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Sound Off 956 - Ricochet's Not The ONLY SAD TWEET, Tony Khan BIDS FOR WWE 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 soulier woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in
0:15
Speaker 1: the back going on Twitter, come over here. Part is
0:18
Speaker 1: that Pet Patterson you have legs? The week I was
0:23
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent positive it was just chessed up. Now
0:26
Speaker 1: I have been begging him for a job on every
0:29
Speaker 1: every platform I can, and I would another reason why
0:31
Speaker 1: you won't part me. Welcome to episode nine to fifty
0:35
Speaker 1: six of The Solemn Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, March
0:39
Speaker 1: twenty second, twenty twenty six. I am the Solemn Monster.
0:43
Speaker 1: You know. Sometimes when I do sad tweet, and I
0:46
Speaker 1: don't do it all the time, but when I do it,
0:48
Speaker 1: I end up with a whopper that could be in
0:50
Speaker 1: the running for sad Tweet of the Year. So it's
0:52
Speaker 1: very rare that I get two of them in one week,
0:56
Speaker 1: not one, but two tweet and deletes. I mentioned it
1:00
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago that former WWE executive vice president
1:04
Speaker 1: of Talent Relations, Zugative vice president of telet Relations, John Laurnidis. Yeah,
1:09
Speaker 1: that guy who was named as a defendant in the
1:12
Speaker 1: Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit and later on was dropped
1:15
Speaker 1: as a defendant when he agreed to provide evidence for
1:18
Speaker 1: her for her defense against Vince McMahon. The same John
1:22
Speaker 1: Laurnidis who claimed, or his lawyer did, that he too
1:25
Speaker 1: was a victim of Vince McMahon. I guess so we
1:28
Speaker 1: should all have sympathy for him. The same John Laurnidis
1:31
Speaker 1: who was married to the Bella Twins mother at the
1:33
Speaker 1: same time that he is said to have been having
1:35
Speaker 1: sex with Janelle Grant, and during which time their mother
1:39
Speaker 1: had surgery to remove a brain tumor. That John Laurinidis.
1:44
Speaker 1: He poked his head back up out of the hole
1:46
Speaker 1: that he's been living in to do a signing for
1:48
Speaker 1: Big Time Wrestling at their March Mayhem event last weekend.
1:52
Speaker 1: He also recently talked about how much he loves grooming
1:55
Speaker 1: young talent. I'll bet he does. He posted a photo
2:00
Speaker 1: on Tuesday from the signing on his x account with
2:03
Speaker 1: the caption amazing signing in matches at Big Time Wrestling
2:07
Speaker 1: this past Saturday. It was great to meet so many people. Now,
2:12
Speaker 1: upon a closer look a closer inspection of this photograph,
2:16
Speaker 1: it was very clear that the photo had been altered
2:20
Speaker 1: and it looked AI generated because there was someone or
2:23
Speaker 1: something in the background that looked like some deformed creature
2:27
Speaker 1: from another planet. People's fingers were all distorted. AI doesn't
2:32
Speaker 1: do fingers very well. It's not good with the fingering.
2:36
Speaker 1: I'll bet Johnny Boy thinks he is the sick fuck.
2:39
Speaker 1: And there were other things too, including one fan who
2:41
Speaker 1: was wearing a Hulkamania shirt that no one had ever
2:43
Speaker 1: seen before in their life. The real giveaway was just
2:47
Speaker 1: how many fans were all clustered up in the photo
2:50
Speaker 1: just to get an autograph from the former Dynamic dude.
2:53
Speaker 1: Ain't no way that many people were standing around waiting
2:55
Speaker 1: to get an autograph from John Loreneitis. I'm not buying it.
2:59
Speaker 1: They were already even standing in line. They were just
3:01
Speaker 1: kind of huddled around him like he was like wrestling
3:03
Speaker 1: Jesus or something. It was just so obviously fake that
3:07
Speaker 1: I can't believe he thought posting that was a good idea.
3:09
Speaker 1: But he was rightfully roasted and ultimately he deleted it.
3:12
Speaker 1: They shamed him into taking it down. It may be
3:16
Speaker 1: truly the saddest tweet that I have ever chosen. For
3:19
Speaker 1: this award. Like, there are bad tweets. There are offensive tweets.
3:24
Speaker 1: I'll get to that in a minute. There's just other
3:27
Speaker 1: horrible tweets. I don't know that I have ever featured
3:31
Speaker 1: one here, I've ever talked about one that was quite
3:34
Speaker 1: as sad as that one. That this man felt the
3:37
Speaker 1: need to insert people that don't exist into the photo
3:41
Speaker 1: just to make himself feel more popular than he really iss.
3:45
Speaker 1: Too bad he couldn't ai a brain into his head,
3:48
Speaker 1: or maybe he would have thought twice before posting that.
3:51
Speaker 1: But Laurenidis was not the only one who had a
3:53
Speaker 1: bad week on Twitter. Ricochet, after losing his aw national
3:59
Speaker 1: title lesson Revolution, he did more in one tweet to
4:03
Speaker 1: tarnish his legacy than Wwe ever did in the five
4:08
Speaker 1: years that he spent working there. Now I'm sure that
4:11
Speaker 1: many of you know by now Ricochet is chronically on
4:14
Speaker 1: social media. He spends a lot of his time replying
4:16
Speaker 1: to people's messages and throwing insults and jabs at a
4:19
Speaker 1: lot of them, who, to be fair, throw a lot
4:22
Speaker 1: of insults and hate at him, and whether you think
4:25
Speaker 1: he's deserving of it, I mean, there's a lot of
4:27
Speaker 1: hate that goes way overboard you know, there's one thing
4:30
Speaker 1: to criticize someone, and then you just get pure hatred
4:34
Speaker 1: and death threats and all kinds of horrible shit. He
4:36
Speaker 1: takes a lot of abuse, but that does not mean
4:39
Speaker 1: that you need to respond to all of it, because
4:41
Speaker 1: when you start responding to all of it, all you're
4:43
Speaker 1: doing is encouraging more of it. Now, some people defend
4:47
Speaker 1: it by saying, well, he's a heel, he's doing heel things,
4:51
Speaker 1: which is a very convenient excuse to use when he
4:54
Speaker 1: says something very very stupid. Oh, well, he's a heel,
4:59
Speaker 1: he's in character. It doesn't work, not in this case.
5:03
Speaker 1: It doesn't. And the fact that he takes a lot
5:06
Speaker 1: of abuse himself is no excuse for him to make
5:08
Speaker 1: an ass out of himself and act like a twelve
5:10
Speaker 1: year old. There are twelve year olds who have better
5:13
Speaker 1: self control than Ricochet does. After aw posted video of
5:20
Speaker 1: Ricochet having a meltdown backstage and throwing furniture around after
5:23
Speaker 1: he lost his national title, which I'm sure they would
5:27
Speaker 1: have aired on TV on Wednesday night had all of
5:29
Speaker 1: this not happened, a Twitter user named Sandy posted a
5:33
Speaker 1: comment underneath the video saying his acting hasn't improved with
5:39
Speaker 1: a bunch of laughing emojis, which is actually pretty tame
5:43
Speaker 1: compared to a lot of the shit that people post
5:45
Speaker 1: on there. She was making fun of his acting ability.
5:48
Speaker 1: She didn't call him a name, she didn't hurl any
5:51
Speaker 1: personal insults at him or his wife, she didn't call
5:54
Speaker 1: him bald, she didn't do any of that. And checking
5:57
Speaker 1: Sandy's profile, she's an older lady who happens to be
6:02
Speaker 1: a wrestling fan. She's a grandmother who happens to be
6:04
Speaker 1: a wrestling fan, and happens to suffer from multiple sclerosis,
6:08
Speaker 1: which is an insidious disease. And in response to this
6:12
Speaker 1: comment about his acting ability, Ricochet, who had to go
6:16
Speaker 1: to her profile to see in her bio that she
6:18
Speaker 1: suffers from MS, responded by saying, I'm glad you got MS.
6:25
Speaker 1: Sandy responded, well, if that makes you happy, have a
6:28
Speaker 1: great life. And with that, she was forced to lock
6:31
Speaker 1: down her profile and protect it, put it on private
6:36
Speaker 1: after what I'm sure was a deluge replies that she received,
6:40
Speaker 1: some of them probably even more vile than what Ricochet wrote.
6:44
Speaker 1: And the blowback was swift, and you would think that
6:47
Speaker 1: he would have realized to take it down because he
6:50
Speaker 1: had clearly crossed the line here. Not only did he
6:53
Speaker 1: not take it down, he doubled down on his stupidity,
6:56
Speaker 1: and he justified it by saying, it's so hilariou that
7:00
Speaker 1: the amount of little bitches who have tweeted and wished
7:04
Speaker 1: harm on me, who has wished even death said some
7:07
Speaker 1: of the most vile things to me and my wife,
7:10
Speaker 1: people who try and make fun of me every day.
7:13
Speaker 1: But those same little bitches can't take it when I
7:15
Speaker 1: do it back to people, fucking pussies everywhere. We all
7:22
Speaker 1: say things that we regret at one time or another,
7:25
Speaker 1: especially on social media. I respond to the occasional troll also,
7:29
Speaker 1: although not as much as I used to, because I
7:32
Speaker 1: learned it's a lot easier to just block and move
7:34
Speaker 1: on with my life or mute them. You can keep
7:37
Speaker 1: the follow and just mute them, because they almost always
7:39
Speaker 1: follow you. They don't like what you have to say,
7:42
Speaker 1: but they'll follow you. That's always very funny to me.
7:45
Speaker 1: But you can keep the follow and mute them, so
7:47
Speaker 1: they talk into the void and they have no idea.
7:49
Speaker 1: Every now and then, if I'm in a mood, I'll
7:51
Speaker 1: sing them back. But I've never told Grandma in my
7:54
Speaker 1: mentions that I'm glad she got a debilitating disease because
7:57
Speaker 1: she said my acting hasn't improved. Yeah, the thing of
8:01
Speaker 1: it is like Ricochet talks about all of the death
8:03
Speaker 1: threats that he's gotten in terrible things that people say
8:05
Speaker 1: about him. Had he said this about one of those people,
8:10
Speaker 1: I mean, it still would have been a stupid thing
8:12
Speaker 1: to say, but I actually don't think he would have
8:13
Speaker 1: gotten as much hate as he did for this. He
8:15
Speaker 1: directed his anger at the wrong person. So the tweet
8:19
Speaker 1: stayed up until Tuesday, when, after doubling down on the
8:22
Speaker 1: initial tweet, he posted an apology saying I took out
8:27
Speaker 1: my hatred for the IWC on Sandy and inadvertently others
8:31
Speaker 1: who were affected by MS. She didn't deserve it, and
8:34
Speaker 1: for that, I sincerely apologize. Moving forward, I'll do better,
8:39
Speaker 1: which is what he should have posted within fifteen minutes
8:41
Speaker 1: of the initial tweet going up. You know, the fact
8:44
Speaker 1: that he waited so long and even doubled down on
8:46
Speaker 1: it makes it seem like he only apologized because he
8:49
Speaker 1: was pressured into doing so, and I don't doubt that
8:52
Speaker 1: he was would be it by somebody in aw or
8:55
Speaker 1: someone else. You know. Dave Meltzer insists that AW had
8:59
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, and that it was a
9:01
Speaker 1: longtime friend who advised him to delete the tweet. A
9:05
Speaker 1: former wrestler that he has great respect for who worked
9:08
Speaker 1: with him on the independent scene, Sean ross Sapp, said
9:11
Speaker 1: that he was told neither AW nor Warner Brothers Discovery
9:15
Speaker 1: made Ricochet apologize. AW officials told him after that it
9:19
Speaker 1: was the right thing to do. Maybe they should have
9:21
Speaker 1: done that a little bit sooner, you know, someone with
9:24
Speaker 1: common sense should have picked up the phone or texted
9:27
Speaker 1: him and said, you've embarrassed yourself and us with what
9:30
Speaker 1: you wrote, and you should take it down. He put
9:33
Speaker 1: his own ass in the jackpot with that tweet, and
9:35
Speaker 1: he's lucky that he didn't lose his job over it,
9:38
Speaker 1: because if he did, he would have had no one
9:40
Speaker 1: to blame but himself, not the IWC, not anybody else.
9:45
Speaker 1: And that's not to excuse again, the horrendous shit that
9:48
Speaker 1: people have lobbed at him. And Samantha Irvin, who deactivated
9:51
Speaker 1: her own Twitter account because of death threats and other
9:54
Speaker 1: verbal abuse that you know, people were sending her. She's
9:57
Speaker 1: posted some screenshots on her Instagram and it's disgusting. You know,
10:01
Speaker 1: there's no excuse for that, even for Ricochet, who actually
10:04
Speaker 1: said it. There's no excuse for sending them stuff like that.
10:07
Speaker 1: But him talking about all of the abuse that he
10:09
Speaker 1: gets does not make it all right for him to
10:12
Speaker 1: go online and act like a grouchy teenager who doesn't
10:14
Speaker 1: know any better. You know, TMZ had a whole story
10:17
Speaker 1: about it, as did The Sun in the UK, which
10:20
Speaker 1: I know is worth about as much as a fucking
10:23
Speaker 1: best of DVD for Johnny Ace. But still, this is
10:27
Speaker 1: not the type of publicity that AW was looking for.
10:30
Speaker 1: You know, they got some attention last weekend for the
10:32
Speaker 1: Ronda Rousy thing, only for it to be drowned out
10:35
Speaker 1: by the Ricochet stuff. I'm sure they were thrilled. And
10:40
Speaker 1: this gets into the hypocrisy of other wrestlers like Jay
10:43
Speaker 1: Briscoe and Trey Miguel being banned from appearing on television
10:46
Speaker 1: supposedly due to you know, intervention by wb D. You
10:51
Speaker 1: remember it came from above. Absolutely, there's hypocrisy there. No
10:57
Speaker 1: one is squeaky clean. But where is the line that
11:00
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to step over? I don't know, I
11:03
Speaker 1: don't know where this imaginary line starts and stops when
11:06
Speaker 1: you get into insulting large groups of people or people
11:09
Speaker 1: with certain illnesses. All I can say is, you can't
11:11
Speaker 1: say something like that in one breath and then in
11:14
Speaker 1: another one. Try to get sympathy from people for all
11:17
Speaker 1: the terrible things that are being said about you, as
11:19
Speaker 1: if one excuses the other, because then it's just an
11:22
Speaker 1: endless cycle. And I'm also reminded through this entire thing
11:26
Speaker 1: of the timeless tweet from Big Damo Killian Dane. It'll
11:30
Speaker 1: always be relevant forever and ever. Some wrestlers are just
11:34
Speaker 1: fucking stupid. I don't know what to tell you. If
11:38
Speaker 1: you want to support the sound off, you may do
11:40
Speaker 1: so on thesolomonster dot com ten dollars or more. We'll
11:43
Speaker 1: get your nickname. It a shout out. I want to
11:44
Speaker 1: say thank you to our PayPal producers for this week,
11:47
Speaker 1: who would never tweet something so horrendous. The Portland pop
11:52
Speaker 1: star Paul Hamilton. You want to find a good human being,
11:55
Speaker 1: that's Paul Hamilton, Big B Brian Bessera, The Diamond, Dallas
11:59
Speaker 1: Dance Machine, Harrison so At, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, Badass,
12:04
Speaker 1: Bernard Frederick Iowan Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfear, the Chicago Slayer,
12:09
Speaker 1: Willie Aichord, night Stalker, and if Alsafar and Killshot Keith Hart.
12:14
Speaker 1: Thank you guys very very much. It was also good
12:17
Speaker 1: seeing some of you on Long Island last night for
12:21
Speaker 1: Super Clash. I caught the tail end of the Big
12:24
Speaker 1: Event Expo beforehand Demolition was there, twenty twenty six Hall
12:28
Speaker 1: of famers, just doing their thing. Rick Martel had the
12:31
Speaker 1: longest line of anybody there. It stretched on far beyond
12:35
Speaker 1: the time that it was supposed to be over. Like
12:37
Speaker 1: the last time that we did the Superclass show, after
12:41
Speaker 1: the Big Event ended, I remember the person who had
12:44
Speaker 1: the longest line by far was aj Lee and it
12:48
Speaker 1: was supposed to end at four o'clock and everyone's packing
12:51
Speaker 1: up and all the vendors are leaving in AJ's line
12:53
Speaker 1: is just stretching way, way, way, you know, almost to
12:57
Speaker 1: the entrance. And she hung around and stuck around as
13:01
Speaker 1: long as it took to sign for everybody. And so
13:03
Speaker 1: this time it wasn't aj Lee, it was Rick Martel
13:06
Speaker 1: because he doesn't do very many of these. You know,
13:09
Speaker 1: when you don't do many events, it's a very rare
13:11
Speaker 1: thing that he does any signings these days, so people
13:13
Speaker 1: wanted to come out and they wanted to see him, right,
13:15
Speaker 1: They wanted to see the model, and he had the atomizer,
13:18
Speaker 1: the arrogance atomizer with him. I'll have some news on
13:22
Speaker 1: Rick Martel later, but Mina was in the house. Mina
13:25
Speaker 1: Shirakawa at the Hog Show against Shatzi, continuing to build
13:30
Speaker 1: on her momentum from Dynamite Wednesday night with another win,
13:34
Speaker 1: non title, but that puts Mina now you would think
13:36
Speaker 1: squarely in the mix for a future title opportunity. We
13:40
Speaker 1: had Indy Heartwell against Diana Parrazzo, the acclaimed We're back
13:44
Speaker 1: together one night only against main event and first time
13:49
Speaker 1: ever Sammy Guevara against the Amazing Red. That was a
13:51
Speaker 1: fun one to call. Now we gear up for at
13:54
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Thursday night, April sixteenth from the Pearl Theater
13:59
Speaker 1: at the Palms Cause Resort. We are loading that show up.
14:02
Speaker 1: Matt and Jeff Hardy are back the Hog Tag Team champions.
14:05
Speaker 1: They will be in action Zillafa two against Big Bad
14:10
Speaker 1: Brody King Amazing Red against Bandido for the first time ever.
14:14
Speaker 1: I can't fucking wait for that one. So you can
14:17
Speaker 1: get your tickets at hog Wrestling dot Net. Tickets start
14:21
Speaker 1: as low as forty six bucks, which I think by
14:24
Speaker 1: Vegas standards is actually not bad. I will be there.
14:28
Speaker 1: It's been seven years since I've been to Vegas, so
14:30
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it. And then back at the
14:32
Speaker 1: Globe Theater. From one iconic theater to another. Was that
14:36
Speaker 1: two weeks later in Los Angeles Friday night, May first.
14:39
Speaker 1: Those tickets are on sale right now as well. We
14:41
Speaker 1: got some big things coming up. Unfortunately, we got some
14:45
Speaker 1: sad news to get into here, because the sad news
14:49
Speaker 1: broke on Friday that lover Boy Dennis Condrey, one of
14:53
Speaker 1: the founding fathers of the Midnight Express, one of some
14:57
Speaker 1: might even say thee greatest tag team of all time,
15:00
Speaker 1: died on Friday at the age of seventy six. He
15:03
Speaker 1: co founded the Midnights in nineteen eighty as a team
15:07
Speaker 1: with Randy Rose, the idea being that they would be
15:09
Speaker 1: out past midnight, partying all night, every night, which would
15:14
Speaker 1: explain why Shawn Michaels and Marty Gannetti used to be
15:16
Speaker 1: called the Midnight Rockers when they first got paired up
15:20
Speaker 1: Condre and Rose. They later added a third member, Norvelle
15:23
Speaker 1: Austin to make it a trio, and they operated under
15:26
Speaker 1: the Freebird rule whenever they would defend their titles and
15:28
Speaker 1: just rotate as needed. That is not the version of
15:31
Speaker 1: the Midnights though that most people remember. That would be
15:34
Speaker 1: Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton, who were put together by
15:37
Speaker 1: Bill wattson Mid South and they were managed by Jim Cornette,
15:41
Speaker 1: where they feuded with the Rock and Roll Express, Ricky
15:43
Speaker 1: Morton and Robert Gibson, and the rest is history. The
15:46
Speaker 1: most legendary tag team rivalry of all time, and it
15:50
Speaker 1: extended far beyond Mid South into the NWA and beyond
15:54
Speaker 1: for many many years, and there have been multiple incarnations
15:58
Speaker 1: of the Midnight Express only one incarnation of the Rock
16:01
Speaker 1: and Roll Express, but they had hundreds of matches together
16:04
Speaker 1: just up and down the roads across multiple territories. They
16:08
Speaker 1: also had a memorable feud with the Road Warriors which
16:12
Speaker 1: led to that infamous scaffold match at Stark eighty six
16:15
Speaker 1: where Coronett dropped down from the scaffold. Big Bubba Rogers
16:21
Speaker 1: was supposed to catch him, and somehow he missed and
16:25
Speaker 1: Cornett came straight down and blew out both of his
16:27
Speaker 1: knees and road Warrior Animal told a great story about
16:31
Speaker 1: that many years ago. You know Big Bubba Big boss Man,
16:34
Speaker 1: as I grew up knowing him. This was right before
16:36
Speaker 1: he became the Big boss Man. But boss Man and
16:41
Speaker 1: Hawk they were tight and they rode together. They loved
16:44
Speaker 1: to get high, and boss Man apparently got high as
16:47
Speaker 1: a kite the night before that match, and nobody could
16:50
Speaker 1: tell because at the time he wore sunglasses to the
16:52
Speaker 1: ring and all he did was stand there. So he's
16:55
Speaker 1: standing there in sunglasses and you wouldn't know anything was wrong. Now,
16:59
Speaker 1: Cornett is a r of heights. He doesn't even like
17:01
Speaker 1: to fly. He drives everywhere. But he's gonna take this
17:05
Speaker 1: fucking bump from the scaffold where he's trying to get away.
17:09
Speaker 1: He's trying to scamper off and now he's hanging off
17:11
Speaker 1: the side of it. It wasn't like he was thrown
17:13
Speaker 1: off like fucking Nick Foley off the hell in a cell,
17:16
Speaker 1: but you know he's hanging there from the side of
17:18
Speaker 1: the scaffold. An Animal yells down to boss Man. He's like,
17:22
Speaker 1: are you ready, And he's looking down like there's no
17:26
Speaker 1: way this guy's gonna catch him. Like, Cornett's gonna kill him,
17:29
Speaker 1: He's gonna land on him, He's gonna kill him. How's
17:31
Speaker 1: this gonna work? But he's like, are you ready? And
17:34
Speaker 1: then he tells Cornett to drop and boss Man is
17:37
Speaker 1: like three feet off, completely misses him, and he could
17:43
Speaker 1: hear the popping sounds that Cornett's knees made on landing
17:47
Speaker 1: because he came straight down again. He just blew out
17:50
Speaker 1: both of his knees. I want to say he had
17:52
Speaker 1: actually hurt his knee earlier in the show, but he
17:56
Speaker 1: did the spot anyway, and at that point everything just
17:58
Speaker 1: went to hell, and his knees were all fucked up.
18:02
Speaker 1: But then like him and Hawk, Animal and Hawk, they're
18:04
Speaker 1: just up there on the scaffold looking down, laughing their
18:06
Speaker 1: asses off, and boss Man is just standing there like,
18:09
Speaker 1: oh shit, Yeah, scaffold matches are very dumb. That's why
18:13
Speaker 1: you don't see them anymore. So Condrey was a part
18:16
Speaker 1: of all that. And then when Coandri left the NWA
18:19
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven, he disappeared there for a few months.
18:22
Speaker 1: I think he had claimed many years later he had
18:24
Speaker 1: disappeared to address some personal issues, and he got replaced
18:29
Speaker 1: with sweet Stan Lane. And some people consider that to
18:33
Speaker 1: be the best version of the Midnight Express. Others think
18:36
Speaker 1: it's Condree and Eton. You know, it's a pretty rare
18:39
Speaker 1: thing to have a successful tag team like that and
18:41
Speaker 1: replace one member with another and they go on to
18:44
Speaker 1: be just as successful, if not more so. Like, that's
18:48
Speaker 1: not an easy thing to do. Tag team chemistry is
18:50
Speaker 1: a real thing. Some have it, some don't. But both
18:53
Speaker 1: versions also had Jim Cornett as their manager, which helped.
18:56
Speaker 1: You know, Cornett's one of the greatest of all time.
18:58
Speaker 1: It doesn't hurt having him in your corner and doing
19:01
Speaker 1: most of the talking for you. I mean, you talk
19:03
Speaker 1: about goat managers, you're looking to Bobby Heenan, Paul Hayman
19:07
Speaker 1: and Jim Cornett. That's your trio right there. Put them
19:10
Speaker 1: in whatever order you want to put them in. Those
19:11
Speaker 1: are the three greatest managers of all time. And funny enough,
19:17
Speaker 1: when Condrey resurfaced later in eighty seven, it was in
19:20
Speaker 1: the AWA with Randy Rose as the original Midnight Express
19:23
Speaker 1: and they were managed not by Cornett, they were managed
19:26
Speaker 1: by Paul e Dangerously and then they headed to the
19:29
Speaker 1: NWA for a feud with Eaton Lane and Cornett. So
19:32
Speaker 1: it was the og Midnights against the New Midnights Cornette
19:36
Speaker 1: against Paul E. You can imagine those promos, and it
19:39
Speaker 1: was a hot feud. They made a lot of money
19:41
Speaker 1: together and they drew well, and as the story goes,
19:44
Speaker 1: it was to build to a trios match with the
19:45
Speaker 1: managers involved at the Shytown Rumble in eighty nine, where
19:50
Speaker 1: the loser of the fall would be fired, And when
19:53
Speaker 1: Condrey realized that Randy Rose would be the one taking
19:56
Speaker 1: the losing fall and he would be shoot fired, he
20:00
Speaker 1: bailed and they had to substitute somebody else in there
20:03
Speaker 1: to finish the I don't remember who it was, but
20:05
Speaker 1: they put somebody else in his place, and they did
20:08
Speaker 1: the match, and I believe Randy Rose took the losing fall.
20:11
Speaker 1: So it all fizzled out there at the end. But
20:14
Speaker 1: after nineteen eighty nine, Condrey disappeared into retirement for many
20:17
Speaker 1: many years until two thousand and four, he and Bobby
20:20
Speaker 1: Eaton they started working independence together as the Midnight Express,
20:24
Speaker 1: and he wrestled on and off. I think he did
20:27
Speaker 1: some singles, but mostly tags all the way until twenty eleven,
20:31
Speaker 1: on a career that started way back in nineteen seventy three.
20:34
Speaker 1: It's a long time, over fifty championships to his name.
20:38
Speaker 1: Truly one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all time.
20:41
Speaker 1: And I feel like someone like outside of those fans
20:45
Speaker 1: older than me or maybe in my age group, who
20:48
Speaker 1: were at least aware of who he was or had
20:51
Speaker 1: heard of The Midnight Express, as the years go on,
20:54
Speaker 1: that'll be forgotten about because he's not one of these
20:57
Speaker 1: glorified figures in WWE history. WWE has in many ways
21:02
Speaker 1: become the arbiter of wrestling history, at least on a
21:05
Speaker 1: kind of a mainstream like global scale, because they own
21:08
Speaker 1: all of these different tape libraries and they kind of
21:11
Speaker 1: have the They kind of dictate their own version of
21:14
Speaker 1: history and when they decide to tell it and what
21:16
Speaker 1: they tell and who they talk about, who they don't
21:18
Speaker 1: talk about. You know, it's why they put people in
21:20
Speaker 1: their Hall of Fame who never worked for WWE. Doesn't
21:23
Speaker 1: make any sense. Why would you put people in your
21:25
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame that never even work for your company.
21:27
Speaker 1: They pick and choose certain names because you know, they
21:30
Speaker 1: feel like, hey, we're the arbiter of history here. There's
21:33
Speaker 1: a lot of wrestling Hall of Fames and some that
21:37
Speaker 1: are even more prestigious than the WWE Hall of Fame
21:40
Speaker 1: in the eyes of some. But again on a grand scale,
21:44
Speaker 1: it's WWE, and they own all of this history when
21:47
Speaker 1: they put these video packages together. I mean they they
21:51
Speaker 1: tell the stories that they want to tell, you know,
21:54
Speaker 1: for better or worse. That's just the way that it is.
21:57
Speaker 1: He never worked for WWE. Condree never worked for them,
22:02
Speaker 1: and he's not in the WWE Hall of Fame. Somehow,
22:05
Speaker 1: the Midnight Express is not in. The Rock and Roll
22:07
Speaker 1: Express is in, and they even had Jim Cornett induct them,
22:11
Speaker 1: which didn't really make a whole lot of sense, seeing
22:13
Speaker 1: is how he feuded with them for so many years.
22:15
Speaker 1: But Cornett should be in there with the Midnights, and
22:18
Speaker 1: none of them are in. And I can only imagine
22:21
Speaker 1: it has to do with the deals that they make
22:23
Speaker 1: you sign when you go into the Hall of Fame.
22:25
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a Legends deal or some
22:27
Speaker 1: other kind of deal. I don't know what kind of
22:29
Speaker 1: limitations they may put on what you can and can't do,
22:31
Speaker 1: and how you can and can't make money, you know,
22:34
Speaker 1: outside of what WWE can make off of you. But
22:37
Speaker 1: it's insane that they're not in there. And now Condrey
22:41
Speaker 1: and Bobby Eaton, they're not even alive anymore. I think
22:44
Speaker 1: stan Lane's the only one left outside of Cornett. But
22:48
Speaker 1: you'll have actually, I don't know where Randy Rose is.
22:50
Speaker 1: I don't hear his name mentioned anymore. But you'll have
22:52
Speaker 1: generations now with fans that have no concept of how
22:55
Speaker 1: big the Midnight Express was and the Rock and Roll
22:57
Speaker 1: Express was until they watched the Vault on YouTube. Or
23:02
Speaker 1: you need to be somebody who actually gives a shit
23:05
Speaker 1: about wrestling history, So you'll research online, you'll watch YouTube clips,
23:09
Speaker 1: you'll buy the books, you'll watch the shoot interviews. You
23:13
Speaker 1: know how many people really do that? I mean realistically,
23:16
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So outside of that of
23:18
Speaker 1: that circle, it said that a lot of people will
23:21
Speaker 1: never know. But that's just how it goes, you know.
23:25
Speaker 1: CM punk in FTR. They paid tribute to Condrey in
23:28
Speaker 1: aw back in twenty twenty three. I think it was
23:30
Speaker 1: off the air. Condrey was in the crowd that night.
23:34
Speaker 1: They invited him into the ring and they were just
23:36
Speaker 1: putting him over and they let him speak to the audience.
23:39
Speaker 1: It was hard for him to speak without his voice Box.
23:42
Speaker 1: He had beaten throat cancer years before, but he spoke anyway,
23:46
Speaker 1: and it was a very cool and you could understand
23:48
Speaker 1: him and it was a very cool moment. And this
23:52
Speaker 1: had to be not long before Punk had his last
23:56
Speaker 1: match with Joe at Wembley, because I remember in that
23:59
Speaker 1: segment he had the aw title with the giant spray
24:02
Speaker 1: painted X on it over his shoulder. So it was
24:04
Speaker 1: during that time period. Dax Harwood is the one who
24:08
Speaker 1: actually announced the news of his passing on social media.
24:11
Speaker 1: The two of them were very close. He has said
24:13
Speaker 1: that Coandre would text him after his matches, letting him
24:16
Speaker 1: know things he liked and things he could improve on.
24:19
Speaker 1: He's also started to GoFundMe to help cover his funeral
24:23
Speaker 1: services to help his widow, Teresa. I saw Tony Kahn
24:27
Speaker 1: and Chris Jericho alone. Between the two of them, they
24:29
Speaker 1: dropped seven grand on the campaign. Others have contributed as well.
24:33
Speaker 1: Cody Rhoades, FTR, Nick All This, Michael Hayes. God did
24:38
Speaker 1: the Midnights ever work with the Freebirds? I feel like
24:41
Speaker 1: they did. I think they did there towards the end,
24:45
Speaker 1: now you know what, I know they did because I
24:47
Speaker 1: vaguely remember Cornette telling a story about Michael Hayes not
24:50
Speaker 1: wanting to sell for the tennis racket. So I'm almost
24:53
Speaker 1: positive it was long after the Freebirds I think had
24:57
Speaker 1: kind of passed their expiration date, but pretty sure towards
25:00
Speaker 1: the end there they did work together. That wasn't the
25:03
Speaker 1: only death this week. Chuck Norris died on Thursday, nine
25:08
Speaker 1: days after his eighty sixth birthday. I had just read
25:11
Speaker 1: on what was it Thursday on TMZ that he was
25:15
Speaker 1: rushed to the hospital in Hawaii. I don't know if
25:18
Speaker 1: he was living there, if he was vacationing there, after
25:21
Speaker 1: some sort of medical emergency. He was rushed to the hospital,
25:24
Speaker 1: but he was said to be in good spirits. And
25:26
Speaker 1: then came the news that he died on Thursday morning,
25:29
Speaker 1: and he became a spirit. The family isn't saying why
25:32
Speaker 1: or how they've chosen to keep that private, but I mean,
25:35
Speaker 1: the man was eighty six. I mean, a sudden medical
25:38
Speaker 1: emergency is not all that uncommon. I mean, his mother
25:41
Speaker 1: died not that long ago, I think a couple of
25:43
Speaker 1: years ago. Maybe she was like one hundred and four.
25:46
Speaker 1: You know, if you're on the younger side, you may
25:48
Speaker 1: only know him from the Chuck Narris jokes online and
25:51
Speaker 1: those Total Jim infomercials. But he was part of that
25:55
Speaker 1: eighties movies era with the big tough action heroes like
25:58
Speaker 1: Schwarzenegger and Stallone, Steven Segal missing in Action Delta Force,
26:05
Speaker 1: Lone Wolf McQuay missing an action in Delta Force. I guess,
26:08
Speaker 1: by default were my favorites. I wouldn't say I necessarily
26:12
Speaker 1: have a favorite Chuck Norris movie that I love to
26:15
Speaker 1: go back and watch. But I will tell you those movies, okay,
26:19
Speaker 1: were replayed constantly on television. And I'm not talking even cable.
26:25
Speaker 1: This is when I was younger, and they would have
26:27
Speaker 1: them on like here in New York. It would have
26:28
Speaker 1: been Channel eleven so WPIX, like on the weekend or whatever,
26:32
Speaker 1: and they would show those movies all the time. That
26:36
Speaker 1: is how I watched them. I didn't go to the
26:37
Speaker 1: theater to see them. It was just on TV. And
26:41
Speaker 1: there's Chuck Norris, you know, killing dudes and blowing shit
26:44
Speaker 1: up Walker Texas Ranger, which used to come on USA
26:48
Speaker 1: Network before Monday Night Raw, right. He became very popular
26:51
Speaker 1: with that show. I never watched the show, but I
26:54
Speaker 1: used to love the clips that Conan O'Brien would play
26:56
Speaker 1: on his late night show when he used to randomly
26:59
Speaker 1: pull down the giant lever. Everye would play the most
27:02
Speaker 1: absurdly corny clips from the show and just the best one.
27:08
Speaker 1: The best one was the Little Kid. I think it
27:10
Speaker 1: was Hayley Joel Osman telling the people. Walker told me
27:14
Speaker 1: I have AIDS and I'm just like, I don't know
27:18
Speaker 1: the context to eddie of this up. Just I see
27:20
Speaker 1: the clip, like everybody else of the audience, everyone's just
27:22
Speaker 1: fucking dying laughing because it's just the most ridiculous thing
27:25
Speaker 1: and you just can't help but laugh, especially without context.
27:29
Speaker 1: It sounds awful, but it just comes out of nowhere.
27:34
Speaker 1: I should go back and watch the show if it's
27:36
Speaker 1: always been that ridiculous. But he had a wrestling connection.
27:39
Speaker 1: I bring this up because WWE brought him in as
27:43
Speaker 1: the outside enforcer for the Undertaker Yoko Zuna casket match
27:47
Speaker 1: at the nineteen ninety four Survivor series. Yeah, we got
27:51
Speaker 1: two casket matches that year on pay per view between
27:54
Speaker 1: Undertaker and Yoko Zuna. I mean that is just diabolical.
28:00
Speaker 1: But WWE issued a statement on his passing saying WWE
28:05
Speaker 1: is saddened to learn that legendary Hollywood actor and pop
28:08
Speaker 1: culture icon Chuck Norris has passed away. A legend in
28:12
Speaker 1: the television and film industry. With iconic projects such as Walker,
28:15
Speaker 1: Texas Ranger, The Way of the Dragon, and many more,
28:19
Speaker 1: Norris became one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood,
28:22
Speaker 1: with his martial arts background playing a key role in
28:25
Speaker 1: his films and shows. Norris made an iconic appearance. Way.
28:30
Speaker 1: We throw that word around quite a bit, don't we.
28:32
Speaker 1: At the Survivor series in nineteen ninety four, where he
28:35
Speaker 1: served as the special enforcer for the Undertaker's casket match
28:38
Speaker 1: against Yoko Zuna. During the match, Norris delivered a devastating
28:43
Speaker 1: roundhouse kick to Jeff Jarrett, helping the Undertaker win. Ww Yes,
28:48
Speaker 1: because the Undertaker, I mean he would have clearly lost
28:51
Speaker 1: that match had Jeff Jarrett gotten his way. I mean,
28:55
Speaker 1: of all the things that the Undertaker could overcome back then,
28:58
Speaker 1: I don't think that Jeff jar would have been something
29:01
Speaker 1: that the Undertaker could have really done anything with. He
29:03
Speaker 1: would have been finished if it wasn't for Chuck Norris
29:06
Speaker 1: taking down the great Jeff Jarrett double j Some memorable
29:13
Speaker 1: Chuck Norris facts for you, though. Did you know Chuck
29:16
Speaker 1: Norris's tears can cure cancer? It's true? Too bad he
29:22
Speaker 1: never cried. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits. Once
29:29
Speaker 1: a cobra bit Chuck Norris's leg, and after five days
29:33
Speaker 1: of excruciating pain, the cobra died. Holy shit, is macho man,
29:39
Speaker 1: Chuck Narris. I just realized Chuck Narris can strangle you
29:43
Speaker 1: with a cordless phone. And this one may have been
29:47
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorites. The Boogeyman checks his
29:51
Speaker 1: closet for Chuck Norris. I don't know how long I
29:55
Speaker 1: must have spent reading those back in the day, but
29:57
Speaker 1: I could tell you I never got tired of him,
30:00
Speaker 1: and I don't think I ever will. Speaking of wrestling celebrities,
30:04
Speaker 1: we got another WWEE Hall of Fame announcement this week.
30:08
Speaker 1: They let ESPN break the news that the Worm Dennis Rodman,
30:13
Speaker 1: who never did anything of note with WWE. He did
30:16
Speaker 1: more in aw than he did in WWE, but in
30:19
Speaker 1: wrestling he is most well known for being a member
30:22
Speaker 1: of the New World Order. In WCW, he worked three
30:25
Speaker 1: matches for them. He will be inducted this year alongside
30:28
Speaker 1: Stephanie McMahon, AJ Styles and Demolition. Cindy Lauper denied yet again.
30:35
Speaker 1: I just don't get it. I don't understand. She's even
30:39
Speaker 1: doing her first ever residency in Las Vegas less than
30:44
Speaker 1: a week after wrestle Mania. She's doing like five or
30:47
Speaker 1: six shows. This would have been a natural tie in.
30:52
Speaker 1: She has denied ever turning down an invitation before. I
30:55
Speaker 1: know that was a rumor for many years. Oh, she
30:56
Speaker 1: didn't want to go in. She turned him down one
30:58
Speaker 1: year that I just I don't understand it. You talk
31:03
Speaker 1: about important celebrity tie ins and appearances in the history
31:06
Speaker 1: of that company. Mister T's already in. He was very
31:08
Speaker 1: instrumental in that first WrestleMania being a success. But so
31:13
Speaker 1: is Cindy Lauper. And not just WrestleMania, but even you know,
31:16
Speaker 1: the whole MTV tie in going back to like eighty four,
31:19
Speaker 1: the War to Settle the Score, like all that stuff.
31:22
Speaker 1: Any celebrity deserves to be recognized in that Hall of Fame.
31:25
Speaker 1: It's her. But Rodman joining the nWo, I mean that
31:29
Speaker 1: was a big deal back then. He was a big
31:31
Speaker 1: part of that Chicago Bulls dynasty in the nineties. He
31:34
Speaker 1: won five NBA Championships with two teams, mostly with the Bulls.
31:38
Speaker 1: He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in
31:40
Speaker 1: twenty eleven. You know that first Voodoo Child entrance that
31:43
Speaker 1: Hollywood Hogan ever did with the limo pulling up to
31:46
Speaker 1: the United Center in Chicago, all the nWo guys coming
31:49
Speaker 1: out him and him and Rodman walking through the smoke
31:53
Speaker 1: out to the ring. Is Voodoo Child play? Like, that's
31:56
Speaker 1: an iconic entrance. You want to call something iconic? That
32:00
Speaker 1: an iconic wrestling entrance. Bash of the Beach ninety seven
32:03
Speaker 1: it was Hogan and Rodman against Lex Luger and the Giant,
32:06
Speaker 1: And then again at Bash of the Beach ninety eight
32:09
Speaker 1: he was tagging with Hogan, this time against DDP and
32:12
Speaker 1: Karl Malone, who played for the Utah Jazz. Also a
32:16
Speaker 1: big wrestling fan. Rodman actually skipped a team practice famously
32:20
Speaker 1: during the NBA Finals in ninety eight to make it
32:23
Speaker 1: appearance on WCW Monday Nitro, which was major news at
32:27
Speaker 1: the time. What a fucking coup for Eric Bischoff to
32:31
Speaker 1: get two of the most famous athletes at the time
32:33
Speaker 1: in all of sports in a match on pay per
32:36
Speaker 1: view at a time. By the way, when both teams
32:39
Speaker 1: that they played for happened to be facing each other
32:41
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals, you can't ask for anything better
32:46
Speaker 1: than that. You would never see something like that today.
32:49
Speaker 1: It just would not be allowed. And the two of
32:52
Speaker 1: them even got into it a bit on the court
32:54
Speaker 1: during one of the games in the finals. I don't
32:57
Speaker 1: remember if it was Game three or four, whatever game was,
33:01
Speaker 1: which Bob Costas took as a chance to shit all
33:03
Speaker 1: over wrestling. I'll never forget him talking about how regrettably
33:08
Speaker 1: the two of them were scheduled to wrestle in one
33:11
Speaker 1: of those bogus events next month. Why Karl Malone wants
33:15
Speaker 1: to lower himself to that, is anyone's guests. Bob Costas
33:20
Speaker 1: has always come off to me as a pretentious prick.
33:24
Speaker 1: That pay per view was a big success for WCW,
33:26
Speaker 1: though it did almost six hundred thousand buys, second most
33:29
Speaker 1: all time for them, behind only Stark the year before
33:32
Speaker 1: with Hogan and Staying the match was garbage. I mean,
33:36
Speaker 1: everyone praised Malone for looking competent, but Rodman being so
33:40
Speaker 1: god awful that night I think made him look that
33:42
Speaker 1: much better. I don't remember Rodman being too bad in
33:45
Speaker 1: the first match in ninety seven, but the second one
33:47
Speaker 1: he was clearly either hungover or under the influence of something.
33:52
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing. At one point he was laying his
33:56
Speaker 1: head down on the turnbuckle and he looked like he
33:57
Speaker 1: was taking a Napmber Dean Malenko said Rodman is the only,
34:02
Speaker 1: maybe the only man in the history of the wrestling
34:05
Speaker 1: business to fall asleep during their match. I think the
34:09
Speaker 1: Pearl Jam incident happened around that time. I think it
34:12
Speaker 1: was a few days before that. For those of you
34:14
Speaker 1: who remember that whole story, he jumped up on stage
34:17
Speaker 1: during a Pearl Jam concert, no shirt on, no shoes.
34:21
Speaker 1: I think he was drinking out of a bottle of wine,
34:24
Speaker 1: and he stayed on stage with them for like forty
34:27
Speaker 1: five minutes before finally one of the band members just
34:30
Speaker 1: got sick of it and just told him, like, get
34:33
Speaker 1: the fuck off the stage, and so not a huge
34:37
Speaker 1: shock of a few days later, he showed up in
34:39
Speaker 1: no condition to perform. He had one more match. It
34:42
Speaker 1: was actually a singles match with Macho Man Randy Savage
34:46
Speaker 1: that was at Rode Wilde in ninety nine, which actually
34:50
Speaker 1: turned out to be one of Savage's last matches in WCW.
34:53
Speaker 1: It actually might have been his last pay per view
34:55
Speaker 1: match for WCW, and it was against Dennis Rodman, of
34:59
Speaker 1: all people, and Savage was just so broken down by
35:02
Speaker 1: that point. It was just sad to see him all
35:04
Speaker 1: just jacked up like that with the bad knees. But
35:09
Speaker 1: Rodman made two appearances for AEW, one on Collision and
35:13
Speaker 1: another one at All Out in twenty twenty three in
35:15
Speaker 1: the corner of the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. He hit
35:18
Speaker 1: Satin him saying over the head with the guitar. Hogan
35:21
Speaker 1: would have been the appropriate one to induct Rodman into
35:25
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. Carl Malone would be the next
35:27
Speaker 1: one that would make sense, But something tells me that
35:30
Speaker 1: ain't gonna happen, nor should it. I don't know when
35:33
Speaker 1: that stuff came out about Malone, but I didn't even
35:37
Speaker 1: know about it until some years ago. When Malone played
35:40
Speaker 1: at Louisiana Tech. He was twenty years old. He impregnated
35:43
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old girl. He doesn't need to be
35:46
Speaker 1: doing anything with them at the Hall of Fame. Hogan's
35:49
Speaker 1: not there anymore. DDP was never a member of the nWo.
35:53
Speaker 1: I think you have either Kevin Nesh or Eric Bischoff
35:56
Speaker 1: in duck Dennis Rodman into the Hall of Fame now.
36:01
Speaker 1: It was three sixteen Day on Raw Monday Night in
36:04
Speaker 1: San Antonio, Texas. No stone Cold on the show. He
36:08
Speaker 1: was at home in Nevada getting ready for his next
36:11
Speaker 1: off road race. He loves the off road racing now,
36:15
Speaker 1: but he is still helping them do big business, even
36:17
Speaker 1: after all these years. They did a limited time sale
36:21
Speaker 1: in celebration of three sixteen Day where tickets across the board,
36:25
Speaker 1: including for both nights of WrestleMania, all the way through
36:28
Speaker 1: I believe the June nineteenth SmackDown in Kansas City. We're
36:32
Speaker 1: all thirty one point six percent off and it paid
36:35
Speaker 1: off for them in a very big way. How about
36:37
Speaker 1: that you lower the price of tickets and they move
36:39
Speaker 1: a lot faster. WrestleMania Saturday moved over nineteen hundred tickets
36:45
Speaker 1: during the promotion. WrestleMania Sunday moved over twenty two hundred tickets.
36:50
Speaker 1: So now instead of being eighteen percent behind where they
36:53
Speaker 1: were in sales for last year's WrestleMania, they're only about
36:56
Speaker 1: eleven percent behind. They closed the gap a bit, But
37:00
Speaker 1: according to wrestle Tics, they also moved over fourteen hundred
37:03
Speaker 1: tickets for this past Friday SmackDown in North Carolina, over
37:06
Speaker 1: one thousand for this week's show coming up in Pittsburgh,
37:09
Speaker 1: and almost thirteen hundred for the April third show in
37:12
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. I didn't even realize they were bringing SmackDown
37:16
Speaker 1: to Saint Louis. Oh Man, Randy Orton is going to
37:20
Speaker 1: be the biggest baby face in the building that night.
37:22
Speaker 1: Cody Rhoades doesn't stand a chance, although you kind of
37:25
Speaker 1: got that from watching SmackDown even this week. I'll get
37:28
Speaker 1: to that in a bit. But Roman Rains and Brocklesner
37:31
Speaker 1: they were back on Raw Monday night. I believe they're
37:33
Speaker 1: both going to be on the show tomorrow night, and
37:36
Speaker 1: but for I think one Raw, Roman is back, I
37:39
Speaker 1: think until WrestleMania. I think Brock might be on all
37:41
Speaker 1: the shows between now in WrestleMania. Don't quote me on that,
37:44
Speaker 1: but I believe that's the case. But Roman Reins and
37:48
Speaker 1: Cmpunk had their third face to face confrontation in the
37:50
Speaker 1: ring on Monday night, and it was not nearly as
37:53
Speaker 1: good as the first too. The first one is still
37:55
Speaker 1: the best one. The second one wasn't as good, but
37:57
Speaker 1: it was still enjoyable. The third one it was like
38:00
Speaker 1: fucking awful or anything, but it was. It was not good.
38:03
Speaker 1: It was not good. And this was the follow up
38:06
Speaker 1: to the comment that Punk had made to Roman at
38:08
Speaker 1: the end of their previous promo about how you know
38:10
Speaker 1: you're all alone now, Well, guess what, You're not gonna
38:12
Speaker 1: be alone for very long because I'm gonna bury You'm
38:15
Speaker 1: going to bury you next to your father. Right. So
38:18
Speaker 1: he didn't say anything awful about Sicca per se, but
38:21
Speaker 1: still invoking his dead father's name in that manner was
38:24
Speaker 1: very disrespectful. So the question was how would Roman Reigns
38:27
Speaker 1: respond to this, because he looked angry, he looked pissed
38:30
Speaker 1: off when we last saw him on TV, and he
38:33
Speaker 1: had been silent ever since. So I was expecting Roman
38:36
Speaker 1: to come out just full of rage and maybe maybe
38:40
Speaker 1: he would do to see I'm punk what Randy Orton
38:42
Speaker 1: ended up doing to Cody Rhoades the week before when
38:45
Speaker 1: he bloodied him up, and that didn't happen. Not only
38:48
Speaker 1: did that not happen, but Roman Rains played it off,
38:51
Speaker 1: or they wanted him to play it off as no
38:54
Speaker 1: skin off my back. I'm not gonna let Phil get
38:57
Speaker 1: to me. He was all smiles, he was yucking it
38:59
Speaker 1: up with the USO. He was laughing, he was making
39:01
Speaker 1: a mockery of it, pretending like it didn't bother him.
39:04
Speaker 1: And then the big kind of jab back at Punk.
39:09
Speaker 1: A lot of people thought that he was gonna mention
39:12
Speaker 1: Punk's dog Larry, who passed away a few months ago. Apparently,
39:16
Speaker 1: according to bodyslam dot Net, that was the plan. The
39:20
Speaker 1: segment initially was planned for a different creative direction. It
39:23
Speaker 1: was supposed to end with Roman bringing up Punk's dog
39:27
Speaker 1: who passed away back in November, in a quote darker
39:32
Speaker 1: response than wwe ultimately ended up going with. So whoever
39:38
Speaker 1: made the call to go in a different direction, Maybe
39:40
Speaker 1: it was Punk because Larry's death is still very raw
39:44
Speaker 1: with him. I mean, he gets very emotional if Larry
39:47
Speaker 1: is even mentioned. And I mean, you really don't need
39:50
Speaker 1: to go low like that. It's just when the segment
39:52
Speaker 1: was over a few weeks ago, it was like, Man,
39:54
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a Larry mentioned. It just felt like
39:57
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a Larry mentioned. And I wouldn't be
39:59
Speaker 1: shocked it was Punk who was like, you know what,
40:01
Speaker 1: I'd rather not do this. Why don't you just call
40:03
Speaker 1: me old and leave it at that? And that's what
40:06
Speaker 1: Roman did, right. Punk has played it cool this entire
40:09
Speaker 1: time and this promo, by the way, on Monday, if
40:12
Speaker 1: I had to give it to someone, I would give
40:13
Speaker 1: it to CM Punk. It was not Roman's best night,
40:17
Speaker 1: but Punk was playing it cool and everything, and he
40:19
Speaker 1: was like, I'm in your head, I'm under your skin.
40:21
Speaker 1: I've already won. I've already won our match of WrestleMania
40:25
Speaker 1: and the match is still a month away. What got
40:28
Speaker 1: under Punk's skin and made him punch Roman in the
40:30
Speaker 1: face was the fact that Roman called him old. Apparently,
40:35
Speaker 1: you don't call CM Punk old. I mentioned back to
40:39
Speaker 1: the future when I did my review the other night.
40:41
Speaker 1: You call Marty McFly chicken, and that's it. That's it.
40:45
Speaker 1: That was the trigger for Marty McFly. You don't call
40:47
Speaker 1: him chicken. Apparently, you don't call Punk old. And he
40:52
Speaker 1: smacked Roman in the face for it, and Roman smiled
40:54
Speaker 1: and he looked up at him, and the idea of
40:56
Speaker 1: being that, oh, I've gotten in your head now, right,
40:59
Speaker 1: I know how to push you are buttons now is
41:01
Speaker 1: very lame. You know the fact that that was the
41:04
Speaker 1: trigger for CM Punk to punch him. The segment was
41:07
Speaker 1: a misfire, and so I hope whatever they have planned
41:09
Speaker 1: for these two going forward, I mean, these two are
41:12
Speaker 1: good enough to kind of pick up with it and
41:14
Speaker 1: get it back to a place where it feels like, Okay,
41:17
Speaker 1: this is really the WrestleMania main event, because it's pretty incredible. Honestly,
41:20
Speaker 1: how in the span of a week or so, how
41:23
Speaker 1: things have sort of flipped where a lot of people,
41:25
Speaker 1: myself included, feel like Cody Roads and Randy Orton all
41:29
Speaker 1: of a sudden after that Savage beat down the week
41:31
Speaker 1: before and then the blade job and Randy Orton just
41:34
Speaker 1: going all psycho on Cody Rhodes that that feels more
41:38
Speaker 1: like the real WrestleMania main event now than Roman against Punk.
41:41
Speaker 1: But that's the good thing about having this competition, which
41:44
Speaker 1: it kind of becomes a de facto competition here between
41:47
Speaker 1: these four guys, because you know that they're both on
41:50
Speaker 1: each side gonna want, you know, the build up to
41:52
Speaker 1: their match to be the best. They're gonna want people
41:54
Speaker 1: to be excited for their match the most. They're gonna
41:57
Speaker 1: want their match to be perceived as the real WrestleMania
42:00
Speaker 1: main event, and competition tends to bring out the best
42:03
Speaker 1: in people, especially four men who I'm sure are highly
42:06
Speaker 1: competitive in nature to begin with. So I'm hoping that
42:10
Speaker 1: they can improve on what we saw and pick up
42:13
Speaker 1: with things with Roman and Punk on TV this week,
42:16
Speaker 1: seth Rollins came out at the beginning of the show
42:19
Speaker 1: on Monday night to with his putty. People came out
42:23
Speaker 1: to talk about the beatdown he put on Paul Hayman
42:25
Speaker 1: the week before, or was it the week before? It
42:29
Speaker 1: was the week before, Yes, it was a week before.
42:31
Speaker 1: These shows all run together now to me. Paul Hayman
42:34
Speaker 1: came out and he looked fucking terrible. He looked like
42:37
Speaker 1: he had been on a five day bender and he
42:39
Speaker 1: had been mugged on the street. Okay, he looked awful,
42:42
Speaker 1: and he came out to say I wouldn't miss this
42:44
Speaker 1: for the world, and he introduced brock Lesner and they
42:48
Speaker 1: wanted you to believe that. Okay, we just found out
42:51
Speaker 1: who seth Rollins's opponent is going to be for WrestleMania.
42:54
Speaker 1: The open Challenge is closed. Brock Lesner is not happy
42:58
Speaker 1: about what this man did to his advocate, and so
43:00
Speaker 1: now we have the WrestleMania match. That must mean that
43:03
Speaker 1: bron Breaker is not going to be back in time
43:04
Speaker 1: for WrestleMania. It also means, as you're watching this, that
43:09
Speaker 1: we're not getting Brock, Lesnar and Obafemi. So I was
43:12
Speaker 1: disappointed in that. But then they quickly swerved us because
43:16
Speaker 1: Brock comes out and then he put a beating on
43:19
Speaker 1: the putty people. He was throwing these guys around just
43:23
Speaker 1: as recklessly as I've ever seen, and some of the
43:27
Speaker 1: bumps these guys were taking were just brutal, until it
43:29
Speaker 1: was finally down to just Brock and Seth in the ring,
43:33
Speaker 1: and the lights went out and we heard the drum
43:35
Speaker 1: beat and here comes Obafemi. They swerved us. Maybe it
43:40
Speaker 1: didn't work on you, but it worked on me. And
43:41
Speaker 1: I was relieved when I heard Oba's music because I
43:44
Speaker 1: realized they did the right thing. We're going to get
43:47
Speaker 1: the right match at WrestleMania, the match that a lot
43:50
Speaker 1: of people wanted to see coming out of their confrontation
43:53
Speaker 1: in the Royal Rumble, and Obafemi comes down to the ring,
43:58
Speaker 1: Seth dips out. He's watching all of this now from
44:01
Speaker 1: the floor, Brock turns around and he gets propelled up
44:04
Speaker 1: into the air on Oba's shoulders in like a last
44:07
Speaker 1: ride power bomb position, and he gets dropped with the
44:10
Speaker 1: fall from grace and everybody is losing their minds and
44:13
Speaker 1: Oba is standing over him. He puts his foot on
44:15
Speaker 1: his chest. He points up at the WrestleMania sign and
44:19
Speaker 1: the match is official. At WrestleMania it will be Brock
44:21
Speaker 1: Lesner one on one with Oba Femi. Now it's starting
44:26
Speaker 1: to feel a WrestleMania season. Now we're getting set. Now,
44:29
Speaker 1: we're getting to a better place than we were a
44:31
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. And now we have that match
44:34
Speaker 1: locked in. What does that mean for Seth Rob And
44:36
Speaker 1: by the way, I should mention this also that brock Lesner,
44:40
Speaker 1: the way he sold this, his reaction, his facial expression
44:44
Speaker 1: when Oba's music was playing and he was you know,
44:47
Speaker 1: he was doing the strut on his way down to
44:49
Speaker 1: the ring was pitch perfect. And then selling for him
44:53
Speaker 1: taking the power bomb. You could even see him telling him,
44:55
Speaker 1: you know, talking up to Oba, hey, put your foot
44:58
Speaker 1: on my chest. U back. Lesler did an incredible job
45:01
Speaker 1: in this segment and Oba Femei you could see literal
45:04
Speaker 1: tears streaming down his face. He was so amped up,
45:06
Speaker 1: and he was so happy about this. This was the
45:08
Speaker 1: biggest moment for him yet in his career. And so anyway,
45:12
Speaker 1: that was just an excellent segment, an excellent way to
45:15
Speaker 1: open the show. What does that mean for seth Rawlins Well.
45:20
Speaker 1: According to Russelvoe's radio on fight Ful Select, there is
45:23
Speaker 1: a lot of optimism within WWE that bron Breaker will
45:27
Speaker 1: be medically cleared in time and ready for a return
45:30
Speaker 1: before WrestleMania forty two. On the chance that he is
45:34
Speaker 1: not cleared in time, WWE is said to have a
45:36
Speaker 1: backup plan in place for rollins at WrestleMania, the details
45:40
Speaker 1: of which are not available. I said it when the
45:44
Speaker 1: news first broke the bron Breaker had to undergo emergency
45:47
Speaker 1: surgery and hernia is no joke. It's I know, it's
45:50
Speaker 1: a painful thing, and it's you know, it's not the
45:53
Speaker 1: most pleasant recovery, and it takes time. And so wherever
45:59
Speaker 1: bron Breaker is in the healing process, and I'm sure
46:01
Speaker 1: he is itching to get back in time for wrestle Mania,
46:03
Speaker 1: I'm sure they all are. They need to make sure
46:06
Speaker 1: that he takes all the time he needs to recover,
46:08
Speaker 1: because that is not an injury that you want to
46:10
Speaker 1: be rushing back quickly from. And we know the way
46:12
Speaker 1: bron Breaker works, we know the way he wrestles. He's
46:14
Speaker 1: a very intense guy. I don't want to see this
46:17
Speaker 1: guy come back and then re injure himself or hurt himself.
46:20
Speaker 1: Even more so, I can understand like he wants to
46:23
Speaker 1: rush to get back in time for Mania, but I
46:25
Speaker 1: think he's far too important, and I would hope that
46:29
Speaker 1: they have impressed that upon him and that he will
46:31
Speaker 1: take whatever time he needs and if he doesn't make
46:33
Speaker 1: it back in time, then he doesn't make it back
46:34
Speaker 1: in time, They'll just come up with something else for
46:37
Speaker 1: Seth Rollins to do, which could very well be a
46:40
Speaker 1: tag team match with him in La Night taking on
46:43
Speaker 1: the Vision because the Vision logan Paul and Austin Theory
46:46
Speaker 1: are getting a shot at the USSOS and the tag
46:48
Speaker 1: team titles on Raw Tomorrow Night. Originally it was advertised
46:51
Speaker 1: not as a championship match. Now apparently it is a
46:54
Speaker 1: championship match. That seemed to be a sudden change in
46:57
Speaker 1: the last few days, which makes me wonder if they're
46:59
Speaker 1: gonna win those titles. On Monday Night and then defend
47:02
Speaker 1: them against Rollins in La Night. That could very well
47:05
Speaker 1: be a match that could certainly be the backup plan
47:08
Speaker 1: that they are talking about for WrestleMania. But until they
47:11
Speaker 1: get some more clarity, I guess on the bron Breaker
47:13
Speaker 1: situation in his status, everything with Rollins is still sort
47:17
Speaker 1: of in a state of flux. Speaking of which, being
47:20
Speaker 1: in a state of flux and not knowing what the
47:21
Speaker 1: fuck they're doing in WrestleMania that brings me to Gunther.
47:26
Speaker 1: Bodyslam dot Net reports that Gunther was originally slated to
47:29
Speaker 1: begin a program with Ray Mysterio, which would have culminated
47:32
Speaker 1: in a match of WrestleMania. The angle was to begin
47:35
Speaker 1: after Gunther attacked Dragon Lee on the March second episode
47:38
Speaker 1: of Raw. However, plans for Gunther against Mysterio are now
47:42
Speaker 1: uncertain because Ray suffered a rib injury in January. He
47:46
Speaker 1: suffered fractured ribs during a match with Austin Theory on
47:50
Speaker 1: the January twenty sixth episode of Raw, and he took
47:54
Speaker 1: part in the Royal Rumble the following Saturday, but has
47:57
Speaker 1: not wrestled since. So think about that he suffered broken
48:00
Speaker 1: ribs and then four days later or five days later,
48:04
Speaker 1: whatever it was, he was in the Royal Rumble match,
48:07
Speaker 1: And I don't know whether or not he'll be back
48:10
Speaker 1: in time for WrestleMania. I think it might be one
48:12
Speaker 1: broken rib on the web side, one on the right side,
48:15
Speaker 1: I think, is what I heard him say. Again, that's
48:18
Speaker 1: something that just takes time to heal. I don't know
48:21
Speaker 1: if he'll be able to make it back in time
48:22
Speaker 1: or not. My gut tells me he probably will. But
48:26
Speaker 1: he's also not as young as he used to be,
48:29
Speaker 1: and so broken ribs at any age, I'm sure are
48:31
Speaker 1: no fun, but it's probably worse when you're older. So
48:33
Speaker 1: it puts Gunther in this weird position now where we
48:36
Speaker 1: don't know whether or not he's going to have an
48:37
Speaker 1: opponent for WrestleMania. Just think about that statement. Think about
48:40
Speaker 1: what I just said there. How ridiculous it is that
48:45
Speaker 1: Gunther may not have a match at WrestleMania. Some people
48:50
Speaker 1: are workshopping ideas where maybe Paul Hayman could hire Gunther
48:54
Speaker 1: as like a hired gun, to take on seth Rollins
48:57
Speaker 1: if bron Breaker can't make it back in time. I
49:00
Speaker 1: don't really like that idea. I mean, Gunther is not
49:02
Speaker 1: the kind of guy. He's not a mercenary, he's not
49:04
Speaker 1: a hired gun. You could do it if you had
49:08
Speaker 1: no choice. I'd rather they wrestle each other than not
49:10
Speaker 1: be on the show at all. But I'm not really
49:12
Speaker 1: enamored with that idea. There is another idea that I
49:15
Speaker 1: floated on social media, and I know it's very pie
49:17
Speaker 1: in the sky and probably not going to happen, but
49:20
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where if it comes down
49:22
Speaker 1: to either him having a match or not having a match,
49:24
Speaker 1: I would much rather this be the match. Ilia Dragonov
49:28
Speaker 1: and Gunther have history together. They have history from NXT UK,
49:32
Speaker 1: from NXT. There's a lot of fans right now who
49:34
Speaker 1: may not be aware of it, but you could always
49:36
Speaker 1: educate them through video packages if need be. But they
49:40
Speaker 1: have history together, and they have had some fucking just
49:43
Speaker 1: brutal matches together, including one in front of no fans
49:48
Speaker 1: during the pandemic era where you could hear every slap,
49:52
Speaker 1: every chop, every grunt. You know. On the one hand,
49:56
Speaker 1: it's too bad that they couldn't do that match in
49:58
Speaker 1: front of a live audience, But on the other hand,
50:00
Speaker 1: there are some pros to that in terms of the
50:03
Speaker 1: soundtrack for the match was very unique and made it
50:07
Speaker 1: sound even more brutal. Somehow they bring out the best
50:12
Speaker 1: or the worst, I guess, depending on how you look
50:13
Speaker 1: at it in each other. Ilia. Dragonov has had his
50:17
Speaker 1: own story going out for many weeks where Carmelo Hayes
50:21
Speaker 1: would show up to SmackDown and expect that Dragonov was
50:25
Speaker 1: going to accept the open challenge for a rematch for
50:28
Speaker 1: the United States Championship, right that he lost, and Dragonov
50:33
Speaker 1: is always just coming up with excuses about how he's
50:35
Speaker 1: not ready, he doesn't deserve it. He's talked about being
50:38
Speaker 1: in his own head and I've got to get right.
50:41
Speaker 1: I'm just basically he's not in the right headspace. He's
50:44
Speaker 1: been ducking mellow for weeks with this nonsense, all these
50:47
Speaker 1: confidence issues, right, I gotta find myself and whatnot. And
50:52
Speaker 1: then on Friday night they went and did the match.
50:54
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I guess Dragonov was like, I'm ready,
50:57
Speaker 1: and this was a match that looked like maybe they
50:59
Speaker 1: were to get them to WrestleMania. They did it on
51:02
Speaker 1: SmackDown on Friday night, and it was the best part
51:04
Speaker 1: of the show on Friday. It certainly in terms of
51:06
Speaker 1: the n ring. They had an excellent match and Carmelo
51:10
Speaker 1: Hayes beat him, you know, fair and square in the
51:12
Speaker 1: middle of the ring, and it's like, okay, well, I mean,
51:15
Speaker 1: there's no real reason to run this back again. Or
51:18
Speaker 1: maybe just maybe they wrapped it up quickly because maybe
51:23
Speaker 1: this is an idea they're actually considering. But why not
51:25
Speaker 1: have Illia Dragon of migrate over to Monday Night Raw
51:28
Speaker 1: with permission from Nick Aldis, with the idea that he
51:34
Speaker 1: finally realized in order to rediscover the best version of
51:39
Speaker 1: himself and to try to get back to his winning ways,
51:43
Speaker 1: he figured out what he needed. He needed to challenge
51:46
Speaker 1: the man who has given him the toughest battles of
51:49
Speaker 1: his career. Boom match made just in terms of the
51:55
Speaker 1: most basic explanation that you could come up with for
51:58
Speaker 1: why these two would have a match of WrestleMania that
52:01
Speaker 1: works and you can work with that. You could even
52:04
Speaker 1: have Gunther say no, you're not worth my time and
52:07
Speaker 1: then build to him eventually accepting the challenge, because there's
52:10
Speaker 1: no need for Gunther to have a match for the
52:12
Speaker 1: Intercontinental title or be fighting for any championships of WrestleMania
52:15
Speaker 1: that he's not gonna win. So that's why I say, like,
52:20
Speaker 1: if he's gonna have an opponent one on one, and
52:22
Speaker 1: let's say it's not Seth Rollins and Ray is not
52:24
Speaker 1: back in time, why not ilia Dragonov, especially now that
52:28
Speaker 1: it looks like we may not be getting him in
52:30
Speaker 1: Mellow at WrestleMania for the US title because they already
52:33
Speaker 1: fucking gave it to us on Friday, which probably means
52:36
Speaker 1: dragon Of won't even be on the WrestleMania card. Put
52:40
Speaker 1: these two guys in the ring together, you have a
52:42
Speaker 1: story there. It's not just a random match. I mean,
52:45
Speaker 1: not totally random anyway, but you can actually build a
52:49
Speaker 1: story around this that ties into what Dragonov has been
52:51
Speaker 1: doing and saying on television now for the last couple
52:54
Speaker 1: of months. Let him go out there for fifteen minutes
52:57
Speaker 1: and have a fucking banger, and Gunther's gonna win. But
53:01
Speaker 1: even if Dragonoff goes out there and loses that match,
53:03
Speaker 1: if he brings Gunther to the brink, right, if they
53:06
Speaker 1: go out there and have the kind of match that
53:07
Speaker 1: you know those two can have, as far as Dragonoff goes,
53:11
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done, yeah, he lost but
53:14
Speaker 1: like he got his spark back, right, he found he
53:17
Speaker 1: found what has been missing even in defeat. Right, there's
53:21
Speaker 1: a lot you can learn about yourself. And then Dragonoff
53:23
Speaker 1: can kind of go on on SmackDown to do whatever
53:25
Speaker 1: they want to have him doing next. Why not, I'd
53:31
Speaker 1: love to see that match. I mentioned La Knight though.
53:34
Speaker 1: A little while ago, La Knight was in the news.
53:38
Speaker 1: He was doing an interview and he talked about that
53:43
Speaker 1: now infamous moment I guess. On the most recent season
53:45
Speaker 1: of WWE Unreal on Netflix, it was following the finish
53:49
Speaker 1: of the Men's Money in the Bank Ladder match. There
53:52
Speaker 1: was some stuff that was playing there at the end
53:54
Speaker 1: with him and Seth rollins on the ladder that did
53:56
Speaker 1: not go according to the plan. And when the match
54:00
Speaker 1: was over on Unreal, you see Triple H is sitting
54:03
Speaker 1: in the gorilla position and La Knight is kneeling down
54:07
Speaker 1: to listen to what he has to say because he
54:09
Speaker 1: has been summoned, and Triple H is being very animated
54:13
Speaker 1: in his response. It's not yelling at him, but he's
54:16
Speaker 1: kind of moving his hands around that he's he's explaining
54:19
Speaker 1: something to him. What he's explaining is what the finish
54:22
Speaker 1: was supposed to be and really what he was talking about.
54:26
Speaker 1: If you don't have the context, it looks like he's
54:28
Speaker 1: being reprimanded, he's being browbeaten and yelled at. But really
54:31
Speaker 1: it was just Triple H explaining, this is what we
54:33
Speaker 1: intended the finish to be, and here's why it was
54:36
Speaker 1: actually meant to help get you over even though you
54:39
Speaker 1: weren't gonna win. We were doing it in such a
54:42
Speaker 1: way that would keep you looking strong. That's basically what
54:44
Speaker 1: he was explaining to him. And the look on La
54:47
Speaker 1: Knight's face throughout all of this as he's listening to
54:49
Speaker 1: this and absorbing this and he's like biting his lip.
54:52
Speaker 1: He looks like a child who is being scolded by
54:55
Speaker 1: the school principle, and it just makes you feel bad
54:59
Speaker 1: for the guy. Well, La Knight had no idea that
55:01
Speaker 1: any of that stuff was being recorded and was going
55:04
Speaker 1: to make it onto the show, And so he did
55:07
Speaker 1: an interview with the bootleg keV podcast and he revealed
55:13
Speaker 1: that that moment on Unreal has led to him changing
55:16
Speaker 1: a few things about how he conducts himself backstage. He
55:20
Speaker 1: revealed that he no longer waits in the gorilla position
55:22
Speaker 1: after his matches, he goes right to the locker room
55:25
Speaker 1: and he doesn't speak to anybody at Gorilla because of
55:28
Speaker 1: what happened. He said, I have definitely shifted the way
55:31
Speaker 1: that I do some things. Because you had mentioned my
55:33
Speaker 1: appearance on Unreal. I was majorly holding my tongue in
55:37
Speaker 1: that scenario, if you could tell, because I had my
55:40
Speaker 1: own frustrations about that situation that partially had to do
55:44
Speaker 1: with the finish, but more so it had to do
55:46
Speaker 1: with an overarching theme that I don't need to get
55:49
Speaker 1: into the weeds about here. Read from that what you will,
55:54
Speaker 1: He said, I had no idea that I was on
55:56
Speaker 1: a microphone at that point in time, and so with
55:58
Speaker 1: that being the case, I don't even stop there in
56:01
Speaker 1: Gorilla anymore. When my match is over, my segment is over,
56:04
Speaker 1: I go straight through and I go to the locker room.
56:07
Speaker 1: If they want to talk to me about my match
56:09
Speaker 1: or whatever happened out there, sure let's talk about it
56:11
Speaker 1: when there's not a microphone or a camera around, because
56:16
Speaker 1: that's how it's always been. And with that being the case,
56:19
Speaker 1: and not going to stop in there and leave myself
56:21
Speaker 1: susceptible to that, good for him. He's not going to
56:26
Speaker 1: allow himself to be embarrassed because it was an embarrassing situation.
56:31
Speaker 1: The way people ran with it on social media, people
56:33
Speaker 1: twisted it into something that it wasn't necessarily but whether
56:37
Speaker 1: it was or it wasn't, it is not even really
56:39
Speaker 1: the point. It just made him look bad. He became
56:42
Speaker 1: a meme and he had no idea that he was
56:45
Speaker 1: being recorded at the time, you know, And like they
56:49
Speaker 1: tell the talent, look, just be aware, right, I'm sure
56:52
Speaker 1: they tell them, or they could just tell like there's
56:54
Speaker 1: cameras that are going to be generally around, But there
56:57
Speaker 1: are just certain moments like that where I can see
57:00
Speaker 1: you as a performer, if you're la Night not even
57:02
Speaker 1: giving a second thought to the fact that this conversation
57:05
Speaker 1: that you're you're crouched down in the corner here and
57:08
Speaker 1: you don't even realize that you're micd up. This whole
57:11
Speaker 1: conversation is going to be put on this Netflix show
57:13
Speaker 1: for the world to see. So one of the reasons
57:16
Speaker 1: that this show never should have been created in the
57:17
Speaker 1: first place. I mean, there are aspects of the show
57:20
Speaker 1: that I like, and it's nice to kind of be
57:22
Speaker 1: you know, let in a little bit more on how
57:24
Speaker 1: things work so you can have a better appreciation for it.
57:26
Speaker 1: But this is just voyeuristic bullshit that just creates this
57:31
Speaker 1: environment of just distrust with talent. In the back to Whed,
57:35
Speaker 1: they now have to wonder, is every conversation that we're
57:38
Speaker 1: having with our boss or with the agent being recorded
57:41
Speaker 1: and going to be thrown on television. I can't I
57:43
Speaker 1: can't be honest with them, or if they're a little
57:46
Speaker 1: too honest with me, people are going to see that.
57:48
Speaker 1: It's going to embarrass me. It's ridiculous. You know, there
57:52
Speaker 1: are certain moments where or certain places where those things
57:57
Speaker 1: should not be recorded, and certainly if they're going to
58:00
Speaker 1: be everybody in that room where in that conversation should
58:03
Speaker 1: be aware of that, and then they can make the
58:06
Speaker 1: call about whether or not they want that to make air.
58:09
Speaker 1: So I don't blame him for feeling that way. I
58:10
Speaker 1: would be upset too. And then on SmackDown, Cody Rhodes
58:15
Speaker 1: was not there coming off the heinous attack by Randy
58:18
Speaker 1: Orton the week before, but Orton was there. In fact,
58:20
Speaker 1: Orton was in multiple segments on the show. One of
58:23
Speaker 1: the things I liked about that show was how they
58:25
Speaker 1: kind of threaded the Orton stuff from not the beginning
58:29
Speaker 1: of the show, but when he came out to do
58:31
Speaker 1: his in ring promo, and then he was in several
58:33
Speaker 1: other segments in the closing ninety minutes or so that
58:38
Speaker 1: led to him putting a beat down on Matt Cardona.
58:42
Speaker 1: Because what had happened is Orton had come out earlier
58:44
Speaker 1: to cut his promo in the ring. We didn't learn
58:46
Speaker 1: a whole lot from the promo that we couldn't really
58:48
Speaker 1: surmise on our own watching the show the week before.
58:50
Speaker 1: Why he did what he did to Cody Rhoads, It
58:54
Speaker 1: was very simple. He thought he was wrestling Drew McIntyre
58:56
Speaker 1: or WrestleMania, and he knew that he had to go
58:59
Speaker 1: to that place, right that place he hasn't been to
59:02
Speaker 1: in a very long time, if he wanted to win
59:04
Speaker 1: Championship number fifteen. But then Cody went and took the
59:08
Speaker 1: belt back from Drew, and so now he was conflicted
59:10
Speaker 1: because he didn't want to murder his friend. What do
59:12
Speaker 1: I do? But when Cody said all those wonderful things
59:16
Speaker 1: about him and said I love you no matter what happens,
59:19
Speaker 1: it just it gave Orton permission and weight was lifted
59:22
Speaker 1: off his shoulders, and he did what he had to do.
59:25
Speaker 1: You know, he sent the message to Cody that he's
59:27
Speaker 1: willing to do whatever it takes to win the championship,
59:30
Speaker 1: not that he hates Cody or anything like that. Cody didn't.
59:33
Speaker 1: There wasn't like one thing that Cody said or did
59:35
Speaker 1: that made him like really angry or sent him off
59:38
Speaker 1: the deep end. It's just that I got to win
59:41
Speaker 1: number fifteen, and I got to go through you to
59:44
Speaker 1: do it, and it's just that simple. Didn't really come
59:47
Speaker 1: off as a very heel promo. But then in the
59:50
Speaker 1: back later, you know, he was confronted by Jelly Roll
59:53
Speaker 1: after Orton had bumped into Matt Cardona and he had,
59:57
Speaker 1: you know, knocked Cardona down and yelled at him and
1:00:01
Speaker 1: insulted him, called him a mark ass stooge and an
1:00:03
Speaker 1: indie nerd. Go play with your action figures. What a
1:00:07
Speaker 1: missed opportunity to tell him go play with your dolls.
1:00:11
Speaker 1: By the way, this is also like I can as
1:00:13
Speaker 1: I'm watching this, I get to see it in my head,
1:00:15
Speaker 1: like the conversation that was happening in the back before
1:00:17
Speaker 1: the show with Orton and Triple H or Triple H.
1:00:21
Speaker 1: He may have personally scripted that entire segment like that
1:00:24
Speaker 1: is just word for word what I am sure Triple
1:00:27
Speaker 1: H told him to say, and what Triple H actually
1:00:29
Speaker 1: believes and thinks of Matt Cardona in his head. I
1:00:34
Speaker 1: want you to go out there and call him an
1:00:35
Speaker 1: indie geek, and I want you to tell him go
1:00:37
Speaker 1: play with your fucking toys. Your toys. Eh. That was
1:00:42
Speaker 1: totally from Paula bec But then Orton was talking to
1:00:45
Speaker 1: Jelly Roll. He was like, man, you know, I really
1:00:47
Speaker 1: feel bad about what I did to Cardona. This was
1:00:50
Speaker 1: after Jelly did this whole like inspirational speech about this
1:00:53
Speaker 1: is not the Randy Orton. I know, this is not
1:00:55
Speaker 1: the great human being and the great father and husband
1:00:59
Speaker 1: that I've come to know. Oh, and Norton said, man,
1:01:02
Speaker 1: I feel bad. I've known this man for a long time.
1:01:04
Speaker 1: It didn't mean to do that. What should I do?
1:01:08
Speaker 1: And he was convinced that, Okay, I have to go
1:01:09
Speaker 1: out there and apologize and I have to make it right.
1:01:13
Speaker 1: You could see where this was going. Matt Cardona came
1:01:16
Speaker 1: off as the biggest buffoon in the world because he's
1:01:18
Speaker 1: the only one who couldn't see it coming. But he
1:01:20
Speaker 1: went out to the ring and Orton was apologizing to him.
1:01:22
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I called you a fucking fucking nerd. Hell
1:01:27
Speaker 1: I love playing video games, like I'm sorry, brother, And
1:01:31
Speaker 1: it all ended with Randy Orton kicking him in the
1:01:33
Speaker 1: dick and putting a beat down on him, just like
1:01:35
Speaker 1: he did to Cody. And then the best part of
1:01:37
Speaker 1: this entire thing, he gets him back in the ring
1:01:40
Speaker 1: after beating him up outside on the announced desk and
1:01:43
Speaker 1: he places his left arm in a chair. He's going
1:01:46
Speaker 1: to pelmanize the arm, and Orton gets pulled away by
1:01:49
Speaker 1: Nick all this and all of these officials, and Cardona
1:01:52
Speaker 1: is laying there. He's laying there, looking over at his
1:01:54
Speaker 1: arm and looking over at Orton, and there had to
1:01:57
Speaker 1: be a good twenty to thirty seconds that went by
1:02:00
Speaker 1: of him just laying there like that until Orton broke
1:02:04
Speaker 1: free and he came over and he stomped on the
1:02:06
Speaker 1: chair and he broke the man's arm. So it just
1:02:10
Speaker 1: looked so ridiculous. Again, this whole segment Will Show made
1:02:15
Speaker 1: Cardona look like such a geek. And I wouldn't be
1:02:17
Speaker 1: shocked if it was designed that way, but like, come on, dude,
1:02:21
Speaker 1: Like if you're gonna make him lay there for that
1:02:23
Speaker 1: long at least at least make him like remove the
1:02:26
Speaker 1: chair and then have Orton come back and put the
1:02:28
Speaker 1: chair back on his arm and then stomp the arm,
1:02:31
Speaker 1: Like what do you lay in there like that for
1:02:33
Speaker 1: for thirty seconds? You get exactly what you deserve. He
1:02:36
Speaker 1: got his arm broken. Good, he deserved it. But that's
1:02:40
Speaker 1: how SmackDown went off the air. Now we apparently know
1:02:42
Speaker 1: that Cody road is going to be back on the
1:02:44
Speaker 1: show this Friday, and Orton is supposedly going to apologize
1:02:46
Speaker 1: to Cody, and I would hope that Cody is not
1:02:49
Speaker 1: nearly as stupid as Cardona was. In that segment to
1:02:53
Speaker 1: Cody is going to be back on the show this week,
1:02:55
Speaker 1: Orton was largely cheered. I mean, there were no overwhelming
1:02:59
Speaker 1: booze for this man, even after he broke Cardona his
1:03:01
Speaker 1: arm one more time, one more time. That's what they
1:03:05
Speaker 1: were chanting. They were chanting, Randy. These people don't want
1:03:09
Speaker 1: to boo Randy Orton. Cody Rhoads is gonna show up
1:03:11
Speaker 1: on SmackDown this week. There's gonna be a mixed reaction.
1:03:14
Speaker 1: He's gonna get cheers. He's gonna get booze. We have
1:03:17
Speaker 1: seen Cody in this position before. We saw it in
1:03:19
Speaker 1: the feud with John Cena, we saw it with Drew McIntyre.
1:03:22
Speaker 1: There are those moments where Cody when he he knows
1:03:24
Speaker 1: when to turn it on and he can have that
1:03:27
Speaker 1: fiery baby face promo that really gets the fans on
1:03:30
Speaker 1: his side and wins them over. It doesn't mean they're
1:03:32
Speaker 1: gonna suddenly boo Randy Orton. But do I think that
1:03:36
Speaker 1: Cody is just going to be universally booed between now
1:03:38
Speaker 1: in WrestleMania. I don't. I think he can get the
1:03:40
Speaker 1: people on his side. WrestleMania may be a different story.
1:03:44
Speaker 1: I feel like a WrestleMania it's going to be very
1:03:47
Speaker 1: tilted towards Randy Orton. And again, I don't think they
1:03:51
Speaker 1: have a double turn planned or something, you know, bold
1:03:54
Speaker 1: and wild like that. I just don't see it. But
1:03:57
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a challenge, you know. Once they decided
1:03:59
Speaker 1: to make this match, they had to know that it
1:04:02
Speaker 1: was going to be a challenge. Maybe they don't care.
1:04:05
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't care. Maybe they're like, hey, let the
1:04:07
Speaker 1: fans cheer and boo whoever they want, as long as
1:04:09
Speaker 1: they're reacting and as long as they're excited for the match.
1:04:13
Speaker 1: But it's going to definitely be a challenge for Cody.
1:04:15
Speaker 1: I think to win more of these people over as
1:04:17
Speaker 1: time goes on. But as things stand right now, just
1:04:19
Speaker 1: based on what we've seen over the last couple of weeks,
1:04:22
Speaker 1: I'm more interested and excited now for Randy Orton and
1:04:24
Speaker 1: Cody Roads than I am for Roman Reigns in CM PUNK.
1:04:27
Speaker 1: It's like a total one to eighty from the way
1:04:30
Speaker 1: that I felt a couple of weeks ago. That's how
1:04:32
Speaker 1: quickly things were able to turn, and they could turn
1:04:34
Speaker 1: back just as quickly depending on what they do on
1:04:37
Speaker 1: TV this week and how they follow it up. But
1:04:40
Speaker 1: now things are getting more interesting when it comes to
1:04:42
Speaker 1: some of these matches on the Wrestle Media card. Good.
1:04:45
Speaker 1: This is what I've been waiting for. They just have
1:04:47
Speaker 1: to keep it going because we still have another four
1:04:50
Speaker 1: weeks left to go until we get there. Two more
1:04:53
Speaker 1: WWE notes here. Santos Escobar, who recently fairly recently returned
1:04:59
Speaker 1: to Triple A, is gone again that with an injury,
1:05:04
Speaker 1: and he just underwent surgery to repair a torn triceps.
1:05:07
Speaker 1: This was just days after wrestling in a fatal four
1:05:10
Speaker 1: way at the Triple A Ray de Rayis tournament final
1:05:14
Speaker 1: against El Grande Americano, the og El Grande Americano, Kaiser
1:05:21
Speaker 1: and Laparca, and according to a recent report from Fightful Select,
1:05:25
Speaker 1: Escobar participated in the Ray de rays final despite battling
1:05:30
Speaker 1: an existing injury which worsened during the week. The injury
1:05:34
Speaker 1: originally occurred on the NXT House show tour while he
1:05:37
Speaker 1: was working with l e Ho Del Doctor Wagner Junior
1:05:40
Speaker 1: during Royal Rumble weekend a couple of months ago. And
1:05:43
Speaker 1: obviously in the four way match, you could tell something
1:05:47
Speaker 1: was off with Escobar. Obviously the existing injury got a
1:05:50
Speaker 1: lot worse. I don't know if he was aware of
1:05:52
Speaker 1: how serious the injury was and just kept going with
1:05:54
Speaker 1: it and kept it quiet. Like I would like to
1:05:57
Speaker 1: know some more details here. We may not find out,
1:06:00
Speaker 1: but I'm curious to know exactly what he knew and when,
1:06:03
Speaker 1: because if he knew he had some sort of tear
1:06:05
Speaker 1: in his arm and didn't say something about it, I
1:06:06
Speaker 1: can understand him not wanting to, but that would have
1:06:09
Speaker 1: been pretty fucking stupid. So I would like to think
1:06:12
Speaker 1: that he didn't know, and maybe he just thought it
1:06:14
Speaker 1: was something minor, and obviously now it turned into something major,
1:06:18
Speaker 1: to the point where he had to undergo surgery this
1:06:21
Speaker 1: past week. I believe on Thursday is when he had
1:06:24
Speaker 1: his operation, and that's going to probably be at least
1:06:27
Speaker 1: a five or six month layout now for him. He's
1:06:29
Speaker 1: going to be gone for quite some time, and whatever
1:06:31
Speaker 1: creative plans they came up with for him with him
1:06:34
Speaker 1: and Wagner now are just out the window, or at
1:06:36
Speaker 1: least they're on hold for a very long period of time.
1:06:40
Speaker 1: But I watched that match and people in the live
1:06:42
Speaker 1: chat were shitting on the guy for being gassed, or
1:06:47
Speaker 1: he's no selling, he's no selling everything. Some people did
1:06:50
Speaker 1: seem to recognize that he was injured. I mean, he
1:06:52
Speaker 1: definitely looked off, especially there was a move at the
1:06:55
Speaker 1: very end there where Laparka rolled into a cutter that
1:07:00
Speaker 1: he delivered to Escobar, and it looked horrible. I mean Escobar,
1:07:06
Speaker 1: he basically just dropped to his knees. He didn't even
1:07:08
Speaker 1: really take the move, and again people were just shitting
1:07:11
Speaker 1: all over him. Oh my god, he looks terrible out there.
1:07:14
Speaker 1: But it was pretty clear something was off and he
1:07:16
Speaker 1: may have been hurt. I didn't know he had an
1:07:18
Speaker 1: existing injury that predated the match. I thought he just
1:07:20
Speaker 1: got hurt during the match, but evidently now we know otherwise.
1:07:24
Speaker 1: So best wishes to him. I mean it sucks, you know,
1:07:27
Speaker 1: he re signed with the company. They made him apparently
1:07:31
Speaker 1: some blowaway offer late last year, so instead of leaving,
1:07:34
Speaker 1: he decided to stay. And then months went by of nothing.
1:07:38
Speaker 1: It was like he fell through the cracks and they
1:07:40
Speaker 1: had forgotten that they had resigned him, and then all
1:07:43
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he pops back up and he's in
1:07:45
Speaker 1: triple A and it's only a matter of weeks and
1:07:47
Speaker 1: now he's out again. So it's a terrible situation, but
1:07:52
Speaker 1: hopefully he'll be able to come back at one hundred percent.
1:07:56
Speaker 1: And Evil. I have mentioned Evil before, Evil possibly coming
1:08:01
Speaker 1: to WWE because he is no longer with New Japan
1:08:04
Speaker 1: Pro Wrestling. Now we have a report from the Super
1:08:06
Speaker 1: j Cast that suggests the former IWGP World Heavyweight Championed
1:08:12
Speaker 1: as well as multiple time Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: are both very close to signing with WWE. Evil apparently
1:08:22
Speaker 1: wants to start in NXT to adjust to the WWE style,
1:08:26
Speaker 1: but WWE is said to be pushing for an immediate
1:08:29
Speaker 1: spot on the main roster, and Takahashi is supposedly tapped
1:08:33
Speaker 1: for an NXT start. So yeah, I mean Evil apparently
1:08:37
Speaker 1: has expressed interest in if he comes in starting with
1:08:41
Speaker 1: NXT instead of going to the main roster directly, and
1:08:44
Speaker 1: there are people that have have done the same thing.
1:08:46
Speaker 1: I think actually Maria Ay is one of those people.
1:08:49
Speaker 1: I think it was her choice to start with NXT
1:08:52
Speaker 1: because people just want to get their feet wet, they
1:08:55
Speaker 1: want to know how things work there, and it's probably
1:08:57
Speaker 1: worse for someone like Evil who's coming from a completely
1:09:00
Speaker 1: different country and a completely different way of doing things.
1:09:04
Speaker 1: You know, New Japan doesn't even have weekly television. At
1:09:06
Speaker 1: least Mariah May when she came over from AAW she
1:09:09
Speaker 1: was on television weekly and doing storylines. It's a very
1:09:13
Speaker 1: different type of culture. Shock if you're someone like Heromu
1:09:17
Speaker 1: or Evil who's coming over to WWE from where they were,
1:09:22
Speaker 1: so I can understand it if that's his mentality and
1:09:24
Speaker 1: why they're so insistent on him being on the main roster.
1:09:27
Speaker 1: I can't imagine him being earmarked for a major spot
1:09:30
Speaker 1: on the show. What the hell could be so urgent
1:09:33
Speaker 1: that they want him on the main roster and just
1:09:36
Speaker 1: completely bypassing NXT. I have no idea. The report also
1:09:40
Speaker 1: indicates that he would prefer to maintain his already established
1:09:44
Speaker 1: evil persona in WWE. Not with that name. He won't be.
1:09:51
Speaker 1: Not with Dan Housen calling himself very nice, very evil.
1:09:56
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Speaker 1: com slash Harmony. Tony Khan was in the news this
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Speaker 1: week for a bit of an old story here but
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Speaker 1: in case people weren't aware. Tony Khan was one of
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Speaker 1: many who made a bid for WWE during the sale
1:11:40
Speaker 1: process back in twenty twenty three. He tried to acquire
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Speaker 1: World Wrestling Entertainment. Can you imagine if Tony Khan had
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Speaker 1: bought WWE? The segments on Dynamite him standing in the ring.
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Speaker 1: He did that for Ring of Honor when he bought
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Speaker 1: Ring of Honor. The name on the contract, remember then
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Speaker 1: it wasn't Shane, and he announced that he had acquired
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Speaker 1: Ring of Honor. Imagine what he would do if he
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Speaker 1: had successfully bought WWE, which there was zero percent chance
1:12:08
Speaker 1: by the way, of that ever happening. But let's just
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Speaker 1: say he did. Oh my god, the meltdown on social media.
1:12:14
Speaker 1: I would have made five bags of popcorn and sat here,
1:12:18
Speaker 1: and it would have been awful. By the way. I
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Speaker 1: don't care what you think of Tony Khan, how big
1:12:22
Speaker 1: of a wrestling fan he is, or how good he
1:12:24
Speaker 1: may or may not be for the wrestling business. Right
1:12:26
Speaker 1: he's got his fans, he's got his detractors. All that
1:12:30
Speaker 1: power being consolidated in the hands of one person would
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Speaker 1: be fucking awful. So I think that would have been
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Speaker 1: postwrestling dot Com. Base ten, a company backed by aw
1:12:45
Speaker 1: owner Tony Khan, placed a bid on WWE when it
1:12:48
Speaker 1: was up for sale in twenty twenty three. According to
1:12:51
Speaker 1: court filings, the merger and acquisition process, which was ultimately
1:12:55
Speaker 1: won by Endeavor, is the subject of an ongoing shareholder lawsuit.
1:12:58
Speaker 1: The complaint originally filed in November of twenty twenty three,
1:13:02
Speaker 1: has recently been unredacted. Answers legal responses from the defendants
1:13:07
Speaker 1: to each paragraph of the complaint have also been unredacted.
1:13:11
Speaker 1: Those responses deny various aspects of the lawsuit's allegations, but
1:13:15
Speaker 1: affirmed the identities of the bidders, thereby disclosing the key
1:13:18
Speaker 1: suitors for WWE when it was put up for sale.
1:13:21
Speaker 1: In addition to Cohn's company an eventual winner, Endeavor, the
1:13:25
Speaker 1: bidders were Formula one parent Liberty Media, and private equity
1:13:29
Speaker 1: firm KKR. Liberty and KKR were widely understood to have
1:13:33
Speaker 1: made offers based on prior reporting in public filings, but
1:13:36
Speaker 1: this confirms both their participation and which bid prices correspond
1:13:41
Speaker 1: to each. Cohn's base ten bid, however, is public for
1:13:45
Speaker 1: the first time. The shareholders alleged that the merger process
1:13:49
Speaker 1: was unfair, that Endeavor was pre selected by McMahon because
1:13:53
Speaker 1: Endeavour's lead executive Ari Emmanuel assured McMahon's future with the company.
1:13:58
Speaker 1: The defendants deny that apt allegation, although Tony, by the way,
1:14:02
Speaker 1: the Ari Emanuel, who was in the news this week
1:14:05
Speaker 1: for allegedly pressuring the President to settle or force a
1:14:10
Speaker 1: settlement of the Ticketmaster Live Nation law suit. There was
1:14:15
Speaker 1: a class action suit that was about to go to trial,
1:14:18
Speaker 1: right because everyone's such a big fan of the big
1:14:20
Speaker 1: ticket Master Live Nation monopoly, and Ari Emanuel apparently wanted
1:14:25
Speaker 1: to see that settled. So thanks Ari. Although Tony Khan
1:14:29
Speaker 1: is not mentioned by naming the complaint, Base ten and
1:14:32
Speaker 1: All Elite Wrestling are, and their connection is made clear.
1:14:35
Speaker 1: The filing states Base ten is the owner of All
1:14:38
Speaker 1: Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion that plainly would enjoy
1:14:42
Speaker 1: significant synergies with WWE, while the complaint describes Base ten
1:14:47
Speaker 1: as the owner of AAW to be exact. Legal filings
1:14:50
Speaker 1: unrelated to this lawsuit show that AAW's parent company is
1:14:53
Speaker 1: a separate Con Family entity, beat Nick Investments. Both AW
1:14:58
Speaker 1: and Base ten are owned by by Con Family members,
1:15:01
Speaker 1: aside from a minority stake in the company held by
1:15:04
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery. Defendants in the shareholder class action lawsuit
1:15:08
Speaker 1: are McMahon, WWE President Nick con no relation to Tony Kahn,
1:15:13
Speaker 1: Chief content officer Paul Levec and former board members and
1:15:17
Speaker 1: executives George Barrios and Michelle Wilson. McMahon has separate legal
1:15:21
Speaker 1: representation from the rest of the defendants, the latter of
1:15:24
Speaker 1: whom are alleged to have cooperated with McMahon in violation
1:15:27
Speaker 1: of their fiduciary duties to shareholders. In their formal answers
1:15:31
Speaker 1: to the lawsuit filed under Seal more than a year
1:15:34
Speaker 1: ago and fully unredacted, now, for the first time, the
1:15:37
Speaker 1: non McMahon defendants affirmed the identities of the bidders and
1:15:41
Speaker 1: per share prices they respectively bid for WWE. Brandon Thurston's
1:15:47
Speaker 1: analysis shows that the offer in question from Cohn was
1:15:50
Speaker 1: the lowest of the four, valuing WWE at about six
1:15:54
Speaker 1: point nine billion dollars. The competing bids were significantly higher
1:15:58
Speaker 1: Endeavor at eight point biter five billion, Liberty Media between
1:16:02
Speaker 1: eight and a half and eight point nine billion, and
1:16:04
Speaker 1: KKR between eight and eight point seven billion. Structurally, Endeavor's
1:16:09
Speaker 1: bids stood out because it was an all stock transaction,
1:16:12
Speaker 1: meaning investors would receive TKO shares instead of cash. The
1:16:15
Speaker 1: other three offers were cash deals, while the bids other
1:16:19
Speaker 1: than base tens are overlapping in monetary value. Plaintiffs alleged
1:16:22
Speaker 1: that the competing offers, especially from Liberty and KKR, were
1:16:27
Speaker 1: not allowed to fully develop, precluding a truly competitive process
1:16:30
Speaker 1: in which the bidding would have gone higher. Both sets
1:16:33
Speaker 1: of defendants deny that claim and many of the suits
1:16:37
Speaker 1: other allegations the bids of Endeavor, KKR, and Liberty were
1:16:41
Speaker 1: strong enough that those parties were granted access to a
1:16:44
Speaker 1: data room where they had access to non public information
1:16:47
Speaker 1: about WWE, a standard practice at that stage of any
1:16:51
Speaker 1: major merger and acquisition process. There's no information in WWE's
1:16:55
Speaker 1: regulatory filings or material related to the merger to indicate
1:17:00
Speaker 1: that Tony Khan or any Base ten representative had access
1:17:03
Speaker 1: to that data room, possibly because Base Ten's offer was
1:17:06
Speaker 1: decisively the lowest of the four, so it did not
1:17:10
Speaker 1: advance in the bidding process. It is unclear whether aew
1:17:13
Speaker 1: status as a competitor to WWE was a factor. Oh,
1:17:17
Speaker 1: I'll bet it was. They don't want they don't want
1:17:20
Speaker 1: him having access to any information that's non public. The
1:17:24
Speaker 1: lawsuit over the merger is set to go to trial
1:17:26
Speaker 1: in June. If the plaintiffs prevail, they could win monetary
1:17:30
Speaker 1: damages that would be paid out to investors who held
1:17:32
Speaker 1: WWE shares during the relevant period. So how about that, you,
1:17:39
Speaker 1: Matt again, just picture that Tony Khan, who is running
1:17:44
Speaker 1: the number two largest and most successful wrestling promotion in
1:17:48
Speaker 1: the worlds or certainly in the country, ends up buying
1:17:52
Speaker 1: out Ring of Honor a number of years ago, and
1:17:54
Speaker 1: Ring of Honor has not really been you know, number
1:17:57
Speaker 1: number three or four for some time now. I mean
1:18:01
Speaker 1: maybe by default they would have been. But he buys
1:18:03
Speaker 1: that Ring of Honor, which was a dead promotion, and
1:18:07
Speaker 1: then I don't know how long after that, when did
1:18:09
Speaker 1: he buy Ring of Honor. Was that twenty twenty one
1:18:12
Speaker 1: or twenty twenty two. I think it might have been
1:18:14
Speaker 1: twenty one, So like two years later, let's say he
1:18:16
Speaker 1: tries to buy WWE again. I just get I just
1:18:22
Speaker 1: cannot imagine the shit stom that that would create, just
1:18:25
Speaker 1: on social media and the tribalism and everything. Oh my god,
1:18:30
Speaker 1: it would be. On the one hand, it would be
1:18:32
Speaker 1: so much fun to watch, but on the other hand,
1:18:34
Speaker 1: it would be just so awful because I don't care
1:18:36
Speaker 1: if you're if you are the nicest person in the world,
1:18:40
Speaker 1: or you have the greatest of intentions, or you're the
1:18:42
Speaker 1: biggest wrestling geek on the planet. No one entity, no
1:18:46
Speaker 1: one company person, I don't care who you are, should
1:18:50
Speaker 1: have that much control over one industry. I mean he would.
1:18:54
Speaker 1: He would dominate the wrestling industry. Tony Kahn would be
1:18:56
Speaker 1: the wrestling industry at that point. And you cannot be
1:19:00
Speaker 1: taken seriously as someone who was against the idea of,
1:19:04
Speaker 1: you know, monopolies or consolidating too much power of one
1:19:07
Speaker 1: place and be okay with something like that. You could
1:19:09
Speaker 1: be the biggest aw siko in the world and you
1:19:12
Speaker 1: might have a nice laugh at this, but even they
1:19:14
Speaker 1: would have to agree that this would have been a
1:19:16
Speaker 1: terrible thing, although we would have gotten one hell of
1:19:19
Speaker 1: a forbidden door pay per view out of it. As
1:19:22
Speaker 1: far as the rest of this stuff goes in the lawsuit, look,
1:19:25
Speaker 1: it's not about anything other than what you can prove.
1:19:28
Speaker 1: I don't know how this case is going to go,
1:19:29
Speaker 1: but it was pretty clear if you just paid any
1:19:31
Speaker 1: attention to this process, that there was something going on
1:19:34
Speaker 1: behind the scenes where you know, Vince McMahon saw a
1:19:38
Speaker 1: path through Ari, his friend Ari Emmanuel, and endeavor to
1:19:41
Speaker 1: sell the company for all this money and have a
1:19:44
Speaker 1: pathway where he could remain in power in some form
1:19:46
Speaker 1: or fashion, and that ended up not being the case
1:19:49
Speaker 1: strictly because of one person, and that person was Janelle Grant.
1:19:52
Speaker 1: If that lawsuit doesn't drop in twenty twenty four, Vince
1:19:55
Speaker 1: McMahon is still very much involved in TKO and wwa period.
1:20:00
Speaker 1: End of story. You know, he wanted to make the
1:20:03
Speaker 1: deal where he felt it would be advantageous to him
1:20:07
Speaker 1: most of all, where it would keep him in power.
1:20:11
Speaker 1: Whatever that looked like, maybe not, you know, in creative
1:20:13
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be sitting in Gorilla every week, although maybe
1:20:17
Speaker 1: eventually he would have made a return there. But that's
1:20:20
Speaker 1: why he made the deal that he did. You know,
1:20:21
Speaker 1: was there an understanding beforehand? Yeah? I believe there probably was.
1:20:25
Speaker 1: Can they prove that though? I guess that's what the
1:20:29
Speaker 1: trial will determine. Unless there's some sort of settlement, we'll
1:20:32
Speaker 1: find out. Aw Revolution last Sunday was an excellent show.
1:20:37
Speaker 1: I've already said my piece on the length of these
1:20:40
Speaker 1: shows and the repetitiveness of the blood and some of
1:20:42
Speaker 1: the stuff they do. You know, where every match on
1:20:44
Speaker 1: the card from the top all the way to the bottom,
1:20:48
Speaker 1: you know, is worked like it's the main event at
1:20:50
Speaker 1: the Tokyo Dome. Brian Danielson on commentary during the main event,
1:20:54
Speaker 1: said that AW should put a moratorium on Texas death
1:20:57
Speaker 1: matches for a while. I concur I mean, after what
1:21:01
Speaker 1: MJF and Hangman did to each other, I'm not sure
1:21:03
Speaker 1: how you even topped that sort of thing outside of
1:21:06
Speaker 1: shooting someone in the head or throwing a Molotov cocktail
1:21:08
Speaker 1: at them. And AAW introduced Molotov cocktails as a weapon
1:21:13
Speaker 1: in their Fight Forever game, so I wouldn't put it
1:21:16
Speaker 1: past them to try. But then we had the worst
1:21:19
Speaker 1: Dynamite of the year, coming off a hot show like
1:21:22
Speaker 1: they had last Sunday. It was like night and day
1:21:24
Speaker 1: watching that show on Wednesday. MJF was not on Dynamite physically.
1:21:30
Speaker 1: There were quite a few names missing from the show,
1:21:32
Speaker 1: as is usually the case after a pay per view
1:21:34
Speaker 1: where all of these guys just go out there and
1:21:36
Speaker 1: kill themselves. But the pre tape promo from MJF backstage
1:21:40
Speaker 1: of Revolution I thought after his match was great stuff.
1:21:44
Speaker 1: He was still all bloodied up and just sitting there
1:21:47
Speaker 1: leaning up against the wall. He said he owned the
1:21:50
Speaker 1: greatest dog collar match of all time, the greatest iron
1:21:54
Speaker 1: man match of all time, and now the greatest Texas
1:21:57
Speaker 1: Deathmatch in AW history. He's not wrong. Check check check
1:22:03
Speaker 1: on all three. Certainly in terms of AAW he checks
1:22:06
Speaker 1: all three. But who's next? Hangman is done for now.
1:22:11
Speaker 1: He can never challenge again for the AW World title,
1:22:13
Speaker 1: which is a very stupid thing to do. But he
1:22:16
Speaker 1: is taking time off now, says Fightful, and we're not
1:22:19
Speaker 1: going to be seeing him for a while. They did
1:22:21
Speaker 1: announce that Swerve Strickland is number one contender for the
1:22:24
Speaker 1: AW World title. Kenny Omega, though, who returned at Revolution
1:22:27
Speaker 1: but also wasn't there on Dynamite. He did a pre
1:22:30
Speaker 1: tape promo challenging Swerve to a rematch between the two
1:22:32
Speaker 1: of them where Swerve would put his number one contendership
1:22:35
Speaker 1: on the line, and in order for that to make
1:22:38
Speaker 1: any sense at all, Kenny is going to have to
1:22:40
Speaker 1: put something on the line too, right when you hear that,
1:22:43
Speaker 1: which is why they felt the need to have Swerve
1:22:44
Speaker 1: go out there and challenge him to put his EVP
1:22:47
Speaker 1: power on the line in their match, because otherwise, I mean,
1:22:51
Speaker 1: Swerve would have looked like a fucking idiot for saying, yes,
1:22:54
Speaker 1: oh girl, sure, I'll put my guaranteed shot at the
1:22:56
Speaker 1: world championship on the line against you, Kenny, who, like,
1:23:00
Speaker 1: why would he do that? Because you politely asked, Yeah,
1:23:06
Speaker 1: take your request and stick it up your ass. You
1:23:10
Speaker 1: want that, You're gonna have to put something sweet on
1:23:12
Speaker 1: the line. You gonna have to sweeten the pot in
1:23:13
Speaker 1: some way. He wants Kenny's EVP power. Now they haven't
1:23:18
Speaker 1: explained exactly what that entails beyond I guess the power
1:23:22
Speaker 1: to make matches. I guess. I mean, does he get
1:23:25
Speaker 1: a pay raise? Does he get his own parking spot?
1:23:29
Speaker 1: Does he get healthcare? In a four oh one? K right?
1:23:32
Speaker 1: I mean he would be an employee. He should, He
1:23:34
Speaker 1: should get all the benefits of being an employee, all
1:23:36
Speaker 1: the things that the talent don't get unless you're an EVP.
1:23:41
Speaker 1: We don't know, but the match has been made official.
1:23:43
Speaker 1: It will take place this Wednesday on Dynamite. So it
1:23:46
Speaker 1: looks like whoever wins is gonna get the shot at
1:23:48
Speaker 1: Dynasty next month in Vancouver. Kenny challenging for the world
1:23:52
Speaker 1: title in Canada. Man, it's very appealing, but there's storyline
1:23:56
Speaker 1: potential in Swerve becoming an EVP and just going around
1:24:00
Speaker 1: wreaking havoc on the show and getting revenge and all
1:24:03
Speaker 1: the people that have wronged him in the past. Darby Allen.
1:24:08
Speaker 1: He beat Gabe Kid in a coffin match on Wednesday.
1:24:12
Speaker 1: The dogs have already been put to sleep. They lost
1:24:15
Speaker 1: on Sunday, Kid lost on Wednesday. It's a hell of
1:24:18
Speaker 1: a week for those guys. What is there to say
1:24:21
Speaker 1: about the match that I didn't already say on Wednesday
1:24:24
Speaker 1: in the most entertaining way I could possibly think of.
1:24:28
Speaker 1: The stuff outside of the parking lot was pretty wild.
1:24:30
Speaker 1: I mean, Darby threw him in the trunk of his car.
1:24:33
Speaker 1: He drove the car over a ramp that flipped the
1:24:35
Speaker 1: car over. Then in the arena he put Kid in
1:24:39
Speaker 1: a straight jacket, which is where Darby belongs. There was blood,
1:24:44
Speaker 1: there was biting. I mean, we got all that in
1:24:46
Speaker 1: the Texas Death Match, So I mean this just seemed
1:24:48
Speaker 1: tame by comparison. Outside of the car stuff, every match
1:24:52
Speaker 1: on these shows feels like a Texas Death Match. But
1:24:55
Speaker 1: when it was over, Darby put MJF on notice said
1:24:59
Speaker 1: he's coming for that World Championship, So we can add
1:25:02
Speaker 1: Darby to the list of upcoming challengers for MJF. Will
1:25:07
Speaker 1: Osprey made his return at Revolution and then he had
1:25:10
Speaker 1: his return match on Dynamite against Blake Christian. Yeah, Tony
1:25:17
Speaker 1: Kahan getting Osprey back at the exact moment. By the
1:25:20
Speaker 1: way that they put tickets on sale for their return
1:25:22
Speaker 1: to Wembley Stadium was rather fortuitous, I would say. After
1:25:27
Speaker 1: the first day of the public on sale for all
1:25:30
Speaker 1: in London, the company moved nearly twenty thousand tickets on
1:25:35
Speaker 1: a setup of thirty seven thousand. Now that will obviously
1:25:38
Speaker 1: be increased as they sell more tickets, they'll open up
1:25:40
Speaker 1: more sections. It does not mean they are only expecting
1:25:44
Speaker 1: thirty seven thousand people to attend the show. Yeah, their
1:25:47
Speaker 1: first time there, the novelty of it all, their first
1:25:50
Speaker 1: stadium show, their first big show in the UK. They
1:25:54
Speaker 1: sold somewhere between seventy and eighty thousand tickets. I don't
1:25:58
Speaker 1: even I've given up to figure out what the fucking
1:26:01
Speaker 1: number was. I mean, I've heard, oh, no, it was
1:26:03
Speaker 1: eighty thousand, and then it's like, no, it was actually
1:26:05
Speaker 1: seventy two thousand. No, it was seventy five thousand. Fucking
1:26:08
Speaker 1: will Ospray went and got I think adyk tattooed on
1:26:11
Speaker 1: his body like why why whatever? The number was seventy thousand,
1:26:19
Speaker 1: eighty thousand. It was very impressive. Their second time at
1:26:22
Speaker 1: Wembley they were down to about fifty thousand, which is
1:26:26
Speaker 1: still a big success. I mean, you sell fifty thousand
1:26:28
Speaker 1: tickets to a stadium show, right, but not nearly as
1:26:30
Speaker 1: impressive as the first time. I don't know that they'll
1:26:34
Speaker 1: even hit that mark again, right. We'll see how fast
1:26:36
Speaker 1: tickets move once they started announcing matches for the show.
1:26:38
Speaker 1: We'll see if Osprey is in the main event and
1:26:40
Speaker 1: how much of a draw he really is. I think
1:26:43
Speaker 1: forty thousand. Honestly, if they could hit forty thousand, I
1:26:46
Speaker 1: think that would be a number they should be happy with.
1:26:49
Speaker 1: Ospray didn't do much in the match. He let Blake
1:26:52
Speaker 1: Christian do most of the flashy stuff. But after he won,
1:26:55
Speaker 1: Osprey sent a message to John Moxley and the Death
1:26:58
Speaker 1: Riders that he won't need a weapon to break someone's neck.
1:27:02
Speaker 1: He'll do it with his bare fucking hands. And this
1:27:07
Speaker 1: all ended with Pack locking him in the Brutalizer. Osprey
1:27:11
Speaker 1: then jump Pack in the aisle as he was leaving,
1:27:13
Speaker 1: and the two of them fought off to the back.
1:27:14
Speaker 1: So it's going to be one of these deals where
1:27:16
Speaker 1: he may have to work his way through different members
1:27:18
Speaker 1: of the Death Riders before he gets to Moxley. I
1:27:21
Speaker 1: think the goal should be the aw world title, not
1:27:24
Speaker 1: the continental title. You know, they were lucky enough to
1:27:27
Speaker 1: get him back in time for the Owen which is
1:27:29
Speaker 1: coming up in a few months, and then Wembley. I
1:27:31
Speaker 1: don't know why you wouldn't want to tell that story
1:27:33
Speaker 1: of him challenging for the world title. Adam Copeland and
1:27:38
Speaker 1: Christian Cage they came back as well at Revolution and
1:27:41
Speaker 1: then they came out on Dynamite to confront the Young Bucks,
1:27:45
Speaker 1: and Copeland said that they respect the hell out of
1:27:48
Speaker 1: the Bucks, and they're telling them, you know, don't don't
1:27:51
Speaker 1: hang your heads in shame ever, you know, because they've
1:27:54
Speaker 1: failed to beat FTR Revolution. He's telling them all these things,
1:27:59
Speaker 1: and he said, all that being said, we can relate
1:28:02
Speaker 1: to what you're going through because FTR didn't just attack
1:28:05
Speaker 1: you and your family, they attacked my wife as well.
1:28:09
Speaker 1: And he claimed that, you know, they've been waiting to
1:28:11
Speaker 1: find out if Beth was going to need some sort
1:28:13
Speaker 1: of spinal fusion surgery. And now that they're out of
1:28:18
Speaker 1: the woods on that, he's decided to come back for revenge,
1:28:21
Speaker 1: but it's not about breaking bones or anything like that.
1:28:24
Speaker 1: It's about taking the aw tag team titles. And at
1:28:27
Speaker 1: Dynasty in Vancouver, it's going to be FTR defending their
1:28:31
Speaker 1: championships against Cope and Christian, So that match is a
1:28:35
Speaker 1: Fish's one of the few matches right now that is
1:28:37
Speaker 1: actually if it might be the only match right now
1:28:39
Speaker 1: that's official for Dynasty. And you know, FTR came out
1:28:45
Speaker 1: with Stokely and Stokely sent them to the ring. They
1:28:48
Speaker 1: got their asses kicked. They had this visual at the
1:28:50
Speaker 1: end where Cope and Matt Jackson picked up one of
1:28:54
Speaker 1: the tag belts at the same time, and then Christian
1:28:57
Speaker 1: Nick did the same thing and they allowed Cope and
1:29:00
Speaker 1: to have the belts. They wanted to establish that there's
1:29:04
Speaker 1: going to be some combination of matches with these three
1:29:06
Speaker 1: teams in the months ahead. My guess is it will
1:29:09
Speaker 1: all culminate in a three way match with all of
1:29:11
Speaker 1: them involved in the same match, probably at Wembley at
1:29:14
Speaker 1: all In we don't have a lot that's obvious for
1:29:17
Speaker 1: Dynasty right now, and the show is three weeks away.
1:29:20
Speaker 1: Cop and Christian against the Bucks. That's about the only
1:29:22
Speaker 1: thing that's official we don't know who's wrestling MJF, although
1:29:26
Speaker 1: I presume we'll know after Omegan Swerve have their match
1:29:30
Speaker 1: this week Ospray against Moxley. It could be a direction
1:29:34
Speaker 1: unless they do Ospray against Pack on the pay per
1:29:37
Speaker 1: view and not before. Andrede Alitelo he was paid off
1:29:42
Speaker 1: this week to take out Darby Allen as a favorite
1:29:44
Speaker 1: to MJF, so Androde against Darby could be on that
1:29:48
Speaker 1: show as well. I don't know, We'll see how it
1:29:50
Speaker 1: plays out this week. But the other big thing that
1:29:53
Speaker 1: happened to Revolution last Sunday was the surprise appearance by
1:29:57
Speaker 1: Ronda Rousey. We had Ronda Rowsey making her a debut.
1:30:01
Speaker 1: This was after timeless Tony Storm beat Marina Shaffir. Ronda
1:30:06
Speaker 1: shows up and Tony's not even in the ring, right,
1:30:10
Speaker 1: She's on stage and Ronda suddenly is in the ring.
1:30:12
Speaker 1: And Ronda lives out in La so for her, she
1:30:15
Speaker 1: didn't have to travel very far. Actually, the one time
1:30:18
Speaker 1: I think she did something with Ring of Honor, she
1:30:20
Speaker 1: did a tag match. It was her and Marina Shaffir
1:30:22
Speaker 1: actually as a team. I believe that might have been
1:30:25
Speaker 1: also on the West Coast. Maybe she just doesn't want
1:30:28
Speaker 1: to travel. Maybe anytime aw comes to La Ronda will decide,
1:30:33
Speaker 1: you know what, I think I'd like to do something
1:30:35
Speaker 1: here on these shows. But Tony came back to the ring.
1:30:39
Speaker 1: We had a brief face off, they had to be separated.
1:30:42
Speaker 1: Marina Shaffir caught Tony with a sucker punch that knocked
1:30:45
Speaker 1: her out, and Marina left with Ronda, and the two
1:30:49
Speaker 1: of them have been friends for years. You know, Ronda
1:30:51
Speaker 1: has done three wrestling matches in the last three years
1:30:54
Speaker 1: since leaving WWE. One of them was for Ring of Honor,
1:30:57
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, but all three of them have been
1:31:00
Speaker 1: matches with Marina Shaffir. So if Ronda Rowsey was going
1:31:03
Speaker 1: to do anything in this company, it would likely be
1:31:07
Speaker 1: with her. But that's if Ronda wrestles at all, which
1:31:10
Speaker 1: wouldn't happen anyway, because Ronda's got a big Netflix fight
1:31:13
Speaker 1: coming up on May sixteenth with Gina Carano. Ronda has
1:31:17
Speaker 1: not even fought anybody in over a decade. Gina Carano,
1:31:21
Speaker 1: my god, I mean at the last time she had
1:31:23
Speaker 1: a fight, God, what year was it, two thousand and nine.
1:31:28
Speaker 1: So they put this this attraction together because Dana White
1:31:31
Speaker 1: and UFC they were like, yeah, no thanks, and so
1:31:34
Speaker 1: now they have Jake Paul's promotion is putting this together
1:31:38
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be this massive event because you know,
1:31:40
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of eyeballs on that show.
1:31:43
Speaker 1: But I'm like, I'm watching this and it just it
1:31:45
Speaker 1: felt like, Okay, we're gonna get either a match with
1:31:47
Speaker 1: Ronda and Tony at some point or a tag match
1:31:50
Speaker 1: with her and Marina against Tony and Mina Sirikal. That
1:31:54
Speaker 1: appears to be off the table now because we had
1:31:57
Speaker 1: a report from Fight Full that timeless use Tony Storm
1:32:00
Speaker 1: is expected to be out of action for a very
1:32:02
Speaker 1: long time. They say aw is prepared for her to
1:32:05
Speaker 1: not be cleared to wrestle through twenty twenty six at
1:32:09
Speaker 1: a minimum. Now, that is without any word as to
1:32:12
Speaker 1: what the injury or the issue may be, if it
1:32:14
Speaker 1: even is an injury. A lot of people speculating she
1:32:17
Speaker 1: could be pregnant and only just found out about it.
1:32:21
Speaker 1: It's not a huge leap. I mean, just look at
1:32:23
Speaker 1: the way that was worded. Company is prepared for her
1:32:27
Speaker 1: not to be cleared to wrestle through twenty twenty six
1:32:30
Speaker 1: at a minimum, Like, what does that mean? Like it's
1:32:34
Speaker 1: the way it was phrased, I guess the way it
1:32:35
Speaker 1: was told to them. It certainly raises some eyebrows as
1:32:40
Speaker 1: to what this could really be about, but right now
1:32:43
Speaker 1: that's all it is. It's just speculation. But she's out.
1:32:47
Speaker 1: They shot an angle backstage where Tony was found laying
1:32:51
Speaker 1: unconscious with a pool of blood on the floor next
1:32:53
Speaker 1: to her head. So we got a who done at angle,
1:32:56
Speaker 1: who attacked Tony's Storm? Mina took her place in her
1:33:00
Speaker 1: no holds barred match that Tony was supposed to have
1:33:02
Speaker 1: with Marina on Wednesday, and she won. Mina actually won.
1:33:08
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll eventually find out it was Mina who attacked
1:33:11
Speaker 1: Tony Storm. For the time being, she's gonna steal all
1:33:14
Speaker 1: of her glory, so there will be no Tony Storm
1:33:17
Speaker 1: match tag team or otherwise with Ronda Rousey, which means
1:33:21
Speaker 1: there probably won't be any matches with Ronda Rousey and
1:33:25
Speaker 1: Dave Meltzer is saying it's all part of Ronda's vendetta
1:33:28
Speaker 1: with TKO and them passing on her fight with Gina.
1:33:32
Speaker 1: Her showing up in aw may have just been a
1:33:34
Speaker 1: way to needle them and get under their skin, you know, what.
1:33:39
Speaker 1: I hope that's all it is. Honestly, AW does not
1:33:42
Speaker 1: need Ronda Rowsey. I can understand. I can understand Tony
1:33:45
Speaker 1: Khin wanting to use her for publicity because Ronda's gonna
1:33:50
Speaker 1: go in there on May sixteenth and have this fight
1:33:51
Speaker 1: with Gene. It's gonna do big numbers on Netflix and
1:33:54
Speaker 1: if that does big box office, and especially if Ronda wins.
1:34:00
Speaker 1: I can see Tony Kahn saying, I want to be
1:34:01
Speaker 1: in the Ronda Rowsei business, and that might just be
1:34:05
Speaker 1: in appearance, it might be one match, whatever it is,
1:34:08
Speaker 1: if he knows that it will get attention for his
1:34:10
Speaker 1: company with someone who is in the news and just
1:34:14
Speaker 1: had this big fight and won or made all this
1:34:17
Speaker 1: money and they maybe they're going to do another one.
1:34:19
Speaker 1: I can understand him wanting to do something with Ronda Rowsey.
1:34:22
Speaker 1: AW does not need Ronda ROUSI. Her last run in
1:34:27
Speaker 1: WWE was fucking terrible. It's not all her fault. WWE
1:34:31
Speaker 1: deserves a lot of the blame for that as well,
1:34:34
Speaker 1: but she was not used well, she did not come
1:34:36
Speaker 1: off well. It was a very forgettable, very bad run.
1:34:41
Speaker 1: And she's going to come into AW and do what
1:34:45
Speaker 1: what's she gonna do. I mean, you could just save
1:34:49
Speaker 1: her for the occasional special match you get one or
1:34:52
Speaker 1: two out of it. You don't want her doing too
1:34:55
Speaker 1: much on TV. That's what did her in in the
1:34:57
Speaker 1: last WWE run. She was exposed. You don't want to
1:35:01
Speaker 1: expose her. You don't want to overexpose her. I don't
1:35:04
Speaker 1: think that Ronda Rousey is somebody that you know, the
1:35:06
Speaker 1: sickos in his hardcore fan base though really care to see.
1:35:10
Speaker 1: And the one thing about Tony con did say, which
1:35:12
Speaker 1: you want to about the guy, but he knows what
1:35:15
Speaker 1: that audience wants. He knows what his audience is looking for,
1:35:20
Speaker 1: what they like, what they don't like. I don't think
1:35:23
Speaker 1: he wants to go out of his way to do
1:35:25
Speaker 1: anything to upset them. And so if there's any blowback
1:35:29
Speaker 1: that he gets from that part of the fan base,
1:35:32
Speaker 1: I could see him saying, Okay, you know what, we're
1:35:34
Speaker 1: not going to do this. It's probably one of the
1:35:36
Speaker 1: reasons that we saw Rick Flair on TV and then
1:35:38
Speaker 1: he quickly disappeared. You know, he got a lot of
1:35:41
Speaker 1: shit for bringing Rick Flair into AW. I don't see
1:35:44
Speaker 1: the Rond de Rowsey thing really benefiting him in any
1:35:47
Speaker 1: meaningful way. When all is said and done, I think
1:35:49
Speaker 1: he might do more harm than good with his own fans.
1:35:51
Speaker 1: I don't really see him wanting to do that. So
1:35:53
Speaker 1: my guess is this ends up going nowhere. Josh Alexander,
1:36:00
Speaker 1: he was helped to the back during the Collision tapings
1:36:02
Speaker 1: with an apparent knee injury after teaming with Kenoski, Takeshta
1:36:06
Speaker 1: and l Clone against Mistico and Jet Speed for the
1:36:09
Speaker 1: trio's titles in a match that I believe is airing
1:36:11
Speaker 1: tonight on Collision. I think they split Collision up. Is
1:36:16
Speaker 1: that what they did? I think they had an hour
1:36:17
Speaker 1: of it last night and they have another one tonight
1:36:21
Speaker 1: and I think it's on tonight's show and we'll see
1:36:24
Speaker 1: what they air from it. But evidently during the match
1:36:27
Speaker 1: there was a sequence with Speedball Mike Bailey where Bailey
1:36:30
Speaker 1: hit Ultimo Weapon, which is a standing moon salt into
1:36:33
Speaker 1: the double knees. Alexander pulled his knees up, and PW
1:36:38
Speaker 1: Insider is told it looked like Alexander hurt his knee
1:36:40
Speaker 1: when Bailey came straight down on him and their knees
1:36:43
Speaker 1: connected and Alexander went to the floor. He did not
1:36:47
Speaker 1: return to the ring for the remainder of the match.
1:36:50
Speaker 1: He was done. Melter and the Observer said at press
1:36:53
Speaker 1: time the knee had not been checked out completely, so
1:36:56
Speaker 1: we don't yet know the extent of the damage. The
1:36:58
Speaker 1: knee has been bothering him for six years and he
1:37:01
Speaker 1: kind of knew at some point he would have to
1:37:03
Speaker 1: take care of it, and it appears now is that
1:37:06
Speaker 1: point you know? Brian Cage has been cleared to come back,
1:37:10
Speaker 1: So as another callous family member goes down with an injury,
1:37:14
Speaker 1: they get one back. Is he even still with them?
1:37:19
Speaker 1: I don't even know anymore. If they slip him back
1:37:22
Speaker 1: in there, I doubt anybody would even bat an eye.
1:37:27
Speaker 1: Mercedes Monet, she has lost even more gold. She dropped
1:37:32
Speaker 1: two championships at once at the Rev Pro High Stake
1:37:35
Speaker 1: show on Saturday in Wolverhampton. She was over in the UK.
1:37:40
Speaker 1: Monette was defeated by Alexis Falcon in a match where
1:37:43
Speaker 1: the Body Slams, Scandinavian Women's and Discovery Wrestling Women's championships
1:37:47
Speaker 1: were on the line, and so Monet is down to
1:37:51
Speaker 1: three women's championships now again. One of them is the
1:37:55
Speaker 1: owen Hart Foundation Belt, but As far as actual promotions title,
1:37:59
Speaker 1: she's down to three and she is scheduled to defend
1:38:02
Speaker 1: the WPW Women's title against the former champion, Jody Threat
1:38:06
Speaker 1: in Winnipeg on March thirty first, that's the night before
1:38:10
Speaker 1: AW presents Dynamite in that city. She still holds the
1:38:14
Speaker 1: APAC Women's Championship, which she won at a House of
1:38:17
Speaker 1: Glory show last November from nor Phoenix, Diana, and she
1:38:22
Speaker 1: also holds the PTW Women's Title, which is a promotion
1:38:25
Speaker 1: based out of Poland. So those belts are coming off
1:38:28
Speaker 1: her in rapid fashion, and it sounds like she's going
1:38:31
Speaker 1: to be making her return very soon to AW once
1:38:34
Speaker 1: she sheds some more goal. I don't know she's going
1:38:36
Speaker 1: to wait until all the belts are gone, or just
1:38:38
Speaker 1: maybe lose one more and still hold on to two
1:38:41
Speaker 1: of them. I'm not sure, but clearly she's going to
1:38:44
Speaker 1: be coming back very soon. Some other news and notes
1:38:49
Speaker 1: this made headlines this week. Ted Dbassi Junior acquitted of
1:38:55
Speaker 1: all charges against him in the fraud case that has
1:38:59
Speaker 1: been hanging over his head now for a number of years.
1:39:03
Speaker 1: His legal battle is now over and he was found
1:39:06
Speaker 1: not guilty on all thirteen charges that he was facing.
1:39:10
Speaker 1: On Friday, a Mississippi jury return not guilty verdicts on
1:39:14
Speaker 1: every charge Dbias was accused of, which ranged from embezzlement, conspiracy,
1:39:19
Speaker 1: wire fraud, and money laundering. I mean that's a pretty
1:39:22
Speaker 1: broad spectrum of charges there. The case stem from a
1:39:26
Speaker 1: welfare fraud scandal where the Dibiasse family and others, including
1:39:30
Speaker 1: NFL legend Brett Favre, were accused of inappropriately receiving millions
1:39:35
Speaker 1: of dollars in government funds. The charges against dbias could
1:39:38
Speaker 1: have seen him sentence to a potential maximum sentence of
1:39:42
Speaker 1: one hundred eighty five years in prison if convicted on
1:39:47
Speaker 1: all counts. The trial ran for several weeks with twenty witnesses,
1:39:52
Speaker 1: and at one point was paused due to a medical
1:39:54
Speaker 1: emergency related to Dbiasse's attorney. Court declined several attempts by
1:39:59
Speaker 1: DBIASI to have him mistrial declared, yeah, he was trying
1:40:02
Speaker 1: to get out of this as quickly as possible. The
1:40:05
Speaker 1: jury deliberated for four hours before determining the DBAs was
1:40:09
Speaker 1: not guilty on all charges. At the center of the
1:40:12
Speaker 1: scandal was a Mississippi official named John Davis, who was
1:40:16
Speaker 1: close friends with dBase and per w FTV News. In Mississippi,
1:40:22
Speaker 1: the welfare scandal came in light in or came to
1:40:25
Speaker 1: light in twenty twenty, when the former director of the
1:40:27
Speaker 1: Mississippi Department of Human Services, John Davis, was indicted on
1:40:31
Speaker 1: fraud and embezzlement charges alongside several others, including Ted Dbassi,
1:40:36
Speaker 1: Junior's brother former pro wrestler Brett Dbass. Federal indictments accused
1:40:41
Speaker 1: Davis of directing the federal dollars to two nonprofits, which
1:40:44
Speaker 1: then awarded sham contracts to various people and organizations, including
1:40:49
Speaker 1: several companies owned by dBase, for social services that were
1:40:53
Speaker 1: never provided. While I'm disappointed in the result of the trial,
1:40:57
Speaker 1: nothing changes the fact that seven people have already pleaded
1:41:00
Speaker 1: guilty to state or federal charges because of the welfare scandal,
1:41:05
Speaker 1: said Shad White, the state auditor. He told that to
1:41:10
Speaker 1: Mississippi Voice. My hope now is that the state's lawyers
1:41:12
Speaker 1: will be able to recover as much of the misspent
1:41:15
Speaker 1: money as possible in civil courts, so hard working taxpayers
1:41:19
Speaker 1: can see some accountability for what happened here. Yeah, there
1:41:23
Speaker 1: were seven other people who I think all pleaded guilty
1:41:25
Speaker 1: before they even went to trial, and Dbassi went to
1:41:29
Speaker 1: trial and now he was found not guilty. So that's it.
1:41:31
Speaker 1: This dark cloud that was hanging over him has now
1:41:33
Speaker 1: been lifted. And whatever you want to say about the
1:41:36
Speaker 1: trial and what was done and how it was presented
1:41:40
Speaker 1: and whether justice was truly served cases over. He's a freeman.
1:41:47
Speaker 1: People are already like, oh, Randy Orton can bring him in. Now,
1:41:50
Speaker 1: we can get a whole legacy reunion going in WWE. Yeah,
1:41:54
Speaker 1: I don't think so. He did post the video though,
1:41:58
Speaker 1: of himself his lawn and getting back. I guess to
1:42:03
Speaker 1: just normal everyday tasks that people do when they're found
1:42:07
Speaker 1: not guilty of thirteen charges. So there you go. Somehow
1:42:10
Speaker 1: he found a way out of it. And American Gladiators.
1:42:15
Speaker 1: That was always a favorite of mine. I used to
1:42:17
Speaker 1: watch American Gladiators back on the weekends when I was younger.
1:42:21
Speaker 1: I would watch Superstars on Saturday at twelve noon on
1:42:24
Speaker 1: the local Fox affiliate here in New York, and then
1:42:26
Speaker 1: at one o'clock it was American Gladiators time. So what
1:42:30
Speaker 1: a block that was. Man, you eat some pizza, you
1:42:32
Speaker 1: watch wrestling and American Gladiators from twelve to two on Saturday,
1:42:37
Speaker 1: and it was nothing better than that. Now, they had
1:42:39
Speaker 1: a revival of the show a number of years ago,
1:42:41
Speaker 1: Hulk Cogan was the host, and of course they had
1:42:44
Speaker 1: to amp it up, and you know the final stage,
1:42:46
Speaker 1: you had fucking fire and water and fucking armageddon, and
1:42:50
Speaker 1: it just you know, everything's got to be done up
1:42:52
Speaker 1: in such a big, elaborate way these days. Sometimes you know,
1:42:56
Speaker 1: simpler is better. But I bring all of this up
1:42:59
Speaker 1: because is once again reviving the series and American Gladiators
1:43:05
Speaker 1: will be hosted by The Miz and it is set
1:43:08
Speaker 1: to premiere next month. We now know when the show
1:43:11
Speaker 1: will finally air. Will arrive on Amazon Prime Video with
1:43:14
Speaker 1: three episodes Friday April seventeenth, that's the Friday before WrestleMania.
1:43:21
Speaker 1: Three more episodes will then debut on April twenty fourth,
1:43:24
Speaker 1: with the season closing out with four episodes on May first.
1:43:29
Speaker 1: And along with Miz hosting the series, several wrestling names
1:43:32
Speaker 1: are part of the Gladiator cast, including Aw's Wardlow, Remember him, Camille,
1:43:39
Speaker 1: remember her? This is where they all went. They all disappeared.
1:43:45
Speaker 1: It went to Gladiator Land. Former WWE wrestler Rick Boogs
1:43:50
Speaker 1: is on there. Jesse Godters and Jay Rod. American Gladiators
1:43:55
Speaker 1: first debuted in the late nineteen eighties and lasted for
1:43:58
Speaker 1: several seasons. The concept was later briefly revived in two
1:44:02
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. In a press release, Amazon noted the
1:44:05
Speaker 1: new series will feature both classic and new gladiator events.
1:44:09
Speaker 1: The iconic competition returns, with each episode featuring weekend warriors
1:44:13
Speaker 1: from across the nation stepping into the arena to face
1:44:16
Speaker 1: sixteen powerful new gladiators from classic events like Joust, Powerball,
1:44:21
Speaker 1: Hang Tough, and The Wall, The Wall Brother to high
1:44:27
Speaker 1: impact new challenges including the ring and collision. Every showdown
1:44:32
Speaker 1: demands pure grit, strategy and heart. Only one man and
1:44:35
Speaker 1: one woman will conquer the arena, claim one hundred thousand
1:44:38
Speaker 1: dollars and earn the title of American Gladiator Champion. Just
1:44:42
Speaker 1: what we need, more championships. I will be seated. I
1:44:46
Speaker 1: will be watching this. You know they mentioned Hang Tough,
1:44:50
Speaker 1: what they mentioned I mentioned the Joust, Powerball, the Wall,
1:44:56
Speaker 1: Those were all favorites of mine. But also can't forget Pyramid, Atlas,
1:45:02
Speaker 1: Fear with the giant balls that had to roll over
1:45:05
Speaker 1: the markers on the floor, and Assault. I love the
1:45:09
Speaker 1: sault I used to play the shit out of that
1:45:12
Speaker 1: in the American Gladiator's video game, and I missed that.
1:45:15
Speaker 1: You know, they used to have Action Park. It's a
1:45:19
Speaker 1: theme park that was out in New Jersey and for
1:45:21
Speaker 1: a while there they actually had the American Gladiator Course.
1:45:25
Speaker 1: They like recreated some of the American Gladiator games so
1:45:29
Speaker 1: you could do you know, the final Total Elimination or
1:45:33
Speaker 1: final Elimination whatever it was, and you could do the
1:45:35
Speaker 1: joust and it was super cool. I would have loved
1:45:38
Speaker 1: to have been on that show. I wouldn't have made
1:45:40
Speaker 1: it past the first round, but it would have been
1:45:42
Speaker 1: fun to try. I remember the Family Matters episode where
1:45:46
Speaker 1: I think it was Carl and Erkele, right, they competed
1:45:48
Speaker 1: against each other I think on American Gladiators. Good times
1:45:53
Speaker 1: and we'll end with this, yeah. I mentioned earlier the
1:45:55
Speaker 1: WWE Hall of Fame. I mentioned Rick Martel had tipped
1:45:59
Speaker 1: to Wrestling News Dot Coe for the write up here,
1:46:02
Speaker 1: but there was a story this week. Speaking on the
1:46:04
Speaker 1: Wrestling Nostalgia podcast, Bertrand Herbert, who serves as Rick Martel's manager,
1:46:10
Speaker 1: said that Martel has never been offered the WWE Hall
1:46:14
Speaker 1: of Fame, despite online rumors that he turned it down
1:46:17
Speaker 1: and that if the offer ever comes, he will personally
1:46:19
Speaker 1: make sure that Martell accepts the invitation. He said, no
1:46:22
Speaker 1: matter what Bruce Prichard said, he has never been offered
1:46:26
Speaker 1: the WWE Hall of Fame and if he is offered,
1:46:30
Speaker 1: I will make sure personally that he accepts the offer.
1:46:34
Speaker 1: Herbert said that Martel did turn down some WrestleMania access
1:46:37
Speaker 1: signing appearances in the past, including one in San Francisco.
1:46:41
Speaker 1: He said the idea of traveling from Quebec City to
1:46:43
Speaker 1: San Francisco for a few hours of signing for limited
1:46:46
Speaker 1: compensation with no official role or Hall of Fame invite attached,
1:46:50
Speaker 1: was not appealing to Martel. He suggested those declined appearances
1:46:54
Speaker 1: may have been conflated with a Hall of Fame refusal.
1:46:58
Speaker 1: He said the idea of travel willing to sign autographs
1:47:01
Speaker 1: maybe for a few hours, for not a lot of
1:47:03
Speaker 1: money and do all that traveling from Quebec City to
1:47:07
Speaker 1: San Francisco was a big no no for him, and
1:47:10
Speaker 1: especially to return to be asked to just sit around
1:47:13
Speaker 1: and have no official role or invite to the Hall
1:47:15
Speaker 1: of Fame. He didn't think it was the right timing.
1:47:18
Speaker 1: He also made a strong case for Martell's induction, pointing
1:47:21
Speaker 1: to his resume across multiple promotions whose tape libraries WWE
1:47:25
Speaker 1: now owns, he should be there. He said, three time
1:47:29
Speaker 1: tag team champion, the Model, one of the most memorable
1:47:32
Speaker 1: gimmicks in their history, and they owned the AWA library.
1:47:36
Speaker 1: He was the AWA World Heavyweight Champion compared to some
1:47:39
Speaker 1: of the guys already in the Hall of Fame. If
1:47:41
Speaker 1: he doesn't deserve it, I don't know who does. He noted.
1:47:46
Speaker 1: The WWE owns the footage from every major chapter of
1:47:49
Speaker 1: Martel's career, including his AWA championship reign, his WWE tag
1:47:54
Speaker 1: team runs with the canam Connection and Strikeforce. His run
1:47:58
Speaker 1: is the Model, and his WCW tenure. You know that
1:48:02
Speaker 1: should not be forgotten about because Martel made a return
1:48:05
Speaker 1: to WCW around ninety seven, ninety eight, and he had
1:48:09
Speaker 1: been out for several years, and he shows up and
1:48:13
Speaker 1: he's older now, and he was over as a babyface,
1:48:16
Speaker 1: and he was putting in the work man like. He
1:48:18
Speaker 1: had some great matches on television back then. I remember
1:48:22
Speaker 1: the stuff with Booker T and the television title, and
1:48:25
Speaker 1: he just kind of came out of nowhere. And I
1:48:27
Speaker 1: think that run gets forgotten about because it wasn't very
1:48:30
Speaker 1: long and unfortunately it got cut short due to a
1:48:33
Speaker 1: really catastrophic knee injury. But yeah, that WCW tenure there
1:48:38
Speaker 1: at the end should not be forgotten. But he said,
1:48:41
Speaker 1: they own everything for the AWAWWE and WCW, and they
1:48:44
Speaker 1: have Tony Geria and Tito Santana that can induct him.
1:48:48
Speaker 1: I think it's a no brainer to send the invitation. Yeah,
1:48:52
Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately WWE when you have people like this
1:48:55
Speaker 1: who will lobby for it publicly, like Vader did for
1:48:58
Speaker 1: many years when he knew he was gonna die, and
1:49:01
Speaker 1: he talked about how it would have been so important
1:49:04
Speaker 1: to him and how much it would have meant to
1:49:05
Speaker 1: him to be in the Hall of Fame and to
1:49:07
Speaker 1: get that one last moment to be honored by his peers.
1:49:11
Speaker 1: And they let him die before they eventually put him
1:49:14
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, this year you had
1:49:17
Speaker 1: the Jumping Bomb Angels, great tag team. They should be
1:49:20
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame too. They were really innovators
1:49:23
Speaker 1: when it came to women's wrestling in that company very
1:49:25
Speaker 1: early on, and they were lobbying. They had like an
1:49:30
Speaker 1: online petition. They were putting out there a few months ago,
1:49:33
Speaker 1: and I knew it wasn't going to go anywhere, but
1:49:35
Speaker 1: they were kind of lobbying for it. I feel like
1:49:39
Speaker 1: the minute you start doing that, WWE is like, okay,
1:49:41
Speaker 1: they go back to the bottom of the pile. They
1:49:44
Speaker 1: don't want to be told what to do. They wanted
1:49:47
Speaker 1: to come naturally. So I actually think it probably works
1:49:49
Speaker 1: against him to be doing that sort of thing. But
1:49:53
Speaker 1: he spent nearly six hundred days as AWA World Champion
1:49:57
Speaker 1: and was really one of the three big world champions
1:50:01
Speaker 1: in the country at the time. You had Hulk Hogan
1:50:03
Speaker 1: with the WWF belt, you had Rick Flair with the
1:50:06
Speaker 1: NWA belt, and you had Rick Martel with the AWA belt,
1:50:12
Speaker 1: probably the last of the AWA champions that really meant
1:50:15
Speaker 1: anything before things started going south. It was either him
1:50:17
Speaker 1: or Stan Hansen. You know, Hanson is the one who
1:50:19
Speaker 1: beat him for the belt. But that was the end
1:50:22
Speaker 1: of eighty five. I know by eighty six, Vern was
1:50:27
Speaker 1: already negotiating a possible sale of the company. So yeah,
1:50:31
Speaker 1: I mean, Martel may well have been the last, the
1:50:34
Speaker 1: kind of last real champion of the AWA. But Herbert
1:50:38
Speaker 1: said that the disconnect is that Martel has been almost
1:50:41
Speaker 1: entirely absent from the wrestling world for years, and he
1:50:44
Speaker 1: doesn't rely on the business for income. Unlike many of
1:50:47
Speaker 1: his peers, Martel invested wisely during his career and his
1:50:51
Speaker 1: financially secure in retirement. That independence has made it difficult
1:50:55
Speaker 1: for people in the industry to understand why he has
1:50:57
Speaker 1: not been more active. Herbert said, he doesn't need to
1:51:00
Speaker 1: do those appearances, and that's hard for people in the
1:51:03
Speaker 1: business to understand. But for the guys outside of the business,
1:51:07
Speaker 1: not doing shows every weekend, being recognized by wwe mean something.
1:51:11
Speaker 1: He was there, he worked there, he helped build the
1:51:14
Speaker 1: company to where it is. For him, it's a recognition
1:51:16
Speaker 1: that means something. I think it should be done in
1:51:19
Speaker 1: the next few years, because obviously it's seventy years old,
1:51:22
Speaker 1: he's not getting any younger. Let's do it while he
1:51:25
Speaker 1: can still attend and enjoy and appreciate everything. Amen to that.
1:51:31
Speaker 1: Amen to that. You can't put everybody in all at once.
1:51:34
Speaker 1: But there are certain names that really stick out to you,
1:51:36
Speaker 1: like demolition for so long, where it's like, why have
1:51:39
Speaker 1: they waited so long? Like they're tempting fate by continuing
1:51:42
Speaker 1: to wait, And I just don't understand that I mentioned
1:51:44
Speaker 1: Cindy Lauper earlier. How are you going to have a
1:51:47
Speaker 1: celebrity wing of your Hall of Fame and not have
1:51:50
Speaker 1: somebody like that in there? Now, if they're not the
1:51:54
Speaker 1: ones who are saying no and turning down the invitation,
1:51:57
Speaker 1: what is the possible explanation for it? I don't know.
1:52:01
Speaker 1: But now the demolition is going into the Hall of Fame.
1:52:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to shift my focus now to Rick Martel.
1:52:06
Speaker 1: I'm going to start the Rick Martel lobby. He doesn't
1:52:10
Speaker 1: have to lobby for it himself. We'll do it for him.
1:52:13
Speaker 1: But Rick Martel definitely belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame.
1:52:16
Speaker 1: I mean, his manager here makes a great point considering
1:52:20
Speaker 1: some of the names in the Hall of Fame. How
1:52:22
Speaker 1: can you possibly say that Rick Martel does not belong
1:52:24
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame. But Rick Martel was there, man,
1:52:27
Speaker 1: He was there at the big event on Long Island
1:52:30
Speaker 1: yesterday and again he had that massive line for his
1:52:33
Speaker 1: signing and he seemed to be having a good time.
1:52:35
Speaker 1: Kind of went over to sneak a peek. I wanted
1:52:37
Speaker 1: to take a look at the guy. Seventy years old,
1:52:39
Speaker 1: he still looks good, looks good, he looks healthy. He's
1:52:42
Speaker 1: happy obviously outside the wrestling business doing his thing. I
1:52:45
Speaker 1: think I had heard he was in real estate or something.
1:52:47
Speaker 1: But good for him, man, good for him. Look, if
1:52:50
Speaker 1: he wants to make money, he makes convention appearances like this,
1:52:54
Speaker 1: like if he was going to be a wrestle Khan.
1:52:56
Speaker 1: And I don't know if he's supposed to be, if
1:52:58
Speaker 1: he's scheduled for wrestle kin of Vegas this year. But
1:53:00
Speaker 1: if he went around the Horn making these appearances and
1:53:03
Speaker 1: he brought that atomizer with him, you know, the arrogance canister,
1:53:08
Speaker 1: he'd make a fucking fortune, are you kidding me? Signing
1:53:10
Speaker 1: autographs and taking picture with that thing. He'd take a
1:53:12
Speaker 1: picture with the atomizer. He would be raking in. I mean,
1:53:17
Speaker 1: he'd be making bank on these appearances. He may not
1:53:20
Speaker 1: have to do it. I think it's cool for the fans.
1:53:22
Speaker 1: You want to be able to meet with him, So
1:53:25
Speaker 1: I hope he does more of them. It's just it's
1:53:26
Speaker 1: a very rare thing, which is why the line for
1:53:28
Speaker 1: him was so long yesterday. Anyway, we'll wrap it up there,
1:53:33
Speaker 1: get back to your mailbag questions next week or maybe
1:53:36
Speaker 1: on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show this Tuesday. I want to
1:53:40
Speaker 1: let everybody know that there is a new dedicated feed,
1:53:43
Speaker 1: so you can still get the show on the main
1:53:45
Speaker 1: Ariel hell Wani show feed. That's not going to change,
1:53:48
Speaker 1: but there is also now a dedicated feed specifically for
1:53:52
Speaker 1: the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. So there's all the MMA shows
1:53:55
Speaker 1: or you know, boxing shows, whatever Ariel has that he
1:53:58
Speaker 1: pushes out or on his main show channel. This one
1:54:01
Speaker 1: will have only the wrestling shows and it should be up.
1:54:05
Speaker 1: It should be populated by now pretty much everywhere Apple Spotify,
1:54:09
Speaker 1: So if you'd rather subscribe there or listen to it
1:54:12
Speaker 1: there by all means go ahead. As long as you're listening.
1:54:15
Speaker 1: We got episode seven coming up this Tuesday. I also
1:54:19
Speaker 1: wanted to mention this actually before we wrap up. I said,
1:54:22
Speaker 1: the other night, I don't know how it came up,
1:54:25
Speaker 1: but I mentioned the new scream movie, Scream seven, and
1:54:29
Speaker 1: I said, I hadn't seen it and probably wasn't going
1:54:31
Speaker 1: to because everybody was shitting on it and talking about
1:54:33
Speaker 1: how terrible it was. But then I couldn't resist, so
1:54:37
Speaker 1: I did watch Scream seven. The other day. I thought
1:54:41
Speaker 1: Nev Campbell was great. I thought The girl who played
1:54:44
Speaker 1: her daughter in the movie was also pretty good. And
1:54:48
Speaker 1: that's about it. Everything that people were saying about this movie, unfortunately,
1:54:54
Speaker 1: is one hundred percent true. It is easily the worst
1:54:58
Speaker 1: Scream movie of the entire Frame franchise. It will not
1:55:01
Speaker 1: be the last because it certainly didn't impact the box office.
1:55:05
Speaker 1: It did. It did like forty million or something. I
1:55:07
Speaker 1: think it's opening weekend, so I'm sure there's going to
1:55:09
Speaker 1: be a Scream eight, nine, and ten. But Scream seven
1:55:12
Speaker 1: was fucking awful. And the big reveal at the end
1:55:16
Speaker 1: as far as the killers and all that, I mean,
1:55:18
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get deep into spoilers or anything,
1:55:20
Speaker 1: but man, that was just fucking horrendous, absolutely horrendous. I mean,
1:55:25
Speaker 1: they took the most lazy, bare bones approach to this
1:55:28
Speaker 1: script and trying to figure out where to go with it,
1:55:31
Speaker 1: and you know who the big reveal should be at
1:55:34
Speaker 1: the end, and it was. It was like just a
1:55:37
Speaker 1: poor I don't say mockery of the past films, because
1:55:41
Speaker 1: I felt like they weren't trying to mock the past films,
1:55:43
Speaker 1: but it was just a cheap knockoff that did not
1:55:46
Speaker 1: have the heart and soul and humor and just everything
1:55:48
Speaker 1: that made the especially the early movies work, was just
1:55:52
Speaker 1: completely absent from this movie. And I just feel like
1:55:56
Speaker 1: I would have been better off not watching it at all,
1:55:59
Speaker 1: but got the better of me. I just couldn't help myself.
1:56:02
Speaker 1: I said, I saw all the other ones, I have
1:56:04
Speaker 1: to see this one too. It fucking sucked. It was terrible.
1:56:07
Speaker 1: It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen or anything
1:56:09
Speaker 1: like that, but it's not a movie I have any
1:56:11
Speaker 1: great desire to ever go back and watch ever again.
1:56:15
Speaker 1: Hopefully the movies I will see later this year will
1:56:17
Speaker 1: be better. I'm looking forward to the Street Fighter movie,
1:56:21
Speaker 1: the Mortal Kombat movie. What else is coming out this year? Oh,
1:56:25
Speaker 1: the Masters of the Universe movie. I'll probably see Toy
1:56:28
Speaker 1: Story five. I mean that that should have been over
1:56:30
Speaker 1: after Toy Story three, but I love me a good
1:56:33
Speaker 1: Toy Story movie. I think the Tablet is the evil
1:56:37
Speaker 1: villain in this movie, right, the evil Tablet. Maybe it
1:56:42
Speaker 1: We'll start to have AI Toy Story characters that could
1:56:44
Speaker 1: be the theme for part six. AI will be the
1:56:48
Speaker 1: villain anyway. Be well, stay safe. Every solle is a
1:56:54
Speaker 1: great rest of your week. Don't forget I'm gonna be
1:56:56
Speaker 1: live Monday night after Raw, Wednesday night after Dynamite, and
1:57:00
Speaker 1: Friday night after SmackDown for all the usual streams live
1:57:04
Speaker 1: on YouTube. We are very very close. We are less
1:57:07
Speaker 1: than one hundred subs away from ninety one thousand subscribers,
1:57:12
Speaker 1: so now it would be a good time to hop
1:57:14
Speaker 1: on there. Of course, Tuesday, the Uncrowned Wrestling Show will drop.
1:57:17
Speaker 1: Tuesday night, The Titans are back. Tuesday Night, Titans Live
1:57:21
Speaker 1: on YouTube. You got a lot of content coming your way.
1:57:23
Speaker 1: And then next Sunday, episode nine fifty seven of the
1:57:27
Speaker 1: Solemn Monster Sounds Off. Until then, take care, guys, the
1:57:31
Speaker 1: Solemn Monster Sounds Off. I had to sit here and
1:57:34
Speaker 1: listen to jelly Roll talk about how Wilson's mother knows
1:57:38
Speaker 1: all about his little Willie because when he was fat,
1:57:42
Speaker 1: he took the belly fat and put it on her back.
1:57:45
Speaker 1: We have someone who's here almost every stream, give me backshot,
1:57:48
Speaker 1: Solo Monster. That's nothing compared to the image of jelly
1:57:51
Speaker 1: Roll porking Kit Wilson's mom with his belly fat draped
1:57:55
Speaker 1: over her back. Eh, excuse me, but there are some
1:58:01
Speaker 1: glaring omissions to that. WrestleMania car. But I gotta watch
1:58:04
Speaker 1: Jelly roll out there talking about pork and Kit Wilson's mom. Eh,
1:58:10
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to hold it in. I'm gonna try
1:58:12
Speaker 1: to hold it in. I'm gonna do my best. I
1:58:14
Speaker 1: make no promises. The Solo Monster Sounds off bringing you
1:58:19
Speaker 1: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check out the
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Speaker 1: weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and follow The
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Speaker 1: Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and X The Solo Monster