Friday was a waste of time. Now over on
57:05
Speaker 1: Raw seth Rollins is the new World heavyweight Champion, and
57:08
Speaker 1: it appears his faction finally has a name, The Vision.
57:13
Speaker 1: That's the name they trademark last weekend and then on
57:16
Speaker 1: Monday night it was mentioned in the opening promo, so
57:19
Speaker 1: we'll see if they stick with it officially. I'm just
57:21
Speaker 1: glad they actually have a name now. I'm not even
57:23
Speaker 1: going to comment on whether or not it's a good
57:25
Speaker 1: name or a bad name. It's not a terrible name.
57:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I've heard much worse. I'm just glad they
57:30
Speaker 1: seem to have a name, and Seth put the title
57:33
Speaker 1: on the line in the main event against La Knight
57:36
Speaker 1: SmackDown's La Knight. Just like Raw's Sammy's Ain Pin Solo
57:41
Speaker 1: Socoa the United States Champion on SmackDown, nothing matters anymore.
57:48
Speaker 1: La Knight belongs on Raw, though, so I'm fine with it.
57:51
Speaker 1: Their match ended when Cmpunk ran out of the crowd
57:54
Speaker 1: to attack Seth, so La Knight is not going to
57:56
Speaker 1: be very happy about that. They've already announced that Punk
58:00
Speaker 1: is opening Raw tomorrow night. I would expect Night to
58:03
Speaker 1: crash the party and build tension between the two of them.
58:06
Speaker 1: They were both laid out by the vision Roman reigns
58:09
Speaker 1: came out. He also ended up getting destroyed, including three
58:13
Speaker 1: tsunamis and Bronson Reid stealing his shoes again the tribal thief.
58:21
Speaker 1: Now like the Cody angle on Friday, this felt like
58:23
Speaker 1: their way of writing Roman off TV so he can
58:25
Speaker 1: go film Street Fighter. But the Wells Fargo Center in
58:29
Speaker 1: Philadelphia just announced that Roman is going to be on
58:31
Speaker 1: that show on August eighteenth, and he's also been announced
58:34
Speaker 1: for the August twenty fifth Raw. They're going to be
58:36
Speaker 1: in Birmingham, England. So according to p W Insider, Roman
58:40
Speaker 1: is not expected to arrive on set for Street Fighter
58:43
Speaker 1: filming until September second, and if all goes according to plan,
58:47
Speaker 1: he'll be on set through September twenty sixth. That'll be
58:50
Speaker 1: down in Australia. Cody is playing Guile in the same movie,
58:54
Speaker 1: but he is not expected to be on set for
58:57
Speaker 1: as long as Roman realistic. It makes no sense for
59:02
Speaker 1: punk In La Knight to want to be in a
59:05
Speaker 1: tag team match on that Paris show with Roman if
59:07
Speaker 1: they were going to do like a six man tag
59:10
Speaker 1: because they both have a valid claim to being screwed
59:12
Speaker 1: out of the championship, Like, what the fuck would they
59:15
Speaker 1: want to have a tag team match for? It should
59:18
Speaker 1: be a triple threat match, and maybe we get Roman
59:22
Speaker 1: one on one with Bronson Reid since he keeps stealing
59:26
Speaker 1: the men's sneakers. If Brett Hard could fight a pirate
59:30
Speaker 1: to get his jacket back, then Roman can fight Bronton
59:33
Speaker 1: Reid to get his shoes back. And I really don't
59:37
Speaker 1: have any interest in a fatal four way just because
59:40
Speaker 1: if it were me, I would keep Roman in Seth
59:44
Speaker 1: out of the ring together. But barring a War Games match.
59:46
Speaker 1: I would keep them out of the ring until you're
59:48
Speaker 1: ready to do that singles match, and WWE may see
59:51
Speaker 1: that as a WrestleMania match, but I just think putting
59:55
Speaker 1: Roman in Seth in a match like a four way
59:57
Speaker 1: match kind of takes away from doing the eventual singles match. Right.
1:00:01
Speaker 1: We already got them in a triple threat at WrestleMania,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: so I would just do a triple threat here and
1:00:07
Speaker 1: have Punkin Knight challenging Rollins in Paris for the World
1:00:10
Speaker 1: Heavyweight title. That there was no carrying cross follow up
1:00:16
Speaker 1: on Raw after his loss to Sammy's Ain't at SummerSlam,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: so they never bothered to follow through on the stipulation
1:00:21
Speaker 1: that if he lost, he would need to admit to
1:00:23
Speaker 1: the world that he was wrong about Sammy. Never did
1:00:27
Speaker 1: anything with it. He got beat at Summer Slam, nothing happened.
1:00:30
Speaker 1: I said, well, maybe they'll save it from Monday night.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: He wasn't even in the building. Him and Scarlet were
1:00:35
Speaker 1: not even there in Brooklyn on Monday. But the whole
1:00:39
Speaker 1: cross story took another turn last night after he and
1:00:42
Speaker 1: Scarlet were moved to the alumni section on WWE dot Com,
1:00:46
Speaker 1: which is usually a sign that someone's contract has expired
1:00:51
Speaker 1: and they're no longer with the company, or they've been released.
1:00:54
Speaker 1: That Cross has a new book out. It was just released.
1:00:57
Speaker 1: It's called Life Is Fighting, and he's out promoting. It's
1:01:00
Speaker 1: a book, by the way, they promoted on TV, which
1:01:03
Speaker 1: is telling because they didn't have to do that. But
1:01:06
Speaker 1: he's been out promoting it and addressing these rumors online
1:01:09
Speaker 1: about his contract status, and the belief has been that
1:01:12
Speaker 1: his contract was expiring at the end of this past week.
1:01:15
Speaker 1: So supposedly his contract expired as of last night and
1:01:20
Speaker 1: WWE had not made any offers to him. Then Dave
1:01:23
Speaker 1: Meltzer reports that they did make him in Scarlet a
1:01:26
Speaker 1: late offer, possibly as late as this week, but we
1:01:30
Speaker 1: don't know if they actually signed it or not. We
1:01:32
Speaker 1: don't know if it's been accepted. If Paul Hammond was
1:01:35
Speaker 1: on Ariel Helwani show this week and said, the audience
1:01:38
Speaker 1: is calling for Cross to be a bigger star, and
1:01:40
Speaker 1: if WWE doesn't deliver on that, the audience is just
1:01:43
Speaker 1: going to get behind him even more. And then he
1:01:47
Speaker 1: compared Cross to Stone Cold, Steve Austin or Daniel Bryan
1:01:54
Speaker 1: when it comes to the demand to make him a
1:01:56
Speaker 1: bigger star, the idea being that that was organic, right,
1:02:00
Speaker 1: Their rises were organic, and so is this. Yes, it's organic,
1:02:07
Speaker 1: so are the eggs in my refrigerator. That doesn't mean
1:02:10
Speaker 1: it's appropriate to compare them to stone cold Steve Austin
1:02:13
Speaker 1: other than his bald head, I guess. I mean he
1:02:15
Speaker 1: does bear a striking resemblance to my eggs. But please
1:02:19
Speaker 1: do not ever make any comparisons between stone Cold Steve
1:02:22
Speaker 1: Austin and Carrying Cross. All right, let's not get crazy here.
1:02:27
Speaker 1: I like Cross's character work, I like his social media videos.
1:02:31
Speaker 1: I have no idea why they haven't done more with Scarlet.
1:02:34
Speaker 1: But Cross had three matches with Sammy's Ain okay, one
1:02:38
Speaker 1: of the best wrestlers on the roster, and not a
1:02:40
Speaker 1: single one of them stood out as anything remarkable. That's
1:02:44
Speaker 1: his achilles heel. That and his age, right, His age
1:02:47
Speaker 1: works against him. He's forty years old. Doesn't mean you
1:02:51
Speaker 1: don't do anything with him, but they're not going to
1:02:54
Speaker 1: necessarily invest in him in the way they might if
1:02:56
Speaker 1: he was five years younger. The few opportunities is that
1:03:00
Speaker 1: he's actually been given in ring. He has not done
1:03:03
Speaker 1: anything to really make himself stand out. So that's a
1:03:06
Speaker 1: mark against him, But the fan support is there and
1:03:09
Speaker 1: his character work is at least interesting, so I hope
1:03:12
Speaker 1: he stays. I think there's room for someone like him
1:03:14
Speaker 1: on that roster. He's not going to be headlining shows, right,
1:03:18
Speaker 1: not unless the fans dictate that that's where they want him.
1:03:21
Speaker 1: That's just not going to happen. But as a player
1:03:24
Speaker 1: in the middle of the cards, somewhere, there's room for
1:03:27
Speaker 1: someone like him, especially with the fan support that he has.
1:03:31
Speaker 1: Even if you just look at him as a mid
1:03:32
Speaker 1: card guy. You know what, He's got more fan support
1:03:36
Speaker 1: and social media support than most people do in the
1:03:38
Speaker 1: mid card, So do something with it, right, You could
1:03:43
Speaker 1: still do something with that. There is room for someone
1:03:47
Speaker 1: like him on that roster, So I don't know why
1:03:50
Speaker 1: you wouldn't make an offer to someone like that. You know,
1:03:54
Speaker 1: when Triple H walked out for the SummerSlam post show
1:03:57
Speaker 1: on Sunday, they had fans in the parking lot behind
1:04:01
Speaker 1: them all chanting, we want Cross, we want Cross, and
1:04:06
Speaker 1: Triple H either needs his hearing checked or he was
1:04:08
Speaker 1: being disingenuous when he thought they said we want Brock,
1:04:12
Speaker 1: we want Brock. He's like, you want Brock. You got him,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: You got Brock like he's not hard of hearing. Okay.
1:04:19
Speaker 1: He knew exactly what they were saying, and then Cross
1:04:22
Speaker 1: tweeted about it and said unreal. They write the scripts,
1:04:26
Speaker 1: but the fans write the truth. Thank you, TikTok, and
1:04:31
Speaker 1: he was also on the two man Power Trip podcast.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: Cross said, I'm still under contract. I saw a bunch
1:04:38
Speaker 1: of stuff online. What is today Thursday. I don't know
1:04:42
Speaker 1: where it's coming from, and I don't care to speak
1:04:43
Speaker 1: to any of it, but I mean, all I can
1:04:45
Speaker 1: tell you is the only way you're gonna get the
1:04:47
Speaker 1: real story is when you get it from me. That's
1:04:51
Speaker 1: all I can tell you. I can't really speak to
1:04:53
Speaker 1: any of the legitimacy of anything that is being reported recently,
1:04:56
Speaker 1: but I'll tell you right now. Everyone's going to know
1:04:59
Speaker 1: exactly what that's going on very soon, so we'll have
1:05:03
Speaker 1: our answer soon enough. Here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking
1:05:07
Speaker 1: they really did make him an offer late, but he's
1:05:10
Speaker 1: already signed, and moving them to the alumni page is
1:05:14
Speaker 1: part of their plan to work the sheets and work
1:05:18
Speaker 1: the fans. That's what this feels like. I don't think
1:05:22
Speaker 1: he's actually going anywhere. Natalia made a rare appearance on
1:05:27
Speaker 1: Raw Monday Night, very briefly in a backstage segment confronting
1:05:31
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch after her promo on Nicki Bella, we are
1:05:34
Speaker 1: getting Becky against Nicky soon. This led to Natty challenging Becky.
1:05:39
Speaker 1: Becky said she would fight Maxine Dupre instead tomorrow night,
1:05:43
Speaker 1: not Natty. I would imagine that'll be the following week, right,
1:05:48
Speaker 1: Becky goes in there, beats Maxine and then we get
1:05:50
Speaker 1: Becky and Natty maybe the Monday after. We haven't seen
1:05:53
Speaker 1: much of Natty since she signed her new contract last year.
1:05:56
Speaker 1: Remember there was all this news going around last spring
1:05:59
Speaker 1: last Sun that they were negotiating and Italia's contract was
1:06:04
Speaker 1: coming due and wwe really wanted to keep her, and
1:06:08
Speaker 1: then ultimately she signed a new deal. So we just
1:06:11
Speaker 1: haven't seen much of her at all since signing that
1:06:14
Speaker 1: new deal. But she has been announced for Triple Mania
1:06:16
Speaker 1: next Saturday in a three way match against Fabe Apache
1:06:20
Speaker 1: and Lady Flammer for Flammer's Rena de Rainas Championship. Flammer
1:06:26
Speaker 1: has been the champion for two years after beating Tia
1:06:29
Speaker 1: Valkyrie for the belt back in twenty twenty three. I
1:06:32
Speaker 1: just love how Natty resigned with him, and she has
1:06:35
Speaker 1: been wrestling everywhere but WWE. She's wrestled in blood Sport.
1:06:40
Speaker 1: She's wrestling in the Triple A. Actually she wrestled there
1:06:43
Speaker 1: last month. She's going back again. She's wrestled for the NWA,
1:06:47
Speaker 1: She's wrestled for Booker T's Reality of Wrestling promotion. Everywhere
1:06:51
Speaker 1: but actually wrestling on WWE television. Speaking of Triplemania, it
1:06:58
Speaker 1: is airing live on WWE's YouTube channel next Saturday in
1:07:01
Speaker 1: both English and Spanish. The show has already sold out
1:07:05
Speaker 1: nineteen thousand fans. In fact, the demand has been so
1:07:08
Speaker 1: high there scaling down the size of the stage so
1:07:11
Speaker 1: they can open up more sections. See this is the
1:07:14
Speaker 1: power of dirty dom. Corey Graves will be handling the
1:07:18
Speaker 1: English commentary again. I thought he did a great job
1:07:21
Speaker 1: last time. I don't know if Conan will join him
1:07:24
Speaker 1: again on color, but Raymisteria will be there to induct
1:07:27
Speaker 1: Conan into the Triple A Hall of Fame. Conan is
1:07:31
Speaker 1: the one who gave Ray his big break, and he
1:07:33
Speaker 1: inducted Ray into the WWE Hall of Fame, so it
1:07:37
Speaker 1: only makes sense. In addition, to the natty match. Finn Balor,
1:07:41
Speaker 1: JD McDonough and Raquel Rodriguez are wrestling Mister Iguana, Nino
1:07:46
Speaker 1: Hamburgesa and Lola Weis. Los Garza Angel Imberto will defend
1:07:51
Speaker 1: the Triple A Tag Team titles in a street fight
1:07:54
Speaker 1: against Psycho Clown and Pagano and Lijdel Vikingo defends the
1:07:59
Speaker 1: Triple A Mega title in a four way against Dominic, Mysterio,
1:08:03
Speaker 1: Dragonly and El Grande Americano. I mean, you look at
1:08:08
Speaker 1: this card like it basically reads like a WWE card.
1:08:13
Speaker 1: That's what it is. This is the future for Triple A,
1:08:18
Speaker 1: only a matter of time now before it becomes NXT.
1:08:21
Speaker 1: Mexico and Ashanti Viadnis announced on social media this morning
1:08:28
Speaker 1: that he is leaving WWE. He was only briefly on
1:08:32
Speaker 1: the main roster. He spent most of his time down
1:08:34
Speaker 1: in NXT for the past few years. He said, after
1:08:38
Speaker 1: six unforgettable years under the WWE lights, the time has
1:08:42
Speaker 1: come for me to close that chapter. I'm filled with
1:08:44
Speaker 1: nothing but gratitude for every opportunity, the experiences, lessons, and
1:08:48
Speaker 1: incredible talent that I've had the chance to work with.
1:08:51
Speaker 1: I'm truly excited to show the world what I can
1:08:53
Speaker 1: really do. Sometimes you got to get off multiplayer and
1:08:56
Speaker 1: progress your story mode. I believe I'm the face of
1:09:00
Speaker 1: the future, and the reason your girls stop texting you back? Huh?
1:09:07
Speaker 1: Is that why? This is a brand new beginning. I
1:09:12
Speaker 1: am becoming the best version of myself. You have only
1:09:15
Speaker 1: seen a glimpse of my true potential, and I'm just
1:09:17
Speaker 1: scratching the surface. I know that to some this can
1:09:20
Speaker 1: be a dark time, but stars can't shine without darkness.
1:09:25
Speaker 1: Sounds like his contract was up and they didn't renew
1:09:28
Speaker 1: because he's already taking bookings. Who would have thought that
1:09:31
Speaker 1: Beefab would be the last remaining member of hit Row
1:09:35
Speaker 1: on that roster, But here we are. Today's episode is
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Speaker 1: sponsored by Hymns. Coming out of SummerSlam last week, there
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1:09:46
Speaker 1: but he was talking about his hair loss and how
1:09:49
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1:09:51
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Speaker 1: safety information. I feel like it's been a minute since
1:11:54
Speaker 1: we've had a story about backstage drama in AW. I
1:11:58
Speaker 1: guess we were due for one, although this is tame
1:12:01
Speaker 1: by comparison to some of the ones in the past.
1:12:04
Speaker 1: It was reported this week by Fightful that MVP has
1:12:08
Speaker 1: rubbed a lot of people the wrong way behind the
1:12:11
Speaker 1: scenes in AW, as expressed by a number of talents
1:12:14
Speaker 1: on the roster. MVP has supposedly made it well known
1:12:18
Speaker 1: that he does not like speedball. Mike Bailey, I don't
1:12:23
Speaker 1: know why he doesn't like speedball. That in and of
1:12:26
Speaker 1: itself is a nothing burger, because who gives a shit
1:12:29
Speaker 1: if MVP likes Speedball or not not everyone on the
1:12:32
Speaker 1: roster has to like each other. I'll bet you work
1:12:35
Speaker 1: with at least one person that you don't like, right.
1:12:37
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to
1:12:38
Speaker 1: work together, but it goes beyond that. He apparently did
1:12:42
Speaker 1: not want Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin to lose their
1:12:44
Speaker 1: tag team titles to Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight. Now
1:12:48
Speaker 1: it's not known if Jet Speed was originally going to
1:12:50
Speaker 1: beat the Hurt Syndicate to win the tag team titles,
1:12:53
Speaker 1: but they never did. The report also states that MVP
1:12:57
Speaker 1: turned down pitches for the Hurt Syndicate to drop the
1:12:59
Speaker 1: belt to FTR at all in, and if not at
1:13:04
Speaker 1: all in, then to do so at Forbidden Door. MVP
1:13:08
Speaker 1: reportedly suggested they lose the titles instead to either The
1:13:11
Speaker 1: Gates of Agony, the Outrunners, or Private Party, three teams
1:13:16
Speaker 1: that they have already beaten this year, and the same
1:13:19
Speaker 1: Private Party that they destroyed and took the titles from.
1:13:23
Speaker 1: Private Party has not been seen on aw television since.
1:13:26
Speaker 1: In fact, the only match that Private Party has had
1:13:29
Speaker 1: since losing to the Hurt Syndicate all year Okay it
1:13:32
Speaker 1: is August now. The only other match they've had all
1:13:35
Speaker 1: year was in House of Glory that was back in March.
1:13:40
Speaker 1: That ship has sailed so long as the Hurt Syndicate
1:13:44
Speaker 1: have those tag team titles, Private Party won't. And I
1:13:47
Speaker 1: mean they made sure that with the way that their
1:13:49
Speaker 1: run was treated. After they beat the Young Bucks for
1:13:51
Speaker 1: those belts, they beat the brakes off those boys, they
1:13:55
Speaker 1: buried them. Tony Kahn and the Hurt Syndicate both buried
1:13:58
Speaker 1: those two men six feet under to where they're still
1:14:01
Speaker 1: trying to dig their way out for oxygen. Now. There's
1:14:05
Speaker 1: also said to be frustration within the AW locker room
1:14:08
Speaker 1: that the Hurt Syndicate beats everybody up. They high five
1:14:11
Speaker 1: the fans, and they do cool moves when they're supposed
1:14:14
Speaker 1: to be heels. And it was also noted the storyline
1:14:17
Speaker 1: with MJF was originally planned to run even longer, but
1:14:21
Speaker 1: there was a certain member of the group, not MVP,
1:14:25
Speaker 1: that wanted it over and done with, and so MJF
1:14:28
Speaker 1: is out of the Hurt Syndicate. Although there's not said
1:14:30
Speaker 1: to be any heat between MJF and the group only
1:14:33
Speaker 1: that this person just wanted him out. If there are
1:14:37
Speaker 1: any issues between MVP and Speedball, they did their best
1:14:41
Speaker 1: to poke fun at it and diffuse the situation by
1:14:44
Speaker 1: posting a It was very short videos, like twenty seconds
1:14:47
Speaker 1: on social media. Backstage at Dynamite where Speedball was filming
1:14:51
Speaker 1: for his vlog, when the Hurt Syndicate walked up to him,
1:14:55
Speaker 1: MVP said fuck you, Speedball, and then Bailey said, with
1:14:59
Speaker 1: a smile on his face, well fuck you too, MVP.
1:15:03
Speaker 1: I like to think this is how all these guys
1:15:05
Speaker 1: greet each other backstage in aw They keep their distance.
1:15:10
Speaker 1: This was all tongue in cheek. It should be noted
1:15:13
Speaker 1: that so far, no one has denied any of these rumors. Right,
1:15:16
Speaker 1: they're poking fun at it, but no one has actually
1:15:18
Speaker 1: said that this is bullshit. It just felt like, hey,
1:15:22
Speaker 1: it's out there, so let's try to make fun of
1:15:24
Speaker 1: it and just move on. Now. Again, the Bailey stuff
1:15:28
Speaker 1: is pretty trivial. I don't see that as any kind
1:15:30
Speaker 1: of a big deal. But when it starts to bleed
1:15:32
Speaker 1: over into the product, that's when it becomes a problem.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: And I was wondering, you know, and I talked about
1:15:38
Speaker 1: this on the show. At the time, I was wondering
1:15:40
Speaker 1: why the build to that tag team title match in
1:15:43
Speaker 1: Texas was so wonky. You know where they ended up
1:15:45
Speaker 1: adding the Patriarchy to make it a triple thread. It
1:15:48
Speaker 1: was the Patriarchy, Jet Speed and the Hurt Syndicate, and
1:15:52
Speaker 1: I said, well, why wouldn't you just add FTR and
1:15:54
Speaker 1: make it a four way? I mean, that would have
1:15:57
Speaker 1: made more sense to me. That way, the Hurt Syndicate
1:15:59
Speaker 1: could have lost the titles it all in without having
1:16:01
Speaker 1: to take the losing fall, like FTR could win the belts,
1:16:04
Speaker 1: but they're not directly beating lashly In Benjamin to do it. Instead,
1:16:10
Speaker 1: FTR worked a match on the pre show and then
1:16:13
Speaker 1: did commentary for the title match, which was very weird.
1:16:17
Speaker 1: I don't know if MVP has creative control of any
1:16:21
Speaker 1: kind as part of his deal, either written or otherwise.
1:16:25
Speaker 1: I'm going to assume he does not. Why is he
1:16:28
Speaker 1: making decisions about who lashly In Benjamin will or won't
1:16:32
Speaker 1: drop the titles to, like, why is that his call
1:16:35
Speaker 1: to make. It's not his call to make, it's Tony
1:16:40
Speaker 1: Kahan's call. It's his company. He does the creative for
1:16:44
Speaker 1: the shows. And if he wants the titles on FTR,
1:16:47
Speaker 1: then the title should go to FTR, and if they don't,
1:16:52
Speaker 1: then it should be because Tony Kahn says so, not MVP.
1:16:56
Speaker 1: It's like the inmates running the Asylum. FTR is wrestling
1:17:01
Speaker 1: Brody King and benditdo in the finals of the Tag
1:17:03
Speaker 1: Team Eliminator tournament, which means the winner challenges the Hurt
1:17:06
Speaker 1: Syndicate in London at Forbidden Door. It should be FTR
1:17:10
Speaker 1: in that spot and they should win the tag team titles.
1:17:12
Speaker 1: That way they can put the titles on the line
1:17:14
Speaker 1: it all out against Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. I
1:17:18
Speaker 1: think that's the play to do cope in Christian the
1:17:21
Speaker 1: Reunion and then put the belts on them in Toronto.
1:17:25
Speaker 1: This idea that AW has to come up with a
1:17:28
Speaker 1: workaround or a plan B of some kind is ridiculous.
1:17:33
Speaker 1: It's not like they're being asked to drop the belts
1:17:35
Speaker 1: to fucking Dan Housen in Orange Cassidy. FTR is one
1:17:40
Speaker 1: of the best tag teams in the entire company. They
1:17:42
Speaker 1: have plenty of credibility. But even if they didn't, even
1:17:47
Speaker 1: if Tony Kahn wanted them to drop the titles to
1:17:49
Speaker 1: Dan Housen in Orange Cassidy. My point still stands, it's
1:17:53
Speaker 1: not MVP's call to make, or it shouldn't be, or
1:17:57
Speaker 1: Bobby Lashley or Shelton Benjamin for that matter. I mean,
1:18:01
Speaker 1: given the giving talent creative input is one thing, giving
1:18:05
Speaker 1: them creative control is another. Nobody should have control over
1:18:10
Speaker 1: things like this other than the promoter. Unless it is
1:18:12
Speaker 1: specifically written into someone's contract, then it's fair game if
1:18:17
Speaker 1: you're dumb enough to give it to them. If FTR
1:18:20
Speaker 1: is what Tony wants, then FTR is it. That's it, period,
1:18:23
Speaker 1: end of story. After dropping the TNT Championship to Kyle
1:18:28
Speaker 1: Fletcher last week on collision in a very bloody, very
1:18:32
Speaker 1: violent Chicago street fight, the same Kyle Fletcher, who Fightful
1:18:35
Speaker 1: says signed a new multi year contract in the spring
1:18:38
Speaker 1: for big money, Dustin Rhodes announced that he is going
1:18:42
Speaker 1: to be undergoing major invasive surgery in the form of
1:18:45
Speaker 1: a double knee replacement. He tweeted, knees or both destroyed.
1:18:49
Speaker 1: I have to go under the ninthe August twenty. First,
1:18:52
Speaker 1: they can't actually fix the damage, so we are getting
1:18:55
Speaker 1: two knee replacements. Damn hashtag keeps stepping by the way,
1:18:59
Speaker 1: that this is not the end, so he's blaming Kyle
1:19:03
Speaker 1: Fletcher for the injury. That part of it is a work.
1:19:06
Speaker 1: The surgery is very much not a work. And it
1:19:09
Speaker 1: comes at a time when Dustin also holds one half
1:19:11
Speaker 1: of the Ring of Honor tag team titles with Sammy
1:19:13
Speaker 1: Gavara and one third of the Ring of Honor six
1:19:16
Speaker 1: man titles with the Von Eric Boys, which I assume
1:19:19
Speaker 1: will all have to be vacated. Now. Even walking out
1:19:23
Speaker 1: there for the match with Fletcher, like you could tell
1:19:25
Speaker 1: his knees or shot, like it's painful to watch him walk.
1:19:29
Speaker 1: So this was inevitable. But to get both knees done
1:19:31
Speaker 1: at the same time is going to be a tough recovery,
1:19:34
Speaker 1: especially for a guy. I mean, look, he's fifty six
1:19:36
Speaker 1: years old. Fifty six in and of itself is not old,
1:19:39
Speaker 1: but when you're a professional wrestler with thirty plus years
1:19:42
Speaker 1: of wear and tear on your knees and on your body,
1:19:45
Speaker 1: fifty six years old, and he's a fifty six year
1:19:47
Speaker 1: old man who wants to get back in the ring
1:19:49
Speaker 1: after double knee replacement, Like, I'm not saying it's impossible,
1:19:53
Speaker 1: but it's going to be tough to come back from that,
1:19:57
Speaker 1: he said. It's people telling me to retire that pushes
1:19:59
Speaker 1: me even more. I am still at fifty six, one
1:20:02
Speaker 1: of the greatest professional wrestlers in the world. Age is
1:20:06
Speaker 1: just a number. Sometimes you have to manifest shit and
1:20:10
Speaker 1: get it done. I absolutely know my time is nearing
1:20:13
Speaker 1: the end, but not yet. Got to get the world title,
1:20:17
Speaker 1: as that should be every pro wrestler's goal. Good luck
1:20:22
Speaker 1: with that. If that was the last match of his career,
1:20:26
Speaker 1: I can think of worse ways to go out. You know,
1:20:28
Speaker 1: he finally won a title in aaw He got to
1:20:30
Speaker 1: go out on his sword in a brutal street fight,
1:20:33
Speaker 1: putting over one of the company's young rising stars. Not
1:20:37
Speaker 1: a bad way to go out if that was to
1:20:39
Speaker 1: end up being his final match. We already had a
1:20:42
Speaker 1: fifty eight year old in Jeff Jarrett earlier this year
1:20:45
Speaker 1: claiming this would be his last year in the ring
1:20:47
Speaker 1: and that he wanted to win the world title, and
1:20:49
Speaker 1: then Tony Kahn was wise enough to abandon that idea
1:20:51
Speaker 1: because no one wanted to see that. Dustin can still go.
1:20:57
Speaker 1: But I am not clamoring to see that anymore than
1:21:00
Speaker 1: I was for Jef Charrett, I've got an injury update
1:21:05
Speaker 1: on Buddy Matthews and it's not good. We have not
1:21:08
Speaker 1: seen Buddy since his Grand Slam Australia match with Kazushka
1:21:12
Speaker 1: Okada back in February. That's where he injured his ankle
1:21:15
Speaker 1: during his entrance when he jumped over the top rope
1:21:19
Speaker 1: getting into the ring. He rolled it very badly and
1:21:22
Speaker 1: then wrestled Okada for thirteen minutes on the ankle, which
1:21:25
Speaker 1: I imagine did not do himself any favors. He told Chris
1:21:29
Speaker 1: van Vliet back in April that he suffered a partial
1:21:32
Speaker 1: ligament tear and cartilage damage and there was no break,
1:21:35
Speaker 1: which was good, and he said the doctors told him
1:21:38
Speaker 1: they've never seen an ankle roll that much under someone
1:21:41
Speaker 1: without completely disintegrating the bones. But that was in April,
1:21:45
Speaker 1: and in April he was estimating that he was about
1:21:48
Speaker 1: eighty five percent recovered and had his fingers crossed that
1:21:52
Speaker 1: he would be back in the ring very soon, possibly
1:21:54
Speaker 1: by the end of the month. Fast forward to June,
1:21:57
Speaker 1: he sounded less optimistic. He said the ankle was not
1:22:00
Speaker 1: healing as well as he thought it would be. There
1:22:03
Speaker 1: was no mobility to it and without that mobility, he
1:22:06
Speaker 1: can't move properly, and once it hits the three month
1:22:10
Speaker 1: mark without healing, it becomes chronic. So that was in June,
1:22:16
Speaker 1: and then this week he posted a photo from his
1:22:19
Speaker 1: hospital bed after surgery with his wife Rhea Ripley by
1:22:22
Speaker 1: his side. So he finally caved and had surgery on
1:22:26
Speaker 1: the ankle, which is only going to prolong his recovery
1:22:30
Speaker 1: from something he thought he would be back from in April.
1:22:34
Speaker 1: I'm frustrated for him and it's not even my ankle.
1:22:40
Speaker 1: Now Forbidden Door is coming up in a few weeks,
1:22:43
Speaker 1: actually a couple of weekends from now Forbidden Door. It
1:22:46
Speaker 1: still is not looking much like a Forbidden Door, but
1:22:49
Speaker 1: that doesn't seem to bother the UK fans Aw has
1:22:52
Speaker 1: almost fifteen thousand tickets out for the show at The
1:22:55
Speaker 1: Two in London for a two and a half million
1:22:58
Speaker 1: dollar gait, so the fourth largest in company history. Now
1:23:04
Speaker 1: the g one climax ends of the week before the
1:23:06
Speaker 1: pay per view. So whatever new Japan involvement there may be,
1:23:09
Speaker 1: it looks like those appearances. If they're going to show
1:23:11
Speaker 1: up on TV and they're going to make some of
1:23:13
Speaker 1: those matches, it may be limited to that last week.
1:23:17
Speaker 1: We know Hiroshi Tanahashi has said he will wrestle his
1:23:20
Speaker 1: last ever UK match on that show. We just don't
1:23:22
Speaker 1: know against who. My theory was maybe they're holding out
1:23:26
Speaker 1: hope Will Osprey can work the show and they could
1:23:28
Speaker 1: do Tanahashi against Osprey. They also announced on Collision last
1:23:33
Speaker 1: night that next week there's going to be a four
1:23:36
Speaker 1: way match to determine who challenges Zach Saber Junior at
1:23:40
Speaker 1: Forbidden Door for the IWGP title. It'll be Nigel McGinnis Etchesro,
1:23:45
Speaker 1: Daniel Garcia and Lee Moriarty. So basically Nigel McGinnis is
1:23:50
Speaker 1: wrestling Zach Saber Junior at Forbidden Door. Can't go any
1:23:54
Speaker 1: other way now. Not announced yet, but it looks like
1:23:57
Speaker 1: Hangman Adam Page is going to be defending the aw
1:24:00
Speaker 1: World title, most likely against MJF. That appears to be
1:24:04
Speaker 1: the direction for that show. MJF got a win that
1:24:08
Speaker 1: was not without controversy over Mark Briscoe on Wednesday, and
1:24:12
Speaker 1: they have announced that MJF and Hangman will be having
1:24:15
Speaker 1: a face to face this week on Dynamite. Darby Allen
1:24:19
Speaker 1: he kidnapped Wheeler Dah on Dynamite and then tried to
1:24:22
Speaker 1: run him over with his truck after sticking a sign
1:24:25
Speaker 1: to UTA's forehead that John Moxley found that read just
1:24:29
Speaker 1: forbidden door. That was the message on the note. So
1:24:32
Speaker 1: Moxley against Darby is all but confirmed as an aside.
1:24:38
Speaker 1: Darby Allen told Steve O on his podcast that coming
1:24:43
Speaker 1: off his Mount Everest climb, I'm literally stopping and smelling
1:24:48
Speaker 1: the roses right now. I just want to be focused
1:24:51
Speaker 1: on being as grounded as possible. I do want to
1:24:55
Speaker 1: go to space, of course he does. I love how
1:25:01
Speaker 1: he talks about being grounded and then proceeds to talk
1:25:04
Speaker 1: about going to space where he will be anything but grounded.
1:25:09
Speaker 1: He'll be the exact opposite of grounded. But I guess
1:25:13
Speaker 1: if Jason Vorhees can go to space, then why not
1:25:15
Speaker 1: Darby Allen. Tony Khan's ready to fund the expedition just
1:25:19
Speaker 1: so Darby can plant the AW flag on the moon.
1:25:24
Speaker 1: You know, Darby goes to Space actually sounds like some
1:25:27
Speaker 1: direct to DVD animated film back in the day that
1:25:30
Speaker 1: you would buy for your kid. That's it sounds like.
1:25:35
Speaker 1: So you could also throw in Tony Storm against Athena
1:25:37
Speaker 1: for the AW Women's World title. That's confirmed the Hurt
1:25:40
Speaker 1: Syndicate against Leo Rush and Action Andretti. Probably if MVP
1:25:44
Speaker 1: has his way Okata against Swerve for the unified title
1:25:49
Speaker 1: and Mercedes defends her TBS Championship in a four way
1:25:52
Speaker 1: match against Alex Windsor representing AW, someone else that will
1:25:58
Speaker 1: be representing CMLL, and someone else that will be representing Stardom.
1:26:03
Speaker 1: That is the lineup so far. Other news and notes.
1:26:08
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan's funeral took place on Tuesday in Florida, just
1:26:12
Speaker 1: south of his mansion in Clearwater. Among those in attendance
1:26:17
Speaker 1: were Vince McMahon, who spoke at the service and asked
1:26:20
Speaker 1: everyone to give Hogan one last standing ovation. Others included
1:26:25
Speaker 1: Linda McMahon, Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Paul McMahon aka Triple H.
1:26:33
Speaker 1: John Laurinidis was there. He crawled out of his hole
1:26:36
Speaker 1: to attend. Rick Flair, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Big Show Sting,
1:26:42
Speaker 1: Lex Luger, Ted d Bassi, Jeff Jarrett Hacksaw, Jim Duggan,
1:26:46
Speaker 1: Brutus Beefcake, Jacques Rougeau, Jimmy Hart, Brian Blair, Dennis Rodman,
1:26:51
Speaker 1: Kid Rock, THEO Vaughn and Bam Margera. That is certainly
1:26:57
Speaker 1: more people than you hear about for most wrestler funerals.
1:27:00
Speaker 1: Hogan would have turned seventy two years old tomorrow. Hulk's
1:27:04
Speaker 1: wife Sky, his ex wife Linda, and son Nick were
1:27:08
Speaker 1: also there, but noticeably absent was his daughter Brooke, whom
1:27:12
Speaker 1: he had been estranged from for the past couple of years.
1:27:16
Speaker 1: He never even met his grandkids. On Instagram, Brooke explained
1:27:20
Speaker 1: why she was absent because she was getting heat for
1:27:23
Speaker 1: not being at her dad's funeral. She said, my father
1:27:26
Speaker 1: hated the morbidity of funerals. He didn't want one. And
1:27:29
Speaker 1: although i know people grieve in many ways, and I'm
1:27:31
Speaker 1: so grateful for all the celebrations and events organized to
1:27:35
Speaker 1: honor him. As his daughter, I had to make my
1:27:37
Speaker 1: own decision to honor him the best and most genuine
1:27:40
Speaker 1: way that I knew, how privately, the way that made
1:27:43
Speaker 1: me feel closest to him. The only thing missing today
1:27:46
Speaker 1: was him in his pop up lawn chair watching the
1:27:49
Speaker 1: waves and the sun set. Says Daddy. We honored you
1:27:52
Speaker 1: in the simplest way we could. We took our babies
1:27:56
Speaker 1: to the beach and put them in the same salty
1:27:59
Speaker 1: waters that you loved. Molly loved the water. I think
1:28:02
Speaker 1: she'll be a little fish as you called me. We
1:28:05
Speaker 1: love you and honor the things that made you so special.
1:28:08
Speaker 1: Every grain of sand and every wave reminded me of
1:28:11
Speaker 1: being your beach baby and brought us closer to you.
1:28:14
Speaker 1: I pray that you're at peace and know how dearly
1:28:16
Speaker 1: I love you. Rest in heaven, Daddy. Brooke was in
1:28:21
Speaker 1: the news on Thursday saying that given all the speculation
1:28:25
Speaker 1: and all the uncertainty around her father's death, because there
1:28:28
Speaker 1: aren't questions that have been raised, she is offering to
1:28:32
Speaker 1: pay for an autopsy herself. After Hulk's wife said that
1:28:36
Speaker 1: they have not yet cremated. Now they gave him a funeral,
1:28:39
Speaker 1: he was in the coffin he is supposed to be cremated.
1:28:43
Speaker 1: His wife said they have not cremated him yet, which
1:28:46
Speaker 1: is what he wanted. To make sure that every question
1:28:49
Speaker 1: about his medical care is answered first. So Brooke stepped
1:28:54
Speaker 1: up and said that she would personally cut a check
1:28:56
Speaker 1: for any invoice required by the medical examiner to get
1:29:00
Speaker 1: an autopsy done. She says, that's what it takes to
1:29:03
Speaker 1: get it done. My dad's dignity and legacy deserves it.
1:29:08
Speaker 1: She finds aspects of her father's death very fishy, especially
1:29:11
Speaker 1: the stuff about him having a history of leukemia, which
1:29:15
Speaker 1: was news to her. And she was talking, you know,
1:29:18
Speaker 1: she called into Bubba the Love Sponge before that, before
1:29:23
Speaker 1: she made this offer, she called into Bubba the Love Sponge.
1:29:26
Speaker 1: She was talking about a litany of different things, including
1:29:28
Speaker 1: his care. She always used to, you know, basically be
1:29:31
Speaker 1: the point person for all of his medical care and
1:29:34
Speaker 1: getting his blood checked and all that stuff. Now that
1:29:36
Speaker 1: hasn't been the case now for at least a couple
1:29:38
Speaker 1: of years, so it's possible that, you know, he was
1:29:41
Speaker 1: diagnosed with stuff after the fact. She just finds it
1:29:44
Speaker 1: all very fishy. But she called into Bubba the Love
1:29:47
Speaker 1: Sponge on Tuesday, which shock Bubba because he used to
1:29:51
Speaker 1: be very close with Brooke. Obviously, he was Hulk's best friend.
1:29:53
Speaker 1: He knew the family very well, and he had a
1:29:56
Speaker 1: very close relationship with Brook. He was like an uncle
1:29:59
Speaker 1: to her and the two of them had not spoken
1:30:01
Speaker 1: since twenty eleven. So, like he's doing his radio show
1:30:06
Speaker 1: and you know, one of his co hosts says, hey,
1:30:08
Speaker 1: we got a woman on the line who claims to
1:30:11
Speaker 1: be Brooke. It's like Brooke Hogan like, yeah, he got
1:30:17
Speaker 1: very nervous, right. He couldn't imagine why she was calling in,
1:30:21
Speaker 1: but he assumed it was probably for no great reason.
1:30:23
Speaker 1: He thought it was going to be a disaster. But
1:30:26
Speaker 1: she put his mind at ease right away and said
1:30:29
Speaker 1: that she doesn't blame Bubba for anything. She just wanted
1:30:32
Speaker 1: to set the record straight on a few things. One
1:30:35
Speaker 1: of the big reveals from the conversation was Brooke admitting
1:30:38
Speaker 1: that her father told her that Bubba was not the
1:30:42
Speaker 1: one who leaked the sex tape all those years ago,
1:30:44
Speaker 1: the one with Hogan on it calling himself a racist
1:30:47
Speaker 1: and using the N word. Yeah, that one Hogan was
1:30:51
Speaker 1: having sex with Bubba's wife on there. He had asked
1:30:54
Speaker 1: his good friend if he could have sex with his
1:30:56
Speaker 1: wife because he was down on his luck, his life
1:30:59
Speaker 1: was falling apart. He might have been going through his
1:31:01
Speaker 1: divorce at that point, and I guess just went to
1:31:04
Speaker 1: Bubba and said, Hey, I'd like to have sex with Heather,
1:31:07
Speaker 1: and he was like cool. I mean, who among us
1:31:11
Speaker 1: has not asked our best friend the same thing? If
1:31:14
Speaker 1: I asked my best friend that he wouldn't be my
1:31:16
Speaker 1: best friend anymore. But for years people have blamed Bubba
1:31:20
Speaker 1: for leaking that tape, so he was very appreciative of
1:31:25
Speaker 1: her admitting that he wasn't the one responsible, though he
1:31:27
Speaker 1: did say I wish you would have come out years
1:31:30
Speaker 1: ago and said this because it kind of ruined my life.
1:31:33
Speaker 1: But you know, better late than ever. It was actually
1:31:36
Speaker 1: someone who worked for Bubba at the time. I won't
1:31:38
Speaker 1: say the person's name because I don't know if it
1:31:40
Speaker 1: was ever confirmed to be him, but if you care
1:31:42
Speaker 1: enough to know, it's out there now. Another big takeaway
1:31:46
Speaker 1: from their conversation, and this one did not make hul
1:31:49
Speaker 1: Kogan look great at all. This one's actually pretty despicable.
1:31:53
Speaker 1: Bubba said that he wasn't looking to upset her, but
1:31:56
Speaker 1: he asked her, do you remember Christmas Day many years
1:32:00
Speaker 1: ago getting a letter from her record label terminating her
1:32:05
Speaker 1: music contract, and Bubba revealed that he helped her father
1:32:10
Speaker 1: write that letter. It did not actually come from her label.
1:32:15
Speaker 1: She thought it was a real letter on Christmas, no less,
1:32:19
Speaker 1: and that effectively ended her music career, although she did
1:32:22
Speaker 1: say that she just signed with the same label again.
1:32:24
Speaker 1: She's trying to get back into singing all these years later,
1:32:28
Speaker 1: but that letter actually came from her father. Bubba claimed
1:32:33
Speaker 1: that Terry did it because he wanted to get her
1:32:35
Speaker 1: away from the label and split the sides up, including Stax,
1:32:39
Speaker 1: who was the rapper that Brooke was dating at the time.
1:32:42
Speaker 1: He was the son of Cecil Barker. Barker was the
1:32:45
Speaker 1: owner of the label. Stax is the guy that Hulk
1:32:48
Speaker 1: was referring to in the sex tape when he dropped
1:32:50
Speaker 1: the N word multiple times and said he was a
1:32:55
Speaker 1: little racist, not a lot racist, just a little racist.
1:33:01
Speaker 1: But it would be okay if she was dating an
1:33:03
Speaker 1: NBA player, that would be okay. Apparently. He said. Brooke
1:33:07
Speaker 1: had a two year deal at seven hundred and fifty
1:33:09
Speaker 1: thousand dollars per year with the record label, and Bubba
1:33:14
Speaker 1: said that Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and Jason Hervey wanted Barker
1:33:19
Speaker 1: to instead take that money and fund Paul White Big
1:33:24
Speaker 1: show as a boxer. He said the idea was that
1:33:28
Speaker 1: they would drop Brooks contract and convince the owner of
1:33:32
Speaker 1: the label to put up three million dollars for Paul
1:33:34
Speaker 1: White to move to Miami. They would buy him a house,
1:33:38
Speaker 1: and they would have him trained to be a boxer.
1:33:40
Speaker 1: For a year. God, I do remember that Hogan got
1:33:45
Speaker 1: this idea in his head that they would make a
1:33:47
Speaker 1: fortune backing Big Show as a boxer. This is a well,
1:33:52
Speaker 1: it had to be around the time the Big Show
1:33:53
Speaker 1: left WWE. I mean physically, he was not in good
1:33:57
Speaker 1: shape at all. And it was probably after he lost
1:34:00
Speaker 1: the ECW title in that awful December to Dismember match
1:34:04
Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber lost it to Bobby Lashley, and then
1:34:08
Speaker 1: Big Show left the company, So that would have been
1:34:10
Speaker 1: around that period of time. But yeah, I remember that.
1:34:15
Speaker 1: You know, there was a great story on this. I
1:34:17
Speaker 1: had to go back and find it. It's still online
1:34:19
Speaker 1: from twenty sixteen by David Bixon, spen on SB Nation.
1:34:25
Speaker 1: In a deposition in twenty twelve, Paul White said that
1:34:29
Speaker 1: Hulk introduced him to Cecil Barker. He said, I know
1:34:32
Speaker 1: a guy from Miami that was interested in you, helping
1:34:35
Speaker 1: you start a boxing career, and he's also financing my
1:34:37
Speaker 1: daughter's singing career. Right. Hulk was really pumping him up.
1:34:40
Speaker 1: He was pumping up White, and White only knew of
1:34:43
Speaker 1: Barker whatever Hogan told him, and they really gassed him
1:34:48
Speaker 1: up by both those guys did Barker and Hogan. So
1:34:51
Speaker 1: when Big Show left WWE, he started training to become
1:34:53
Speaker 1: a boxer until he got tagged with a left hand
1:34:56
Speaker 1: in a sparring session with a real boxer and he
1:35:00
Speaker 1: went down and he didn't even remember getting hit and
1:35:04
Speaker 1: leaving the gym that day. The only thing he remembers
1:35:07
Speaker 1: was waking up with the key in the ignition of
1:35:09
Speaker 1: his car, and in the deposition, White said, apparently they
1:35:14
Speaker 1: had taken my gloves off called the match, and I
1:35:17
Speaker 1: had taken my bag and walked out of the gym
1:35:19
Speaker 1: and was sitting in my car with the car running
1:35:22
Speaker 1: when I woke up. It scared the shit out of me.
1:35:27
Speaker 1: Because he was never knocked out before all of his
1:35:29
Speaker 1: years of wrestling. That was the first time he was
1:35:31
Speaker 1: truly knocked out. And that's when he realized, you know what,
1:35:36
Speaker 1: this ain't for me. And he talked to his wife
1:35:39
Speaker 1: and told his wife what happened, and they agreed, this
1:35:42
Speaker 1: is not for you, and he quit and Hogan tried
1:35:46
Speaker 1: to talk him out of it. He couldn't believe that
1:35:48
Speaker 1: he just up and quit, and the two of them
1:35:50
Speaker 1: didn't speak much after that. They weren't on speaking terms
1:35:53
Speaker 1: for a while. The only reason this information is even
1:35:57
Speaker 1: available and that there was a deposition is because the Big
1:36:00
Speaker 1: Show was broke at the time, which is probably why
1:36:03
Speaker 1: he agreed to do it. And he still owed Cecil
1:36:07
Speaker 1: Barker money that Barker had put up for him. And
1:36:11
Speaker 1: after you know, Big Show went crawling back to WWE,
1:36:15
Speaker 1: Barker sued to stop it and argued that he still
1:36:18
Speaker 1: had him under contract. And I know that litigation dragged
1:36:22
Speaker 1: on for years and years. I don't remember what the reservoir,
1:36:26
Speaker 1: if it was, ever really resolved, but anyway, that showed
1:36:30
Speaker 1: what Hogan was most interested in. He didn't give two
1:36:32
Speaker 1: shits about the man's health or the fact that Big
1:36:35
Speaker 1: Show spoke to his wife and they decided, you know what,
1:36:38
Speaker 1: it would be best not to pursue this since you
1:36:40
Speaker 1: got knocked out cold. You know, all Hogan was interested
1:36:44
Speaker 1: in was, you know, the golden goose here. I stuck
1:36:47
Speaker 1: my neck out for you, brother. You gotta go back.
1:36:52
Speaker 1: Bubba said that he and Hogan wrote a letter on
1:36:55
Speaker 1: the record label Stationary and they forged Barker's signature with
1:36:58
Speaker 1: a Christmas gift that Brooke opened when she really believed
1:37:03
Speaker 1: that it was a termination letter when she read the letter,
1:37:06
Speaker 1: and Hogan later went to Barker and said that Brooke
1:37:08
Speaker 1: was out and with the one point five million dollars
1:37:12
Speaker 1: in money that Barker would save on her contract, that
1:37:16
Speaker 1: he could instead put that money up to fund, you know,
1:37:18
Speaker 1: Paul White's boxing career, and Hogan would of course own
1:37:21
Speaker 1: points in Whites. But he did this to his own daughter.
1:37:27
Speaker 1: He deceived his own daughter, Like, think about that, and
1:37:31
Speaker 1: that's not anything that even played a role in their
1:37:34
Speaker 1: rift for all those years. That's something that he did
1:37:37
Speaker 1: that Brooke didn't even know about until this radio interview
1:37:40
Speaker 1: this week. And she also talked about a business partner
1:37:45
Speaker 1: that Hogan was close with who was screwing him, and
1:37:48
Speaker 1: you know how Hogan didn't see it. She didn't mention
1:37:51
Speaker 1: the person's name. But the next day on his show,
1:37:53
Speaker 1: Bubba said the name that the two of them were
1:37:56
Speaker 1: talking about was Eric Bischoff. He said, I know for
1:37:59
Speaker 1: a fact, and Bischoff consume me all he wants. I
1:38:03
Speaker 1: know for a fact. It was absolutely Bischoff that she
1:38:06
Speaker 1: was speaking of. Bischoff needed Hogan to stay relevant. Well,
1:38:11
Speaker 1: there you have it. I've always said if Hulk Hogan
1:38:15
Speaker 1: was walking down the street and he stopped short. Bischoff
1:38:17
Speaker 1: would have browned all over his nose. Of course, he
1:38:21
Speaker 1: felt the need to attach himself to Hogan. I can't
1:38:23
Speaker 1: speak to him screwing Hogan on business deals. I mean,
1:38:26
Speaker 1: they would know better, but I wouldn't be surprised in
1:38:29
Speaker 1: the least. Meanwhile, Brett Hart commented on Hulk Hogan's death
1:38:36
Speaker 1: on The Masked Man Show this week. One thing about
1:38:39
Speaker 1: Brett he is not afraid to share how he really feels,
1:38:43
Speaker 1: even if the person did just pass away. There are
1:38:46
Speaker 1: just certain things he cannot let go. He said, you
1:38:51
Speaker 1: can never deny what Hulk Hogan did. His footprint in
1:38:54
Speaker 1: the wrestling business will always be huge, maybe as big
1:38:57
Speaker 1: as it ever was going to get. When Hulk Cogan
1:39:00
Speaker 1: left the WWF in nineteen ninety two and wasn't at
1:39:04
Speaker 1: SummerSlam ninety two. Was WrestleMania eight when I fought Roddy Piper.
1:39:08
Speaker 1: Piper was one of the few guys that reached down
1:39:11
Speaker 1: and pulled me up to his level. I want to
1:39:14
Speaker 1: wrestle Brett Hart because I want to make him. Roddy
1:39:17
Speaker 1: Piper made me and contributed to the next generation. There
1:39:21
Speaker 1: were a lot of wrestlers who didn't do that. Hulk
1:39:23
Speaker 1: Cogan never did that for anybody, never pulled anyone else up.
1:39:27
Speaker 1: Jake Roberts never did anything for anybody else. He only
1:39:30
Speaker 1: did for Jake Roberts. I look at Jake Roberts and
1:39:33
Speaker 1: Hulk Cogan, that's just two guys. Man, Jake the snake
1:39:39
Speaker 1: catching strays. I think Brett's been waiting to unload that one.
1:39:43
Speaker 1: Jake's been knocking him for years, saying that Brett didn't
1:39:46
Speaker 1: have what it took to be championship material. He would
1:39:49
Speaker 1: potato guys when he was younger, because you know, Brett
1:39:52
Speaker 1: prides himself on set always saying that he never hurt
1:39:54
Speaker 1: another wrestler in the ring his entire career. So, I mean,
1:39:57
Speaker 1: that's about the worst thing that you could say to Brett.
1:40:00
Speaker 1: Calling Marty McFly chicken in Back to the Future was
1:40:03
Speaker 1: the worst thing you could say to Marty McFly. Saying
1:40:06
Speaker 1: that Brett Hart hurt people in the ring is basically
1:40:09
Speaker 1: the equivalent, Like, it's just he can't let that stand.
1:40:12
Speaker 1: So I'm sure that's just him giving Jake a receipt.
1:40:16
Speaker 1: But on his experiences of working with Hogan, Brett said
1:40:21
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan. When I got to WWF in nineteen eighty four,
1:40:25
Speaker 1: there was a schmorgasboard of bad guys like Piper Orndorf,
1:40:29
Speaker 1: Bob Orton, Kamala, Killer Khan, King Kong, Bundy. It was
1:40:33
Speaker 1: like a candy box. He had such a lineup of
1:40:35
Speaker 1: guys to work with the best villains in wrestling. That
1:40:38
Speaker 1: all made Hulk Hogan. Same with Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat,
1:40:42
Speaker 1: and Macho Man. They never lost. They got their hands raised.
1:40:47
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, comes along and they're gonna give
1:40:49
Speaker 1: me this big push. There is nobody there and nobody left.
1:40:53
Speaker 1: I didn't have anybody to work with when I won
1:40:55
Speaker 1: the belt, really, not any monsters anyway. That's what I
1:40:58
Speaker 1: always think. Nineteen ninety two, the elevator was falling to
1:41:01
Speaker 1: the bottom. Everything was sinking so fast. They were in trouble.
1:41:04
Speaker 1: Hogan was off in the steroid scandal, though he said
1:41:08
Speaker 1: he never took them. All of that hurt the business.
1:41:11
Speaker 1: Hulk Stick was getting tiring at that point. I don't
1:41:14
Speaker 1: know how I got picked. I never had any say
1:41:16
Speaker 1: when I found out I was gonna be world champion.
1:41:18
Speaker 1: I was the first one to find out and it
1:41:20
Speaker 1: was a shock. I didn't expect it, but I was
1:41:22
Speaker 1: grateful for it. I always felt like things were falling
1:41:25
Speaker 1: so bad and Vince had to figure something out stick
1:41:28
Speaker 1: it on him. I was a safe bet. I wasn't
1:41:31
Speaker 1: a guy who was gonna get busted for having a
1:41:33
Speaker 1: couple of ounces of coke in my bag, like Jake Ron,
1:41:37
Speaker 1: like Jake Roberts Videm. I wasn't a guy who was
1:41:40
Speaker 1: gonna fail my drug test. I was a safe bet.
1:41:44
Speaker 1: That's why Vince picked me to be champion. I need
1:41:46
Speaker 1: somebody who's not going to drop the ball and have
1:41:49
Speaker 1: any scandals. I can't take any more scandals. Stick it
1:41:52
Speaker 1: on Brett Hart, so they stuck it on me. I
1:41:55
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting it, but I stepped up to the plate.
1:41:58
Speaker 1: I always thought that the day I won the belt,
1:42:00
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan would come up and pat me on the
1:42:02
Speaker 1: back and tell me how glad he was that I
1:42:04
Speaker 1: was the guy they picked to pull the sword out
1:42:06
Speaker 1: of the stone for him. Unfortunately, that's not how it was.
1:42:09
Speaker 1: The second I won the belt, I was the enemy.
1:42:12
Speaker 1: I had what he wanted and we were never really
1:42:14
Speaker 1: friends ever. Again. That had nothing to do with me.
1:42:18
Speaker 1: I was always honest, Hulk. It was like a little
1:42:21
Speaker 1: kid in elementary school. Some kids are bullshitters who tell bullshit,
1:42:25
Speaker 1: classic bullshitters. Sometimes you have to kick kids like that.
1:42:30
Speaker 1: I think Hulk Hogan was a bullshitter. I will always
1:42:33
Speaker 1: shake my head and wonder why he was such a
1:42:35
Speaker 1: roadblock for me. He wouldn't do anything for me, and
1:42:38
Speaker 1: he made sure and I know this as a fact.
1:42:41
Speaker 1: He made sure that when I was in WCW, he
1:42:43
Speaker 1: made sure that they didn't do anything with me. Don't
1:42:46
Speaker 1: do anything with him, Just leave him, have him sit
1:42:49
Speaker 1: on the bench in the dressing room. Brett Hart does
1:42:53
Speaker 1: not like Hulk Hogan. If you've paid attention to any
1:42:56
Speaker 1: of his interviews over the years, or you read his book,
1:42:59
Speaker 1: it is clear that he didn't care for Hulk Hogan.
1:43:01
Speaker 1: So no one should expect that just because Hogan died,
1:43:05
Speaker 1: his opinion is suddenly going to change. Now. Does Brett
1:43:09
Speaker 1: Hart love the smell of his own farts? Sure he does,
1:43:13
Speaker 1: but I appreciate his commitment to consistency and Hulk Hogan
1:43:17
Speaker 1: was not his only target. In that interview, he also
1:43:21
Speaker 1: commented on Gunther and his extreme hatred of chops in wrestling,
1:43:26
Speaker 1: something else that he has always been very consistent about
1:43:29
Speaker 1: throughout the years. He said, I don't want to sound
1:43:32
Speaker 1: like I'm tooting my own horn all the time. Well,
1:43:35
Speaker 1: I think that bus has left the bus stop there,
1:43:38
Speaker 1: but he goes. The best wrestling has to pretend to
1:43:41
Speaker 1: be real. That's what I did. I tried to make
1:43:43
Speaker 1: it as real as I could, contrary to that gunther guy,
1:43:47
Speaker 1: who seems like a nice enough guy when I met him.
1:43:49
Speaker 1: But I hate wrestlers that hurt each other on purpose.
1:43:52
Speaker 1: I hate it when you're out there and getting beat
1:43:54
Speaker 1: up and hurt by a guy for real, like chops.
1:43:58
Speaker 1: Whoever want to fight with a chop? What a waste
1:44:01
Speaker 1: of time. Rick Flair is famous for bringing the chops
1:44:04
Speaker 1: the way they are now. My dad used to tell
1:44:06
Speaker 1: wrestlers at Stampede, nobody ever beat anybody with a chop.
1:44:10
Speaker 1: It's true. They hurt and they look like shit. They
1:44:13
Speaker 1: make a big slap sound, but they hurt. And you
1:44:16
Speaker 1: get chopped by somebody like Rick Flair for a thirty
1:44:19
Speaker 1: minute match and he chops you fifteen times. Your whole
1:44:21
Speaker 1: chest the next day is bruised. It hurts to put
1:44:24
Speaker 1: a shirt on. I used to wrestle Rick Flair and
1:44:27
Speaker 1: wake up going why am I hurting so much? Doesn't
1:44:30
Speaker 1: Rick Flair know it's a show. It's not supposed to
1:44:33
Speaker 1: be real. I'm not supposed to wake up with a
1:44:35
Speaker 1: really sore chest. I have no respect for guys that
1:44:38
Speaker 1: hurt each other all the time. It's just to me,
1:44:41
Speaker 1: lazy shit wrestling. When guys like Gunther and I've told
1:44:45
Speaker 1: him this to his face, it's bullshit. When you're hurting
1:44:49
Speaker 1: somebody for real, you're unprofessional. I wrestle guys and never
1:44:53
Speaker 1: hurt anybody. See I'm telling you. It's like his greatest
1:44:57
Speaker 1: point of pride that he never hurt anybody in the
1:44:59
Speaker 1: ring that Brett also mentioned wrestlers like Cmpunk and Dax
1:45:04
Speaker 1: Harwood when he's not busy tweeting obsessively over podcasters online,
1:45:09
Speaker 1: who frequently pay homage to him in their matches. He said,
1:45:12
Speaker 1: I take it as a compliment. And whenever I watch
1:45:15
Speaker 1: wrestling and I see something that's obviously a salute or
1:45:18
Speaker 1: sort of like, hey, that was bretttheart in nineteen eighty
1:45:21
Speaker 1: eight or something like that, I take that as a
1:45:23
Speaker 1: huge compliment, Especially from the wrestlers today. I think they'd
1:45:28
Speaker 1: all be a lot better off if they copied me more. Oh,
1:45:34
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. He's not wrong. They
1:45:37
Speaker 1: would be better off if they borrowed from Brett Hart. Look,
1:45:42
Speaker 1: the stuff with the chops, right, the stuff with the
1:45:46
Speaker 1: chops is what it is with him. This isn't even
1:45:49
Speaker 1: the first time he's criticized Gunther for them. Like Brett
1:45:51
Speaker 1: was at that first clash at the Castle show in
1:45:54
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two when Gunther wrestled Seamus and they had
1:45:57
Speaker 1: that awesome match. I loved it. It was one of
1:45:59
Speaker 1: my favorite. Actually, I think I had that as my
1:46:01
Speaker 1: WWE match of the year. Brett Hard hated it and
1:46:06
Speaker 1: said that he thought all the chops made wrestling look
1:46:08
Speaker 1: like a charade because he hates chops. Right. I don't
1:46:13
Speaker 1: even think he likes pork chops because the word chops
1:46:15
Speaker 1: is in it. Brett is very old school in a
1:46:19
Speaker 1: lot of ways. Right, It's just how he was brought
1:46:21
Speaker 1: up in the dungeon. He's not going to like a
1:46:24
Speaker 1: lot about modern wrestling or evidently wrestling from years ago either.
1:46:27
Speaker 1: If you chop people, that's his opinion. I think people
1:46:31
Speaker 1: can go overboard on the chops, absolutely, but I don't
1:46:35
Speaker 1: hate them the way that Brett does. And I also
1:46:38
Speaker 1: think it's silly for him to say that. You know,
1:46:40
Speaker 1: my dad always said nobody ever beat someone with a chop. Well, yes,
1:46:45
Speaker 1: and no one ever gets beat with a side Russian
1:46:47
Speaker 1: leg sweep either, But that didn't stop Brett from doing
1:46:49
Speaker 1: them in all of his matches. I mean, that's a
1:46:52
Speaker 1: pretty silly argument. Like one hundred percent of wrestling matches
1:46:56
Speaker 1: are filled with moves that no one ever loses to
1:46:59
Speaker 1: or would lose to in a real life fight. That's
1:47:02
Speaker 1: every match. I mean, hell, today, finishing moves don't even
1:47:06
Speaker 1: beat people. But that doesn't mean that guys should stop
1:47:10
Speaker 1: doing them. If they did, all wrestling matches would be
1:47:12
Speaker 1: ten seconds long. You know, if I want to watch
1:47:15
Speaker 1: a boxing match that could end in ten seconds, I'll
1:47:18
Speaker 1: watch a boxing match. If I want to watch an
1:47:19
Speaker 1: MMA fight, I'll watch UFC. One thing I do agree
1:47:24
Speaker 1: with him on, and I'm not saying I don't enjoy
1:47:26
Speaker 1: matches where guys lay their shit in. I mean that's
1:47:28
Speaker 1: basically all of Japanese wrestling. But and I think Brett,
1:47:33
Speaker 1: it's Brett who once said this. I've always attributed this
1:47:36
Speaker 1: quote to him that The real art of wrestling is
1:47:39
Speaker 1: making it look like you're hurting your opponent when in
1:47:42
Speaker 1: reality you are not harming a single hair on their head.
1:47:47
Speaker 1: That's what pro wrestling is supposed to be, in my opinion,
1:47:50
Speaker 1: that's the real art of pro wrestling. Anybody can get
1:47:54
Speaker 1: into the ring and really hurt someone like that's easy.
1:47:57
Speaker 1: It's a lot harder to make your shit look convinced
1:48:00
Speaker 1: and make people believe and make people do a double
1:48:02
Speaker 1: take like, hey, I know it's a show, but that
1:48:05
Speaker 1: looked like it really hurt and in reality it didn't
1:48:07
Speaker 1: hurt them at all. They can go backstage and laugh
1:48:10
Speaker 1: about it, turned around twenty four hours later, do it
1:48:12
Speaker 1: again the next night. That's the art of wrestling. I
1:48:16
Speaker 1: agree with Brett on that now. Having said that, when
1:48:20
Speaker 1: Gunther and Shamus get in the ring and they start
1:48:22
Speaker 1: beating the crap out of each other and Seamus ends
1:48:24
Speaker 1: up with these welts all over his body, which is
1:48:26
Speaker 1: basically every Shamus match, I love that shit, all right.
1:48:30
Speaker 1: I love that too. So. I mean, there's different styles
1:48:34
Speaker 1: to pro wrestling. You may not agree with them all,
1:48:36
Speaker 1: you may not like them all. I mean, God knows,
1:48:38
Speaker 1: there's wrestling out there, especially the ultra violence stuff that
1:48:41
Speaker 1: I absolutely hate. But people have different tastes and they're
1:48:46
Speaker 1: gonna like what they like. That's always been the case,
1:48:49
Speaker 1: from the days of Frank Gotch to Gorgeous George, to
1:48:53
Speaker 1: Abdullah the Butcher and what he did to Brett Hart
1:48:56
Speaker 1: to Gunther. You need that variety and then you can
1:49:00
Speaker 1: pick and choose what you like. This was a very
1:49:04
Speaker 1: scary story from the other day. In a social media
1:49:08
Speaker 1: post on Thursday night, former Ring of Honor world champion
1:49:11
Speaker 1: Jonathan Gresham revealed a very serious situation where he suffered
1:49:18
Speaker 1: not one, but two strokes. Said two days ago, I
1:49:22
Speaker 1: woke up and couldn't walk or move the left side
1:49:24
Speaker 1: of my body. I couldn't see, and I could barely walk.
1:49:27
Speaker 1: It took me thirty minutes to dial nine to one one,
1:49:30
Speaker 1: but I finally did. I woke up in the hospital,
1:49:33
Speaker 1: couldn't remember what had happened. They told me they had
1:49:36
Speaker 1: done an MRI and I had two strokes. I had
1:49:39
Speaker 1: a lot of tests run, but everything has come back clean.
1:49:42
Speaker 1: They're not sure what happened, and the only thing that
1:49:44
Speaker 1: they said was it could have been a possible complication
1:49:47
Speaker 1: from a bad case of COVID that I had a
1:49:49
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. They said that we may never
1:49:52
Speaker 1: know the exact reason. Needless to say, I will be
1:49:54
Speaker 1: taking the next two to four weeks off from wrestling
1:49:57
Speaker 1: to recover and get cleared fully by my neurologists. My
1:50:00
Speaker 1: wife saw me get carted off from the house on
1:50:03
Speaker 1: our ring doorbell camera and somehow flew from Orlando to
1:50:07
Speaker 1: Atlanta in time that she was there when I woke up.
1:50:10
Speaker 1: I wasn't fully convinced that I had a stroke until
1:50:12
Speaker 1: she showed me this photo of how my face looked.
1:50:15
Speaker 1: I never thought this would be something for me to
1:50:17
Speaker 1: worry about at thirty seven years old. I will be
1:50:20
Speaker 1: back soon. Well. Unfortunately, when it comes to strokes and
1:50:26
Speaker 1: even heart attacks, age is but a number. There are
1:50:29
Speaker 1: a lot of younger people who can and have had
1:50:32
Speaker 1: strokes before. And I saw the image. It's kind of grainy,
1:50:36
Speaker 1: but again it's from his ring doorbell camera. It shows
1:50:39
Speaker 1: the paramedics carrying him out of the house and you
1:50:42
Speaker 1: could see like his face is contorted, and it's very scary.
1:50:46
Speaker 1: It's very very scary. This is a video. I don't
1:50:48
Speaker 1: remember who uploaded it or what organization. It's from but
1:50:53
Speaker 1: it's on YouTube. It's kind of like a not commercial,
1:50:57
Speaker 1: but it's like a PSA and it shows like how
1:51:01
Speaker 1: quickly a stroke can impact somebody. It shows this guy
1:51:05
Speaker 1: in his house with his family. In one second, he's fine,
1:51:08
Speaker 1: maybe he's eating in the kitchen, and it's from the
1:51:10
Speaker 1: perspective I think of his wife and she turns away,
1:51:13
Speaker 1: and then when she turns back, his face is like drooping.
1:51:18
Speaker 1: And then they're all panicking and they're calling nine one
1:51:20
Speaker 1: like it's taking you through like a real life situation.
1:51:23
Speaker 1: And I remember the first time I watched that video,
1:51:26
Speaker 1: it scared this shit out of me. But you need
1:51:29
Speaker 1: to know the signs to watch for. And even scarier,
1:51:32
Speaker 1: he was home alone, like you know, Jordan Grace wasn't
1:51:35
Speaker 1: even home because again they're married for those who don't know.
1:51:38
Speaker 1: So he was home and there was nobody else there,
1:51:40
Speaker 1: and it took half an hour for him to even
1:51:42
Speaker 1: pick up the phone and call nine to one one
1:51:43
Speaker 1: for help. What if he couldn't What if he was
1:51:45
Speaker 1: on the floor and couldn't get back up and she
1:51:48
Speaker 1: was on the road. I mean, it could have ended
1:51:50
Speaker 1: very badly if he didn't get medical intervention when he did,
1:51:55
Speaker 1: and one stroke is scary enough, let alone having two
1:51:58
Speaker 1: at thirty seven years old. I did kind of laugh
1:52:01
Speaker 1: when he was like, I'm going to be taking the
1:52:03
Speaker 1: next two to four weeks off and then I'll be
1:52:05
Speaker 1: back in the ring hopefully. Like, brother, I think you've
1:52:08
Speaker 1: got bigger problems to worry about right now than getting
1:52:11
Speaker 1: back in the ring in the next two weeks. Like
1:52:13
Speaker 1: my god, I mean, I get it, you want to
1:52:15
Speaker 1: go back to work and make money, but shit, like,
1:52:18
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. Okay, you may not be able
1:52:21
Speaker 1: to get back in the ring in two to four weeks.
1:52:23
Speaker 1: Hopefully he'll be able to get back in the ring
1:52:25
Speaker 1: sometime soon. But that was a very scary situation to
1:52:29
Speaker 1: hear about. And this was also scary, but for a
1:52:33
Speaker 1: very different reason. It was scary, And then I laughed.
1:52:37
Speaker 1: Joey Ryan, there's a name you may not have heard
1:52:39
Speaker 1: in a while, and for good reason. He got swept
1:52:43
Speaker 1: up in the me too movement, Not me too, wasn't
1:52:47
Speaker 1: me too? Me too? Speaking out whatever whatever hashtag they
1:52:50
Speaker 1: attached to it. This was five years ago. He's a
1:52:53
Speaker 1: creeper and he was basically expelled from wrestling, and nobody
1:52:57
Speaker 1: would work with him and anyway. There was an indie
1:53:01
Speaker 1: promotion attempting to revive Portland Wrestling that has canceled its
1:53:06
Speaker 1: booking of Joey Ryan after receiving backlash from the fans.
1:53:10
Speaker 1: Oh you don't say. The Portland Wrestling Reborn event is
1:53:17
Speaker 1: or Or was scheduled for August twenty third in Vancouver, Washington,
1:53:22
Speaker 1: and it was announced that Joey Ryan, who has been
1:53:25
Speaker 1: out of wrestling since being accused of sexual assault and
1:53:28
Speaker 1: harassment during the Speaking Out movement of twenty twenty, would
1:53:32
Speaker 1: be making his return at the show. However, that is
1:53:35
Speaker 1: no longer happening and the entire event is in jeopardy
1:53:37
Speaker 1: of being canceled. I have canceled Joey Ryan's flight. The
1:53:42
Speaker 1: promotion announced he will not be appearing at the August
1:53:45
Speaker 1: twenty third show. The person behind the Portland Wrestling revival
1:53:49
Speaker 1: said that it is highly likely the show will not
1:53:51
Speaker 1: take place anymore, blaming another Pacific Northwest wrestling group for
1:53:55
Speaker 1: threatening to blackball anyone who is going to work the show.
1:54:00
Speaker 1: Prestige Wrestling's promoter threatened to black ball every wrestler, trainer,
1:54:04
Speaker 1: and ring crew member who works with me, causing multiple
1:54:07
Speaker 1: wrestlers to drop out of the show, and even the
1:54:09
Speaker 1: guy I was renting the ring from canceled the rental.
1:54:12
Speaker 1: We currently do not have a ring for the show
1:54:15
Speaker 1: taking place in less than three weeks. Prestige Wrestling is
1:54:19
Speaker 1: holding a show of their own in Portland on August
1:54:21
Speaker 1: twenty third, which was announced as a counter to this event.
1:54:25
Speaker 1: This was before Joey Ryan was canceled. The Prestige show
1:54:29
Speaker 1: is billed as a night of safe space pro wrestling
1:54:33
Speaker 1: action for the scene, by the scene that helped cultivate
1:54:36
Speaker 1: modern day Portland wrestling. Fans can pay whatever price they
1:54:39
Speaker 1: want for tickets, with all profits being donated to charity.
1:54:43
Speaker 1: And explaining why he booked Joey Ryan in the first place,
1:54:46
Speaker 1: the Portland wrestling promoter wrote, he was very reasonably priced.
1:54:49
Speaker 1: Oh well, okay, all right, Well, hey he came cheap.
1:54:54
Speaker 1: What a great reason? He said, he was very reasonably priced.
1:54:58
Speaker 1: He hadn't worked the area since like twenty fourteen. Local
1:55:01
Speaker 1: guys wanted to work with him, and it was an
1:55:03
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to move past the mustache gimmick that
1:55:06
Speaker 1: I never cared for anyway. Alas other promoters have publicly
1:55:10
Speaker 1: threatened to blackball anyone who worked for me and explicitly
1:55:13
Speaker 1: stated that they would destroy my show before it even
1:55:16
Speaker 1: got off the ground. They were successful at that. Well,
1:55:20
Speaker 1: hold on a second. Here, let me strum the world's
1:55:23
Speaker 1: smallest violin for this promoter. There you go. I always
1:55:32
Speaker 1: have my trusty tiny violin here for just these very occasions.
1:55:37
Speaker 1: I love this thing. I may take my act on
1:55:40
Speaker 1: the road. At least that'll be one show more than
1:55:43
Speaker 1: what Joey Ryan will be working. And on that note,
1:55:47
Speaker 1: we will leave it there. I hope you've enjoyed this episode.
1:55:51
Speaker 1: A lot of news this week. Hopefully there'll be a
1:55:53
Speaker 1: lot of news next week when we come back next
1:55:55
Speaker 1: Sunday for episode nine to twenty five of The SoundOff.
1:55:59
Speaker 1: Of course you can I meet live on the YouTube
1:56:01
Speaker 1: channel Solo Monster Sounds Off all week long, Monday night
1:56:04
Speaker 1: for the Raw post show, Wednesday night for the Dynamite
1:56:07
Speaker 1: Post Show, and Friday night for the SmackDown Post Show.
1:56:11
Speaker 1: And Tuesday night over on JD's channel for another episode
1:56:15
Speaker 1: of Tuesday Night Titans, which has been killing it so
1:56:18
Speaker 1: far this summer. So it's going to be another busy
1:56:20
Speaker 1: week leading into nine to twenty five next weekend. And
1:56:24
Speaker 1: at a very busy end of the month with that
1:56:26
Speaker 1: European tour coming up, Forbidden Doors coming up, Clash from Paris,
1:56:30
Speaker 1: a very international flavor for wrestling for the latter part
1:56:34
Speaker 1: of August. Here be well, stay safe, have yourselves a
1:56:38
Speaker 1: great week, and I will see you back here next
1:56:41
Speaker 1: Sunday for more sound off. Until then, take care, guys.
1:56:50
Speaker 1: The Solemn Monster sounds off. Bronzon Reid one on one
1:56:53
Speaker 1: against jay Uso. So Usa got back in the ring
1:56:55
Speaker 1: and he was looking for another suicide dive. He has
1:56:58
Speaker 1: stopped in his tracks because Bronze and read yeat it.
1:57:01
Speaker 1: You talk about yeating. He yeaded this fucking chair, this
1:57:04
Speaker 1: office chair, right at jay Usso's head, and the referee
1:57:07
Speaker 1: falls for the bell for what you would assume is
1:57:09
Speaker 1: a disqualification. They called this a no contest. I would
1:57:14
Speaker 1: love to know what do you have to do to
1:57:15
Speaker 1: get yourself disqualified? If Bronson red shot jay Usso in
1:57:19
Speaker 1: the face, would it be a no contest? Like? Where's
1:57:22
Speaker 1: the line here? When I saw that on the screen,
1:57:25
Speaker 1: I said, you got you gotta be shitting this man
1:57:27
Speaker 1: threw a fucking office chair at this man's head. A
1:57:32
Speaker 1: no contest? The Solo Monster sounds off, bringing you the good,
1:57:37
Speaker 1: the bad, and the ugly. Check out the weekly live
1:57:40
Speaker 1: streams bonus content for subscribers, and follow The Sola Monster
1:57:43
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Instagram, and X the Solo Monster. I Love
1:57:48
Speaker 1: you so long.