Latest / Solomonster Sounds Off / Sound Off 960 - BLACK FRIDAY WWE CUTS, Ric Flair's TRAINWRECK INTERVIEW And More!

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Sound Off 960 - BLACK FRIDAY WWE CUTS, Ric Flair's TRAINWRECK INTERVIEW And More! · Solomonster Sounds Off

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monsters
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Sounds Off. I love you so, mama, monster dude, I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: want your soul mind a woman.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: You got grown ass rustlers in the back going on Twitter.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Come over here, hot May is that pet Patison you
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: have legs?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Week I was ninety nine percent positive it was just
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: chessed up. Now I have been begging him for a
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: job on every every platform I can, and I want
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: to know the reason why you won't.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Park. Welcome to episode nine to sixty of The Solemn
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Monster Sounds Off. It is Sunday, April twenty six, twenty
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: twenty six. I am the Solemn Monster. So the official
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: x account for Luca Underground, which had been dormant for
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the last seven years, all of a sudden sprang to
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: life on Friday with one tweet a video teaser showing
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a Luca mask on the ground, followed by the word
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: moss with a question mark at the end. They posted
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the same thing on their YouTube channel with the title
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: coming soon. And for anyone thinking, oh, it may just
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: be an announcement of all the old episodes coming to
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: YouTube or some other streaming platform, that was my first thought.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: But if you look at the pin comment on their
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: YouTube teaser. It's a comment from a fan saying, please
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: tell me this is a return, and the official account
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: not only liked the comment, they pinned it to the top.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So it would be a cruel thing to do if
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: this wasn't really a return of some sort. By the way,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you can watch all the episodes from all four seasons
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: of Lucha Underground for free if you go to the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: website archive dot org. If you weren't aware of that,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you may have to do some searching, but all four
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: seasons are there. The actual files are uploaded, no commercials
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: or anything, so enjoy, but consider my curiosity peaked. I
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: was a big Lucha Underground fan, as you guys know.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I reviewed every episode here on the sound off and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it still bothers me that we never got a proper
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: ending to the show. We never got closure. I don't
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: know what a modern day version of Luca Underground would
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: even look like. You know, it had some money behind it, obviously,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the cinematic style. Without that, it isn't really Luca Underground.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: And a lot of the names on that show are
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: now in WWE and AW A lot of the old
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: names from the show actually reacted to the teaser. Chelsea Green,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: she reacted with the ies Omoji tie of Valkyrie. She's like,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry what Willie Mack and Evalise they posted old
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: photos from them on you know, when they were on
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the show, So I don't know. I mean even the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: actor who played Dario Quato, who was the best part
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: of the show. He's with MLW now. I don't know
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that it even is a revival. We shall see, but
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: they have my attention. WWE got everyone's attention this week
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: with their annual post WrestleMania talent cuts, and there were
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of them, including a few surprising names. One
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: name in particular that had me stunned. I have a
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: lot to say about that. Rick Flair's interview on Ariel
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Helwani show was a total train wreck, and I was
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: there for it live in person watching it all play out.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I'll talk about that. Lots of NXT call ups this week,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and Darby Allen's first week as AW World Champions, so
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: there's a lot to dive into. I will say I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: just finished the Hulk Hogan Netflix docuseriies I am going
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: to review it this week. I am gonna have to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: save it though for YouTube and maybe uncrowned on Tuesday
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: because I just finished it and I didn't have enough
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: time to put any real notes together on it. But
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: there's a lot there, so just give me some time
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: on that. I do think it is worth watching. I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: enjoyed parts of it, but there was a lot that's
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: wrong with it. We're missing from it. And I'm not
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: even just talking about missing content, but context to certain
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: things that get glossed over. If you'd like to make
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a PayPal donation and support the show, you may do so.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: The solom monster dot com is the place to go.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: You will see the link at the top with the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: page ten dollars for more, we'll get you a nickname.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: In a shout out, I want to say thank you
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: first and foremost to Rachel for the very generous drop
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and for her help in getting the Adventure of Hardy
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the Horse into her local library there in Wisconsin. I
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: love it, love it. Let's get Hardy into as many
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: libraries as possible. Shout out to gravedigger Brandon de Blanc,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: thank you for the mania donation. Drop brother the Portland
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: pop star Paul Hamilton, Paul, thank you, my friend, Big
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: B Bryant Bessera, The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, and the Chicago Slayer Willie Iichord. Again,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: there was no sound off last week, which was kind
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of weird because I feel like, through Health, Fire and Brimstone,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I'm always doing a SoundOff every Sunday. But with all
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the mania madness last weekend and two very late reviews,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I said, it didn't really make a whole lot of
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: sense to torture myself and try to crank out sound
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: off before Night two of WrestleMania started. So some of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: these folks here, they actually donated twice over the past week,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: so I want to say thank you for that. But Nightstalker,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: nif Al Safar, big Time, Boris Weinman, I'm glad you
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: enjoyed the WrestleMania coverage, Killshot, Keith Hart Q the Destroyer,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: thank you very much. I hope it's warming up there
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: in Chicago. I'm going to be back there in June,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: so maybe i'll see you there. Normally, when we go
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: to Chicago for House of Glory, it's in the winter,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: it's in the fall. I'm pretty sure this is our
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: first summer show, so hopefully it warms up there in Chicago.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Iowen corn Farmer Jesse Lamfeir, who just got some bad
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: news recently, and Jesse, I'm sorry to hear that. I
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: know it's kind of turns your world upside down over there.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: But you got this, brother. You know, life throws a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: lot of shit our way. Some of it we have
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: control over, some of it we don't. In your case,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: it sounds like something that can be reversed, and I
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hope that you can work to towards that. Just try
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: to keep a positive attitude. I mentioned House of Glory.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I just want to comment on this real quick because
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: last Thursday I was in Las Vegas for Hog Culture
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Clash at the Pearl Theater at the Palms Casino Resort.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: In my opinion, certainly one of, if not the biggest
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: show that we have ever done. We have a sold
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: out crowd, those people were amped up. We had a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: lot of great matches. I don't know that I've had
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: more fun than I have calling that match with JD
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: when it was amazing. Red and Bandido in the ring
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: together one on one, just doing their thing. But we
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: had brody king on the show against Zilla, and we
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: had the Hardy's on the show. Everyone goes crazy for
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the Hardy's and just up and down the cart Shatzi
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and Charlie the former Dakota Kai. It was just a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: lot of fun and it's upright now Triller TV. Plus.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: We have been posting some of the matches though on
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: our YouTube channel, so I would highly recommend that you
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: go check that out. I enjoyed my time in Vegas.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: It's all just too short these trips. I'm basically in
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and out. I try to enjoy it as best I could.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I got to meet some of you guys there, which
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: is always fun. It just never seems to be enough.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: But we're not done yet, because this coming Friday, House
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: of Glory is back in Los Angeles at the Globe Theater.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Glory at the Globe. I missed the first LA show.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I will not be missing this one. I have my
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: flight booked. I'm going back out to the West Coast.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: On Friday. We have the Amazing Red for the first
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: time ever, stepping into the ring with Speedball. Mike Bailey.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Zillafont two finally gets his hands on Lance on Hawaii
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Crown Jewel Championship will be on the line. I can
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: tell you this time there will be no bailing out
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: on this match. Lance is getting in the ring, whether
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: he wants to or not. If he ever wants a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: shot at that title, he better get his ass into
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: that ring. We've got most of Ali in action, thunder
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Rosa will be making her Hog debut, and a lot
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: more so. There are very limited balcony in general admit
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: tickets available very limited. Go to Hog Wrestling dot Net
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: if you want to pick up those. And again, I'm
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: looking forward to being in La. I have not been
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to God, I don't think I've been to California since
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: WRESTLEMANI at thirty one. That was the last time I
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: was there, and what was that Santa Clara. Anyway, hopefully
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I get to see some of you West Coast folks
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: out there. That'll be on Friday, and then I'm coming
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: right back on Saturday. And I ain't missing a SoundOff
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: next weekend, so you don't have to worry about that.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: We had a death in the wrestling world last week.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Mark Hildreth, better known as heavy Metal Van Hammer from
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: his WCW days, died at what is believed to be
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the age of sixty six. Mark Merrow announced the news
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: on social media, saying, it is with a heavy heart
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that I share the passing of our dear friend Mark Hildreth,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: known to many as Van Hammer. At this time, we
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: are still awaiting answers regarding the cause, pending an autopsy.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Mark was a fighter in every sense. Life through at
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Shriff challenges his way, but he had a resilience about him.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: He always found a way to rise, to push forward
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and keep going. I have so many incredible memories with
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: him that I'll carry forever. We first met while he
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: was vacationing in Venice, Florida, working out of a local
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: gym or working out at a local gym. Not long after,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I got the call from Dusty Rhodes to come to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: his office the next day, and Mark didn't hesitate. He
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: drove me eight hours so I could sign my very
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: first contract with World Championship Wrestling. That's the kind of person.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: He was loyal, selfless, and always there when it mattered most.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: He went through wrestling school together with me, chased the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: same dream, and before long he earned his own contract.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: We even lived together in Atlanta, training, grinding and building
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: a life around the passion that we both shared. We
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: were also chosen to help promote WCW for the United
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Kingdom tour, doing countless personal appearances, television spots, and even
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: promotional work alongside Gladys Knight. Those were unforgettable moments times
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget. My heart goes out to his family, friends,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and the fans who supported him throughout his journey. Rest
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: in peace, my friend. You will always be remembered. De
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Malenko and Dan Spivey, they are credited with having trained
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: him van Hammer. He debuted for them in nineteen ninety one.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: He was playing, as you can surmise from his nickname,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a heavy metal guitar player gimmick, which probably wasn't the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: best idea because he couldn't play the guitar worth of shit,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: but that was his gimmick, and after his initial run there,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: he was there for a few years. He was brought
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen ninety seven as a member of a
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Ravens flock, and what I knew of Van Hammer came
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: after the fact, because I wasn't watching enough of WCW
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: back in the early nineties to even see the guy much.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And then when I did see him, or what I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: saw of him. It wasn't very good, but he looked great.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: You know, physically, the guy was put together, which is
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: why I'm kind of surprised he never ended up working
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: for Vince McMahon. He did get a couple of tryout
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: matches for them in ninety three, so I mean, just
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: imagine how bad he must have been looking in the ring,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: looking the way he did physically for them not to
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: sign him. But right out of the gate, you know,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of resentment towards him in WCW
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: from the other wrestlers because he came in with a
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: guarantee in the low six figure range, which was a
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: lot of money back then. Not that it's not a
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: lot of money now either, but obviously, you know, wrestling
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: salaries have risen with the big companies. But yeah, to
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: get a guarantee back then in the low six figure range,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: this was a guy who only had two matches under
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: his belt. That's how new he was. You know, Dusty
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Rhoades is the one who signed him. He even called
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: him at one point the next Hulk Hogan. That's like
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Vince McMahon thinking Tom McGee was going to be the
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: next Hogan after Brett Hart worked with him and made
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: him look so good, but then he had to wrestle
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: other guys and he was the shits. But even making
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: that kind of money, you know, the other wrestlers, they
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: forced him to dress in the locker room with the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: rest of the job guys right instead of the more
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: established talents, even though he was making a lot more
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: than those job guys were making. Mick Foley said that
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: he was actually a nice guy, but he got a
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: ton of heat by making wild statements like he would
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: go around saying, oh, I'm here to save the company.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Arn Anderson actually tells a great story where him, Steve Regal,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, and I think one other person.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: They're all huddled up. I don't know what the event was.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Van Hammer makes his entrance and he pushes his way
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: into the group and he says, what's up, guys, van
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Hammer here, I'm WCW's ultimate warrior. I'm here to save
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the company. And Arn says he waited for the punchline,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: but it never came, and then the entire group just
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: burst out into laughter. It just sounds like this guy
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: came in with a chip on his shoulder and he
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: just couldn't read the room. But after wrestling, I know
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: he battled some bad substance abuse problems, seemingly had cleaned
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: himself up in more recent years. You know, the most
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: famous story that I know of involving van Hammer. For
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: all the stories that you read about and you watch
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: shoot interviews over the years, and there's certain stories that
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: just kind of stay with you. The most famous one
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that I know as it relates to van Hammer, actually
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: this two of them. The first one, Mark Merrow, tells
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: when he first signed with WCW, he had no place
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to live, and so van Hammer let him live with
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: him at his apartment. So Marrow comes home one day,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it was during the day, if
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: it was at night. He comes home and van Hammer
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: is not there, but the cops are there, and evidently
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: they were raiding the apartment looking for drugs. So they
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: see Marrow and they got like, you know, guns on him,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: hands her up, like don't shoot, you know, So they
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: arrest him, They take him to jail, They put him
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: in a holding cell the whole nine yards. They got
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: it all cleared up later and he was released because
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: he had nothing to do with any of this. But
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I'm sure the same can't be said for his roommate.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that scared the shit out a marrow. But
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the most famous story, it's got to be from DDP.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: He's Christmas party. This was in nineteen ninety six and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: DDP and Kimberly, they hosted a party at their house.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Van Hammer shows up, probably hammered. I don't even know
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: if he was invited or if he crashed the party.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I have no idea. I would imagine he was invited,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: but probably drunk as a skunk. And he starts ranting
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: about like little Mexican wrestlers and how WCW was wasting
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: its time pushing them, because you know, ninety six, that
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: would have been the early days of nitro and you
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: would have started seeing a lot of those cruiserweight matches,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: you know, with guys like Raymisterio and Hoving Tude and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the Viano's Viano four, Viano five, all those guys. So
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: he's ranting on the Mexican wrestlers, and then from the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Mexicans he takes aim at British wrestlers, and William Regal
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and Dave Taylor happened to be standing nearby and they
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: overheard him. I assume that's what triggered Regal's reaction, or
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: maybe he mouthed off to them about something else. I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: don't remember, but Regal got involved. One thing led to
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: another and he headbuts van Hammer, busts his nose open
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and everything. Van Hammer falls to the floor. There's, you know,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: competing versions of what happened to whether or not he
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was knocked unconscious. Kimberly Ddp's wife comes over to Regal
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and tells him, I think you better leave. So Regal left.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I don't think he was ever invited to another Christmas
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: party again after that, but at least he got a
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: hell of a story to tell. Eric Bischoff on one
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: of his podcasts, said that he couldn't have happened to
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a nicer guy, although he did bring van Hammer back
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to WCW the following years, so he couldn't have disliked
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the guy that much if he brought him back. I
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: would like to see the WWE Vault, If anyone from
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: their Vault team is listening to this, I would like
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to see them release those two dark matches that he
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: had in nineteen ninety three. I know one of them
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: was against Virgil. The other one was against Damian Demento.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they can dig him up for us to see. Unfortunately,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: this is the time of year posts WrestleMania where WWE
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: releases a whole bunch of people and it sucks. But
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it's just the way it works, where if there are
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: people like out of developmental who aren't progressing as quickly
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: as they would like, or you're a main roster talent
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: that isn't being utilized, or they feel like you're not
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: bringing in a value to the show, you're not connecting
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: with the audience, you are likely going to end up
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: on the cut list. And I hate seeing people lose
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: their jobs, but there is going to be roster turnover.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: You can't just keep hiring people and hiring people and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: not getting rid of people. You can't just keep adding
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: and adding and adding and not subtracting. At some point,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I think we all understand that, but I look at
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: some of the names on the list and it just
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: aggravates the shit out of me because in some cases
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: they weren't given the chance to showcase all that they
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: could do, or they were on television being used in
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: a key storyline, and then they got cut anyway for
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: no apparent reason other than TKO said, hey, you got
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: to bring the budget down to whatever the number is
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: right side who stays and who goes. And it's jarring
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: that it typically happens right after WrestleMania, when the company
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: is gloating about how much money they just made or
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the new gate records that they just set, when we
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: just had a report out from Post Wrestling revealing that
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: as of twenty twenty two, WWE talent was paid around
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: fifteen percent of the company's total revenue one hundred and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: ninety five million dollars on talent, including developmental wrestlers on
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: one point two billion dollars in overall revenue, less than
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: what UFC fighters were paid as of a few years ago.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: And we hear a lot about low fighter pay in
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the UFC, which also happens to be owned by TKO.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: And you compare this to major sports leagues like the NFL,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the NBA, MLB, and that number is closer to fifty
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: percent of revenue that they're paid. And those sports all
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: have off seasons, but they also have unions and collective
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: bargaining agreements, which wrestlers do not have. So it's jarring
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: to see around two dozen names on the cut list
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: all at once. But that's what happened with the latest
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Black Friday wave of releases. These are the names that
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: we know of so far. It's possible they're not done cutting.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Hopefully they are, but we don't know for sure. But
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: among the names were Alistair Black and Zelina Vega, husband
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and wife no longer with WWE. The same Alistair Black
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: who owns Pinfall wins this year over Randy Orton and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Sammy Zan. The same Alistair Black who Paul Leveck brought
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: back to the company only a year ago, and I'm
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: sure he wasn't brought back on a one year deal.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: The same Alistair Black, who, according to a report this
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: week from Mike Johnson to pw Insider, was to at
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: one point have played a pivotal role in Night one
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: of WrestleMania this year before TKO decided to step in
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and the idea of using Pat McAfee came to life.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Johnson was told that a pitch for Randy Orton's WrestleMania
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: role back in January involved Alistair Black tormenting him, trying
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: to bring out the old Randy Orton, and we saw
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: echoes of this on television, so they clearly had that
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: direction for where they were going with this, with the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: idea that the two of them would possibly then have
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a match at WrestleMania, Cody would probably end up wrestling
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre for the WWE title. Black would likely beat
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Randy Orton, which he ended up doing on TV instead,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: but he would beat Orton at WrestleMania after Orton would
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: hesitate to finish him off with the punk kick that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: hesitation would cost him, and then later on that night,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: after Cody's main event, Orton would come back out he
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: would give Cody the punk kick, proving that Alistair Black
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was right all along and that the Apex Predator version
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: of himself was always there, just beneath the surface. And
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: he says it's unclear how far the pitch actually progressed
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: through creative but echoes of the original plan appear in
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Pat McAfee's role, including the return of the Apex Predator
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and Orton closing Night one by punk kicking Cody in
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the skull. And instead, Black was left off wrestle media
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: completely and he was tossed into the meaningless Andre the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Giant Memorial Battle Royal un SmackDown the night before. So
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: to go from potentially beating Randy Orton at WrestleMania to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: being fired less than a week after WrestleMania, that's a
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: real punk kick to the balls. And it makes me
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: wonder and this is just me speculating here, but it
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: makes me wonder if they released him or if they
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: released his wife and he chose to leave with her,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: like which came first? Which phone call came first? Right,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: let's see what they have to say about it. But
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: either way, that's the whole thing is completely fucked. Zelena,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: for her part, was very upset with Seawn Ross Sappa,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: fightful for breaking the news of her release before she
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: had the chance to let her fans know. Now, she
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: said that she got the phone call directly from someone
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: at TKO at five h nine pm on Friday afternoon.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: In the past, these calls have typically come from Stanford.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: This time, she said it came from TKO, and I
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: think Sean waited a few hours, like two or three
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: hours before reporting it. But she was very upset about
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: this and she said fuck you to him for doing so.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: She was clearly upset about losing her job. You could
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: hear it in her voice, and it's understandable. But Sean
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: did nothing wrong here. There's this whole narrative like, oh,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: fuck this guy. He did nothing wrong here, and he's
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: been getting a lot of shit for it online because
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: of what she said. But the man breaks news for
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: a living. He reports on the news.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: It's not his job to wait until all twenty three
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: or twenty two or twenty four people who got fired
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: first jump on their social media to make a comment
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: about being let go.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: You know, he gets the news, he verifies it, and
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: he reports it. Now, if he had gotten the news
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and reported it before she herself had learned of being fired,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that would have been different. But that's not what happened here.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: So again, I understand that she's upset, but throwing Sean
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: under the bus for doing his job and reporting the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: news is also pretty fucked. Evidently she never liked him
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: even prior to this. I don't know what the beef
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was there between them or from her end. All I
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: can comment on is this case here and Sean did
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong. If she wanted to reach out to him
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and ask him specifically as a courtesy, please don't say anything,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: because I'm planning on putting a statement out. She could
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: have done that. I don't know that she did, But
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: then it would have been Mike Johnson, or it would
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: have been Dave Meltzer, or it would have been Corey
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: from bodyslam dot net who would have reported it anyway.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: So on this I don't see where this man did
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: anything wrong. Now, this other issue of her saying that
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: she got the call directly from TKO, A lot of
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: people have cited this as some sort of proof that
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: these releases came from the TKO side and Paul Levac
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. I don't know if
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: these people are actually stupid or if they're just pretending
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: to be, Because you would have to be operating a
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: few crayon shy of a full box to believe that
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Triple H had no input into who was least on Friday.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: There is zero chance that he had no input into
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: what names ended up on that cutlist. As the chief
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: content officer, as the man who's responsible for the overall
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: creative direction of their television shows, he's the one deciding
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: which talents to use and where on these shows. Ari
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Emmanuel is not coming in. Mark Shapiro is not coming
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: in and telling Triple H to get rid of Alistair
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Black and Zelina Vega. They are not coming in and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: telling Triple H to get rid of Apollo Cruise. I
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: guarantee you they don't even know who the fuck Apollo
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Cruise is. It's like this Mark Shapiro audio that leaked
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: this week from he had a chat with students at
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the University of Alabama and he was asked by one
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of the students there about TKO's role in WWE creative
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: with all of these celebrities and influencers that were used
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: going into WrestleMania, and Shapiro said, TKO has complete control,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: so we're responsible. We're spending a lot more money to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: market the brand, and when you do that, you're going
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: to win some folks over, but you're also going to
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: chase some folks away. And people took that literally like
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: they run creative, like you would think that Mark Shapiro
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: himself was sitting in on the writer's room meetings every
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: single week, or he had an agent sitting in there
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: for him, approving and rejecting every idea right down to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: what Mac Cardona and Maxine Dupree are doing on television
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: that week. No, that is not what he meant. TKO
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: has total control and that they can poke their heads
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: in whenever they feel like it. As we have seen
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: before with the Rocks involvement last year and as we
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: saw with Pat McAfee's involvement this year. They certainly have
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the power to fuck things up when they want to.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: But total control does not mean that they're running the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: day to day operations of WWE Creative. They own the company,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of course they have total control. That doesn't mean that
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: they use it on a regular basis. And a lot
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of people misconstrued that and ran with his narrative that
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: just isn't based in reality. Now, what may be happening
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: here is that someone like Triple H he gets the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: order that, hey, we need to trim the budget by
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: x amount. We need to trim the fat, so find
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: us ten or twenty people to get rid of, or
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: anyone with a big contract. Let's say that we're not
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: doing a whole lot with right now, so we can
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: meet those goals. Sometimes it's your contract that really ends
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: up being your downfall. You know, they brought you back
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to the company, or they signed you on a high
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: dollar deal. You're gonna be in the crosshairs unless you're
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: one of like the very very top guys. But it's
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: his job. It's now Leveck's job. Him and the people
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: around him who I'm sure give him feedback, Bruce and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Michael Hayes and maybe Paul Hayman whoever else to look
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: at these rosters and decide who stays and who goes.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: But I assure you these are absolutely decisions that Triple
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: H has input into and has to approve before they
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: pass those names along to the people who ultimately are
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: making those phone calls. It's like in the past, guys
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: would get released, right, but they wouldn't blame Vince McMahon
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: for it. Oh, Vince liked me. I had a good
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: relationship with Vince. It wasn't Vince, it was somebody else, right,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: there was somebody else who had it out for me.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Aj Styles had heat with Paul Hayman because he blamed
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: him for Anderson and Gallows being fired years ago. Even
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Gallows and Anderson had to acknowledge Vince's the one ultimately
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: who made the call. If Vince wanted to keep us,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Vince could have kept us because he was the final boss.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: He had the final say, even if he had other
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: people in his ear, but certain guy, Oh, well, you know,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I don't blame Vince for this. I mean, he really
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: liked me. This isn't his fault. What are you talking about?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: It was his company, of course it's his fault. It's
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: like a cult. But now it's Paul leavec. Which is
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: why I was stunned when I saw Kyrie Sain's name
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: on this list. This to me was the most surprising
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and egregious name of them all, more than Alister Black.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: This woman just picked up a win over Eosky on
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the raw before WrestleMania, and she was the centerpiece of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: this ongoing story with EO and Oscar where EO has
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: been tormented or Oscar rather has been tormenting this poor
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: woman for months, like a toxic relationship. And it looked
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: like we may finally be headed for a payoff to
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: all of this, possibly at WrestleMania EO versus Oscar. Right,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: maybe this is where Kyrie finally stands up to Oscar
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and she breaks free. And then they left all three
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of these women off WrestleMania altogether in terms of a match.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: And so I'm left to wonder if this had something
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: to do with it, you know, was there something going
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: on where maybe Kyrie's contract was expiring soon and they
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: were trying to negotiate something new. Did they make her
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: an offer that she refused? Or am I just trying
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to make sense of a senseless situation where we had
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: this woman who was a key part of an ongoing
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: storyline on television who is now gone, which means we
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: get no payoff to that story. Like Oscar has been
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: yelling at Kyrie and be rating Kyrie for I don't
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: even know how many months now. You know, the EO
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: thing was only really introduced recently, but this has been
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: playing out for so long, and now we get no
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: payoff to this. EO posted a long statement on x
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: about Kyrie, but the way the first paragraph was phrased,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: and it could just be the translation, but she says,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I understand that everyone as an athlete eventually faces a
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: turning point when thinking about their life and their career,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: but I feel so heartbroken that it came at such
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: an unexpected time. Coming at such an unexpected time is
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: putting it mildly. I mean, you even have people who
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: work for the company, like Jackie Redman, tweeting out, you
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: know hashtag we want Kyrie. So I don't think this
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: is something Kyrie herself had any input into, even though
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I guess you could kind of read the way that
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: was phrased by EO that maybe maybe it didn't. I
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: don't think it did. I may just be grasping at
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: straws here trying to figure this one out, because I
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: don't get it. Even if you wanted to get rid
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: of this woman, why get rid of her before finishing
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the story? Was her contract that much of a burden
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: on the books that you had to lump her in
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: with all the rest of these people like she brought
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: no value to the show. She tweeted, I'm truly grateful
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to have people like you by my side talking about
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: her fans. Thank you for always being with me. I'll
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: set sail in my own time. Until then, I love you.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: This one. I just don't understand. I really don't. The
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: entire Wyatt six group is gone, Bo Dallas, Eric Rowan,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Dexter Loomis, Joe Gacy, and Nikki Cross. MJF has already
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: tweeted out Joe Gasey rules, it's crazy to think that
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: they devoted an entire attraction to them at Universal Studios
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: for their Halloween horranights six months ago and now in
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: ninety days, they're all going to be unemployed. And my
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: good buddy Noah the Mark shout out to Noah. He
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: was trying to convince me to actually come down to Florida,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: to come down to Orlando to do the Wyatt six attraction.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I just wasn't able to make it happen, and now
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I guess I never will because there is going to
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: be no more Wyat six attraction. Yeah, the thing with
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the Wyatts, and I know this has been a very
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: polarizing one. It's been one a lot of people are
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: very upset about this. I think it was very cool
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: that bo Dallas was given the chance to pay homage
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: to his brother. This was basically the Wyat six was
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: like a love letter to Bray Wyatt. It was his
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: opportunity to take these characters and these ideas that his
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: brother had breathed life into and give them a second
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: lease on life, right and sort of not even expand
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the universe necessarily, but just sort of bring it back
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to life and just see how far he could take it.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: And they made that debut on rawback in twenty twenty four,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: which got a lot of people talking. And I know
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: some people hated it because it was just so over
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the top and maybe they don't like that kind of
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: stuff in their wrestling, all the supernatural stuff, and there
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: was like it was like something out of a horror movie,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you know, going through the gorilla position and there's blood
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: on the walls and Chad Gable looked like he was
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: shot in the head. And I thought it was very
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: well done. It was a hell of a way to
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: make a debut. I mean, you just massacred the you know,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: half the roster. The problem was always going to be, though,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: how do you follow up on that. I'm almost positive
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: at the time when I talked about it and I
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: praised that initial debut, I said, the key is going
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to be in the follow up and how do you
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: humanize these characters? They never evolved as characters, and you
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: could talk about their merch and I don't know what
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: their merch numbers were these days because they were barely
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: featured on TV. But the act was not nearly as
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: over as some people I think like to credit them
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: as being, or have convinced themselves that they were I'm
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: not saying that they weren't popular, but I don't think
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: they were popular right now to the extent that some
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: people thought they were. And the more I look at
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the y at six and what they were doing with
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: these guys, I don't think it was ever going to
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: work without Bray was a tribute act to Bray Wyatt,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and I don't think without him it was ever really
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: going to have legs beyond that initial debut, especially again,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: if they're not going to evolve these characters and have
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: them kind of branch out and do their own thing.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Dexter Loomis, Joe Gacy, Nicki Cross. This was never going
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: to have the kind of success that I think some
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: people were hoping it would have. It just wasn't. Nicki
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Cross is the one that I don't really understand because
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Nicky Cross, I mean, she was on ice as an
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: in ring performer for two years. We're not talking about
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: her being out with an injury. We're talking about her
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: being under a mask, and they just don't put her
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in the ring to have any wrestling matches. Her stock
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: went way down, and unfortunately for her, that made her
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: more expendable, because did they really need Nicky Cross. No,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: they didn't. She wasn't doing anything on the shows. But
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I have no idea why she wasn't put in any
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: sort of matches for such a long period of time
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: like that. I just I don't understand that. You know,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Eric Rowan, when they brought him back to the company,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of that had to do with
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: him having an impressive showing in an aw pay per
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: view pre show match that he was a part of
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I forget. I want to say it was revolution a
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: few years ago. I don't remember, but you know, he's
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: another one where could they have done more with him? Yeah,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: they could have. Absolutely. Part of the problem is, again,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: we never really got to hear from any of these people.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: They would come out and you know, Uncle Howdie would
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: have the lantern and this fucking story with the MFTs,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: which I have to tell you made me not want
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: to see any of these people on my television screen.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: This story dragged out for so long and it was
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: so fucking horrible and so boring, and there was no
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, you look at it, and there was no
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: real sense of like, hey, there's a great payoff to this,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: or like what are we getting out of this? Other
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: than just boring Bland television. They're fighting over a lantern.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: It's the same shit every single week. They get the
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: lantern back, they take the lantern back on the MFT side,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and the Wyatts get the lantern back, and we go
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: back and forth like this until finally I guess they
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: paid it off by having the MFTs in the most
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: anti climactic way possible just beat them. Nobody seemed to care.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: This was on the SmackDown before WrestleMania, and evidently that
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: was the blowof for the Wyat six and they knew it.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: But this is the great storytelling that they were doing
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: with the Wyat six. Is there any doubt as to
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: why this was not going to work? They did not
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: know what to do with them, and to be fair,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: you're very limited in what you can do with a
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: group like that. I think to some extent they had
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: the same problem with Bray, Like what do you do
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: with like the Fiend character? For example? Seth Rollins has
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: talked about how like it was difficult to work with
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: him as that character because you're going into it, you're
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: not going to come out of it any better off
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: than you were going in. You know, it's a hard thing.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I think in today's day and age especially, and maybe
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: this they would have found more success in nineteen ninety four.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: But I think in today's day and age, this was
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: always going to have a shelf life. This was always
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: going to have a ceiling unless you took these individual
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: characters and you tried to evolve them in some way.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Uncle Howdy like there were people I would get questions,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: is Uncle Howdy a future WWE champion? And I'm like, no,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: no he's not. But like Dexter Loomis or Joe Gasey,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: do I think they could contribute to SmackDown or Raw?
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Could they be players? Could they be wrestling one day
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: for the United States Championship the Intercontinental Championship? Sure, but
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: not like in the state that they were in. We'd
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: have to hear from them more. And Dexter Loomis's whole
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: thing was we never heard from him. I don't even
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: know what the voice the guy's voice sounds like since
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: he joined WWE. I'd have to go back to his
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: t toa days and listen to what he sounded like
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: when he was Sam Shaw. But that was kind of
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: his whole gimmick. Even in NXT, he was a mute,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: but like a Joe Gasey or again I go back
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to Nicky Cross. Like these people, they put them under
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: these masks and they gave them the spooky entrance and
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: that's it. That's where it ended. And I'm telling you, man,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: that's only going to go so far. After a while,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: you got to change it up and do something different. Now.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Is that WWE's fault for not giving them the ability
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: to do something different? Were they pitching ideas and being rejected?
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe we'll hear from some of the members that they
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: were trying to pitch ideas and they were falling on
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: deaf ears. But you were only going to be able
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: to coast on that gimmick for so long. It was
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: never going to work unless you did something different. There
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: was nothing different there that made them expendable. The MotorCity
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Machine Guns, Alex Shelley, Chris Saban very talented tag team.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I'm glad they at least had the chance to get
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: a run in WWE. I mean, they were together for
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: almost twenty years before they even came to the company.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Right out of the gate, they put the tag team
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: titles on them, which meant that there was only one
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: place for them to go, which was down, which is
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: exactly where they went. And part of the problem with
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: the machine Guns, well, there's two problems. Number One, again,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: I like him, but they were not really getting over
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: with the WWE audience. They would be out there, the
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: people really weren't reacting too much to them. It could
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: be a product of just the fans not being into them.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: It could be a product of them not being featured
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: in a meaningful way on the show. The second problem
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: was that they were part of a dead tag team division.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: That's it. I mean, where were they going to go
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: in the SmackDown tag Team Division? Nowhere? They were going
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: to go down to the depths of Hell because that
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: tag team division, and it's not much better on Monday Nights,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: is fucking dead. Tag Team wrestling when it comes to
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the tag team titles is dead in WWE, and they
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: don't seem to be in any great rush to do
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: anything to really fix it. So the machine Guns were doomed.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: They had nowhere to go. Alba Fire, she's been playing
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: one of Chelsea Green's secret hervis agents. She's gone. Not
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: really a shock, I mean they weren't really utilizing her much.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: She did post on social media, Kaylee Ray would batter
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Alba fire just say, oh, I'm sure the old Kaylee Ray,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: I'm sure would kick her ass. I think she'll do
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: well though, wherever she lands. Zoe Starck has been released,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: although it is being reported that she had been medically
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: cleared recently to return to the ring. This was from
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: that horrific injury. She tore her acl MCL and meniscus
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: on raw last May coming off the top rope. The
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: way that she landed, her leg bent, her knee bent,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: It's one of the most disgusting things that I've ever
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: seen in a wrestling ring. And so she's gone, and
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: this is a very shitty situation here now. Initially, when
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the news verse broke, I just posted a comment, you know,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: about her being released while she has been out recovering
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: from an injury. Then I think Sean posted a follow
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: up saying that she had actually been medically cleared just recently,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: or she had been medically clear to had been waiting
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: for her return. And then I had all the just
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: all the people, Oh where you know she was? She
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: was medically cleared, you know, quote tweeting, Oh she was.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: This guy's an idiot. He doesn't know what he's talking about.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: She was medically clear. You know, the peanut gallery was
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: out on social media, and I'm like, okay, sure that
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: that came out after I saw, you know, the initial news,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: But also does that make it any less shitty? I
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: actually think it makes it more shitty. Doesn't change my
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: thoughts on this. It's a shitty situation because here's a
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: woman who, if you were following any of her posts
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: on social media on ig she went through a very
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: rigorous rehab, and I think that there were some setbacks
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: even earlier this year, like in January, there were some
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: potential setbacks, but then she you know, kind of got
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: over those and everything was going well. And then we
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: come to find out she's been cleared and she's about
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: to make her return to the ring. And think about
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: like the initial injury, as awful as it was, and
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: then all of this rehab and you get yourself to
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: a point where, Okay, I get that call or I
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: get that diagnosis from the doctor that you're medically cleared,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: you can get back in the ring. And now you're
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: all nervous and excited and you're amped up because you
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: want to get back to what you do you want
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to get back to your job, You want to get
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: back in the ring, only to find out, guess what,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: that job has now been taken away from you at
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: a time when they have two women's mid card titles
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: because Zoe, when she got hurt in May of last year,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: those women's Icy in US titles had not been around
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: for even six months at that point, and now she's
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: out of a job. Instead, those two titles are on
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: two former women's world champions. Becky Lynch she got the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: belt back at WrestleMania, the Icy Belt, and then Tiffany
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Stratton just took the title from Julia on SmackDown on
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Friday Night. So people like you know, Zoe Stark are
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: kind of left in a lurch anyway, because they have
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: the belts now on two former world champions, which I'm
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: not really sure what the point of that is, but whatever.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: So now she will have to get back in the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: ring somewhere else. And she posted I think she posted
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: as I didn't pull it on social media, just grateful
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: about her time and thankful for all of her fans.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I feel bad for her. I think she deserved an
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: opportunity to at least get back in the ring for
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: them to show them what she can do and maybe
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: she could contribute and be a valuable member of the
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: women's division on either one of those shows. She had
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: put so much work in She got hurt in their ring,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: first of all, and she had put so much work
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: into making her comeback that to kind of pull the
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: rug out from underneath her was very shitty. Apollo Cruise
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: survived eleven years in WWE, even had a couple of
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: title reigns, one with the United States Championship, the other
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: with the Intercontinental title, which included a WrestleMania match where
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: he won the title in that Nigerian drum fight. Remember that,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Remember Commander Aziz, he is now gone from WWE. He
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: is someone who I think is going to do very
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: well on the independen scene. You bring back Uhan Nation,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: you let that man go out there and wrestle and
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: let him do what he does best, and I think
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: he's going to be just fine. But I'm kind of surprised,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: honestly that he even survived as long as he did,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: considering the way he was used or not used. He
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: survived a lot of these waves of just mass cuts
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: over the years, and he had well over a decade
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: in the company. You know, good for him. Santo's Escobar
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: his name was also on the list, and this is
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: also a weird one. Now Escobar is actually out injured
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: as we speak. He has had two surgeries recently. Evidently
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: he hurt himself in January. I don't know if he
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: either didn't know he was hurt or didn't think he
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: was hurt that badly. But he had that four way
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: match at the Triple A Show, the Rey de Reyis
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Show on March fourteenth, and he did not look good
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: at all. He looked injured in that match. And it
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: turns out that he suffered a torn triceps. I believe
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the injury was and he had surgery to repair it. Ve.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: He just had a second surgery. There was some sort
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: of ulder nerve issue and so he just underwent surgery
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: to repair that. That sounds like Tommy John surgery to me.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Isn't that Tommy John surgery what a lot of baseball
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: players get. It has to do with the older nerve. Well,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: I know in baseball, if you have Tommy John surgery,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: you're basically done for a year and a half as
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: a wrestler. I don't think you need to be out
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: unless he's thinking about throwing a ninety five mile an
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: hour fastball. I don't think he'll need to be out
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: for a year and a half. But nonetheless, he's on
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: the shelf right now, and I just I look at Escobar.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Here's a man who allowed his contract to expire last year.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: From what I can recall of that story, I know
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: I covered it here on the sound Off, I believe
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: they wanted to keep him. They made him an offer
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: and he basically said, no, I'm not interested, and he
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: was going to allow his contract to expire and then
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: we'll see where he goes. Right, he'd become a free agent,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: and they came at him pretty hard with I guess
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: a follow up ball for and apparently they threw a
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of money at him. They gave him a
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: big fat pay raise, and there were stories like he
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: wanted some assurances from them about, you know, his creative
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: direction and that they would have something for him. I
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: don't know if he ever got those assurances, but he
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: got a lot more money and so he ended up staying.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Everybody thought he was gone. It's like, just when I
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: think I'm out, they pulled me back in and so
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: he re signed with them, and then we heard nothing.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Literally months went by and there was one report that
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: said that, oh, he kind of fell through the cracks,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: but now they were coming up with creative plans for
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: he fell through the cracks, really and then he popped
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: up in Triple A and didn't do a whole lot
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: before he got hurt here. So I don't really again,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: how they make some of these decisions. It just confounds me.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: They wanted him so badly, and now because I guess
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: he's hurt and he's of no use to them, they've
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: decided to cut him. And my point from earlier, if
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: he got a big fat contract to re sign with
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: them that put him in the crosshairs. I'll bet it
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: was that contract that did him in, and that's why
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: he ended up on this list. Now from NXT in
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: the performance Center, Andre Chase is gone. He found some
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: success with the Chase University gimmick, which was very unlikely
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: to find the kind of success it did in NXT
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: on the main roster if they ever wanted to bring
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: it to the main roster. That's the same way I
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: felt about Tony DiAngelo and the whole gimmick he was
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: doing with the mafioso boss. The best thing he ever
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: did was go away and come back and reinvent himself
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: and just ditch that gimmick, because if he ever wants
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: to be on the main roster with that gimmick, it
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: was never going to work. It was always going to
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: have a very short shelf life. Dante Chen is gone,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the first wrestler from Singapore ever signed by WWE. He
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: tweeted saying five years, one hundred and forty seven matches,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you, WWE. One hundred and forty seven matches in
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: five years really isn't a whole lot, so he hasn't
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: exactly been working a bunch for them. Ira may Steele,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: who won a gold medal in the twenty twenty Tokyo Olympics,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: is also gone from WWE. She was the first female
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: winner from season one of LFG. I'm not really sure
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: what the point of LFG is if you're just gonna
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: go ahead and turn around and cut the person who won.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: It's supposed to be legends and future greats, right, isn't
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: that the whole purpose of the show. She went in
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: season one and then all of a sudden they just
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: cut her and she's gone. What the fuck is the point.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I pointed this out the other night when I mentioned
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: her name, I said it was very eerie. Last month,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: she put a tweet out that caused some controversy because
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: she was basically talking about a dream or a nightmare
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: that she had had where she ended up getting released
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: by WWE. I think in the dream, like she went
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: off to go, you know, wrestle some amateur thing without
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: telling WWE, and then they found out and they fired
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: her for it. But it turned out to be just
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: it was just a dream. Some people reported on it
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: as if she had been released by WWE, and then
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: WWE had a clarify and say, no, she's still under
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: contract anyway, This just happened last month and now she
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: really is gone. So I guess that nightmare turned into
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: a reality. But the other names on the list Serena, Linton, Tyson, DuPont, Tyreek, Igway,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Chris Island, Malik Blade, who I know tore his ACL
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. He had that tag team
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: with Idris Enafe, which came to an end. I guess
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: when he got hurt and Idris was kind of repackaged
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: as a single Star, and by the time Malik came back,
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: I think Idris was gone. I think Idris actually opted
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: to leave the company himself. So yeah, Malik Blade was
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: not doing a whole lot. Trill London also gone, and
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Luca Crucifino, who I think was doing stuff at the moment,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: and Evolve gone from WWE. And so with these releases, right,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: more than twenty of them, most of the names that
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Triple H brought back to the company since taking over
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: as the head of creative are now gone. Bronson Reed
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: is still there. He's the best positioned out of everybody.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Russev is still there, as are Mechen and beefab but
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Alistair Black, Carrion Cross and Scarlett Braunz, Stroman, Dakota Kai,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Kyrie Sayin Bo Dallas, Eric Rowan, Dexter Loomis Gallows and
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Anderson Top Dalla Ashanti Di Adonis. They're all gone, And look,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: wrestlers will always be coming and going. I can look
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: at the list we got on Friday and say, I'm
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: not surprised by most of them, but there's always going
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: to be a few names that are just very frustrating
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: to see on there because you feel like man they
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: didn't get a fair shake, or they didn't do enough
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: with this person, or they were in the middle of
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: a story and now that has no closure. For those people,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: this is not the end for them. I saw Steph
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Delander post that getting released from WWE was the best
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: thing that ever happened to her career, and it doesn't
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: have to be the end of the story. Some of
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: these people may not want to hear that right now,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: but I think it's a good message for them too
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: here because they do have options and they can make
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: their way back there if that's what they choose to do.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: That's why some of the names on this list this
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: is not their first time getting released. They were brought
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: back at some point. There are lots of options out
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: there to find work. Hopefully they all do. Where do
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I want to see some of them land, I don't
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: want to do the whole Oh, they should go here,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: they should go there. TNA has an active working relationship
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: with WWE, so if your goal is to eventually get
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: back to WWE, TNA might be a good option for you.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: But there are also a lot of stories about talent
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: not getting paid a whole lot, or being on per
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: appearance deals. Right, and for some people that may not
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: be what they're looking for. Tony Kahan he owns AW
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and Ring of Honor, and they also have working relationships
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: with lots of promotions CMLL New Japan, which are options too,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: by the way, But there are plenty of frustrated people
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: who work in aw who are not getting enough television
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: time right. But they do have the ability to work
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: in these which is a luxury that you don't have
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: when you work for WWE. It all depends on the
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: individual and what it is that they're looking for. But
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: I promise you WWE's loss will end up being someone
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: else's gain. And on the flip side of all of this,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: PW Insider broke the news on Friday after confirming this
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: is the same day that the releases were announced, but
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: they confirm with numerous sources in Japan that former IWGP
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: World Heavyweight Champion Evil real name Takaki Watanabe has officially
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: signed with WWE. Thirty nine year old Evil has landed
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: in WWE. Now. There have been rumors about this for months,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: this is the first official confirmation of his signing and
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: the expectation in Japan is that he will be or
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: he will not be keeping the evil ring name. See,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: they should let him keep it, and then he and
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Danausen can become a tag team and they can call
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: them very nice, very evil. I think they would get over.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: But he's got a decorated resume. He's a very weird one.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: He's a weird case because if you look at like
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: his in ring accomplishments, like how he's been used, like
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: in New Japan. Not only is he an IWGP World
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: champion back in twenty twenty, but he was an intercontinental champion,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: he was a never openweight champion, four times tag team champion,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: New Japan Cup winner, right the leader of the House
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: of Torture. He's a pretty big name out of that company.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: But that faction, that's exactly what it was. It was
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: absolute torture. And with the constant interference that we see
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: in WWE matches, I can see why they would be
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: interested in signing him. I think he'll fit right in there.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: But whether or not he hits NXT first or the
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: main roster, we'll see. I mean again, he's almost forty
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: years old. I don't know how much time they would
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: want him spending an NXT or It's something he would
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: maybe want to start in NXT. Aj styles even just
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: recently said that if it were up to him, he
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: would require every new signee, no matter who they were,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: to start out in NXT because he wishes he had
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: started out there, because he sees the benefit in, you know,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: helping get you situated. And it's not just knowing like
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: where to look and where the cameras are positioned, but
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: he just thinks it would be very helpful to someone new,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and in his case, he was someone who had years
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: and years of experience doing things a certain way, and
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: he would recommend that if somebody is coming in they
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: start in NXT. That could be where Evil starts. But
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: let the games begin. As far as guessing what his
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: new name is going to be, I thought his name
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: would be Good. I mean, they can go the opposite
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: way and from Evil. He could just be good. They
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: want to be cute, they could put an E on
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: the end. Let's call him good. I don't fucking know,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: let's figure out what to call evil. This week's episode
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: is sponsored by WIS. You know, we hear a lot
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: about AI these days. It's the hot topic, and I
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: too most of it out honestly, but I gotta tell you,
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• 53:33
  Speaker 1: You can click on any part of your site and
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: ask Aria, your AI agent, to edit for you or
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: ask questions that you need answers to. She's there to
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• 54:03
  Speaker 1: to talk about this. You know, I've been doing the
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Uncrowned Wrestling Show now for over two months. Every Tuesday.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: You guys have been killing it, supporting and spreading the word,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: which I greatly appreciate. But on Wednesday I had the
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: chance to link up with some of the team and
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: to meet Ariel Helwani and Eric and Connor and the
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: entire team shout out to them and getting the grand
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: tour of the studio and the offices of Yahoo, and
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: it was very cool. And of all the days to
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: drop in, I found out that Rick Flair was going
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: to be on Ariel show that day. So the end
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: of all this, they invited me to sit in. The
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: show was about to begin, and they invited me to
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: sit in on things in the control room. Pull up
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: a chair and we'll put a headset on you and
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: you can watch part of the show if you want.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: And the best way that I can describe this Rick
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Flair interview is that it was like watching a train
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: derail mint in real time, going off the tracks. But
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: that's Rick Flair, right. It doesn't matter what tom to
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: day it is. You know, he's gonna have a drink
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: in his hand, as he did in this interview, and
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: he's gonna open up about things that you weren't even
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: planning on asking him about. He'll just go off on
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: a tangent, and it can make for a very entertaining interview,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: if nothing else. Entertaining and embarrassing all rolled up into one.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: He was all over the place. This interview ended up
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: lasting almost an hour, and among the things that he
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: discussed was not being allowed to attend last year's WrestleMania
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: in Las Vegas after making threats towards Ludwig Kiser, who
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: Flair referred to as Tiffany Stratton's husband, even though they
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: were never married. They're not even an item anymore. But
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: he told Ariel, I threatened to beat up Tiffany Stratton's
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: husband last year, and I wasn't allowed to go. A
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: twenty four year old kid being threatened by a seventy
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: six year old man. And I can't go to WrestleMania.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? That English kid, he's going to
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: go as far and wrestling as a gnat. He'll be
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: a fly on the wall in a year. So let's
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: stop there, because there's just so much wrong with this.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: First of all, he was Stratton's boyfriend, not husband. Second
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: of all, he called him a twenty four year old kid.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: He was a thirty four year old man at the
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: time or thirty five. I think thirty four. Either way,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: a full decade older than Flaire thought he was. And
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: he's German, He's not English, although I guess the accents
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: all sound the same to Flair. They probably do anyway,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: when you're on your fourth vodka and cranberry, it all
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: sounds the same. He explained that they had that thing
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: where Tiffany made a smart remark about Ashley's divorces, which
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: we both know she's not smart enough to have written.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Somebody gave her the script, and then he implied, I'm
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: just going based on social media. He was implying that
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't mind a one off with Ashley. And I went, okay,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: I need your number, which I can get anybody's number
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: I want, any minute of any day. And I called
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: him and I said, hey, when I see you, I'm
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: going to beat the shit out of you. So he
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: went like a little bitch, told Hunter, and I wasn't
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: allowed to go. Where is he now? Is he even
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: on the roster. He has no idea that Kaiser is
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: killing it right now in Triple A. He's one of
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: the hottest baby faces in Mexico. And when Ariel pointed
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: out to Flair that Kaiser was wrestling in Mexico. Now,
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: Flair said, oh, I'm sure he is. I hope he stays.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: But what he's referring to here, it all stems from
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: that promo leading into wrestle Media last year that went
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: off the rails with Tiffany and Charlotte, where Tiffany made
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: a crack about Charlotte's divorces and Charlotte was very gotten
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: to by this statement. Clearly did not know it was coming,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: so there's no way that it was scripted for her,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: and Charlotte didn't know how to respond, so she made
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: that cringey comment about Kaiser sliding into her DMS. But
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: evidently Flair was banned from WrestleMania. This is, according to him,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: which is what happens when you threaten physical harm to
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: one of the talent. Okay, number one, you're probably not
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: going to get an invite. Actually, though, you're not going
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: to get an invite to a WWE event when you
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: are under contract to another organization, which is a fact
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: that Flair neglected to mention multiple times in this interview,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: like when he said that he felt disrespected that WWE
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: never got back to him about inducting Dennis Rodman into
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame this year. He claims Rodman asked
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: him to do the induction, which I mean, holy shit,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: what a disaster that would have been Rick Flair after
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: a night of drinking in Las Vegas with a live
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: mic in his hand, trying to put someone else over.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: I give it three minutes before he would be lapsing
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: into chapter and verse on all the women who rode
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Space Mountain in nineteen eighty six. It would be a
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame speech about himself. It would be twenty
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: minutes before Rodman even came out. But he said he
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: spoke to the powers that be a WWE and told
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: them that he wants me to induct him into the
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, and he never got a call. Well, yes,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: there's probably many reasons he didn't get a call back,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: but one of them was because you're under contract to
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: Tony Kahn. You technically work for AW. I know AAW
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't exactly have him doing anything right now, but as
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: far as anybody knows he is under contract to AAW,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: why would WWE allow him to induct anybody into their
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. He never mentioned that fact. He didn't
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: mention it because he clearly feels that he is wrestling royalty.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: This is the other thing that comes across here in
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: this interview. He should be held to a different standard
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: than everybody else because he's Rick Flair. I mean, he
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: said as much about the Roots of Fight stuff. Recently,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: he had to back out of his merchandising deal with
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Roots of Fight, their brand, which just announced its own
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: deal with WWE. So I'm sure that had something to
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: do with it, because Flair works for aw and he
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't happy about this. He said he was hoping they
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: would make an exception for him. In this interview with Ariel,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: he flat out said there should be a red carpet
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: for me, a red carpet to the front row. And
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: that's how I feel about it. With my contributions in
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: this business and the work that I put in, hours
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: and hours of trying to make wrestling something that it
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: is today, and I got to have problems with politics.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Give me a break. I'm not mad at anybody. I
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: understand it's politics. Now, it's too much politics and not
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: enough wrestling. Flair is going to go down as one
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: of the greatest of all time. Okay, No, matter what,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: same as Hulk Hogan. They both stain their legacies in
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the last twenty years more than anybody else could ever
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: do to them. But they are still two of the
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: biggest names in the history of the business. They should
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: have been wrestling royalty, but they were their own worst enemy.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: The mask slipped and people started to see a side
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: of them that wasn't pretty. Maybe people would be more
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: willing to roll out the red carpet for him and
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: make exceptions for him in certain situations if he didn't
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: embarrass himself so much or run the risk of embarrassing them.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: But in his mind, he's the legendary Rick Flair, and
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: how come people aren't bending over backwards for me? Ariel
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: asked him about Tony Kahn, and Flair put him over
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: as one of the best people he's ever known. He said,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: Tony khn is one of the greatest people I've ever
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: met in my life. And you know what, I wouldn't
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: be surprised because he has the money to do it.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: If he doesn't buy WWE one day, the con Family's
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: got more money than God. You know that, right. That's
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: nine billion dollar price tag on WWE. That's nothing to
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: Shad Khan. But more than that, Tony has provided an
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: opportunity for guys who would never get a chance to
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: work anywhere else because the WWE is a very difficult,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: very selective organization, and Tony has offered all of these
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: opportunities and he pays the guy's good. All he cares
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: about is making a product and making sure the people
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: are happy. He's a very personable guy. It's funny him
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: bringing all of this up when just recently it came
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: out that Tony in fact did make a bid to
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: buy WWE in twenty twenty three for about seven billion dollars.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: And while I am sure he is a very nice
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: guy and he would not over commercialize the product the
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: way that TKO has, No one person should hold that
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: much power over an entire industry. I would like to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: think that even the hardest of hardcore AW fans would
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: agree that Tony Kahn owning WWE and AW would be
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: a bad thing. We should not be concentrating that much
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: power in one place. I don't care who you are.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: This week is a great example of why that is.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: By the way, with those WWE cuts, if Tony Khn
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: owned all the major wrestling companies and you had a
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: falling out with him and you left AW. It's very
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: rare that AW will get rid of somebody. I mean,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: you have to really fuck up for them to fire you.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: But whether they fire you or you did they let
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: your contract lapse, right, and let's say you're gone, or
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: if you left WWE and you wanted to go to
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: AW right, but Tony owns both of them. Boy, your
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: options are going to be real limited now, aren't they.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know why anybody would see that as a
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: good thing. Flair was asked his thoughts about the audience
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: at the Hall of Fame during Stephanie McMahon's speech, breaking
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: out into a thank you Vince chant, and he said
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: they should all be thanking Vince. Everybody, everybody in the
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: world that likes wrestling should be thanking Vince McMahon. And
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: when asked if he's been in touch with Vince recently,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: he said he hasn't been. He said, I feel like
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: there's so much going on that I would be wasting
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: his time. He knows how I feel about him. He
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: lent me eight hundred thousand dollars in unlike what people portray,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: it was not for the irs. It was to help
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: me get through three divorces at one time. Boy, three
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: divorces at once. Wow. And the thing of it is,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: he says, they hate hearing this. I paid him back
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: every dime when he called me and said that I
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: can write this off, don't worry about it. I paid
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: him back because I didn't want to let him down.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: He claims he took his entire paycheck for his final
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania match against Sewn Michaels, and he gave it right
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: back to Vince. Vince. So look, Vince was good to
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: Flair even when he he did not have to be.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: By and large, from all the stories and everything, Vince
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: McMahon was always very good to Rick Flair. I'm not
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: surprised that Rick Flair feels he owes this man a
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: debt of gratitude. None of this is surprising. But also
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: in the interview and again I told you went off
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: the rails here he took aim at Stevie Richards, whose
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: name he couldn't remember, or claimed he couldn't remember. He
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: took aim at dutch Man Tell, whose name he couldn't remember.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: He called him by his zeb culter name in WWE.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: He even went after James Romero, whose name he definitely
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: didn't know. He called him the peanut shell, he said,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: ZEB and Stevie Richards and that little jack off God,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: I call him the peanuts shell, the guy that does
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: the interviews for ZEB. I mean, if I look at
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: my page, I get punks like fucking Stevie what's his name?
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: Stevie Richards and Zeb Culter whatever his name is. For
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: a guy that has suffered serious health problems, not as
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: serious as mine, I would keep my mouth shut because
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: if you don't have a legacy, you can't talk about
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: a legacy. I'll tell you a great story. You'll love it.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: We're in Marietta, Georgia, and Lex Luger used to always
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: speak of himself and the third person. And he looked
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: at Jack Mulligan, who was the agent, and he goes,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: why would a Lex Luger wressele a dutch Man tell?
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: And now I understand why Luger said it. Who in
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: the fuck is dutch Man tell a fuzzball with serious
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: health problems that should mind his own business. And Stevie Richards,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: My pinky finger is bigger than his neck. The man
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: is on Ariel Helwani show to talk about wressell Mania
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: from three days earlier and what's going on in his life.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: And he's ranting about fucking James Romero and Stevie Richards
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: over what fuck if? I know, because Stevie told the
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: story once about Flair disrespecting him at a bar when
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: he worked for TAA. I don't know if that's the
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: clip that got him hot. I mean, Stevie told that
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: story years ago. But this man gave these guys free
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: publicity on Ariel show for what reason? I have no idea.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: But then the best part about this when he gets
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: asked if that bothers him when they talk about him,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: which it clearly does, he says, no, No, it doesn't
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: bother me. I laugh at it. He says, how could
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: it bother me? Who were they? I was just in
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: Vegas and I talked to Donald Trump on the phone.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: Do I give a shit about those guys? They don't
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: even have Donald's number. And I can call Charles Barkley,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: I can call Shack, I can call somebody famous. I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: can call Mark Wahlberg. I mean, I can call anybody,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: because I've earned their respect. Darius Rucker, Kid Rock Snoop dog.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: I have all their numbers right here on speed dial.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: These guys don't know anything and don't know shit. But
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: the only way they make a dime, and I'm sure
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: it's a minimal amount of money, is by cracking on
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: people that are successful. And the older you get, the
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: more successful you stay, and the more relevant you stay,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: the more jealous they get. This is not the flex
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: that he thinks it is, by the way, to throw
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: it all these names out there. I like how he
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: still refers to it as speed dial myself. You know,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: every number in your phone is speed dial. Okay, you
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: just tap their name like this. This guy still has
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: a fucking rotary phone at home. But he joked. He joked.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: Maybe he joked, I don't know. He could have been serious,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: But he joked that he hooked up with more women
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: than Wilt Chamberlain did, who once claimed that he slept
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: famously with twenty thousand women in his lifetime. Flaire says
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: he beat that record by the time he was thirty nine,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: and he goes, they weren't all tens. There were a
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: couple of heavyweights along the way, but it was a
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: small town. I don't remember their names. And I don't
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: want them to remember mine. Now. Ariel did ask him
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: before this all descended into just complete madness what he
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: thought of his daughter's match oft WrestleMania, and he said
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: he didn't like it. He said, I didn't like her
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: match at all. And I think that Ashley needs to
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: be and I know she enjoys her relationship with Alexa,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: but if Ashley is not in a title picture right now,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: in my life and as a spectator, without her in
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: the main event in a singles match, and I think
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: basically he was saying he kind of doesn't have any
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: interest if Charlotte is not wrestling for a world title now.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: The next day, he did a little cleanup on Aisle
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: five on those comments, tweeting, out of course first letter
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: capitalize in every word. I want to make something very
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: clear to everyone after yesterday's podcast with Ariel Helwani. Number one,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: I'm more than thrilled to see Charlotte wrestling with her
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: friend Alexa Bliss. I've never seen her happier. So let's
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: clear that up. Okay, So all you people out there
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: that are misconstruing Flair's own words and using his own
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: words against him, don't do that Number two, I enjoyed
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: her in singles matches because I feel like she's able
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: to put more of her talent on display. Number three,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: no one will ever criticize or make any attempt to
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: judge my daughter's or say anything about them except Rick Flair.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: Number four. I wish we could all just put everything
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: behind us, and please don't report something on me unless
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: it is one hundred percent true. He wishes he could
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: put all of this stuff behind him, Yet he's the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: one who brought most of this stuff up unprompted, and
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: he goes after people, and the fact is based on
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: some of the things that came out of his own
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: mouth in that interview, especially the Kaiser stuff. The biggest
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: source of misinformation here is Rick Flair himself. So the
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: next time you sit down for that Thanksgiving dinner and
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: your drunk uncle starts telling embarrassing stories, just be grateful
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: he's not doing the helicopter with his dick and bragging
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: on the Internet about all the heavyweights that he is
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: shacked up with over the years. There was a lot
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: of talk this week coming out of WrestleMania about the
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: security situation at the MGM. Grand Or lack thereof that
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: was the official talent hotel this year for WrestleMania. Per
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: Fightful Select, a lot of talent raised concerns about the
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: lack of proper security, and when asked about the situation,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: several wrestlers responded to fight full with what security. One
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: WWE source claimed that certain fans cross boundaries during meet
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: and greet sessions where they attempted to initiate hugs with
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: the talents, and this was strongly discouraged, not just for
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: per reasons, but also due to health concerns. One wrestler
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: believed that things were getting worse because of these sky
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: high ticket prices set by WWE under TKO and fanatics.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: They believe that they are no longer financially accessible to
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: fans who want to meet them and normally pay for
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: meet and greets, and the inaccessible prices could be a
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: reason behind the fans getting aggressive, which, by the way,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: even if that were true, that is no excuse for
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: fans behaving in the way that their behavior. You're just
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: let's not make excuses for these people. But a lot
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: of fans use their kids to get us to sign things,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: says one former WWE champion. If we don't they put
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: their phones in our face and they try to guilt
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: trip us. Another WWE superstar claimed, it's WrestleMania and there
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: are wrestling fans in town. What do people expect now?
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: I saw a video of Randy Orton getting mobbed in
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: the lobby. I saw video of Drew McIntyre getting mobbed.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: The CM Punk incident is the one that got the
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: most attention from TMC. This was Sunday night after his
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: main event match with the Roman Reigns. His wife aj
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: She was seen hugging Bailey in the lobby of the
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: MGM grin like they were saying goodbye. There was a
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: fan who had been following them with his phone out
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: and even after they moved to a different area, like
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: they kind of walked towards the elevators to you know,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: get some privacy, and the fan followed and he continued
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: to film them, and he got all up in their space.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: Bailey even told the guy to go away, and she
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: tried to push his phone away, and that is when
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: Punk stepped in and he smacked the phone right out
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: of the guy's hand. It even bounced off the floor.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Then security stepped in to get in between everybody. Punk
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: looked like he wanted to kill this guy. He was
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: having Wembley flashbacks. TMZ reached out to the fan who
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: said he's not going to sue Punk and he's not
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: going to press charges and put him in jail. He
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: just wanted apology. Oh really, now, is that right? He's
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: lucky he didn't get punched in the mouth. See that
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: Punk would have to answer for if he put his
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: hands on the guy, but he didn't. He smacked the
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: phone out of his hand, and he deserved it. He
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: was being an asshole. You know. To me the moment
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: on the video where Bailey signals that she's not cool
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: with this guy invading her space and getting so close.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: That changes the whole dynamic. Like you were warned, you
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: opted not to heed that warning. You don't get to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: then turn around and play victim here. I'm sure there
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: will be no apology forthcoming, nor should there be. Punk
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: did nothing wrong. Only a few minutes before this happened
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: same hotel, Damian Priest had to step in to help
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: one of the female wrestlers who was surrounded by this
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: group of fans wanting autographs and pictures, and they were
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: kind of closing in on her Sean Waltman said that
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: he was physically assaulted. He was even stalked in the bathroom.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Booker t said that there was a fan filming him
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: in the bathroom at the MGM Grand. You know, usually
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: for WrestleMania, WWE books out an entire hotel for the talent,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: so you don't have fans who have access, you don't
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: have fans running around there. But they couldn't do that
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: in Vegas at the MGM because there's a casino there,
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: so you can't well lock down the entire hotel because
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: it would impact their casino business. But this is where
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: TKO and WWE they need to step up and they
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: need to pay extra for security for their talent for
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: an event like WrestleMania where you know it is going
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: to be a zoo and if you can't lock down
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: the hotel the way that you normally do, then dip
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: into those deep pockets that you have and pay to
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: protect your talent or And I don't know if this
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: is the case with MGM, but I know some of
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: these casinos they have another hotel attached to them. You
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: don't have to stay at the resort itself. For example,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: for House of Glory. We had our shows at the
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Pearl Theater. The Pearl Theater is at the Palms, Okay,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: the Palms Casino resort. I could have booked a room there. Instead,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: I booked a room at the Palm's Place hotel, which
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: is connected to the Palms. You just have to do
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: a little bit of walking to get there, and it
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: was a lot quieter over there than it would have
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: been staying at the Poms itself in terms of foot traffic.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that would have been doable at MGM.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know if there's another hotel connected or in
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: the back, but if it was, I don't know why
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: they didn't just book the talent in the adjacent hotel there.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: But this is not something to cheap out on. It's
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: one thing to hear Kevin Nash complain about there being
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: no food backstage at the Hall of Fame for the
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: talent because they were too cheap to spend money on catering. Right,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: they had some bags of chips, a couple of bananas
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: in a tangerine. That's all they had. Okay, that's one thing,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: but when you're dealing with safety, that's a whole other
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: ball of wax. There are boundaries that you do not cross.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: This is not the same as seeing a wrestler and
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: politely asking, oh, can I get a picture? Can I
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: get an autograph? And if they say no, or if
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: they ignore you, you just move on like a normal
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: fucking human being. These are throngs of people, hordes of them,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: all congregating in one place, shoving their phones in people's faces.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: I forget who it was. I think it was rear Ripley,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: and it might have been in Saudi. It might have
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: been on one of the Saudi shows. But there was
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: a fan video and she was outside somewhere. I think
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: she was up against the car and it might have
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: been an uber or if it was them, maybe it
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: was a limo. I don't know what it was. But
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: she was literally pressed up against the car and there
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: was a whole group of people surrounding here, and I
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: don't remem remember there being anybody around, And so I
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: can only imagine if you're a talent, especially you know,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: a female talent, if you have all these guys that
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: are like, you know, their fucking tongues are wagging and
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: they're just the kind of it's like something out of
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: the Walking Dead, where you know the walkers are making
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: their way towards you, right, and now there's so many
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: of them and they're slowly creeping towards you, like I
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: can only imagine like what a situation like them must feel,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: and how helpless you are when it gets that bad.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: We're not talking about a couple of people here again.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: These are hordes of people that are shoving their phones
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: in people's faces and demanding autographs and photos, and when
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: it's very clear the talent does not want to give
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: them one, they follow them and they get all up
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: in their business. Like imagine being one of those wrestlers
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: trying to get up to your room and there's only
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: one way up and one way down. There's no secret
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: back entrance, and so you're waiting for the elevator. Are
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: you going to get in that elevator and run the
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: risk of being trapped inside with these people and no
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: security around. You're just asking for something bad to happen,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: Like there have been too many stories recently, especially with
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: the women, about creepy stalker fans even showing up at
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: their homes. Like this isn't something to play around with,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: the talents, are there to work for you. If not
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: for you telling them to be there, they would not
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: be there. Protect your talent. The Fox affiliate in Nashville
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: reported this week that WWE says it is taking WrestleMania
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: forty three to Saudi Arabia in twenty twenty seven, after
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: leaders with the Tennessee Titans and Nashville tourism groups initially
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: said it would be coming to the new Nissan Stadium
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: next April, with construction set to be complete at the
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: future Titans home in February of twenty twenty seven. WrestleMania
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: forty three would have been one of the first major
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: events of the Dome Stadium drew to Nashville. The date
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: didn't work out. We were looking at future years that
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: a representative of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. Yeah,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: they're reporting on this as if WWE just announced WrestleMania
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: for Saudi Arabia next year. This was announced months ago.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: So the list grows longer of cities that are owed
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: a WrestleMania in the future. We have New Orleans, we
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: have Indianapolis, and now Nashville. But WWE is coming back
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia at least once. And probably twice before
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: they even get to WrestleMania next year. The company confirmed
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: this week that Night of Champions will be held in
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: Riod on June twenty seventh. This would be their second
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: trip to Saudi this year after the Royal Rumble. There
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: was talk of them maybe pulling out with all of
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: the hostilities going on in that region right now with
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: the Iran War. We had Iranian drones that struck the
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: US embassy in Riod just last month. But WWE they
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: bring a lot of money in for these shows. They
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: bring in a minimum fifty million dollars for every Saudi
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: show they run, and significantly more I'm sure for the
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Royal Rumble and for WrestleMania next year. It would take
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: a nuclear holocaust I think for them to pull out
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: of these shows. Night of Champions was held in Saudi
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: last year as well, is where they did the last
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: ever match between John Cena and Cmpunk. That is John
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: Cena's all time favorite moment in wrestling that he was
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: involved with, not the match that the two of them had,
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: but Punk's apology to the Saudi people on the pre show,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: to that one fan on the pre show. That is
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: John Seena's favorite moment of his career. I'm still amazed
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: that these were actual words he strung together in a sentence,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: but it's real. Hey, maybe if Punk apologizes to that
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: fan that harassed his wife in Las Vegas, that could
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: be the second greatest moment of John seen his career
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't even involved. So as of now, we
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: have Backlash on May ninth in Tampa, Saturday Night's main
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: event in Fort Wayne, Indiana on May twenty, third, Clash
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: in Italy one week later on the thirty first Night
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: of Champions in Riot on June twenty seventh, a two
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: night Summer Slim in Minneapolis on August first and second,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: and then Money in the Bank in New New Orleans
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: on September sixth. That's the make good, by the way,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: this year for New Orleans not getting WrestleMania, they get
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: money in the Bank. Now, let's talk about some Ron
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: SmackDown notes here and some NXT call up notes, because
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: there was some news this week coming out of WrestleMania,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: including Cody Rhodes who got all fucked up. His eye
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: was all messed up coming out of that WrestleMania Night
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: one main event, and Meltzer had reported that he was
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: put in concussion protocol, which I think most people would
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: have surmised that even if he did not have a concussion,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: they do have a concussion protocol, and so he probably
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: ended up in there, and there's no indication he actually
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: got a concussion. He did post Cody did on his
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: Instagram stories this week. He says, you won't lose the
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: eye has to be the most positive yet absurd thing
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: I've heard in a doctor's office. Well, I don't is
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: it positive? I mean, I guess yes, not losing your
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: eye would be positive, But the implication there is that
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: there may be there may be other injuries and issues
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: with the eye. But you know, he had Cody and Randy,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: and Cody beat Randy Orton. He's still the WWE champion.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: They wrote off Pat McAfee and I've talked about what
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: a fucking disaster the whole lead up was to it.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: Jelly Roll, who had a role in that story and
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: actually in the main event of WrestleMania this year, he
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: admits that he and Pat McAfee they had no business
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: being involved in the WrestleMania main event, and he addressed
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: McAfee directly in Jelly Roll's YouTube vlog and he was
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: kind of reflecting on everything. I think he was backstage
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: at WrestleMania and he said I had one goal tonight
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: and I kind of succeeded. Pat, I love you man.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: Neither one of us had any business here. Pat McAfee, meanwhile,
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: we come to find out, is the one who decided
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: to end the Angle at WrestleMania. So if it felt
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: like it was ended prematurely, there's a reason for that.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: Because Pat McAfee said peace, I'm out, and there was
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: an item in the Observer This week, Randy Orton was
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: scheduled to beat Cody Rhoads for the WWE Championship, likely
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: with Pat McAfee's help, to set up a tag team
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: match for Backlash where it would be Randy Orton and
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: Pat McAfee against Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll. However, McAfee
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: asked to end his run and later said that he
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: was out of wrestling forever after the show. The belief
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: in WWE was that he didn't like the negativity of
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: the fans, not the heel heat, but the negativity plus
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: even worse, the negativity of the angle from so many
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: of the talents It wasn't negativity on McAfee personally, but
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: so much of the talent did not like the angle
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: and felt that Cody versus Randy had a strong storyline
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: dating back to Orton being Rhodes's mentor and McAfee and
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: Jelly Roll being involved took away from the stronger story,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: which is only what I've been talking about now for
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: weeks and probably every other fucking person who watched the show.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: The talent are not stupid. They saw the same thing,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: he says. Plus, it was well known the story did
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: not come from WWE created, but it was Ari Emmanuel
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: behind it. So when he asked out, the decision was
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: made to go in a direction of punk versus Roads
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: and not go with Randy Orton as champion. And on
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: his ESPN show on Monday, McAfee said this, He said,
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: the good news is the business doesn't need to be
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: saved after all, and good for them and good for me.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: I finished my story. I came up in the Indies.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: Iwa East Coast, I went through developmental n XT. I
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: was a wrestler trained well I mean that's I mean technically,
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: I guess technically yes, but I was a wrestler trained
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: by Rip Rogers, the same guy that trained everybody that's
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: retiring kind of currently out of OVW get to WWE, commentated,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: Lucky to Do That, did pre shows, Lucky to Do That,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: wrestled Lucky to Do That. Managed. It's been a hell
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: of a run. Thank you Wrestling. It was an honor
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: to be over there. The wrestling business just kind of
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: rear view mirror, and so the wrestling business, I'd like
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: to say, thank you, thank you so much. Look, I
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: can't speak for everybody, but I speak for myself when
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: I say I did not have any issue personally with
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: Pat McAfee or with Jelly Roll. In fact, when Jelly
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: Roll had that tag team match, that match at SummerSlam
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: last year, I put him over and said, men, you know,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: he played his role perfectly and the crowd enjoyed the
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: match and it was great for what it was supposed
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: to be. And McAfee, you know, when he was around
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: doing commentary, he could be very grating on the nerves,
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: but he had his moments, you know, and they would
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: bring him in, he would disappear, he would do college
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: game day, then he would come back. But the thing
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: with McAfee is that the fans. Generally, the fans loved him,
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: you know, they would hit his music, he would come out.
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: He was a big babyface to the WWE audience. And
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: by involving him in this angle at the time that
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: they did, in the way that they did, they turned
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: him heal and not just in storyline, they turned him
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: heal to much of the audience. So whatever good will
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: this guy had curried with the fans, they fucking ruined
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: it with this entire storyline. And it just got to
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: a point where I didn't want to see these people anymore,
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: because again, they had no business being involved. These two
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: guys are not stupid. They're genuine wrestling fans. McAfee, as
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: he said, had a little bit of history in the
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: wrestling business, but he was a fan. He is a fan.
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: Jelly Roll is a fan. And so yes, they're not stupid.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: They see and they hear what people are saying about
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: them on social media and what people are saying about
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: them on the Internet and on YouTube and all these
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: different places, and I'm sure they agree. I'm sure that
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: they look at it and go, this is not right.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: That's why McAfee supposedly turned the idea down. Initially, he
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: didn't want to do it. I don't know what ultimately
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: got him to change his mind. Probably Samula, not that
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: he needs it, but he's not a stupid person. He realized, like,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: this is not working this, I shouldn't be here. Jelly
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: Roll literally said the words, we should not be here,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: we should not be a part of this. Kudos to
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: them for recognizing it. But I said this on X
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: for all the talk of the IWC, which is something
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: we heard McAfee saying in his promos, and it is
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: such a stupid term to even use anymore, because what
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: the hell does it even mean. I mean, people generally
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: will use it to describe a segment of the wrestling
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: audience that talk about wrestling, I guess online or on
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: social media. But IWC, it's just such a stupid fucking term.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: But for all the talk of the IWC being such
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: a vocal minority, right, don't listen to them, you know,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: they just there's a vocal minority. Their opinion doesn't matter.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: It's about the masses, right, And there is something to that.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: But every time you hear somebody say that, I want
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: you to remember this situation. Do not ever let that
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: stop you from calling out shit that sucks, because it
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: absolutely has an effect. I'm not saying that this alone
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: is the reason why, oh my god, they dropped the
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: whole story, but clearly it had an impact, even if
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: it was a case where McAfee looked at it and go, man,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: I don't like what people are saying about me here,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: I'm getting it from all angles here. I don't need
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: this shit. And he goes to WWE, who's full steam
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: ahead because Nick con Is said I don't look at X,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: I don't look at social media. I don't give a
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: shit about it. But guess what the people that work
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: for him they do. And if Pat McAfee and Jelly
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: roll and they saw all of this being said about
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: them and they have egos like everybody else, all it
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: takes is them going to Nick con and going to
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: Paulovek or going to Ari Emanuel and saying I don't
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: want to have anything to do with this anymore. This
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: is a mistake, and all of a sudden the story
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: gets dropped. So don't ever let anybody tell you that, oh,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: because you're in the IWC and because you're posting a
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: comment on YouTube or on X that your opinion doesn't matter.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: This sucked. The people involved knew it sucked, and they
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: decided to change their mind because they didn't like all
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: of the negativity. Sometimes the negativity is what they need
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: to hear. Sometimes the negativity works, and in this case,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: I'm glad it did. We did have a bunch of
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: NXT call ups on the post wrestle many episodes of
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: her on SmackDown this week, which was expected and it
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: was also much needed and welcome. Raw has Ethan Page,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: Sol Ruka, and Joe Hendry, who's going to be in
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: concert tomorrow night. They are now joining the Monday Night
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: Raw roster. I love all three names being added to RAW.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: I think these are great additions to the roster. Ethan Page,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: especially if he's not Intercontinental Champion within six months, I'd
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: be very surprised. Soul Ruka is fantastic. She's going to
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: be a huge star. She wrestled liv Morgan. She wrestled
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: the Women's World Champion her first night in on Monday
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: and they had a fun match, and then she went
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: and wrestled Zaria in a last woman's Standing match on
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: NXT the very next night, and she took a nasty
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: spill from the Crow's nest in the performance center and
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: they had two tables down below, and the spot was
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: that Zaria was going to shove her and she was
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: going to fall backwards through two tables, two slim gym tables.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: She went through the first one and the back of
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: her head clipped the edge of the second one, and
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: it was very scary. It was a very nasty spot.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: I think I even mentioned this to JD the other day.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: We were on Tuesday Night Titans. We were talking about
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: it as it was happening because NXT was on during
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: our show, and I said, I saw the clip and
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: it reminded me exactly. First thing I thought of was
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: on Raw years ago when La Resistance they picked up
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: Spike Dudley and same spot, although I think it might
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: have just been one table outside the ring, and they
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: were picking him up and they were going to power
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: bomb them outside the ring like a double power bomb
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: through the table. Somehow they undershot the table and Spike
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: hit the floor, but on his way down the back
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: of his head smacked the edge of the table. It
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: was just nasty. That's exactly what happened here. In this case.
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: Soul Ruka ended up needing eight staples in the back
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: of her head to close the wound. Otherwise she seems
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: to be okay. I was very, very scary. So those
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: are the additions to Monday Night Roll. We're not sure
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: about Jacob FO two because Jacob Fatu now showed up
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: on Raw and he's going to be challenging most likely.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: It's not official yet, but we'll find out tomorrow night.
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: He'll be challenging Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: at Backlash. That does not necessarily mean that Jacob is
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: going to be full time on Raw going forward. He
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: could still be on SmackDown, so we'll put a question
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: mark on that. CM Punk the way he was talking
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: and his promo with Cody Rhodes, and also you kind
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: of look at the lay of the land on Monday
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: Night Raw right now, and if Roman is going to
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: be the champion and they're not doing Roman in Punk again,
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: Punk has no business being on Monday Night Raw. My
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: guess is Punk ends up on SmackDown, but there was
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: no hint of that on SmackDown this week, But it
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: would make all the sense in the world to move
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: him over from Mondays to Fridays SmackDown what we do
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: know is that they now have all three members of
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: Fatal Influence Jacy, Jane Fallon, Henley, Laney Reid. They are
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: now on SmackDown jac In her first night Like Soul
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: on Raw Wrestling Live, Morgan Jace was wrestling Rhea Ripley
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: on Friday Night and Fatal Influence was out there Jace
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: in particular, for a promo, and the heat that they
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: were was just off the charts, so much so that
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: she had to keep stopping her promo to insult the crowd.
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: And it was hard to hear like what like Lady
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: Reid said. I couldn't even tell you because I could
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: barely hear what she was even saying. The heat was
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: so loud in the building. And then I'm looking at
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: some of the crowd and like, people aren't really moving
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: and reacting in the first several rows, and so I'm
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: not sure if they were piping in some noise. There
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: was clearly a lot of legitimate noise coming from the fans,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: and I've seen some fan video since then. There were
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: people who listened to the sound of who messaged me
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: and said I was there and I could tell you.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: I can't speak to what wwe may have been tinkering with,
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: but it was loud in the building, so it looks
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: like most of the heat was legitimate, which is great.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: It didn't carry over into the match that lay or
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: Lacey that JC had with Rhea, but hopefully they can
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: continue to get reactions like that because as a heel,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, my god, those are the kind of reactions
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: that you would die for. So that's gonna give the
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: women's division on Friday is a huge shot in the arm.
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: And Blake Monroe finally is on her way to the
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: main roster. They ran a vignette for her coming soon.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: The glamour is coming soon. They didn't specifically say coming
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: soon like with the SmackDown logo. I assume she's coming
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: to SmackDown. I guess if they air the same vignette
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: on Raw Tomorrow night, then maybe not, but I assume
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: she's gonna be on Friday nights. And making his SmackDown
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: debut this Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ricky Saints will be
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: reunited now on the same show with his former Team
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: TAZ partner Royce Keys, who's also a new member of
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: the SmackDown roster, and Rhya Ripley by virtue of her
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: winning the women's championship from Jade Carr Gilla WrestleMania. She
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: is now officially on SmackDown. So these are the kinds
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: of shakeups that were needed, and you could do them
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: without the need for a draft show. There's more moves
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: I think that will be made. They could definitely move
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: some other pieces around. I mentioned punkin Fatu. We'll see
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: ultimately where they land. But this is great And as
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: far as SmackDown goes again, Blake Monroe, if she does
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: end up there, all three members of Fatal Influence, Rhea
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: now moves over. She's the champion. She could work with
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: Jordan Grace, she could work with Keana James, she could
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: work with Julia. There are different people not named Charlotte
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: Flair for her to work with, and it gives me
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: hope when it comes to SmackDown. It's a very cautious
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: optimism because the show is just not good. But my
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: hope is that by moving some names around here, it
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: will freshen things up a little bit. Page also is
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: one of those new names on the roster. What's old
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: is new again now and I don't know where she
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: will end up because she's one half of the women's
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: tag team Champions and they can float between shows. I
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: don't know if she'll ultimately settle on SmackDown, if she'll
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: settle on Raw her and Bribella though they are the
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: tag team champions in Page sat down for an interview
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: with Stephanie McMahon on her podcast, and she explained how
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: her comeback even came about and the role that Jelly
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: Role played in this, because she had appeared on a
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: live episode of Jelly Roll's Jelly Roll's Wife Bunny. I
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: guess that's her name, Bunny and Jelly Okay, all right, anyway,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: she was on Bunny Rolls podcast, I guess. And it
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: turns out that the Rocks agent, Brad Slater, was also there,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: and Jelly Roll asked him how come WWE hasn't brought
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: Page back yet, and one thing led to another, and
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: that led to a meeting between Page and Nick Cohn.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: She said, so he calls Nick and within thirty minutes
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: Nick had said, sure, let's get a meeting with her.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: A week later, he flies to La to the WWE offices.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: Out there. I went and met him for about ten minutes.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: Great guy, Love him, big fan of him. Super smart,
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: he's got a business brain on him. I thought I
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: would be intimidated by him, but going in there, he's
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: easy going and he goes two things, your neck has
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: to be okay and we have to do a drug test.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: And I was like, fair enough. I was like, hey,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: I can control the drug test. I'm clean as a whistle.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: And so I was like, I don't know how my
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: neck has been. It's been a few years since I
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: got it checked. The last time I got it checked
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: it was perfect, So I'm not really concerned about it.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: And so the next week I fly to Birmingham. And
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: she also talked about in the interview how she's eight
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: years sober now. She said her first stint in WWE,
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: it was a bit of a mess. She failed a
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: bunch of drug tests, and Stephanie even admitted there was
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of concern for her within the company during
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: that time because they could see her going down a
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: very bad road and the neck issues are ultimately will
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: led to her not being medically cleared. That's why they
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: had her as a general manager, and she was a
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: manager for a while. They were trying to find other
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: things for her to do because her neck was just
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: such that they were not going to give her to
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: give her her clearance, that's how she ended up in
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: aw They obviously had no issue with her being back
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: in the ring, as she won a world title while
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: she was there, but she said to get cleared for
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: her WWE return. She had a ten hour appointment in
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: Birmingham and she said it was a couple of things.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: She was very emotional, she started crying and everything once
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: she got the news. She said, it was a couple
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: of things. The fact that my neck was good, and
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: the last time I was in WWE, my neck wasn't
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: and I had to retire and I had to miss
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: out on all of these massive things like the Royal
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: Rumble and Elimination Chamber. I didn't get to be a
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: part of them, even though I was part of the
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: group that helped kind of ignite that. And it's just
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: the fact that I'm going to be okay. So she
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: entered into contract negotiations for her return, and Nikki Bella
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: happened to get hurt. One thing led to another and
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: she ended up being the substitute and now she's a champion.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: So it's a you know, look, it's a kind of
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: a happy ending for her. I mean, she's not at
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: the end of her career by any means. She's still
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: in her early thirties. But when you consider where she
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: was back then, and it did look like she you know,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: from the outside looking at it looked like this, this
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: girl is going down a very bad path, and it
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: seems like she's gotten her act together, and I think
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: that she could absolutely contribute to that division. There are
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of women that she has not had the
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: chance to work with, and let's see what she can contribute.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, she really wasn't doing a whole hell of
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: a lot for the majority of her aw run, but
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: let's see what she can do. In WWE. We saw
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: Bianca bel Air make her return at WrestleMania to announce
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: that she was pregnant. So she is not going to
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: be back in the women's division anytime soon. Montese Ford,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: who had a little something to do with that. He
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: posted on social media. He said, gain some weight, made
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: a baby, kept it a secret for six months, trained
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: eight weeks, lost the Weight, finished, the album completed, eight million.
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: Honeydewes returned to Monday Night Raw after Mania. The King
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: is back, so I did not know that Bianca Bella
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: Air was six months She didn't look six months pregnant
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: at WrestleMania. It looked like maybe she had only gotten
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: the news maybe two or three months ago, But apparently
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: she's already six months along. And again, hopefully everything works
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: out well and the baby is healthy. And again congrats
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: to the two of them. I'm gonna miss seeing her
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: in the ring, but hopefully she'll make her way back
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: at some point. But as far as montes Ford goes,
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: we haven't seen the Street Profit since October. That was
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: the last time we saw them on television, and that
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: was on SmackDown. They were wrestling two guys that aren't
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: even employed anymore, at least not in the next eighty
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: sum odd days, Joe Gacy and Dexter Loomis. So now
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: they're on Raw. I guess they're going to try to
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: inject some new life into the Raw tag team division
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: with the Street Profits. I mean, God bless them, I
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: wish them luck, but these tag team divisions on both
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: these shows, I mean, they need a lot of help,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: and adding the Street Profits is not going to be enough.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: But it looks like they're going to be working the
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: Vision soon and we'll see if they add any more team.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to think from NXT, is there any team?
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: Is there any tag team right now in NXT for
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: the people who watch NXT week to wee that you
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: would look at and go, Okay, these guys are ready.
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: These guys can be called up. Like I know they
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: got the Dark State guy. I don't know what's going
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: on with dark State right now. I think there's some right,
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: some drama, I believe with the members of Dark State.
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: They have Hank in Tank. I don't know if Hank
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: and Tank maybe are ready for a call up. I
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: don't know. I don't I'm not aware of any like
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: great tag teams that are on the brink in NXT
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: right now that can really be called up right now
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: and make that much of a difference. But I just
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: feel like they have to do something. It's awful, Like
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: there is no reason to have two separate sets of
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: tag team titles. There really hasn't been a reason since
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: they split them, but right now there's no reason to
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: have two separate sets of tag team titles. I mean,
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: they could just have one, just like the women champions
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: that float and just have you know, some tag teams here,
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: some tag teams there, and let them go back and forth,
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: because it is just a dreadful situation on these shows.
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: Right now, let me just talk about AW here for
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit. Not a lot of AW news this week,
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: but one thing I did not get to talk about
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: because there was no sound off last Sunday, so I
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: talked about it a little bit on Wednesday. But Darby
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: Allen is the new AW World Champion. Of course I
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't here for Dynamite, and so we have a world
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: title change on TV. But yes, MJF. After his exhaustive
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: forty minute win over Kenny Omega, Dynasty rolled into Dynamite
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: in Everett, Washington, and in two minutes lost the AW
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: World Championship to Darby Allen. And I wanted to wait
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: until I had the chance to watch the entire show
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: from start to finish, and I did, and I liked
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: the basic story they told of Darby. Obviously he's in
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: his hometown, but he comes out at the beginning of
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: the show and he's cutting this emotional promo on MJF
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: and they set the matchup for the main event, which
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: was a good hook for people to stay tuned in
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: for the remainder of the show. They had other talents
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: on the show saying go get him Darby, and then
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: Sting shows up and he's given him the big endorsement
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: in the back. It's not showtime, it's your time. Go
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: out there and win the title. This would have been
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: a great build up to, like a big pay per
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: view main event. It felt rushed because it was you know,
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: they had Darby beat Androdde at Dynasty. I guess that
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: was their way of solidifying him as the number one contender,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: But Darby Allen was super cold, you know, going into
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: this match. But for the one night in terms of
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: like a one night build, they did a good job
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: with it and Darby wins the championship. Now, him squashing
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: MJF in the way that he did, which is not
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: going to hurt MJF at all because he's MJF. He's
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: a fucking heel. He's been on social media ever since
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: complaining about how unfair it was and he wasn't ready
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: and he got kicked in the dick. And again it's MJF.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: This will not hurt him at all. If it was
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: anybody else, I might not be so sure about that
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: because this is the second time this year that your
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: world champion, top heel in the company has been squashed
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: in a matter of a couple of minutes. To do
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: that once you might be able to get away with it,
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: but to do it twice, that that to me is
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: the fucked up part. I would not have done it
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: that way. But they put the belt on Darby, they
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: had the big celebrations, sting came out good for Darby.
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: Darby is not going to have this title for very long,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: and you could already see it because he's the fighting Champion.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: He's going to put that title on the line every
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: single week. His first week on Dynamite, here is champion
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday and he's putting the title on the line
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: against Tamaso Shampa and they go out there and they
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: had an excellent match, one of the better TV matches
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: of the year so far. Champa thought so much of
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: it that on social media after he referred to Darby
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: as his wrestling soulmate, he said, last night I encountered
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: my wrestling soulmate. I have a hunch that we will
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: be doing this many more times over the next decade.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you, aw thank you Portland, Thank you Darby. Mark
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: my words, it might not be this month, it might
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: not be this year. Hella might not even be in
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven, but there will come a time when
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: I hold that AW World title. Here's a great man.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, there was one dumb spot where I think
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: he did the the air raid crash to Darby to
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: the outside on the floor. I mean, that was pretty stupid,
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: but it's Darby, so I'm sure it was his fucking idea.
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: But they had a great match that in the will
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: Ospury match that he had with Mark Davis. I love
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: that match. On Wednesday, Leo Rush was also on Dynamite,
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: a rare Dynamite appearance. He's got this new like it's
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: like black Gollum. This this weird gimmick that he's doing,
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: which I kind of like because it's different. It's not
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: something that you usually see on AW television. I mean,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: I could absolutely see this on WWE television, you know,
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: playing it out for comedy, but I don't know. In AW,
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: it's just it's a break from the usual. He's putting
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: everything into this character, and I hope that they give
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: him more television time to kind of expand it and
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: maybe explain why he is suddenly acting like a fucking lunatic,
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: which they have not done. Just one day, snap their
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: fingers and all of a sudden, Leo Rush is a lunatic.
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: He's not in crew anymore. With act Andretti the other
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: thing also Samboa Joe was back on Dynamite this week
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: and on Collision last night. Anthony Bowens was brought into
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: the Ops, which I think the Ops had had run
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: its course. But if they're gonna bring in new members,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: I mean Anthony Bowens. I like it because Bowens is
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: a talented guy and they have done nothing with him.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: You know, when they split up the acclaimed Max Castor
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: at least was doing the Open challenges and he got
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: that dumb chant over and then Bowens he was like
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: the five tool player, and I mean he was trying
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: to do his own thing, and it's like aw just
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: gave up on it. It's like Tony Kahn lost interest.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: All Right, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go play with
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: my other toys over here. And it could be a
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: chance now for Bowens. I guess maybe is a heel.
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean I think the Ops. Maybe
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: the Ops is not a heel faction considered a heal
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: faction anymore. I don't know, but it's something for him
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: to do where maybe he can finally have the chance
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: to true breakout as a single on his own. I'm
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: not saying it's going to happen, but at least for him,
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: it's an opportunity. But Darby, he's defending his title again
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: on Dynamite this week against Brody King, who came out
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: after his win on Wednesday congratulated him but said I
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: told you I like you or whatever it was he said,
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: but I'm I'm coming after that world championship. So already
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: he's got another title match lined up. So I am
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: willing to bet dollars to donuts this guy's going to
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: be defending that belt every single week until he drops
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: it to MJF at double or nothing. But whenever he
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: drops that title, Darby Allen was never meant to be
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: a long term AW world champion. Darby Allen is going
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: to go out there and he is going to do
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: exactly what he did in my opinion when he was
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: the TNT champion, he had two runs his TNT champion
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: I think it was the second time he didn't have
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: the belt for very long, but he was defending it
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: every single week on TV and ultimately that's what cost that.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: That's why he didn't have it for very long. And
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to follow the same story here
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: with the world title. But Darby told MJF there's not
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: going to be a rematch with you and me until
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: you put something on the line, And it just so
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: happens that MJF is challenging Kevin Knight for the TNT
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: title this Wednesday, and I really hope that the idea
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: is not to have MJF win the TNT title just
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: to make it title for title at the pay per view.
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: I really hope that's not the plan because to me,
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: that does nothing for Kevin Knight. It's unfortunate what happened
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: to Kyle Fletcher, but with injury comes opportunity. You put
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: the championship on Kevin Knight, you obviously think the world
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: of this guy. Let him have a proper run with it.
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: We already had Tamaso Champa debut. He held the title
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: for like eleven days and then they took it away
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: from him. You can do the same thing with Kevin Knight.
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: How does that help Kevin Knight, and what does the
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: TNT title need to be involved in the world time
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: main event at Double or Nothing? So hopefully that's not
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: what Darby is referring to. And I don't know what
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: else MJF could put on the line. I'll bring back Hangman,
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, what else could he put on
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: the line the Diamond Ring. Darby doesn't give a shit
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: about the ring, but he just so happens to have
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: a TNT title match this week. I mean, you start
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: putting two and two together and you can kind of
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: see where this is headed. Double or Nothing is going
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: to be taking place May twenty fourth, Louis Armstrong Stadium
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: in Queens. Darby and MJF very likely going to be
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: the main event. So we know that Okata and Takeshta
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: for the international title, which I'm very much looking forward to,
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: and FTR we now know we'll be defending the aw
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: Tag team titles against Adam Copeland and Christian Cage in
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: what was a New York City street fight and now
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: it will be an I quit New York City street
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: fight where if Copeland and Christian don't win the titles,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: they will retire as a team. No, I don't know
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: if this match has enough stipulations. Guys, it's a street fight,
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: it's an I quit match, and if Cope and Christian
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: don't win, they're no longer a tag team. Maybe we
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: can come up with a couple of more steps to
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: throw in here. But that's what we know so far.
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: As far as the Double or Nothing card, which is
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: still a month away, apparently tickets are selling well. I think,
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: I want to say maybe I don't know. Twelve thirteen
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: thousand is the capacity that they're probably going to have there,
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: and I think the last number I saw was like eleven,
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: so they should be able to pack that place in
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: pretty well if they would have run it in the
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: other stadium where they usually do Grand Slam Arthur Ash.
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: I don't think they can because I think it's actually
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: under construction. But had they run Arthur Ash, I don't
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: see any way that they packed that place. And this
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: one's a little bit smaller. But those are the matches
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: we know of so far. That's your aw update. That's
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: what I got for you. I hope you guys were
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: sports entertained. Let me get to some of your questions though.
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: In the mailbag, you could always email me the Solemn
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your name and
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: where you are from when you write in. Molly Molly
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: Molly Moly from Toronto. I agree that these roster cuts
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: make no sense when they were in the middle of
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: a story. But my question is, why don't you ever
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: hear about a member of the Bloodline family losing their job.
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: There were plenty of reasons of one of them losing
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: There were plenty of reasons for one of them to
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: lose their job, like Jimmy and Jay's DUI, Well you're
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: going back aways now, but they all get to stay.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: Why is there a double standard for these people. People
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: can screw up and get to stay, while people do
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: nothing and they get released. Yeah, I mean, look, I
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: don't know what to tell you other than you are
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: always going to have more chances to fuck up when
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: you are someone that has a certain perceived value or
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: name in the company. A Kyrie Saying, for example, or
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: a Santos Ascobar or a Zoe Stark is not going
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: to be as protected or valued by management as the
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: ussos or as I mean, take take your pick of
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: whatever main event, top talent you want to think of.
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: CM Punk Drew McIntyre, Jacob fat too, Like these are
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: these are names that they clearly either see big things
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: four or they're already on top. And so if they
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: fuck up, they're going to get a chance to, you know,
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: kind of make up for it, or get a chance
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: to redeem themselves or get a slap on the rist.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: Don't do that again, that's not going to happen if
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: you're somebody lower on the totem pole there. And I'm
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: not saying that's fair, It's not fair, but that's just
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: the way it is. That's the reality of it. It's funny,
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: you know, you mentioned the bloodline and I was thinking, like,
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: have there been any members in recent years anyway that
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: were that were released? Now? I know Lands on Hawaii,
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: he was in developmental, he had a bad injury. I
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: think came back. They did let him go, but like,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: have they let any of them go? And I the
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: name Tamina popped in my head because I know she
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: is or partsimoent and I thought for sure that Temina
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: was no longer in WWE. Evidently she is still under
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: contract to WWE as far as anybody knows, and she
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: has not worked a match for them in three years.
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: I know as of last summer she was still under contract,
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: so I assume she still is. I can't explain that one,
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: but again, it all comes down to perceive value. And
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: also there are times where it helps to have a
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: friend or a family member that may be on the
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: board or maybe you know, in a place high up
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: on the food chain that I'm sure doesn't hurt. Jerry
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: from San Antonio, Texas. I'm not saying anything about Vince
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: mcmahonon the whole situation he's in right now, but Triple
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: H did just admit after Vince's quote retirement in twenty
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: twenty two, he was still involved with Creative. Do you
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: think Vince being involved as a filter for Triple H
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: helped Triple H ground his creative more and that's why
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: we got good storytelling from twenty twenty two to twenty
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: twenty four. I'm not saying one way or the other
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: that Vince is good or bad for the business, but
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: do you think it was best for Triple H to
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: filter his ideas through Vince? First of all, there's no
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: evidence that that's what was happening. The extent to which
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: he was involved in Creative, it seems was very limited.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: So I don't want to say that all of Triple
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: H's ideas were being filtered by Vince or run by Vince.
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: Some of them may have been. And look, I'm sure
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: there were times where Vince could probably be a good
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: filter as he was for the other Vince for Vince
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: Russo when they worked together. Imagine some of the kooky
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: ideas that we didn't get we might have gotten during
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: the Attitude era if he was completely unfiltered. We kind
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: of saw some of that in WCW where he was
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: completely unfiltered. So do I think that it could have
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: been a good thing for him to kind of have
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: some of his ideas filtered by I'm not. I can't
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: sit here and tell you no, but I can tell
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: you that WWE is better off for not having Vince
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: McMahon involved in the company right now, whatever you think
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: of Triple H and the current creative regime there, Vince
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: McMahon does not need to be involved. They do not
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: need to run ideas by him to be filtered, because
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: having him there at all is going to do more
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: harm than good. And that's my position on Vince McMahon.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: Davante from Mount Vernon, New York. With Oba Femi just
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: getting the biggest win of his career WrestleMania, there's a
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: lot of talk about what's next. Some fans are saying
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: he should win King of the Ring, Others he should
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: go all the way and win the Royal Rumble and
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: face Roman. It next year is WrestleMania. If you had
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: the pen, how would you book Oba Femi going into
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania next year? You know, I got a similar question
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: from Kevin who asked me, you know, do they run
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: Oba and Roman at SummerSlam or do they hold it
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: off for next year. I am a fan of giving
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: Oba the Brock push from two thousand and two. Rock
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: came in like just a bat out of hell right
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: after WrestleMania. I think it literally was the raw after WrestleMania,
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: and that was in April of two thousand and two.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: By August, he beat the Rock and he was the
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: undisputed champion. And I think you could definitely follow that
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: same blueprint with Oba. But I also think that if
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: you wanted to hold off on Oba winning, let's say
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: at WrestleMania next year, that's okay too. I'm actually okay
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: with either one. But if we wait that long. I worry, like,
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: what does he do in the meantime, Like a year
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: is a long time. All Oba did on the raw
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: after Mania this year was come out and just say
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: a few words. He said, the ruler, you know, the
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: ruler is here. Whatever it is that he said, and
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: that was it. There was no hint of what he
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: was going to be doing. There was no hint of
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: who he was going to be working with. I look
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: at the raw roster and I kind of struggle to
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: find that many people I think that he could be
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: working with, and you keep it interesting long enough before
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: you even get to a point where he's challenging for
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: the world Todd. I do worry about that. If it
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: were up to me, I would probably belt him up
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: at Summer Slim, Big two night Summer Slam Show, Big
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: Stadium showed this year Roman Oba. That's a huge match.
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: I think they're probably gonna want to do Roman and Gunther.
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I see them blowing that match
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: off before Summer Slim. That's probably going to be the
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: Summer Slam match right now as I sit here, if
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: I had a venture, I guess so. I don't know
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: what they plan on doing with Oba. But if it
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: were me, I go with the Brock push. He's the
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: guy right now. He's the guy right now, and I
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: just don't think that they have enough for him on
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: that roster to delay this another year without potentially cooling
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: him down. That's my concern there. Who does he work
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: with Jason from Queens Now? Is I in Shanghai, China?
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: Despite seeing Rhea and Live potentially tease another clash and
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: made me realize that we actually have Roman and Cody
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: as champions at the same time. Assuming Roman does indeed
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: drop the title by the summer, and with Crown Jewel
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: potentially being set for the fall, Cody might avoid having
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: to see Roman again. But for the first time ever,
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: we are getting Cody versus Roman week to week as
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: their respective champions on weekly TV. By the summertime, who
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: do you see coming out with their better or with
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: better rivalries and matches. I mean, we were coming out
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: of a WrestleMania main event where Roman Rangers had one
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: of the best matches of his career. So as long
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: as he's in there with the right person, Roman has
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: shown he can go out there and have excellent matches,
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: and Cody has also shown that he can go in
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: there and have excellent matches, even if this year wasn't
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: one of those years. The prospect of Cody and Punk
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: is more appealing to me than basically anything you could
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: do with Roman outside of Roman and Oba, Roman and
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: Gunther would be very good, but I don't get as
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: excited for that as I do the idea of Cody
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: and Punk. So if they go in that direction and
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: we get Cody and Punk going into Summer Slam and
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: not WrestleMania next year, I gotta go with Cody. I mean,
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: to me, that's just more interesting to me than you know,
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: more bloodline drama and whatever they could be doing. I
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: feel like right now with Roman, but I think both
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: of them are going to go out there, and I
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: think they're both gonna have great matches. They have great
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: matches with each other. You know, these two guys can
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: go as long as they're going to be there week
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: to week, right, and they come up with good opponents
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: for them. I think that we're going to be getting
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of good stuff from both of them. It
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: just comes down to creative as it always does. I'm
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: not worried about their in ring. Javari from Ohio been
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: listening to you since twenty fifteen. There's no doubt that
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: the Undertaker WrestleMania win streak is one of the greatest
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: ideas in wrestling history, and I feel like since historak ended,
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania has been missing an attraction like that. Do you
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: think ww WE could revive the WrestleMania win streak gimmick
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: when they knew her talent? And if so, do you
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: believe Oba Femi would be a great choice for that
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: or should WWE let the idea of a WrestleMania streak
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: rest in peace? Yeah? I think they should just leave
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: it alone. You're never going to be able to replicate
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: what the Undertaker did, like it will never happen, So
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: to me, there's no point in running it back. If
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: it can't be as good as the original, then what
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: the hell is the point of doing another one. I
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: also feel like it would just restrict the creative if
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: they have to book Let's say Oba, oh well, we
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: can't beat him this year. Yeah, we got a streak
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: that we're starting, so every year now you go into
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: it where Oba can't lose. Oba can't lose, right or
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: whoever it could be, anybody I don't like that the
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: streak was never an idea. It was never a thought
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: in their head when the Undertaker first started wrestling a
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: wrestle media. It was something that they lucked into. It
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: really was if Undertaker wasn't hurt and had wrestled a
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania ten, he wasn't hurt then, but he had time off.
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: Had he wrestled at WrestleMania ten, the streak might have been.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: The streak might never have been a thing. If he
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: wasn't hurt and he had a match at WrestleMania two thousand,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: the streak may never have been a thing. They lucked
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: into it. After a while, they're like, hey, we got
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: this going on here, maybe we should run with it.
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: It was like a happy accident. Just leave it alone.
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: We don't need another streak at WrestleMania. Brett from Buffalo
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: do you think a Japanese style pro wrestling company that
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: is more focused on tournaments and in ring storytelling could
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: ever work in the United States. I'm a huge fan
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: of New Japan and would love to see that style
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: adapted for an American audience. So you're saying a Japanese style,
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: You're not saying a Japanese company working in this country
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: because that it's never going to blow up in any
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: kind of major way. But if you're saying like a
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: new japan style company but here in the States, I mean,
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: do I think it could work. Yeah, it could work.
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: I mean there'd be an audience for it. I think
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: it would be a very niche audience. I don't think
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: it would ever grow into anything big enough to have
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: like a TV deal or anything like that necessarily. I
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: mean I look at something like Josh Barnett and the
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: Blood Sports stuff which he just ended, and I think
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: he was trying to blow it up bigger and maybe
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: trying to get you know, TV or sponsors or whatever,
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: and it didn't work out. But he had a good
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: thing going there. People seem to genuinely enjoy those shows,
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: and I think they would sell well. But it was
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: a very niche thing, and I feel like something like
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: that would be as well. So you know, when you
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: say could it work with an American audience, Sure, but
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: like how big of an audience are you are you
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: looking at? I don't think the audience would be that
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: big for it because I just feel like in this
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: country they have a certain expectation or a certain vision
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: of what pro wrestling is supposed to look like, and
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: I just I don't see it blowing up into anything big.
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: I think a they already do stuff like that. I mean,
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: they have like the Continental Classic, which is kind of
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: like their version of the g One, and you kind
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: of already have it there and there's an audience for it.
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: So is there really this thirst for another company to
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: come along and basically do the same thing. Maybe on
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: the independen scene, but that's probably it. William from Calgary
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: Dave Meltzer gave the CM Punk and Roman Reigns WrestleMania
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: main event a five star rating. Where would you rank
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: that match for your greatest WrestleMania main events of all time?
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. I was thinking about this. Most
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history, like my favorite matches,
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: they weren't even the main event. So I don't think
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: it's crazy to say that Roman and Punk could be
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: a top ten main event in WrestleMania history. It's not
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: top five for me, you know. Top five. I'm thinking
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: Roman Cody at forty. I'm thinking Shawn's last match with
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: Undertaker at twenty six, even though twenty five was better.
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: The Triple Threat with Daniel Bryan winning at WrestleMania at thirty,
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: Austin Rock at X seven, Hogan Warrior at the sky Dome.
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry that will forever be a favorite of mine.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: The work rate may not have been as well, or
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: it may not have been as good as some of
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: these other matches, but Hogan Warrior, as far as a spectacle,
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, what we saw last weekend was not. It
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: was not the same kind of spectacle. Is it a
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: top ten main event? Though? Yeah? I think it would
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: probably land in there somewhere, not top five for me,
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: but top ten. Yes, I think it would land in
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: the top ten. But again, most of my favorite WrestleMania matches,
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: they weren't even the main event. You know, the Brett
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: Owen Match, the Ladder Match, Brett Hart and Steve Austin,
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle, Shawn Michael's Undertaker Part One,
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of others too, me Savage, Themeboat. These were
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: not main events. They probably should have been. In some
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: cases where they were not main events, Rock Hogan, right,
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: WrestleMania eighteen would be another one. Feisal from Kuwait says
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: we're all safe and sound and praying that this meaningless
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: regional war ends soon. I hope so, dude, it's all
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: just so ridiculous. I wanted to ask, can you recall
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: in your lifetime a top baby face that remained over
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: throughout their career without the crowds ever turning on them?
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: I thought of Stone Cold, but to be fair, his
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: run might not have been long enough for crowds to
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: tire from him. Is it really possible for a top
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: baby face to remain over no matter what in this
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: day and age? Given how over talents like trick Oba
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: and Javan are right now, I truly hope they can
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: sustain that popularity without the fans turning on them. If
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: Sammy and even Danielson in early twenty twenty one couldn't
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: maintain their popularity, nobody is safe. I mean, have there
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: been people, Yes, I mean there's been a lot of them, actually,
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: Dusty Roads, Ricky Steamboat, Junkyard Dog, the Warrior, staying RVD.
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: I mean there have been plenty of them. But today
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: it's a lot harder. Today, it's a lot harder today.
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: I think you need to be able to read the
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: room and feel like, Okay, the tide may be turning.
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe I step away for a little bit. Like there
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: are certain guys like even Hogan at times during his
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: career who was good at that, and he would duck out.
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: He would step away and then come back right because
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: he knew, like, I don't want people to get sick
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: of me, and then I can make this big, spectacular comeback.
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: I think you need to read the room. I think
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: you need to avoid over exposure and not get burned
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: out where people just don't want to see you anymore.
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: There are ways to prevent the fans from getting burned out,
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: but it's a lot harder now than it was back then.
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you it's impossible, but it's a lot harder.
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: Fans are very fickle, and the minute they tire of you,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: they will turn against you. It may not even be
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: your fault, right, It may just be the creative and
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: how you're being used, but they will turn on you
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: at the drop of a hat. And Chris from Bethlehem.
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: Do wrestlers get to carry around their championship belt outside
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: of TV and live events and bring the belt home
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: and not hand them back to the company until they
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: get to TV and has there been a situation when
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: the champion misplaced their belt and never found it. I
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: don't know how it is now. I'm pretty sure it
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: works the same way. The answer is yes, I think
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: they do, or they can if they want to take
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: the belts home with them, because they travel with them,
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: they make personal appearances, they do media shots. They got
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: to have the belt with them. But I believe they
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: have replica belts on hand at TV if they need
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: to use them. There are times even now where I
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: can tell just watching the show, like that's a replica belt.
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: Like you're on television and you're using a replica belt,
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: Like sometimes the straps are so stiff, Like that's one
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: of the d giveaways to me. It's not like you know,
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: TV ready leather. It's like that faux leather. And yes,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: there have been lots of examples of wrestlers losing their belts.
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: The most famous is probably Bruno San Martino. Back in
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: the sixties, he was the world champion and he left
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: the belt in the backseat of his car. He was
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: in New York. He went to go have a dinner somewhere,
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: probably an Italian restaurant somewhere and he left the belt
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: in the car and somebody broke into the car and
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: they stole the belt and it was never recovered. Chris Jericho,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: he famously lost his aw World title when he was
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: out eating at a long horned steakhouse, although he did
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: find the belt. Somebody found the belt on the side
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: of the road. I'm pretty sure what happened there is
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: the limo driver, I think left the belt on the
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: roof of the car without realizing it, and they drove off,
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: and I think the belt just went flying off the roof.
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: That's what I think happened. And this isn't exactly the
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: same thing, but I always loved the story of Stone
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: Cold tossing the Rocks Intercontinent title off the bridge on
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: an episode of Raw Into the River. I'm pretty sure
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: it was actually an old tag team title belt, not
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: the Intercontinental title. I think there might have been a
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: jump cut in the video where like he's holding the
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: IC title, but he didn't actually throw it. I think
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: they swapped out an old tag belt or something and
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: he threw it into the river. And allegedly the story
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: always was that there was a fan who found it,
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: or maybe it wasn't a fan. I know somebody found
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: it and offered to sell the belt back to WWE
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: for like five thousand dollars, and they just told him
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: just keep it because we can make a new one
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: for a lot cheaper. So someone still has an old
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: Tag Team belt sitting in their house somewhere, although I
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: don't know what condition it would be in if it
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: was sitting at the bottom of the river. It uh,
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know, may have gotten a little saggy. Anyway,
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys for the questions. Keep them coming. The
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: Solo Monster at gmail dot com. I did want to
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: mention this because there's a whole bunch of movies coming
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: out this year that I'm very excited to see. And
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: there were two trailers that dropped this week, both of
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: which I wasn't expecting. One was a teaser trailer for
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: the new Clayface movie, which DC is putting out. I
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: had no idea they were even making a Clayface movie.
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: And it's like a minute long, it's just a teaser trailer.
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: It is sick, it's disgusting, and I love it. It's
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: the first really like straight horror movie that I've seen
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: put out by one of these like either Marvel or DC.
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: This straight up horror, like it's body horror. It's coming
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: out a week before Halloween, which is the perfect time.
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: I love what I saw. I actually don't even want
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: to look at the full trailer when it gets released.
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: I'd rather just kind of go into it knowing just
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: the bare minimum. So I'm really excited for that. And
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: then they put the full trailer out for the Coyote
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: Versus ACME movie. This is the movie that I covered this.
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: I talked about this on the sound off at the
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: time because John Cena has a pretty important role in
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: that movie. I think he's the villain, a villain's CEO.
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: He might be the ACME CEO in the movie. And
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: it was a Warner Brothers Discovery project, and the movie
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: was never going to get released. They decided that they
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: were going to get some sort of tax break by
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: not releasing it and either just put it in a
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: vault and lock it away forever or have it destroyed.
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: And there was a lot of pushback on this, a
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: lot of people very upset, And I said, like, imagine
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: being someone who you know, you worked on the movie,
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: either you acted in it or you were just someone
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes. And spent hours and hours and hours
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: editing and producing it, and now it's never going to
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: see the light of day. Like how infuriating that would be.
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: And so anyway, one thing led to another, and they
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: did end up I think, selling it to someone else.
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: They bought the movie, and now it's being released. It's
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: actually getting a theatrical release at the end of August.
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: So we saw the trailer and it's very like who
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: Frame Roger Rabbit esque. It's this mix of live action
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: and cartoon, so it kind of reminds me of that,
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: and it looks fun. It looks fun. I'm probably gonna
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: go see it when it comes out. I hope people do,
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: because I feel like this is a movie that needs
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: to be supported, just to show them, hey, you fucked up,
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: you know, by by not releasing it when it should
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: have been released. So that's coming out of the end
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: of August, and a lot of other good shit man
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: coming out soon. I'm looking for Mortal Kombat in a
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: few weeks. So we're eating good as far as these
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: movies go. I am going to go get a bite
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: to eat myself right now, and I'm going to be
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: back with you next Sunday. When I get back from
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: LA that's going to be episode nine sixty one of
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: the sound Off. I'll probably do Backlash predictions on that
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: show because Backlash is the following weekend. And then this
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: week I will be live on Monday night for the
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: Raw post show, brand new episode of The Uncrowned Wrestling
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: Show going to be dropping on Tuesday, and then Tuesday
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: night I'll be live on YouTube with JD for Tuesday
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: Night Titans Wednesday the Dynamite post show. I will not
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: be doing a SmackDown review this week. Sadly, I will
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: not see Ricky Saints' debut live. I'll have to watch
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: it later on because I will be literally in Los
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: Angeles doing commentary for House of Glory Glory at the Globe,
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: which will be streaming on Triller TV Plus. And you
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: can still pick up some very limited tickets I believe
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: that are available hog Wrestling dot Net. I hope I
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: get to see some of you there, and like I said,
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: back here next Sunday for episode nine to sixty one.
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: So until then, be well, stay safe. Thank you again
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: for ninety two thousand subscribers on YouTube, and I'll see
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: you back here next week for more SoundOff and all
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: this week because the work never ends until then. Take care, guys.
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: The Solemn Monster Sounds Off. Dog shit. That is what
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: SmackDown has become. This is a horrendous television show. I
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: know they have the Real Housewives of Orange County and
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: the Real Housewives of Brenton, New Jersey, Real Housewives of Bigosh, Wisconsin,
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: or whatever the fuck. I'm sure every single one of
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: those shows are light years ahead of Friday Night SmackDown.
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: This is the worst show on television. You've got to
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: stick dynamite in this show, and I don't mean aw dynamite,
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: actual dynamites, and blow the whole fucking thing up and
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: start all over again. This show sucks.
• 2:11:20
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• 2:11:25
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• 2:11:28
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• 2:11:33
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