Latest / Solomonster Sounds Off / Sound Off 951 - Dave Meltzer's Big BRODY KING MISTAKE And Triple H On The HOT SEAT?

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Sound Off 951 - Dave Meltzer's Big BRODY KING MISTAKE And Triple H On The HOT SEAT? · Solomonster Sounds Off

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi wrestling fans, it's Tony Shavati. You're listening to Solo
0:04
Speaker 1: Monsters sounds off and we're desperately out of time. It's
0:11
Speaker 1: business time, baby, you are listening to solo Monsters sounds off.
0:16
Speaker 1: I love you, monster, dude. I want your soulier.
0:22
Speaker 2: You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter?
0:26
Speaker 1: Come over here is that pet Madison? You have legs?
0:32
Speaker 1: I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chested up.
0:35
Speaker 2: Now I have been begging him for a job on
0:37
Speaker 2: every every platform I can, and I want to know
0:40
Speaker 2: the reason why you won't hurt me.
0:43
Speaker 1: The Sandman is wrestling his final match in Las Vegas
0:47
Speaker 1: Wrestle Many a weekend on Joey Janella's Spring Break show,
0:51
Speaker 1: and his opponent is going to be none other than
0:55
Speaker 1: the Invisible Man who died seven years ago, just forty
1:00
Speaker 1: nine years of age, only to later be brought back
1:03
Speaker 1: to life. And he was brought back to the ring.
1:05
Speaker 1: He lost a ninety person match at last year's Spring
1:08
Speaker 1: Break show to a thirteen year old boy. So now
1:13
Speaker 1: he's wrestled a zombie and an invisible man. Can it
1:18
Speaker 1: really be any worse though? Than his match was? Saboo
1:21
Speaker 1: at that one November to remember pay per view. I
1:23
Speaker 1: don't remember what year it was. I doubt it would
1:25
Speaker 1: be any worse than that. That was pretty bad from
1:29
Speaker 1: what I remember. This is episode nine fifty one of
1:33
Speaker 1: the Solemn Monster Sounds up for Sunday, February fifteenth, twenty
1:38
Speaker 1: twenty six. Oh what a week it was. I want
1:41
Speaker 1: to thank everybody for all of the very positive feedback
1:44
Speaker 1: to the big announcement on Tuesday that as of this
1:49
Speaker 1: past week, I am now hosting a brand new wrestling podcast.
1:52
Speaker 1: I have a lot of these, of course, the flagship
1:54
Speaker 1: you're listening to right now, but every Tuesday, every Tuesday evening,
1:59
Speaker 1: a new audio podcast dropping on the Ariel Helwani Show.
2:03
Speaker 1: Feed Ariel made the announcement. He's over in Lavigno, Italy
2:07
Speaker 1: right now covering the Winter Olympics. But he posted the
2:11
Speaker 1: announcement and had some very kind words for me, which
2:14
Speaker 1: I greatly appreciate. Yeah, we've been talking about this now
2:17
Speaker 1: for a while. I had to sit on this announcement
2:20
Speaker 1: before we can go public with it. But it was
2:23
Speaker 1: very exciting and very cool to get all of the
2:26
Speaker 1: feedback that I got. Hopefully we'll even get some new
2:29
Speaker 1: listeners here on the sound up, But anyway, that show
2:31
Speaker 1: is going to be covering the news in the world
2:34
Speaker 1: of wrestling, very similar to what you get here on
2:35
Speaker 1: the SoundOff. There will be some overlap with some of
2:38
Speaker 1: the top stories. There'll be some stuff I covered there
2:40
Speaker 1: that is not covered here, and we'll try to work
2:43
Speaker 1: some feedback and Q and A into that as well.
2:46
Speaker 1: It's meant to be kind of like a bite sized
2:48
Speaker 1: version of the sound Off for a new audience. But
2:51
Speaker 1: certainly hopefully you guys will migrate over there too and
2:54
Speaker 1: check out the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. It is a part
2:57
Speaker 1: of the Uncrowned Network, and y'all who's sports and very
3:02
Speaker 1: excited to begin a new era with a new family
3:05
Speaker 1: over there at Uncrowned. They've got a great team of
3:08
Speaker 1: great people and hopefully you will join us over there.
3:11
Speaker 1: But again, that's going to be dropping on Ariels feed.
3:13
Speaker 1: So he's got a bunch of other shows. A lot
3:15
Speaker 1: of them are MMA related. I know he's got a
3:17
Speaker 1: new boxing show that's going to be premiering very soon,
3:22
Speaker 1: and you need to have a wrestling component there because
3:24
Speaker 1: you got to serve the wrestling audience. That's where I
3:26
Speaker 1: come in, So just search for the Ariel Helwani show
3:28
Speaker 1: feed and you can subscribe there. And every Tuesday Tuesday evening.
3:32
Speaker 1: There's no set time, but it will drop. It has
3:35
Speaker 1: no effect on anything existing that I'm doing. It has
3:37
Speaker 1: no effect on Tuesday Night Titans. I will still be
3:40
Speaker 1: live on JD's channel every Tuesday night. We're killing it.
3:44
Speaker 1: We did almost fifty thousand views on that show a
3:46
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. We killed it again last week.
3:49
Speaker 1: That is not changing. That is not going anywhere. It's
3:52
Speaker 1: just more work on my plate and more solemn monster. Right.
3:55
Speaker 1: That's never a bad thing. Anyway. We got a lot
3:58
Speaker 1: to get into this week. If you would like to
3:59
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Speaker 1: the solomonster dot com ten dollars and more. We'll get
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Speaker 1: your nickname and a shout out. Don't want to say
4:06
Speaker 1: thank you to Big B Bryant, Visera, the Diamond, Dallas
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Speaker 1: Cynthia Taylor, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iicherd, Grinny the Great,
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Speaker 1: I hope you're doing well. Night Stalker, nif Alsafar, Best
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Speaker 1: in the Game, Trey Porter Killshot, Keith Hart I own
4:36
Speaker 1: corn farmer Jesse Lamfeir, who wanted to say thank you
4:38
Speaker 1: for recommending the VPN. He says, with the combo of
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Speaker 1: Express VPN and Amazon Firestick, I now save one hundred
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Speaker 1: and twenty bucks a monthly because I no longer need
4:49
Speaker 1: Hulu Live for WWEPL SmackDown and NXT. Hey look for
4:55
Speaker 1: a lot of people. It's a great deal and I
4:58
Speaker 1: have no complaints. Again, I legitimately use it myself every
5:01
Speaker 1: single week, not for all the wrestling shows I watch.
5:05
Speaker 1: I have found myself in recent weeks sometimes at RAW,
5:08
Speaker 1: I just I don't even care. I've got lazy with Raw.
5:12
Speaker 1: But I use it for SmackDown, I use it for
5:13
Speaker 1: other things. So again, take advantage of it. You know,
5:17
Speaker 1: there's a reason I've been working with them for so
5:19
Speaker 1: long and big time Boris Weinman, thank you for the
5:24
Speaker 1: kind words on the new gig with Uncrowned. I appreciate
5:27
Speaker 1: that this Friday, House of Glory returns home for our
5:32
Speaker 1: first show of the year at the NYC Arena in Queens.
5:36
Speaker 1: Of course, we had our Los Angeles premiere, our Hollywood
5:39
Speaker 1: premiere back on January thirtieth, and we are going to
5:43
Speaker 1: be coming back to La very soon, so keep your
5:46
Speaker 1: eyes peeled any day now. Actually, we're going to be
5:48
Speaker 1: making that announcement and I intend to be there this time.
5:52
Speaker 1: But this is our first New York City show of
5:54
Speaker 1: the year, no turning back. Friday Night, February twentieth with
5:58
Speaker 1: the AEW World Champion and still MJF he will be
6:05
Speaker 1: in action. Charles Mason will defend the Hog World Championship
6:08
Speaker 1: against Andrede l Idelo and Lance Anawai. You might have
6:13
Speaker 1: seen some of this drama on social media this week.
6:16
Speaker 1: Lance a Awai he pulled out of his match that
6:19
Speaker 1: was previously announced with Zilla fought too, for reasons that, frankly,
6:23
Speaker 1: are still unclear to me. I know he's been messing
6:26
Speaker 1: with Zilla's head over the last few months, and Zilla
6:28
Speaker 1: is pissed off at him. He wants to get his
6:31
Speaker 1: hands on him in the worst way. You know, Lance
6:33
Speaker 1: is saying he's gotten threatening messages from him, voicemails. You know,
6:36
Speaker 1: he doesn't feel safe, all kinds of nonsense. So I
6:39
Speaker 1: responded to him this week, and I made it very
6:40
Speaker 1: clear if he's not going to show up on Friday,
6:43
Speaker 1: and I would advise still that he does. But if
6:47
Speaker 1: he does not show up on Friday, Zilla is going
6:49
Speaker 1: to have a major match on that show. And I
6:53
Speaker 1: have decided on an opponent. The match is made and
6:57
Speaker 1: it is going to be announced shortly possibly and by
7:00
Speaker 1: the time you are listening to this, this is not
7:03
Speaker 1: going to be a show that you are going to
7:04
Speaker 1: want to miss. Trust me, It's a seven pm start time,
7:08
Speaker 1: not eight pm. So usually it's eight pm. This is
7:11
Speaker 1: a seven o'clock start time, So be aware that Live
7:14
Speaker 1: on Triller TV plus. Limited tickets are still available at
7:18
Speaker 1: hog Wrestling dot Net. Because I will be at the show,
7:21
Speaker 1: there will be no SmackDown review on YouTube this Friday,
7:24
Speaker 1: So I'll get you all caught up on my thoughts
7:26
Speaker 1: next Sunday here on the soundof And I also want
7:29
Speaker 1: to just to remind everybody that kind of pop in
7:31
Speaker 1: here every now and then with a reminder about Audible.
7:34
Speaker 1: You can still get yourself a free book Brett Hart's
7:37
Speaker 1: book Hitman, My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling,
7:42
Speaker 1: now on Audible twenty five hours of narration from the
7:46
Speaker 1: Hitman himself, maybe the greatest wrestling book ever written. You
7:50
Speaker 1: can order the book for free when you use my
7:53
Speaker 1: link to sign up for a thirty day trial audibletrial
7:56
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Sola Monster. And if you're an Amazon
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Speaker 1: price I remember I do believe that you are entitled
8:03
Speaker 1: to two free books, so if you have not yet
8:06
Speaker 1: taken advantage of this offer, it is still available to you.
8:09
Speaker 1: The Brett Hart book is one of many that you
8:12
Speaker 1: could cash in on for free, but I would highly
8:15
Speaker 1: recommend it again. Audibletrial dot Com, slash Sla Monster. I
8:20
Speaker 1: watched aw Grand Slam Australia last night Valentine's Day. I
8:26
Speaker 1: was live on YouTube. If you want the full video review,
8:28
Speaker 1: it is up for your viewing pleasure. But it was
8:31
Speaker 1: a special episode of Collision. Last year they did thirteen
8:35
Speaker 1: thousand fans in Brisbane. This year they were down to
8:38
Speaker 1: seven thousand in Sydney in a much bigger venue. I
8:42
Speaker 1: thought last year's show is excellent. I thought this year's
8:44
Speaker 1: show it was an easy two and a half hours
8:47
Speaker 1: to watch. It was basically a glorified dynamite with some
8:51
Speaker 1: title matches on it. Although we had more title matches
8:54
Speaker 1: on the actual Dynamite on Wednesday than we did last night.
8:57
Speaker 1: We had none, but there were no major angles or
9:00
Speaker 1: anything like that. No, nothing major in that regard. Very
9:04
Speaker 1: much like a Saturday Night's main event for them before
9:07
Speaker 1: their next pay per view. If you missed the show,
9:11
Speaker 1: you know you missed some good wrestling, but not much else.
9:15
Speaker 1: At least we didn't get any complaints about the ring
9:17
Speaker 1: this year. Remember last year the ring was back to
9:21
Speaker 1: its normal size this year. They also ran a rare
9:25
Speaker 1: house show in Brisbane earlier today that featured the debut
9:29
Speaker 1: of The Inspiration Cassie Lee and Jess McKay. They dropped
9:34
Speaker 1: their Knockouts tag team titles in TNA to the Elegance
9:37
Speaker 1: brand and they ended up signing here. Tony Khan chose
9:42
Speaker 1: to debut them here as a surprise for the locals.
9:46
Speaker 1: I mean normally, if this was like a really big
9:48
Speaker 1: name that he had signed and he debuted them off
9:50
Speaker 1: TV at a house show, I would say what are
9:54
Speaker 1: you doing? But I mean in this case, it's the Inspiration,
9:58
Speaker 1: Like you know, we had to save it as a
10:00
Speaker 1: surprise for the locals. Fine, they won a quick match,
10:05
Speaker 1: then they issued an open challenge, which brought out the
10:08
Speaker 1: Brawling Birds that's the new team name for Jamie Hayter
10:11
Speaker 1: and Alex Windsor, and when they came out, the Inspiration bailed.
10:16
Speaker 1: Look are they the best tag team out there? No,
10:19
Speaker 1: They're not not even close. But they have a women's
10:22
Speaker 1: tag team division now, and they at least bring something
10:25
Speaker 1: different to the product as far as the comedy stuff
10:27
Speaker 1: that they do. So if you want a little variety,
10:31
Speaker 1: you know, I guess they bring that, But I don't
10:33
Speaker 1: see Tony being gaga for them to where they get
10:36
Speaker 1: heavily pushed or anything like that. You know, if he
10:38
Speaker 1: uses them to put over existing teams that they have,
10:41
Speaker 1: then that's fine, and frankly, I would rather he sticks
10:44
Speaker 1: the inspiration in the tag team division and not someone
10:47
Speaker 1: like Jamie Hayter, who should be contending for the TBS
10:50
Speaker 1: title at least, if not the world title. Well. One
10:53
Speaker 1: of the other matches on the House Show earlier was
10:56
Speaker 1: a trios match with Hangman, Adam Page, Brody King and
11:00
Speaker 1: Robbie Eagles against MJF and the Reunited Aussie Open. Mark
11:05
Speaker 1: Davis got his old tag team partner back for one night,
11:09
Speaker 1: which is good. Because the update on his new tag
11:11
Speaker 1: team partner is not great, at least not for Mark Davis.
11:15
Speaker 1: Fightful Select reported this week that Jake Doyle, the former
11:19
Speaker 1: Jake Something, is recovering after undergoing successful surgery for a
11:22
Speaker 1: torn biceps suffered during a tag team title match with
11:26
Speaker 1: FTR on Dynamite a few weeks ago. That was back
11:29
Speaker 1: on January twenty eighth. Do you remember there was a
11:32
Speaker 1: spot during that match Doyle and Cash Wheeler were out
11:36
Speaker 1: on the apron and Doyle took a DDT he held
11:40
Speaker 1: onto the top row as he was going down for
11:43
Speaker 1: the move, and that is where the injury happened. He
11:47
Speaker 1: immediately grabbed the arm and he looked up at Wheeler.
11:51
Speaker 1: He said, I tore my bicep. Like he knew right away.
11:53
Speaker 1: He knew instantly, and unfortunately that was confirmed later on.
11:57
Speaker 1: So he had surgery, which means he's gonna be out
12:00
Speaker 1: for a while. He's gonna be out for many months.
12:02
Speaker 1: So Mark Davis is without a tag team partner, but
12:05
Speaker 1: at least for one night, he got his old partner back.
12:08
Speaker 1: On the Grand Slam card, John Moxley defended the Continental
12:12
Speaker 1: title against Kenoski to Keshen and I thought there might
12:14
Speaker 1: be a title change here, but I had an I
12:17
Speaker 1: towards Takashdan Okada Revolution because by the time he gets
12:21
Speaker 1: a Revolution, it will have been several months since they
12:25
Speaker 1: had that first match in the Continental Classic, so you
12:28
Speaker 1: would imagine, Okay, the next pay per view isn't until
12:31
Speaker 1: March fifteenth. Their last match was in December, all right,
12:35
Speaker 1: you can kind of build it up for Revolution, and
12:38
Speaker 1: it sure doesn't look like that's the match that we're
12:40
Speaker 1: going to be getting here because these two went to
12:42
Speaker 1: a time limit draw twenty minutes. An ex Caliber pointed
12:45
Speaker 1: out on commentary just to clarify twenty minute time limit
12:49
Speaker 1: for these Continental title matches on TV, sixty minutes on
12:53
Speaker 1: pay per view, and I said, hmm, interesting that he
12:56
Speaker 1: would point that out. So then we got a time
12:59
Speaker 1: limit draw. On the fans, of course, we're not very
13:00
Speaker 1: happy about that. They were going nuts for the last
13:02
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds of this match with all the time
13:05
Speaker 1: calls and everything, and they wanted a winner, so they
13:07
Speaker 1: were not happy they didn't get one. Takesha ended up
13:10
Speaker 1: laying him out with a raging fire after the match.
13:12
Speaker 1: Clearly we are going to get this one more time.
13:17
Speaker 1: It seems to me that that match would happen at Revolution.
13:22
Speaker 1: So it looks to me like we're getting John Moxley
13:24
Speaker 1: into Cashday in Los Angeles and I'm watching this and
13:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, is Tony gonna make us wait until Wembley
13:32
Speaker 1: in August to circle back to Takeshta and Okada, Like
13:38
Speaker 1: I can understand him looking at that and going, you
13:40
Speaker 1: know what, in the way that Okada and Omega in
13:44
Speaker 1: that big unification match was a big deal all in
13:47
Speaker 1: in Texas last year, right, this could be a big
13:50
Speaker 1: deal for Wembley at all in this year, which is
13:53
Speaker 1: a month later than it was last year, by the way.
13:56
Speaker 1: But we gotta wait until August if that's the idea here,
14:00
Speaker 1: because I think when we eventually get that match, Takesha
14:03
Speaker 1: is the Continental champion, Ocata is still the International champion,
14:07
Speaker 1: and they have a unification match, and whoever wins, which
14:10
Speaker 1: should be Takeshta, they would bring back the unified title
14:14
Speaker 1: that they created, which is now sitting on a shelf
14:17
Speaker 1: collecting dust somewhere. But that's the vibe I'm getting out
14:20
Speaker 1: of this now. The Revolution is going to be Takeshta
14:23
Speaker 1: and Moxley, and maybe he wins the belt there and
14:27
Speaker 1: I guess possibly holds off until all In. Again, that's
14:30
Speaker 1: just me spitballing here, but that was the vibe that
14:33
Speaker 1: I got from watching this. And if I have to
14:36
Speaker 1: wait until August to get that next match between these two,
14:39
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be very happy about this. We had
14:42
Speaker 1: the Babes of Wrath retaining their aw tag team titles
14:46
Speaker 1: over Meghan Bain and Penelope Forward, and the match was fine.
14:51
Speaker 1: I mean, it was decent enough, But the story here
14:54
Speaker 1: came after the match where we had the debut of
14:58
Speaker 1: Lena Cross in Australia, indie wrestler who has traveled the world.
15:02
Speaker 1: And I can tell you we have had Lena Cross.
15:05
Speaker 1: It was only one time, but we had her in
15:07
Speaker 1: House of Glory for a match a couple of years ago,
15:10
Speaker 1: and ironically it was against Meghan Bain and they had
15:14
Speaker 1: a hell of a match. And so I started watching
15:17
Speaker 1: more of her work, and even in preparation for that show,
15:20
Speaker 1: I was really, you know, kind of studying up on her,
15:22
Speaker 1: watching her matches. She's very impressive. This is a good signing.
15:26
Speaker 1: This is a solid, rock solid signing here for this
15:29
Speaker 1: women's division. I am just bewildered by the way in
15:34
Speaker 1: which they debuted her. Now I can understand Tony wanting
15:37
Speaker 1: to debut her here in Australia, but to do so
15:40
Speaker 1: when the match was over and Megabet had already lost,
15:45
Speaker 1: because I think that they should have done a title
15:47
Speaker 1: change here, and so it would have made total sense
15:50
Speaker 1: if Lena Cross showed up and factored into the finish
15:52
Speaker 1: in some way and she helped Megabet win the tag
15:55
Speaker 1: team titles. Instead, she just kind of showed up when
15:58
Speaker 1: the match was over and then the heels all pose
16:01
Speaker 1: with the belts that didn't belong to them. So maybe
16:05
Speaker 1: that's the end goal here, is to get the belts
16:07
Speaker 1: on them. But I would have done the title change
16:09
Speaker 1: here on this show and it would have made her
16:10
Speaker 1: debut more impactful that way. So that was very strange
16:14
Speaker 1: to me. But yeah, Lena Cross is a signing in
16:16
Speaker 1: that women's division. That is that is a good signing.
16:19
Speaker 1: I like that Orange Cassidy. In Timeless Tony Storm, they
16:23
Speaker 1: got a win over Wheeler Youda and Marina Shafir Dah
16:27
Speaker 1: took the losing fall, so he was shaved mostly bald.
16:31
Speaker 1: That was the stipulation the loser of the fall gets
16:34
Speaker 1: shaved bald, so you'd got a haircut, which he desperately needed.
16:39
Speaker 1: So this was like the comedy relief on the show
16:41
Speaker 1: we got. We got more intergender action than I thought
16:44
Speaker 1: we would get here. In this match. There was a
16:46
Speaker 1: big spot where you gave Tony a pile driver on
16:50
Speaker 1: top of a i think an equipment case in the crowd.
16:53
Speaker 1: But that's you know again, the people wanted to see
16:55
Speaker 1: somebody get their head shaved, preferably someone from the Death Riders.
16:58
Speaker 1: The fans were happy that they got to see it.
17:01
Speaker 1: We had Hangman Page handing Andred l Idelo his first
17:06
Speaker 1: defeat since returning to AW and this was a very
17:10
Speaker 1: good match. I think it could have used more time.
17:12
Speaker 1: I usually complained about the opposite Usually matches on some
17:14
Speaker 1: of these big shows get too much time. In this case,
17:18
Speaker 1: if this was on pay per view, like if this
17:19
Speaker 1: was a Revolution match, they would have easily gotten five
17:22
Speaker 1: to ten more minutes and I would not have complained
17:24
Speaker 1: at all, Like it just felt like they were about
17:27
Speaker 1: to hit that next gear and then the match ended.
17:29
Speaker 1: So I think another five to seven matches would have helped.
17:33
Speaker 1: But Hangman gets to win. I'm not surprised. It's the
17:36
Speaker 1: reason why I picked him to win here. And I
17:39
Speaker 1: know some people you know, are gonna be upset about
17:41
Speaker 1: that because they're tired of Hangman MJF. It's been done before,
17:44
Speaker 1: Androt would have been fresh, he's been undefeated. You keep
17:46
Speaker 1: the momentum going. My hope is that Tony Kah does
17:49
Speaker 1: keep the momentum going because Androte is putting in the
17:52
Speaker 1: best work of his career right now. There's no reason
17:55
Speaker 1: for it to end just because he lost one match.
17:58
Speaker 1: But the story is with Hangman. They're the ones with
18:02
Speaker 1: the history, right. I mean again, everything was set up
18:05
Speaker 1: to where nobody should be terribly surprised by the outcome here.
18:09
Speaker 1: Believe me, I would have been fine if andrede one,
18:11
Speaker 1: But it makes sense to me that Hangman is the
18:13
Speaker 1: one to go on because now he becomes number one
18:15
Speaker 1: contender at Revolution for the AW World title. The story
18:19
Speaker 1: is with them. However, I do have one big ripe.
18:24
Speaker 1: What I do not like is having Hangman page as
18:29
Speaker 1: one third of the Trio's champions, challenging now for the
18:33
Speaker 1: AW World title, which is where his focus is going
18:37
Speaker 1: to be and should be. They did the same thing
18:40
Speaker 1: with Samoa Joe Right, he had multiple titles. I don't
18:44
Speaker 1: like jetsby talking about going after the aw tag team
18:48
Speaker 1: titles because they comprise the other two thirds of the
18:51
Speaker 1: Trios champions. They already have belts, but they're talking about
18:54
Speaker 1: other belts. What I don't like is Willow Nightingale as
18:58
Speaker 1: TBS champion when she's already won half of the women's
19:00
Speaker 1: tag team champions. Think about how many people they have
19:04
Speaker 1: on this roster, and he is continuing to sign more
19:06
Speaker 1: and more With all of the people on this bloated roster,
19:10
Speaker 1: why do we need to constantly have people holding championships
19:13
Speaker 1: simultaneously like this? Like why is this a thing? I mean,
19:18
Speaker 1: we're not just talking about one person, this is multiple
19:22
Speaker 1: people now. It's just it's an annoying habit that Tony has.
19:26
Speaker 1: I wish he would stop. Kyle Fletcher. He retained the
19:31
Speaker 1: TNT title in a ladder match with Mark Briscoe. This
19:36
Speaker 1: was after taking the title from Tamaso Champa on Dynamite
19:39
Speaker 1: Wednesday Night. Champion did not have very long with that TNT.
19:43
Speaker 1: I said, t TNT Championship, and I love the way
19:47
Speaker 1: that they debuted him and his presentation and everything. I
19:50
Speaker 1: can't say enough good things about the way they introduced him.
19:53
Speaker 1: Taking the title away from him this quickly and almost
19:56
Speaker 1: shuffling him off to the side. That made me scratch.
20:00
Speaker 1: I had especially because you could have done a time
20:02
Speaker 1: limit draw with them on Wednesday, run the match back
20:05
Speaker 1: last night. They would have had a kick ass match,
20:07
Speaker 1: ladder batch or no ladder match in Australia. And if
20:11
Speaker 1: you wanted you know, Fletcher to have his crowning moment
20:14
Speaker 1: in his home country, he still could have walked out
20:16
Speaker 1: as the TNT champion, but at least that it would
20:20
Speaker 1: have given you know, the two of them this big
20:22
Speaker 1: blowoff match to have after having what I thought was
20:24
Speaker 1: the best television match of the year so far on Wednesday.
20:28
Speaker 1: So in this match here, I mean there were some
20:30
Speaker 1: brutal bumps. I mean there was a Jade driller onto
20:33
Speaker 1: a ladder. There was a brainbuster by Fletcher off of
20:37
Speaker 1: a ladder. I wish these spots had more time to
20:40
Speaker 1: marinate and breathe instead of just quickly moving on to
20:43
Speaker 1: the next. And yeah, I could say that, well they
20:46
Speaker 1: were on TV. They only got you know whatever, the
20:49
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen minutes. They were limited on time, so they
20:52
Speaker 1: had to move on to the next But let's not
20:55
Speaker 1: pretend that even if this was on pay per view
20:56
Speaker 1: and they got twenty two minutes, that we wouldn't have
20:58
Speaker 1: had the same thing where you just kind of move
21:00
Speaker 1: on from one spot to the next. That's the thing
21:02
Speaker 1: about these ladder batches. So that and the anti climactic
21:06
Speaker 1: finish are really the only critiques I have about this.
21:10
Speaker 1: The way they did that finish where they were both
21:12
Speaker 1: on a ladder, separate ladders, and Fletcher very slowly, you know,
21:17
Speaker 1: tipped over. He tilted the ladder that Briscoe was on,
21:20
Speaker 1: and brisco took a very like slow motion fall off
21:24
Speaker 1: the ladder. And it wasn't like a super tall ladder
21:26
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but he just fell off the
21:28
Speaker 1: ladder and you know, he got draped over the top
21:30
Speaker 1: rope and he was down on the mat. Now, by
21:33
Speaker 1: the standards of what we see in these even in
21:35
Speaker 1: this match, I'm like, that's the finish that was. That
21:39
Speaker 1: was very anti climactic, and then Fletcher just pulled down
21:42
Speaker 1: the title. So he remains TNT champion. What's next for
21:46
Speaker 1: Tomasso Champa, I don't know, but I hope they have
21:49
Speaker 1: something decent for him, preferably as a heel, because I
21:52
Speaker 1: think that's where he really shines and does his best work.
21:55
Speaker 1: But I floated this idea in the review last night.
21:58
Speaker 1: You know, could we be headed Maybe not right now,
22:01
Speaker 1: but could we be headed for Andrade going after the
22:05
Speaker 1: TNT title. Yeah, we talk about keeping the momentum up
22:09
Speaker 1: with Shampa. Just say the same thing about Andrade. He
22:13
Speaker 1: lost last night, but that doesn't mean that he can't
22:15
Speaker 1: keep putting in this great body of work he's been
22:19
Speaker 1: putting in and being in meaningful matches on TV. He
22:21
Speaker 1: should be wrestling for a championship. And if it's not
22:23
Speaker 1: going to be the world title, the TNT title is
22:25
Speaker 1: one step below. And now they're both members of the
22:29
Speaker 1: Callus family, so that could present some interesting problems there.
22:33
Speaker 1: It seems to me like they are trending in the
22:35
Speaker 1: direction of Fletcher. I don't know how deep into the future,
22:40
Speaker 1: but splitting away from the Callous family and going babyface,
22:45
Speaker 1: they could use that as a way to get there,
22:46
Speaker 1: as a means to get there and build to Andrade
22:49
Speaker 1: and Fletcher again. I don't know if that's revolution or
22:51
Speaker 1: if it's a few months from now. That's a direction
22:54
Speaker 1: I would definitely explore, and then we had Brodie King
23:00
Speaker 1: MJF for the AAW World Championship in the main event.
23:03
Speaker 1: We actually got a proper match here between these two,
23:06
Speaker 1: not a sixty second squash. I was hoping that maybe
23:11
Speaker 1: possibly we would see Buddy Matthews back here on this show,
23:16
Speaker 1: you know, even if just to be out there to
23:18
Speaker 1: cheer on his friend Brody King. We have not seen
23:22
Speaker 1: Buddy Matthews in a year. It was actually on this
23:24
Speaker 1: show a year ago where he injured his ankle and
23:27
Speaker 1: it ended up being a far worse injury than anybody
23:30
Speaker 1: thought at the beginning. I know he's had some complications.
23:34
Speaker 1: I haven't been following every single update on his social media.
23:37
Speaker 1: I've seen some of them, but I was kind of
23:38
Speaker 1: hoping that men, maybe you know, they're just keeping it
23:40
Speaker 1: hush hush, and they've been waiting for this next Australia
23:44
Speaker 1: show and he would show up, and maybe they would
23:46
Speaker 1: even shoot an angle where he factored into Brody King
23:48
Speaker 1: losing this match, and you could do something with Brody
23:50
Speaker 1: and Buddy. Buddy was never even mentioned. He wasn't there. Obviously,
23:54
Speaker 1: He's still not anywhere near one hundred percent. I wish him. Well,
23:59
Speaker 1: Bandido was there, although he didn't show up until midway
24:02
Speaker 1: into the match. He ran out to be cheerleader for
24:05
Speaker 1: brody King because MJF was working over his knee and
24:10
Speaker 1: they were telling that story. So Bandido comes out and
24:12
Speaker 1: he's banging on the mat and he's cheerleading for him,
24:16
Speaker 1: and Bendido's got a brace on his or sleeve whatever
24:19
Speaker 1: it was, on his left hand. He has a hand
24:21
Speaker 1: injury that he's been dealing with. So they had a
24:24
Speaker 1: good match. It was a good main event. I could
24:26
Speaker 1: actually say the same thing about the finish here, where
24:28
Speaker 1: it kind of came off as anti climactic, where, you know,
24:31
Speaker 1: for all the stuff they were doing to each other,
24:33
Speaker 1: dropping each other on their heads and whatnot, the MJF
24:36
Speaker 1: hit a heat seeker and then just pinned him. But again,
24:40
Speaker 1: I mean, once Hangman became number one contender, not that
24:43
Speaker 1: we didn't already know. You know that MJF was not
24:47
Speaker 1: losing his championship to brody King, But I mean once
24:50
Speaker 1: Hangman became number one contender, it was preordained, like we
24:54
Speaker 1: knew where this was going here, and so MJF retains
24:57
Speaker 1: the title. Hangman comes out with a contract for Revolution
25:01
Speaker 1: signs it, so I guess we don't have to worry
25:03
Speaker 1: about a contract signing, although we are getting a face
25:06
Speaker 1: to face on TV this week between them and so
25:09
Speaker 1: now the main event of Revolution has been set. So
25:12
Speaker 1: Brody loses, but he won more than he lost with
25:16
Speaker 1: all of the attention that he got this week, and
25:19
Speaker 1: we got to talk about this Dave Meltzer report that
25:23
Speaker 1: caused a colossal shit storm to the point where Warner
25:27
Speaker 1: Brothers Discovery felt the need to respond to it. On
25:32
Speaker 1: Dynamite last Wednesday. Brodi King was not on the show
25:36
Speaker 1: but for a video package hyping up his match with MJF,
25:40
Speaker 1: and MJF was not on the show either. He was
25:41
Speaker 1: in the video package as well. And Hangman wasn't there,
25:45
Speaker 1: and Andrede wasn't there, So it's not like Brody King
25:48
Speaker 1: was the only one missing from the show. Will O
25:51
Speaker 1: Nightingale and Harley Camberon they weren't there either because ex
25:54
Speaker 1: Caliber said they had already flown to Australia, which is
25:57
Speaker 1: why they weren't there to help Chris Statlander and her
25:59
Speaker 1: loss TECHLA. So I didn't think anything of it. I
26:03
Speaker 1: just reasonably assumed they had all either left for Australia
26:07
Speaker 1: and they were in flight or they were already down there.
26:11
Speaker 1: But later that night on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer
26:14
Speaker 1: suggested that Brody King was intentionally held off the show
26:19
Speaker 1: by Warner Brothers Discovery, which seems to be wielding an
26:22
Speaker 1: awful lot of power lately. If you believe the Train
26:25
Speaker 1: Miguel story that they didn't want him on their networks
26:27
Speaker 1: when they signed the Rascals, and even that story doesn't
26:30
Speaker 1: really hold up to scrutiny when you really look at
26:33
Speaker 1: I mean, it's possible, but I think it's more likely
26:36
Speaker 1: that somebody in that company just didn't want Train me
26:38
Speaker 1: Gel working there. But then Dave says that it was
26:41
Speaker 1: a WBD call not to have Brody on the show
26:45
Speaker 1: after the crowd in Las Vegas the week before broke
26:48
Speaker 1: into anti Ice Chance before his match with MJF. According
26:52
Speaker 1: to Dave, Warner Brothers Discovery were worried, The people that
26:56
Speaker 1: worked there were worried about the prospect of more Chance,
27:00
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to upset the president because of
27:02
Speaker 1: the pending acquisition of the company by Netflix. By the way,
27:06
Speaker 1: Paramount Skydance sweetened its existing offer for the company this
27:10
Speaker 1: week it had not budged from its offer of thirty
27:14
Speaker 1: dollars per share, and they really still haven't, but they
27:17
Speaker 1: have sweetened it up in other ways. This is the
27:20
Speaker 1: point in the relationship where the other person takes out
27:22
Speaker 1: a restraining order because they now fear for their life.
27:26
Speaker 1: It gets more and more embarrassing for them by the week.
27:30
Speaker 1: But if the Netflix deal is to go through, it's
27:32
Speaker 1: going to need regulatory approval, and if anybody should get
27:36
Speaker 1: all up in their feelings, it could scuttle the Netflix deal.
27:40
Speaker 1: But this is what Dave said. The deal is that
27:42
Speaker 1: they didn't want the fans in the arena to be
27:44
Speaker 1: chanting that if Brody came out, there was that risk
27:48
Speaker 1: when he comes back, it will happen again. I don't
27:51
Speaker 1: know how they're going to handle it. This is again
27:53
Speaker 1: not a Tony call. This is from above. Again with this,
27:59
Speaker 1: it came from above. I just laugh every time I
28:04
Speaker 1: hear him say that or I read that. He said,
28:07
Speaker 1: you know what it is, nobody wants to get on
28:09
Speaker 1: Trump's bad side. If it wasn't for that, nobody would care.
28:11
Speaker 1: It's just a chant. But unfortunately they've got a company
28:14
Speaker 1: they're trying to sell and get regulatory approval from a
28:18
Speaker 1: guy who is going to take that stuff personal. That's
28:20
Speaker 1: just how it is. No brody King on the show
28:23
Speaker 1: when he absolutely, of course brody King and MJF should
28:27
Speaker 1: have had a segment on the show. Sean Ross Sappa.
28:32
Speaker 1: Fightful then refuted this, saying the rumors that brody King
28:36
Speaker 1: was kept off Dynamite by WBD were vehemently denied to me.
28:41
Speaker 1: Andrewsarian of The Matman Podcast echoed Shawn's tweet, saying I
28:45
Speaker 1: can piggyback on this. I reached out to WBD contacts
28:49
Speaker 1: and they had not heard of anything regarding this. Fightful
28:53
Speaker 1: was then given an official statement from Warner Brothers Discovery
28:56
Speaker 1: they actually had to respond to this shit, saying Warner
28:59
Speaker 1: b Other's Discovery did not have any involvement in brody
29:02
Speaker 1: King's upcoming AW schedule. Any speculations to the contrary is
29:07
Speaker 1: categorically false. Brody is scheduled to appear during the next
29:11
Speaker 1: AW event, which will air this Saturday on TNT and
29:15
Speaker 1: HBO Max So. Brandon Thurston of Post Wrestling, who was
29:19
Speaker 1: given the same statement when they reached out to WBD,
29:22
Speaker 1: followed up by asking, you know, hey, some might interpret
29:25
Speaker 1: you saying Brody's upcoming schedule kind of leaves open the
29:30
Speaker 1: possibility that you did prevent him from appearing this week.
29:33
Speaker 1: And the spokesperson said that their denial includes yesterday's show,
29:38
Speaker 1: while emphasizing that the report is quote categorically false. You
29:44
Speaker 1: know a lot of times we hear reports about WBD this,
29:47
Speaker 1: WBD that, and we never get any actual statement or
29:52
Speaker 1: feedback from WBD. This is one of those rare occasions
29:56
Speaker 1: where they responded, and they were pretty adamant in their
29:58
Speaker 1: denial of the entire thing. And last night, before Brody's
30:02
Speaker 1: match with MJF, the fans in Australia, they broke out
30:06
Speaker 1: into the same chant as the fans in Las Vegas,
30:09
Speaker 1: and they were not edited out of the show. Now,
30:11
Speaker 1: there was a noticeable jump cut right before the match
30:14
Speaker 1: started where it looked like they may have cut out
30:16
Speaker 1: some of the chants. But if it was such a
30:19
Speaker 1: problem for them, they would have had the power to
30:21
Speaker 1: edit them out of the show entirely or just mute
30:23
Speaker 1: the audio. Again, it was a tape show that aired
30:27
Speaker 1: last night and they didn't do that. Now. Meltzer, for
30:32
Speaker 1: his part, later tweeted those at aw have said. Nobody
30:36
Speaker 1: from WBD asked them not to use brody King on
30:40
Speaker 1: last night's show, and this was just how it was booked,
30:42
Speaker 1: to only use him in a video package. We had
30:45
Speaker 1: heard over the weekend that there were concerns about how
30:48
Speaker 1: much pub the situation had gotten from the WBD side,
30:51
Speaker 1: but those at AW said that they were not told
30:54
Speaker 1: not to put him on the show. So after the
30:59
Speaker 1: official denial from WBD, Dave then tweeted, so this corrects
31:04
Speaker 1: the report from last night. It had been a topic
31:07
Speaker 1: of conversation over the weekend. Yes, it corrects the report
31:12
Speaker 1: that he put out there. It's like the time he
31:16
Speaker 1: fell for the fake backlash posters saying backlash was coming
31:19
Speaker 1: to the Tokyo Dome last year, so he reported it
31:24
Speaker 1: and it started to spread, only to later tweet that
31:28
Speaker 1: he can confirm backlash is not coming to the Tokyo Dome. Yes,
31:32
Speaker 1: because you tweeted it. The false report came from him,
31:38
Speaker 1: only to then turn around to be the first to
31:40
Speaker 1: report that it wasn't true. Right, Or the time that
31:43
Speaker 1: he wrote a whole paragraph in The Observer which he
31:45
Speaker 1: later deleted because it ain't there though no more. But
31:48
Speaker 1: this was before WrestleMania forty when they were teasing on
31:50
Speaker 1: screen issues and tension between The Rock and Triple H,
31:54
Speaker 1: and he reported that they filmed a segment. He had
31:56
Speaker 1: watched a segment that they filmed with the two of
32:00
Speaker 1: them going nose to nose, cutting promos on each other
32:02
Speaker 1: in preparation for a potential match, a match with Triple H,
32:09
Speaker 1: who has a defibrillator implanted in his chest after he
32:12
Speaker 1: almost died. I'm reading his description of this segment, and
32:17
Speaker 1: I realize someone tweeted him or shared in some way
32:21
Speaker 1: with him a video of a backstage segment from an
32:25
Speaker 1: episode of SmackDown in twenty fourteen. Now, how that happened?
32:31
Speaker 1: I have no fucking idea, because it's bad enough. Like,
32:34
Speaker 1: if you look in the background, there's a two K
32:35
Speaker 1: fifteen poster on the wall. Why the hell would they
32:38
Speaker 1: be advertising two K fifteen here in whatever year? This
32:40
Speaker 1: would have been twenty twenty four, But it's not like
32:43
Speaker 1: they even looked the same. It was ten years ago.
32:48
Speaker 1: But he mistook it as a recent segment. And look,
32:51
Speaker 1: people make mistakes. I make mistakes. No one bats a thousand,
32:56
Speaker 1: but those are some massive mistakes for someone in his position.
32:59
Speaker 1: Who has been doing this for forty plus years. His
33:03
Speaker 1: words carry weight him reporting that could have an impact
33:07
Speaker 1: on Brody King's career, and you could have a positive
33:10
Speaker 1: effect if fans rally behind him for it, or it
33:12
Speaker 1: could have a negative impact on his career. If it
33:16
Speaker 1: gets to a point now where it does become an
33:17
Speaker 1: issue for WBD and it affects Tony's ability, then to
33:21
Speaker 1: use him on TV, that would be bad. But it
33:24
Speaker 1: shouldn't come as the result of something erroneous that Dave reported.
33:28
Speaker 1: That's the point I doubt Brody cares since it only
33:32
Speaker 1: draws more attention to something that he obviously is very
33:35
Speaker 1: passionate about. And I also don't blame him for going
33:38
Speaker 1: out there and expressing himself on TV because it is
33:41
Speaker 1: something that his boss allows him to do. Tony Khan
33:43
Speaker 1: gives his wrestlers, however you feel about it, the freedom
33:47
Speaker 1: to express themselves openly in ways that wrestlers in other
33:50
Speaker 1: companies cannot. So instead they post videos on social media,
33:54
Speaker 1: like Becky Lynch did a few weeks ago in character
33:57
Speaker 1: she's walking outside in the cold saying that she hates ice.
34:01
Speaker 1: It's very dangerous and it hurts people. She said Tony
34:04
Speaker 1: has no issue with it, so Brody is free to
34:07
Speaker 1: express himself however he chooses, so long as it isn't
34:10
Speaker 1: overly vulgar, and if it bothers you that much, then
34:15
Speaker 1: wear earplugs or don't watch the product. I mean, I
34:18
Speaker 1: don't know what to tell you. It is a choice
34:20
Speaker 1: that Tony Khan has made as far as how he
34:22
Speaker 1: wants to run his company. And one day when a
34:25
Speaker 1: wrestler says something or he wears a shirt on TV
34:28
Speaker 1: that pisses off the wrong people, then they won't be
34:31
Speaker 1: so free to express themselves anymore. But Dave claiming that
34:35
Speaker 1: WBD is basically trying to silence this man. If enough
34:40
Speaker 1: people think, hey, wait a minute, they don't want us
34:43
Speaker 1: to do it, well, then shit, we're gonna have to
34:45
Speaker 1: do it even more now, right. I mean, it's like
34:48
Speaker 1: you tell someone they can't do something. What do you
34:50
Speaker 1: think they're gonna do? As big as this blew up
34:53
Speaker 1: on Thursday? You know, everywhere Brody King goes, they're gonna
34:57
Speaker 1: follow him around. I mean, they were chanting in Australia
35:02
Speaker 1: and just look at the schedule that they have coming up.
35:04
Speaker 1: They're in California. Each of the next three weeks leading
35:07
Speaker 1: up to Revolution, which is in Los Angeles, and then
35:11
Speaker 1: they're in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the end of March.
35:15
Speaker 1: It's not going away, and neither is Brody. He cut
35:19
Speaker 1: a promo after the show last night saying that he's
35:21
Speaker 1: getting back into the world title hunt, not this week,
35:24
Speaker 1: but next Wednesday, the twenty fifth. He's going to be
35:27
Speaker 1: back on Dynamite looking for a fight. So I mean,
35:30
Speaker 1: I took that to me, and he's not going to
35:31
Speaker 1: be on the show this week. For aw They've gotten
35:34
Speaker 1: a ton of mainstream publicity out of all this, including
35:37
Speaker 1: a long article on the CNN website on Saturday about
35:41
Speaker 1: wrestling and politics, and Brody King is the focal point
35:46
Speaker 1: of their story. I hate that I even have to
35:48
Speaker 1: talk about this stuff here because everything is politicized these days.
35:53
Speaker 1: Even things that should not inherently be political end up
35:57
Speaker 1: being turned into a political football, which is why I
36:00
Speaker 1: don't get into this stuff here. But whether Dave just
36:03
Speaker 1: made an assumption or he got bad information from someone,
36:07
Speaker 1: it's a bad look for him either way. I actually
36:09
Speaker 1: listened to the segment on Observer Radio. I didn't just
36:11
Speaker 1: read the aggregated reports about it. People pick and choose
36:15
Speaker 1: quotes from it. Or sometimes somebody says something and you
36:18
Speaker 1: can't get the full context unless you hear the way
36:20
Speaker 1: in which they said it. Sometimes somebody says something humorous
36:23
Speaker 1: and then you read it and you take it seriously.
36:25
Speaker 1: So sometimes it's important to go back and watch or
36:28
Speaker 1: listen to the actual segment to get the full context.
36:32
Speaker 1: Because the subject that just came up naturally in the
36:34
Speaker 1: course of him and Brian Alvarez discussing dynamite, so I
36:37
Speaker 1: listened to it. It was pretty clear Dave was not
36:39
Speaker 1: just giving his opinion, he was reporting on it like
36:42
Speaker 1: it was fact. And it's one thing to say that
36:46
Speaker 1: it was a topic of conversation over the weekend, but
36:49
Speaker 1: it's another to suggest, well, this is the reason why
36:52
Speaker 1: he was not on the show on Wednesday. It's not
36:56
Speaker 1: even an outrageous conclusion to reach, you know, given the
36:58
Speaker 1: WBD has a pending multi billion dollar acquisition that could
37:02
Speaker 1: be blown up for any number of stupid things, it's
37:07
Speaker 1: not unreasonable for him to infer that. But how does
37:09
Speaker 1: someone in his position not fact check something or double
37:13
Speaker 1: or triple source something like that before running with it?
37:15
Speaker 1: So matter of factly, like he has to know that
37:19
Speaker 1: when he's giving an opinion on something, especially on his
37:21
Speaker 1: radio show, it's always getting aggregated, is fact. Or you
37:27
Speaker 1: have these Twitter accounts that will just they'll post a
37:29
Speaker 1: quote and they'll attribute it to, you know, Meltzer or
37:32
Speaker 1: won Right Wrestling Observer newsletter and they'll post it and
37:36
Speaker 1: it just spreads like wildfire. But it may well have
37:38
Speaker 1: been something where he and Alvarez were having a conversation.
37:40
Speaker 1: He was just giving his opinion on something, or he
37:42
Speaker 1: was guessing, well, maybe they'll do this, maybe they'll do that,
37:46
Speaker 1: and then it gets reported on his fact and I
37:48
Speaker 1: actually think that's very unfair to him a lot of
37:51
Speaker 1: the time when it's very clear he's just giving his
37:53
Speaker 1: opinion on something. But that's not what this was, and
37:57
Speaker 1: so it ended up taking on a life of its
37:59
Speaker 1: own that's on him. Now. In that same CNN story,
38:03
Speaker 1: in a random sentence that was right there in the
38:06
Speaker 1: middle of it, they had this disclosure where they confirmed
38:10
Speaker 1: what a lot of us already suspected, which is that
38:13
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery, which is CNN's parent company, owns a
38:17
Speaker 1: minority steak in all elite wrestling. Now, this is not
38:21
Speaker 1: really news most media outlets will disclose that type of
38:25
Speaker 1: thing if they're reporting on something that is tied to
38:28
Speaker 1: the company that owns them or they have some sort
38:30
Speaker 1: of business relationship with them. It's something that Tony Kahan
38:34
Speaker 1: has never confirmed publicly, but he's never denied it either,
38:37
Speaker 1: which would have been very easy for him to do.
38:40
Speaker 1: He has only said that he owns all voting shares
38:43
Speaker 1: in his company. But the belief is that WBD Steak
38:46
Speaker 1: is less than ten percent because its ownership Steak has
38:51
Speaker 1: never been disclosed in any lawsuits that AW has been
38:55
Speaker 1: involved in, which is something that would be required if
38:58
Speaker 1: it owned ten percent or more. That's because WBD is
39:02
Speaker 1: a publicly traded company. You'd have to disclose that, and
39:05
Speaker 1: that's the law. So the fact that it's never been
39:08
Speaker 1: mentioned before tells you that whatever the exact number is,
39:11
Speaker 1: the ownership stake is under ten percent. And I don't
39:15
Speaker 1: see this as being a terribly big deal. But now
39:18
Speaker 1: at least we have confirmation and so we can move
39:20
Speaker 1: beyond this now aew, there's some other news here. This
39:25
Speaker 1: has yet to be confirmed by AW. But I mentioned
39:28
Speaker 1: andrews Arian before of the met Men Wrestling podcast. He
39:31
Speaker 1: was the first to report this week that AW Double
39:35
Speaker 1: or Nothing is headed to New York City for the
39:38
Speaker 1: first time, specifically to Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York,
39:43
Speaker 1: which is part of the same tennis complex where AW
39:46
Speaker 1: has run events before from Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is
39:50
Speaker 1: undergoing renovations ahead of next year's US Open. Arthur Ashen
39:54
Speaker 1: and Louis Armstrong, the two stadiums are basically right next
39:57
Speaker 1: to each other. Louis Armstrong is small, then Arthur ash
40:01
Speaker 1: has a max capacity of about fourteen thousand. Accounting for
40:05
Speaker 1: the stage and the setup, they'd probably be looking at
40:08
Speaker 1: ten or eleven thousand fans, which should be easily doable
40:11
Speaker 1: for them in New York for a big event like this.
40:14
Speaker 1: I'm sure that thing's going to sell out. Yeah. If
40:17
Speaker 1: there's one thing that AW does not seem to be
40:19
Speaker 1: struggling with and having problems selling tickets for, it's their
40:23
Speaker 1: pay per views, Like they already had that many tickets
40:26
Speaker 1: sold for Revolution next month without a single match announced.
40:30
Speaker 1: Arthur Ash's capacity is closer to twenty three thousand, and
40:34
Speaker 1: each time they've run that venue, it's been the law
40:36
Speaker 1: of diminishing returns. As far as the attendance goes, it
40:39
Speaker 1: just goes down, down, down, So it makes sense to
40:41
Speaker 1: run a smaller venue here pack it in rather than
40:44
Speaker 1: run a bigger venue and only fill it up halfway.
40:47
Speaker 1: But if they have renovations going on, it may not
40:49
Speaker 1: have been their choice. Regardless, they may have wanted to
40:51
Speaker 1: do Arthur Ash and they just had no choice, so
40:53
Speaker 1: they're like, Okay, well we'll run the smaller building. I
40:56
Speaker 1: think in the end that's going to be better for them.
40:58
Speaker 1: Now AW has yet to confer the news, but they
41:01
Speaker 1: have not denied it either. I think they're just waiting
41:03
Speaker 1: to make the announcement double or nothing is typically held
41:06
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend. We just don't know if this is
41:08
Speaker 1: going to be that Saturday or if it's going to
41:10
Speaker 1: be that Sunday. It would have been cool to go
41:12
Speaker 1: to a Mets game at City Field during the day
41:14
Speaker 1: and then walk over to the stadium right after for
41:17
Speaker 1: the pay per view. Again, all of these stadiums are
41:20
Speaker 1: basically right next to each other, but the Mets are
41:23
Speaker 1: away that weekend. I look forward to WWE announcing NXT
41:27
Speaker 1: Memorial Day Madness that weekend because you know they will,
41:31
Speaker 1: you know there'll be some kind of nx T show
41:32
Speaker 1: that they're gonna end up running that weekend now. Andrews
41:36
Speaker 1: Arian also tweeted out something very interesting on Wednesday morning
41:41
Speaker 1: from his personal Twitter account. He said, the AW world
41:46
Speaker 1: title picture is going to be really interesting this year
41:52
Speaker 1: now that on its face is not anything earth shattering.
41:56
Speaker 1: I've talked about how the best thing going in AW
41:59
Speaker 1: right now is the world title scene and all the
42:02
Speaker 1: different challengers that they have set up for MJF without
42:06
Speaker 1: giving any context whatsoever. Though he posted this, then he
42:10
Speaker 1: also tweeted from the official Matt Men Podcast Twitter and
42:16
Speaker 1: he quote tweeted the original tweet to say, sounds pretty
42:21
Speaker 1: phenomenal that that is after MJF. In his interview this
42:25
Speaker 1: week with Chris van Vliet, which was recorded almost two
42:29
Speaker 1: weeks ago, I think in talking about wrestler retirements when
42:33
Speaker 1: he mentioned AJ style because you mentioned John Cena. When
42:36
Speaker 1: he mentioned AJ styles, he put retirement in air quotes
42:40
Speaker 1: and he winked at the camera. Either that or his
42:43
Speaker 1: eye began to twitch, whichever it was. There may be
42:46
Speaker 1: smoke to this fire. You know, the world title scene
42:49
Speaker 1: in AW right now, it's as strong as it's ever been,
42:52
Speaker 1: you know, really is the main thing carrying the TV
42:54
Speaker 1: shows right now story wise, and really they rely on
42:59
Speaker 1: great matches to carry their weekly shows. But again, he's
43:02
Speaker 1: got multiple challengers lined up right now. They really don't
43:05
Speaker 1: need anybody else. They have enough people lined up as
43:07
Speaker 1: it is. But if aj Styles was to come in
43:10
Speaker 1: for a short run and wrestle for the aw World title,
43:14
Speaker 1: that would be massive for them. I mean, they've already
43:19
Speaker 1: got Kenny Omega and Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland. You know,
43:23
Speaker 1: Andrade could potentially end up back in the mix at
43:25
Speaker 1: some point. Will ospray when he returns Darby Allen, I mean,
43:30
Speaker 1: you toss aj Styles into that mix. It's exciting to
43:33
Speaker 1: think about. We still don't know what his contract status
43:36
Speaker 1: says with WWE, but if you watch that interview he
43:38
Speaker 1: did with Stephanie McMahon, he definitely did not shut the
43:42
Speaker 1: door on getting back in the ring again. That much
43:44
Speaker 1: was very clear. I mean, he controls his own destiny
43:46
Speaker 1: right now as far as what he wants to do,
43:48
Speaker 1: So if he wants a real retirement tour, he can
43:51
Speaker 1: have it. Remember he said twenty twenty six would be
43:55
Speaker 1: his final year in the ring. There were lots of
43:58
Speaker 1: rings outside of wwe for him to work in. This
44:02
Speaker 1: week's episode is sponsored by WIS. You know, back when
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Speaker 1: Harmony for free at wix dot com slash Harmony. That's
45:52
Speaker 1: wix dot com slash harmony. There was another big story
45:57
Speaker 1: this week about internal concerns in WWE and people second
46:03
Speaker 1: guessing Triple h as WrestleMania plans spiral and change amid
46:09
Speaker 1: concerns about ticket prices. Now, given how bad of a
46:13
Speaker 1: week this was for Dave Meltzer, keep that in mind
46:16
Speaker 1: when I read this report to you. But it did
46:18
Speaker 1: make headlines this week, and it feeds into a larger
46:20
Speaker 1: story about TKO's concern over WrestleMania ticket sales so far.
46:24
Speaker 1: That has been echoed by people other than Dave. But
46:28
Speaker 1: it was on Wrestling Observer Radio Monday night that Meltzer
46:31
Speaker 1: and Alvarez they revealed that WWE officials have grown increasingly
46:35
Speaker 1: frustrated with how often creative plans have shifted, with Paul
46:39
Speaker 1: Leveck taking the brunt of that criticism. Meltzer said, before
46:43
Speaker 1: the Rumble they had a complete card for WrestleMania, but
46:46
Speaker 1: I was told that everything is up in the air.
46:49
Speaker 1: According to him, that uncertainty has led to pointed criticism
46:53
Speaker 1: of Leveck from those within the company, with some comparing
46:56
Speaker 1: the situation to the old Vince McMahon era of constant
47:00
Speaker 1: last minute changes. There's been a lot of internal criticism
47:03
Speaker 1: of Paul levec They have a plan and then they
47:06
Speaker 1: change the plan. They think that changing a card that
47:09
Speaker 1: nobody knows makes sense. It's not like they have a
47:12
Speaker 1: bad card out there and people aren't buying tickets. They
47:15
Speaker 1: don't have a card out there. So Paulavec is supposedly
47:19
Speaker 1: on the hot seat. First of all, I don't care
47:22
Speaker 1: how many times he changes his mind. Weeks in advance
47:24
Speaker 1: on what direction he might want to take for WrestleMania.
47:27
Speaker 1: It is a far cry from the days of Vince
47:30
Speaker 1: McMahon ripping up scripts and blowing up plans three hours
47:34
Speaker 1: before every show. Okay, let's not compit that the two
47:37
Speaker 1: aren't exactly apples to apples. Okay, it's still better than that.
47:41
Speaker 1: But I can understand people internally being frustrated being this
47:44
Speaker 1: close to WrestleMania and having plans constantly shifting. If that
47:48
Speaker 1: is what's happening, or or if top talents don't even
47:51
Speaker 1: know what the hell they're doing yet on that show,
47:54
Speaker 1: and I'm sure a lot of them don't. They're probably
47:56
Speaker 1: reading the same reports that you and I are, and
47:58
Speaker 1: they're wondering, Hey, what the hell am I going to
47:59
Speaker 1: be doing WrestleMania. Now. Compared this to a few years ago,
48:03
Speaker 1: and it was very clear months and months in advance
48:05
Speaker 1: that it was going to be Cody Roades challenging Roman Reigns,
48:09
Speaker 1: and that Kevin Owens and sammy's Ay and they were
48:11
Speaker 1: going to be wrestling the USOS on Night one for
48:13
Speaker 1: the tag team titles. They had these stories that were
48:15
Speaker 1: playing out. I mean, it may have been predictable but
48:18
Speaker 1: they had that bloodline story mapped out, all the key
48:21
Speaker 1: players knew what their role was on that show. It
48:24
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be like that anymore. And one of
48:27
Speaker 1: the reasons for all of these creative changes there was
48:30
Speaker 1: said to be a card laid out before the Royal Rumble,
48:33
Speaker 1: and now it may be changing yet again. It may
48:35
Speaker 1: well be that the heat that Leveck is supposedly feeling
48:40
Speaker 1: right now from ticket sales not being as hot as
48:42
Speaker 1: TKO thought they would be. I mean, ticket sales right
48:45
Speaker 1: now for both nights of WrestleMania are nearly twenty percent
48:48
Speaker 1: lower than they were this time last year. The only
48:51
Speaker 1: thing we know for sure is that Roman Reigns is
48:54
Speaker 1: challenging Cmpunk for the World Heavyweight title, very likely on
48:58
Speaker 1: WrestleMania Sunday. Barring injury. That match is rock solid. That's
49:02
Speaker 1: not getting changed. Okay, sorry, Finn Balor, that match is
49:05
Speaker 1: not getting changed. He'll be challenging Punk for the title
49:09
Speaker 1: of Elimination Chamber. Balor will be but the only belt
49:12
Speaker 1: that Balor is going to be taking home is from
49:14
Speaker 1: the merch stand. Okay, he can by himself a replica.
49:17
Speaker 1: WWE creative has been stagnant for a while now. Okay,
49:21
Speaker 1: they have no compelling stories. They had one compelling segment
49:26
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, but they have no compelling stories
49:29
Speaker 1: that they have been telling. Levick was able to coast
49:31
Speaker 1: on the Bloodline story for a long time. Okay, it
49:34
Speaker 1: was a story that started before he even took the book.
49:38
Speaker 1: It started under Vince. But he was very fortunate to
49:41
Speaker 1: have that dumped in his lap. But what story or
49:43
Speaker 1: stories has he himself come up with that you would
49:46
Speaker 1: consider to truly be compelling or must see? CM Punk
49:49
Speaker 1: and Drew McIntyre. They had a great feud that was
49:52
Speaker 1: born out of Punk getting hurt. If Punk never gets injured,
49:56
Speaker 1: we don't get that story. Drew mcinti social media game
50:01
Speaker 1: was on point while CM punk was out. I give
50:04
Speaker 1: most of the credit to him and Punk for making
50:07
Speaker 1: that as great as it was. Outside of that, there
50:09
Speaker 1: has been nothing. They have been on autopilot for a
50:13
Speaker 1: while now. Kay Leveck was handed a gold mine in
50:16
Speaker 1: John Cena's retirement tour last year. He managed to nearly
50:19
Speaker 1: fuck the whole thing up for the sake of creating
50:21
Speaker 1: a viral moment. Hey, let's turn John Cena, heel and
50:26
Speaker 1: he takes credit for the idea, no plan to follow
50:29
Speaker 1: up on it. WWE creative is boring and uninspired. Okay,
50:35
Speaker 1: so that doesn't help when you're trying to sell fifty
50:37
Speaker 1: or sixty thousand tickets back to back nights in the
50:39
Speaker 1: same venue and the same city, which is already one
50:42
Speaker 1: of the most expensive destinations in the country for a
50:44
Speaker 1: WrestleMania that in the same venue and city last year
50:48
Speaker 1: was a disappointment. Last year Night one was a boring
50:53
Speaker 1: show with a great ending. Night two was a very
50:56
Speaker 1: good show with a terrible ending. That shit the bed
50:59
Speaker 1: on the whole. Definitely not one of the better WrestleManias
51:02
Speaker 1: they've ever done. What do you think is going to
51:05
Speaker 1: happen when you continue charging outrageous prices for tickets to
51:09
Speaker 1: a show like that come showtime. Look, I have no
51:13
Speaker 1: doubt that comes showtime, they're going to have most of
51:15
Speaker 1: those seats filled, all right. As they continue to announce
51:19
Speaker 1: matches and they start offering ticket deals Allegiant Stadium just
51:23
Speaker 1: announced twenty five percent off tickets now through Monday, then
51:29
Speaker 1: you have people who wait until the week of the event,
51:31
Speaker 1: days before the event for prices to come down. The
51:34
Speaker 1: problem with that, of course, is that I would guess
51:37
Speaker 1: that of the fifty or sixty thousand people that are
51:39
Speaker 1: going to be in Allegiance Stadium both those nights, the
51:42
Speaker 1: vast majority of them are not from Las Vegas. They're
51:46
Speaker 1: from other places. They're flying in for the show. You
51:49
Speaker 1: have to have time to arrange to travel to WrestleMania.
51:54
Speaker 1: You don't just buy a ticket and show up unless
51:56
Speaker 1: you're local. So there are a lot of people who
51:58
Speaker 1: can't wait until five days before the show and then
52:01
Speaker 1: first go ahead and book a flight and book a hotel.
52:03
Speaker 1: Do you know how hard it's going to beat a
52:05
Speaker 1: book a hotel probably even now, let alone a week
52:07
Speaker 1: before the show to go to WrestleMania. It's not practical
52:10
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, especially if you have a
52:11
Speaker 1: family or if you're a group of friends, four or
52:13
Speaker 1: five people who want to go. But there are people
52:16
Speaker 1: who wait until the week of and then prices drop
52:18
Speaker 1: a little bit and then they scoop up tickets like
52:21
Speaker 1: that always happens. But I don't have any doubt they'll
52:24
Speaker 1: have at least forty five thousand fans in the building
52:28
Speaker 1: each night, and then they'll announce much more than that.
52:30
Speaker 1: But I'm sure there'll be a minimum forty five k
52:32
Speaker 1: each night in those building or in that building, but
52:35
Speaker 1: that's not good enough for TKO. They don't like that
52:38
Speaker 1: ticket sales are lagging behind last year. It's a bad
52:41
Speaker 1: look for them at wrestle Votes Radio on Fight Full
52:45
Speaker 1: Select reported that WWE held a multi department company meeting
52:49
Speaker 1: on Wednesday to address WrestleMania ticket sales. According to a source,
52:54
Speaker 1: leadership acknowledged internally that the current numbers are below expectations,
52:58
Speaker 1: and all departments have been tag with developing strategies and
53:01
Speaker 1: promotions to roll out beginning in late February in an
53:05
Speaker 1: effort to boost momentum and sales heading into the event. Additionally,
53:10
Speaker 1: we're told WWE intends to keep current ticket pricing as
53:13
Speaker 1: is for the time being. Oh, you're going to have
53:17
Speaker 1: to pull them kicking and screaming to get them to
53:19
Speaker 1: change those prices. Right now, they have almost thirty eight
53:22
Speaker 1: thousand tickets out for each night. Okay, so they were
53:25
Speaker 1: around ten thousand or so behind where they were this
53:28
Speaker 1: time last year for each night. That is a far cry.
53:32
Speaker 1: Just to illustrate where we were a few years ago.
53:35
Speaker 1: That is a far cry from four years ago when
53:38
Speaker 1: tickets first went on sale for WrestleMania thirty nine, which
53:42
Speaker 1: I guess, I mean, that would have been the first
53:44
Speaker 1: WrestleMania really under Triple H, even though Vince was still
53:47
Speaker 1: he wasn't fully out right Vince. I think Vince was
53:50
Speaker 1: actually there for night too. I think they said he
53:52
Speaker 1: was sitting in Gorilla for that show, and then of
53:53
Speaker 1: course he fucking blew up Raw the next night. But
53:57
Speaker 1: that would have technically been the first Triple H WrestleMania.
54:00
Speaker 1: WrestleMania thirty nine. Triple H announced months before that, Okay,
54:04
Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty twenty two, he was the
54:07
Speaker 1: one who announced they sold ninety thousand tickets in the
54:12
Speaker 1: first twenty four hours that WrestleMania tickets went on sale.
54:16
Speaker 1: In the first twenty four hours, they had forty eight
54:19
Speaker 1: thousand tickets out for Night one. They had forty nine
54:21
Speaker 1: thousand tickets out for Night two. And that was in August.
54:25
Speaker 1: That means ten months out from WrestleMania, they were already
54:28
Speaker 1: at about eighty percent capacity. You know, one of the
54:32
Speaker 1: realities right now is that the product is just not
54:35
Speaker 1: hot like it used to be. It's not it's not
54:38
Speaker 1: it's more mainstream, and they do a very good job
54:40
Speaker 1: of making it feel like it's the hottest thing in
54:43
Speaker 1: the world. But it's not. They peaked. We're on the
54:48
Speaker 1: other side of the peak now. It's like climbing to
54:50
Speaker 1: the summit of Mount Everest, right you get to the
54:52
Speaker 1: top of the mountain, and then you have to start
54:54
Speaker 1: descending the mountain and climbing down. They're not all the
54:57
Speaker 1: way on the bottom. Okay, they're not anywhere close. They're
54:59
Speaker 1: still pretty high up there, but they're on the other
55:01
Speaker 1: side of the mountain now and they have started their descent.
55:06
Speaker 1: Then you factor in ticket prices and location on top
55:09
Speaker 1: of all that, and there's your answer. You want to
55:11
Speaker 1: know why they're lagging in ticket sales, there's your number
55:14
Speaker 1: one answer right there. You're running Vegas back to back years,
55:17
Speaker 1: which is expensive enough. When it comes to airfare and
55:20
Speaker 1: hotel and food and entertainment and everything else. It's not cheap.
55:26
Speaker 1: That is absolutely part of it. And I said it
55:30
Speaker 1: on X the other day. I said, this would not
55:32
Speaker 1: be happening if they had brought the show to New
55:34
Speaker 1: Orleans like they originally intended. They publicly announced they have
55:37
Speaker 1: the Rock go out on TV and announced WrestleMania forty
55:39
Speaker 1: two is coming to New Orleans. It's coming to the
55:41
Speaker 1: Big Easy, and then they yanked it. And I said,
55:44
Speaker 1: this wouldn't be happening if they had kept the show
55:46
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. And I said, greed is good until
55:49
Speaker 1: it's not. They saw how much money they made last year,
55:54
Speaker 1: and even though they have the rock go out on
55:57
Speaker 1: TV and announce New Orleans, they couldn't help themselves, right.
56:01
Speaker 1: Their greed consumed them and they pulled out in favor
56:05
Speaker 1: of going back to Las Vegas. They had dollar signs
56:08
Speaker 1: in their eyes and they say, we got to go back.
56:12
Speaker 1: That greed was bound to bite them on the ass
56:14
Speaker 1: at some point. And look, they're still going to make
56:16
Speaker 1: a lot of them. I don't want to make it
56:17
Speaker 1: sound like they're going they're going to go bankrupt for
56:19
Speaker 1: this show. They're still going to make a shitload of
56:21
Speaker 1: money this year. But that greed is going to bite
56:24
Speaker 1: you on the ass at some point. And I'm not saying.
56:28
Speaker 1: And some people thought, well, you know, yeah, you were
56:30
Speaker 1: ignoring ticket price. I wasn't ignoring ticket prices when I
56:33
Speaker 1: tweeted that. I'm not saying if they would have run
56:35
Speaker 1: New Orleans that tickets would have been twenty bucks a pop.
56:38
Speaker 1: They would still be charging high prices, but being back
56:40
Speaker 1: there for the first time in eight years, and generally
56:43
Speaker 1: a trip to New Orleans being cheaper than a trip
56:46
Speaker 1: to Vegas would be, they would absolutely be outpacing what
56:49
Speaker 1: they have sold so far. I have no doubt about that.
56:54
Speaker 1: And there's another reason that some people are sighting, which
56:56
Speaker 1: is the decline in tourism in Las Vegas. Now, I
56:59
Speaker 1: don't rank this too high on the list of reasons,
57:02
Speaker 1: but you can't ignore it. It is a factor, you know,
57:05
Speaker 1: with the political climate being what it is, fewer people
57:08
Speaker 1: are vacationing in the US. Tourism from other countries accounted
57:12
Speaker 1: for one hundred and eighty one billion dollars spent in
57:15
Speaker 1: the US two years ago. That with thirty billion dollars
57:19
Speaker 1: more than the year before. Last year, that number was
57:23
Speaker 1: projected to fall to just under one hundred and sixty
57:27
Speaker 1: nine billion. So that's a real thing, but it's a
57:31
Speaker 1: small part of it. It's them charging premium prices for
57:35
Speaker 1: a product that does not feel premium right now. That
57:38
Speaker 1: is the biggest reason why tickets are lagging, and now
57:42
Speaker 1: they're pissing a whole bunch of people off by imposing
57:45
Speaker 1: a ban on WrestleMania airings within a fifty mile radius
57:50
Speaker 1: of Allegiant Stadium the day of the shows. This is
57:53
Speaker 1: their latest effort to try to force people to buy
57:55
Speaker 1: tickets to actually go to the show if they want
57:57
Speaker 1: to watch it. So they're telling bars and other establishments
58:01
Speaker 1: at hotels and what have you that maybe we're planning
58:05
Speaker 1: on hosting viewing parties. You ain't going to be allowed
58:08
Speaker 1: to host a viewing party because you're not going to
58:10
Speaker 1: be allowed to air the show, even the ones that
58:12
Speaker 1: are willing to pay a licensing fee for it. Sean
58:16
Speaker 1: Rossappa Fightful says that there are a lot of venues,
58:18
Speaker 1: businesses and hotels tied to the city that have communicated
58:21
Speaker 1: big frustration about the watch parties being blacked out. They
58:25
Speaker 1: felt like the city paid a site fee for WWE
58:28
Speaker 1: to help encourage tourism and they are restricting it with
58:31
Speaker 1: this move. I mean, when the lowest price for a
58:34
Speaker 1: nosebleed seat up in section three hundred is two hundred
58:38
Speaker 1: sixty six dollars before taxes, Okay, I looked it up.
58:43
Speaker 1: You can see why tickets would not be moving as
58:45
Speaker 1: fast that's a nosebleed seed. And right now they're missing
58:50
Speaker 1: that one hot star or that one really hot angle
58:53
Speaker 1: or story. They don't have it. They don't have either one.
58:56
Speaker 1: They have stars who are very popular and moving m
59:00
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying Roman Reigns is not a star
59:02
Speaker 1: Sampung Cody Rhoades. They have stars, but they don't have
59:05
Speaker 1: that one white hot act or that one white hot
59:08
Speaker 1: story like they did with the Bloodline stuff a few
59:12
Speaker 1: years ago. They don't have either one, but they're acting
59:16
Speaker 1: like they do a lot of the stories they do have,
59:19
Speaker 1: they and they dragged them out forever in a day.
59:23
Speaker 1: You got four match ples. They're charging you more for less.
59:30
Speaker 1: And it reminds me of what Mark Shapiro of TKOS
59:33
Speaker 1: said last year when he was talking about ticket prices,
59:36
Speaker 1: and he said, we know we have a lot of
59:38
Speaker 1: room there. Vince McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families
59:43
Speaker 1: and wasn't totally focused on maxing the opportunity. They're going
59:48
Speaker 1: to make me defend Vince McMahon here, But when it
59:51
Speaker 1: comes to business, the man knew what he was doing.
59:55
Speaker 1: Of course, he wanted to make a lot of money,
59:57
Speaker 1: but he was also smart enough not to chase the
1:00:00
Speaker 1: way families by pricing them out, Like I became a
1:00:03
Speaker 1: fan because my father watched wrestling, and he became a
1:00:07
Speaker 1: fan because his father watched wrestling. You win over those kids,
1:00:12
Speaker 1: and eventually those kids become adults, and they're gonna make
1:00:16
Speaker 1: fans out of their own kids. TKO is about the
1:00:19
Speaker 1: hear and now, how can we make as much money
1:00:22
Speaker 1: as possible off these people right now without paying any
1:00:27
Speaker 1: mind to what that audience might look like a few
1:00:29
Speaker 1: years down the road. It can't just be about the present.
1:00:33
Speaker 1: It's about the future. Vince understood that, and it's not
1:00:37
Speaker 1: that TKO doesn't. They just don't care. After the SoundOff
1:00:42
Speaker 1: went up last weekend, the news broke about bron Breaker
1:00:46
Speaker 1: being injured and his WrestleMania plans, whatever those were, being
1:00:50
Speaker 1: in jeopardy. The news was that he had undergone surgery
1:00:53
Speaker 1: for a hernia and there was no timetable for his return,
1:00:57
Speaker 1: and then at the top of the show on Monday night,
1:00:59
Speaker 1: Michael Pull announced that Breaker was injured in training and
1:01:03
Speaker 1: sustained an undisclosed injury for which he underwent surgery, and
1:01:06
Speaker 1: he would be out indefinitely. Later in the show. Paul
1:01:10
Speaker 1: Hayman claimed that it was a hiatal hernia that Breaker
1:01:13
Speaker 1: sustained when he deadlifted more weight than any human beings
1:01:16
Speaker 1: should be deadlifting by themselves. That's their cover reason. I
1:01:21
Speaker 1: don't know if that's supposed to make him tough or stupid.
1:01:24
Speaker 1: He was eliminated first in the Royal Rumble match Mike Johnson,
1:01:26
Speaker 1: though a PW Insider dot Com insists that had nothing
1:01:29
Speaker 1: to do with any injury. His elimination was always planned
1:01:33
Speaker 1: the way that it was, but rather the injury happened
1:01:35
Speaker 1: on Raw two nights later, when Breaker came out at
1:01:38
Speaker 1: the beginning of the show and he flipped over the
1:01:40
Speaker 1: announced desk. That damn reinforced the announced desk. Those things
1:01:44
Speaker 1: are made of lead. By Wednesday, it was determined that
1:01:47
Speaker 1: he would need to undergo emergency surgery to repair the issue,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: and that the hernia was something that he was already
1:01:53
Speaker 1: dealing with previously, so it was considered minor, and I
1:01:56
Speaker 1: guess after he flipped the desk over, it went from
1:01:58
Speaker 1: minor to major and they decided, Okay, this can't be
1:02:02
Speaker 1: helped any other way. We got to go under the knife,
1:02:05
Speaker 1: and so he had surgery because if you leave that untreated,
1:02:08
Speaker 1: I mean, if it's that serious, it could be life threatening.
1:02:13
Speaker 1: And Dave Meltzer says that the expectation is that Breaker
1:02:16
Speaker 1: will not be back in time for WrestleMania, especially if
1:02:19
Speaker 1: Hayman was talking about it on TV like it was
1:02:21
Speaker 1: a major surgery. It wasn't something that was done laparoscopically.
1:02:26
Speaker 1: That's also Paul Hayman saying this on TV, So I mean,
1:02:30
Speaker 1: you know, take that with a grain of salt. But
1:02:33
Speaker 1: if he is out for WrestleMania, I mean, that's a
1:02:34
Speaker 1: blow to the card because he's obviously been pushed very hard.
1:02:37
Speaker 1: He was going to have a big match on that show.
1:02:40
Speaker 1: The working plan was very likely a match with Seth Rawlins,
1:02:44
Speaker 1: because nothing else really makes any sense if he wasn't
1:02:46
Speaker 1: going to be wrestling for the World Heavyweight title, I mean,
1:02:48
Speaker 1: what the hell else would he be doing. Rollins himself
1:02:52
Speaker 1: is still out injured, but there's a lot of chatter
1:02:54
Speaker 1: that he'll be back in time for WrestleMania, or at
1:02:56
Speaker 1: least there's a good chance. The expectation, the hope is
1:02:59
Speaker 1: that he will be back in time for WrestleMania, barring
1:03:02
Speaker 1: any unforeseen setbacks and he would be medically cleared. So
1:03:07
Speaker 1: now it's Rollins who may be without an opponent. If
1:03:09
Speaker 1: he can make it back in time that they're not
1:03:11
Speaker 1: going to rush Breaker back just for WrestleMania. You don't
1:03:15
Speaker 1: rush back from an injury like that. But if Rollins
1:03:18
Speaker 1: can get cleared, he's gonna want to be on that
1:03:20
Speaker 1: show in a match. Okay. It's probably his number one
1:03:23
Speaker 1: driving force right now during his rehab is to make
1:03:26
Speaker 1: it back in time for WrestleMania. I think that that
1:03:29
Speaker 1: he can. If he can get cleared, you can't deny
1:03:31
Speaker 1: him that. Okay. Now, with the year that he was
1:03:33
Speaker 1: having last year before he got hurt, he can be
1:03:35
Speaker 1: back in time for WrestleMania, then you put him on
1:03:38
Speaker 1: the card. So on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show last week,
1:03:42
Speaker 1: I pitched the idea of doing a tag team match.
1:03:46
Speaker 1: And this may be far out there because there's really
1:03:48
Speaker 1: been nothing reported to suggest that Bad Bunny is wrestling
1:03:52
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania. But Logan Paul, you know, shutting down a
1:03:54
Speaker 1: reporter's question at the Super Bowl about whether or not
1:03:57
Speaker 1: he would be watching the halftime show. He said, he said, no,
1:04:00
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be watching it. That got a lot
1:04:02
Speaker 1: of people talking about a Bad Bunny Logan Paul match,
1:04:06
Speaker 1: and I don't doubt that that would generate a lot
1:04:07
Speaker 1: of interest. Any match with Bad Bunny involved is going
1:04:10
Speaker 1: to generate a lot of interest, especially coming off him
1:04:12
Speaker 1: being the Super Bowl halftime show performer this year. I
1:04:16
Speaker 1: mean it was the fourth most watched halftime show in
1:04:19
Speaker 1: Super Bowl history. Okay, he had one hundred and twenty
1:04:21
Speaker 1: eight million eyeballs on him or I guess two hundred
1:04:25
Speaker 1: and fifty six million eyeballs. I guess it would be
1:04:28
Speaker 1: Tko would love to be back in the Bad Bunny business.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: I don't think he's touring for the six weeks or
1:04:34
Speaker 1: so before WrestleMania, so I mean it's at least possible
1:04:36
Speaker 1: he could make an appearance there. If he was going
1:04:39
Speaker 1: to be there, you could do a tag team match,
1:04:40
Speaker 1: and you can have Rollins tag with Bad Bunny against
1:04:44
Speaker 1: the Vision. It could be against Logan, Paul and either
1:04:47
Speaker 1: Bronson Reid or Austin theory. I say theory because if
1:04:50
Speaker 1: you need a fall guy, if you need the Vision
1:04:53
Speaker 1: to lose, he's your man. But again, it's just an idea.
1:04:57
Speaker 1: Since Logan is a part of the Vision, Rollins hates
1:05:00
Speaker 1: the vision. It's a match that would at least make sense,
1:05:04
Speaker 1: you know. And that tag match at SummerSlam with Randy
1:05:07
Speaker 1: Orton in Jelly Roll against Logan and Drew was well received,
1:05:10
Speaker 1: so there's no reason you can't do something like that here.
1:05:14
Speaker 1: But we're less than two weeks out from the Elimination
1:05:17
Speaker 1: Chamber and we got two more matches made official on
1:05:20
Speaker 1: Raw Monday night, Cempunk will be defending the World Heavyweight
1:05:23
Speaker 1: title in Chicago against Finn Balor and Missus Punk. Aj
1:05:28
Speaker 1: Lee is back. She will be getting a match in
1:05:30
Speaker 1: Chicago as well, against Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental title,
1:05:36
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier than I was expecting. That's going
1:05:39
Speaker 1: to be AJ's first singles match since twenty fifteen on
1:05:43
Speaker 1: Raw against Nicki Bella. And the more I think about it,
1:05:47
Speaker 1: the more I like that they're doing this here and
1:05:49
Speaker 1: they're not waiting until WrestleMania for the first match. And
1:05:53
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why, because at the end of all
1:05:56
Speaker 1: of this, aj Lee should not be the Intercontinental Champion
1:06:00
Speaker 1: if she is not going to be around, and it
1:06:04
Speaker 1: sure don't look like she's going to be around anywhere
1:06:06
Speaker 1: close to full time, even part time, frankly, but if
1:06:09
Speaker 1: they want to have her win the title, have her
1:06:11
Speaker 1: win it in Chicago. Chicago is basically her adopted hometown, right.
1:06:16
Speaker 1: I know she's not from there, but she married into it.
1:06:19
Speaker 1: She's a Chicago girl now and her husband is the
1:06:22
Speaker 1: world heavyweight champion defending on the same show. What a
1:06:25
Speaker 1: moment for the two of them, right if they both
1:06:27
Speaker 1: leave with titles. But just make sure that Jessica Carr
1:06:31
Speaker 1: is the referee for the match, so that Becky can
1:06:33
Speaker 1: blame her for the loss and they can pick back
1:06:36
Speaker 1: up with that angle again. They kind of got away
1:06:38
Speaker 1: from it in more recent to weeks. I still think
1:06:42
Speaker 1: we may actually get a match between them at some point. Yeah.
1:06:46
Speaker 1: Jessica Carr, she wrestles, so I mean you could absolutely
1:06:49
Speaker 1: do a match. It's like a one off, like an
1:06:52
Speaker 1: attraction on TV, doesn't even necessarily have to be a
1:06:55
Speaker 1: pl But they've they've gotten away from that story. I'd
1:06:58
Speaker 1: like to see them come back to it. You have
1:07:00
Speaker 1: aj win the title at the Chamber and then you
1:07:03
Speaker 1: rematch them at WrestleMania. You have Becky win the belt back,
1:07:06
Speaker 1: so that way you don't have the issue of putting
1:07:08
Speaker 1: the belt on someone that isn't going to be around,
1:07:10
Speaker 1: and Becky can work with someone new at that point, right,
1:07:14
Speaker 1: which did a world of good for Lyra Valkyria last year.
1:07:18
Speaker 1: Not so much for Maxine dupri But Maxine is nowhere
1:07:20
Speaker 1: near the wrestler that Lyra is. I mean, Becky's good,
1:07:24
Speaker 1: but she's no miracle worker. You know. Maxine is doing okay,
1:07:28
Speaker 1: but she's still only on level three of a ten
1:07:30
Speaker 1: stage video game. I would rather see AJ win it. Now,
1:07:34
Speaker 1: get that moment, now hold it for however many weeks
1:07:37
Speaker 1: there are left between now in Mania, seven weeks, eight weeks,
1:07:40
Speaker 1: whatever it is, and then drop it, not win it
1:07:43
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania CIA. I'm punk had another great promo, I
1:07:48
Speaker 1: thought on Monday night Ben Balor gives him something to
1:07:51
Speaker 1: do at the Chamber while everyone waits for Roman Reigns
1:07:55
Speaker 1: to come back next month. Balor's direction is not the
1:07:58
Speaker 1: World Heavyweight title. I think his direction is Dominic Mysterio
1:08:02
Speaker 1: and the intercontinental title of Mania. If Triple H would
1:08:06
Speaker 1: stop pussy footing around with his judgment day shit and
1:08:09
Speaker 1: actually commit to a match between the two of them already,
1:08:12
Speaker 1: I mean he's only been teasing it for like two
1:08:14
Speaker 1: and a half years now. Jade Cargill. She had her
1:08:18
Speaker 1: first defense finally of the WWE Women's title on SmackDown
1:08:23
Speaker 1: Friday Night, after one hundred days as champion. She retained
1:08:27
Speaker 1: over Jordan Grace while Live Morgan was out there eating
1:08:31
Speaker 1: chicken nuggets and observing and teasing that she might pick
1:08:34
Speaker 1: Jade as her WrestleMania opponent. She won't. I mean, who
1:08:38
Speaker 1: wants to even see that match? Honestly, Of all the
1:08:41
Speaker 1: potential matches that I think people are mapping out of
1:08:43
Speaker 1: their minds, myself included, has anybody landed on Jade Cargill
1:08:46
Speaker 1: and Lived Morgan as a match they'd like to see?
1:08:48
Speaker 1: I don't think so, but it does beg the question, then,
1:08:51
Speaker 1: who challenges Jade at WrestleMania. Even WWE hasn't figured out
1:08:56
Speaker 1: the answer to that question yet. According to Russell Votes
1:08:59
Speaker 1: Radio v Fightful Select, WWE has yet to solidify her opponent.
1:09:03
Speaker 1: Internal talks are said to be ongoing, and multiple high
1:09:07
Speaker 1: profile names are being considered. Among the top contenders being discussed,
1:09:11
Speaker 1: Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton. Now Jade and Tiffany has
1:09:17
Speaker 1: already been done. I don't want to see that again.
1:09:19
Speaker 1: Charlotte Flair against Jade is a match that they have
1:09:22
Speaker 1: teased a few times now, and it would be fresh
1:09:25
Speaker 1: because it's not been done before, So I'm cool with that.
1:09:29
Speaker 1: They definitely have been teasing a possible split or at
1:09:34
Speaker 1: least issues between Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, like even
1:09:38
Speaker 1: before what happened at the Royal Rumble, they were little
1:09:41
Speaker 1: hints and teases of it. Alexa is already in the chamber.
1:09:45
Speaker 1: Charlotte has a chance to get in next week. She
1:09:48
Speaker 1: just has to beat Nia Jackson Keana James in a
1:09:50
Speaker 1: qualifying match. If she gets in, and let's say again,
1:09:54
Speaker 1: she causes Bliss to be eliminated and Charlotte ends up
1:09:58
Speaker 1: winning the chamber, you could totally have Alexa fuck her
1:10:02
Speaker 1: out of the belt at WrestleMania and just hold off
1:10:04
Speaker 1: on that first Charlotte and Alexa match instead of doing it.
1:10:06
Speaker 1: Let's say at WrestleMania, you do it coming out of WrestleMania.
1:10:09
Speaker 1: You're gonna need some story directions coming out of WrestleMania.
1:10:13
Speaker 1: Bianca bel Air is nowhere to be found, So if
1:10:16
Speaker 1: she's not coming back to take a chamber spot, then
1:10:19
Speaker 1: I think Charlotte against Jade has to be the Mania match.
1:10:22
Speaker 1: Jade needs something. Her run has been a complete waste
1:10:26
Speaker 1: of time since winning that Championshoky. She won that championship
1:10:30
Speaker 1: on November first. Before her match with Jordan Grace on
1:10:34
Speaker 1: Friday night, she logged a whopping total of seven minutes
1:10:39
Speaker 1: of singles matches Singles Action on TV, all of which
1:10:43
Speaker 1: were quick squashes, and the match on Friday with Jordan
1:10:48
Speaker 1: it wasn't bad, but she really needs that one big
1:10:51
Speaker 1: name to spar with to try to get something going here.
1:10:55
Speaker 1: And if you don't have Bianca in the history of
1:10:57
Speaker 1: the Bianca and Jade have, then Charlotte. I mean, as
1:10:59
Speaker 1: far as SmackDown goes, Charlotte would be the next best choice.
1:11:03
Speaker 1: I mean they even hinted at Riha Ripley and Jade Cargill.
1:11:05
Speaker 1: They had a little face off for a few seconds
1:11:07
Speaker 1: their backstage on Friday night. But I don't get the
1:11:09
Speaker 1: sense that's the direction here for the women's chamber. Tiffany Stratton,
1:11:15
Speaker 1: Rhea Ripley, and Alexa Bliss have all qualified. I think
1:11:18
Speaker 1: Charlotte gets in this Friday. Osca Bailey and Natty they're
1:11:24
Speaker 1: having a qualifier tomorrow night. I think Osca gets in.
1:11:28
Speaker 1: That leaves one spot open, and since Rhea is already in,
1:11:32
Speaker 1: I'll say that EO claims the final spot, because why
1:11:37
Speaker 1: wouldn't EO claim the final spot? Why wouldn't you want
1:11:39
Speaker 1: EO on that show? For the men's chamber? Randy Orton
1:11:43
Speaker 1: is in and something to pay attention to. There was
1:11:47
Speaker 1: a vignette that aired on SmackDown on Friday Night with
1:11:50
Speaker 1: Alistair Black and Zelena, and Black was addressing Randy Orton
1:11:54
Speaker 1: because they were both part of a triple threat qualifier
1:11:57
Speaker 1: with Solo Socoa the week before. In the course of
1:12:00
Speaker 1: his promo here, Black said that you are undoubtedly still
1:12:05
Speaker 1: one of the greats that match shades of two thousand
1:12:08
Speaker 1: and nine, Randy Orton. But I can't help but wonder
1:12:11
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen if Cody qualifies. I wonder what roads
1:12:16
Speaker 1: you'll take. Is it just me or doesn't feel like
1:12:20
Speaker 1: they basically gave Carry and Cross's gimmick to Alistair back,
1:12:24
Speaker 1: Like we used to have Carry and Cross and then
1:12:26
Speaker 1: Scarlett would just kind of be in the background, and
1:12:28
Speaker 1: so now we have Alistair Black and Zelina. They've basically
1:12:31
Speaker 1: transferred the same fucking gimmick over to him. So I like,
1:12:34
Speaker 1: I'm listening to this and I'm reviewing Smack that on
1:12:37
Speaker 1: Friday night, and I said, well, it looks like we
1:12:39
Speaker 1: may not be done with Randy Orton and Alistair Black,
1:12:43
Speaker 1: and maybe we're not. I mean, you know, as a
1:12:45
Speaker 1: WrestleMania match, it could be, I guess, but maybe I
1:12:50
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way,
1:12:51
Speaker 1: and maybe it was more a tease for something that
1:12:55
Speaker 1: will go down in the chamber with Orton and Cody,
1:12:59
Speaker 1: because we still again, we still haven't gotten anything with
1:13:02
Speaker 1: Cody and Randy. We've had hints of it, we've had
1:13:04
Speaker 1: teases of it. They had that one King of the
1:13:06
Speaker 1: Ring match last year and that's it. They have otherwise
1:13:10
Speaker 1: avoided this, and somebody's got to go heal in this situation,
1:13:15
Speaker 1: and it ain't going to be Cody. So I'm wondering
1:13:18
Speaker 1: if that could Maybe it's less a tease of an
1:13:21
Speaker 1: Orton Alistair Black WrestleMania match and more of a tease
1:13:25
Speaker 1: of Orton finally pulling the trigger on Cody Rhods. But again,
1:13:30
Speaker 1: if he did that, I don't get the sense that
1:13:34
Speaker 1: they're doing anything with them a WrestleMania so I don't know.
1:13:39
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was a curious little segment there
1:13:42
Speaker 1: in the show, but I am wondering if he's trying
1:13:45
Speaker 1: to stoke the fires here and tease that something's about
1:13:47
Speaker 1: to go down with Cody and Randy. So, Randy Orton
1:13:51
Speaker 1: is in the elimination chamber. La Knight, I'll get to
1:13:54
Speaker 1: him in a second. La Night is in the elimination chamber,
1:13:57
Speaker 1: and Cody Rhodes is in after his win over Jake
1:14:00
Speaker 1: fa two and Sammy's ain't. On Friday Night, Jacob actually
1:14:03
Speaker 1: had the match one over Sammy were it not for
1:14:05
Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre flying in with a Claymore kick. He did
1:14:09
Speaker 1: the same to Cody and then he drags Sammy on
1:14:11
Speaker 1: top of him. Cody kicked out, so Drew went back
1:14:15
Speaker 1: after him until Sammy flew in with a Halluba kick
1:14:18
Speaker 1: to McIntyre and he took his eye off the ball though,
1:14:21
Speaker 1: and he ended up eating Acrossroads and Cody pins Sammy
1:14:25
Speaker 1: to move on to the chamber. So that leaves three
1:14:28
Speaker 1: spots open now Tomorrow night it is Gunther, Javon Evans,
1:14:35
Speaker 1: and Dominic Mysteria. I see absolutely no reason to put
1:14:39
Speaker 1: Gunther in the chamber if he is not going to
1:14:42
Speaker 1: win it, because then you have to beat Gunther and
1:14:47
Speaker 1: it's an elimination match, so you gotta pit him. Not ideal.
1:14:52
Speaker 1: I think Dragon Lee caused Gunther his match tomorrow night.
1:14:56
Speaker 1: Javon sneaks into the chamber, That's what I would do.
1:14:59
Speaker 1: That is going to be a lot more fun with
1:15:01
Speaker 1: him in it. Then on Friday it's Damian Priez, Trick Williams,
1:15:05
Speaker 1: and Carmelo Hayes in another qualifier. I don't think Mello's
1:15:09
Speaker 1: getting in. It's either Priest or Trick, and it really
1:15:12
Speaker 1: it should be Trick Williams. I would be pushing for
1:15:14
Speaker 1: a Mello and Trick Us title match of WrestleMania, but
1:15:17
Speaker 1: the way the Trick is still going out there cutting
1:15:19
Speaker 1: promos on Sammy's Ain and he had Sammy backstage on
1:15:22
Speaker 1: Friday giving Ray Phoenix a pep talk and telling him
1:15:25
Speaker 1: to go out there and you know, set Trick straight.
1:15:29
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that it's going to be Sammy's Ains match
1:15:31
Speaker 1: of WrestleMania this year against Trick Williams is what I'm thinking.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: So Trick and Javon get in, that would leave one
1:15:39
Speaker 1: spot open one spot left open in the men's Elimination
1:15:44
Speaker 1: Chamber match, which brings me to this. WWE announced this
1:15:49
Speaker 1: week that brock Lesner is returning to RAW on February
1:15:53
Speaker 1: twenty third in Atlanta, So that is the final Raw
1:15:57
Speaker 1: before the Elimination Chamber. Now, why would they be bringing
1:16:01
Speaker 1: brock Lesner back to TV the week before the Elimination
1:16:06
Speaker 1: Chamber if he was not going to factor into the
1:16:09
Speaker 1: chamber in some way? And why wouldn't he want to
1:16:13
Speaker 1: be in the chamber. He was in the Royal Rumble
1:16:16
Speaker 1: for a shot at the Championship at WrestleMania, So why
1:16:19
Speaker 1: wouldn't he want to be in the elimination Chamber. He
1:16:21
Speaker 1: was in the rumble and he lost. And do you
1:16:24
Speaker 1: know why he lost? Because while jay Uso was yeading
1:16:28
Speaker 1: his way to the ring, Cody Rhoades in La Night
1:16:31
Speaker 1: teamed up to eliminate him. And in this week's Observer,
1:16:36
Speaker 1: Meltzer reported that as of late January, brock Lesnar against
1:16:40
Speaker 1: La Knight was listed internally as the match for WrestleMania
1:16:45
Speaker 1: forty two. And the thing I hate about this is
1:16:50
Speaker 1: it is at least plausible because La Knight was the
1:16:53
Speaker 1: one who dumped him out of the Royal Rumble, and
1:16:57
Speaker 1: I hate that this could be true because that is
1:16:59
Speaker 1: not the match that I want to see, not when
1:17:02
Speaker 1: you've got Oba Femi right there, like he's right there.
1:17:06
Speaker 1: You saw the way the fans reacted to it in
1:17:08
Speaker 1: the Rumble when they teased it. Instead, what do they do?
1:17:11
Speaker 1: They have Obafemi feuding with Kit Wilson on SmackDown. He's
1:17:15
Speaker 1: wrestling Kit Wilson again this Friday. This is what they
1:17:19
Speaker 1: have Obafemi doing. And they have Royce Keys wrestling dark
1:17:23
Speaker 1: matches at the SmackDown taping, Like, what are we doing here?
1:17:28
Speaker 1: But Brock is going to be on next week show,
1:17:30
Speaker 1: not this week. He's gonna be on next week's show
1:17:32
Speaker 1: for a reason. La Knight is already in the chamber.
1:17:34
Speaker 1: If Brock declared himself for the elimination Chamber, which I
1:17:38
Speaker 1: could see them having here, I'll just declare myself. But no,
1:17:41
Speaker 1: if he enters the last qualifying match and he wins,
1:17:46
Speaker 1: then that would fill the final spot. And I know,
1:17:49
Speaker 1: I know, don't laugh, Okay, don't laugh the idea of
1:17:52
Speaker 1: Brock Lesnar wrestling on television. I mean, you'll see the
1:17:56
Speaker 1: Jets win another Super Bowl Before that ever happened. When
1:17:58
Speaker 1: was the last time he wrestled on TV. Probably when
1:18:00
Speaker 1: he squashed KOFE Kingston in eight seconds That was in
1:18:03
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. That probably was the last time Brocklesner saw
1:18:08
Speaker 1: action in the ring on television. So I know it's
1:18:11
Speaker 1: very unlikely, but why bring him back on that show
1:18:15
Speaker 1: if he's not going to factor into the Chamber in
1:18:17
Speaker 1: some way? Right now? It could have to do with
1:18:19
Speaker 1: La Night. I really hope that's not the case. It's
1:18:24
Speaker 1: gonna be ten years since that awful WrestleMania match with
1:18:27
Speaker 1: Brocklesner and Dean Ambrose. What a disappointment that was. This
1:18:32
Speaker 1: has WrestleMania thirty two written all over it, and it
1:18:36
Speaker 1: will not end well for La Night. It'll be a
1:18:39
Speaker 1: big match for him on the show, but believe me,
1:18:41
Speaker 1: it will not end well for La Night. But Jimmy
1:18:45
Speaker 1: Usso was on Raw talking about his brother qualifying for
1:18:49
Speaker 1: the Chamber. You got to go on and qualify for
1:18:51
Speaker 1: the Chamber so that you can go to WrestleMania to
1:18:53
Speaker 1: get the WWE title. Fuck out of here with that nonsense,
1:18:56
Speaker 1: by the way, but that does mean that Jay Usso
1:18:58
Speaker 1: is going to be in that last quoiqualifying match. So
1:19:01
Speaker 1: maybe they stick a member of the Vision in there,
1:19:03
Speaker 1: Bronson Reed or Logan Paul, and then they have a
1:19:07
Speaker 1: third spot to fill. Brock and Oba both should be
1:19:11
Speaker 1: in that chamber match. You know you want to book
1:19:13
Speaker 1: this out. Brock Lesner and Oba Femi should both be
1:19:15
Speaker 1: in the elimination chamber, and Oba Femi should eliminate brock Lesner,
1:19:20
Speaker 1: and then brock Lesner in a fit of rage, goes
1:19:22
Speaker 1: nuts and causes Oba to be eliminated, and you've got
1:19:27
Speaker 1: your WrestleMania match. That's what I would do. Get them
1:19:31
Speaker 1: both in there, make the chamber really interesting, and then
1:19:35
Speaker 1: branch off into a WrestleMania match instead of feuding this
1:19:38
Speaker 1: man with Kit fucking Wilson. Eight weeks before WrestleMania, Janelle
1:19:45
Speaker 1: Grant is scheduled to make a rare appearance and speak
1:19:48
Speaker 1: this Thursday at an event hosted by the Connecticut Alliance
1:19:52
Speaker 1: to End Sexual Violence. Grant will be a guest speaker
1:19:56
Speaker 1: on Thursday, February nineteenth at the Legislative Office Building in
1:19:59
Speaker 1: heart Orford, Connecticut. The event is focused on advocating for
1:20:03
Speaker 1: policy changes aimed at strengthening protections for survivors of sexual violence.
1:20:08
Speaker 1: One stated goal of the event is to pursue reforms
1:20:10
Speaker 1: to non disclosure agreement policies that can prevent survivors from
1:20:14
Speaker 1: speaking publicly about past abuse. Grant's NDA with WWE and
1:20:19
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon is a significant aspect of her ongoing litigation.
1:20:23
Speaker 1: This all stems from her complaint against McMahon, John Laurnidis,
1:20:26
Speaker 1: and WWE that she filed in January twenty twenty four
1:20:30
Speaker 1: alleging sexual misconduct, including being assaulted and trafficked. Lauriniitis has
1:20:35
Speaker 1: since been dropped from the suit in exchange for his
1:20:38
Speaker 1: cooperation in providing evidence against McMahon and WWE. Grant was
1:20:43
Speaker 1: quoted in a press release issued on Wednesday saying we
1:20:45
Speaker 1: are all more vulnerable to courus of control than we realize.
1:20:49
Speaker 1: Chorus of control happens in increments and entire industries are
1:20:53
Speaker 1: built on systems of coors of control. Tools such as
1:20:56
Speaker 1: NDAs can be used to ominously justify anything and even
1:21:00
Speaker 1: turn a life into someone else's storyline. Keeping even those
1:21:04
Speaker 1: who have not signed confidentiality agreements working in fear any
1:21:08
Speaker 1: system that sacrifices people, whether current or former employees. At
1:21:13
Speaker 1: the expense of safety and human dignity is dangerous if
1:21:16
Speaker 1: not impossible, for someone to leave. I'm not alone in
1:21:20
Speaker 1: living a life looking over my shoulder. Evolving systems and
1:21:23
Speaker 1: holistic change in how we address sexual violence remains painfully slow.
1:21:28
Speaker 1: I'm here to be a part of the solution and
1:21:31
Speaker 1: give a voice to people in Connecticut who are living
1:21:33
Speaker 1: and working in fear. I want to empower others with
1:21:36
Speaker 1: information in the hopes that we can create a better
1:21:38
Speaker 1: and safer world. Last week, Judge Sarah Russell denied Grant's
1:21:45
Speaker 1: request for early discovery in her lawsuit against McMahon WWE,
1:21:50
Speaker 1: although she did indicate that Grant may renew the motion
1:21:53
Speaker 1: later in the proceedings. We're still waiting on the big
1:21:55
Speaker 1: decision here as to whether or not the judge is
1:21:57
Speaker 1: going to allow the case to proceed to trial as
1:22:00
Speaker 1: Janelle Grant wants, or to private arbitration, which is what
1:22:04
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon WWE want. You know, we're not getting any
1:22:07
Speaker 1: real movement in this case until that gets decided. And
1:22:11
Speaker 1: I got a chuckle out of this story here. This
1:22:15
Speaker 1: was a thing. This week, Kevin Nash has opened up
1:22:19
Speaker 1: about what he says is the real reason that his
1:22:22
Speaker 1: scheduled match against CM Punk was canceled in twenty eleven.
1:22:27
Speaker 1: This was during the WWE version of the Summer of Punk.
1:22:32
Speaker 1: You remember, Kevin Nash showed up at SummerSlam to stick
1:22:36
Speaker 1: it to CM Punk and he dropped him with a
1:22:39
Speaker 1: jackknife power bomb cost him the WWE Championship to Alberto
1:22:44
Speaker 1: Dell Dipshit, and that set up a program between the
1:22:46
Speaker 1: two of them. However, we never did get the match
1:22:49
Speaker 1: between them. At Night of Champions it was very abruptly
1:22:52
Speaker 1: changed and Kevin Nash was replaced by Triple H and
1:22:57
Speaker 1: he beat Punk in a noticed qualification match. So Nash
1:23:01
Speaker 1: was on his podcast Click This, and he revealed a
1:23:05
Speaker 1: specific off script comment made by CM Punk during a
1:23:10
Speaker 1: promo infuriated Triple H so much because I guess the
1:23:15
Speaker 1: comment referred to him and Stephanie McMahon or it referred
1:23:18
Speaker 1: to Stephanie in some way, but it infuriated him so
1:23:21
Speaker 1: much that it led to Triple H inserting himself into
1:23:26
Speaker 1: the match. This is what he said when I was
1:23:28
Speaker 1: supposed to wrestle CM Punk after I cost him the belt.
1:23:32
Speaker 1: He said something that pissed off Paul about something with
1:23:34
Speaker 1: him and Stephanie and it wasn't on script, and it
1:23:37
Speaker 1: pissed Paul off, and Paul came back and basically said,
1:23:41
Speaker 1: you're not wrestling punk I am. I'm beating that motherfucker.
1:23:46
Speaker 1: He was that hot. Paul isn't a bitch. It was like,
1:23:50
Speaker 1: Oh okay, motherfucker. Basically like, oh okay, click rules, like
1:23:55
Speaker 1: you want to pull them out, measure them? Here we go,
1:23:58
Speaker 1: suck on that a fucking vision. I know how fucking
1:24:03
Speaker 1: much Paul cares for him now and to bring him
1:24:06
Speaker 1: back and everything that happened, and Paul to entrust Phil
1:24:09
Speaker 1: with everything that he's done and vice versa for each other.
1:24:12
Speaker 1: So that's what people don't understand that aren't in the business,
1:24:14
Speaker 1: is that you can have that kind of fucking heat
1:24:16
Speaker 1: with somebody ten years ago, four years ago, three years ago,
1:24:21
Speaker 1: but when you got to make money and make music together,
1:24:24
Speaker 1: fucking how quickly that dissolves. And while that is completely
1:24:29
Speaker 1: one hundred percent believable, and I think a lot of
1:24:32
Speaker 1: us figured it went something like that. This is what
1:24:35
Speaker 1: Kevin Nash told Wade Keller in twenty twelve, because he
1:24:39
Speaker 1: has given a totally different accounting in the past of
1:24:41
Speaker 1: why this match never happened. That had nothing to do
1:24:43
Speaker 1: with Triple H. This is what he told to Wade
1:24:46
Speaker 1: Keller over a decade ago. So what happened was because
1:24:49
Speaker 1: of the wellness program. My and my dad died of
1:24:52
Speaker 1: a heart attack at thirty six years old. They do
1:24:56
Speaker 1: beyond a thorough physical well My heart and everything else
1:25:00
Speaker 1: was fine. But I'm on plavix, and Plavix is a
1:25:03
Speaker 1: blood platelet agulator. They call it a blood thinner. It's not.
1:25:07
Speaker 1: It stops your platelets from sticking together, so you don't
1:25:10
Speaker 1: get cardiovascular disease and blockages in your arteries and have
1:25:13
Speaker 1: a heart attack. It's also for stroke. It's very common
1:25:16
Speaker 1: to take with a statin drug if you have anybody
1:25:20
Speaker 1: in your heredity who died before fifty, let alone having
1:25:23
Speaker 1: a father who died of a massive car in area
1:25:25
Speaker 1: at thirty six. So I was on plavix. So this
1:25:28
Speaker 1: comes through. When the doctor sees that I'm on plavix,
1:25:31
Speaker 1: I can't wrestle. So now I'm supposed to wrestle Ceampunk,
1:25:34
Speaker 1: I can't. They won't medically clear me. Triple H has
1:25:38
Speaker 1: to take my spot. It screws up the entire angle.
1:25:42
Speaker 1: That's how all that came about Wwe would never because
1:25:45
Speaker 1: that's the class of the program. Never let that come out.
1:25:49
Speaker 1: But I need to make sure people realize it wasn't
1:25:51
Speaker 1: Creative's fault. It was that a fifty two year old
1:25:54
Speaker 1: guy was on Plavix and I had to go off
1:25:56
Speaker 1: of it. I had to be off of it for
1:25:58
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time before I I could go
1:26:00
Speaker 1: back to work. It just so happened that I was
1:26:02
Speaker 1: finishing the Soderberg film Magic Mike at the time and
1:26:05
Speaker 1: I had to go shoot that. So it coincided with
1:26:07
Speaker 1: me going away for a while. I took the shot
1:26:10
Speaker 1: with the sledgehammer in Buffalo at Night of Champions, and
1:26:12
Speaker 1: that got me away until I could be cleared, and
1:26:15
Speaker 1: then I came back and we went into the match
1:26:17
Speaker 1: with Paul and I. At that point, Phil and I
1:26:20
Speaker 1: sort of missed our opportunity to have that match. That's
1:26:23
Speaker 1: the true, untold story that I give only Wade Keller.
1:26:27
Speaker 1: That's a very different story than the one he's telling now.
1:26:30
Speaker 1: And he wasn't done either. In that interview, he said
1:26:32
Speaker 1: had the storyline played out as originally conceived, John Laurinidis
1:26:38
Speaker 1: would have been revealed as the one who texted him
1:26:41
Speaker 1: at SummerSlam. He said, it would have been Johnny. It
1:26:44
Speaker 1: would have been Johnny trying to end around in me,
1:26:47
Speaker 1: trying to say that Paul had changed because he was
1:26:50
Speaker 1: a blue blood now and he wasn't click. He was
1:26:53
Speaker 1: in the McMahon threshold. We were going to get a
1:26:55
Speaker 1: Johnny Ace click of guys to try to take over
1:26:58
Speaker 1: control of the company. That's when Vince would have gotten fired,
1:27:02
Speaker 1: and then we would have been after Paul to try
1:27:04
Speaker 1: to take control of the company. You know, good storyline.
1:27:08
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, great storyline. Right, the same Johnny Ace, who,
1:27:12
Speaker 1: by the way, slithered out of his hole in the
1:27:15
Speaker 1: ground this week to announce his first signing in years
1:27:18
Speaker 1: for Big Time Wrestling next month. Let's not pretend that
1:27:22
Speaker 1: he wasn't a shit character back then either on TV.
1:27:25
Speaker 1: So pick whichever story you want to believe. It was
1:27:28
Speaker 1: Triple H's call or it was the plavix. I choose
1:27:32
Speaker 1: to believe the Triple H story because it is the
1:27:34
Speaker 1: most Triple H story of all Triple H stories, and
1:27:37
Speaker 1: it is completely believable that that would have happened exactly
1:27:40
Speaker 1: the way that he described it. Because people in wrestling
1:27:43
Speaker 1: have very fragile egos, and some people wanted me to
1:27:47
Speaker 1: talk about this, so we're going to run through this
1:27:50
Speaker 1: real quick. The Wrestling Observer Newsletters twenty twenty five Awards
1:27:55
Speaker 1: issue came out this week, as voted on by the
1:27:58
Speaker 1: Observer readership and others within the industry itself. So these
1:28:03
Speaker 1: are not hands selected by Dave Meltzer himself, although I
1:28:06
Speaker 1: am sure he would agree with most of these, Nor
1:28:09
Speaker 1: is this all of the categories. But this is a
1:28:11
Speaker 1: good chunk of them, the important one. So I'm just
1:28:13
Speaker 1: going to run through them here and we'll see who
1:28:15
Speaker 1: won it. Maybe I'll chime in along the way. Maybe
1:28:17
Speaker 1: you'll be entertained by this. The luth As Rick Flair Award,
1:28:22
Speaker 1: which is the Wrestler of the Year award, voted number
1:28:26
Speaker 1: one Mystico, number two, Hangman Adam Page, number three, John Moxley.
1:28:35
Speaker 1: And it's hard to argue with the number one spot here.
1:28:38
Speaker 1: You know, Mystico first won the award in two thousand
1:28:41
Speaker 1: and six, that was twenty years ago, and so here
1:28:44
Speaker 1: he is now. This is the twenty twenty five awards,
1:28:46
Speaker 1: so he repeats almost twenty years later. He is the
1:28:50
Speaker 1: only non heavyweight to ever win the award and the
1:28:54
Speaker 1: only wrestler based in Mexico to ever win the award.
1:28:58
Speaker 1: I can't argue against it. Every but he has their
1:29:00
Speaker 1: own criteria for Wrestler of the Year and what goes
1:29:03
Speaker 1: into it. Are you talking about the most outstanding in
1:29:07
Speaker 1: ring worker? Are you factoring that in along with their
1:29:10
Speaker 1: drawing power? Because if you put those two things together,
1:29:14
Speaker 1: then Mystico is the answer. I can't even argue it.
1:29:18
Speaker 1: I mean, the man has had at least half a
1:29:20
Speaker 1: dozen sellouts already this month, and he has a couple
1:29:24
Speaker 1: more to his name in Japan later this month. So
1:29:27
Speaker 1: this is coming off a month of January here where
1:29:29
Speaker 1: he was credited with I think somewhere around seventeen or
1:29:32
Speaker 1: eighteen sellouts. I mean, he is just he's on another
1:29:36
Speaker 1: planet right now. As far as his drawing power, there's
1:29:40
Speaker 1: no one even close, not in WWE or anywhere else
1:29:43
Speaker 1: in terms of a singular attraction, and so he was
1:29:46
Speaker 1: doing that all throughout last year. But that's just what's
1:29:49
Speaker 1: happened so far this year. So I don't know that
1:29:52
Speaker 1: there's any other wrestler who has been more important to
1:29:55
Speaker 1: the promotion for which they work than Mystico. So I
1:29:59
Speaker 1: don't have any issue with that, And then you got
1:30:01
Speaker 1: Hangman and Moxley, and that rounds out the top three.
1:30:04
Speaker 1: You know, Takeshta was my best in ring of the Year.
1:30:08
Speaker 1: When I did my awards several weeks ago, I had
1:30:11
Speaker 1: Kenoskate Takeshta as my best in ring performer of the Year.
1:30:15
Speaker 1: But I did have Hangman as my Men's Wrestler of
1:30:18
Speaker 1: the Year overall, so I don't really have any issue
1:30:21
Speaker 1: with that. Most Outstanding Wrestler Number one, Canoskate Takeshta, number
1:30:27
Speaker 1: two Bandido, and number three Kyle Fletcher. Again no issue
1:30:33
Speaker 1: from my end. I had Takeshta as my my in
1:30:36
Speaker 1: ring worker of the year. Kyle Fletcher, I had him
1:30:38
Speaker 1: as my breakout Star of the Year. Tag Team of
1:30:42
Speaker 1: the Year number one, the Young Bucks, number two, FTR,
1:30:48
Speaker 1: number three, Brody King, and Bandido. So the only WWE
1:30:54
Speaker 1: team to make the list here was Fraxium. They came
1:30:58
Speaker 1: in in number seven. And I have talked a lot
1:31:02
Speaker 1: about the state of the tag team division in WWE.
1:31:05
Speaker 1: I mean, don't even get me started on that. So
1:31:08
Speaker 1: the fact that there was no WWE team in the
1:31:10
Speaker 1: top three or the top five here makes a lot
1:31:12
Speaker 1: of sense. Although I would have had Brody Kingham Bendido
1:31:15
Speaker 1: at number one, I would not have had the Bucks
1:31:17
Speaker 1: or FTR ahead of them. To me, Brody King and Bendido,
1:31:19
Speaker 1: they were kind of like a revelation that came out
1:31:21
Speaker 1: of nowhere as this unexpected team kind of late in
1:31:25
Speaker 1: the year, maybe mid midway through the year, and they
1:31:28
Speaker 1: were just a lot of fun to watch, right and
1:31:30
Speaker 1: then they won the tag team titles and they had
1:31:32
Speaker 1: some killer matches. So I disagree with this for me,
1:31:35
Speaker 1: Brody Kingham Bendido, that's your tag team of the Year.
1:31:38
Speaker 1: Best on interviews. Hangman Page was number one. I don't
1:31:45
Speaker 1: know how they arrived at that, But number two was
1:31:47
Speaker 1: John Moxley. Number three was timeless Tony Storm. When I
1:31:52
Speaker 1: did my awards, I had cmpunk as my number one.
1:31:56
Speaker 1: Cmpunk was on this list at number four, so he
1:31:59
Speaker 1: did make the I just think, you know, this is
1:32:02
Speaker 1: not cm punk from you know, fifteen years ago or
1:32:07
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago, where he was, you know, he was
1:32:09
Speaker 1: dropping bombs every week. But when he's out there on
1:32:12
Speaker 1: most weeks and he's got something really solid to sink
1:32:16
Speaker 1: his teeth in two, he's still, if not the best
1:32:19
Speaker 1: in the world among the very best in the world
1:32:21
Speaker 1: on the microphone. Nothing has really changed in that regard.
1:32:24
Speaker 1: He just needs the right material and the right person
1:32:26
Speaker 1: to work with. We saw that with Drew McIntyre. We
1:32:29
Speaker 1: saw that when he was in the ring with Roman
1:32:30
Speaker 1: Reigns a few weeks ago. I really liked the promo
1:32:33
Speaker 1: with Finn Balor on Monday Night. You know, Punk still
1:32:36
Speaker 1: got it in that way. Even if you think he's
1:32:38
Speaker 1: fallen off in ring on the mic he hasn't. So
1:32:42
Speaker 1: I had him at number one. But if you want
1:32:43
Speaker 1: to have Tony Storm at number one, I don't have
1:32:46
Speaker 1: an issue with that. Tony Storm is fucking great. But
1:32:50
Speaker 1: Hangman Page and John Moxley ahead of both of them. Now.
1:32:54
Speaker 1: Promotion of the Year number one, CMLL, number two, ae
1:32:59
Speaker 1: W number three. Stardom WWE was number four. So I
1:33:05
Speaker 1: know there's gonna be a lot of people who laugh
1:33:07
Speaker 1: at this award. And look, I mean, by all accounts,
1:33:10
Speaker 1: Stardom I think actually had a better year financially than
1:33:12
Speaker 1: New Japan did. Start them had a pretty good year.
1:33:16
Speaker 1: Should they be at number three over WWE? Again, that's
1:33:19
Speaker 1: a very subjective thing WWE. But before anybody says that, well,
1:33:24
Speaker 1: of course this is the you know, it's the aw
1:33:27
Speaker 1: award and it's the audience. I will point out to
1:33:30
Speaker 1: you WWE they came in number one each of the
1:33:33
Speaker 1: previous two years, so it's not like they haven't won
1:33:36
Speaker 1: this award before. They just want it back to back
1:33:39
Speaker 1: years they went. They went back to back like Cody
1:33:41
Speaker 1: Rhoades did in the Royal Rumble. But this year they
1:33:44
Speaker 1: came in at number four. And you know what, as
1:33:46
Speaker 1: dead creatively as the company was for most of the year,
1:33:51
Speaker 1: I'm not going to argue. And I know CMLL did
1:33:53
Speaker 1: big business last year on the back of Mystico. Mostly
1:33:58
Speaker 1: they're still doing big business. I don't know how how
1:34:00
Speaker 1: long this boom is going to last for them down there,
1:34:02
Speaker 1: but it look I mean business. Their business is on
1:34:05
Speaker 1: fire right now. You know, they're packing them in. The
1:34:07
Speaker 1: people love coming to the shows. They find the show's
1:34:09
Speaker 1: fun to watch, and I don't watch the show's week
1:34:12
Speaker 1: to week. I don't watch their show, so it's hard
1:34:14
Speaker 1: for me to really sit here and judge. They're not
1:34:16
Speaker 1: my promotion of the year, But I can't sit here
1:34:19
Speaker 1: and say they don't deserve consideration for the number one
1:34:21
Speaker 1: spot when you look at the business they've done. And
1:34:24
Speaker 1: I'm also looking at a year where frankly, WWE and
1:34:27
Speaker 1: AW didn't exactly inspire me all that much to where
1:34:31
Speaker 1: I'm going to sit here and go, oh man, they
1:34:32
Speaker 1: should have been number one. I'm like, eh, you know what, Fine,
1:34:35
Speaker 1: give it to CMLL. This was not the best year
1:34:38
Speaker 1: that we just came off of creatively for either one
1:34:40
Speaker 1: of those two companies. But this is the first time
1:34:43
Speaker 1: in history that CMLL has won this award. It's only
1:34:47
Speaker 1: the second time that a Lucha libre promotion has ever
1:34:50
Speaker 1: won it, after TRIPAA won it in nineteen ninety four. Now,
1:34:55
Speaker 1: but if you're going to look at this, you take
1:34:57
Speaker 1: into account the character, the stories, the matches. So you
1:35:03
Speaker 1: want to look at the matches. That's where AW shines.
1:35:07
Speaker 1: So this kind of goes to the question earlier of
1:35:10
Speaker 1: like who's the Wrestler of the Year. It really all
1:35:12
Speaker 1: depends on what your criteria is for it. You know,
1:35:16
Speaker 1: if you're primarily interested in who gave me the best
1:35:18
Speaker 1: wrestling matches last year, then put AW at number one.
1:35:23
Speaker 1: They should be number one. But when you factor in
1:35:26
Speaker 1: all of these different things, you know, you gotta look
1:35:29
Speaker 1: at the big picture here, then it's a little fuzzier.
1:35:35
Speaker 1: Worst Promotion of the Year Number one WWE, which is
1:35:40
Speaker 1: just it's funny to be because they won the award
1:35:42
Speaker 1: for Best Promotion of the Year last year, but this
1:35:45
Speaker 1: year they were the worst Promotion of the Year number
1:35:48
Speaker 1: two NWA, number three TNA, and ae W was all
1:35:56
Speaker 1: the way down at the bottom of the list at
1:35:59
Speaker 1: number two. I mean, that's it's just funny to me.
1:36:03
Speaker 1: It's just funny, but man, I mean the hatred for
1:36:08
Speaker 1: WWE to rank them above the NWA Best Weekly TV
1:36:15
Speaker 1: Show number one aw Dynamite, number two CML Super Viernes
1:36:23
Speaker 1: and number three aw Collision Worst Weekly Show number one NXT.
1:36:32
Speaker 1: Actually that makes a lot more sense than when we
1:36:34
Speaker 1: get to the Worst Announcer Award number one NXT. Number
1:36:37
Speaker 1: two SmackDown, Well, that is undoubtedly true. I'm not going
1:36:42
Speaker 1: to sit here and defend SmackDown that pile of shit
1:36:45
Speaker 1: that it was for a good part of the year
1:36:46
Speaker 1: last year. And number three TNA Impact Best Major Wrestling Show,
1:36:54
Speaker 1: number one aw All in Texas, number two a A
1:37:00
Speaker 1: double or nothing. I had that as my number one
1:37:02
Speaker 1: show of the year, so I wasn't too far off
1:37:05
Speaker 1: number three, Stardom, All Star Grand Queendom. That's your top
1:37:11
Speaker 1: three best major shows of the year. I had Double
1:37:14
Speaker 1: or Nothing as my number one, but I had the
1:37:15
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber as my number two. Elimination Chamber was ranked
1:37:20
Speaker 1: here at number six. Worst major wrestling show number one,
1:37:25
Speaker 1: Wrestle Palooza number two, Survivor Series number three, Wrestle Maybia
1:37:32
Speaker 1: forty one Night two. Well, look, I mean, we talk
1:37:37
Speaker 1: about these pay per views and major shows. The one
1:37:41
Speaker 1: thing where AW shines more often than not is when
1:37:45
Speaker 1: it comes to their pay per views. And I'm not
1:37:47
Speaker 1: a fan of these marathon five hour shows we get
1:37:50
Speaker 1: sometimes I think it's just it's so fucking ridiculous. But
1:37:53
Speaker 1: in terms of the quality of the shows and the
1:37:55
Speaker 1: in ring matches and what we get on those shows,
1:37:58
Speaker 1: the fact that there's no AW shows here, I'm not
1:38:00
Speaker 1: surprised by that. Like, they know how to do their
1:38:02
Speaker 1: their major shows and WWE, they know how to put
1:38:05
Speaker 1: on a big production, but their shows are very hit
1:38:07
Speaker 1: or miss. You can get a great PLA and then
1:38:09
Speaker 1: you could turn around and get one that shit and
1:38:12
Speaker 1: you know only has four matches, and so if those
1:38:14
Speaker 1: four matches don't hit and you only have four matches
1:38:17
Speaker 1: to go by, then that's not going to be a
1:38:19
Speaker 1: very good show, you know. But it was also a
1:38:22
Speaker 1: year where we got Evolution, which was one of my
1:38:26
Speaker 1: favorite shows of the entire year. Match of the year
1:38:31
Speaker 1: Number one Kenny Omega against Gabe Kid at the Tokyo Dome.
1:38:36
Speaker 1: Number two Bendido against Kenoski Takeshta in Ring of Honor.
1:38:41
Speaker 1: Number three Hangman versus Moxley at All in Texas. The
1:38:47
Speaker 1: only WWE match that made the top ten here was
1:38:51
Speaker 1: the Triple Threat from WrestleMania with Rhea Ripley, Eo Sky
1:38:55
Speaker 1: and Bianca bel Air that came in in number eight.
1:38:59
Speaker 1: So clearly I disagree here because that was my match
1:39:03
Speaker 1: of the year, especially in WWE. That was a tremendous
1:39:07
Speaker 1: piece of business with those three ladies. Last year, these
1:39:11
Speaker 1: other matches were all great, you know, Hangman and Moxley.
1:39:14
Speaker 1: They got the big payoff there at the end with
1:39:16
Speaker 1: the Death Riders losing their grip on the championship. This again,
1:39:20
Speaker 1: that was kind of like their Avengers endgame moment, all
1:39:22
Speaker 1: the cameos by different people, and so yeah, I mean
1:39:26
Speaker 1: that was great. Omega and Gabe Kid at the beginning
1:39:28
Speaker 1: of the year was. What makes that match even more
1:39:31
Speaker 1: remarkable is just the fact that it was Kenny's first
1:39:33
Speaker 1: match back after over a year where he almost potentially
1:39:36
Speaker 1: fucking died from diverticulitis. His first match back and he
1:39:42
Speaker 1: goes out and has the kind of match that he
1:39:43
Speaker 1: had with Gabe Kid. Certainly one of the matches of
1:39:47
Speaker 1: the year. Now the worst match of the year. Number
1:39:52
Speaker 1: one John Cena against Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania forty one.
1:39:58
Speaker 1: Number two Minoru's Suzuki against Butterbean in Las Vegas WrestleMania weekend.
1:40:05
Speaker 1: I have heard a lot about this match this week.
1:40:08
Speaker 1: I will tell you I have not seen this match,
1:40:11
Speaker 1: and there were people insisting that it was that there
1:40:13
Speaker 1: was absolutely nothing worse than this match last year, and
1:40:18
Speaker 1: I can believe it, but I just I haven't seen it,
1:40:20
Speaker 1: and now having heard about it, I really don't want
1:40:22
Speaker 1: to see it. But that came in at number two
1:40:26
Speaker 1: and number three brock Lesnar against John Cena at Wressell Palooza,
1:40:31
Speaker 1: truly one of the worst matches of the entire year.
1:40:36
Speaker 1: Most improved Number one Harley Cameron, Number two, Kyle Fletcher,
1:40:40
Speaker 1: number three Kendall Gray. Kendall Gray is going to be
1:40:44
Speaker 1: a very big deal very soon. I have no idea
1:40:47
Speaker 1: how Raquel Rodriguez did not make the top ten. She
1:40:49
Speaker 1: wasn't just not in the top three, she was not
1:40:52
Speaker 1: even in the top ten. She was my most improved
1:40:57
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five. How the hell is she not
1:40:59
Speaker 1: on this lege Most Overrated? Number one? Jay Usso, number two,
1:41:08
Speaker 1: cm Punk number three, Jade Cargill and in fact, WWE
1:41:17
Speaker 1: Talons took seven of the top ten spots here on
1:41:20
Speaker 1: this list, including John Cena at number nine. John Cena
1:41:25
Speaker 1: Most Overrated in twenty twenty five. I mean, jay Uso
1:41:30
Speaker 1: being in the number one spot is not It's not surprising.
1:41:34
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we had the jay Uso story,
1:41:35
Speaker 1: we had the j Uso push, we had the Juso
1:41:38
Speaker 1: world title run, and there were a lot of people
1:41:40
Speaker 1: who didn't even want that, but we got it. And
1:41:43
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of people who have just soured
1:41:46
Speaker 1: on it and the whole Yeat stuff and everything else,
1:41:48
Speaker 1: and they don't want to see it anymore. The WWE
1:41:51
Speaker 1: audience seems to want to see it whenever he comes
1:41:53
Speaker 1: out to the ring, but beyond that, there are a
1:41:55
Speaker 1: lot of people who I think the biggest issue was
1:41:57
Speaker 1: him being in the position that he was in, not
1:41:59
Speaker 1: that he was even the show, but that he was
1:42:01
Speaker 1: being booked in this main event spot and being given
1:42:05
Speaker 1: that kind of spotlight at the top of the card,
1:42:07
Speaker 1: and people just you know, they soured on it, you know,
1:42:11
Speaker 1: And I'm one of those people. I don't disagree with
1:42:12
Speaker 1: those people. It's hard to argue, honestly when that is
1:42:16
Speaker 1: as being the number one, you know, in this category
1:42:19
Speaker 1: now most Underrated. The Beast Mortos came in at number one.
1:42:25
Speaker 1: The Beast Morteas is very good. I don't know why
1:42:27
Speaker 1: he loses all the time. He is very good. Number
1:42:30
Speaker 1: two Javon Evans and number three Commander La Knight was
1:42:37
Speaker 1: on this list. He was tied with Chad Gable at
1:42:40
Speaker 1: number nine. The Jim Ross Slash Best Television Announcer Award.
1:42:47
Speaker 1: Number one Brian Danielson who doesn't even do it full time.
1:42:51
Speaker 1: They ranked him at number one, Number two Walker Stewart,
1:42:56
Speaker 1: who actually does a very good job for New Japan
1:42:58
Speaker 1: Pro Wrestling, and number three three ex Caliber, Number four
1:43:03
Speaker 1: Nigel McGinnis, Number five Michael Cole. They had ian Rick
1:43:10
Speaker 1: Abonni in number six, which feels low to me. They
1:43:15
Speaker 1: had Corey Graves in number eight, and they had Joe
1:43:18
Speaker 1: Tessitur at number nine over Michael Cole, who did not
1:43:24
Speaker 1: have his best year last year. I mean, he's had
1:43:27
Speaker 1: a lot of questionable moments over the last several months.
1:43:30
Speaker 1: I don't want to say he's checked out, but even
1:43:34
Speaker 1: him at number five, it seems a little high to
1:43:36
Speaker 1: me on this list. I certainly would not have had
1:43:39
Speaker 1: Corey and Joe that low on the list. The Worst
1:43:43
Speaker 1: Television Announcer Number one Booker T, number two, Pat McAfee,
1:43:50
Speaker 1: number three, Michael Cole. I don't know what it says,
1:43:54
Speaker 1: by the way, about the state of just the announcing
1:43:58
Speaker 1: situation in general with the top promotions when you have
1:44:02
Speaker 1: Michael Cole coming in at number five in the top five,
1:44:05
Speaker 1: okay for best TV announcer, but he comes in number
1:44:08
Speaker 1: three as the worst TV announcer. I've tried. I'm trying
1:44:12
Speaker 1: to reconcile this. Number four Vic Joseph and number five
1:44:18
Speaker 1: Tony Schavani. So this means that Booker T has won
1:44:22
Speaker 1: the award for Worst Announcer three straight years. Boy, the
1:44:29
Speaker 1: Observer readers, they really don't like Booker T. Do they now?
1:44:32
Speaker 1: They also voted NXT as the worst weekly show. How
1:44:35
Speaker 1: much of that was because they don't like Booker T.
1:44:37
Speaker 1: I don't know. Look the thing with Booker T. Booker
1:44:40
Speaker 1: T is very entertaining. Booker T is a showman. Booker
1:44:46
Speaker 1: T on commentary is an acquired taste. Booker T has also,
1:44:51
Speaker 1: I think played a very big role in the elevation
1:44:54
Speaker 1: of someone like Trick Williams, who has now gone on.
1:44:57
Speaker 1: He hasn't been on the main roster very long, but
1:44:59
Speaker 1: he's already a bit star on the main roster. But him,
1:45:01
Speaker 1: you know, singing his song and cheerleading forum on commentary
1:45:06
Speaker 1: I think did actually a world of good for Trick Williams.
1:45:10
Speaker 1: So that's one example of him actually helping to elevate
1:45:13
Speaker 1: a talent. But look at me. He's on there to
1:45:17
Speaker 1: be entertaining. That's his role. He's not on there to
1:45:19
Speaker 1: give you know, deep analysis. You know, there are Booker
1:45:23
Speaker 1: Team moments where sometimes it's like, all right, you know,
1:45:26
Speaker 1: we could dial it back, And then there's Booker Team
1:45:28
Speaker 1: moments where you know, I'm laughing my ass off, and
1:45:30
Speaker 1: he's very entertaining. What I call him the worst TV announcer.
1:45:33
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. That seems a little extreme
1:45:35
Speaker 1: to me. But I will also admit to you I'm
1:45:37
Speaker 1: not watching NXT week to week. I check in with
1:45:39
Speaker 1: certain things. I do not watch the show week to week.
1:45:41
Speaker 1: And it's not because of Booker T. I can tell
1:45:45
Speaker 1: you that. So I don't know. Has he gotten worse?
1:45:49
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know. I mean, I disagree with that,
1:45:52
Speaker 1: but boy, I mean three years in a row to
1:45:56
Speaker 1: win that award. These these people do not like Booker T.
1:46:01
Speaker 1: That is what I am getting here from the voting results.
1:46:03
Speaker 1: I don't have the issue with him that other people
1:46:05
Speaker 1: seem to have, But I don't know. Apparently there's this
1:46:09
Speaker 1: deep hatred there. Most disgusting promotional tactic Number one WWE
1:46:20
Speaker 1: bringing back brock Lesnar Number two, tkowwe UFC relationship with
1:46:27
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia Number three tkowwe UFC relationship with Trump. How
1:46:36
Speaker 1: the hell did Rajah Jackson that whole thing only make
1:46:39
Speaker 1: number four on this list? This should have been number
1:46:42
Speaker 1: one without hesitation. It's not just the incident itself at
1:46:45
Speaker 1: the Knox Pro Show where he almost beat a man
1:46:49
Speaker 1: to death. They have this listed here as the Raja
1:46:53
Speaker 1: Jackson incident and a promotion advertising him for their show.
1:46:58
Speaker 1: They have both of these things listed here number four. Now,
1:47:01
Speaker 1: if you don't know about that, this was less than
1:47:03
Speaker 1: a week after the incident with Psychostu, there was another
1:47:06
Speaker 1: indie promotion. Danger Pro Wrestling out of San Diego advertised
1:47:11
Speaker 1: Raja Jackson for an upcoming show. Now, I don't think
1:47:15
Speaker 1: they ever actually booked him. I think they did it
1:47:17
Speaker 1: as a gag to try to drum up interest in
1:47:20
Speaker 1: their show the venue that they were running. They didn't
1:47:22
Speaker 1: find it very funny. They said that Raja Jackson was
1:47:25
Speaker 1: banned from appearing, but the fact that they would even
1:47:29
Speaker 1: do that, and this is like not even a week
1:47:32
Speaker 1: after the incident happened. I know wrestling is a very
1:47:34
Speaker 1: carni business with a lot of very carne people in it,
1:47:39
Speaker 1: but you have to be a real scumbag to think
1:47:41
Speaker 1: that that's a good idea to drum up interest in
1:47:43
Speaker 1: your shitty promotion. So as actual promotional tactics go, I mean,
1:47:49
Speaker 1: that is the name of the fucking category. This should
1:47:52
Speaker 1: have been number one with a bullet. The funny thing
1:47:56
Speaker 1: about this category, though, I still cannot get over how
1:47:59
Speaker 1: Bob Beckland as WWF Champion was voted number one for
1:48:03
Speaker 1: this category in nineteen eighty two. To this day, I'm
1:48:06
Speaker 1: still wondering, how is this the most disgusting promotional attack?
1:48:09
Speaker 1: Do you mean to tell me that back then, in
1:48:11
Speaker 1: the early eighties, in the old days of territory wrestling,
1:48:15
Speaker 1: there was nothing more disgusting promotionally being done in the
1:48:19
Speaker 1: business than Vince Senior sticking with Bob Backland as the
1:48:22
Speaker 1: WWF champion. I find that very hard to believe. And
1:48:29
Speaker 1: then Booker of the Year. You know how this goes
1:48:32
Speaker 1: number one? I mean you could tell just based on
1:48:34
Speaker 1: how so many of these other rewards have gone number one,
1:48:37
Speaker 1: Tony Kahn, number two, tarot Okata for stardom, and number three.
1:48:43
Speaker 1: The CMLL booking team Paul Leavec came in at number four,
1:48:50
Speaker 1: and you know what, good because twenty twenty five was
1:48:52
Speaker 1: not a great year for Paul Lavec, especially the way
1:48:56
Speaker 1: that John Cena story was handled. Being number one. Yeah,
1:49:01
Speaker 1: I don't know about that either, But paula Vec, I'm
1:49:06
Speaker 1: not going to cry about him coming in. I'm not
1:49:07
Speaker 1: gonna cry about any of this shit because I don't
1:49:09
Speaker 1: really give a fuck. But Paula vec coming in at
1:49:11
Speaker 1: number four. Yeah, okay, good sounds about right to me.
1:49:15
Speaker 1: I certainly didn't look at you know, Paula Veck or
1:49:17
Speaker 1: Tony Conn and go man, that's my booker of the Year.
1:49:20
Speaker 1: I didn't really feel anything for either one of them
1:49:24
Speaker 1: when it came to this award, So I don't really
1:49:27
Speaker 1: care one way or the other. But give it to
1:49:30
Speaker 1: the CMLL booking team for all I care. The business
1:49:32
Speaker 1: they did last year, make them number one, start them again.
1:49:37
Speaker 1: I can't speak to it. I know they had a
1:49:39
Speaker 1: good year. I can't speak to their storylines and how
1:49:42
Speaker 1: they were booking matches and stuff, so I can't even
1:49:45
Speaker 1: comment on that. But give it to CMLL. There's your
1:49:49
Speaker 1: Booker of the Year, and those are your observer awards
1:49:52
Speaker 1: that made headlines and had people talking here for twenty
1:49:55
Speaker 1: twenty five. Let's take some mailbag questions. You could email
1:49:59
Speaker 1: me the Solomn Monster at gmail dot com. Please include
1:50:03
Speaker 1: your name where you are from when you write in.
1:50:05
Speaker 1: I will point out to you, by the way, the
1:50:07
Speaker 1: same email address for the Uncrowned Wrestling show that I
1:50:12
Speaker 1: am doing for Uncrowned. If you would like to submit
1:50:14
Speaker 1: questions to potentially be read on that show. Just make
1:50:17
Speaker 1: sure you put uncrowned somewhere in the subject line Solo
1:50:20
Speaker 1: Monster at gmail dot com. And for that show, you
1:50:23
Speaker 1: could also tweet me at Sola Monster. Just put the
1:50:26
Speaker 1: hashtag uncrowned at the end of your tweet and those
1:50:30
Speaker 1: will be considered as well. Let's get into this here.
1:50:32
Speaker 1: Bernard from the YouTube channel says, I hate to bring
1:50:35
Speaker 1: this up, but I just have to find out from
1:50:37
Speaker 1: you if you heard any rumors that Vince McMahon might
1:50:40
Speaker 1: be coming back to WWE. There have been a few
1:50:43
Speaker 1: red flags for his return. The latest was at the
1:50:45
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble in a video package of pass Rumbles, showing
1:50:48
Speaker 1: his image in the video package, and it was also
1:50:51
Speaker 1: said that the reason why Adam Pierce has been acting
1:50:54
Speaker 1: or responding to bron Breaker is because he's acting on
1:50:56
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon's behalf and Vince is the one pulling the strings.
1:51:01
Speaker 1: I hope this is not true. What are your thoughts?
1:51:03
Speaker 1: It is not true. That's a bunch of people who
1:51:07
Speaker 1: are running amuck with their own silly ideas on social media.
1:51:11
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon is not coming back. Miles from Avondale, Arizona
1:51:17
Speaker 1: and WWE, we have now seen or will see three
1:51:19
Speaker 1: to four different versions of the Judgment Day. Are the
1:51:22
Speaker 1: Judgment Day dead or like the Bloodline, they will continue
1:51:26
Speaker 1: to add more members and venture forth. I think he
1:51:29
Speaker 1: answered your own question there at the very end. Are
1:51:31
Speaker 1: they dead? No, They're not dead. They're very much alive.
1:51:34
Speaker 1: And I think that WWE likes the Judgment Day. The
1:51:37
Speaker 1: Judgment Day has actually proven to be a very useful
1:51:40
Speaker 1: vehicle for helping to get people over and getting them
1:51:44
Speaker 1: on television with some sort of story. Now, it may
1:51:48
Speaker 1: not always be the best story, and I absolutely believe
1:51:50
Speaker 1: that they have dragged out some of these stories for
1:51:52
Speaker 1: too long. You know the tension with Balor and Dom
1:51:56
Speaker 1: as one example of that. But the Judgment Day has
1:51:59
Speaker 1: actually proven to be something where I think I would
1:52:02
Speaker 1: keep it together, but I would definitely cycle out new members,
1:52:06
Speaker 1: cycle out old members, bringing new ones. I think it
1:52:09
Speaker 1: could be very useful. So I believe it is going
1:52:12
Speaker 1: to venture forth. I don't believe the Judgment Day is
1:52:14
Speaker 1: going anywhere. Sufi from Malaysia, on a recent episode of
1:52:20
Speaker 1: the Sound of If, you mentioned how there are so
1:52:21
Speaker 1: many titles in wrestling, if you could get rid of
1:52:24
Speaker 1: any of them in WWE, and AW what would they be? Yes,
1:52:31
Speaker 1: I should just leave the question right there and just
1:52:32
Speaker 1: say yes and move on. Yes. First you want to
1:52:36
Speaker 1: what I would do, I'll tell you what I would do.
1:52:39
Speaker 1: First things first, get rid of all the speed titles. Okay,
1:52:42
Speaker 1: the speed titles are completely pointless, so get rid of those.
1:52:46
Speaker 1: I would have a women's Intercontinental Champion. I would get
1:52:50
Speaker 1: rid of the women's US title. Okay. They have demonstrated
1:52:53
Speaker 1: that they do not have the ability to book the
1:52:56
Speaker 1: women's US title with any real degree of foresight, with
1:53:00
Speaker 1: anything of any real value. They don't really give a shit.
1:53:03
Speaker 1: It seems to be more of a nuisance to them
1:53:05
Speaker 1: than anything else. And I'll say what I said before
1:53:08
Speaker 1: they even introduced either one of these titles. Have one
1:53:12
Speaker 1: mid card title for the women that is cross branded. Okay,
1:53:15
Speaker 1: so that's something else I would do. I would merge
1:53:19
Speaker 1: the two men's tag team titles back into one and
1:53:23
Speaker 1: let them float because they do not have the talent
1:53:27
Speaker 1: at the moment. They do not have either Tag Team
1:53:30
Speaker 1: Division or ra SmackDown stockpiled in such a way where
1:53:32
Speaker 1: I think the tag ting division should be existing individually
1:53:35
Speaker 1: on either show. It's not strong enough and they don't
1:53:38
Speaker 1: give it enough attention. There should not be two sets
1:53:40
Speaker 1: of tag team titles. Merge them, have one division, have
1:53:44
Speaker 1: one set of champions, let them work across brands. And
1:53:49
Speaker 1: if I was gonna add any belts, I would consider
1:53:53
Speaker 1: adding mixed tag team titles like they have in TRIPLEA.
1:53:57
Speaker 1: So I'm just saying if I was going to add one,
1:54:00
Speaker 1: I'm not saying we need more belts. I'm trying to
1:54:02
Speaker 1: subtract them. But if you were going to add a
1:54:05
Speaker 1: new title, because we're like in AW they added the
1:54:07
Speaker 1: national title and WWE, we have these speed titles with
1:54:11
Speaker 1: these three minute matches they do. You could do speed
1:54:14
Speaker 1: matches if you want to. I don't really see the
1:54:16
Speaker 1: need to have a speed champion, but if you're going
1:54:18
Speaker 1: to add one, that would be it. Now. In AW,
1:54:23
Speaker 1: get rid of the national title. I'm sure Ricochet would
1:54:26
Speaker 1: tweet his displeasure over this, but oh well, get rid
1:54:29
Speaker 1: of it, and get rid of the continental title too.
1:54:33
Speaker 1: Fuck it. No more continental title, no more unified title.
1:54:37
Speaker 1: You keep the international title, the winner of the Continental Classic.
1:54:40
Speaker 1: It's a nice trophy and a shot at the AW
1:54:43
Speaker 1: World Championship. You do not need all of these excess titles.
1:54:47
Speaker 1: There was some poor guy in the crowd. Shout out
1:54:49
Speaker 1: to him, he's doing the wrestling lord's work. Here last
1:54:52
Speaker 1: night a Grand Slam. This one lone guy in the
1:54:54
Speaker 1: crowd in Australia held up a sign that said there's
1:54:57
Speaker 1: too many belts, too many titles. I said, that's my guy.
1:55:02
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if he was a sound off
1:55:04
Speaker 1: listener right there in the crowd. So right there, you
1:55:08
Speaker 1: still have a lot of titles, but I just eliminated
1:55:11
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them that are completely unnecessary. Mike
1:55:16
Speaker 1: from New Jersey, now that we are in the thick
1:55:18
Speaker 1: of WrestleMania season, what do you consider the greatest road
1:55:22
Speaker 1: to WrestleMania in terms of build to the big show
1:55:24
Speaker 1: and what made them fun now? He mentions in his
1:55:28
Speaker 1: email here, WrestleMania forty that would be one of them,
1:55:32
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean, once everything got blown up and
1:55:34
Speaker 1: we got Final Boss Rock on TV, it made things
1:55:37
Speaker 1: a lot more interesting. And you know, with the Night
1:55:39
Speaker 1: one main event feeding directly into the Night two main event,
1:55:43
Speaker 1: there was synergy there between the two nights. I thought
1:55:46
Speaker 1: that was cool. That's not something you could do every year,
1:55:48
Speaker 1: but I thought that was cool, So that one is
1:55:51
Speaker 1: definitely up there. WrestleMania thirty and the Yes movement stuff
1:55:55
Speaker 1: is another one, although I don't remember much else about
1:55:58
Speaker 1: that Road to WrestleMania for being on it. WrestleMania seventeen,
1:56:04
Speaker 1: that one may get my vote. If it's not forty
1:56:07
Speaker 1: for me, it's probably seventeen. I mean, there was just
1:56:10
Speaker 1: so much hype for that show. And I'll throw an
1:56:13
Speaker 1: old school one at you. Before the Road to WrestleMania
1:56:17
Speaker 1: was even really a thing, but it started with the
1:56:20
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble that year, and that's nineteen ninety two, WrestleMania eight,
1:56:26
Speaker 1: all the controversy around the world title scene and trying
1:56:29
Speaker 1: to decide who the challenger would be to Rick Flair,
1:56:31
Speaker 1: and then it gets changed. He had Roddy Piper winning
1:56:35
Speaker 1: his first singles title and building to a match with
1:56:37
Speaker 1: Brett Hart. Two babyfaces, the Undertaker, Jake, the Snake, Roberts
1:56:42
Speaker 1: stuff after Undertaker term babyface right the funeral parlor segment.
1:56:47
Speaker 1: I've got that one pretty high up on my list.
1:56:51
Speaker 1: Dorian from Kinston, North Carolina. I was listening to your
1:56:54
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble review and you mentioned Macho Man going for
1:56:57
Speaker 1: a pin in the match. Would it be so bad
1:57:00
Speaker 1: if they changed the rules of the Rumble to where
1:57:02
Speaker 1: the with the last two people left in the match,
1:57:05
Speaker 1: it turns into one fall to a finish. I think
1:57:07
Speaker 1: it makes it more interesting, you know, I am I
1:57:12
Speaker 1: am open to jazzing up the Royal Rumble. I always
1:57:16
Speaker 1: love the Aztec Warfare match in Lujah Underground. It didn't
1:57:20
Speaker 1: have any over the top rope eliminations, but it works.
1:57:22
Speaker 1: You know, rumble style where wrestlers enter in two minute intervals,
1:57:26
Speaker 1: but it's pinfall or submission elimination only. I would incorporate
1:57:31
Speaker 1: the over the top rope elimination. I wouldn't get rid
1:57:33
Speaker 1: of that otherwise, just adopt the Aztec Warfare rules. You know,
1:57:37
Speaker 1: you can have a referee slide in whenever someone goes
1:57:40
Speaker 1: for a pin or a submission. You have referees all
1:57:42
Speaker 1: over the ring anyway outside with your idea. I like it,
1:57:47
Speaker 1: but I would make it pinfall, submission or over the
1:57:50
Speaker 1: top rope elimination, so you can when you get down
1:57:53
Speaker 1: to those two, you can win by any of those three.
1:57:58
Speaker 1: Jesse from and by the way, just to go back
1:58:01
Speaker 1: to that for a second. It doesn't even have to
1:58:02
Speaker 1: be the final two people. I mean, you can make
1:58:05
Speaker 1: it that way with the final three, final four, doesn't
1:58:09
Speaker 1: just have to be the final two. Jesse from Dallas,
1:58:13
Speaker 1: Texas with WWE going back to Roman Reigns for yet
1:58:17
Speaker 1: another wrestle many a main event. Do you think this
1:58:19
Speaker 1: is indicative that Triple H has so far been unable
1:58:22
Speaker 1: to make any new true main events since he has
1:58:26
Speaker 1: taken over Creative Also another buyer sell on these two
1:58:29
Speaker 1: albums by Metallica, Master of Puppets or the black album
1:58:35
Speaker 1: Master of Puppets. So your first question though, to an extent, yes,
1:58:41
Speaker 1: but I think Triple H is going with who he
1:58:44
Speaker 1: thinks is going to be the biggest attraction so that
1:58:46
Speaker 1: he can sell the most tickets because he has masters
1:58:50
Speaker 1: to answer to, and if they stop selling as many tickets,
1:58:53
Speaker 1: he knows he's going to be on the hot seat,
1:58:54
Speaker 1: which evidently he might already be. We're already hearing chatter
1:58:58
Speaker 1: about this. But yes, I mean, they're running with the
1:59:00
Speaker 1: same faces they've been running with for years now, right
1:59:04
Speaker 1: only now does it feel like they're really trying to
1:59:07
Speaker 1: build up a few new names who could be in
1:59:10
Speaker 1: that spot by next year? Oba Femi Bron breaker as
1:59:15
Speaker 1: good as Oba already is. Right, He's only got three
1:59:18
Speaker 1: years in the business, which is pretty crazy to think about.
1:59:21
Speaker 1: They need more people like him, right. You can only
1:59:24
Speaker 1: run with Roman Reigns and see on punkin Seth Rollins
1:59:26
Speaker 1: and Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton so many times without
1:59:32
Speaker 1: getting some new blood in there. Jacob Fatu, He's some
1:59:35
Speaker 1: new blood. You can add him to that list, also
1:59:38
Speaker 1: with Oba and bron Is he from thatcher Arizona. I
1:59:44
Speaker 1: remember The Rock having issues with Shawn Michaels stemming back
1:59:47
Speaker 1: to his grandmother's promotion. I was recently watching a video
1:59:50
Speaker 1: and in the comments it explained about the fight that
1:59:53
Speaker 1: The Rock and Shawn Michaels had backstage due to a
1:59:55
Speaker 1: stiff sweet chin music from Sean I assume from the
1:59:58
Speaker 1: Triple H match on smack Down. Can you explain further?
2:00:02
Speaker 1: I had no idea about this, Yeah, well, I mean
2:00:06
Speaker 1: you had no idea about this, because I don't think
2:00:08
Speaker 1: it happened. I don't know how true that story is.
2:00:11
Speaker 1: I want to say that story came from Rocky Johnson.
2:00:16
Speaker 1: I think Rock's father may have told the story. I've
2:00:19
Speaker 1: never seen Rock himself talk about it or confirm it.
2:00:23
Speaker 1: As the story goes, supposedly the superkick that he took
2:00:27
Speaker 1: in that match. So we're talking about the very first
2:00:31
Speaker 1: official episode of SmackDown in nineteen ninety nine. They had
2:00:35
Speaker 1: a pilot episode in April, the show got picked up
2:00:38
Speaker 1: by UPN. The first episode was in August of nineteen
2:00:41
Speaker 1: ninety nine and they had a main event of Rock
2:00:44
Speaker 1: against Triple H for the WWF Championship. Sean Michaels was
2:00:48
Speaker 1: in there as the special guest referee. I don't remember
2:00:52
Speaker 1: if he was still the commissioner at that point. I
2:00:54
Speaker 1: think he was. And Rock is going for the People's elbow.
2:00:58
Speaker 1: He comes off the ropes and Sean Michael super kicks
2:01:01
Speaker 1: him in the face and so Triple A t wins
2:01:05
Speaker 1: the match and he retains the title and DX is
2:01:08
Speaker 1: all back together. So that would be the matching question,
2:01:11
Speaker 1: because there was no other time that Shawn Michaels would
2:01:14
Speaker 1: have superkicked a Rock. As the story goes, Rock confronted
2:01:18
Speaker 1: him about the kick backstage. He said it was stiff,
2:01:22
Speaker 1: and Sean responded with something to the effect of, well
2:01:24
Speaker 1: then you're in the wrong business, and Rock went after him.
2:01:29
Speaker 1: I don't believe the story myself. I can't say it
2:01:32
Speaker 1: didn't happen, but I mean, you would think that there
2:01:34
Speaker 1: were others who either were there or who would have
2:01:37
Speaker 1: heard about it, who would have verified it. And I
2:01:40
Speaker 1: never hear anybody talking about that Brendan in Texas twenty
2:01:45
Speaker 1: five years ago. The wrestling world as we know it
2:01:47
Speaker 1: changed when WCW went out of business. Eric Bischoff had
2:01:51
Speaker 1: a plan for what he was going to do with WCW,
2:01:53
Speaker 1: and WWE had plans for what they were going to
2:01:55
Speaker 1: do before the invasion angle. My question is what would
2:01:59
Speaker 1: have been for WCW Bischoff buying it and doing his plans,
2:02:03
Speaker 1: or WWE doing their original plan for WCW. I look,
2:02:10
Speaker 1: I don't know that Bischoff would have succeeded with it
2:02:14
Speaker 1: or not. They had plans in place right, He had
2:02:17
Speaker 1: his his financial partners, Fusion Media. They had publicly announced
2:02:22
Speaker 1: that they were buying the company until they weren't. They
2:02:24
Speaker 1: got greedy. I've talked about this story before. It was
2:02:28
Speaker 1: from the Nitro book, that Great Guy Evans book where
2:02:32
Speaker 1: Fusion had put I believe it was a clause in
2:02:35
Speaker 1: the purchase agreement where if things didn't work out with
2:02:38
Speaker 1: WCW or the show was canceled or whatever, Fusion would
2:02:41
Speaker 1: still own the time slot on the Turner network, whatever network.
2:02:45
Speaker 1: It would have been of course like Turner's like, you know,
2:02:48
Speaker 1: what the fuck are we going to agree to that for?
2:02:50
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous, And it ended up really blowing the whole
2:02:52
Speaker 1: thing up. But had they gone through it that, they
2:02:55
Speaker 1: were already advertising in like WCW magazine, this big pay
2:02:58
Speaker 1: per view called the Big Bang. They were going to
2:03:00
Speaker 1: go dark for a few months and then they were
2:03:02
Speaker 1: gonna come back with this Big Bang pay per view.
2:03:04
Speaker 1: And I can't say if it would have been successful
2:03:07
Speaker 1: or not. It probably would have ended up as another
2:03:10
Speaker 1: Hulk Hogan vanity project built around him. But truthfully, Bischoff
2:03:16
Speaker 1: buying it and running it is the only way WCW
2:03:21
Speaker 1: truly could have continued because if WWE would have run it,
2:03:25
Speaker 1: it was never gonna work. They were never going to
2:03:29
Speaker 1: allow WCW to exist as its own true entity, not
2:03:35
Speaker 1: without making it little brother to WWA like Vince. Vince
2:03:39
Speaker 1: would not have allowed that to happen. He made and
2:03:41
Speaker 1: Vince had a plan in place to run it as
2:03:43
Speaker 1: a separate promotion. They were going to give it the
2:03:45
Speaker 1: Monday Night Ross Slot SmackDown was going to become the
2:03:49
Speaker 1: WWE show. In theory, they could have really built up
2:03:52
Speaker 1: to like a big dream supercard, like a big inter
2:03:55
Speaker 1: promotional pay per view, maybe even as early as WrestleMania
2:03:58
Speaker 1: eighteen had things gone the way that you know ideally
2:04:02
Speaker 1: they should have gone. But under Vince mcmat like, there's
2:04:05
Speaker 1: no way they had conditioned their audience that WCW was
2:04:08
Speaker 1: the enemy. They were always going to be number two
2:04:11
Speaker 1: and they were always going to be less than and
2:04:13
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have felt like WCW in Vince's hands. It
2:04:16
Speaker 1: would never have truly been WCW, at least with Bischoff.
2:04:21
Speaker 1: Even if it would have gone down in flames within
2:04:22
Speaker 1: a couple of years, it was really the only way
2:04:25
Speaker 1: to go. Would WCW still be around today? No, No,
2:04:30
Speaker 1: either way, I think WCW would no longer be around today.
2:04:33
Speaker 1: I really I think in either scenario, we're not looking
2:04:36
Speaker 1: at a wrestling world where WCW still exists. But it
2:04:40
Speaker 1: would have had a ripple effect. It's one of those
2:04:41
Speaker 1: what if questions where if WCW had continued on even
2:04:44
Speaker 1: for a few years, maybe there's no TNA look at
2:04:48
Speaker 1: all the people who got their start in TNA and
2:04:50
Speaker 1: got an opportunity in TNA, who went on to parlay
2:04:53
Speaker 1: that into something in WWE and other places. You know,
2:04:57
Speaker 1: So what effect does it have on that? And of honor?
2:05:02
Speaker 1: I mean, aw came many many many years later, so
2:05:04
Speaker 1: I mean that's just impossible to think about the impact
2:05:07
Speaker 1: that would have had on that. But now it would
2:05:10
Speaker 1: have had a ripple effect on the wrestling business, and
2:05:14
Speaker 1: maybe not in the best of ways. And Ronnie from
2:05:18
Speaker 1: Belgium by rent Or sell On, who should have been
2:05:22
Speaker 1: the higher power in nineteen ninety nine, Hulk Hogan, Brett
2:05:26
Speaker 1: Hart or Randy Savage. Ronnie, you forgot the correct answer,
2:05:32
Speaker 1: which is none of the above. I would not have
2:05:35
Speaker 1: done the higher power angle. I don't think there was
2:05:37
Speaker 1: a payoff to the higher power angle that would have
2:05:39
Speaker 1: been sufficient. I really and honestly like the idea of
2:05:43
Speaker 1: it being any of the people that you just mentioned,
2:05:45
Speaker 1: like that the Undertaker is subservient to Hulk Hogan or
2:05:49
Speaker 1: Brett Hart's It just it doesn't make any sense. I mean,
2:05:52
Speaker 1: at the time, I could tell you as being a
2:05:55
Speaker 1: fan at the time, and you know, I was wondering,
2:05:58
Speaker 1: like everybody else, who's it going to be? And it's
2:06:00
Speaker 1: an easy way to get people kind of invested when
2:06:03
Speaker 1: you have that sort of mystery person, mystery man angle.
2:06:08
Speaker 1: The names Ted Dbassi, Jake Roberts, those are the names
2:06:12
Speaker 1: that were really coming up the most. And actually with
2:06:14
Speaker 1: Jake and Dbassi at least there was that pass connection
2:06:17
Speaker 1: to the Undertaker, so you could have made that work.
2:06:20
Speaker 1: I don't know that the uh, the state that Jake
2:06:23
Speaker 1: would have been in at the time was ideal for
2:06:27
Speaker 1: him to be on television. Let's just put it that way.
2:06:30
Speaker 1: And if it was DBAs, I don't think anybody would
2:06:33
Speaker 1: have cared. I really don't. You know. Dbassi went to WCW,
2:06:36
Speaker 1: he was a manager, he was in the nWo. Nobody
2:06:39
Speaker 1: gave a shit. So you know Dbasse coming back and
2:06:43
Speaker 1: being that guy, I mean, you know, he would have
2:06:45
Speaker 1: been a good character, I guess on TV. But would
2:06:47
Speaker 1: Debase have even wanted to do it? You think Ted
2:06:50
Speaker 1: Dbiassi as you know this, this devout man that he became,
2:06:54
Speaker 1: would want to return to WWE to be part of
2:06:56
Speaker 1: this satanic cult faction. I don't like. I don't know
2:07:01
Speaker 1: that DBAs wanted to be the higher power for that
2:07:03
Speaker 1: version of the Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness when
2:07:08
Speaker 1: he was literally running his own ministry at the time,
2:07:10
Speaker 1: I don't think he even would have wanted to do it,
2:07:12
Speaker 1: So you take those names out and who he left with. Realistically,
2:07:18
Speaker 1: there was chatter that maybe it was going to be
2:07:20
Speaker 1: Stephanie McMahon. I mean, it probably was always going to
2:07:24
Speaker 1: be a McMahon, and I remember when Vince revealed himself,
2:07:29
Speaker 1: it was like, that was my reaction to it. I'm like, really,
2:07:33
Speaker 1: what the fuck? Because your mind starts to like run
2:07:37
Speaker 1: wild with ideas of like, oh, who could this person be.
2:07:40
Speaker 1: It could be like a big name, you know, coming back,
2:07:44
Speaker 1: or a big name that we're not thinking of, and
2:07:46
Speaker 1: who would make sense in this role, and then it
2:07:48
Speaker 1: just turns out to be Vince and it was some
2:07:49
Speaker 1: big ruse that he pulled over, you know, to pull
2:07:52
Speaker 1: the wool over everyone's eyes, and it's like, ah, fuck
2:07:54
Speaker 1: this shit man. That was my reaction to the higher power.
2:07:57
Speaker 1: But we did end up out of it getting it
2:08:01
Speaker 1: was right after this right that we got I think
2:08:03
Speaker 1: that night that we got stone cold as the CEO.
2:08:08
Speaker 1: So at least we got some entertaining skits out of
2:08:10
Speaker 1: that with him at Titan Tower, drinking on the job,
2:08:13
Speaker 1: sitting in on the big boardroom meeting. It wasn't a
2:08:16
Speaker 1: total loss. I just wouldn't have done the angle anyway.
2:08:20
Speaker 1: Keep emailing me the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Also,
2:08:23
Speaker 1: in case you didn't notice, I posted a short, a
2:08:29
Speaker 1: YouTube short also on my TikTok which I never mentioned.
2:08:32
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be more active now going forward on TikTok,
2:08:36
Speaker 1: I'm working with somebody. We're trying something new here as
2:08:38
Speaker 1: far as some shorts content. If you guys are interested,
2:08:41
Speaker 1: you can follow me on TikTok at Solo Monster Sounds Off.
2:08:45
Speaker 1: It's the full name of the show at Solo Monster
2:08:48
Speaker 1: Sounds Off on TikTok and we'll get some more shorts
2:08:51
Speaker 1: content up and we'll see how it does, and then
2:08:54
Speaker 1: I'll make a determination if it's worth continuing to do
2:08:56
Speaker 1: it or not. I'm always trying to, you know, just
2:08:58
Speaker 1: think of new things and give you guys content that
2:09:00
Speaker 1: I think you're interested in. So again, if you're not
2:09:02
Speaker 1: following me on TikTok at Sola Monster Sounds Off. Got
2:09:06
Speaker 1: a very busy week coming up. We've got the raw
2:09:08
Speaker 1: post show on YouTube Tomorrow night Tuesday, dropping later in
2:09:13
Speaker 1: the day on the Ariel hell Wanie Show feed will
2:09:16
Speaker 1: be episode two of The Uncrowned Wrestling Show. Help help
2:09:21
Speaker 1: make the new show a success and tune in. You
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Speaker 1: can get it wherever you get this podcast, whatever you use,
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever it may be. And then Tuesday
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Speaker 1: Night Live on YouTube. I will be with JD for
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Speaker 1: a brand new episode of Tuesday Night Titans. And then
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Speaker 1: Wednesday night we have aw Dynamite. Friday. There will be
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Speaker 1: no SmackDown review, but Friday is a very big House
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Speaker 1: of Glory show and mjf will be on that show.
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Speaker 1: Andrada is on that show. We got other matches planned
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Speaker 1: for that show. You'll see announcements coming this week Fast
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Speaker 1: and Furious, and I have a feeling, you know, Friday
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Speaker 1: night is it's gonna be an interest. So if you
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Speaker 1: can join live the NYC Arena tickets hog Wrestling dot Net.
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Speaker 1: If they're not all gone, they probably will be. They
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Speaker 1: almost assuredly will be by the time we get to
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Speaker 1: the end of the week. Last I checked, I think
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Speaker 1: we had opened up Fifth Row and I know those
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Speaker 1: were going and we had general admission was basically all
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Speaker 1: we had left, So if you're going to be at
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Speaker 1: the show, make sure you say hello. Always enjoy seeing
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Speaker 1: you guys there, And if you can't be there, we'll
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Speaker 1: be streaming live on Triller TV Plus and you'll hear
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Speaker 1: my voice on commentary among others. So that'll be coming
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Speaker 1: up on Friday, and I guess next weekend is kind
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Speaker 1: of a quiet weekend, and then Elimination Chamber is the
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Speaker 1: following weekend, so we'll save the Elimination Chamber of predictions
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Speaker 1: for next week. But then I'll be back with you
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Speaker 1: here for episode nine fifty two next Sunday. So until then,
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Speaker 1: be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of
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Speaker 1: your week. I hope you will join me for all
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Speaker 1: the content and I'll see you right back here for
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Speaker 1: a brand new sounduff next Sunday. As always, until then,
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Speaker 1: take care of guys.
2:11:05
Speaker 2: The solom Monster sounds off.
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Speaker 1: Backstage, we had Phraxium and the MotorCity Machine Gun. Holy shit,
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Speaker 1: they live. So they were walking along backstage and Candice
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Speaker 1: Larray approaches that she said, look at what happened to
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Speaker 1: Johnny And we see Johnny Gargano. He is lying face
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Speaker 1: down on top of a box that has marked NXT.
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Speaker 1: I want you to imagine flying all the way to
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Speaker 1: work and you get there and you find out, okay, boss,
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Speaker 1: what am I doing tonight? And your job after flying
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Speaker 1: all the way in here is to lay face down
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Speaker 1: on top of a box for two minutes and say nothing.
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Speaker 1: I don't even think he'd blinked. He looked catatonic as
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Speaker 1: he was laying there. And that's it. That's all he
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Speaker 1: did on this show. That was his only task, to
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Speaker 1: fly into work and lay on top of a box.
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Speaker 1: I mean, look, I guess it's not bad work if
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Speaker 1: you can get it.
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Speaker 2: The Solo Monster sounds off, bringing you the good, the bad,
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Speaker 2: and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
2:11:58
Speaker 2: content for subscribers. Follow The Sala Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
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Speaker 2: and Ax the Salad Monster.
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Speaker 1: I love you so long.