Latest / Solomonster Sounds Off / Sound Off 929 - BREAKING NEWS On Andrade's WWE Release, WrestleMania In Saudi Arabia And More!

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Sound Off 929 - BREAKING NEWS On Andrade's WWE Release, WrestleMania In Saudi Arabia And More! · Solomonster Sounds Off

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is episode nine to twenty nine of The Solemn
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, September fourteenth, twenty twenty five.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: It's been a rough weekend. I spend most of my
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: day yesterday at the hospital. A close family member, really,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: one of the only close family members that my brother
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and I have left an hour immediate family circle, at
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a very bad accident at home and is paralyzed from
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the waist down.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: She's in surgery right now.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It's a very risky twelve hour operation that they started
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: last night. It might give her a fighting chance to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: regain feeling in that part of her body, but right now,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I just want her to make it through okay. And
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot for us to do other
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: than wait for an update. So this will be a
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: way for me to take my mind off things for
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a bit. And there was a lot of news this week,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: even in just the last twenty four hours. We got
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to talk about Dropped Gone from WWE, WrestleMania coming to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, Wressell Palooza predictions, How ridiculous does that sound?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Wressell Palooza predictions, Warner Brothers Discovery could soon end up
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: under new ownership, what that could mean for Ae w
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Wardlow already injured, all out predictions and more. If you
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: would like to make a PayPal donation and support the show,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I do appreciate it ten dollars and more. We'll get
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you a nickname and a shout out over on the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Solomonster dot com. I want to say thank you to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton. Paul, that was very
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: generous of you. Thank you, my friend Big B Bryant, Messera,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soepp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eicherd, Knight Stalker, n f Alsafar,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Recon Russell Bullwaar, The Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis and Killshot
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Keith Hart. Thank you, gentlemen very much much. Also, I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: want to mention if you are a channel member on YouTube,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: specifically a Legends tier member, first time at a long time.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: But I'm trying to circle back around to these and
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: getting these up. The lost episodes of the sound off
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: between two thousand and seven and two thousand and nine,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: which are not up anywhere. It's probably about the first
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: eighty four episodes or so the first thirteen that I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: ever did are up. They've been up for a while,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: but now episode fourteen is up from February tenth, two
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight. So if you want to go back
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: in the time capsule see what was going on in
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the world of wrestling, get my thoughts on that. Episode
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: fourteen is up right now for Legends Tier members on YouTube.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: There are more to come, so if you are not
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: already a Legends Tier member, you can go ahead and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: jump on there. I think you may enjoy that little
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: trip down memory lane. Saudi Arabia is getting next year's
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Royal Rumble for the first time. We already knew that,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: but they are not stopping there. That was the big
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: news of the week. For the first time, WrestleMania will
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: be held outside North America. Sorry UK fans, you're gonna
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: have to wait because it's re odd season WWE, where
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: every season is riodd season. But Saudi Arabia will be
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: hosting WrestleMania forty three in twenty twenty seven. Remember that
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania eight press conference. They had Hogan and Savage and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Piper sid Undertaker. They were all sitting around Jack Tunney
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: as he announces who will be wrestling Rick Flair for
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the World Championship, and Sid starts to stand up, thinking
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that it's him, But then they announced Hogan and Sid
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: sits back down.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Oh man, he's ripping his papers up. That's what I.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Pictured in my head as I was watching that press
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: conference on Friday, Like if you could even call it that,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, there were no press, there were no fans
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: actually in the room for this announcement, But it made
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: me think of that, like the UK was Sid and
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Saudi was Hogan. Saudi might want Hogan to wrestle on
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: that show. Who wants to tell him? Who wants to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: break the news to them? During the week, there was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: an Arabic press release that leaked early announcing that WrestleMania
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: would be heading to Saudi in twenty twenty seven. It
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: was quickly yanked. Whoever the poor soul was that leaked it,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I certainly would not want to be that person. So
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the announcement got spoiled a few days early. Then on Thursday,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Triple h tweeted that at three pm Eastern on Friday,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: they would be making an announcement that would change the game.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I'm still waiting for this game changing announcement or the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: game changing part of this announcement. They've been running Saudi
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: shows since twenty eighteen. They're running more international shows now
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: than ever before. They've already announced the Royal Rumble is
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: coming to Saudi for the first time on January thirty.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: First.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania being hosted outside North America might have been a
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: game changer ten years ago. Today if it's just another
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: cash grab, you know, a long line of cash grabs,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: and that's fine, it's what they do. They go where
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the money is fair enough. But there's nothing game changing
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: about any of this unless you consider the price tag,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and that's not anything that they would announce publicly. So
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I'm still left wondering exactly how this changes anything out
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: of the ordinary. Joe Tessitur hosted the event in Las Vegas.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: They had a whole event, actually, I described the WrestleMania
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: eight press conference.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: It was kind of set up like that. They had
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: a stage.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Joe Testitour was at the podium Hosting Vegas, of course,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: is where everybody was on Friday for the Canelo Alvarez
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: fight that TKO was hosting this weekend, and WWE was
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: hosting the Triple A Worlds Collide event there as well,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: so he brought out Sewn, Michaels and the Undertaker. Live
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Morgan was there, Charlotte Flair, Bianca bell Air, Logan, Paul Seth, Rawlins,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and then Triple H for the announcement. I have seen
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: hostage videos people look happier than the wrestlers did here
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: standing in the background. They did not want to be there.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: They also had the head of the General Entertainment Authority
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: in Saudi Turkey, Al al Shek, the man responsible for
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: bringing all of these events over to the kingdom. He
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: spoke and he even invoked the name of Vince McMahon,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: which I'm sure thrilled them to no end when he
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: was talking about Vince being part of the conversations on
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: day one that started their relationship in the first place.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: It will remain a two night event, although they did
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: not announce what the actual dates would be. Mike Johnson,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: a PW insider, says the amount of money that the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: company is being paid for the event is mind blowing.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Meltzer says it's in the nine figure range, said to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: be well over one hundred million dollars. Oh I would
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: bet it's a lot more than one hundred million dollars.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: If they're getting fifty million per show right now, I
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: mean for shows like Crown Jewel or King and Queen
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: of the Ring. If they're getting fifty million dollars for
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: one of those shows, I mean they may be getting
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: one hundred million for the Royal Rumble. For WrestleMania, it
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: could be more than twice as much. Dave also says
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the Saudis pushed heavily for the show in twenty twenty seven,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: even though WWE wanted to do it there in twenty
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: twenty eight. I don't know what they would have done
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: for twenty twenty seven, probably gone back to Vegas again.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: But they still owe New.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Orleans a WrestleMania since they announced it publicly and then
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: they yanked it away from them out of nothing but
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: pure greed. But the Saudis wanted it for twenty twenty
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: seven because that coincides with the country's three hundredth anniversary
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: celebration since it was founded in the year seventeen twenty seven,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and they wanted a number of special events that year.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania was going to be one of them. Now there
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: was a rumor floating around that maybe they would do
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: two WrestleManias that year, you know, with the idea of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: taking the Saudi money and doing one there and then
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: another one in the North America market. I'm glad that
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: turned out to be just a rumor, because that would
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: be a fucking terrible idea. Can you imagine too, WrestleMania
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: is in one year. We already have that anyway, basically
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: with SummerSlam. They call it the WrestleMania of the Summer.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: They do them in giant stadiums. Now, they're two nights,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: just like WrestleMania. What the fuck do we need a
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: second WrestleMania for? That would be awful. I got a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: question once, not that long ago, but well, what if
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: they were to do it WrestleMania two style, and you
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: have one night in Saudi and you have one night
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: in the States. First of all, there's a reason they
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: haven't done that since wrestle Media two. Okay, that was
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty six, and they have not done anything
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: really like that on that scale since then. I mean,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania now is on such a bigger scale.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: But that's a logistical nightmare. Number one.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Number two Saudi Arabia is not paying two or three
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars for half a WrestleMania, so that was
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: never gonna happen either. But the plan is to build
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: all of the usual events around this one, including SmackDown
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Raw the Hall of Fame. They were also encouraging during
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the event. They were encouraging American citizens, all their American
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: fans to fly in for the show. And I'm sure
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: there are some who will, most will not. A lot
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: of fans may not even be able to afford it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine how much those ticket prices are going
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to be Wait until I talk about that later. What
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Mark Shapiro had to say this week about ticket prices.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: But look, none of this is surprising. They have been
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: in business with the Saudis for seven years now. They're
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: said to be pulling in fifty million dollars for every
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: show that they do there. They just opened an office
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: in Riod. This was the next natural progression of the relationship.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And I'm happy for my Saudi listeners who get to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: go to a rect Maia for the first time.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: You know, whenever there's like a big Saudi show.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: There's a handful of people like correspond with You've seen
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: some of the sound up sides that some of the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Saudi shows, So they have some hardcore fans over there,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and so for them, I'm sure they're excited to get
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a WrestleMania for the first time. And at least I'll
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: be able to cover the show a lot earlier in
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the day than I normally would.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: That's a plus.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: What is that going to be a one o'clock Eastern start?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Probably that's usually around the time those shows start over here.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: But I am already dreading the stories about what big
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: stars they're going to try to coax out of the
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: retirement home for this show. It's already starting. Meltzer says
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the Saudis are pushing for Dwayne the Rock Johnson to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: wrestle in one of the main events against either Roman
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Reigns or Cody Rhodes. I guess Meltzer's got those sweet
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Saudi connections, because he says the negotiations with Rock are
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: advancing and they believe the deal is close to being finalized,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: although he admits he's not been able to confirm any
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of this with those in WWE, but The impression that
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: he got is that the final payment for the show
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: would be affected by whether or not they get Rock
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: in the main event for that show, and he would
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: be paid, and I'm sure he would be multiple times
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: that of any pro wrestler for any event in the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: history of the world. Now, the general entertainment authority is
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: said to want a packed show with megastars, so naturally,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: there's been talk about a lot of big names. He's
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: been talk about The Undertaker wrestling. There's been talking about
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Sean Michaels wrestling. There's talk about Stone Cold Steve Austin
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: wrestling on the show. He'll be sixty two years old
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: by that point. Austin doesn't strike me as the kind
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: of guy that's coming back just for the payday. His
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: pride will not allow it if he doesn't think that
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: he can go in there and have a good match.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: And maybe he does, but I get the sense with
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: him it's about more than just money. He spent nineteen
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: years in retirement before they finally convinced him to get
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: back in the ring, and even then they wouldn't announce
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the match in advance. You don't think he could have
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: made untold millions of dollars during those nineteen years for
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a comeback match against somebody like a CM Punk or
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: a brock Lesner, and he chose not to. They were
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: right outside his home this year in Vegas and all
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: he did was ride his ATV to the ring and
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: nearly kill some people. So I don't know if he's
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: going to have a match on that show or not.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there are fans that would love to see
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: him in CM Punk in a match after all these years.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Sewn Michaels, he just said that he's getting both knees
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: replaced in about a month. He's getting ready for that
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: sweet Saudi pay day. Point is we don't need to
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: be going backwards and flooding the card with old guys
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: who don't need to be in the ring anymore. So
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of fans upset for a variety
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: of different reasons, all of which have been documented at
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: nauseum over the years. Again, this is not new. I
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: mean they've been working with the Saudis and having events
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: there now for over seven years. Like I said, this
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: was the next obvious progression of that relationship. I think
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: where I think is really sad is that it really
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: does now more so than ever when it comes to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: an event like WrestleMania, it really just does come down
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to the dollars and cents. I liked it when there
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: was some more variety. You spread WrestleMania around to other
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: states and places, and there's plenty of states here in
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the US that have never gotten to WrestleMania before, and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: so you bounce around from place to place, and now
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: it really just comes down to the almighty dollar and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: nothing else. That's why they literally announced the show for
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: New Orleans and then yanked it so they could go
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: back and run Vegas for a second year in a row.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: A pure cash grab money play, nothing else, like, nothing
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: else factored into this decision. That was the only reason
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: they did what they did. And it makes you wonder
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: if they're being blown away by the money that they
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: are being paid for this Saudi show in twenty twenty seven.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Let's just say Saudi Arabia said, you know what, we
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: want WrestleMania again in twenty twenty eight, or we want
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it back in twenty twenty nine, and here's how much
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: we're gonna pay you.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: We're gonna up, We're gonna up the offer.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: We're gonna pay you another fifty million dollars on top
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: of what we paid you last time.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: What do you think TKO would do?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: They would drop everything and say, sure, we may get
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you know, Saudi Mania every other year going forward, and
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: that would be terrible because I think that there should
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: be more variety in it. Obviously, there's gonna be a
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: lot of fans over in Europe and over in the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: UK who were very upset after they were teased a
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: few years ago at the Prospect by John Cena money
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in the bank, standing in the middle of the ring
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: and telling the fans, let your voices be heard if
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: you want WrestleMania to come to London for the first time.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And those people went nuts. They did exactly what he
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: told them to do. They let their voices be heard.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Your voices don't matter. Your voices mean shit unless you're
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: gonna cut them a check for two hundred and fifty
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: million dollars. Your voices do not matter, is what they're
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: telling you. And I think that's sad. But I'll tell
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: you what this does do. It opens up a huge
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: opportunity for someone like aw to step in and run
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: their own show that night. Now that WrestleMania is airing
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: in the daytime hours. Here right, here's Tony kN chance
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to do a little counterprogramming of his own and plan
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: a big event stateside over WrestleMania weekend, not head to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: head because that would be obviously suicide for them, but
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: in the space where WrestleMania would normally be airing, and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: do it here. Now, he's not going to be able
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to steal headlines away from WWE because it's going to
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: be all about WrestleMania for the first time coming to
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, and it's still WrestleMania at the end of
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the day. But whatever fans would normally attend WrestleMania that
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: won't be that year. I'm not saying all of them
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: would come, but there's a lot of fans that would
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: attend a big wrestling show that weekend. And if he
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to bring other promotions in on the fund, then
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: so be it, because this is going to have a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: negative effect on all of those into pened promotions that
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: typically build their events around WRESTLEMANI a weekend conventions like
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: wrestle Con This is where AW can step in to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: fill that void and make some money of their own.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I say AW because there's really nobody else, you know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: that could scale something up that big, and that includes TNA,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: although if they did, I could see WWE helping TNA
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: run something stateside to counter that. Yeah, there's no way
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: they would let them run something that weekend without countering
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: it somehow, and fair play if they do, you know,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: whether it's a TNA event or an NXT event. I'm
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: just saying, what would normally be a very lucrative weekend
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: for these other events and these other promotions suddenly isn't
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: going to be there in twenty twenty seven. So there's
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: an opportunity for someone else to step in and try
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to fill that void even better if they did it
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: in New Orleans, wouldn't that be something?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: The other big news of the week, and this one
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: came out of left field. This was surprising, was Andrade
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: being gone from WWE. He is done. Fight Ful was
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the first to report the news on his exit, and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: sources within the company confirmed Andrade was released and that
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: it was the company's call and it was not part
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: of a mass group of cuts that we hear so
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: often about. Usually when it comes to WWE cuts, they
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: usually come in batches.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: That was not the case here.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: John Alba of Sports Illustrated later reported that it was
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: not a mutual decision. He had not been backstage at
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: TV tapings for nearly a month, and multiple talent were
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: being told Saturday afternoon that he had been let go
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and he has already been moved to the alumni section
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: on WWE dot com. Again, we don't know what we
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: don't know, but they're making it clear from these reports.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: This was not a case where this was just an
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Andrade call where he's like, you know what, I don't
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: want to be here anymore, let me go. This was
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: something that was initiated by the company, something they felt
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: that they had to do for some reason, and we
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: might have some insight into why that is now. Bodyslam
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: dot Net said that there have been creative and booking
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: differences between Androde and WWE since his return at the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Royal Rumble in twenty twenty four. Not only that, but
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Androde had been unreachable for several weeks before this when
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: WWE tried to make contact with him.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: That is not good.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: We haven't seen Androte on television. We haven't seen him
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: at all since SummerSlam. He and Ray Phoenix were part
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of that TLC match for the WWE Tag Team title.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: The belief is that he and Phoenix were in line
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: for the spot against the Wyatt Six that ultimately went
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to the Street Profits at Clash in Paris. Because it
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was very strange how coming out of SummerSlam, all of
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: a sudden, this new team they had put together a
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: few months before, they just vanished. We didn't see Androti
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: on TV. We didn't even see Ray Phoenix on TV.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I don't believe since this past Friday he had this
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: tremendous US Title Open Challenge match with Sammy Zain that
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: was the highlight of the night on smack Down this week.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Phoenix is another one who I would completely understand if
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: he was frustrated by the way he's been booked in WWE.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But looking at Andrade, I mean, you look at this return.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: He came back to the company at the Royal Rumble
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: last year. He was in last year's Money in the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Bank Ladder match. He was in this year's Money in
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: the Bank Ladder match. Didn't win either one, but he
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: was in both of those. He had that great best
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: of seven series of matches on SmackDown with Carmelo Hayes.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: That led to nothing, no title, no big program, nothing
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: coming out of it. Those two were carrying SmackDown there
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: for a while. Then he won the speed title, which
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, who the hell cares about that? And then
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: we got the random pairing with him in Ray Phoenix,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: another talent that has been underutilized the past few months.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: And the problem for Ray Phoenix is that he burned
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a bridge with AW on his way out, Andrade did not.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: He actually ended things on respectful terms with Tony Kahan.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Tony was the one who actually announced his contract was
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: expiring during one of their media scrums, and he thanked
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: him for his work. He said he hopes he could,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: you know, work together with.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Him again one day.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: One would think the door would be open for a return.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: But is it worth it for Tony Khan?
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Andrade is a tremendous talent, but he also strikes me
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: as someone who will never be fully happy unless he
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: is either the focus or that he is at least
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: in that top top mix. And that's just not going
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to happen in WWE. And it's not going to happen
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: in aweither, not with the wealth of talent that they
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: have over there. You know the way his WWE run
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: just ended. I don't know why Tony would think a
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: second run in aw would end any differently than it
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: did the first time. I also think, and look, I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: can't get inside the man's head. This is all still
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: very fluid. This news only broke yesterday. We haven't heard
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: from Andrade. We don't know why he ghosted them and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: did what he did. But if you remember, he was
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: one of the Hispanic talents they trotted out there behind
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Triple H WrestleMania weekend when they announced that they were
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: buying Trip and I wonder if he may have also thought,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: you know, I could see my future here. He's looking
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: into his crystal ball and he sees his future. They're
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: just gonna use me on those shows. They're gonna use
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: me as one of that core group of talents to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: try to break into that market. That's how they see me.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And I don't want to be a part of that.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I don't want that to define my run here. I
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: don't want that to define who I am. I'm better
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: than that. Would not at all be surprised if that's
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: how he honestly felt. And as I am recording this,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I am seeing here that John Albajis posted a new
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: update on the Sports Illustrated website, So I'll just read
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: to you from this here.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: This is just minutes old.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Multiple sources indicate to the takedown on SI that Andrade
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: had at least one wellness policy violation during his most
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: recent WWE run. It is not known how exactly he
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: was in violation of the policy, or whether or not
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: he in fact tested positive for a banned substance. It
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: is also not clear if it directly led to his release,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: but it was noted that he was suspended without pay
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: as a result of it. Initial reports noted that he
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: had not been backstage at SmackDown as of late and
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: was not listed on internal rosters. The takedown on SI
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: can add that he was told to leave a taping
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: last month and was escorted out of the building. A
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: high level source asserted this dismissal from the building was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: in relation to his most recent suspension and that it
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: affected major creative plans for his tag team with Ray Phoenix,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: which would go to what I mentioned before about them
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: being in line most likely for a tag team championship
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: shot body slams. Corey Hayes reported on Saturday Night that
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: WWE had tried to get in touch with Androde for
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: several weeks but had been unsuccessful. The takedown on SI
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: cannot confirm that this at this time, though the incident
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: at SmackDown was said to have occurred in the middle
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: of August. While sources indicated that there was at least
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: one wellness policy violation this year, this would not be
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: his first with the company. Ww announced in January of
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty that he was suspended for his first violation
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of the policy, which resulted in a thirty day suspension.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: He would leave WWE the following year jump ship to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: AW where he would perform until December of twenty twenty three. There,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: he also faced disciplinary action following a backstage incident with
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Sammy Gavara. He would return to WWE in twenty twenty four.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: It should be noted that WWE has not published any
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: potential wellness policy violations publicly since the TKO merger in
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. As a result, it is unknown how
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: many there have been, if there have been any outside
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of this at all, so that changes things a bit
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: as far as who to put the onus on here.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: If this is true, because if they were having disciplinary
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: issues with him, and there may well have been creative
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: frustrations as well, but if they were having disciplinary issues
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: with him again, if he disappeared on them, and if
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: he failed a wellness test. Now the first violation is
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: thirty days, so if this was his second, that would
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: be sixty days, most likely without pay. So I'd be
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: very interested to know the timeline of that when that
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: was being served, If it was in August, if that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: was earlier than that, that sounds like it would have
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: been last month. Then obviously that's not good and you
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: can't put that on the company if this guy is
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: failing tests and being suspended. You know, if they have
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: a policy in place and you violate that policy, then
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: you're going to get popped. That's the way it works.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: So it just it sounds to me like this was
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: just a combustible relationship in so many different ways, and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: we could get into, you know, as far as the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: creative aspect of this and where WWE may or may
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: not have dropped the ball, because in many ways they did.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: You know, he's been back for a while now, it's
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: not And if this stuff has happened relatively recently, it's
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: not as if they've taken full advantage of what they
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: had in him prior to this. I mean, if you
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: look at the run that Andrade has had in WWE
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: this second time around. Again, you know, as far as Andrade,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I talked a lot about him when he first came
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: back and how I thought it was a mistake to
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: not put a mouthpiece with him. The most successful run
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: that this man had in all the years he worked
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: for WWE, because he was in NXT for a number
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: of years before he ever got called up to the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: main roster, and on the main roster he held the
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: US title during that first run. That was basically the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: highlight of his run. But the highlight of his WWE
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: run overall was that run from NXT Black and Gold,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and they had him paired off with Zelena Vega, and
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: they made a great pairing and he had some tremendous matches.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: He was the NXT champion. He felt like a big
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: fish in a small pond. It was that kind of situation,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: but he was the top guy, and I think in
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: his head he probably envisioned something like that on the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: main roster, where eventually he would be the champion. He
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: would be the guy, because again, it was built around
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: him there for a while in NXT, and it was
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: a very successful run. It was a very successful pairing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know, for the life of me why they
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: did not attempt to recreate that on the main roster.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You had Zelena there, You could have done it with Zelena,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you could have had somebody else in that role. But
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: to just kind of send him out there and again
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: on the microphone. His verbal skills promos, it's not his
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: strong suit. He still struggles with that. That's a very
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: important quality in WWE. They put a great emphasis on that.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Look at all the people that are on top right now,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: by and large, By and large, right they're able to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: go out there and cut promos. There's a lot of
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: back and forth on the microphone. That's not his strong suit.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: That was why I said, pair him off with somebody,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: and they never did, and I think that was a
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: big mistake. So there's a lot of blame to go
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: around here. You could absolutely blame WWE for not doing
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: more with him, for not finding better ways to utilize
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: him on TV. Absolutely, But it goes both ways here.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: And if these stories are accurate, and you've got one
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: story saying he was UNREA for weeks. You know, if
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: your employer can't reach you, and then you know these
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: other stories about him failing a wellness test and being
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: escorted out of the building, and it's a disciplinary thing
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: ultimately that falls on the talent. You know, you can
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: talk about all the ways WWE should have done this
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and should have.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Done that and dropped the ball. It doesn't mean anything.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: If you have somebody who is having disciplinary issues behind
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the scenes and failing tests and getting suspended, that supersedes
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: everything else that falls on the talent.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: That doesn't fall on WWE. But this just.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Sounded like a toxic relationship that was not going to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: work out. You cannot be ghosting your employer. You cannot
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: be you know, failing tests or causing issues behind the scenes.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And that's actually a great point from earlier. I forgotten
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: about that backstage incident with him and Sammy Gavara and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: aw so, I mean it's not as if that there
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: haven't been some issues with him in the past. But yeah,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you can't be doing that stuff and expect the company
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: to under the rug or ignore it or push you
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: at a high level. If let's say he is unhappy
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: maybe with his spot on the show. All of these
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: things can be true. By the way, he could have
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: been creatively frustrated, but also be failing a test or
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: you know, having other problems that necessitated that the company
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: you know, send him home, Because I mean, everybody's got goals.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Everybody you know has an ego to an extent, some
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: more than others. You know, he obviously is very proud
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: of his work, as he should be, and he's a
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: tremendous wrestler. But this is all sounding more like an
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Andrade thing than anything else.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: And I'm not.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Sure that if he were to go back to AW
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: and Tony Kah welcomed him back with open arms, I'm
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: not sure why anybody would believe that things would end
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: up any differently than they did before. And if he
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: doesn't go back there, I don't know where else he
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: would go. You know, I don't know what his goals
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and aspirations are. I don't know, I don't know where
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: his head is at on this, So it'll be very
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: interesting to see if he comments on it and where
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: he does end up. The WWE's first ever Wrestle Palooza
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: is coming up this Saturday from the game Bridge Field
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: House in Indianapolis. It'll be the first pl to air
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: on the new ESPN Unlimited service, not on the main
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: ESPN linear network. At least as of now, it is
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: not set to air on the actual ESPN channel, although
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: future shows might at least part of them, with the
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: idea that for the last hour or two you would
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: then have to switch over to the app to watch
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the rest of it. They've got ten thousand tickets out
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: for the show so far, but they're not sold out.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: They've even cut the prices of the least expensive tickets
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: from two hundred and twenty two dollars per ticket to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety two dollars per ticket. Not a
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: huge decrease, but the fact that they're cutting prices at
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: all is very Unlike WWE IT shows, they're not moving
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: as quickly as they would have hoped. They're currently set
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: up for over twelve thousand according to wrestle Tics, in
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a building that fits more than seventeen thousand for basketball,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure they'll end up getting twelve or thirty
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: teen thousand one game day. And on the subject of
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: ticket prices, Mark Shapiro, the chief operating officer for TKO,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: made some news this week with his comments at the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: annual Goldman Sachs Communicopia and Technology Conference, saying the WWE
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: is not where the UFC is yet.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: On ticket yield. We have work to do there.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: He says, Yes, they don't believe ticket prices are high enough.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: They may be going even higher soon. He said, we
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: know we have a lot of room there because Vince
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn't totally
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: focused on maxing the opportunity there. Now that we've seen
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: what we can do with UFC, we're replicating that in
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: terms of ticket yield and holding back and advanced sales
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the WWE side, and it's working
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: out really well. I was not familiar with the term
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: ticket yield. It is a pricing strategy that takes into
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: account multiple factors that affect pricing and demand, and it's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: basically it's a measure of the average revenue generated per
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: ticket sold with the goal of selling all inventory for
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a given event at the right mix of prices. So basically,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: you divide the total income from ticket sales by the
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: number of tickets sold, and that gives you your ticket yield.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Shapiro has said previously that TKO sees tremendous upside in
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: increasing ticket prices, and an example that he used on
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Wednesday was UFC shattering previous records to become the highest
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: grossing event in the history of Chicago's United Center site.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Fees continue to be a key focus of TKO, which
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Shapiro's saying that they need to sell out their inventory
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of UFC numbered events in addition to wwepls before moving
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: on to UFC Fight Nights, WWE Raw and SmackDown events.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: He said they are talking to Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, London, Paris,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: and that there are no shortage of countries that want
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: to see them bring their show to town. He said
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: that they will continue to maximum those opportunities with both
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: in kind deals, goods, and services, but that the most
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: important to me, he says, is cash, cash kills. He
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: also had a warning of sorts for places that are
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: successful when WWE or UFC come to town, especially for
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the smaller events. Using UFC Fight Nights as an example,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: he said, if we have a Saint Louis going up
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: against the Des Moines, Iowa, and you want us back there,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: and you've broken records and sold out both your arenas.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: You have to pay for us to come back, or
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: else we'll take it to another town. And that goes
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: for nxt raw and SmackDown on the WWE side. You know,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: it's not often that someone says, Vince McMahon, the man
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: who stomped out countless territories when he was expanding nationally,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: wasn't ruthless enough when it comes to business. According to Shapiro,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Vince wasn't pricing his tickets high enough because he wanted
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to keep it affordable for families. And that might be true,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: but also keep in mind wwea not doing the kind
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: of business that they're doing now. Three or four years ago,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: when Vince was still in charge, they were doing well,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: but they weren't doing this well. Given the chance to
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: charge more, if the demand was there, I don't think
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: he would have hesitated to raise prices at least a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: little bit. I don't think he would have lowered them,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: but I do think that he probably would have been
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: more cautious about pricing people out of coming to a
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: WWE event. TKO doesn't care about that. All they care
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: about is maximizing the hear and now what they are
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: doing is they are pricing out a generation of fans
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: who are simply going to stop going to the shows,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: or they won't ever start going to the shows right
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: when they otherwise might have because the cost of attending
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: these shows is too prohibitive for them. And I've talked
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: about this in the past. You know, for all the
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: fans who have fallen off or are going to fall
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: off as a result, or maybe they'll watch, but they
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: simply won't pay for tickets anymore because they either just
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: can't or they just can't justify some of these prices.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I'm very curious in the next five years, three to
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: five years, how different, if at all, the WWE audience looks.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I think their audience, just in terms of who is
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: paying to come to these shows and what kind of
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: fans they are, is radically going to change. I think
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the fan base is going to look different if they
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: continue down this path. And maybe for them that's a
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: good thing, but I think it's just whether you think
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: it's a good thing or a bad thing is a
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: subjective thing. But I think it's going to be very different.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a bad thing, but
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: obviously for their bottom line they feel differently.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: But there is a risk.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: That the more they play around with these prices, you're
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: going to take it one step too far and you
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: are going to chase away a lot of fans. They
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: obviously haven't reached that point yet. They're still selling a
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: ton of tickets. But the dam is going to burst
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: at some point, and when it does, the ones on
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the hot seat are not going to be Ari Emmanuel
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and Mark Shapiro. It's going to be people like Paul
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Leveck and Bruce Pritchard. I wouldn't even say Nick. I
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: think it'll be the ones who were sitting at the gorilla.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Position every week.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Those are gonna be the first heads to roll. Because
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: if you're Triple H, you know, people talk about how
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: WWE is overdoing it on the moments and the return pops.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: It's just about the returns. Right this year especially, it
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: really is all about the moments. Now, well, eventually you
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: burn through all of those moments and there's no one
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: left to trot out there. But it makes sense why
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Triple H would be doing it so much, because it works,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and because he's probably under a lot of pressure to
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: keep delivering on those moments and keep those buildings packed.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: You know, But when the car starts to slowly roll
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: back down the mountain in reverse and you run out
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: of big moments, what happens then? Right, he must feel
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: like he's under the gun in a way that he
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: never was before, because this is no longer a family business.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: This is a TKO business, and the minute business begins
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to falter, he's gonna find himself on the hot seat
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: as the one responsible for turning things around because he's
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the chief content officer. I don't know that they see
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: him as indispensable and the way that they see Dana
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: White as being indispensable for the UFC. Dana White and
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: UFC are synonymous. They are one and the same in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the way that Vince McMahon was always one and the
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: same with WWE, and he still would be one and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the same with WWE. He would still be running WWE
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: if he wasn't such a sliine ball. But Dana White
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: is clearly who he is trying to model himself after.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: He's trying to be to WWE what Dana White is
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: to the UFC. That's why he's front and center all
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the time on these big shows and on WWE Unreal
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: and he just did Tony Hinchclip's show, Kill Tony. You know,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: he's really putting himself out there. The more he does
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, the more he sort of becomes one
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: with the company. But you talk about ruthless, these people
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: are ruthless. And Triple H is not Vince McMahon. The
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: minute he slips up, the wolves are gonna circle. I'm
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: not saying it's gonna to be an instant thing, and
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I don't even know who you would replace him with,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: but there's always a scapego Remember that this bubble is
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: bound to burst at some point, and when it does,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: he'd better watch out. But when you listen to these
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: TKO people, one thing that is very clear to me,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and this is true of WWE in general, is that
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: they take their audience for granted.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: They do.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: They take the fans for granted. And when you take
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the fans for granted, and you think that they'll always
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: be there no matter what, you end up pushing too
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: hard and suddenly a lot of them won't be there
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: anymore in the way that you thought they would be.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: At that same conference, Shapiro also said they hope Wrestle
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Palooza is an annual, recurring franchise for the company and
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: one that is both on par with two of their
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: notable annual ples and becomes part of their Big four
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: events of.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: The WWE year.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: He said, Hopefully Wrestle Palooza is a winner and we
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: can bring that back annually. That could be a marketing
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: bonanza for us if we do that right, adding that
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Paulovec is spending day and night creatively making what we
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: think it can be another wrestle Mania or another Summer Slam.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: He said, the Royal Rumble is just below that level
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: and they feel wressel Palooza could be in that quadrant.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: So all the people making fun of the wrestle Poloza name,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: it ain't going nowhere. Today's episode is sponsored by Betterhelp.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: This is the perfect time for me to be talking
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: about this because we just had the return of aj
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Lee in WWE, and she was in the ring on
• 38:31
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• 40:28
  Speaker 1: As for the Wrestle Palooza card itself, We've got five
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: matches official so far, with one raw and one SmackDown
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: left to go as I am recording this, so they
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: may add one more. This being a big show for
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: them and all. I thought maybe aj Styles challenging Dominic
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Mysterio for the Intercontinental title might be a possibility, depending
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: on what happened at the end of World's Collide. There
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: was no indication of that happening. I did see the
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: End of Worlds Collide. I have not had a chance
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: to watch anything more than that from that show given
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: everything that's been going on this weekend that I mentioned earlier,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: But we'll see again. We'll see if they add one
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: more match. I think a six match card sounds about right.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: But we have the USSOS taking on Bronson Reid and
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: bron Breaker. This will be the first match that the
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: USSOS have had together as a tag team since March
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: against Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. That was the night
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: that they advertised that Jay was going to have a
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: mystery partner, which just ended up being his brother. I
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: don't know why they didn't just advertise and usso's reunion
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: in advance if that's what they were going to do,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: but they're doing it now and Jay has been at
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: war with La Knight. The two of them just do
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: not get along. Night actually came to their aid at
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the show on Monday, but then at
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the end Jay speared him the ungrateful prick that he is,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: and now that he's made an enemy out of La Knight,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: I think there's a good chance that he gets involved
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: here and factors into this finish, which then leads to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a win for the Vision Breaker. And Reed lost at Summerslim,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: they should not be losing here too, although if he does,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: you know, if he does get involved between Jay attacking
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Night on Monday and getting some booze and that if
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Night cost the USOS the win here, that gives the
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: win to Seth's crew, which is not going to make
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: the fans happy. Both these guys are going to come
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: out of this less over with the crowd than they
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: were before, So I don't know that that's very helpful,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: But that's where I think this is headed. Eosky and
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Stephanie Vicerre they meet one on one to crown a
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: brand new women's world champion. The title has been vacant
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: for a month now. It's been longer than that since
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Stephanie had stepped into the ring. She has been a
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: ghost on these shows really ever since she won that
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Battle Royal at Evolution. She only wrestled three times on
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: TV after that, nothing for the entire month of August.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: All of that was in July that Dave Meltzer reported
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: that the reason for her absence is that she was
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: out dealing with a minor injury. But in an Inner
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: You with Adrian Hernandez this week, she said that she
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: sees things on social media sometimes that aren't real. No injuries.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: I'm ready for raw next Monday, So no, no injuries.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: She didn't exactly deny that she was dealing with an
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: injury before, only that right now there is no injury
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: and she is ready to go. Clearly she's ready to
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: go because she's wrestling on NXT this Tuesday. I'll get
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: to that in a little bit. But she missed the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: contract signing segment last Monday. There was supposed to be
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: a contract signing with her at EO. Adam Pierce told
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: EO that it was canceled because Stephanie was unavailable. Was
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: it a case where she was unavailable because they decided
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: to do one tomorrow for another match on the pl E.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll find out tomorrow. But she's good
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: to go now. That's all that matters this right here,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: this could be the sleeper match of the night. In
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: this match, we all win. That's how I look at it.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: But I think EO Sky should win the title back.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: I think she will win the championship back. Stephanie has
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: just missed too much time, you know. Whatever the reason was,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: they have not been able to adequately build her up
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: for this moment when she wins the championship. At some
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: point she should be more established, and I think to
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: throw it on her here would be a mistake. Now,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: the wild card here is Osca, who has been beefing
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: with anybody who even comes near EO, including Rhea Ripley,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: including Nikki Bella, and Oscar says that she will be
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: in EO's corner or she's gonna watch her back in
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: some way for this match, even though EO has said
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I don't want your help. I don't need your help.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: If Osca is out there or Osca comes out there,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: this could tilt either way. As far as the outcome,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: this could tilt either way. It all depends on what
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: they want coming out of the show. Do they want
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Oscar to accidentally cost EO the title? I mean that
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: would really give them a reason to feud. Or do
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: they want Osca to help EO even though EO said
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: I don't want your help. I could do this on
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: my own, and they use Osca's interference as an out
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Stephanie when she loses. That's what I think they're gonna do,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: and EO Sky will be the next Women's World Champion
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: c Im Punk and aj Lee against Seth Rollins and
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Becky Lynch. How do you continue the Punk and Rollins
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: feud without doing another singles match? How do you keep
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: it fresh? You call in the wives. That's what they've done.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Aj Lee's return on SmackDown was one of the last
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: big return moments that WWE has left, certainly on the
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: women's side. It was a big deal. And then she
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: returned to Raw for the first time in ten years
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: last Monday. She had the Intercontinental title with her that
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: she stole from Becky the previous Friday. Becky wanted it back,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Seth tried to get it back for her. Punk came
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: out and this all led to aj offering to give
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: it back if they agreed to this mixtag team match
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: at Wressel Palooza, and so here we are tomorrow night.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: They're doing one last face to face with all four
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: of them in the ring. This is one of the
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: two big attractions for this show. One of the main
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: selling points is aj Lee's first match in over ten years,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: and I think she wins her first match back by
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: pinning Becky Lynch. That's how you keep the Punkin Rollin stuff.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Alive for another match eventually. And also how you get
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: to AJ challenging Becky for the Intercontinental title at Crown
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Jewel next month, because if she pins the champion here,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: then she should be next in line.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: For a title shot. That's how it should always work.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: So I say the Vision gets the win over the USOS,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: but they lose this one. You know, after Punk got
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: cash in on at SummerSlam, this should be his revenge.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: It's time now for him to come back and get
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: one over on Seth, even if it's his wife who
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: does it ultimately. But it's smart too because as someone
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: that hasn't wrestled in a decade, AJ in a tag
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: match means that she doesn't have to work the entire match.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: They can build, you know, to her spots. I'm looking
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: forward to this one. I think it just it makes
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the dynamic a lot more interesting than it would be
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: if it was just another Seth in Punk match. I'm
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: curious what AJ is going to look like in the ring.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Becky's had some really good matches this year. I think
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: this has the potential to be an excellent match. I
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: am looking forward to this, but I have Cimpunk and
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: aj Lee going Over. Cody Rhodes is back. He's defending
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: his WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre. As expected, Cody came
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: back at the end of SmackDown on Friday. After Drew
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: beat Randy Orton, Cody said he would see McIntyre at
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Wressell Palooza. The only question now is do we see
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Randy Orton involved here in some way, shape or form.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Does he play some kind of role in the finish
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: of this match. You know, Cody won the title back
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: from John Cena at Summerslim. This is his first title
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: defense and it's only his second match since Summerslim. He's
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: coming off a month long absence. I'm not opposed to
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: shaking and doing a title change here, but I just
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: don't think that's realistic. I don't see WWE doing that.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say Cody Rhods retains. Maybe they do
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the finish in a way they should do the Actually,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: they should do the finish in a way that Larrence
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: a rematch at Crown Jewel and they run it back
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: one more time. So maybe Cody doesn't win, but maybe
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Drew doesn't win either. They could also do some sort
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: of a no contest type finish, which I think they
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: could get away with because this match is not closing
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: the show. Normally, the WWEE Championship match would be the
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: main event. That is not going to be the case
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: on this show, so they could get away with some
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: sort of non finish if they wanted to then build
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: to a rematch a Crown Jewel because Drew McIntyre as
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: number one contender should not be a one and done.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: You have to extend this to at least one more match.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: But I just don't see Cody Rhods losing here. And
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: in what has been confirmed as the main event of
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: the show, John Cena goes one on one for the
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: fire time with one of his greatest rivals, Brock Lesner.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: They brought Brock back at SummerSlam to randomly attack Sena,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: which he did again last week. He gave him two
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: more at Five's on Friday, there was no John Cena,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: but Brock showed up again looking for Sina. You know,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Brock really is one of those Neanderthal caveman types, because
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: if he was smart, he'd have known that Sina said
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: on SmackDown last week, which by the way, Brock was
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: there too. If he had paid attention to what John
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Cena had to say. Sina was very clear when he
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: said that was his final SmackDown. So without Sena there,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Brock came out and instead he did comedy with our Truth,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: and then he split his pants at the end of
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: the segment, and then he danced a little Irish jig
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and he slapped hands with the fans on his way
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: out while he was laughing. This is how they chose
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: to build their big main event on ESPN. Now it's
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: John Cena against Brock. Lesner get that they don't feel
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: like they have to offer any explanation as to why
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Brock attack them. Scene is going to be on Raw
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: tomorrow night. Maybe he can deliver a home run go
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: home promo to really sell this on his own.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: It's just lazy, you know.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: I miss the days where when they would build to
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: a big main event on a pay per view, you
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: would actually see the wrestlers on the show every week
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: building to that main event in a fun way. You
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: don't get that with these part time players, and that's
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: also a big part of why these weekly shows are
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: so dull most of the time. Now, the match itself,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: I liken it to their extreme Rules match in twenty twelve,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: where I think it's going to be a spectacle more
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: than anything else. Sena is coming off two banger matches
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: in the month of August, one against Cody and the
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: other against Logan Paul. The history with him and Brock
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: dates all the way back to that OVW class of
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two. You know, they're very familiar.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: With each other.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: A lot of history there, not all of it great.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Lesner and Sena did not get along back in those
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: early days. That was more so from the Lesnar side.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: He did not like John Cena. He even went so
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: far as to bad mouthed him to Vince McMahon. So
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: there's history there, you know. I used to do a
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: segment on the show called match Anatomy many years ago,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: and I did one on their Backlash match from two
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: thousand and three. It's on episode two fourteen if you
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: ever want to go back and check that out. They've
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: had many matches over the years. That was their first
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: really big match, but this being their last dance together,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to go out there and lay
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: it all on the line, whatever they've got, whatever they've
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: got left in them. I think we'll see it here
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: and in the end, Brock Lesner is going to win.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: With Brock, you never know what you're gonna get. You
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: could get an epic battle or you could get a
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: very boring one. You know, those matches with Bobby Lashley
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: were very disappointing, but his last match with Roman Reigns
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: was one of their best. And his very last match,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: which was a Cody, was great. I think this one
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: will be closer to that. By the way, with the
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: announcement that Sina will only be appearing on Raw from
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: here on out, it got me thinking about just how
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: loaded up that Raw roster is right now. Just look
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: at this, like, this is what Raw has right now.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: John Cena. No, granted, John Cena only has limited dates left.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: If he even wrestles a match on Raw, maybe he
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: wrestles one. It's not like he's a full time member.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: But he is now a Raw guy for the rest
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: of the year. So you got John Cena, Roman, Rains,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: cm Punk, aj Lee Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Eo Sky Rhea, Ripley,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Live Morgan when she gets back, Stephanie Vquire Gunther, the
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: usso's La Knight bron Breaker, who is like looked at
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: as the heir apparent and aj styles are all on
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Monday Night Raw. There is a serious imbalance right now
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: between the two rosters, and I didn't mention guys like
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Seamus Russev Ilya Dragonov, who is said to be ready
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: to come back. They're just trying to come up with
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: a way to reintroduce him and Perbodyslam dot Net. One
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: idea they've been discussing internally is a program between Dragonov
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: and Russev as a way to bring him back to TV.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: Sign me up. I think those could be some fun matches. Anyway.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: I'll be watching Wrestle paloues A live and covering it
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: live on YouTube Saturday night, so join me there. I
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: mentioned Stephanie Vekera is gonna be wrestling on NXT this Tuesday.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: She's not the only NXT alum wrestling on that show. NXT,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: for those who don't know, is presenting its homecoming show
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: from Full Sale University this week. I do miss those
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Full Sale days. It was like the closest thing to
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: a modern day version of Superstars. It really was like
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: forty eight minutes in and out. You know, it could
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: be a mix of good and bad, but I was
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: most entertained, so those were good times. Carmelo Hayes made
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: a surprise appearance this week, backing up Trick Williams against DIY,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: but also making it very clear the two of them
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: are not friends again, so the two of them are
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: going to reunite for a match with DIY this Tuesday.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Then later, after Tavion Hides beat Ethan Page in a
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: flag match, Tyler Breese made an appearance, coming out to
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: his old music and wearing his old outfit, the furry
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: boots and everything. He just looked like he had stepped
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: out of a time portal from twenty fifteen and right
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: down to the selfie stick. He laid down in the
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: ring next to the Page and took selfies, which sets
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: up a North American title match between the two of
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: them this Tuesday. Went away by the way to set
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: up a title match.
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: I was appalled by the lack of reaction for Tyler Breese,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: just an appalling lack of respect in the PC for
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: this man. I was a big Tyler Brees mark when
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: he debuted that gimmick and then he got called up
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: to the main roster and that was it. That was
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: all she wrote, they killed him dead. Then at the
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: end of the show, Jace Jane was upset with Fallon
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: Henley and Jasmine Nicks for failing to become number one
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: contenders for the women's tag team titles, and she was
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: berating the two of them until Stephanie Vicaierre came out,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: then Tiffany Stratton, and then Rhea Ripley after Jace had
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: declared herself the greatest NXT Women's champion of all time. Yeah,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: it's a good thing that three former NXT Women's champions
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: just so happened to pull up in cars outside the
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: building at the same time.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: You know that she said this. It's amazing.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: So all three women hit the ring to take out
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Fatal Influence to close out the show, and that match
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: has been made. It will be Fatal Influence against Ripley, Stratton,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: and Vicaire at full Sale. It'll be a fatal funeral
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: at full Sale for jac and her team. Beyond those
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: three matches, they're also doing Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: against Tatum Paxley and Izzy Dame for the women's tag
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: team time and a Grayson Waller Affects segment with Obafemi
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: and Ricky Saints, and they're also teasing more old names
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: may be appearing, maybe a Bobby Rude, William Regal. I
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: think they show Triple H in the commercial. Not a
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: lot of storyline progression with these matches, but it looks
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: like it's meant to be more of an anniversary show
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: than anything else. Now, I got some news here on
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: a WWE Hall of Famer in one Jerry the King Lawler.
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: This comes per TMZ Sports.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: On Thursday, Jerry the King Lawler was forced to pull
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: out of a scheduled appearance after suffering a stroke, but
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: the good news is that he is already on the
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: road to recovery. According to TMZ Sports, Jerry's daughter tells
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: us that he experienced the medical issue in Florida last
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Friday at one of his homes. He says his daughter
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: is taking him back to his primary residence where he
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: will rest up for a few more weeks before getting
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: back to normal. Lawler was set to appear at Horror
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Hound Weekend in Cincinnati starting on Friday, but organizers announced
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Monday that he would not be attending due to some
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: personal matters. Now, there was a subsequent story from the
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: Fox affiliate in Memphis that he suffered a minor stroke
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: at his Florida condo that affected his right side. So
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: his last stroke affected his left side. This one affected
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: his right side and impacted his vision slightly, although he
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: is able to walk and talk, according to his caretaker,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: and he has since been released from the hospital and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: is convalescing at his home in Memphis. That stroke in
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three was much much worse. I mean, that
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: was a massive stroke that he had, but it also
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't his first. That came in twenty eighteen. This week
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: was actually the thirteen year anniversary of what the TMZ
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: story called his heart attack during an episode of Raw
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: back in twenty twelve, where he basically died for twenty minutes. Technically,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a heart attack. Everyone always says that it was.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: I've said that in the past two But what it
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: was was his heart just stopped beating. Call it a
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: cardiac episode, but it wasn't actually a heart attack. And
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: he also got hit with a twenty thousand dollars hospital
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: bill for that. I remember Lawler complaining about that in
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: an interview once because they were in Canada. He thought
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: Canadian healthcare was supposed to be free. What a crock
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: of shit. It's like, yeah, well it may be if
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: you're a Canadian citizen who pays taxes. There you're not
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: a Canadian citizen, Jerry, no free ride for you. Actually,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: he did get a free ride since WWE paid the bill.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: So anyway, that's his third stroke in seven years. That's
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: not good. But you know, he's also seventy five years old.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: He has obviously a history of health issues, and unfortunately
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: stuff like that is going to happen for a guy
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: who had the gift of gab and spent so much
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: of his career running his mouth and using his words,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: and that's how he made money. You know, that last
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: stroke really did a lot of damage. He was unbusted
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: open Radio in June and you could tell the toll
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: that the stroke had on him. He was struggling to
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: remember people's names that he shared the ring with. At
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: one point he said, oh my gosh, I just can't
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: think of their names. You know, one of them is
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: one of the top heels or baby faces right now,
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: and Mark Henry had to help him, you know, find
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: the name, which was CM Punk and he said, yes, yes,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: it was CM Punk and then he was talking about
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: his past rivals and couldn't remember Terry Funk's name, and
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Bully Ray said, that must have been one hell of
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: a stroke if you can't remember Terry Funk's name, And
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Lawler said, it's true. I can't remember, like I know
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: his name, I just can't bring it up.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: Stroke strokes are very scary. They can hit you at
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: any age, but the older you are the worst. These
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: things are going to be switching over to the aew side.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: This comes from the New York Times, although it was
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal that broke the story. That's behind
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: a paywall, though, so this the Times version. David Ellison,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: the media mogul who took over Paramount just last month,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: has already set his sights on another blockbuster deal. He
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: wants to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Mister Ellison is planning
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: a bid for the company which owns HBO, CNN, and
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: the Warner Brothers Movie Studio. According to three people with
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the plans, a merger of the two Hollywood
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: giants would reshape the media industry, putting some of the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: most renowned news and entertainment brands under the same roof.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: It would unite two of the biggest movie studios and
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: two of the most influential news networks, CBS News and CNN.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery is already reorganizing its media business. The
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: company said this here that it would split its cable
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: networks rather from its streaming and studio business, following a
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: similar move at Comcast. Mister Ellison is interested in acquiring
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: the entire company, in line with his strategy of doubling
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: down on both streaming and traditional TV. The people would
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: not doledge of the plan said the bid would be
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: made mostly in cash. A deal to acquire Warner Brothers
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Discovery would be costly. The company is worth forty one
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: billion dollars and has thirty five billion in debt, remnants
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty two merger that brought it to life.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: But the Ellison family has the means. His father, Larry,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: is co founder of Oracle and one of the richest
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: men in the world, with an estimated net worth of
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: three hundred eighty three billion dollars. Mister Ellison has moved
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: quickly to transform paramount. To succeed, he will need to
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: persuade the board of Warner Brothers Discovery and its shareholders
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: that they are better off selling the company now than
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: waiting for its prospects to improve once it is separated
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: into two companies. News of the potential bids sent Warner
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Brothers Discovery's stock soaring twenty seven percent on Thursday. Once
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: the split is completed next spring, the company that includes
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: the screaming and studio business, to be called Warner Brothers
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: could be entice to a wide variety of bidders that
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: includes tech companies like Amazon and Apple that are trying
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: to expand their own entertainment businesses. Indeed, some people in
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: Hollywood say the goal of splitting up WBD is to
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: set up a bidding war. So what does this mean
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: for AEW Any shakeup like this could have major consequences
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: for their future on cable TV. You've got UFC content
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: coming to Paramount. They made that ridiculous seven billion dollar deal,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: almost eight billion dollar deal, and then AAW obviously is
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: tied to Warner Brothers Discovery. I wouldn't think that it
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: would affect their current deal, but it could absolutely affect
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: a possible renewal if Paramount is in bed with TKO,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: which obviously they are I literally just answered a question
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: about this in the mailbag what two or three episodes
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: ago about Paramount possibly buying Warner Brothers Discovery, And at
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: the time it was just a rumor that was floating around,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: and I said, I didn't think it would happen right now. Now,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe in a few years, but not right now.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: And it looks like Allison is serious about doing this asap,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: and I could see why he would be. I mean,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: like I said, then if you combine their streaming subscribers,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: it would make them the number two streaming service in
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: the world, only behind Netflix. I think aw is safe
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: for now unless the bottom really were to fall out,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: or a Warner or in this case, Paramount, if you
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: know they owned, it felt like they were no longer
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: getting a return on their investment, you know, and they
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: clearly don't feel that way right now. For all the
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: noise on social media that says otherwise, they clearly don't
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: feel that way right now. If they have certain performance
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: benchmarks that they're no longer meeting, then they're going to
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: be in trouble regardless of who the owners are. You know,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the relationships that Tony Kahan has on the WBD side.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Those may help him, but only to a point. You know,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: I think their current deal is safe, but it's twenty
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: twenty seven when they have to worry, and that's so
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: far off it's kind of pointless to even be thinking
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: about it right now. What's happening a lot sooner is
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery is splitting into two, right That is
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: what was mentioned in the article. That's supposed to be
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: taking place in April. Now, if this were to go through,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: maybe that ends up not happening, but as of right now,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: the company is supposed to split in April of twenty
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: twenty six, and there's talk of a new TNT sports
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: subscription service because we don't have enough of those, and
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: then moving sports off of HBO Max and putting it
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: on there. AW is said to be of the impression
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: that the deal they signed was specifically for the product
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: to be on HBO Max and that would be through
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: at least the end of twenty twenty seven. So even
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: when the company, or when and if the company splits
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: into two, it should not have any negative effect on AW.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: But you're talking about splitting a gigantic media conglomerate into
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: two parts, like if there are any changes in leadership
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: between now and then, meaning the people who help craft
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the aw deal are suddenly no longer the ones in charge.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: That could be very bad, but right now there's no
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: indication of that happening, by the way. David Zaslov, the
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: head of Warner Brothers Discovery, in an interview with a
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: Hollywood reporter, said HBO Max is expected to reach at
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: least one hundred and fifty million homes worldwide next year,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: and that because of the high quality of the company's films,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: TV and streaming content, HBO Max plans to raise its
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: subscription prices over time. He says the service is currently
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: way underpriced and that price increases will be gradual. Get
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: ready for more price increases yay. Today's episode is sponsored
• 1:05:51
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• 1:05:54
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• 1:06:57
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• 1:07:01
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• 1:07:03
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• 1:07:07
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• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: We got an update on Wardlow, and it's not good
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: Wardlow who just came back to aw after a year
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: and a half away healing from injuries and he was
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: filming American Gladiators. So now he finally comes back at
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: Forbidden Door, he joins the don Kallis family. He attacks
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: Swerve Strickland I Prince Nana, and in so doing he
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: hurts himself, Wardlow is injured. He is officially part of
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: this unlucky triad of what I like to call Wardlow,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Adam Cole, and Jay White, three men that have been
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: besieged by just injuries at the worst possible time in
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: their career and just seem to have the absolute worst
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: luck in the world. Probably none more so than Adam Cole,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: because for him it may be career ending, but they are.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: They are a faction together that I don't think anybody
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: wants to join. Fightful Select reported that sources within AAW
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: are worried the former three time TNT champion may have
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: suffered a torn peck, potentially putting him out of action
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: for some time. The report states that he may have
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: sustained the injury during his return angle at Forbidden Door,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: where he attacks were of Strickland and aligned with the
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: Kallus family, although that isn't confirmed. Again, this is the
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: original report from earlier this week. Wardlow had just finished
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: filming two seasons of American Gladiators at the time of
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: his return. Filming took place in France this summer, and
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: the show will air on Amazon Prime with no release
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: date yet announced. Wardlow has not wrestled since the March thirteenth,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four episode of Dynamite, if you remember, that
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: was their Big Business episode in Boston, where he lost
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: to Samoa Joe in a match for the AW World Championship. Later,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: in another report from Fightful Select, they revealed a big
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: change to what the original plan was for the AW
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: World title match at All Out. They reported that Wardlow
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: was originally going to challenge Hangman Page, not Kyle Fletcher. However,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: that had to change after Wardlow tore his pectoral muscle
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: at Forbidden Door while delivering a clothesline. He did make
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: an appearance at the subsequent Dynamite after Forbidden Door, but
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: has not been seen since. Yeah, he made an appearance
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: as a stick figure in the background. Basically, I don't
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: know why Tony Kahan thought that it would be a
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: good idea to have Wardlow's first match, or or first
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: big match anyway in eighteen months beat for the World Championship,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: especially when the last match he wrestled eighteen months ago
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: that he lost was for the World Championship. I don't
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: really understand that, but it doesn't matter anyway, because now
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: it's not happening. If this guy didn't have bad luck,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: he would have no luck at all. I don't know
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: what else to say. Obviously, I wish him the best.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: I hope that the tear is maybe not as severe
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: as it sounds like it is, because if it's a
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: you know, peck tear, if it's bad enough, I mean,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: that's six to nine months right there. Doesn't mean that
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: he can't be back on TV earlier than that, but
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: he won't be able to get physical, So I don't
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: really see the point in trotting him back on TV
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: until he's ready. So that's another long layoff in you know,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: a list of long layoffs, whether it was for injury
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: issues or or you know, booking issues. There's certainly been
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: some booking missteps with him over the years, but injuries
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: have also played a role. It's just been one thing
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: after another, you know, And I feel bad for the guy,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: But I think we've reached a point now where while
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: I hope he can come back and he can be
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: a productive player for them on the roster, I don't
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: really see him ever being at that level that I
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people thought he could one day
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: be at. I don't see that happening now. Enough time
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: has gone by and there's been so many issues, and
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: you know, then it becomes an issue of you know,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: can you trust him in that spot or something else
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: gonna happen.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't really.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: I can't sit here and tell you that I see
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: Wardlow being that big player for them that I thought
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: he would be. Hopefully I'm wrong. I just hope he
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: can come back and just have a productive career. At
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: this point, I don't really have any other expectations for him.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: I hope he gets well soon.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about this All Out card coming up from
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Toronto next Saturday. By the way, the Dynamite numbers rebounded
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: this week from four hundred and seventy two thousand last
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: week up to five hundred and eighty four thousand this week,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: still tied for the third lowest total.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: Since May, but it's an improvement.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: Now here's the card as it currently stands for All Out,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: brody King and Bandido. It will be defending the aw
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: tag team titles in a four way ladder match. Why
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: because why not? They're holding three qualifying matches for the
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: other spots this Wednesday, with the Young Bucks against Juice
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: Robinson and Austin Gunn. That'll be a win for the Bucks.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: Lucasaurus and he keep saving against jet Speed, which should
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: be a win for jet Speed, and top Flight takes
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: on Josh Alexander and Hetchesero representing the don Kallis family
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: and they will almost assuredly be winning that match. So Brodido,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: the Bucks, jet Speed and the Callous Family looks to
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: be it. And I've got the Young Bucks winning the
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: tag team titles, and I think from there, I think
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: we get Cope and Christian eventually when they do win
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: the titles, and they will, they win them from the
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: Young Bucks. Eddie Kingston is coming back. He returns one
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: on one against Big Bill. Eddie has not wrestled since
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: May of last year against Gabe Kid. That was where
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: he broke his leg. He tore his acl he tore
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: his meniscus. I mean his leg and his knee basically
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: were just destroyed. He also revealed this week that the
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: day of the surgery, his insurance company, which had told
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: him they would cover it, all of a sudden the
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: day of they said, you know what, We're not going
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: to cover it, which is a wonderful thing to say
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: to somebody On the day of their surgery, when they're
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: already stressed beyond belief. Not the first time they did
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: that to him on the day of a surgery, he said.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: It happened three years ago, the day he was supposed
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: to have hernia surgery. But Tony Kahn stepped in this
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: time to take care of it, even though he got hurt.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: You know, technically in a New Japan ring and not
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: in aw ring. How many people does this happen to
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis who aren't lucky enough to have
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: a billionaire step in to pay for it. The healthcare
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: system in this country is infuriating. The setup for this
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: match wasn't infuriating. It was just a very random way
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: to get Eddie back in the mix. It's a way
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: to get him back and get him a win. You know,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: Big Bill randomly called him out last week on Collision
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: as a fellow New York guy, and that was it.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: That's how we ended up here.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: But then again, you know, look, many years ago, a
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: young man named stone Cold Steve Austin started randomly calling
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: out Brett Hart on television when Brett had been gone
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: for months and months, and they ended up having a
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: classic rivalry I don't think Eddie Kingston and Big Bill
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: are going to have a classic rivalry, but I do
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: think Eddie Kingston is going to get the win here too.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: I think that that's probably the easiest prediction to make
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: on this entire show. Actually, no, the second easiest prediction
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: to make on the entire show, because we also have
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: Mercedes Monet defending her TBS Championship against ReHO, who did
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: not look great in that tag match on Wednesday. It
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: was her first match back since July of last year.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: Riho is wrestling Robin Renegade on the September to Remember
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: episode of Dynamite this Wednesday, which is actually a three
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: hour block from eight to eleven PM. Years ago, Mercedes
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: said that she would love to form a faction with
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: the Renegade Twins, and here we have one of the
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: twins wrestling Riho. Maybe this is the start of that faction.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: Faction or no faction. Sydney Sweeney has a better chance
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: of beating Mercedes for that belt than Rijo does, so
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: more than Eddie Kingston and Big Bill. I think the
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: easiest prediction to make here on this card is that
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: Mercedes is going to retain her TBS title. The Hurt Syndicate,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin and MVP take on Ricochet and
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: the Gates of Agony. You know, there were reports previously
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: about MVP and the Hurt Syndicate not wanting to lose
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the tag team titles to FTR, and there were certain
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: names floated that they would be willing to lose to,
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: and the Gates of Agony were on that alleged list. Well,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: time to put your money where your mouth is and
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: this is a big opportunity for the Hurt Syndicate to
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: put these guys over in a major way. So let's
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: see what happens. I'm going with Ricochet in the Gates
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: of Agony for the win. Here, MJF takes on Mark
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: brisco In. What Briscoe said last night on Collision is
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: going to be a tables and thumb tax match. Tables
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: and tax. There's something we haven't seen before in eight boy,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen one of those in a while. MJF
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: is defending his CMLL title this Friday at Arena Mexico
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: against Mystico. He will lose that championship and then the
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: next night he will or the next day, I guess
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: he will redeem himself here MJF will beat Mark Briscoe.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: I forgot to mention that this is now a three
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: pm Eastern show, so I assume that means that the
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: Zero Hour is starting either at one or one thirty.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: But it went from an eight pm Eastern start time
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: to a three pm Eastern start time for all the
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: obvious reasons. FTR takes on Adam Copeland and Christian Cage.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: This is a match that has been on the radar
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: and I think fairly predictable now for many months that
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: it was building to this. The build has been very weird,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: no more so than on Wednesday. Cope and Christian were
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: not on the show. They had to pull Apart Brawl
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: the previous week, which was fine, you know, standard stuff.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: They weren't there on the show on Wednesday, FTR was.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: They came out with stokely hath theway. It was their
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: last night on as far as Dynamite goes at the
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: twenty three hundred Arena. They wrapped up their residency with
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: their taping the next night. But they came out and
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: the segments serve no real purpose other than just to
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: try to make them look like tough guys and put
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: heat on them by trying to pick a fight with
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: the fans, like they thought that they were transported back
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: to the ECW Arena of old in nineteen ninety seven
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: and they were the Dudley Boys, except they're not the
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: Dudley Boys in the ECW Arena in nineteen ninety seven.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: But there you had Das getting up in you know,
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: fans faces, and they're trying to start something. Then they
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: ended up beating up the cameramen and his assistant and
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, he's beating up production crew members. I
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: don't know how this is supposed to put more heat
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: on their match with cop and Christian. This was just
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: a very bizarre segment here. I don't know what the
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: hell that was. So they got one more night on
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: Dynamite tomorrow. I think they're having a face to face
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: and let them go out there and cut promos on
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: it each other. That's really all you can do at
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: this point. The match itself should be very good, and
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: I see no reason for Copeland and Christian to lose here,
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: So I have them going over on FTR for the win,
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: and then inevitably it all comes down to just what
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: event he wants to do it at but they will
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: win those tag team titles, and I think it'll be
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: from the bucks. I don't know if it's a full
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: gear thing. I don't know if that's, you know, a
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: world's end. Maybe he wants to save it for the
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: end of the year. I don't know, but I think
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: that's where this is headed. Kazuchka Okada will defend the
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: aw Unified Championship in a three way match against Kenoski Takeshta,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: who beat Anthony Bowen's last night and the winner of
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: the match this Wednesday between The Beast, Mortos and Mascarroderrada.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: Okada beat Michael Oku last night on collision to retain
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: his title and advance. Yes, you heard that right. The
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: champion was in the tournament in a title match. I
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: don't make the rules. Don't look at me. Yes, it's dumb,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: don't look at me. I would assume we're looking at
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: Mortos joining the other two should be a great match.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: Mortos is going to be in there to take the
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: losing fall when Okada retains. It's the only reason that
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: he or Derata. But I figure it's going to be Mortos.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: Literally the only reason they're in this match, which then
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: spares Takeshta from a direct loss while preserving him for
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: a future singles match with Okada where he then wins
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: the title. Timeless Tony Storm defends the AW Women's World Championship.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: So again, you look at this card. Here, they turned
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: the tag team title match into a four way ladder match,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: they turned the unified title match into a three way,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: and we have another four way. We have two four
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: ways at least on this show. This time it's Timeless
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: Tony Storm defending the AW Women's World Championship against Jamie Hayter,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: Chris Statlander and Tecla. And as with the unified title match,
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: as with the tag team title match, you look at
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: all the talent in there, certainly you know should be
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: an excellent match. Not how I wanted to get Tony
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: Storm and Jamie Hater in the ring for the first time,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: but you know, I'll take it. This is a chance
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: for them to shake things up. This is a match
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: where I think that Chris Statlander should win, and I
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: think she's going to win. I'll make a bold prediction here.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: I'll go against the grain because I do think there's
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: a really good chance it could happen that Chris Statlander
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: is going to win the Women's World Championship. They've been
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: teasing lately that she might join up, she might link
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: up with the Death Riders. We just saw Daniel Garcia
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: join the Death Riders. Especially if they follow through with her,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: this would be the place to have her, you know,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: go over strong and win a championship and bring the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: title into the Death Riders. Not that I'm saying I
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: want her to join the Death Riders. I greatly dislike
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: that idea, but I'm going with Chris Statlander to win
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: the title. Nothing wrong with shaking things up a little
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: bit and doing a title change here. Statlander is great.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: John Moxley is going to be wrestling on the show
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: against Darby Allen in a coffin match, and I don't
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: think this is the end of their issues together. I
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: think John Moxley is going to win this coffin match
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: and they're going to continue to play this feud out
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: for a little while longer. And Hangman Adam Page defends
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: the AW World Championship against the TNT champion, Kyle Fletcher
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: in a match where only the AW World title is
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: on the line. It's also a match where Fletcher has
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: guaranteed that no member He's given his word that no
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: member of the Don Kallis family will get involved. That
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: this is coming off an episode of Dynamite where Ricochet
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: had a gentleman's agreement with Shelton Benjamin that the Gates
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: of Agony would not get involved in their match on Wednesday,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: and then they did because they're heels and heels cannot
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: be trusted. But we're gonna have to take Fletcher at
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: his word here. You know, he said no member of
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: the Kallus family would get involved. That doesn't necessarily preclude
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: someone else who's outside the callous family from getting involved
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: in this match, although other than MJF I'm not sure
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: who that person would be. It doesn't matter though this
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: should be a great match. Hangman Adam Page is going
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: to retain the championship. Kyle Fletcher was not even the
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: first choice to be in this spot. Again, Wardlow was
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: reportedly going to be in this spot and isn't only
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: because he's hurt, so they slotted Kyle in there. So
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: Kyle has even less of a chance of winning the
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: championship that he did before.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: We read about the ward Low injury.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I'll have coverage of All Out with my full
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: thoughts as part of the sound off next Sunday. That'll
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: be episode nine thirty. Some other news and notes. All
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: Japan Pro Wrestling held a press conference on Friday to
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: announce the death of twenty one year old star Tyshian Nagau,
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: who passed away after being hit by one of their
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: tour buses back on May thirty first. This is just
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: an awful story. On Friday, All Japan representative director Suyoki
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: Fukuda and director Toshiki Toeda were on hand at the
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: press conference to provide details of the incident that led
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: to his death. Now this comes from Monthly Pro res
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: with a hat tip to the account Mera Wrestling on
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: x for the English translation. It was revealed that the
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: tour bus that struck Nogao did so in a narrow
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: alley near the AJPW dojo. As the incident is still
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: under investigation by the police, no further details were given.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: Nogao had been in the intensive care unit since May
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: thirty first due to traumatic shock from abdominal compression. There
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: was hope that he would recover following numerous surgeries on
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: September sixth Nogao's condition took a turn for the worse.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: He passed away on September seventh from Sepsisnigao was cremated
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: on September tenth, with all all japan wrestlers attending to
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: pay their final respects. Dave Meltzer had more information on
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: this in this week's Observer. He said the situation was
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: addressed in vague terms by the company, but everything was
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: largely kept secret from everyone, including the talent. On May
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: thirty first, the tour bus was to leave for a
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: trip for a show in Sendai. He was outside behind
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: the bus and the driver didn't see him and ran
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: him over. The talent on the bus were in shock
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: and had to lift the bus off of him, and
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: many thought he was dead for sure. They administered CPR
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: until the ambulance came. On June twenty first, the company
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: stated that Negau had suffered abdominal compression resulting in traumatic
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: shock from being hit by the bus, and it was
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: said he was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: and was in a critical closely monitored condition. On July
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: twenty second, they said he was in critical condition in
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: intensive care. The company then announced his death on September seventh.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: Nogw was seen as a very promising rookie, having just
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: debuted last October. His job was to tell the driver
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: left right stop, et cetera, when pulling out backwards. It
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: was a rainy day. Suddenly the driver in backing out
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: ran over him. The goal slipped on a puddle and
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: fell down. The driver didn't hear him nor see him
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: because of a blind spot, and people heard a terrible scream.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: Some thought that it was the bobcat that hung out
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: at the dojo that the boys leave food for when
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: they heard the scream. Everyone heard the screaming. The gal's
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: upper half of his body was stuck between the bus
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: and the sidewalk and he was bunched up against a
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: cement wall. His face was purple. The wrestlers lifted the
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: bus off of him and moved him to the grass.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: The All Japan doctor was there with defibrillator pads. He
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: stopped breathing at points, and some thought he was dead.
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: The doctor was just trying to do whatever he could.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: Everyone kept things quiet, but the original report was that
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: he had internal bleeding and would need surgery, and they
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: thought or perhaps hoped that he would be okay. Talent
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: was never a lie out to visit him. He was
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: in a coma and the belief is that he never
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: woke up from it, and finally the decision was made
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: to remove him from life support. The driver was fired.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: Those close to the situation said the driver felt horrible.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: All Japan later hired a professional bus service transportation system
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: with two drivers at all times. He was said to
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: have great promise and picked up on everything very quickly.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: A memorial service is set for September fifteenth for him
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: at Corrikan Hall at the All Japan Royal Road Tournament event.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: And that wasn't the only wrestling related death this week.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: Independent start Jonathan Ekavaria, better known as Jaka, who was
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: well known on the Northeast independent scene. He had been
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: wrestling for almost twenty years. Only thirty nine years old,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: he had suffered a heart attack after his match for
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: Boca Ratone Championship Wrestling on August thirty first, and had
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: been in the ICU in critical condition ever since. He
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: died last Sunday. A lot of wrestlers I know we're
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: very broken up about his passing, very close to him.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: His sister had set up a GoFundMe to help pay
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: for his medical bills, but now any and all donations
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: will go towards paying for his funeral expenses and there
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: will be a service held for him in Florida tomorrow.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: I pulled a bunch of your questions and went through
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: all your emails here. We got a big batch of
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: them to get through. You can always email me for
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: the mailbag, the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Please
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: include your name of where you are from when you
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: write in. I got a nice email from lt that
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: I thought I would share with you. He said, I'm
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: a soldier in the army who listens to your podcast.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: There are plenty of times where my day is so
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: busy and long that I can't watch any sports before bed.
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: When I finished the day, I usually just want a shower,
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: spend time with my family if possible, and then go
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: to bed and do it all over again. Your recaps
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: are great because they're thorough and insightful. I could listen
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: when driving home or getting ready for work. I appreciate
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: what you do. Thank you for sending that and that
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: means a lot. And thank you for your service. Michael
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: from Long Island. What did you think about the dumb
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: comments Ronda Rousey made about Alexa Bliss. So, Ronda was
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: on the Lapsed Fan podcast recently. I didn't get a
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: chance to talk about this last week. I didn't hear
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: the entire thing, but I heard enough of it and
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: then I read the rest. She also did an interview
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: with Yahoo's Sports and said that she has no reason
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: to go back to WWE. She accomplished everything she wanted
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: to do based on her last run there. We're all
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: better off without her being there. She also said that
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: she wasn't invited to take part in this year's Evolution show.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: Not that she turned it down, she just was never invited.
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: And again that Evolution show is one of the best
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: shows WWE is done all year. Where would Ronda have
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: even fit on that card. She could have showed up
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: and just waved to the crowd. It would have been
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: a waste of time for her. But on the Lapse Fan,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: when one of the hosts suggested that Ronda should have
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: squashed Alexa Bliss when she won her first world title
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen, Ronda said, the fact that they had
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: me fighting Alexa Bliss at all was fucking ridiculous. And
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: you want to know why they had me against Alexa
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: Bilists because she had the most merch sales at the time, Like,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: what the fuck that's your decision making process. I'm not
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: sure Ronda Rowsey understands how pro wrestling works, even all
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: these years later. Promoters go with those who make them
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: the most money. Not only was Bliss one of their
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: top merch sellers, she was the raw women's champion. So
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: it's not as if Ronda had a lot of say
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: in the matter. If they wanted to put the title
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: on her. Bliss was the champion. Therefore she had to
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: beat Alexibilist.
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 2: To win the belt.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: Now, if they wanted her to be, you know, the
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: brock Lesner of the women's division, she was no brock Lesner.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: But I mean, they could have pushed her like that
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: if they wanted too. Sure, Alexa Bliss was only going
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: to get so much offense in on Ronda Rowsey, but
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: the way she is so dismissive of a lot, like
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: who the hell is this girl? Yeah, she was pushed
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: for a reason because she was and still is very popular.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: This is something Ronda Rowsey doesn't understand. If anyone had
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: a reason to complain. It was Alexa Bliss who got
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: concussed not once, but twice working with Ronda Rowsey because
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: no one bothered to clue Ronda in that wrestling was
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: a fucking work. Apparently, not only does she can cuss
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: her twice, she can cussed her twice on the same move.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: It was a headlocked takeover, drove her head first into
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: the mat. That's why Alexa didn't wrestle on that first
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Evolution show. She was stuck standing at ringside because Ronda,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: who clearly has suffered one too many concussions of her own,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: pulled a Bill Goldberg and injured her. Ronda has a
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: very high opinion of herself. You know, she accomplished a
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: lot in a relatively short period of time in her career,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: but she comes across very badly when she makes comments
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: like the ones that she made in that interview. Chris
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: from North Jersey, I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: a little sad after hearing about Mark Shapiro's interview where
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: he states and WWE has a lot of work to
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: do in regards to ticket yields in comparison to UFC.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: You have to be an adult to attend UFC. Every
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: ticket is bought by someone who can afford to buy
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: a ticket because they're adults. WWE is family friendly and
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: ticketed as such by Vince. I'm afraid a lot of
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: fans will no longer afford to go to events in
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: the future, let alone now they are going around the
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: world now for all events, including WrestleMania. I'm glad I
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: got to go to my fair share with my kids,
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: so I don't have the itch to go to shows
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: much anymore. How long until the fans retaliate, maybe fans
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: go to AW, which is affordable, and TKO is forced
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: to change this. Well, that's not going to happen. You're
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: not going to have such a groundswell of people migrating
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: over to AW that Mark Shapiro looks at this and says,
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: oh my god, we've made a mistake.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 2: We have to go back.
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: You're not wrong when you say that it is an opportunity.
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: It certainly is an opportunity for an aid and I've
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: said this before. AW if they were smart, they would
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: take advantage of this. And I don't know what the
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: average AW ticket goes for as compared to WWE these days,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: obviously there's a big difference, but I would focus on affordability,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: and I would really you don't even have to mention WWE,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: but really, you know, focus on affordability when it comes
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: to promoting these events, not that they're cheap, right, you
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: never use that word. You know, they're less expensive, they're
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: more affordable. You never use the word cheap. But there's
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: an opportunity there for them to absolutely try to claw
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: some fans away and just let them know, Hey, if
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: you're looking to go to a wrestling show, not necessarily
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: a WWE show, but a wrestling show, and you're coming
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: to town, give us a chance, right, give us a shot.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: If you've never been to an aw show before, we're
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: going to give you, you know, more bang for your
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: buck or however they want to promote it. So there's
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: definitely an opportunity there. There will be some fans maybe
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: who who go over. But you know, you mentioned that
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: Vince McMahon was more interested in making the product family friendly. Well, TKO,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: they have a different way of doing things. They're not
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: so interested in focusing on just that. They see that
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: there is a market for tickets to these events, these
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: premium live events, premium prices right for tickets to these
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: premium live events and other events, and they don't really
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think they care so much about who the
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: audience is that pays for the tickets. As long as
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: they know there is an audience that will pay those
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: prices for those tickets. If it was just adults, right,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: then so be it. That's going to be their focus.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: They're going to go where the money is. I think
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: they're less concerned about the makeup of their audience and
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: just making sure that people are willing to spend that
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: kind of money, and that's the most important thing to them.
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: And that is sad, but that's just the difference between them.
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: That's just the way it is, and not a whole
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: lot that we can do about it, other than certainly
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: people could just stop watching. They could stop buying tickets
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: to the events.
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 2: I don't even remember the.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: Last time I went to a WWE event, you know,
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I went to the WrestleManias that I went to.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: Probably never will again, but I went to about eight
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: WrestleManias in a row, so that was enough for me.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: It is an experience I think that people if you've
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: never done it before would enjoy, but I could see
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: we're for a lot of fans now it's just way
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: too expensive and as far as twenty twenty seven, a
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: lot of fans are not going to be flying to
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia for that one. So I look, I had
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: my phil I'm good, you know, but there are a
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: lot of other fans who are going to be shut
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: out unfortunately, because it's just the way things are now,
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: you know. It's just they have to prioritize, and it's
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: just too expensive. If you have a family, if you
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: have a kid, if you have two kids, three kids,
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, whoa what must that cost? If you're going
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: to fly to a WrestleMania you have airfare, hotel, food, tickets,
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: if to take out a set mortgage in your house
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: just to afford a wrestle media trip. Aaron from Cape
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: Girardo personally watching WWE in this current triple TKO era
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: is getting tougher and tougher between all of the DQ finishes,
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: the predictable outcomes, the NonStop ads, sky high ticket prices,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: to focus on celebrities and storylines that feel half baked.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: It's wearing thin. So it got me thinking, what's been
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: the hardest era or year of wrestling for you to
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: sit through. And you have you ever gotten so frustrated
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: that you almost gave up on WWE completely? I feel
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: like I get this question once every few months. For me,
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: it was the year nineteen ninety five. The product was
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: just very dead. They were going really all in on
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: these just ridiculous, over the top gimmicks. I mean, they
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: always had gimmicks, and there have been some fun ones,
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: but I mean Vince just went on some weird acid
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: trip that year with all of the different characters, and
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: they lost so many big names. They were trying to
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: push a new generation of talent. So you had that
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: core group of like Brett Hart and Razor Ramone and
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: Diesel and the Undertaker was there and Shawn Michaels. They
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: were in a rebuilding process and it was just a
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: very down year. And there was a period in early
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: ninety five where I was I was bored enough that
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: I came close to just giving up because all my
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: friends had stopped watching.
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 2: I was the only one left.
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: You know, they all used to watch and then they
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: stopped for various reasons. You know, oh it's fake, or
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe they didn't care about that, but then
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: they got bored or they just grew out of it,
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: and I came very close. But beyond ninety five, you know,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: I can't say in more recent years because this is
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: what I do now, I'm still a wrestling fan in
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: my core, even when I hate it for various reasons,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: because I know it could be so much better. Now
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: this is what I do, So it's a little bit
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: different now.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: I rely on this now in a way that I
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: didn't have to all those years ago. There was definitely
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: a period though, in the late twenty tens, you know,
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: certainly with WWE, where I wouldn't say I almost gave
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: up on it completely, but it was very, very difficult
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: to sit through those weekly shows. Absolutely, it's just bad television.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: There are people who get off on watching bad television
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: and then ranting and raving about it because that's just
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: what they do, or because it sells or whatever. And
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: I can promise you if it were up to me,
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: these shows would be fucking great every week. You know,
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be like, oh, I want the shows to
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: be bad, like there might be some gold in there.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: You know, when you have those bad shows, you get
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: those great rants right. But that's not why I do this,
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, will people might
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: find that fun every now and then, I still have
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: to sit here and watch these shows every single week.
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: I don't want to feel like I'm wasting my time.
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: And there was definitely a period of of RAW, specifically
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, where it was very hard
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: to sit through those shows every single week, and many
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: of you were watching those shows right along with me.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: And I always used to say.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: People would ask me, well, why do you used to watch,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: and other than the fact that I do a podcast,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: I would say, it's the two h's habit and hope.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: I watch out of habit and I hope it's going
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: to get better. You try to be optimistic about it.
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: That's all you can do. Dak from Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: I'm writing this before Friday SmackDown, so I obviously won't
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: know the outcome of the women's title match between Tiffany
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: and Jade. On NXT, we saw Tiffy, Rhea, and Stephanie
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: coming out and confronting fatal Influence and setting up a
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: six woman tag for the following Tuesday. My question to
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: you is does this match seem completely illogical and ridiculous?
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: Why would Tiffany care about FI when she has a match?
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know what that's supposed to mean. Why would
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: Tiffany care when she has a title defense on Friday?
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: Why bump the world title signing from Monday and then
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: have Stephanie's show up for NXT. It just feels hard
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: to be invested in this match when there feels like
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: zero logic to it. Maybe I'm just stupid and don't
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: get it, but what do you think about the match
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: and how they went about setting it up?
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 2: Now, you're not.
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: Stupid, But as I said earlier, this is just a
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: special anniversary type show that they're doing from Full Sale,
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: so they're trying to pop a rating and they're going
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: back home right to Full Sale University, and so they're
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: just trotting out a bunch of old names to put
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: together a special show that won't really have a whole
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: lot of influence on the week to week storylines. So
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: it's out of nowhere, But it's not because it's all
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: tied into where they're going to be on Tuesday. If
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: they were just doing another random episode of NXT from
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: the PC and all of a sudden, these three women
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: are teaming together. Then yeah, that would be fucking weird.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: I don't read into it any more than that, though,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: Dominic from Connecticut, I wanted to get your honest thoughts
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: on Seth Rawlins. Well, I know you respect is in
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: ring ability and longevity. I have noticed that you are irritated, bored,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: or apathetic with a lot of his segments and work,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: Especially recently. You have made comments such as the less
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: Seth on TV, the better, and that you like him
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: in small doses. Do you think he is undeserving of
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: the top spot that he is currently in. Is there
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: a version of Seth that you prefer over the others?
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 2: Actually there is.
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: I still maintain that Shield Seth Rollins was the best
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: Seth Rollins, especially in ring, like when they win, Babyface
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: and Rollins would get like the Babyface hot tag, and
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: there was nobody better at.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 2: It in wrestling. At that time. He was fucking great.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: And that's not to say that he's not great in
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: the ring now. He's just you know, he's ten years older,
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: he's had injuries, and you know, you're not going to
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: be the same that you were when you were ten
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: years younger, so me being sort of apathetic towards Seth.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: I've never liked this character that he's done where he
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: comes at and calls himself the visionary, the revolutionary, and
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: he you know, hums to his song and every like.
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: That character has always irritated me. I mean, for him,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: it's the perfect heel character, I guess, but yeah, I've
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: never liked this character.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know what he's supposed to be.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: You know, he was coming out of the funny outfits
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: and everything, and I just I wasn't sure that he
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: even knew exactly what he was trying to be. So
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: I just don't like the character. And I do think
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: that when you have an overload of a lot of
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: people on TV, that could be a bad thing. Unless
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: you are just that special of a performer and just
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: that entertaining, then you can make it work. You know,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: Prime Rock in the late nineties, early two thousands, If
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: you put him in half a dozen segments on the show,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: I guarantee you all half a dozen segments would probably
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: be pretty great and pretty entertaining. Seth Rollins is not
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: that guy. He's not the guy that I want to
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: see plastered all over the show show. I do think
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: he's better in small doses, especially when he's on the mic.
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: I just, you know, so many times, like when he's
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: in there with Punk where he gets that one guy
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: that he's really angry with, like he could turn out
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: some really great output on the microphone. But a lot
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: of the times it's not that, you know, it's just
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: him doing his stick, and I don't find it entertaining.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's undeserving of the spot. I think
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: that he probably is the male MVP in WWE so
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: far in twenty twenty five. So you know, when you
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: hear me make comments like that, I don't want you
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: to mistake it for hatred of Seth. It's just that,
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: you know, when you get too much of him, I
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: think too much of him makes for bad TV, and
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: I think in smaller doses he is better.
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of truth in that.
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: Josh from Minnesota Believe a Blaine, Minnesota. When aj Lee
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: came back after fangirling super hard and having her theme
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: stuck in my head all of Saturday, I started thinking
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: of possible matches and scenarios for her. I wanted to
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: get your opinion on two. Do you think that they
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: would have aj Lee hold the WWE or Women's World
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: Championship before WrestleMania, or even have her potentially win the
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: Royal Rumble. I feel like she may be a top
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: favorite to win the Rumble now that she's back. Well,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: of course she's gonna be a fair she's automatically a
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: favorite to win. I don't think she's going to. I mean,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: we're still very early out yet from the Rumble. I
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: still think if liv Morgan can make it back in time,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: she would be my favorite to win the Rumble next year.
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: So I don't see aj winning the Rumble, but she's
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: gonna obviously be in that top five. If you have
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: to make like a top five list of I think
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: of the favorite names to win the Rumble, she would
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: be in the top five. She might even be in
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: the top three. As far as the championship holding it
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: before WrestleMania, I don't see that. And also, after thinking
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: of possible matches that she could have, one that came
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: straight to mind was her in Roxanne Perez. But if
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: they do that, what do you think of them doing
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: maybe a double turn and having a baby fit Roxanne
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: take down a heel aj Lee for either the Intercontinental
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: or Women's World title. Not a fan of her doing
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: that as a heel anytime in the near future. She
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: just came back. She's a massive babyface. CM Punk's a babyface.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: I think it would be hard to turn her heel
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: and have Punks still be a babyface. She signed a
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: multi year long term contract though she's back full time,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: so could she turn heel at some point maybe a
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: year from now, two years from now, sure, but there's
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: no way that you turn aj Lee heel anytime in
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: the next six months, eight months, Like, I just think
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: that would be completely ridiculous. Her and Roxanne, though, that's
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: a natural match. I think that's a natural program, especially
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: given how big of a fan Roxanne was of hers
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: when she was younger. I think Roxanne could be the heel.
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: I think that's fine. She doesn't have to be the
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: babyface in that program. June aid from England. With John
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: Moxley being one of the top guys within AW and
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: someone who Tony Kan has relied on to steady the
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: ship during uncertain times, it got me thinking, what if
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: John Moxley had stayed in WWE, how would his career
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: have looked if he would have stayed, how would he
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: have played into the bloodline angle, Cody's return and everything
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: that went down to Wrestlemany of forty with Seth being
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: Cody's right hand man. How would Dean Ambrose be booked
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: under a Paul Levek WWE? And how would aw look
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: without one of their top names? And who do you
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: think fills that spot? That's a lot of what ifs.
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know who fills that spot. I don't know
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: who that person is. I mean, Jericho was kind of
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: that guy for a while. He was that WWE guy
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: they brought in who had a name, who really helped
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: get them established. So I mean Jericho, maybe they would
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: have relied on him a little bit more heavily. You
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: know what Dean Ambrose's career would have looked like in
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: WWE under Triple H. Honestly, I think he would have
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: been firmly planted in the mid card, like mid card,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: upper mid card, with the occasional main event program, very
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: much in a Kevin Owens type role. Kevin Owens is
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: a main event guy, but he has not spent the
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: majority of his time in the main event in WWE.
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: He's been in and out of the main event. That's
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: how it would be for Dean Ambrose. He was always
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: the odd man out when it came to all three
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: Shield members. Moxley had to leave.
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 2: He had.
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: He left because he wasn't happy and that was not
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: going to change under a triple h because in leaving
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: he also got to embrace the style of wrestling that
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: he loves working, and it's a style that he never
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: would have been allowed to work in WWE. Patrick from Montreal.
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: Ever since Mercedes Monet won Nine Belts, I noticed she
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: receives a lot of criticism from legends. Jim Cornett says
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: she sucks now, Dutch Mantel claims that she was never
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: that talented in WWE, and Stevie Richards claims aw has
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: exposed her weaknesses because she no longer has the WWE
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: machine behind her. So a couple of questions, are some
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: of the miserable former WWE legends with podcasts adding way
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: too much fuel to the toxicity and tribalism in the IWC,
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: And if Mercedes was in WWE right now with nine belts,
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: would she get the same hate Because the only problem
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: I see with her is her MIC's skills, but her
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: matches rained from pretty good to amazing. Now she's got
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: a great body of work in the ring. Look at
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: some of the great matches that she's put together ever
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: since she joined AW. Nobody can doubt her in ringwork.
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: Do I think that the you know, the wrestler hosted
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: podcasts who go in on her all the time the
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: way they do.
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 2: Add to the toxicity. Of course they do. Yeah, they
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 2: feed into it for sure. You know.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: My knock on it is that she walks around with
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: nine belts, most of which don't mean anything. So her
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: having nine championships in and of itself does not make
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: her great. I think it's her in ringwork that makes
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: her great. I think she's a great performer. But there
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: are people who just aren't fans of of her wrestling,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: or aren't fans of her you know, verbal skills on
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: the microphone. They don't find her interesting. She had that
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: segment a few weeks ago where she had all of
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: her belts laid out across the table and was celebrating,
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: and it's like, I've never seen somebody on TV with
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: nine belts just be so uninteresting. So there are fair
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: criticisms of her that you can make without you know,
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: making them personal. Do I think that she would be
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: getting the same level of hate if she had nine
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: belts in WWE. She would still be getting some hate.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: It would not be as vocal as it is. That
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: much I can say, because a lot of it also
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: comes from people who are just generally vocal about anything
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: outside of WWE, and specifically Tony Connen aw So a
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: lot of those same people. If Mercedes were to come
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: back to WWE and had a bunch of championships, then no,
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: they would not be as vocally against her as they
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: are now. That is absolutely part of it. Speaking of Montreal,
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: we have it is from Jose in New York City.
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get your thoughts on my opinion about
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: the best wrestling cities both domestically and internationally as part
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: of my Mount Rushmore. Domestically, I have Chicago, New York, Philadelphia,
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: and Boston. Internationally, I would choose London, Paris, Montreal, and
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: San Juan Puerto Rico. Well, right, First of all, I
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: have to say San Juan Puerto Rico would not technically
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: be considered an international location, so you have to scratch
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: that from your Mount Rushmore and add a different one.
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to do the Mount Rushmore thing. But domestically,
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: when you say best, I assume you mean the loudest.
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: We're not talking about drawing power here. We're talking about
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: like just this loud, energetic crowd New York, which can
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: be hit or missed. But I think by and large
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: New York and definitely Chicago. I would actually put Chicago
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: at number one. New York and Chicago were at the
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: top of the list, and you know who I would
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: throw in there, Seattle. I feel like Seattle is generally
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: pretty loud whenever they visit. Montreal is another. So internationally,
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: I mean most of the crowds are loud. I mean London,
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: they were just in Paris. You heard that crowd leone France.
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: I guess I'll just say France. But as far as
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: like a whole list, I mean, I don't know. Those
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: are the ones that come to mind for me. Big
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: Zeus from Washington, d C. I was wondering if there's
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: any truth to the story that Shawn Michaels used as
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: backstage stroke to win the European title off of Davy
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: Boyce Smith. As I've heard it, Davey wanted to dedicate
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: the match to his sister, who was battling cancer, and
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: he was originally going to go over by d Q,
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: but Sean being Sean, convinced Vince McMahon to put the
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: title on him to generate heat, which Davy reluctantly went
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: along with, only for Sean to fingerpoke drop it to
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: Triple H a few weeks later. Was that the plan
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: all along? Or did Sean screw Davy? It was definitely
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: not the plan all along. He did finger poke drop
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: it quote unquote finger poke to triple H. It was
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: actually a couple months later, but yes, that's exactly what happened.
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: Davy Boy was supposed to win. The finish was set.
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: He did dedicate the match to his sister, who she
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't just battling cancer, she was terminally ill. She was
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: dying with cancer. Not only did he dedicate the match
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: to his sister, his sister escorted him down to the ring.
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: I think his wife was supposed to Diana. I've heard
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: her say that the agent for the match, and she
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: would never say who it was, but she claimed the
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: agent didn't like them to begin with, didn't like Davy,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: but he didn't want her out there like escorting him
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: to the ring because Princess Diana had just died only
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: weeks before this, and the agent felt like this Diana
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: looked a lot like that Diana, and so I guess
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: it would have been in poor taste send I don't
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: really understand the logic there, but they wanted some model
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: to escort a Davy instead to the ring, and Davy said,
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not coming to the ring with a random model,
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: so he took his sister with him instead. But Sean
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: got Invince's ear. That's what happened and triple H two.
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sure just like he did with Montreal, because he's
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: a snake, and suddenly the finish got changed. This is
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: and you see what ended up happening. I'm sure Sean
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: got in his ear and said, hey, let me win
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: the belt here and the next time we come back
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: to the UK for one of these pay per views,
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: and I think they came back it was the following.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 2: April.
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: I think that was that Mayhem and Manchester show that
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: they did. You know, when we come back, I'll drop
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: it back to Davy. Meanwhile, by that point Davey was
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: gone and Seawan was gone. Right after WrestleMania, he went
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: away and that was back during that period where he was,
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: you know, popping more pills than a pharmacist. His back
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: was wrecked and he wasn't wrestling anymore. But whatever explanation
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: he gave to Vince, Vince went along with it.
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 2: It was terrible. Jack from Jacksonville.
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: You recently mentioned that the cmpunk situation was easily aw's
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: darkest day. What do you consider to be some of
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: WWE's darkest days. I would say the night Vince McMahon
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: stood in the middle of that empty arena and announced
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: the death of Chris Benois and his family is the
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: darkest day in WWE history, and the night that Owen
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: Hart fell to his death in the ring. Those are
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: the only correct answers. Nothing else even comes close. Christian
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: from Las Vegas with a buy, sell and rent question.
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: I've always appreciated when a wrestler has a standout performance
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: where they lose a high stakes match but their heart
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: and performance get them more over despite losing.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's.
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: Sort of the whole point of the Brett Hart Steve
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: Austin submission match or Wrestle Many at thirteen, but he
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: says rent and sell on these three matches were one
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: wrestler loss but got more over due to their performance.
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: Kazuchka Okada against Kenny Omega at Wressell Kingdom eleven, Gunther
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: against Seamus at Clash at the Castle twenty twenty two.
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: Undertaker versus Jeff Hardy on Raw in a ladder match.
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 2: Two thousand and two.
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: So I'm actually gonna buy on Okata and Omega at
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: Wressell Kingdom e eleven. That was the match that made
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: Omega as far as I'm concerned. This was their first
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: match together and it opened a lot of eyes as
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: to what kind of star Kenny could really be. So
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: I gotta buy on that. I'm gonna rent on Undertaker
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: and Jeff Hardy. I might have bought on the Jeff
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: Hardy match if it had led to a big run
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: for him, but Jeff was dealing with his personal problems,
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: and I think it was less than a year later
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: he was gone from the company. But people still talk
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: about that moment or you know, or Undertaker, who was
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: a heel, put him over at the end, and I
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: think he helped him to his feet. Maybe he shook
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: his hand. Whatever it was, I'm gonna sell on Gunther
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: and Seamus. I'm a little confused on why you would
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: include this one because Seamus at that point he was
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: already very well established.
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know that it got him more over.
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: I think Seamus was already as over as he was
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: going to be at that point, so I don't think
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: it got him more over. I just think they had
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: a just a great classic match. I thought it was
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: the WWE match of the year that year, and that's
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: really it is a great match. I couldn't even really
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: tell you what they did after that with Seamus, so
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it got him moreover. He was already over.
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: Steve from Virginia, what are your favorite uses of foreshadowing
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: in pro wrestling? Oh, that's a good one. Well, the
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: earliest use of foreshadowing that I can remember as a
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: fan would have been Macho Man looking at Hogan every
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: time he would elebrate with Elizabeth Right, they were foreshadowing
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: that the Mega Powers explosion was coming months before it happened.
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: Stone Cold in the sit down with the Rock before
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: their match of WrestleMania seventeen, when he said I need
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: to beat you Rock, I need more than anything that
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: you could ever imagine. Right, And then what actually happened
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: in the match, right, that was a great use of foreshadowing.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: And then you know, honestly, it may not have been intended. Right,
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: Nobody at the beginning of the year could have predicted
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: what would happen at the end of that year, not
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: even Vince McMahon himself, but Brett Hart going around for
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: almost a year bitching about being screwed right from the
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: moment he came back at the end of nineteen ninety
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: six and he got that first championship match. It was
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: the month after that first match with Steve Austin and
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: Brett wrestled sid at An in Your House, and Shawn
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: Michaels was ringside for that match on commentary and Sewn
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: ended up getting in and they collided on the apron
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: and Breck up power bombed and pinned. They screwed me.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: They screwed him out of the title when Shawn Michaels
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: interfered in that match. They screwed me out of a
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: Royal Rumble win.
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: Steve Austin then screwed him out of the title when
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: he lost the belt. To sid on Monday Night Row.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: They screwed him again when he lost the cage match
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: to Sid on Raw. That was the night that he
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: shoved Vince McMahon down on his ass. One screw job
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: after another, only to lead to a very real screw
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: job at Survivor Series. Like, if that isn't some eerie
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: foreshadowing of life imitating art, I don't know what is,
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: and I didn't even realize it until just recently. I
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: was watching the match again when WWE uploaded to their
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel as part of their fifty Greatest WrestleMania Matches countdown.
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: They uploaded Brett Hart and Stone Cold WrestleMania at thirteen.
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: There's a moment in that match where Steve Austin tries
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: to put Brett in the sharpshooter but he can't get
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: it applied, and then Jerry says, oh, that would be
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: the greatest thing ever right for Brett Hart to have
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: to submit to the sharpshooter, and Vince McMahon just goes, Hey,
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: it could happen. Then you think about what happened that
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: night in Montreal. I that's just wild Neil from Chicago
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: with a non wrestling buyer cell and we'll end with this.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: I'm throwing a curveball asking this, but I would like
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: to know buy or sell on who you enjoy or
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: enjoyed watching more John Candy or Chris Farley.
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: I loved them both, both gone far too soon, two
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: comedic geniuses. Farley and Tommy Boy in Black Sheep was great.
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, Ninja not so much obviously, he was great
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: on SNL. I love Matt Foley, but I got a
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: buy on John Candy here. I mean Spaceballs, Home Alone,
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: Armed and Dangerous planes, trains and automobiles. I try to
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: watch that every year around Thanksgiving. Uncle Buck is a classic.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: He did a movie it's not as well known. I
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: liked it called Who's Harry Crumb? It's It's really a shame.
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: He was just far too young when he passed to
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: what was he forty three? Maybe when he died. I
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: know Farley was even younger than that. Anyway, Thank you Neil,
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you everyone for all of the great questions. Keep
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: him coming. It should be a regular schedule this week
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: with all the live streams. Wrestled Baluza next weekend and
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: then sound Off nine thirty next Sunday. But everything is
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: just sort of up in the air right now with
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: what's happening on the personal front. I'll try to keep
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: you guys posted. Thank you for your understanding, be well,
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: stay safe, and I will see you back here next time.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: Until then, take care, guys. The Solemn Monster sounds off
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: John Moxley, in case you couldn't tell, it's still the
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: aw World Heavyweight champ. That means we have another month
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: of this death writer's bullshit and I can barely stomach swarm.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: Strickland is going to Dinas. He will challenge John Boxley
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: for that title and he better fucking win. He's the
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: right man for the job. Honestly, anybody would be the
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: right man for the job. The Maytag man would be
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: the right man for the job right now. The Orcan
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: man would be the right man for the job right now.
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: I could walk out my front door, right now, I
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: could go five blocks down the street.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 2: First fucking guy.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: That I see, maybe he's got a bottle of beer
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: in a brown paper bag, whatever it is, I'll grab him.
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 2: He would be the man for the job.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: I would have preferred the rizzler come out and sign
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: his name to that contract.
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 2: And pin John Moxley to win the AW World title.
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: I would have taken Big Boom Aj as the AW
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: World Champion.
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine the.
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: Heads that would explode if that happened. Anybody but what
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: they're doing now, Anybody but Moxley, anybody.
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 2: But the Death Riders stuff. We need to move on
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 2: from this.
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 3: Well. Solom Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 3: and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 3: content for subscribers, and follow this monster on Facebook, Instagram,
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 3: and X The Sola Monster.
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 2: I love you so long.