Latest / Real. Guy. Pods. / CM Punk's (potential) AEW return and AEW Saturday Collision is finally announced | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #692 – 5/18/23

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CM Punk's (potential) AEW return and AEW Saturday Collision is finally announced | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #692 – 5/18/23 · Real. Guy. Pods.

0:00
It's stud Welcome everybody. Welcome to this week's edition this s Realto Show,
0:20
episode number six hundred ninety two May oldteen, two twenty three. Welcome so
0:27
this week's edition of s Bong. I am one half of the show.
0:33
I am Jeck joined every single week on the lach By and my co host,
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the one and only doctor Trey Franklin. It's a little bit late while
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we're recording this, but doctor Trey, you were not in a press release
0:44
and then removed from it? Were you? My friend? Um? Let
0:48
me think here. So, I mean I have been banned from locations I
0:54
have been. I don't know about this. Do you get revit invited to
0:59
all of your class reunions? Because I don't. So I think I've been
1:02
scrubbed from the yearbooks. So but I have not been edited out of a
1:06
press release yet. Okay, okay, fair enough. I have only had
1:11
my ten year reunion. I didn't go to it because I saw most of
1:15
my friends at that point. But twenty year reunions coming up next year,
1:19
and I don't see a lot of my friends anymore because we've all gotten old
1:23
to have families, all that good stuff. But yeah, no press releases,
1:27
Doctor Trey being announced and then being secretly scrubbed and removed. That has
1:32
not happened. However, it has happened to one one wrestling superstar. Were
1:38
you about to say something, Doctor Try, I actually, now that I
1:42
think about it, I was announced for a show recently and then unbooked without
1:49
my knowledge. So I was taken off of the flyers. Did you know
1:53
you were booked? I guess yes, I can confirm the booking. The
1:57
promoter his girlfriends said I said some things about her and it made him mad,
2:05
and so instead of calling me and asking me about it, he just
2:08
told everybody Elsium booked me, but they never told me he unbooked me.
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So you went to the show? No, I was like, I had
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heard about it coping by friends that were on the show told me about it,
2:19
and I was like, yeah, we're just not gonna deal with that
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guy anymore. So it's kind of fucked up, But yeah, I guess
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it did kind of happen that I was scrubbed from the existence of a press
2:30
release related relatable Doctor Try Franklin, Folks, Doctor Try. Speaking of press
2:38
releases, it was announced on Wednesday during Warner Brother Discoveries, upfronts. This
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is all taking place, like every major television company is doing these upfronts right
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now because it's ad season. They're getting ready for the fall of twenty twenty
2:53
three, which is scared because we haven't even entered summer yet, which is
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awesome. I love summer. So now it's a little bit scary that we're
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talking about fall. And of course everybody had been talking about for the last
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for six weeks that AW was going to be announcing a Saturday show. The
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Saturday show would be called Collision. The Saturday show would see the return of
3:14
cmpunk for the first time since the brawl out in September twenty twenty two.
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Two of those three things happened. AW Collision was announced to take place on
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Saturday, starting June seventeenth, for two hours APM to ten PM, because
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that's what we need. We need another night of professional wrestling, another two
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hours of professional wrestling, all jokes aside. AW definitely can certainly utilize it.
3:38
Can my wrestling fandom continue utilize it? As another debate for another day,
3:44
but you know here we are, Doctor Trey. Saturday Collision has been
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announced. Throwback logo very reminiscent of WW Monday Nitro, which was badass.
3:53
I dug it. The graphics which is not getting a lot of love for
3:58
some reason. I don't know if people aren't noticing it or if I seven
4:02
ready yet, but behind the throwback logo is like this little digital stuff that
4:10
is very reminiscent to WW Saturday Night, when the beginning of that entrance was
4:15
like these little robots like move it around and I think they like scanned a
4:18
human body. It was very high tech for nineteen ninety four. But people
4:21
aren't mentioning that. I thought that may have been a nod to know you
4:25
Saturday Night as well, But I digress. So Saturday Collision has been announced.
4:30
There was also removers of a potential brand split that is kind of wishy
4:34
washy. Right now, it may or may not be happening. I guess
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the only people that it won't affect are the AW champions. Nonetheless, let's
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start with the first part of this Doctor Trey Aw's new show, and it's
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on Saturdays, and it's called Collision. Your thoughts, you know, this
4:51
is something we've talked about. They kind of needed another two hours of TV
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time because their roster was really flushed with a a lot of talent. Would
5:00
you compare it to what ww head going on with three hours of raw,
5:05
two hours of NXC, two hours of SmackDown. You know, they're filling
5:10
seven hours with their roster, aw is trying to fill it with three.
5:15
This at least gets them back up to five hours. So you know,
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well as rampage, rampage is one hour, right, rampage is one hour
5:23
yea, yeah, so this gets them up to five hours of television time
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a week. So it's going to give some people more, some more exposures,
5:30
maybe help build some storylines, maybe help build some backstories, flushed out
5:35
some character to the character, some things that we've been asking for for a
5:40
while. So I'm happy in that regard. Maybe not thrilled with the time
5:45
slot. Maybe, like if you're trying to capture casual fans doing a Saturday
5:50
night show when people are usually going out on date nights on at eighteen to
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you know, forty five demographic, you might be missing some folks. I
5:58
was kind of hoping they would land at six o'clock on TVs because that'll be
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fantastic from six oh five so far on about the cheap of you wheel maybe,
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um, but yeah, I was kind of hoping for maybe a little
6:10
bit earlier because now it's like, I mean, Jeff, you and I
6:15
both have significant others. Can you imagine looking at your wife or girlfriend or
6:18
fiance and going, maybe I'd love to take you out the movies, but
6:24
collisions on, I have to watch it for the podcast. This is how
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guys like us end up single again and in our parents' basement is because of
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you know, timing of things like this. So time slot wishes a little
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bit earlier, but I get it. It's a prime time slot, you
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know, TV or Warner Bowers came outs that are doubling down on wrestling,
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and this is why they're doing it. Hey, it's it's great for the
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brand. It's great for the product, not great for wrestling fans. Guys
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like us who do podcasts who have to somehow consume all of this wrestling now
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to you know, verbal diarrhea. All of our fans who listen to us
7:02
that we can talk about all this stuff. So I would say nineteen percent
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positive for a so far. Yeah, I mean, they definitely need it.
7:11
There are so many more wrestlers than when they first launched. A lot
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of wrestlers have been shelved for a long time. Miro thunder Rosa, I
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mean, well, she's been injured, but even like Action and Ready,
7:26
like since he had that victory over Chris Jericho, it's like, what the
7:28
hell is this guy done? Not much? There's been so many stars that
7:31
don't frequent on television each week and they lose a ton of momentum and fans
7:35
tend to forget about him. I'm sure there's a laundry list of wrestlers that
7:41
you enjoy watching that are being shelved because there's just not enough TV time.
7:46
I like Best Friends a lot. They get a decent amount of play,
7:49
especially late with Bandido, but there's period of times where they're just kind of
7:54
background players to Orange Casside, Like Orange Casside gets a ton of airtime,
7:58
and rightfully so, he's like one of my favorite wrestlers right now and one
8:01
of the best champions in all professional wrestling. Like him and Gunther I think
8:05
are some of the unsung heroes when it comes to champions and professional wrestling presently,
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so they definitely need it. Saturday Night is not ideal. This is
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one hundred percent going to be a DVR. I should say ninety percent because
8:18
the winners here in the Northeast suck. It's not like where Doctor Trey is,
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where it's just like fifteen you have to put on a sweatshirt. It'll
8:24
be a DVR show for sure the next several months when it's really nice,
8:30
and then like when football season comes, like I don't know, like how
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the hell do I squeeze it in on a Sunday. Maybe a lot of
8:37
YouTube watching. I don't know, But I mean Dynamite is musty television.
8:43
Rampage, which is shifting towards a like up and comer show which I dig,
8:48
has become kind of non like a show that I wouldn't typically watch if
8:54
I didn't have a podcast, Like Rampage is fine, but they're not progress
9:00
in anything. And it's nowhere where guys or girls are getting some more airtime
9:05
that I think kind of need it. So we'll see where that goes with
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that. Collision is a nice addition, but I don't know. I mean,
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brand splits all this stuff. You see the graphic, right, You
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see Miro, you see Andre Andre al Elo, you see Powerhouse Hobbs,
9:24
you see FTR. It's like hmm. These are all like seeing punk people.
9:28
There's a little bit more to that, which we'll get into him and
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just a little bit. The brand split Duc Trey that's been rumored as happening
9:39
not happening. It's going to be loose, it's not happening at all,
9:41
Like it's this complete volley which maybe AW doesn't know what the hell they're going
9:46
to do. But I think I'm to the point where I would totally be
9:50
down where Collision is a brand for AW and Dynamites a brand for AW or
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as we discussed on last week's show, it's like, wh not just make
10:00
dynamite AW and you make Roh the Saturday Show? Like then you legitimately have
10:05
two resting brands and organizations and you could run it. I'm for the brand
10:09
split, especially if it gives more people some time, but it seems like
10:13
I guess that's a little bit cloudy, not as cloudy as the next thing
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that will discuss about someone that was missing from that poster. But where do
10:20
you sit on the brand split that was potentially happening and potentially not happening.
10:26
I mean, at this point, I don't I just I think it's going
10:30
to happen, because then you can have like, hey, so finite people
10:33
on this brand, finite number of people on this brand, and then you
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can actually it's kind of like budgeting time for these people to get their exposure
10:43
and get there and get there, get their stuff in. All I can
10:48
think about was a couple weeks ago we talked about the draft, the WW
10:50
Draft, and how one of our favorite drafts was when they had Flair and
10:54
Vince do the draft and all like a picture was like Katy Obega and Cumpunk
11:00
out front for their respective shows drafting folks, Like how much fun would that
11:03
actually be? I think until the Punk stuff's ironed out, I think that
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they're just to have like a case of their roster just being in flux,
11:13
and if he is going to come back, then hey, we can actually
11:16
dedicate some of his guys to that show, and you know, Kenny's folks
11:22
and you know Matt and Nick's folks to the other show. My only worry
11:28
about that is that if that's the route they take where they split, they
11:33
split the company based on who wants to work with one guy and who doesn't
11:39
want to work with a guy like doesn't have give credibility and more power to
11:46
each individual guy on that show, Like, oh, I don't want to
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work for kennymore, I want to go work for Phil. I don't want
11:52
work playing where I want to go work for Kenny. Oh I wanted to
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commnegotime my contract and if I leave, you know, half his rosters and
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the quid too. Like it just once again kind of feels like the guy
12:03
in charge of everything is just kind of trying to play peacekeeper and not being
12:11
an actual leader in this situation. So or he comes off like a mark,
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right yeah, yeah, Like, oh well, hey, if you
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come back, I'll give you your own show and you can have your own
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guys on it. If that's the case, just call it a w Ring
12:24
of Honor. You didn't have to make a new brand. You could just
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literally like use the name and all those guys have their love for Ring of
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Honor and it would have been fine. It just like you said, it
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feels like a guy who's not being a leader and just being a fan of
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the guys he's hired, which is never a good recipe for success. Could
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you I mentione like you know, like any NFL coach, Like I mean,
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you're got your team traded away their Hall of Famer franchise quarterback this year
12:50
just because they got tired of putting up with this childish pettiness, you know,
12:54
and moved on. That's actually what leaders actually do in that situation where
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this is this is like the Packers that we're gonna start our second team in
13:03
Milwaukee. He's just giving Aaron Rodgers' own team. Yeah, the Brewers are
13:07
coming to football and Aaron Rodgers will be there. I mean, that's a
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great analogy. I mean, I think you hit right on the head.
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So let's get to the cmpunk part of this chapter is there were reports out
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I think on either Monday or Tuesday, saw Andrew Zarinian from Russian Observer had
13:24
tweeted out, expect the return of cmpunk to be announced this week to a
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w expected that would take place with the collision. So collision is announced and
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in the graphic collision is no cmpunk at all. Jimmy Train a former former
13:41
longtime friend of mine, actually we did our podcast back in two thousand and
13:46
nine, back in the day before he blew up for Sports Illustrated. He
13:50
sent out a screenshot of I guess it was like the header for an email
13:54
that said like AW Saturday Collisions coming check out CM, Punk, Powerhouse,
14:00
obs FTR, thunder Rose Amro Right, So there was something, but it
14:03
was completely scrubbed out. So there's a lot of confusion. Wait, I
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thought Punk was coming back earlier in the day. It's feeling like, well,
14:11
maybe they're holding off on this so that it's a surprise to night for
14:13
Dynamite. And then you hear the reports Warner Brothers Discovery is saying that Sampunk
14:20
is not affiliated with AW Collision. It's like, wait, what, Okay,
14:28
that's weird, and then you hear a couple hours later that I guess
14:33
and this is all being reported, right, we have no inside intel,
14:37
so this is just us reacting, which I know wrestlers, especially Sampunk.
14:39
Hey, but according to reports that there were some sort of story out there
14:46
that Sampunk was under the belief that A Steel, one of his good friends
14:52
who was fired from brawl Out a produced for a w was going to return
14:56
to the company and was going to working Collision. Somewhere before the announcement for
15:03
Collision, it was revealed to Punk and a Steel that a Steel would be
15:07
working remote and that did not sit well with Cmpunk. So you saw I
15:16
think it was Thursday morning Warner Brothers Discovery. There was a story out there
15:18
that they were hoping to workout issues with Cmpunk. Punk again was caught off
15:24
guard. And then you hear a report later today actually that aw rehired a
15:31
Steel quote months ago and that A Steel has been working in creative with Tony
15:37
Kahn remotely. The thought was that once Punk came back, that A Steel
15:41
would be back on the road working behind the scenes for the Collision show again.
15:48
So that was surprising because we hadn't heard that. Props to AWE for
15:54
keeping that tight lipped. So a Steel is back and there's all this,
15:58
you know, roughly the feathers still or what have you or Punk was still
16:03
removed from the press release. Wasn't happy with a Steel not being behind the
16:07
scenes. But there was another adelaide to the story. In the story about
16:11
aw being rehiring a Steel is from came from Haus of Wrestling. It was
16:17
mentioned that Cmpunk was motivated still to help AW. So it's like this is
16:22
bizarre brawl out happens twenty twenty two. We all know what happens. Punk
16:30
Elite a Steel, They get into a fight. Punk is out on injury
16:33
with triceps. They were trying to build the bridges back together. Punk and
16:38
the elites Sale haven't talked. Punk talks to Jericho somewhere, a Steel gets
16:44
back involved. So clearly AW wants to bring Cmpunk back. Cmpunk clearly wants
16:48
to be back in AW. What happened at brawl Out and why nobody's talking
16:53
about it, why things aren't resolved is a whole other story. But now
16:57
we reach collision Collision, and again there's this added story later today where it's
17:03
like Punk is motivated to help, so and I'm a huge Sampunk fan,
17:07
so this is just calling it like I see it. If cm Punk is
17:12
motivated to help, why didn't he still go forward with being announced for AW
17:19
Collision. There's two streets on this right. One is obviously he's upset that
17:26
a Steal isn't going to be back on the road, did not like the
17:30
disagreement, put a little bit of a pause, playing hardball with Tony Conn
17:33
and a w and he's like, whoa wa, whoa, We're not doing
17:37
this yet until we figure it out. Or there's also this story circulating that
17:41
Punk didn't want his return to be announced he should it should be a surprise,
17:45
and like it should be closer to the return, which I will give
17:51
some narrative. There could be some legitimatelycy behind that, because I think if
17:56
you announced it now a month before a collision happens, there may be some
18:00
serious anti see him Punk chants that are taken place if you announced it maybe
18:04
two three weeks from now, and somehow it gets brought up creatively a little
18:08
bit better than just a random mentioned. Maybe it's better accepted. But let's
18:15
go back to the story where he's removed from the press release. Upset about
18:19
a steel. There's a disagreement with AW. As a fan of AW,
18:25
and even as a fan of c Himpunk, this story does not make Sehimpunk
18:29
look great. And then you come out on Instagram last night or on Wednesday
18:33
night and told the fans to stop with tribalism and to touch grass. So
18:40
it's all bizarre here Doctor Trey recapped it all there. That brings us to
18:45
now punk is official return to AW has not been announced yet, was not
18:52
in the collision press release. Could be upset about a steel not being back
18:56
on the road. A steal is back with the company, but see him
18:59
Punk is mo devated to help your thoughts. Oh and you left out the
19:03
part where he went and visited WWE and Impact Wrestling. But he's motivated to
19:11
help aw which hey by I mean he could be doing some u some some
19:15
scouting, some recruiting. Could it could be something like that as well?
19:19
Um, yes and no, so like I want to say, like I
19:23
want you going makes Punk wo bad. But then again, if these are
19:27
all things a still being part of collision, all these things were promised to
19:33
him and then renegged upon, it looks once again bad on Tony Kahn,
19:40
like he's trying to play both sides. And that's that's that's the part of
19:45
this whole story that just drives me absolutely insane, is that there are no
19:51
adults in this room. You know, like every time we think there's an
19:53
adult, like something stupid and childish comes out and then you kind of lose
19:59
the like luster to it. It's like somebody needs to stand up and just
20:03
take charge and if you like me, great, and if you don't like
20:08
me, straw off. Like somebody needs to take control of the situation because
20:14
it just feels like it's very just which every way the wind blows, like,
20:18
Oh, I'm on Dynamite, I gotta be nice to Kenning the Bucks.
20:22
Oh, we're going to the Collision stuff. Let me see if I
20:22
can be nice to Ace and Phil And you know, it's just it just
20:26
feels like which every way the wind blows is kind of where this story goes
20:32
because you know, honestly, you can see both sides of the story.
20:36
You can see both sides, and you know they always say he says,
20:38
she said, the truth is always in the middle. You know, my
20:41
only concern right now, Jeff, with this whole situation is is Larry the
20:45
Dog. Okay. That's That's where I'm at with this whole team right now,
20:48
until them Punk shows up on Collision, That's where I'm at, Like
20:53
until like, oh you see Kenny Omega come out and say like I've I've
20:56
made peace with everybody and everything is like cool, Are y'all gonna work a
21:00
match together? Because I think that's what fans want to see, Like people
21:03
just want to see, you know, the elements of realism in a fictitious
21:07
fight. If we know you guys have real life, you know issues,
21:11
we want to see you guys in the wrestling ring. Because either we want
21:14
to see a great match or we want to see a train wreck. But
21:18
right now it just feels like it just makes everybody look bad. And Warner
21:22
Brothers just like, hey, we'll keep giving you guys money, Like,
21:26
just just show up. We'll keep giving you guys money. We'll keep you
21:30
Like they're moving the T and T show that we both said we like the
21:33
All Access shows moving to the new Max streaming service. You know, it's
21:37
like there's just Warner Brothers like going, guys, if you can just figure
21:41
this out, we will throw buckets of money at you guys. And they're
21:45
like, yeah, but I'm mad at him. Well I'm mad at him,
21:47
but I'm mad at him. It's like this is not like there's personal
21:52
and there's business. There's a lot of money to be made here. People
21:56
just act like the adults in the room. That's trade is see him punk
22:02
the worst thing to ever happen a wum. I still go enjoy Janella,
22:07
but it's just a personal thing. Oh no way, I take that fact.
22:11
They signed Leo Rush also at one point, so we all know my
22:15
love for Leo Rush. If they had signed Sasha Banks at the same time,
22:18
I would have been like just this coupy just hates me in particular.
22:22
But I don't know, Like I'm still trying to figure out if see him
22:30
Punks the worst thing to happen aw or the best thing, because like,
22:34
as a guy who's been in leadership roles in multiple companies, like I can
22:41
kind of see his point at times, So I don't know if he's a
22:45
bad thing for it or maybe a good thing because look, one of the
22:51
founders of this company left to go wrestle somewhere else where he had no power,
22:59
Like is that a rat jumping the ship? You know what I'm saying,
23:03
Like, maybe Punk coming in is actually a good thing because maybe he
23:07
is the adult in the room and everybody else is still teenagers, or maybe
23:11
he's a substitute teacher that nobody likes it. It just kind of depends on
23:15
how you view see him Punk at all this because like I said, everything
23:22
he said for the most part at the brawl out I didn't disagree with.
23:27
So is it really a bad thing if he's actually speaking his truth so to
23:33
speak? So here then here's the second part of it, right, If
23:37
he's not the worst thing is the bucks Kenny Hangman, some of the founders
23:44
of this company, are they some of the worst things because that happened to
23:48
this company because maybe they weren't used to being in a professional wrestling organization where
23:56
it was like their actual day job, right, they would go to ROH
24:00
for a little bit, they'd go to New Japan for a little bit,
24:02
they go to PWG for a little bit, Like they didn't work in the
24:06
WWE atmosphere, Like what do you think about that? Like is that because
24:11
you got to look at two sides to every story here, Like there's a
24:14
ton of negative point and seeing Punk because I do think it's ludicrous and bullshit
24:18
that if he's legitimately trying to help out the startup wrestling company, which it
24:22
still is four years in, like be on the fucking press release for the
24:26
brand new show, dude, unless creatively, creatively they're waiting a couple more
24:33
weeks, which that story wasn't out there. The story was out that Wednesday
24:37
that Punk is potentially pissed off and has a disagreement because of Ace Steel not
24:42
being back on the road, Like what's the problem here? Like how have
24:48
we not figured this out yet? Punk talks to Jericho they reportedly work things
24:53
out. Will they be best friends while they change Christmas cards? Maybe?
24:56
Maybe not? Who gives a shit? But like the stuff with the Elite
25:00
still reportedly has not been resolved, Like why has that not happened? Why
25:07
has that not happened? Punk is out there on Instagram and he's calling out
25:11
Jericho and Moxley. Moxley gets on his wife's podcast and I think did a
25:15
pretty damn good job of not really wanting to get in the bullshit, but
25:18
he addresses it like Punk is fifty percent of this. He's bringing a lot
25:23
of bullshits at the table. Kenny, the Bucks, Hangman, they brought
25:27
bullshits at the table, Like, I just I don't get it, Like,
25:32
could we be looking at the side that Kenny and the Bucks and Hangman
25:36
are just as much to blame as well? Are they potentially the worst thing
25:38
that's ever happened in the company is even though they're founders. So I'm trying
25:44
to figure out a way to kind of for this to make sense to me.
25:49
It feels like I was watching The Top Gun, the New Maverick movie
25:56
before the show started, and I kind of feel like it's it's kind of
26:00
a good comparison where you know, the indie darling guys, the the elites,
26:07
the guys that have just traveled and you know, had a lot of
26:11
Mark promoters kind of catered to their whims because they have a good following.
26:18
They don't they play by their own set of rules, and you know Tom
26:22
Cruise Maverick plays by the side of the rules. The Navy or in this
26:26
case, WW or other professional wrestling companies like WCW and things like that have
26:32
their own set of rules, and sometimes you try to meld those two worlds
26:36
together. It's either really really beautiful or it's a nightmare. And you see
26:41
that in the workplace as well, like you bring in a hot shot sales
26:45
guy who's kind of just been a freelance sales guy, but you bring him
26:48
into a corporate setting all of a sudden he can't adapt. And I feel
26:51
like at times you have this old guard of the fulkerk W guys that are
26:57
used to structured, uh you know, hierarchy protocols, things like that,
27:03
and then you have the guys who you know have done all the all the
27:08
small like all the smaller promotions or the big indie shows where they didn't really
27:14
have those roles and you're trying to meld that and together into this, you
27:18
know, amalgamy type wrestling promotion. And I think that's one of things that
27:22
Cody struggled with. I think it's the thing that alt guys, like the
27:26
Mirrors, the andras, things like that those guys have struggled with is they're
27:30
kind of used to structure, and it feels like a lot of times AW
27:33
doesn't have structure to it. It doesn't have a hierarchy of pecking order,
27:38
a protocol to follow, like those other places that they kind of grew up
27:44
in and thrived in had those things in place, and I think that's where
27:48
you get this kind of pushback. It's almost like you know, taking two
27:52
sides of a magnet and trying to push them together and they just repel each
27:55
other like on paper. Like in Jericho's mentioned it, Jericho, it was
28:00
just adaptable. Jericho mentioned we first got the company, he didn't understand the
28:03
Orange Cassidy gimmick, he didn't understand the Darby Allan gimmicks. He didn't understand
28:07
a lot of these gimmicks that were super over from the indies and how it
28:11
would work in professional wrestling. Now, Jericho's smart enough of a guy to
28:15
kind of go, hey, if the crowd likes it, I'm into it,
28:19
you know where instead of like the old guards, just like others stupid
28:22
bullshit, we're just gonna I'm just gonna keep ignoring it. I think that's
28:26
where we're at with this, is that you have a guy like see him
28:30
Punk that is actually a really old school wrestling guy at heart, where you
28:34
have the elite maybe being the new generation of what professional wrestling is, and
28:41
there's gonna be an odds, and then you have a guy in the middle
28:42
like a Tony Khan who just who loves all these guys and wants them all
28:47
to get along, but he doesn't know how I actually make them work together.
28:52
He just tries to appease both sides until somebody calls somebody else on a
28:56
lie or a misleading information. In that where we get to these kids of
29:00
situations, and that takes me my last point here is Tony Conne the worst
29:03
thing happened to aw He's the money man. But yes, he said yeah,
29:08
yes right away, So that just takes all the wind out of the
29:11
sales. But let's add it. Write the money Okay, that's great,
29:14
but creatively, did you watch Sonamite last night? Parts of it? And
29:18
they're right about the rest not a good episode from my opinion in reaction,
29:23
was was good normally, but just like it felt like I was like Speedball
29:30
and it was just insane how quick everything was going, and it was It
29:33
was not a great episode. And I have felt like for the last couple
29:37
of years, maybe in nearly two years that creatively aw lost that buzz that
29:44
it had from like nineteen to early twenty one that was really good, like
29:48
really good creative. I would say from its launch to after all out September
29:56
twenty twenty one was a really good error for the company and then afterwards like
30:00
it completely lost its way. They just like signed everybody, had them debut
30:06
and then did nothing with them. And creatively, like there were some hits,
30:11
there was a lot of misses, but it was like head scratching um
30:15
all the time. Like I'm a huge J White fan and I know he
30:18
was in the main event slot on Wednesday Night, but J White to be
30:22
contending for a championship, you gotta ride the buzz. The Guy is a
30:26
former IWGP heavyweight World Heavyweight champion and he's fewing with where he's arks, which
30:30
is great. The feud has been has been good, it's been decent,
30:33
but it's like, man, we gotta puts our pushing this guy, like
30:37
what are we doing? The action and Dretti stuff. He defeats Chris Jericho
30:41
earlier this year, it's the biggest, like shocking when we've seen since one
30:47
two three and Razor ramone two three Kid and Razormon which just happened thirty years
30:51
ago this week, which let's all feel old again. That's like, what
30:55
I mean, what are we doing? And then the second show it's like,
30:57
okay, maybe this will help out a little little bit, but is
31:00
he the right guy for creative running the company? I don't think so.
31:07
I think better executives and better leaders that's been the theme of the show.
31:11
Would have resolved this elite see him Punk situation for the betterment of the company,
31:18
and he hasn't. At the end of the day, Punk walking off
31:22
the press release being upset having a disagreement with a Steel about a Steel's role
31:29
with the company. The elite allowing Hangman Page to call out Punk in a
31:34
promo before that led to all this stuff that falls at his feet and he's
31:41
not leading from the front. It's clearly noticeable from the outside to the fans
31:45
and for all intents his purposes, he's been spoken about very highly by a
31:52
lot of wrestlers. Is a really nice guy, great boss. People love
31:56
him. But maybe that's where it stops running rust of an organization. Maybe
32:00
you let Moxley, maybe you let Jericho, maybe let Danielson do it.
32:04
At this point, like I don't know, it just doesn't doesn't seem right.
32:08
And then I just think about like the stuff a couple maybe like a
32:10
year ago bringing up Joey Jannello, they did not have a talent relations department,
32:15
Like people would just fade away and their contracts would expire and they wouldn't
32:17
tell them happen new Uh, Joey Janella, Marco Stunt, And that left
32:22
a bad taste in those guys mouths, and that's not how things should be
32:24
treated. So then AW turned it around and they had Tony Shivanni involved in
32:30
Christopher Daniels or whatever. It's just I don't know. People keep going there,
32:35
Doctor Trey, people keep going there, people keep signing with AW.
32:38
So it's weird. The money is good I mean if the money is good.
32:44
Look, there have been jobs, yeah, but they're starting to work.
32:47
They're starting to work a lot like Dwe's calendar right house shows, Wednesday
32:52
show, Saturday show r H. They figured out they have to get money
32:57
out of these investments. Yeah, yeah, like, hey, we got
33:00
to actually make money off these shows. I mean we just like put Karen
33:05
Jarrett's on a show. Damn it. We gotta pay her two hundred thousand
33:08
dollars a year because we have equal checks for everybody across the board. We
33:13
have to make some money out of this. What it feels like. So
33:15
Tony Kahn, like so everything people say about Tony Khan. He's a wonderful
33:21
guy. He's really easy to talk to you. This is the same thing
33:23
that every beautiful woman says about their best guy friend. Not the guy that
33:28
they actually date, but like that guy that's always in the friend zone.
33:31
He's always there for you. He's a super nice guy. He's really smart,
33:35
he's really creative. He's not a leader. He's not the guy who's
33:38
gonna stand up and kick somebody in the pulse. Like you look at the
33:43
history of w W, Like since you and I've been watching it. People
33:45
have gotten mad and walked out on Vince so many times. Vince never gave
33:51
any of those guys their own show. This said, all right, cool,
33:53
I'll see you. I'll just make it another you until you come back
33:58
and apologize whole Covid wocked off, you know, walked away from it,
34:01
came back Vince game and title shot. Hogan pissed him up again. Cool
34:05
see a palad to head to turner Land. Sean Michael's left, lost his
34:08
smile, went home, Bret Hart left. You know, all the stone
34:13
Colts got mad about the brock Lesser match and took us a ball and went
34:15
home. Fence never begged any of these guys to come back. It's this,
34:20
I'll make another you the show. And this is one thing I've learned
34:23
with rockets An the show is not about the guys on the show. It's
34:29
about the show itself and making the show better to be the everlasting thing.
34:35
Guys get old. Mother Nature's undefeated. Guys get old, they have to
34:37
retire, they get hurt. It's just the nature of the beasts. WB's
34:42
been around for what like since the actual Fence took it over and what eighty
34:45
one, So we got almost forty years of WWE or over forty years.
34:52
WWWF was around before that. It's because the show is actually bigger than the
34:58
performers, and people forget sometimes, like I don't know anyway, wouldn't you
35:01
know? I didn't think I'd keep watching wrestling after Austin and Roca left,
35:05
and then I did. I didn't think i'd watch, you know, WCW
35:07
and all stuff after the nWo left or retire when you shutdown still watching stuff.
35:13
I still go back and watch stuff because the show is bigger than the
35:15
performers, and people lose track of that. You know, you've been alive
35:21
through Brett Farr, Aaron Rodgers. Now you're on the Jordan loved. You're
35:23
a Packers fan. You're not a player fan. You like your players,
35:27
but you're a fan of the team the organization because those things are everlasting.
35:32
So people lose sight of that, and when leaders lose sight of that,
35:37
that's when your company starts to struggle. Speaking of contracts negotiations, Tony Kahn
35:44
the leader. According to the Rustling Observer and Newsletter, there has been no
35:47
recent movement regarding contract negotiations between the Elite and aw SO. The Elite signed
35:54
multi year contracts with the company back in January twenty nineteen. They agreed to
36:00
new deals in twenty twenty one that would take them until twenty twenty four.
36:04
Kenny Omega's deal, which was due to expire in February, was extended due
36:07
to time miss because of his injury. No recent movement with contract negotiations,
36:15
that's bizarre. I don't think there's an AW without the Elite, and ultimately
36:21
to wrap up everything with the Punk situation as well. I want AW to
36:24
be successful. I want see him Punk to wrestle in AW. I want
36:29
the Elite to wrestle in AW. I want everybody to work this out and
36:31
make some damn money and make them good creative on television because drama and controversy
36:37
pushes things forward. But this is a concern. Is this showing a little
36:43
bit that maybe be a leader upset with the way that things are being ran,
36:45
Doctor Tree? If they have not had any recent movement regarding contract negotiations,
36:51
No, No, I didn't worry be. It's just it's all leveraging.
36:53
I mean they I mean they know how much Cody got paid go to
36:57
WWE. You know, they see all the Hubbub about the MJF. You
37:01
know, a bidding war coming up. They know there's money out there and
37:05
if somebody's gonna pay them a look, if WV comes in and says,
37:08
hey, we'll pay you twice way w's been paying you, why would you
37:10
take a contract early? You know, they have agents, they have representatives,
37:15
they have feelers out there. They kind of know what the market's gonna
37:17
be like when it comes time. You know, it's not like the NFL.
37:22
When your contracts almost up, either try to get your home team to
37:25
resign you for market value, or you go become a free agent, you
37:30
know, or you do like so these players do. And now, just
37:32
now, wouldn't Kenny and the Bucks scrub all their social media of AW references?
37:37
All right, cool, we'll start. That's like the NFL trick now
37:42
apparently, but you know, for me, like not moving on yet.
37:45
No, Like Hew Boxley's contract was up, he was wrestling for three months
37:49
on a handshake deal. That's just kind of how the wrestling business is.
37:52
They don't really do something until they absolutely have to. And you know,
37:57
if it comes out that Triple H has you know, had serious feelers out
38:01
to Kenny and the Bucket. Maybe it makes Tony working a little harder,
38:05
but when you start a company with a guy, he's always going to feel
38:08
like you're going to come back to him, you know. And I just
38:13
don't think that Tony kaf feels like he's in a rush to do this because
38:16
he's negotiating new TV rights deals, getting a new show launched, trying to
38:21
make shim Punk happy. The contract thing for him is on the back burner
38:25
because in his mind, as the owner of the company, he has more
38:30
pressing issue to deal with, because you know, he just kind of thinks
38:32
Kenny and the Bucks are gonna be loyal to him and they'll cut him the
38:35
hometown discount. So until that leverage comes into play, they don't need to
38:40
use that card right now. Interesting situation all on, all the drama around
38:44
aw was Gangbusters for a couple of months, cooled down, and then this
38:51
past week kind of ramping back up again. How do you think this all
38:53
works out? Doctor Treys? What's the prediction on May eighteenth? How do
38:58
you think this all shakes out? I think them Punk shows up at Collision
39:00
on June seventeenth in Chicago, because how monster was that Poppy got in Chicago
39:07
last time. Like, I just feel like it's there's too much money on
39:13
the table for them to not work something out for everybody involved. Otherwise this
39:20
is the biggest bunkled incident, you know, maybe of all time. Like
39:24
you have two stars who have a leg this is Sean and Brent, Like,
39:30
this is what we always wanted to have the rematch for after the Montreal
39:32
screw job that we never got because it's legitimate beef. It's legitimate you know,
39:38
anger played out in a fictitious sport where at any point things could go
39:44
awry. And if you don't somehow make this work, if you want to
39:50
have a match that could rival a WrestleMania type thing, that's your match and
39:57
that's gonna get you all your fans to buy into watch. And if you
40:00
mess this up, I don't think you have anything else on this roster that
40:06
could rival eight potential Kenny Omega CM Punk match at you know, a major
40:10
event. You just don't have anything else in the you know, in your
40:14
playbook they could rival that Switching Gears, Doctor Trey to World Russia Entertainment.
40:20
We're talking dream matches, Kenny Omega CM Punk Well, at Nightive Champions to
40:23
crown the new w W World Heavyweight Champion. I don't want to say first
40:29
because the title was around. I guess the first of this new incarnation of
40:34
the championship will be Seth Rollins versus AJ Styles to decide a winner. Seth
40:38
Rollins representing Raw, AJ Styles representing SmackDown. I laugh because it's like they
40:44
told us the title would be um Brand specific to Raw, but we have
40:49
a SmackDown wrestler competing for it. This is a dream matchup Doctor Trey and
40:53
and I love it. I think this is this is the match that that
40:57
I wanted to see once I realized Cody Rhodes will going to be in the
41:00
running for it. Your thoughts here next week will be prepunter predicting the show
41:04
Seth Rons AJ Styles. Was this the right choice to crown a new worldwide
41:08
champion in this era of wrestling? Yes, it is arguably the two best
41:15
in ring performers w TW has to offer. In fact, if you look
41:20
at the history of this show, this is two of our last three male
41:24
superstars of the year going at it. I think AJ had it for two
41:29
years, Seth had it for two years. That Romans had it for two
41:30
years, so on paper, literally the best in ring matchup you can come
41:37
up with. I do wish there was a little bit storyline built into it
41:42
other than just you know, hey, it's for the title and then the
41:46
whole it's a SmackDown guy competing for a Raw championship, even though we have
41:52
BEYONC and Oscar for the Raw Women's championship, and they're all both ons back
41:54
down, you know, right right now, until they've finally fixed where these
42:01
title belts are going. I don't because I can look at it. Go.
42:05
If AJ wins, they just gonna tak the AJ and the OC moving
42:07
over the Raw, so you know, and then then everything's okay because I
42:13
believe the whole OC was drafted as a group. So move the whole OC
42:17
to Raw and then everything's fixed. Two weeks on SmackDown back to Raw.
42:22
Look AJ and like the Good Brothers don't look good and Blue they look better
42:25
in red. So that's why. Um. But yeah, but on paper,
42:30
if you said, hey, give me two guys in this company you
42:32
want to see go for thirty minutes in a match for a championship, I
42:38
mean eighty five percent the people will probably picked this matchup. So and then
42:44
also, I don't think I think they've wrestled singles one match before this.
42:51
I was actually there live. It was Money the Bank two thousand eighteen,
42:55
the year that Kofi won the w Championship. Yeah, and then I thought
43:00
they might have had a raw match nineteen. Yeah. So but yeah,
43:07
for two guys that have been the company now for quite a while to have
43:09
only had one previous encounter, yeah, this is fantastic. So um.
43:15
And this is also what modern wrestling fans want to see, athletic acrobatic performers
43:21
that can go They don't you know, not everybody likes the big man,
43:24
you know, the you know, big beefy men swapping meats. You know.
43:31
I love a good hoss fight. But this is like the John Woo
43:36
equivalent of a wrestling match. To have Seth and AJ going b I got
43:39
it. I just in my head, I'm hyping this up to be a
43:43
Match of the Year candidate, and I just really don't want to be let
43:45
down by it because it is happening in Saudi Arabia. I'm just happy that
43:51
Agstells is back in the World Championship picture. He has not been in that
43:54
picture since I want to say Survivor Series two thousand, is it? No,
44:00
it was twenty eighteen ish I want to say. I want to say
44:04
Daniel Bryan ended up defeating him and then went on to take on brock Lesner.
44:08
That's when he started doing the Planet Champion heading into twenty nineteen, and
44:12
then Wrestling thirty five was him and Kofy. But AJ has not been in
44:16
the world title picture for nearly five years. He's been He's had some high
44:22
profile matches, right The stuff with the Undertaker was huge, and he was
44:24
doing that with the OC, Then he was tagging with Omas Denny was injured
44:30
for a little bit, then he was here and there for a little bit.
44:34
It's like he hasn't been doing single wrestling matches in a while. So
44:39
this is great that he's back in the World Championship picture. I think that's
44:43
where he should be. Hopefully this bodes well for him heading to the summer
44:45
because he should be, you know, challenging Roman or if he's the World
44:50
Champion, representing that title with Pride. So I'm still seth rollins AJ styles.
44:54
We will preview and predict that match on next week's podcast. It's gonna
44:59
be fully loaded show heading into a moral day weekend, just like the wrestling
45:02
gods wanted it, with Night Off, Champions, Double or Nothing, and
45:07
XT Battleground all taking place next weekend, So that'll be the entire show unless
45:14
something crazy happens and like see Him, Punk is released from his contract,
45:17
So more on that all on next week's edition of SRTU. With that said,
45:23
let's gait a couple of plugs and sponsored out of the way. You
45:25
can download show every Thursday at real guy rated dot com, Russell chatting at
45:30
on Twitter, and the store world of the show iTunes feed. Don't forget
45:31
to rate, review and subscribe to uscon charts on iTunes. You can follow
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us individually on Twitter for myself at SRTU Jeff and for Doctor Trey Franklin at
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The Doctor Trey and of course don't forget to follow a show on Twitter at
45:43
SRTU Podcasts. With that being said, what is going on the wonderful world
45:46
of Doctor tre Franklin this week? Well, like Jeff said, you can
45:50
follow me on Twitter at the Doctor Trey. You can find me on Instagram
45:52
at Facebook to the search out Doctor tre Franklin on Facebook check out rocket Seed
45:57
Championship Wrestling is. We are just a couple days away from Wrestling Con six
46:01
coming up this Saturday in Lovely Hazel Green, Alabama. On that show,
46:07
We're gonna have action. Mike Jackson defending the Rocket City World Heavyweight Championship against
46:12
Lord James Cicero. Barry Koloff defends the rockets City Television Championship against Sin Body,
46:17
Chase Owens versus Lutha X Scrap, Iron Lewis, Tiger Kid, and
46:22
Ryan Bishop versus Dalton Castle and the Boys. Not to mention thirty Man a
46:27
Bottle Royal like, I am so excited for this. Um. Do you
46:31
listen to the Conrad Thompson podcasting Network. Are you familiar with Cassio Kid?
46:37
I am a little bit. He does the rhodoc show right. Yes,
46:39
Cassio Kid's wife if you've ever heard her mention her name is Big Boody Judy
46:45
on the radio. She is actually making her Dave ju at Rocket City this
46:50
weekend as well, so Cassio Kay will be in the crowd. A certain
46:53
announcer from Georgia, the Hales and a works for aw is supposed to be
46:59
in building. A certain podcast. Podfather is supposed to be in the building
47:04
this week, so a lot of stars making their way down to Hazley Green
47:07
for Wrestling Tons six this weekend. So there you go. Support all the
47:09
great things that support sr tou U like us on Facebook, Facebook dot com,
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slashes to row the show, and fall us on Twitter at SRTU podcast.
47:20
Um, congratulations to everybody because we were going to reset the clock.
47:22
Doctor Trey Franklin was not abused by Sammy Franklin this week. We still have
47:28
a couple of seconds to go, so congratulations to doctor Trey for that.
47:30
That was that That's that's pretty big. Yeah, but now he's threatening me.
47:35
So he's sitting here playing Mario. See he's playing Super Smouth Brothers.
47:40
So at any moment, I could be here with the Nintendo's WI. So
47:45
let's wrap this up so that we can restart the clock. So until next
47:47
week, we were proving predict Ninive Champions NXC Battleground and of course aw doula
47:54
or nothing. Thank you for tuning in, spread the word for doctor Franklin,
47:58
for Sammy Franklin, I'm Jeff. This is then better, didn't better