Latest / Solomonster Sounds Off / Sound Off 953 - MAJOR MATCH Made For Smackdown, SHOCKING TURN In Battle For WBD!

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Sound Off 953 - MAJOR MATCH Made For Smackdown, SHOCKING TURN In Battle For WBD! · Solomonster Sounds Off

0:01
Speaker 1: It's business time, baby. You are listening to solo. Monster
0:05
Speaker 1: sounds off. I love your mama, monster dude, I want
0:11
Speaker 1: your soul.
0:13
Speaker 2: You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.
0:16
Speaker 1: Come over here? Is that Pet Patterson? You have legs?
0:22
Speaker 1: I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chessed up.
0:25
Speaker 2: Now I have been begging him for a job on
0:28
Speaker 2: every every platform I can, and I would have know
0:30
Speaker 2: the reason why you won't Park.
0:33
Speaker 1: TKO announced this week that last year, WWE's gross earnings
0:38
Speaker 1: were over one point seven billion dollars as compared to
0:42
Speaker 1: UFC at one point five billion, which means that for
0:45
Speaker 1: the first time since the two merged under TKO, WWE
0:49
Speaker 1: generated more in annual revenue than UFC. Yet you have
0:54
Speaker 1: reports of WWE panicking that they're not selling WrestleMania tickets
0:58
Speaker 1: fast enough, and they're not. They're not selling as fast
1:02
Speaker 1: as they did last year. I don't know that they
1:05
Speaker 1: did anything last night to spur on those ticket sales.
1:08
Speaker 1: Elimination Chamber was not a great show. We'll talk about that.
1:11
Speaker 1: By the way, UFC fifty seven percent profit margin on
1:17
Speaker 1: that one point five billion. I don't know what all
1:20
Speaker 1: those fighters are making, but whatever it is, I'm sure
1:23
Speaker 1: it's not enough. This is episode nine fifty three of
1:27
Speaker 1: The Solemn Monster Sounds Off or Sunday, March first, twenty
1:32
Speaker 1: twenty six. My god, wasn't it March first last year
1:35
Speaker 1: when we had the Elimination Chamber and John Cena stood
1:39
Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder with the Rock and everybody was so
1:41
Speaker 1: excited at the end of that show. Has it really
1:44
Speaker 1: been a year? It's hard to believe. You'd like to
1:48
Speaker 1: show some love and send a PayPal donation. It's always
1:52
Speaker 1: appreciated The Solomn Monster At gmail dot com. You can
1:55
Speaker 1: get yourself a shout out and a nickname, wrestling nickname,
1:58
Speaker 1: ten dollars or more. Here on the show, I want
2:00
Speaker 1: to say thank you to our PayPal producers for this week,
2:03
Speaker 1: including Big B Bryant Bessara, The Portland Pop Star, Paul Hamilton,
2:08
Speaker 1: The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soepp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,
2:14
Speaker 1: Iowan Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfear, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichord,
2:19
Speaker 1: Big Time, Boris Vaineman, Knight Stalker and if Al Safar Killshot,
2:24
Speaker 1: Keith Hart and Just Joe Joe Guy, what's going on, Joe?
2:30
Speaker 1: Thanks for the love and bad ass. Bernard Frederick. I'm
2:35
Speaker 1: glad you got to be there for the AJ Styles
2:37
Speaker 1: tribute on Monday. We'll be talking about that as well.
2:40
Speaker 1: I'm sorry they didn't give you a better show. Atlanta
2:43
Speaker 1: deserved better and shout out to you. Shin super Kick
2:47
Speaker 1: Akuma and his girlfriend Chris from Bethlehem told me that
2:51
Speaker 1: she celebrated a birthday on Monday, so happy birthday to her.
2:56
Speaker 1: Got some fun news to drop on you here. You
2:58
Speaker 1: might have seen this on Twitter. But House of Glory obviously,
3:02
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in Chicago this upcoming Friday. We
3:05
Speaker 1: have our Turf Wars event back at Logan Square Auditorium,
3:08
Speaker 1: where we are just about sold out. There's some limited
3:11
Speaker 1: standing room only available if you want to snatch up
3:13
Speaker 1: whatever's left to that. That is going to be a
3:16
Speaker 1: fun show, as they always are in Chicago, and I
3:19
Speaker 1: always enjoy meeting you guys. Hopefully I will see some
3:21
Speaker 1: of you there again at Logan Square. But we also
3:25
Speaker 1: announced that House of Glory is coming to Sin City
3:28
Speaker 1: WrestleMania weekend this year. Yeah, so WrestleMania week I should
3:32
Speaker 1: say WrestleMania forty two, of course, is at Allegiant Stadium
3:35
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. That's on Saturday and Sunday. But on Thursday,
3:39
Speaker 1: April sixteenth, HHOG is coming to the famous Pearl Theater
3:44
Speaker 1: inside the Palms Casino Resort as part of a multi
3:47
Speaker 1: promotional event that kicks off on Thursday, April sixteen, Tokyo
3:51
Speaker 1: Joshi Pro is going to have a live show from
3:54
Speaker 1: eleven am Local time until one fifteen pm. CMLL is
3:59
Speaker 1: going to be which is of course on this incredible
4:02
Speaker 1: business run of its own right now. CMLL is going
4:05
Speaker 1: to be running an event from three pm until five
4:07
Speaker 1: thirty pm, and then when they clear out, House of
4:11
Speaker 1: Glory gets the evening slot and we've got our own
4:14
Speaker 1: show from eight pm to eleven pm. And then on Friday,
4:17
Speaker 1: April seventeenth, Tokyo Joshi Pro will have a fan fest
4:20
Speaker 1: meet and greet Stardom will have a live wrestling show
4:24
Speaker 1: I believe at three o'clock, and then Maple Leaf Pro,
4:27
Speaker 1: which is Scott Demorris Promotion, we'll close the night. That's
4:30
Speaker 1: on Friday from nine to eleven thirty. So the Hog
4:33
Speaker 1: Show is going to be on Thursday. I will be there.
4:36
Speaker 1: I should probably be booking my travel, which is something
4:40
Speaker 1: I'll have to I'll have to put that on my
4:41
Speaker 1: list to do. Otherwise I will not be there. But
4:44
Speaker 1: I am looking forward to being there. That's going to
4:46
Speaker 1: be a fun time. And then I'll get to zip
4:48
Speaker 1: on back that Friday so I can come back here
4:51
Speaker 1: because we got a very busy weekend with WrestleMania coverage.
4:55
Speaker 1: So anyway, just go on the Twitter. I put up
4:59
Speaker 1: a poster and a ticket link and you could buy
5:01
Speaker 1: tickets to the show. Tickets are already on sale for
5:04
Speaker 1: that if you are coming into town and you are
5:05
Speaker 1: going to be in town early enough, and I think
5:07
Speaker 1: by Thursday most people will probably already be in town.
5:12
Speaker 1: If you're not already occupied at another wrestling show, I
5:15
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of them that weekend. This is
5:17
Speaker 1: a good opportunity to check out Hog and stop buying
5:20
Speaker 1: and say hello. So that's going to be fun. You know.
5:23
Speaker 1: The last few years have largely come up aces when
5:28
Speaker 1: it comes to the elimination Chamber. I thought last year's
5:30
Speaker 1: was one of the best shows all year, best women's
5:33
Speaker 1: chamber they've ever done, in my opinion, and we had
5:36
Speaker 1: a strong men's chamber match that John Cena one. We
5:40
Speaker 1: also had that great Kevin Oh and Sammy Zain unsanctioned
5:43
Speaker 1: match and the John Cena heel turn, which in the
5:45
Speaker 1: moment was great. Right, it was a great show. Twenty
5:50
Speaker 1: twenty four I enjoyed both chambers. Twenty twenty three had
5:55
Speaker 1: an excellent men's chamber for the United States Championship and
5:58
Speaker 1: a very good women's chamber as well, So I'm usually
6:01
Speaker 1: very favorable to these shows. Well, that streak has come
6:05
Speaker 1: to an end. I was not a fan of the
6:07
Speaker 1: elimination Chamber show last night. It was a very paint
6:11
Speaker 1: by number show, half of which it felt like was
6:14
Speaker 1: taken up just by the entrances for the chamber matches themselves,
6:18
Speaker 1: with as quiet a Chicago crowd as I have ever
6:22
Speaker 1: seen for a wrestling show in the Windy City. And again,
6:26
Speaker 1: I like Chicago. I'm going to be there myself on Friday.
6:29
Speaker 1: But for their first event back in the United Center
6:31
Speaker 1: in many years, it sure didn't feel like a very
6:34
Speaker 1: big deal, although they did set their second biggest arena
6:39
Speaker 1: gate ever in company history. That's what Ciampunk said on
6:41
Speaker 1: the post show, still waving their dick around and the
6:45
Speaker 1: fans faces about those gate records, and so many of
6:47
Speaker 1: them are just too naive to even know what that means.
6:51
Speaker 1: It's very talenting. I thought that Paul Avec never went
6:54
Speaker 1: out to do the post show panel in front of
6:55
Speaker 1: the fans like he usually does when the show is over.
6:57
Speaker 1: He instead he talked to Jackie Redmond at the gorilla
7:00
Speaker 1: position backstage, hidden away from the fans, very telling. Randy
7:06
Speaker 1: Orton and Rhea Ripley are going to WrestleMania, and those
7:09
Speaker 1: decisions both of them I actually agree with and I'm
7:12
Speaker 1: fine with. And the women's chamber match was good. It
7:15
Speaker 1: was not as good or as memorable as last year's match,
7:18
Speaker 1: but it was still the better of the two chambers
7:20
Speaker 1: this year. The men's elimination chamber was not good. The
7:24
Speaker 1: men's elimination Chamber match was among the most boring and
7:27
Speaker 1: heatless that I have ever seen up until I would
7:30
Speaker 1: say the last sixty seconds or so, maybe ninety seconds,
7:33
Speaker 1: if we're being generous in a twenty five minute match.
7:38
Speaker 1: That's not a good thing. Now, I can't sit here
7:41
Speaker 1: and tell you that it was worse than the elimination
7:44
Speaker 1: chamber from the infamous December to Dismember show in two
7:47
Speaker 1: thousand and six, or that terrible Intercontinental title one from
7:52
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, or even the one that Shana Basler won
7:56
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. But this one is going to rank
7:59
Speaker 1: near the bottom of the list. Just a whole bunch
8:03
Speaker 1: of nothing until the fourth Man came in and at
8:06
Speaker 1: least then things started actually happening in the match. Nothing
8:09
Speaker 1: terribly good, but at least things started happening. We got
8:12
Speaker 1: some action at that point. And to be honest with you,
8:16
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this. You know, this is one
8:19
Speaker 1: of those years where I wish they did not do
8:22
Speaker 1: the elimination Chamber every year. I wish that they did
8:24
Speaker 1: not have an elimination chamber pl e and it wasn't
8:27
Speaker 1: just an annual Okay, you know, it's on the roads
8:30
Speaker 1: to WrestleMania, it's time to do the elimination Chamber. And
8:33
Speaker 1: like Helena sel I wish this one time that it
8:37
Speaker 1: was one of those gimmicks that they reserved exclusively for
8:40
Speaker 1: when there felt like there was a real need for it.
8:42
Speaker 1: Because heading into WrestleMania right now, the WWE title scene
8:46
Speaker 1: on SmackDown feels busier than it's been in a very
8:49
Speaker 1: long time, and that's a good thing. You know. You've
8:52
Speaker 1: got Drew McIntyre running around screwing people left and right
8:55
Speaker 1: like a dog in heat. Cody Rhoades is trying to
8:58
Speaker 1: get his belt back. Jacob fought Too is getting screwed
9:00
Speaker 1: over as well. Randy Orton is trying to win his
9:02
Speaker 1: fifteenth world title. Sammy Zan is trying to win a
9:06
Speaker 1: world title for the first time and he just can't
9:08
Speaker 1: do it. If the chamber wasn't a regular thing, this
9:11
Speaker 1: would be the perfect time for a chamber match at WrestleMania,
9:15
Speaker 1: with Drew defending against everybody. That's the only way I
9:19
Speaker 1: would accept a match with five or six guys and
9:21
Speaker 1: wrestle media for the title. Otherwise, I don't really have
9:24
Speaker 1: any desire to see a six pack challenge or any
9:27
Speaker 1: nonsense like that. But we also on this show last
9:30
Speaker 1: night we had the big Mystery Create reveal. We've seen
9:36
Speaker 1: this crate on television now for a couple of weeks. Right,
9:39
Speaker 1: do not open until you get to the elimination chamber,
9:44
Speaker 1: And it became pretty clear over the past week especially
9:47
Speaker 1: that probably was not going to be the debut of
9:50
Speaker 1: some big name or the return of some real big
9:53
Speaker 1: name performer, and Dan Housen is the name that everybody
9:57
Speaker 1: has been talking about. And it made sense because you know, reportedly,
10:01
Speaker 1: Dan Housen's contract with AW was set to expire this
10:03
Speaker 1: month and he was going to be a free man.
10:06
Speaker 1: And it's a silly gimmick, the crate that is, but
10:09
Speaker 1: so it was Dan Housen, and so it kind of
10:12
Speaker 1: made sense that he would be tied into this in
10:14
Speaker 1: some way. And then late Friday, early Saturday morning, all
10:18
Speaker 1: of a sudden, dan Hausen's bio disappeared from the from
10:23
Speaker 1: the AW roster page, which cleared the way for him
10:26
Speaker 1: to debut last night. And in fact it was dan
10:30
Speaker 1: Hausen in about six or eight women dressed like Dan Hausen,
10:34
Speaker 1: the Dan Housen dancers, who came out of the actually
10:38
Speaker 1: out of a coffin that was inside the crew. It's
10:40
Speaker 1: like one of these Russian tea dolls where it's like
10:43
Speaker 1: a fucking crate, a crate, and they all came out
10:46
Speaker 1: and they all danced to the ring. As dan Housen
10:49
Speaker 1: walked to the ring, he had his jar of teeth.
10:51
Speaker 1: Michael Cole had no idea what to make of any
10:53
Speaker 1: of this, and then he literally disappeared into a plume
10:56
Speaker 1: of smoke and that was the end of that. And
11:00
Speaker 1: this is a debut that will be up there with
11:03
Speaker 1: the likes of the Gobbledee Gooker and Tito Ortiz as
11:07
Speaker 1: the August first warning in TNA that is not good
11:10
Speaker 1: company to be in. They booed Dan Housen in Chicago.
11:16
Speaker 1: It sounded like there was maybe a light pot for
11:19
Speaker 1: him when he initially came out, and some people recognize
11:22
Speaker 1: who he was not a whole lot, but then he
11:25
Speaker 1: did absolutely nothing right. You had a look. You have
11:27
Speaker 1: to look at this and understand that the majority of
11:30
Speaker 1: the people in the building last night probably had no
11:32
Speaker 1: fucking idea who Dan Housen was. That's part of the problem. Okay,
11:37
Speaker 1: most people didn't know who he was, and the people
11:39
Speaker 1: who did were not hoping for dan Housen to be
11:43
Speaker 1: the one to pop out of that crape. They got
11:45
Speaker 1: their hopes up for nothing. Really, this entire angle and
11:48
Speaker 1: doing it on this show set them up for disappointment,
11:52
Speaker 1: them being the fans. The fans kind of set themselves
11:54
Speaker 1: up for it, but ww we kind of helped them
11:56
Speaker 1: along by doing the debut on the Elimination Chamber Show.
12:01
Speaker 1: Instead of doing it, let's say, in a TV segment.
12:05
Speaker 1: But the reaction in terms of people not necessarily knowing
12:08
Speaker 1: who he was or being let down by this as
12:11
Speaker 1: the reveal, I can't say that that comes as any
12:12
Speaker 1: great surprise to me. He's a comedy act, you know,
12:18
Speaker 1: it's a mid card or a low mid card comedy act,
12:23
Speaker 1: and they built this thing up for weeks like it was,
12:25
Speaker 1: you know, gonna be some great reveal, and of course
12:28
Speaker 1: you're gonna have disappointment from a lot of fans, even
12:31
Speaker 1: the fans who didn't necessarily have an idea in their
12:34
Speaker 1: head that it was gonna be Jericho, or it was
12:35
Speaker 1: gonna be Seth Rollins, or it's gonna be I don't know,
12:37
Speaker 1: I mean, put whatever big name in there you want. Naturally,
12:41
Speaker 1: people are going to have all of these thoughts going
12:43
Speaker 1: through their heads about what or who this could possibly be.
12:46
Speaker 1: And then imagine if you're not familiar with Dan House,
12:48
Speaker 1: and this fucking guy pops out and you're looking at
12:51
Speaker 1: this going what the hell am I watching here? I mean,
12:55
Speaker 1: that's really what it was. Again. I don't know that
12:59
Speaker 1: I expected anything any different once I saw this crate
13:03
Speaker 1: was you know, included in segments during the week that was,
13:08
Speaker 1: you know, involving people like Phraxium and los Garza and
13:12
Speaker 1: our Truth, and they were basically making comedy out of it.
13:16
Speaker 1: It became pretty clear to me, Okay, don't set your
13:19
Speaker 1: expectations too high for what's inside this box, which was
13:23
Speaker 1: a preposterous gimmick to begin with. Dan Housen is a
13:28
Speaker 1: comedy act that I am sure will not be wrestling
13:30
Speaker 1: very often. He barely wrestled in AAW and look, Tony
13:36
Speaker 1: Kahn signed this guy when he was out with a
13:38
Speaker 1: broken leg. Some people forget about that he was injured
13:41
Speaker 1: when he got signed, and I don't know how many
13:44
Speaker 1: more months after that it was before he was even
13:47
Speaker 1: medically cleared to wrestle. I mean, that's what he did
13:49
Speaker 1: with Brian Cage. I think Brian Cage was injured when
13:52
Speaker 1: he first got signed all those years ago by AAW
13:56
Speaker 1: and then later on Dan Housen torres peck and he
13:59
Speaker 1: missed eight months, nine months and he got paid the
14:02
Speaker 1: entire time. So it's not like AW ruined his life
14:05
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But he did try to get
14:06
Speaker 1: out of his deal early. They said no, and he's
14:10
Speaker 1: been sitting at home waiting it out and biding his
14:13
Speaker 1: time ever since. This is what he wanted. He wanted out,
14:16
Speaker 1: So I mean, I'm happy for him that he got
14:17
Speaker 1: out and he's getting this opportunity in WWE, because it
14:22
Speaker 1: wasn't a Slam done guarantee that he was going to
14:24
Speaker 1: get an opportunity in WWE. Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer
14:28
Speaker 1: Radio even commented on this overnight. He said, people push
14:31
Speaker 1: for him, there were people who didn't want him. It
14:34
Speaker 1: was not a unanimous decision or anything like that. I
14:36
Speaker 1: would guess that the people who did not want him
14:38
Speaker 1: are thinking, hmm, sure didn't work out so well this time,
14:43
Speaker 1: but time will tell. He'll get another chill. Well, of
14:46
Speaker 1: course he'll get another chance. What does he imply that
14:50
Speaker 1: there was a chance they might kill the entire thing
14:52
Speaker 1: last night? The fuck did you expect debuting him like this?
14:58
Speaker 1: So it was not a unanimous decision that I can believe.
15:00
Speaker 1: I can absolutely believe there were certain people in the
15:03
Speaker 1: WWE writer's room or in the WWE management hierarchy who
15:08
Speaker 1: they don't get Dan Housen. They probably looked at Dan
15:11
Speaker 1: Housen and said, what's the big deal here? What am
15:13
Speaker 1: I looking at there are people that are going to
15:16
Speaker 1: have to be convinced. They're probably not convinced after last night,
15:19
Speaker 1: But let's see what happens. Right. They haven't actually used
15:22
Speaker 1: him yet. We don't yet know what his role on
15:24
Speaker 1: the show is going to be. Is he going to
15:25
Speaker 1: bounce from one show to the others? He going to
15:27
Speaker 1: be exclusive to one brand? Are they going to have
15:31
Speaker 1: him wrestling? He might not wrestle at all. I mean,
15:34
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know what their plans are.
15:36
Speaker 1: Dan Housen should not be wrestling very often. I mean,
15:40
Speaker 1: that's not what makes Dan Housen work. Right. He'll wrestle
15:43
Speaker 1: a few matches, but he'll be doing comedy skits with
15:46
Speaker 1: Our Truth before long. He'll be the one in a
15:49
Speaker 1: few months with Our Truth in the back trying to
15:51
Speaker 1: sell all the other mid carters and all the catering
15:54
Speaker 1: crew in the back on how to download the ESPN
15:57
Speaker 1: app to buy the next pl e. That will be
16:00
Speaker 1: his role on the show. Maybe at some point they
16:02
Speaker 1: send him to Triple A to do stuff with mister Iguana.
16:05
Speaker 1: They got all kinds of ridiculous gimmicks down there, and
16:08
Speaker 1: they'll make money off of Dan House in merch and
16:11
Speaker 1: they can make a little plastic jaw can't make them glass,
16:14
Speaker 1: but you can make a little plastic jars with faked
16:16
Speaker 1: teeth in them, and they'll make back whatever money they're
16:18
Speaker 1: paying him. Like to me, it's not that deep. But
16:23
Speaker 1: if people were disappointed and let down by the big reveal,
16:27
Speaker 1: they really shouldn't have been. But I can understand it.
16:30
Speaker 1: WWE kind of had that one coming. But the sign
16:36
Speaker 1: of the night on the show was actually at the
16:38
Speaker 1: very beginning of the show, because they opened with a
16:40
Speaker 1: women's chamber, and as Raquel Rodriguez was walking out, there
16:45
Speaker 1: was a sign in the crowd that said, I got
16:47
Speaker 1: stuck in traffic? When's Luger versus Tatanka. Now you'd have
16:52
Speaker 1: to be a longtime fan to chuckle at that one.
16:54
Speaker 1: I had a nice laugh when I saw that sign.
16:57
Speaker 1: If you don't know the only other major events WWE
17:00
Speaker 1: has ever done at the United Center, and I think
17:03
Speaker 1: last night might have been the third events of any
17:06
Speaker 1: kind that they've ever done at the United Center. I
17:09
Speaker 1: think the other one was a house show maybe about
17:11
Speaker 1: a decade back. But the first and only other major
17:15
Speaker 1: event was actually the first I think was the first event.
17:18
Speaker 1: I know it was the first wrestling event, but it
17:19
Speaker 1: might have been the first event ever at the United
17:22
Speaker 1: Center when it opened in nineteen ninety four, and that
17:24
Speaker 1: was SummerSlam. And at that Summer Slam, there was a
17:26
Speaker 1: match on the card between Lex Luger and Tatanka, and
17:31
Speaker 1: the storyline going into that match was that Tatanka believed
17:34
Speaker 1: that Lex Luger had sold out to the million Dollar Man.
17:37
Speaker 1: And they had all these segments on television that would
17:40
Speaker 1: lead you to believe that Luger might have sold out
17:42
Speaker 1: to the million dollar Man. They had a nine hundred
17:45
Speaker 1: number hotline they made people pay for to vote. Do
17:48
Speaker 1: you think Luger sold out or not? I don't remember.
17:51
Speaker 1: I want to say it was like fifty four percent
17:53
Speaker 1: said he sold out. I think was like the results.
17:56
Speaker 1: And of course, the big swerve at the end is that,
17:58
Speaker 1: in fact, Luger did not sell out to the million
18:00
Speaker 1: dollar Man. It was Tatanka who sold out to the
18:02
Speaker 1: million dollar Man. I actually enjoyed that angle. I actually
18:06
Speaker 1: thought it was a well done angle. But I saw
18:08
Speaker 1: that side and I'm like, man, traffic must be really
18:11
Speaker 1: bad there getting to the United Center. This guy's been
18:14
Speaker 1: waiting a very long time for that match. Who wants
18:16
Speaker 1: to be the one to tell him? I don't know.
18:18
Speaker 1: You see, that's a longtime fan right there. But in
18:21
Speaker 1: the women's chamber, Alexa Bliss was eliminated first. I had
18:25
Speaker 1: her as my pick to win until I saw what
18:27
Speaker 1: happened on SmackDown Friday night, and then I realized, ah, fuck,
18:30
Speaker 1: there goes my prediction. I did not expect Alexa to
18:34
Speaker 1: be the first one eliminated, though. They did a double
18:37
Speaker 1: pin spot at one point where Raquel eliminated two women
18:39
Speaker 1: at once. Was it Oscar and Keana, I believe on
18:43
Speaker 1: a double pin stack him in Pinham. I thought that
18:46
Speaker 1: was pretty goofy. Keana looked good in this match. This
18:50
Speaker 1: was her first major match since being called up to
18:53
Speaker 1: the main roster, and even you know, again, she wasn't
18:56
Speaker 1: gonna win, of course, but you could tell they set
18:59
Speaker 1: her up to have a good night where she was
19:01
Speaker 1: in there for about twenty minutes. She was one of
19:02
Speaker 1: the women who opened the match, and I thought she
19:04
Speaker 1: looked good in the match. But ultimately it came down
19:07
Speaker 1: to Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton. And I like that
19:10
Speaker 1: because you could at least argue, hey, Tiffany might actually
19:14
Speaker 1: win this. They might run back Tiffany and Jade at WrestleMania.
19:16
Speaker 1: Thank god they're not doing that, because I had no
19:18
Speaker 1: interest in seeing that again. But at least you can
19:21
Speaker 1: go Okay, this could go either way, even though it
19:24
Speaker 1: was pretty clear at this point that Rhea Ripley was
19:26
Speaker 1: going to win the Elimination Chamber because on SmackDown Friday Night,
19:30
Speaker 1: she and Eosky they lost their women's tag team titles
19:33
Speaker 1: to Naya Jackson Lash Legend, who now can go on
19:36
Speaker 1: to defend them against you know, bre Mode and whoever
19:40
Speaker 1: else they're going to put in that match, and then
19:42
Speaker 1: Rhea and hopefully EO can go on to do other
19:45
Speaker 1: more important things on the show. But Rihea Ripley winning
19:49
Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber, I mean, I don't look at this
19:51
Speaker 1: as any kind of hot take here, but evidently with
19:53
Speaker 1: some people it might be Rihea Ripley winning the Elimination
19:55
Speaker 1: Chamber was the right outcome. And I know there were
19:58
Speaker 1: people who were upset with riea way, because I heard
20:00
Speaker 1: from them in my timeline. They were all over the place.
20:05
Speaker 1: And to that, I will say this, it is roughly
20:08
Speaker 1: one full year almost to the day as I am
20:11
Speaker 1: sitting here now that Riha Ripley was a women's world
20:13
Speaker 1: champion of any kind. She lost the title on Raw
20:16
Speaker 1: last year to Eo Sky before WrestleMania. She has not
20:19
Speaker 1: held singles gold since for the most part now, for
20:22
Speaker 1: months and months and months, she's been stuck in this
20:25
Speaker 1: tag team division. Her Aneo. They make a very good team,
20:27
Speaker 1: but she's been stuck doing the tag team thing. So
20:30
Speaker 1: it's not like Riha has constantly been in the world
20:33
Speaker 1: title picture. For the last twelve months. She hasn't been.
20:37
Speaker 1: But there are people who were upset because, oh, it's
20:39
Speaker 1: Rhea Ripley, and she's gonna be and yet another championship
20:41
Speaker 1: match of WrestleMania, and you know, blah blah blah and
20:44
Speaker 1: all this stuff. And there were a couple of people
20:46
Speaker 1: who were saying it should have been Charlotte in that spot.
20:48
Speaker 1: And I just I laughed when I saw this, and
20:50
Speaker 1: I said, boy, this is this is where we've come to,
20:54
Speaker 1: now where we have people who are actually upset that
20:58
Speaker 1: Rha Ripley, who in their mind and always gets title
21:01
Speaker 1: matches a WrestleMania, is getting another title match when man,
21:04
Speaker 1: it should have been Charlotte Flair. Like what timeline am
21:09
Speaker 1: I living in?
21:10
Speaker 2: You?
21:10
Speaker 1: I'm living in the worst, most bizarre timeline. And I
21:14
Speaker 1: don't say that as somebody who would have been upset
21:16
Speaker 1: if Charlotte would have won. I actually thought, once we
21:19
Speaker 1: knew that Bianca wasn't going to be back in time,
21:22
Speaker 1: that Charlotte was the next best choice. I was pushing
21:25
Speaker 1: for that match. I would have had no issue if
21:27
Speaker 1: it was Charlotte Flack because guess what, Charlotte like Rhea
21:29
Speaker 1: has been out of the world title scene for about
21:31
Speaker 1: a year, and it was the best thing that could
21:35
Speaker 1: have happened to Charlotte Flair because the fans were sick
21:37
Speaker 1: and fucking tired of seeing Charlotte Flair in those situations,
21:40
Speaker 1: So get her out of there for a while. But
21:43
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you want to do
21:44
Speaker 1: the match that is going to be the biggest marquee
21:46
Speaker 1: match that you can do on a card that could
21:49
Speaker 1: desperately use some marquee attractions. So what match would you do?
21:53
Speaker 1: You've already teased Charlotte and Jade multiple times on TV.
21:56
Speaker 1: They just did it again a few weeks ago, and
21:59
Speaker 1: then Charlotte got bounced out of the qualifiers, so Keana
22:02
Speaker 1: James went to the chamber instead. So I would have
22:05
Speaker 1: no issue if they went with Charlotte Flair. But I
22:08
Speaker 1: have no issue with them going with Rhea Ripley because
22:11
Speaker 1: that's the best option. Ria Ripley is one of the
22:14
Speaker 1: most popular names in the entire company. She has no
22:17
Speaker 1: other obvious, clear direction for WrestleMania. What would you have
22:20
Speaker 1: her doing? I would love to see Rhea against EO.
22:23
Speaker 1: It's very clear they're not doing that. So I ask you,
22:27
Speaker 1: what else would you have Rhea Ripley doing on a
22:30
Speaker 1: WrestleMania card that could really use some attractions this year?
22:33
Speaker 1: All right? You want to make real good use of
22:36
Speaker 1: the big names that you have available to you, because
22:38
Speaker 1: some of them are not available to you, some of
22:39
Speaker 1: them are on the injury list. Rhea Ripley was the
22:44
Speaker 1: right outcome these people who are upset about this, not
22:48
Speaker 1: all of them, but believe me, you would have plenty
22:51
Speaker 1: of people bitching and moaning if Charlotte Flair was the
22:54
Speaker 1: one who won the Chamber and was going to WrestleMania.
22:57
Speaker 1: You know I'm right, you know, damn I'm rights. Instead
23:01
Speaker 1: of the discourse being oh God, not Ria again, it
23:04
Speaker 1: would be Oh my God, Charlotte again back on top
23:07
Speaker 1: of the world titled picture, It would be the same shit.
23:10
Speaker 1: Either way. Jade needs to be in there with somebody
23:14
Speaker 1: who probably in their view, can give her the best
23:17
Speaker 1: match of This is the biggest match of her career.
23:20
Speaker 1: They don't want her to go out there and ship
23:21
Speaker 1: the bed. Jade Cargill is not at the level of
23:24
Speaker 1: a Charlotte Flair. Jade Cargill is not at the level
23:27
Speaker 1: of a Rhea Ripley, But those are the kind of
23:29
Speaker 1: people that you want her in the ring with if
23:31
Speaker 1: she's going to go one on one with somebody at WrestleMania.
23:34
Speaker 1: One of the reasons that we have not seen her
23:36
Speaker 1: defending her championship very often, not a doubt in my mind,
23:38
Speaker 1: is that they are trying to protect her. They don't
23:41
Speaker 1: want to put her in there with just anybody because
23:43
Speaker 1: she's not ready for that. So part of it is
23:47
Speaker 1: the lack of depth in the division right now, true,
23:50
Speaker 1: at least on Fridays, but part of it is also
23:52
Speaker 1: they are doing their best to protect her and make
23:54
Speaker 1: her look as great as they can possibly make her
23:56
Speaker 1: look within their power. So they're very careful and cautious
24:00
Speaker 1: about who they put her in the ring with one
24:02
Speaker 1: on one, but that is the right match. I will
24:07
Speaker 1: say this, and I brought this up though in my
24:08
Speaker 1: review last night. I would not have been opposed if
24:12
Speaker 1: they wanted to take this in a different kind of
24:14
Speaker 1: more creative way, and somebody had suggested this and I
24:17
Speaker 1: thought about it. I said, you know what, that's kind
24:19
Speaker 1: of clever. Doesn't really work because the stipulation was very
24:22
Speaker 1: clear this was for a shot at Jade's title of WrestleMania.
24:26
Speaker 1: But if they could have found a way around that,
24:29
Speaker 1: you have Raquel Rodriguez win the Chamber, which would have
24:32
Speaker 1: shocked the hell out of a lot of people. But
24:34
Speaker 1: the idea is that on raw you think she's going
24:37
Speaker 1: after Jade, but she makes it very clear I want
24:39
Speaker 1: to be added to the Women's World title match. And
24:43
Speaker 1: now she inserts herself into a match where Live Morgan
24:45
Speaker 1: already won the Royal Rumble, right, but now Raquel wins
24:49
Speaker 1: the Chamber and says I want into I want a
24:52
Speaker 1: shot at Stephanie's title too. Now you've created some real
24:55
Speaker 1: drama and tension within the judgment day between Live and
24:59
Speaker 1: Raquel going into that match, and You've got seven weeks
25:02
Speaker 1: on the SmackDown side to figure out, how are we
25:04
Speaker 1: gonna you know, crown a number one contender for Jade's title,
25:08
Speaker 1: and WrestleMania is not until mid April. You still have
25:11
Speaker 1: time to set that up. That would have been very interesting.
25:15
Speaker 1: Aj Lee is the new Women's Intercontinental Champion with a
25:19
Speaker 1: win over Becky Lynch. This was AJ's first singles match
25:22
Speaker 1: since twenty fifteen, and I thought she looked fine. You know,
25:27
Speaker 1: she didn't really do anything that you wouldn't expect aj
25:30
Speaker 1: Lee to do. I mean again, I think people aj
25:33
Speaker 1: Lee was very, very popular when she was in that
25:36
Speaker 1: Diva's division all those years ago, but it wasn't as
25:39
Speaker 1: if she was one of the best in ring, you know,
25:42
Speaker 1: most most flashiest in ring performers they had on the roster.
25:45
Speaker 1: She wasn't. So you know, what we saw her doing
25:48
Speaker 1: in the match last night was exactly what you would
25:50
Speaker 1: expect that of an aj Lee match. You know, she
25:51
Speaker 1: hit some of her signature moves, the Shining Wizard and
25:55
Speaker 1: the Black Widow. She sold for a good chunk of
25:58
Speaker 1: the mess. She sold really the first half of the match.
26:01
Speaker 1: But I thought she looked fine, you know, for somebody
26:03
Speaker 1: who hasn't done this on her own one on one
26:05
Speaker 1: and so long, she looked fine. Jessica Carr was the
26:08
Speaker 1: referee for the match, which is something I had talked
26:11
Speaker 1: about a few weeks ago. I said, let's see if
26:12
Speaker 1: she's the referee for the match and if they draw
26:14
Speaker 1: attention to this heat between her and Becky which they
26:17
Speaker 1: seem to have gotten away from him for a while.
26:20
Speaker 1: And she played a role in the finish of the match.
26:22
Speaker 1: There was an exposed turnbuckle. She was trying to put
26:24
Speaker 1: the turnbuckle pad back on and she got bumped. She
26:27
Speaker 1: got kicked in the head by Becky. So we had
26:30
Speaker 1: a lot of that kind of Shenanigan's going on there.
26:32
Speaker 1: But in the end it was Becky who actually ran
26:35
Speaker 1: herself face first into the exposed buckle and she tapped
26:38
Speaker 1: out to the Black Widow. And so that is how
26:40
Speaker 1: we ended up with a new champion. And so what
26:42
Speaker 1: are we looking at now as we look ahead to WrestleMania,
26:45
Speaker 1: Because you would expect that this was the first of
26:47
Speaker 1: what's going to be probably a couple of matches that
26:50
Speaker 1: these two were going to have. In the likeliest scenarios
26:53
Speaker 1: that we get aj Lee and Becky Lynch again at WrestleMania. Now,
26:56
Speaker 1: I was all in favor of putting the belt on
26:58
Speaker 1: aj here if she's not going to be all the time,
27:00
Speaker 1: because you give her a little run with the championship
27:02
Speaker 1: and then she could always drop the belt back to
27:04
Speaker 1: Becky in Las Vegas. I would actually love to see
27:08
Speaker 1: them go in a different direction altogether and not run
27:10
Speaker 1: this back again. I mean, they've really been beefing with
27:13
Speaker 1: each other going all the way back to September. We
27:17
Speaker 1: had the match, The match was fine. I mean, it
27:19
Speaker 1: wasn't any great shakes or anything last night. I would
27:22
Speaker 1: love it if they went in a totally different direction,
27:24
Speaker 1: if they actually wanted to do something like some sort
27:26
Speaker 1: of special attraction type deal with Becky Lynch inviting Jessica
27:31
Speaker 1: Carr to get into the ring. Because Jessica has a
27:33
Speaker 1: wrestling background, she could absolutely work one match if they
27:37
Speaker 1: wanted her to work a match like that's not an issue,
27:39
Speaker 1: and all the people that have no idea that she
27:41
Speaker 1: wrestled would probably be dazzled by the stuff that she
27:44
Speaker 1: would do in there, and it would probably get a
27:45
Speaker 1: big reaction. So I think you do maybe a special
27:49
Speaker 1: attraction you can get away with doing like Becky against
27:52
Speaker 1: Jessica and then have aj go off to defend the
27:55
Speaker 1: championship against someone totally different on that show. And the
27:57
Speaker 1: name might threw out there last night was Roxanne Perez. Now.
28:00
Speaker 1: I don't know what her health status is going to
28:01
Speaker 1: be for WrestleMania. I know she just had I think
28:03
Speaker 1: back surgery to remove a benign tumor. I don't know
28:07
Speaker 1: what the recovery time is from something like that. Hopefully
28:09
Speaker 1: she'll be back in time, you know, to be on
28:11
Speaker 1: the show. And if she is, I think that you
28:14
Speaker 1: could absolutely have her challenge aj Lee and maybe even
28:18
Speaker 1: win the championship off of aj Lee at WrestleMania. But
28:21
Speaker 1: it would just be something different. You get two matches
28:23
Speaker 1: out of it instead of one. I don't know that
28:25
Speaker 1: that's what they're going to do, but that was something
28:28
Speaker 1: that I mentioned last night that would be something I'd
28:30
Speaker 1: have an interest in seeing. Cmpunk he defended the World
28:34
Speaker 1: Heavyweight Championship against Finn Balor. Punk got a special entrance
28:38
Speaker 1: being in Chicago and everything. He didn't come out to
28:41
Speaker 1: the ring to the song, but they showed him coming
28:43
Speaker 1: out of his locker room in the back and walking
28:46
Speaker 1: to where I guess Gorilla would be and they were
28:48
Speaker 1: playing serious by the Alan Parsons Project, which wasn't just
28:52
Speaker 1: the song all though Chicago Bulls teams but Michael Jordan
28:55
Speaker 1: would come out to But it was Ricky Steamboat's theme
28:58
Speaker 1: in WWE for many years, and it just so happened
29:02
Speaker 1: that yesterday was Ricky Steamboat's seventy third birthday, So happy
29:08
Speaker 1: birthday to old Dick Blood. Still the most disturbing shoot
29:12
Speaker 1: wrestler name. Ever, as far as the match itself, they
29:16
Speaker 1: had a good match. Crowd was a lot quieter than
29:20
Speaker 1: you would think for a big cm Punk title defense
29:23
Speaker 1: here in Chicago, and of it a lot of the
29:27
Speaker 1: match at the beginning, it was very methodical. It was
29:29
Speaker 1: Balor working over his ribcage and nothing terribly exciting, and
29:33
Speaker 1: then it picked up more towards the end. The big
29:36
Speaker 1: part of the problem here is that absolutely nobody believe
29:39
Speaker 1: that Cmpunk was losing that championship before he wrestles Roman
29:43
Speaker 1: Reigns or Wrestlemani, and that would go for anybody who
29:46
Speaker 1: was in this spot. I really think that you're stretching
29:49
Speaker 1: the bounds of credibility to believe that anybody you put
29:52
Speaker 1: in this situation was going to walk out with that
29:54
Speaker 1: title other than Cmpunk. But Finn Balor is certainly not
29:57
Speaker 1: a perceived threat from the offe here because he just
30:01
Speaker 1: hasn't been booked as any kind of a threat. Now,
30:03
Speaker 1: I was going to say in years, but really has
30:05
Speaker 1: he ever I'm not talking NXT, I'm talking main roster.
30:09
Speaker 1: Has he ever really been booked as any sort of
30:12
Speaker 1: real threat to anyone on this roster? The answer is no,
30:17
Speaker 1: but especially in the last few years. So you can
30:20
Speaker 1: absolutely put part of that on the booking of Finn Balor.
30:24
Speaker 1: Nobody was buying into it. But again, you know, it
30:27
Speaker 1: picked up down the stretch Punk one, of course, and
30:30
Speaker 1: when the match was over, Balor shook hands with him.
30:32
Speaker 1: I'm sure that will not go over well with liv
30:34
Speaker 1: Morgan and the rest of the Judgment Day will get
30:36
Speaker 1: more Judgment Day drama on TV this week. And don't forget,
30:40
Speaker 1: Dom is going to be defending his Intercontinental title tomorrow
30:43
Speaker 1: night against Penta, so we'll see how things play out there.
30:48
Speaker 1: But not much else to say about this. I mean,
30:49
Speaker 1: Punk got a win in Chicago, AJ came out and
30:53
Speaker 1: husband and wife got to pose and celebrate with their
30:55
Speaker 1: respective championships. I saw the Instagram photo that Punk posted.
31:00
Speaker 1: I guess he raced back home, got to sleep in
31:03
Speaker 1: his own bed last night. It looked like he was
31:04
Speaker 1: in his garage or something, and he looked buck naked,
31:08
Speaker 1: and he had his World Heavyweight Championship around his privates
31:11
Speaker 1: and he had AJ's Intercontinental Championship wrapped around his chest.
31:16
Speaker 1: And I mentioned the disturbing Dick Blood before. I don't
31:21
Speaker 1: know what's more disturbing. I don't know if Dick Blood
31:23
Speaker 1: is more disturbing or the photo that I saw of
31:25
Speaker 1: CM Punk is more disturbing. I know I won't be
31:29
Speaker 1: able to get that image out of my head for
31:30
Speaker 1: a while. That I know. And no, I am not
31:33
Speaker 1: turning that into a super chat, so don't ask me.
31:36
Speaker 1: And then we had the main event, which was the
31:39
Speaker 1: men's Elimination Chamber match. Almost twenty minutes of entrances for
31:45
Speaker 1: a twenty five minute match. That is wild, absolutely even
31:50
Speaker 1: by WWE standards, that is wild. Trick Williams entered first,
31:58
Speaker 1: and Wrestle Votes Radio on Fiteful Select reported this week
32:02
Speaker 1: that there have been internal discussions in WWE about turning
32:06
Speaker 1: Trick William's babyface after his crowd reactions, to which I say,
32:12
Speaker 1: leave it alone. Don't change a thing. Leave it alone.
32:20
Speaker 1: He's still new to the main roster. If the fans
32:22
Speaker 1: want to cheer for him, let him cheer. If they
32:24
Speaker 1: want to boo, let him boo. At some point, if
32:28
Speaker 1: you want to put your full weight behind him with
32:30
Speaker 1: a real baby face turn, you'll have time to do that.
32:32
Speaker 1: But don't fuck this up. The guy is getting over organically.
32:36
Speaker 1: The worst thing they could do is put their fingerprints
32:38
Speaker 1: all over it. Leave it alone. Nothing really happened in
32:45
Speaker 1: this match until Logan Paul entered, and he was what
32:47
Speaker 1: the fourth guy in. I think now, how did Logan
32:50
Speaker 1: Paul even end up in the elimination shamer. Logan Paul
32:54
Speaker 1: was not supposed to be in the elimination Shamer. To
32:56
Speaker 1: be honest with you, I don't think Bronson Reid was
32:58
Speaker 1: supposed to be in the elimination chamber. I'm I'm sure
33:00
Speaker 1: bron Breaker was originally going to be in the elimination
33:02
Speaker 1: chamber and probably would have been fucked over by Seth Rollins,
33:06
Speaker 1: but then he got hurt. So Bronton Reid was supposed
33:08
Speaker 1: to qualify on raw last Monday, he had a qualifying
33:11
Speaker 1: match with jay Usso and El Grande Americano Gable and
33:16
Speaker 1: he got hurt and I'm going to talk more about
33:17
Speaker 1: Bronson read a little bit later on. But then jay
33:20
Speaker 1: Uso got in and at the beginning of SmackDown on
33:23
Speaker 1: Friday night he was out no yeats. Somebody took him out,
33:27
Speaker 1: we don't know who, but he was loaded up into
33:28
Speaker 1: the back of an ambulance. He was unconscious. We'll see
33:31
Speaker 1: where that angle goes. And so they had to figure
33:34
Speaker 1: And by the way, by the way, we did not
33:37
Speaker 1: get jay Usso in the elimination chamber, but just imagine
33:40
Speaker 1: if we did. If we had gotten the yeating last night,
33:43
Speaker 1: those entrances I just talked about would have been longer,
33:45
Speaker 1: legitimately longer than the match itself, Like they went twenty
33:49
Speaker 1: minutes for the entrances without jay Uso running it back.
33:54
Speaker 1: That's the scary part. But in lieu of jay Uso
33:59
Speaker 1: being in the eliminate nation chamber, they had a qualifying
34:01
Speaker 1: match between Jacob Fatu and Logan Paul. Drew McIntyre got
34:05
Speaker 1: involved at the end and Logan Paul qualified for what
34:09
Speaker 1: they said was his third elimination Chamber match. And not
34:14
Speaker 1: only was this his third elimination Chamber match, they gave
34:18
Speaker 1: him three eliminations in this match. They gave him the
34:22
Speaker 1: Bronz and Reid spot, but they gave Logan Paul three eliminations.
34:26
Speaker 1: That just absolutely killed the crowd. Or I shouldn't even
34:29
Speaker 1: say that, more like the crowd was already dead. So
34:32
Speaker 1: they just put a few more slugs in the corpse.
34:36
Speaker 1: And then there's La Knight, La poor La Knight. I
34:41
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know what to say at this point.
34:44
Speaker 1: La Knight had a very bad night. We actually may
34:47
Speaker 1: look back at last night as the final nail in
34:50
Speaker 1: the coffin for La Knight. It just went from bad
34:53
Speaker 1: to worse. He had a botch and it happens, right,
34:57
Speaker 1: shit happens, but just this whole sequence of events, the
35:01
Speaker 1: way it all panned out here, he went for that
35:04
Speaker 1: leaping elbow from the middle rope to the top rope.
35:06
Speaker 1: He does it in every match, and he's slipped up
35:09
Speaker 1: a few times more often than not. He nails it
35:13
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff he does on the ropes, though,
35:15
Speaker 1: I always just kind of like cringe when he does it,
35:18
Speaker 1: and I hold my breath because even when he does
35:20
Speaker 1: the running jump to the top rope, but you'd never
35:24
Speaker 1: know if it's gonna work out or not. But when
35:27
Speaker 1: you're in a situation like this, where you're in the
35:29
Speaker 1: main event of this pl you're inside the elimination chamber,
35:32
Speaker 1: you're in a big spot like this, obviously you want
35:34
Speaker 1: everything to go right. And it did not go right.
35:38
Speaker 1: He went to go jump up to the top rope
35:40
Speaker 1: and he slipped, and it could have been worse. I mean,
35:43
Speaker 1: he could have just fallen flat on his face. He
35:44
Speaker 1: could have injured himself, he could have broken his fucking
35:46
Speaker 1: ankle or something. He basically landed on his feet and
35:49
Speaker 1: stumbled a little bit, and the crowd just, I mean
35:52
Speaker 1: the crowd grown. They're like, oh man, And so he
35:55
Speaker 1: just did a standing elbow drop instead butt we go
35:58
Speaker 1: from the embarks seem botch. There. It just goes from
36:02
Speaker 1: bad to worse because from there he took a nutshot
36:06
Speaker 1: from Logan Paul and then he got rolled up and
36:10
Speaker 1: pinned yet again by the vision. That was the end
36:14
Speaker 1: of La Knight in this match. Somehow, they were even
36:18
Speaker 1: quieter for this elimination. Not a good night for La Knight.
36:22
Speaker 1: And what that means for him for WrestleMania. I have
36:25
Speaker 1: no fucking idea. I'm not even convinced they'll be on
36:28
Speaker 1: the WrestleMania card. I don't know where you go at
36:31
Speaker 1: this point with La Knight, unless we do end up
36:33
Speaker 1: with some sort of tag team match, which actually would
36:35
Speaker 1: kind of make sense if it was seth Rollins in
36:37
Speaker 1: La Knight against the Vision, seth Rollins La Knight and
36:41
Speaker 1: a third person against the Vision, if maybe bron Breaker
36:44
Speaker 1: was going to be back in time, probably something with
36:47
Speaker 1: the Vision. Otherwise, I don't see a role for him
36:50
Speaker 1: on that show this year. So that was a bad
36:53
Speaker 1: enough sequence that just just killed the vibe completely. But
36:57
Speaker 1: then it got ridiculous because we had the mass Man.
37:01
Speaker 1: Now we had to expect that we were probably going
37:03
Speaker 1: to see the mask Man get involved here. When Bronson
37:06
Speaker 1: Reid was supposed to be in this match, I figured
37:08
Speaker 1: he's the only member of the Vision who has not
37:10
Speaker 1: been directly screwed over by the mass Man, so it
37:13
Speaker 1: will probably happen in the chamber instead of him, it
37:17
Speaker 1: was Logan Paul, but we have this mass Man who's
37:19
Speaker 1: trying to scale the chamber, trying to get inside this
37:23
Speaker 1: is after they shot an angle in the main event
37:26
Speaker 1: on Friday, when Logan beat Jacob Fatu, where the mass
37:30
Speaker 1: man tried to run in, Logan unmasked him and it
37:35
Speaker 1: was some rando that we've never seen before. We don't
37:39
Speaker 1: know who this person was. Apparently he was a former
37:42
Speaker 1: student from seth Rawlins School and he was used on
37:46
Speaker 1: television in a segment last year on NXT and he
37:49
Speaker 1: wrestled a few years ago on aw Dark, So it
37:51
Speaker 1: was a wrestler, but no fucking idea who this guy was. Right.
37:55
Speaker 1: That was on Friday, So now here in the elimination chamber,
37:59
Speaker 1: this person is trying to get in the cage and
38:01
Speaker 1: he gets pulled down by security. Adam Pierce runs out,
38:04
Speaker 1: they pull the man's mask off, and again it's just
38:07
Speaker 1: some random person that we've never seen before. It's another decoy.
38:12
Speaker 1: Then we get a third mask man in twenty four
38:16
Speaker 1: hours because the door is just fucking wide open to
38:21
Speaker 1: the chamber and this mask man comes in and kicks
38:25
Speaker 1: Slogan Paul in the gut and delivers a curb stop
38:29
Speaker 1: and pulls the mask off, and it is in fact
38:32
Speaker 1: seth Rawlins and it got the biggest pop of anything
38:37
Speaker 1: in the match up to that point, because it's like, oh,
38:39
Speaker 1: great sets here. Finally I cheered, I pop, just because
38:42
Speaker 1: thank god, we can be done with this stupid mass
38:44
Speaker 1: man angle. And he kind of looked at Cody, Cody
38:48
Speaker 1: looked at him, and then Rollins left through the crop.
38:51
Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait until Monday night, I guess
38:53
Speaker 1: to hear from Seth Rollins and get some sense of
38:56
Speaker 1: where we go from here. But we weren't done yet
38:59
Speaker 1: with the interference in the over book bullshit in this match,
39:02
Speaker 1: because the door is still wide open to the chamber
39:06
Speaker 1: and now it's down to Cody Roads and Randy Orton,
39:08
Speaker 1: which I like. But here comes Drew McIntyre and he
39:11
Speaker 1: wallops Cody in the head with the WWE title and
39:14
Speaker 1: gets inside the chamber and they're going at it, and
39:16
Speaker 1: eventually Randy Orton he's watching this, and eventually he comes
39:19
Speaker 1: over and he drops Drew with an RKO. He then
39:25
Speaker 1: stumbles up into a crossroad from Cody Rhodes and then
39:28
Speaker 1: Cody walks right into an RKO and is pinned by
39:33
Speaker 1: Randy Orton. Hence Randy Orton wins the elimination chamber. The
39:37
Speaker 1: only thing you need to even go back and watch
39:40
Speaker 1: if you didn't see this show. First of all, you
39:41
Speaker 1: don't need to really go back and see anything, if
39:43
Speaker 1: we're being honest. But if you were going to see
39:44
Speaker 1: anything as far as this match goes, literally watch the
39:47
Speaker 1: last sixty seconds. That's all you need to see. The
39:50
Speaker 1: rest of this was just a gigantic waste of time. Now,
39:54
Speaker 1: I like the finish in that at least makes things
39:57
Speaker 1: more interesting than it was twenty four hours earlier. And
40:01
Speaker 1: it felt like coming out of the show, Okay, we're
40:03
Speaker 1: garying it, we're all but guaranteed now a triple threat
40:06
Speaker 1: or fatal four way for WrestleMania, because the story now
40:09
Speaker 1: over the next seven weeks becomes how does Cody Roads
40:11
Speaker 1: work his way into the WWE title picture. He's going
40:14
Speaker 1: to be in the championship match of WrestleMania. I mean,
40:17
Speaker 1: there's no doubt about bet my left not on that.
40:19
Speaker 1: I mean, of course he's going to be in the
40:20
Speaker 1: title match. The only question is does Jacob Fatu end
40:23
Speaker 1: up in there? Do we get a four way instead
40:24
Speaker 1: of a three way? But then they shot an angle
40:27
Speaker 1: after the show. The biggest thing to happen last night
40:29
Speaker 1: at the elimination chamber did not even happen on the
40:31
Speaker 1: actual show. It happened when the show was over. Nick All,
40:36
Speaker 1: this was beside himself. He had to be restrained from
40:38
Speaker 1: going after Drew McIntyre for what McIntyre had done. And
40:41
Speaker 1: then all this said, you know what, this Friday on SmackDown,
40:45
Speaker 1: you are going to defend the WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes.
40:51
Speaker 1: So they have made a huge title man. Cody lost
40:53
Speaker 1: the chamber, but he's getting his title match anyway before
40:56
Speaker 1: Randy does. He's getting it on Friday on SmackDown. Because
41:00
Speaker 1: time and time again he has been attacked. He has
41:02
Speaker 1: been screwed over by Drew McIntyre because McIntyre does not
41:05
Speaker 1: want to get back in the ring with Cody Rhoads.
41:07
Speaker 1: He does not want to get in the ring with Cody,
41:09
Speaker 1: He does not want to get in the ring with
41:10
Speaker 1: Jacob Fatu. The only person he's been content to get
41:13
Speaker 1: in the ring with is Sammy Zain. And you could
41:16
Speaker 1: understand why because Sammy Zain has been a fucking loser
41:20
Speaker 1: when it comes to Drew McIntyre. McIntyre was oh for eleven,
41:25
Speaker 1: so of course he's like, I'd love to wrestle you
41:27
Speaker 1: with the Royal Rumble, and then what happened. He went
41:29
Speaker 1: over Sammy went oh for twelve is what I meant
41:32
Speaker 1: to say. Drew was eleven and oh now he's twelve
41:34
Speaker 1: and oh over Sammy Zan. But he doesn't want to
41:37
Speaker 1: get in the ring with any of these other guys,
41:39
Speaker 1: and that includes Randy Orton.
41:40
Speaker 2: Right.
41:40
Speaker 1: That's that's been the whole story. So now this creates
41:44
Speaker 1: more intrigue because Okay, we're getting a big title match
41:46
Speaker 1: on Friday, and they may very well put that championship
41:49
Speaker 1: back on Cody Rhoads this week. And if they do that,
41:53
Speaker 1: then we get Cody Roads and Randy Orton one on
41:56
Speaker 1: one at WrestleMania for the WWE title. And you could
42:00
Speaker 1: do Drew McIntyre against Jacob Fatu. You could do Drew
42:03
Speaker 1: mac fuck I mean, you could do Drew McIntyre against
42:05
Speaker 1: Nick Alldis if you want. I mean, they've been beefing
42:07
Speaker 1: now for months and months. I would not be doing
42:10
Speaker 1: Drew McIntyre against Nick allD this on the same show
42:13
Speaker 1: that you know I would possibly be doing Becky Lynch
42:16
Speaker 1: and the referee. I would not do both of those matches.
42:20
Speaker 1: But you can't discount that as a possibility that maybe
42:22
Speaker 1: they'll do Drew against Nick Alldis. So I don't know
42:26
Speaker 1: what way they're going to go with it, and that's good.
42:28
Speaker 1: That's good because we have real intrigue now around this
42:32
Speaker 1: title scene, this world title scene on SmackDown, and it's
42:36
Speaker 1: really the best you can ask for at this point
42:37
Speaker 1: because we don't have that one big story. We don't
42:41
Speaker 1: have that one big story going into WrestleMania this year,
42:44
Speaker 1: certainly not on the SmackDown side. Everything just feels pieced
42:47
Speaker 1: together and kind of last minute, and so what do
42:51
Speaker 1: you do, right? You got to try to drum up
42:53
Speaker 1: interest and keep people guessing as far as what that
42:55
Speaker 1: championship match is going to be. But they've created genuine
42:58
Speaker 1: heat now between all of these different parties, Drew and
43:02
Speaker 1: Cody and Jacob and Randy and Sammy. That's why I
43:06
Speaker 1: mentioned before, if they weren't doing the elimination chamber gimmick
43:08
Speaker 1: every year, this would be the perfect time to do
43:11
Speaker 1: one at WrestleMania and just get everybody in there. Although
43:15
Speaker 1: what is that five? You would need a six person.
43:18
Speaker 1: I don't know who that six person would be. I
43:20
Speaker 1: guess you could throw Alistair Black in there since he
43:22
Speaker 1: beat Randy Orton on TV the other day, but doesn't
43:25
Speaker 1: really need to be in there. So that's the one
43:28
Speaker 1: thing I liked about this right that's it was a
43:30
Speaker 1: good angle they shot. And now we have a big
43:33
Speaker 1: title match coming up on TV this week. Of course,
43:36
Speaker 1: they're doing this match on a Friday that I will
43:38
Speaker 1: not be here. I will be in Chicago, so I
43:41
Speaker 1: won't be able to talk about it live. But I'm
43:44
Speaker 1: looking forward now to seeing the match on Friday. I
43:47
Speaker 1: don't know what they're going to do. It's fifty to
43:50
Speaker 1: fifty on what they're going to do. Cody could very
43:54
Speaker 1: well win the championship, but I could also see Jacob
43:56
Speaker 1: Fatu coming out or Drew doing something to get himself
43:59
Speaker 1: to the squad qualify. We don't get an actual winner,
44:02
Speaker 1: and that is the setup in prelude to a multi
44:05
Speaker 1: man match of WrestleMania. Easily could see that happening, but
44:09
Speaker 1: we still need to find out who attacked jay Uso.
44:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I made the comment last week that Randy Orton,
44:15
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Randy Orton will be the one who
44:18
Speaker 1: is revealed if we ever get a real, genuine reveal
44:22
Speaker 1: that it's not Drew McIntyre and somebody else kicked Jacob
44:26
Speaker 1: Fatu in the mouth all those months ago and put
44:28
Speaker 1: him out of action. That that person is going to
44:31
Speaker 1: be Randy Orton. It could be Sammy's ain. Sammy's ain's
44:35
Speaker 1: been acting very weird lately. Samy's Ain's been acting I
44:38
Speaker 1: won't say heelish, but he's been acting in such a
44:42
Speaker 1: way that would lead me to believe he may he
44:44
Speaker 1: may well go heal at the end of all this.
44:48
Speaker 1: Maybe it's Sammy's ain behind all of this. Samy's in
44:50
Speaker 1: imagine the heat for attacking his good friend jay Uso
44:52
Speaker 1: if it turned out to be him. He was on
44:54
Speaker 1: television Friday night accusing Jacob of possibly attacking jay Uso.
45:00
Speaker 1: I still say Randy Orton, but who knows. Maybe it
45:02
Speaker 1: ends up being sammy'sane. But this is good. They're actually
45:06
Speaker 1: creating some intrigue on Smackdam, which they desperately need heading
45:10
Speaker 1: into WrestleMania. It was announced on SmackDown that the first
45:14
Speaker 1: hour of WrestleMania forty two to Night one will air
45:17
Speaker 1: on ESPN two and the following day, the first hour
45:21
Speaker 1: of the second night of WrestleMania will air on ESPN proper,
45:25
Speaker 1: so for the first time WrestleMania, or at least a
45:27
Speaker 1: piece of it, is going to actually air on ESPN.
45:31
Speaker 1: Of course, the shows will be simulcasting on ESPN Unlimited
45:35
Speaker 1: in the United States and on Netflix internationally. ESPN Unlimited,
45:40
Speaker 1: by the way, became available for Exfinity users this week,
45:44
Speaker 1: and supposedly later this fall, it will become available for
45:47
Speaker 1: YouTube TV subscribers. So in the meantime, they expect you
45:51
Speaker 1: to shell out thirty bucks for each of these shows
45:54
Speaker 1: until then. If you are a YouTube TV subscriber, imagine
45:59
Speaker 1: shelling that out for that show last night. Yeah, I
46:01
Speaker 1: don't think so. But again, there's a reason why I
46:03
Speaker 1: talk about ExpressVPN every single week. Again, these shows do
46:07
Speaker 1: air on Netflix internationally. I'm just saying NXT Stand and
46:11
Speaker 1: Deliver is going to look a little bit different this
46:13
Speaker 1: year because it will not be a part of WrestleMania
46:16
Speaker 1: Weekend the way that it's always been. Instead, it will
46:19
Speaker 1: be held in the Saint Louis area on Saturday, April fourth,
46:23
Speaker 1: a whole two weeks before WrestleMania, at the Factory in Chesterfield, Missouri, which,
46:28
Speaker 1: if you remember, is the same venue where Randy Orton
46:30
Speaker 1: wrestled Javon Evans a couple of years back. On that
46:33
Speaker 1: one episode where Orton appeared. Per pw Insider, WWE moved
46:38
Speaker 1: NXT from Las Vegas and off WrestleMania weekend as the
46:41
Speaker 1: timing of holding the show on the West Coast the
46:44
Speaker 1: last few times that Mania has been in Los Angeles
46:47
Speaker 1: and Las Vegas worked against the company's overall scheduling. Pw
46:52
Speaker 1: Insider has been told by sources the show had been
46:55
Speaker 1: internally planned for Vegas. Initially, feeling was that by moving
46:59
Speaker 1: the show up up, Stand and Deliver would have a
47:01
Speaker 1: stronger chance of standing alone no pun intended, and would
47:05
Speaker 1: not be lost in the sea of other WWE events
47:07
Speaker 1: taking place. Plus, the schedule change could also a free
47:10
Speaker 1: WWWE production crew from having to produce three shows in
47:14
Speaker 1: a twenty four hour time period that being smacked down
47:17
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame and NXT right before then diving
47:21
Speaker 1: into Night one of WrestleMania. There will be no other
47:24
Speaker 1: NXT events broadcast from Las Vegas this year. We were
47:27
Speaker 1: also cautioned that the Stand and Deliver moved from many
47:29
Speaker 1: a week should not be considered a permanent decision. We
47:32
Speaker 1: are told that year by year the company would evaluate
47:35
Speaker 1: and make the call as to the placement of the show.
47:39
Speaker 1: You know, it was always crazy to me that they
47:41
Speaker 1: would even do the show on the same day as WrestleMania,
47:45
Speaker 1: Like that's without me even taking into account the strain
47:48
Speaker 1: on their production team, which is a whole other ball
47:50
Speaker 1: of wax there. It's just it's insane, and it does
47:54
Speaker 1: get lost in the noise of everything else that's happening
47:56
Speaker 1: that weekend. Now, in this case, when you think about it,
48:00
Speaker 1: they're out on the West Coast, which means that they're
48:02
Speaker 1: starting to show super early in the day, which means
48:04
Speaker 1: it may be harder to draw because you're selling tickets
48:07
Speaker 1: to a wrestling show that starts at ten o'clock in
48:09
Speaker 1: the morning, that's coming off SmackDown and the Hall of
48:13
Speaker 1: Fame back to back the night before, assuming that they
48:16
Speaker 1: are back to back the night before, and then those
48:18
Speaker 1: NXT talents they probably have to report to the building
48:21
Speaker 1: it what like six o'clock in the morning, maybe earlier.
48:25
Speaker 1: Fuck that wrestling should never be held that early in
48:29
Speaker 1: the morning. It's one thing if it airs early in
48:31
Speaker 1: the morning, because you know they're in a different time zone.
48:35
Speaker 1: You know, it's still taking place at a normal time
48:37
Speaker 1: though locally wherever it's being held, But to start locally
48:41
Speaker 1: that early in the morning, that should just never happen.
48:45
Speaker 1: Miles Born, by the way, he won the NXT North
48:47
Speaker 1: American title off of Ethan Page on Tuesday's show. That's
48:51
Speaker 1: after they already had taken the Triple A Mixtag Team
48:53
Speaker 1: titles off of him when Chelsea Green got hurt. So
48:57
Speaker 1: with any hope that means a main roster car Postmania,
49:01
Speaker 1: I think he would make a fine addition to that
49:02
Speaker 1: SmackDown roster. I maintained that faction with him and Matt
49:07
Speaker 1: Cardona and Chelsea Green and maybe one other person would
49:12
Speaker 1: be a good way to go. Something to think about.
49:17
Speaker 1: Bodyslam dot Net on its body Slam plus Patreon this
49:20
Speaker 1: week reported that there is no tentative date for a
49:25
Speaker 1: WWE draft in twenty twenty six. The rosters could be
49:30
Speaker 1: reshuffled throughout the year, just like twenty twenty five, but
49:33
Speaker 1: as of right now, there is no draft currently scheduled,
49:37
Speaker 1: and they mentioned, you know, WWE did not hold a
49:39
Speaker 1: draft last year. ESPN reportedly wanted to host one, but
49:42
Speaker 1: the idea did not go anywhere, And yes, that was
49:45
Speaker 1: a wrestle votes report. I believe is that ESPN, which
49:49
Speaker 1: of course is in the draft business. They've broadcast other
49:52
Speaker 1: sports drafts. They were interested in doing one with WWE,
49:56
Speaker 1: and it just didn't work out. The last time the
49:59
Speaker 1: WWE held was right after WrestleMania two years ago, and
50:03
Speaker 1: then later that year is when we got the transfer window,
50:06
Speaker 1: which was this open ended thing that lasted for a
50:08
Speaker 1: few months, and then they shut the window. They could
50:11
Speaker 1: have done a better job of explaining how it was
50:13
Speaker 1: going to work, but I'm not convinced they knew how
50:16
Speaker 1: it was going to work or when they wanted to
50:17
Speaker 1: close it when they first opened it up in the
50:19
Speaker 1: first place. But it was done as a way to
50:21
Speaker 1: shake the rosters up a little bit without doing another draft.
50:24
Speaker 1: And I could not understand why they did not open
50:26
Speaker 1: the transfer portal back up last year when it was
50:29
Speaker 1: very clear, clear as day that they needed to shake
50:31
Speaker 1: up the rosters, especially the SmackDown roster. Now, they finally
50:36
Speaker 1: did call up a few faces from NXT, almost all
50:39
Speaker 1: at the same time, instead of staggering them. It's like
50:42
Speaker 1: they all came up around the same period of time.
50:45
Speaker 1: And they really had no choice with SmackDown going back
50:48
Speaker 1: to three hours again, they needed new faces, so we
50:51
Speaker 1: got Obafemi and Javon Evans and Trick Williams and Jordan
50:55
Speaker 1: Grace right all being elevated to Ron SmackDown. Hopefully we
50:59
Speaker 1: see faces like Ethan Page and Blake Monroe coming out
51:02
Speaker 1: of WrestleMania maybe soul Ruka. I am no fan of
51:07
Speaker 1: the way the WWE does its draft. I'm not a fan.
51:11
Speaker 1: I think the draft is stupid, and I for one,
51:14
Speaker 1: am very happy that they have no plans to do
51:16
Speaker 1: another one because they just don't know how. Now they
51:21
Speaker 1: have this partnership with ESPN, the NFL Draft is treated
51:25
Speaker 1: like a major event on ESPN. If ESPN wanted to
51:29
Speaker 1: do more of a proper draft with WWE and they
51:33
Speaker 1: changed it up enough to where it makes sense to
51:35
Speaker 1: do one, then I'm open to it. But what I'm
51:39
Speaker 1: talking about is just the way the WWE approaches it.
51:41
Speaker 1: The way WWE does the draft is lazy, and those
51:45
Speaker 1: draft shows are boring. They are boring television. Eighty five
51:50
Speaker 1: percent of the moves they announced are simply people on
51:53
Speaker 1: Raw being drafted to Raw and people on SmackDown being
51:58
Speaker 1: drafted to SmackDown with very few meaningful changes. Right. They
52:03
Speaker 1: might be the right moves, right, the ones that make
52:06
Speaker 1: the most sense, but it makes for boring television unless
52:09
Speaker 1: you can really shake things up. They just never seem
52:11
Speaker 1: too keen on radically shaking up the roster. They just
52:14
Speaker 1: want to move a few chess pieces around. It's all cosmetic,
52:18
Speaker 1: which is why I always say, and I will say
52:19
Speaker 1: it again here, you do not need a proper draft.
52:22
Speaker 1: Just make better use of your general managers. You have
52:27
Speaker 1: three gms. You have one on Raw, you have one
52:30
Speaker 1: on SmackDown, you have one on NXT. NXT should absolutely
52:35
Speaker 1: be involved in this. It would be silly for them
52:36
Speaker 1: not to be. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. But
52:41
Speaker 1: instead of getting two draft shows out of it, and
52:44
Speaker 1: that's it, right, you get one draft episode of Raw,
52:47
Speaker 1: you get one draft episode of SmackDown, and then whatever
52:49
Speaker 1: supplemental picks they post online. Open up the transfer window
52:53
Speaker 1: twice a year. This is what I've always said. Open
52:57
Speaker 1: up the window twice a year, once after Wrestle May
53:00
Speaker 1: and then again later in the year when it's usually quiet,
53:04
Speaker 1: like around September or October, and leave it open for
53:07
Speaker 1: a designated period. It could be a month, it could
53:09
Speaker 1: be six weeks, whatever it is, and we can get
53:13
Speaker 1: segments on the shows with the gms interacting, creating conflicts,
53:17
Speaker 1: working out trades or call ups. You know, NXT allows
53:21
Speaker 1: RAW to pick up so and so for a player
53:24
Speaker 1: to be named later, right, I mean that doesn't have
53:26
Speaker 1: to mean that someone moves down from the main roster,
53:28
Speaker 1: although it could. Maybe it's like an IOU or you know,
53:32
Speaker 1: NXT can call upon one of the gms to provide
53:35
Speaker 1: them with a big name, you know, to wrestle on
53:37
Speaker 1: an nxtpl E like Stand and Deliver, Right, I mean,
53:40
Speaker 1: you could be as creative as you want to be
53:42
Speaker 1: with it. But where there are holes in your roster,
53:46
Speaker 1: or where there are injuries that wreak havoc on your roster,
53:49
Speaker 1: make use of your general managers. They don't do it enough.
53:54
Speaker 1: And when one window closes, the next one opens up
53:57
Speaker 1: later in the year and you do it all over again.
54:00
Speaker 1: Like I know, there are people who long for the
54:02
Speaker 1: days of those early WWE drafts, but you gotta let
54:05
Speaker 1: it go. You gotta let it go. That was years
54:08
Speaker 1: ago and WWE has not done a draft like that
54:12
Speaker 1: in ages. It only works when you have two warring
54:17
Speaker 1: gms and two brands that really feel like they are
54:20
Speaker 1: in competition with one another. That's what made that work.
54:24
Speaker 1: We don't have that anymore. There is no brand loyalty.
54:28
Speaker 1: The brand loyalty is the WWE. It's not to Raw,
54:32
Speaker 1: it's not to SmackDown, not with the way people move
54:34
Speaker 1: so freely between the two shows. Without true brand exclusivity,
54:40
Speaker 1: it just does not work. This is the better way
54:43
Speaker 1: to approach it. The less said about that Raw show
54:46
Speaker 1: on Monday Night, the better. I think. I said my
54:49
Speaker 1: piece already on Monday Night and then on the Uncrowned
54:51
Speaker 1: Wrestling Show on Tuesday. It was the worst Raw of
54:54
Speaker 1: the entire year, and honestly, it was one of the
54:56
Speaker 1: worst episodes of Raw that I've seen in a very
54:58
Speaker 1: long time, outside of what they did at the very
55:01
Speaker 1: end of the show, which was the best part of
55:02
Speaker 1: the show, and it was a very nice, very beautiful
55:05
Speaker 1: tribute that they paid to AJ Styles. They actually busted
55:09
Speaker 1: out Creed for a video package and then AJ came out.
55:14
Speaker 1: They were in his hometown or his home state, I
55:16
Speaker 1: guess of Georgia. I know he's from Gainesville, but they
55:20
Speaker 1: were in Atlanta on Monday night and he got to
55:23
Speaker 1: address the fans. He got to address his family and
55:25
Speaker 1: his wife who were in the front row, and he said,
55:28
Speaker 1: the reason he didn't lay his gloves down in the
55:30
Speaker 1: ring in Saudi Arabia at the Royal Rumble is because
55:32
Speaker 1: he was waiting to do it at home, and he
55:35
Speaker 1: laid them down in the ring on top of his vest.
55:39
Speaker 1: And they had wrestlers come out at the very end
55:41
Speaker 1: on stage, and throughout the evening they showed different people
55:44
Speaker 1: who were there in the back, including the Monster Abyss.
55:48
Speaker 1: We got our first Abyss cameo on WWE television years
55:52
Speaker 1: after he retired. We finally get him in the mask.
55:55
Speaker 1: He was there, Frankie Kazarian was there, Jeremy Borash was there.
55:58
Speaker 1: Pete Williams who works behind the scenes, he was there,
56:01
Speaker 1: Bobby Rude, it was It was very nice. And then
56:05
Speaker 1: they had the Undertaker ride down to the ring on
56:08
Speaker 1: his motorcycle and he got in the ring and he
56:11
Speaker 1: kind of teased, like, you and I we have unfinished business.
56:14
Speaker 1: And I said, oh no, are they that desperate for
56:19
Speaker 1: another attraction on the Wrestlvadia card this year? But in
56:23
Speaker 1: fact he was there to announce that it was his
56:26
Speaker 1: esteemed honor to let AJ Styles know that he was
56:30
Speaker 1: joining the class of twenty twenty six in the ww
56:34
Speaker 1: the unbelievably big class that they've announced so far for
56:38
Speaker 1: the WWE Hall of Fame. We only have one other
56:40
Speaker 1: name announced so far, that is Stephanie McMahon. So now
56:43
Speaker 1: the question becomes, do they headline with Stephanie or do
56:46
Speaker 1: they headline with AJ Styles. They should headline with AJ Styles.
56:49
Speaker 1: I'm not convinced they will, but he's going into the
56:52
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Of course, he's deserving of being in
56:55
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. It's kind of wild that he
56:58
Speaker 1: and John sen are retired one right after the other,
57:00
Speaker 1: and he's going in before John Cena. But I think
57:02
Speaker 1: John Cena should be the one to induct him. If
57:04
Speaker 1: there was one person to induct AJ Styles into the
57:06
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, I think John Cena would be that person.
57:11
Speaker 1: And I think it'll probably just come down to his availability.
57:13
Speaker 1: But Sena has always talked about aj in glowing terms.
57:16
Speaker 1: He thinks the world of him, and I think if
57:19
Speaker 1: he's available to do it, I think he would definitely
57:21
Speaker 1: do it. Now. Styles was reportedly well aware that aw
57:27
Speaker 1: was willing to make him a big offer if he
57:30
Speaker 1: chose to go in that direction, and with the announcement
57:33
Speaker 1: that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame,
57:34
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like AJ is planning on going anywhere
57:37
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. But Justin Barrosso of Undisputed reports
57:41
Speaker 1: that after speaking with people close to AJ, he was
57:45
Speaker 1: aware that aw would have made him a substantial offer
57:49
Speaker 1: with a favorable schedule, one that would not cost him
57:51
Speaker 1: much time away from home if he decided to wrestle
57:55
Speaker 1: outside of WWI. But multiple sources have confirmed to p
58:00
Speaker 1: W Insider that WWE and AJ Styles have come to
58:03
Speaker 1: terms on a new deal that will keep him officially
58:06
Speaker 1: with the company. The belief among those we've talked to
58:09
Speaker 1: is that he will be helping with development of talent.
58:12
Speaker 1: Styles has made it clear that he is done with
58:15
Speaker 1: performing in the ring. Carl Anderson and Lou Gallows the
58:19
Speaker 1: Good Brothers, they were there on Monday night as well,
58:22
Speaker 1: and Carl Anderson said, after the ceremony, he says, we
58:24
Speaker 1: get to the back. I said, Aj, I did not
58:27
Speaker 1: know you were really going to retire, and he goes, really,
58:30
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, goes, what do you mean, really, we
58:34
Speaker 1: haven't spoke. How am I supposed to know if you're
58:36
Speaker 1: really going to retire or not? And he said, dude,
58:38
Speaker 1: I have to My neck is hurting too bad. I'm
58:41
Speaker 1: beat up. It's time. I want to help the next generation.
58:44
Speaker 1: And I go, well, I didn't really believe it, so
58:46
Speaker 1: I just kept talking on my podcast about how you
58:49
Speaker 1: were not going to retire, and you're going to go
58:51
Speaker 1: here and you're going to go there, and now I
58:53
Speaker 1: got to eat a lot of crow pal and styles.
58:57
Speaker 1: When asked why he did not want to wait for
58:59
Speaker 1: Restia to retire he was on the Raw Recap post show,
59:04
Speaker 1: he said it was coming back from an injury to WrestleMania,
59:08
Speaker 1: to a match that to me didn't have much build. Now,
59:10
Speaker 1: he had mentioned that previously that Liz frank is like
59:13
Speaker 1: a ligament injury in his foot a couple of years back,
59:17
Speaker 1: and it was a tough road. I mean, he wasn't
59:19
Speaker 1: out for like a year or anything like that, but
59:22
Speaker 1: that's a very difficult injury. And obviously the older you are,
59:25
Speaker 1: I mean, the man's almost fifty years old, your body
59:28
Speaker 1: doesn't really come back as quickly as it would if
59:31
Speaker 1: you were thirty eight or if you were twenty eight.
59:34
Speaker 1: So that injury was a tough one. But by the
59:36
Speaker 1: time he came back, they were two months out from WrestleMania.
59:39
Speaker 1: His original plan was to retire at WrestleMania. This is
59:43
Speaker 1: going back. I guess a year or whatever. But he's like,
59:46
Speaker 1: you know what, I just came back and two months
59:49
Speaker 1: just doesn't really feel like enough time for me. I
59:51
Speaker 1: come back and then two months later I retire. So
59:55
Speaker 1: it got put off, and that's what led to him saying, Okay,
59:57
Speaker 1: you know what, We'll do it at the Rumble instead.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: The Rumble is ten years to the very event where
1:00:02
Speaker 1: I debuted in this company, you get a decade of
1:00:04
Speaker 1: AJ styles, and so we'll do it at the Royal
1:00:07
Speaker 1: rum So that's what he's referring to there. But then
1:00:10
Speaker 1: he made this comment which made the rounds. He said, WrestleMania,
1:00:15
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say, used to be the most prestigious plee,
1:00:19
Speaker 1: but to me, it's kind of lost its luster a
1:00:21
Speaker 1: little bit. He said, As far as the Royal Rumble,
1:00:25
Speaker 1: that's special to me because that's where I made my debut.
1:00:28
Speaker 1: To be able to end where I started is poetic.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: So let me stop there. AJ Styles said nothing wrong
1:00:36
Speaker 1: in that comment, no lies detected in anything that he
1:00:40
Speaker 1: said there. WrestleMania has lost some of its luster, and
1:00:43
Speaker 1: it was bound to happen because when you have multiple
1:00:46
Speaker 1: pls throughout the entire year that are stadium shows in
1:00:50
Speaker 1: front of thirty, forty fifty sixty thousand people, and you
1:00:54
Speaker 1: treat all of these shows like a WrestleMania, you treat
1:00:57
Speaker 1: SummerSlam like a WrestleMania now because like Mania, Summer Slim
1:01:02
Speaker 1: is two nights, and eventually I'm sure the Royal Rumble
1:01:05
Speaker 1: will become two nights, and maybe other shows will be
1:01:08
Speaker 1: two nights. If a two night money in the bank, Like,
1:01:11
Speaker 1: none of this would shock me unless ticket sales really
1:01:14
Speaker 1: were to begin to plateau and fall. I think it's
1:01:18
Speaker 1: inevitable we're going to have more events that are two
1:01:20
Speaker 1: night shows. So what you're left with with WrestleMania is
1:01:24
Speaker 1: you get a really expensive, fancy set in stage, and
1:01:29
Speaker 1: what else really makes WrestleMania WrestleMania at this point? Right,
1:01:32
Speaker 1: we know the winner of the Royal Rumble goes to
1:01:34
Speaker 1: WrestleMania and you get the road to Mania, right, we
1:01:37
Speaker 1: know that, but Mania itself it feels less and less special.
1:01:41
Speaker 1: Every time you take one of these other events and
1:01:44
Speaker 1: you dress it up like WrestleMania, like a cosplay WrestleMania,
1:01:49
Speaker 1: it makes Mania feel less special. So for AJ, it's like, well,
1:01:54
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it'd be cool to go to WrestleMania
1:01:56
Speaker 1: and retire in front of fifty thousand people, But you
1:01:59
Speaker 1: know we we could do that in Saudi Arabia and
1:02:01
Speaker 1: have thirty or forty thousand people. We can go to
1:02:04
Speaker 1: some other you have a European pl somewhere and do
1:02:07
Speaker 1: fifty thousand right clash at the Castle. A few years
1:02:09
Speaker 1: ago they had sixty thousand people. And he's got a point.
1:02:14
Speaker 1: WrestleMania is not as special as he used to be.
1:02:17
Speaker 1: It has lost some of its luster now. He further
1:02:20
Speaker 1: addressed the ongoing speculation about it possible jump to aw
1:02:25
Speaker 1: for one last run. He was on the Talking Shop
1:02:28
Speaker 1: Live show on their YouTube channel with Gallows and Anderson.
1:02:32
Speaker 1: He popped up there on stream for a little bit
1:02:34
Speaker 1: and this is what he had to say. He said,
1:02:37
Speaker 1: let me give you a little something to talk about here.
1:02:39
Speaker 1: So everybody wants to say, oh, wwe put me in
1:02:43
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame so that I couldn't go to aw, guys,
1:02:46
Speaker 1: I am retired from wrestling in the ring. Like that's
1:02:49
Speaker 1: all this is. I make my own choices, I make
1:02:52
Speaker 1: my own decisions. I was ready, And he explained that
1:02:56
Speaker 1: he was on the verge of staying on the table
1:02:58
Speaker 1: for too long and he wants to beat the house,
1:03:01
Speaker 1: which he did by hanging up his boots. He says,
1:03:03
Speaker 1: I am still going to be working with WWE. That's
1:03:06
Speaker 1: not going to change. I have these dreams of helping
1:03:08
Speaker 1: out young talent. If somebody is not ready, once they
1:03:11
Speaker 1: get there, it's my job to hopefully help them get
1:03:13
Speaker 1: to that point to where they can do it and
1:03:16
Speaker 1: they are confident when they step into a WWE ring.
1:03:18
Speaker 1: Being able to help with that is a blessing And
1:03:22
Speaker 1: that actually sounds like a great role for someone like
1:03:25
Speaker 1: him to be in for as long as he's been
1:03:26
Speaker 1: doing this for as well respected as he is, the
1:03:30
Speaker 1: kind of performer he was, and like even in some
1:03:33
Speaker 1: of these videos they posted, like these vlogs and behind
1:03:36
Speaker 1: the scenes stuff leading up to this, like it's all
1:03:39
Speaker 1: about him and he's getting ready to go out there.
1:03:41
Speaker 1: But like they show him in the gorilla position, he's
1:03:43
Speaker 1: looking up at the monitor watching somebody's match and then
1:03:46
Speaker 1: like the cameraman's like, oh, you can't help it, right,
1:03:48
Speaker 1: you can't help yourself. He clearly is excited, you know,
1:03:52
Speaker 1: to be able to help that next generation and kind
1:03:56
Speaker 1: of be that mentor and that guide. And I think
1:03:58
Speaker 1: that that for WWEE, it's a blessing to have somebody
1:04:02
Speaker 1: like aj Styles who actually wants to be in a
1:04:05
Speaker 1: position like that. All that being said, though, Gallows and
1:04:08
Speaker 1: Anderson are not convinced that aj Styles will not eventually
1:04:12
Speaker 1: be back in the ring. They were on Busted Open
1:04:15
Speaker 1: Radio and this is what they said. This is what
1:04:18
Speaker 1: Anderson said. He said, I think he can sit it
1:04:20
Speaker 1: out for a couple of years. I think he's able
1:04:22
Speaker 1: to fix the itch by helping people. He loves teaching,
1:04:26
Speaker 1: he loves helping the next generation. He loves helping younger wrestlers.
1:04:30
Speaker 1: He knows people look up to him, he knows how
1:04:31
Speaker 1: good he is. I really believe that will satisfy the
1:04:35
Speaker 1: itch until he can't satisfy the itch anymore with it.
1:04:38
Speaker 1: Maybe he just needs a couple of years away, Maybe
1:04:41
Speaker 1: he just needs a year and a half away. I
1:04:44
Speaker 1: do think that it's going to be at least a year.
1:04:46
Speaker 1: I do think it's going to be at least a
1:04:47
Speaker 1: year and a half even But the itch is always
1:04:50
Speaker 1: going to come back. He's too competitive, man, and he's
1:04:53
Speaker 1: just too good still, and I know that at some
1:04:55
Speaker 1: point I believe he is going to have to get
1:04:57
Speaker 1: back in the ring. And Gallows agree, he said, AJ
1:05:00
Speaker 1: beat the house. But I would bet this beautiful house
1:05:03
Speaker 1: that I'm sitting in right now that he will be back.
1:05:05
Speaker 1: And I just see him coming back to the ring
1:05:07
Speaker 1: one way or another. There's too much left in the tank.
1:05:10
Speaker 1: And the itch is real. He's got that itch. Maybe
1:05:15
Speaker 1: he should see a dermatologist for that. This week's episode
1:05:19
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Speaker 1: That's Wicks dot com slash harmony. I mentioned Bronson read
1:07:21
Speaker 1: earlier and his injury. Unfortunately, he is going to be
1:07:24
Speaker 1: out for a while. The Vision is maybe maybe Dan
1:07:27
Speaker 1: Housen put a curse on the Vision, because this group
1:07:30
Speaker 1: is as cursed as any faction I've ever seen. And
1:07:33
Speaker 1: I'm sure there was a lot of cursing going on
1:07:34
Speaker 1: backstage after the injury happened. But Bronson Reid was wrestling
1:07:38
Speaker 1: Elgrande Americano and Jay Usso on Monday night, and you know,
1:07:43
Speaker 1: it wasn't as if he did something that was terribly
1:07:46
Speaker 1: dangerous or visibly like, oh man, that's clearly where the
1:07:50
Speaker 1: injury happened. It was just one of those fluke things.
1:07:54
Speaker 1: And he dove onto the pile to break up a
1:07:56
Speaker 1: pin attempt as Gable was trying to pine and he
1:08:01
Speaker 1: came up to his knees and he immediately grabbed his
1:08:03
Speaker 1: arm and looked at his right arm, his like his forearm,
1:08:06
Speaker 1: and it was clear that he thought something was wrong,
1:08:09
Speaker 1: and we didn't see him again for the rest of
1:08:11
Speaker 1: the match. They had to call an audible and have
1:08:13
Speaker 1: Jay Uso go over because Reid was supposed to win,
1:08:16
Speaker 1: and unfortunately for Mike Johnson, this was on Wednesday. Bronson
1:08:22
Speaker 1: Reed was sent right to Birmingham, Alabama after Raw. The
1:08:25
Speaker 1: location of where the injury happened actually worked in his
1:08:28
Speaker 1: favor as Birmingham is just a short drive from Georgia
1:08:32
Speaker 1: and there is no word yet on how long he
1:08:33
Speaker 1: will be out of action because he suffered a biceps tear,
1:08:38
Speaker 1: a distal biceps tear, and Reid did open up and
1:08:43
Speaker 1: address his fans on social media. He shared his gratitude
1:08:46
Speaker 1: and said, appreciate the kind words. I will be back
1:08:50
Speaker 1: better than ever, causing destruction like no one else can.
1:08:53
Speaker 1: And then later on he shared a photo of himself
1:08:56
Speaker 1: lying in a hospital bed and it looked like he
1:08:59
Speaker 1: had just come out of sir injury. He was hooked
1:09:00
Speaker 1: up to all these machines and tubes and shit, and
1:09:03
Speaker 1: he said, surgery done. Tomorrow is day one. The road
1:09:09
Speaker 1: back and from an injury like that, that's probably an
1:09:12
Speaker 1: easy five or six months, or maybe four to six
1:09:17
Speaker 1: but clearly not going to be involved in WrestleMania, and
1:09:20
Speaker 1: it will be some time before we see Bronson Reid again,
1:09:23
Speaker 1: and it sucks for him. I really do. I feel
1:09:25
Speaker 1: bad for him because this is the second time now
1:09:28
Speaker 1: that he has in the last few years that he
1:09:29
Speaker 1: has suffered a very serious injury that has taken him
1:09:32
Speaker 1: out of WrestleMania. Right before WrestleMania, and he was obviously
1:09:36
Speaker 1: part of the top heel faction on Monday Night Raw,
1:09:39
Speaker 1: he was in a prime spot. I'm sure they'll slot
1:09:42
Speaker 1: him right back in there when he's back. But who
1:09:43
Speaker 1: knows if the Vision will even be a thing by
1:09:45
Speaker 1: the time he gets back, or what it's even going
1:09:48
Speaker 1: to look like. I don't know, but the timing is
1:09:52
Speaker 1: obviously very shitty, And now the Vision is reduced to
1:09:55
Speaker 1: a tag team Logan, Paul and Austin theory are what
1:09:59
Speaker 1: is left of the Vision now as we wait to
1:10:02
Speaker 1: find out when bron Breaker might be able to make
1:10:04
Speaker 1: his return from his hernia surgery. Are they going to
1:10:08
Speaker 1: just wait it out until he's ready to come back?
1:10:11
Speaker 1: Are they going to add new members and call up
1:10:13
Speaker 1: people from NXT to throw them in the Vision and
1:10:16
Speaker 1: just have an entire faction of brand new guys. I
1:10:19
Speaker 1: don't know, but the Vision to me just feels like
1:10:21
Speaker 1: a lost cause at this point. It might just be
1:10:24
Speaker 1: bad luck. It might be better to just blow the
1:10:25
Speaker 1: whole thing up and start over again. Brock Lesner, he
1:10:31
Speaker 1: was on Raw Monday night. They promoted his first appearance
1:10:33
Speaker 1: since the royal rumble. He was going to be on
1:10:35
Speaker 1: Raw in Atlanta doing what. We don't know, but I
1:10:37
Speaker 1: thought it was a little suspect that they were bringing
1:10:40
Speaker 1: him back on the go home episode of Raw before
1:10:42
Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber, and naturally you would think, well, maybe
1:10:46
Speaker 1: he's going to factor into the elimination Chamber in some way.
1:10:48
Speaker 1: Maybe he'll even sneak into the elimination Chamber. But that
1:10:52
Speaker 1: would be asking too much. They'd probably have to pay
1:10:54
Speaker 1: him for an extra date if they wanted him to
1:10:56
Speaker 1: do that. So instead he showed up in the ring
1:10:58
Speaker 1: with Paul Hayman. I guess they could always plug him
1:11:01
Speaker 1: into the Vision, but he's never on the show, so
1:11:03
Speaker 1: what's the point of even doing that. And Paul Hammond
1:11:06
Speaker 1: did all the talking. The reason that brock Lesner was
1:11:09
Speaker 1: there if you wanted to get a hint of what
1:11:11
Speaker 1: he might be doing at WrestleMania. They are doing the
1:11:13
Speaker 1: brock Lesner Open Challenge. This is what they have come
1:11:17
Speaker 1: up with. Now. It's very clear that they are trying
1:11:21
Speaker 1: to stockpile RAW as much as possible, and Netflix is
1:11:25
Speaker 1: the priority here because all of the dates that they
1:11:28
Speaker 1: have announced for Roman reigns in brock Lesner, and I
1:11:30
Speaker 1: think for Roman, what was it five or six dates?
1:11:34
Speaker 1: I think it's five dates. For Brock, they're all raw dates.
1:11:39
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it doesn't preclude them from adding
1:11:42
Speaker 1: a SmackDown date here and there, but right now, these
1:11:44
Speaker 1: are all raw dates for Roman reigns and for brock Lesner.
1:11:48
Speaker 1: And we're not going to see Brock again until the
1:11:52
Speaker 1: March sixteenth episode of RAW. I think Roman will be
1:11:55
Speaker 1: there as well. March sixteenth, they're going to be in
1:11:58
Speaker 1: San Antonio, Texas. That just so happens to be three sixteen.
1:12:02
Speaker 1: Holy shit, Stone Cold Steve Austin is going to accept
1:12:05
Speaker 1: the open challenge. We're gonna get Austin and Brock at WrestleMania. Yeah. No,
1:12:11
Speaker 1: But as Paul Hayman is cutting that promo on Monday
1:12:13
Speaker 1: Night and talking about anybody in the back doesn't have
1:12:15
Speaker 1: the guts to come out and step in the ring
1:12:17
Speaker 1: with the beast. Who do you think the fans began
1:12:20
Speaker 1: chanting for. It wasn't La Night, it was Obafemi, And
1:12:26
Speaker 1: I was just gobsmacked by the way they did this
1:12:29
Speaker 1: because literally in the segment before this, Obafemi was there.
1:12:34
Speaker 1: They showed him live in the back talking to Nick
1:12:37
Speaker 1: all this and Russev. They're teasing a match soon with
1:12:39
Speaker 1: him and Russev. They had Oba wrestling the Miz on
1:12:43
Speaker 1: SmackDown Friday Night, but he was there. They showed you
1:12:46
Speaker 1: that he was there, so they started chanting oh Bah,
1:12:50
Speaker 1: oh bah, and of course Oba didn't come out, which
1:12:53
Speaker 1: was a bad look. I don't know why you would
1:12:55
Speaker 1: film it that way, but my hope is that sanity
1:12:59
Speaker 1: will prevail here and if you're gonna have a Brock
1:13:01
Speaker 1: Lesnar match oft WrestleMania, Obafemi is the right choice. And
1:13:04
Speaker 1: so maybe they're gonna wait. I don't know if it'll
1:13:06
Speaker 1: be three to sixteen in San Antonio, but Brock's gonna
1:13:08
Speaker 1: be on the show late March in Madison Square Garden.
1:13:11
Speaker 1: Maybe they shoot the angle there and Oba comes out there,
1:13:15
Speaker 1: because how are you going to drag this out until
1:13:17
Speaker 1: WrestleMania and wait until WrestleMania, let's say, because some people say, well,
1:13:21
Speaker 1: maybe they'll wait until Mania and they'll just have obacome
1:13:24
Speaker 1: out at Mania and accept the open challenge. And you
1:13:26
Speaker 1: could do that. I don't know why you would, because
1:13:30
Speaker 1: Obafemi against brock Lesnar, if that is the matter you're
1:13:32
Speaker 1: gonna do, that's a fucking match you promote. Okay, you
1:13:35
Speaker 1: don't throw that shit out. There is a surprise, that's
1:13:38
Speaker 1: number one. Number two. Brock's gonna be on the show
1:13:40
Speaker 1: five more times before we get to WrestleMania. He did
1:13:44
Speaker 1: nothing on Monday Night. That was a complete waste of time.
1:13:47
Speaker 1: The only reason they had brock Lesner on Raw Monday Night,
1:13:50
Speaker 1: five days before the Elimination Chamber well so that they
1:13:54
Speaker 1: could throw his tour dates like he's some fucking returning
1:13:56
Speaker 1: rock band, throw his tour dates up on screen to
1:13:59
Speaker 1: get people to start buying tickets to go to those shows.
1:14:02
Speaker 1: And whatever they have him doing on those shows, it
1:14:04
Speaker 1: better be a hell of a lot better than what
1:14:05
Speaker 1: they had him doing on Monday Night, because that segment
1:14:08
Speaker 1: was a complete waste of time and a complete waste
1:14:11
Speaker 1: of a Brocklesner appearance. I don't see how you can
1:14:13
Speaker 1: wait until wressel Mania to announce who his opponent is
1:14:16
Speaker 1: going to be. I'm looking at that, I'm thinking Madison
1:14:19
Speaker 1: Square Garden, and that's still several weeks away. It's still
1:14:24
Speaker 1: like three or four weeks away. But I think you
1:14:26
Speaker 1: could probably drag it out until then, and that would
1:14:28
Speaker 1: be a big place to have Oba come out. You
1:14:31
Speaker 1: get the big face to face because you want to
1:14:32
Speaker 1: get that shot. You want to get that shot of
1:14:34
Speaker 1: the two of them standing in the ring eye to eye.
1:14:37
Speaker 1: Put that on all the posters and the graphics and shit.
1:14:40
Speaker 1: You can't hold out until WRESSELMANI you just you can't
1:14:42
Speaker 1: do that. But Oba Femi is the right choice. Let's
1:14:48
Speaker 1: talk about AAW here, because there was a massive story
1:14:51
Speaker 1: this week that absolutely will have an impact on AAW
1:14:55
Speaker 1: in what way we don't yet know. But who could
1:14:58
Speaker 1: have seen this coming? Who could have seen this coming?
1:15:01
Speaker 1: A bombshell in the war for Warner Brothers Discovery the
1:15:06
Speaker 1: media rights partner and minority owner in AW which looked
1:15:10
Speaker 1: like it was about to be acquired by Netflix, to
1:15:14
Speaker 1: the point where Netflix even put out a press announcement
1:15:16
Speaker 1: some time ago announcing the acquisition. And how many rejections
1:15:21
Speaker 1: that we've seen of Paramount Skydance offers. I lost counted
1:15:25
Speaker 1: how many times they were rejected. But that all changed
1:15:28
Speaker 1: this week when Paramount raised its offer to thirty one
1:15:32
Speaker 1: dollars per share for the entire company, and the WBD
1:15:36
Speaker 1: Board of Directors seemed or deemed it rather a superior proposal,
1:15:42
Speaker 1: and that then gave Netflix, I want to say, four
1:15:46
Speaker 1: business days I believe it was to submit a new bid,
1:15:50
Speaker 1: but instead Netflix pulled a major swerve and they just
1:15:55
Speaker 1: dropped out of the bidding altogether, and they walked away
1:15:59
Speaker 1: from a deal that's seen all but certain, pending regulatory approval.
1:16:03
Speaker 1: Of course, it's still had to be approved. But they
1:16:05
Speaker 1: didn't even put up a fight. They didn't even try.
1:16:09
Speaker 1: They just got up from the table, they said thank
1:16:11
Speaker 1: you very much, and they walked away, and in doing so,
1:16:15
Speaker 1: they now collect a cool two point eight billion dollar
1:16:19
Speaker 1: breakup fee for the deal falling through. In fact, Paramount
1:16:24
Speaker 1: has already paid the breakup fee. It's already been paid
1:16:27
Speaker 1: to Netflix, or maybe they paid it to WBD, and
1:16:30
Speaker 1: then WBD paid it to Netflix. However it works, but
1:16:33
Speaker 1: it's like, boy, was that quick? They had that money
1:16:36
Speaker 1: ready to go right out the door? Didn't they think
1:16:40
Speaker 1: about that? Netflix just made almost three billion dollars off
1:16:45
Speaker 1: the Ellison family for losing. If I was the conspiracy
1:16:50
Speaker 1: theorist type, I might suggest that that was their strategy
1:16:53
Speaker 1: all along, if it was hat tip to them. But
1:16:57
Speaker 1: Netflix stock was also up nearly twelve percent and trading
1:17:00
Speaker 1: on Friday. Wall Street appears to be very happy that
1:17:03
Speaker 1: they walked away from this mess. It was shocking to me,
1:17:06
Speaker 1: if only because Netflix walked away that I did not
1:17:09
Speaker 1: see coming. And apparently Paramount and Warner Brothers they were
1:17:12
Speaker 1: equally as shocked that Netflix walked. But this deal is
1:17:17
Speaker 1: going to have ripple effects across the entire entertainment industry, media, news, entertainment,
1:17:23
Speaker 1: all of it. The Ellison family they badly want control
1:17:27
Speaker 1: of CNN. Had Netflix acquired Warner Brothers Discovery, they were
1:17:31
Speaker 1: only acquiring the movie Studio and HBO and HBO Max.
1:17:36
Speaker 1: They were not bidding for all of the other cable stations,
1:17:38
Speaker 1: including CNN. It's entirely possible that Paramount would have acquired
1:17:42
Speaker 1: that later on anyway, but that was not part of
1:17:46
Speaker 1: the Netflix deal. They have no interest in being in
1:17:48
Speaker 1: the linear TV business, probably because they see it as
1:17:51
Speaker 1: a dying business. But the Ellisons want CNN, and now,
1:17:55
Speaker 1: barring any regulatory issues, they're going to get their hands
1:17:58
Speaker 1: on it. And it is just amazing to me that
1:18:02
Speaker 1: they are spending all of this money in some party.
1:18:05
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's the main reason they're spending over
1:18:08
Speaker 1: one hundred billion dollars, but they are spending this money
1:18:11
Speaker 1: in part to get their hands on a news network
1:18:15
Speaker 1: that has been dying for years. Since twenty seventeen, CNN
1:18:20
Speaker 1: has lost nearly half of its audience, up to forty
1:18:24
Speaker 1: five percent of its audience gone. They routinely rank dead
1:18:29
Speaker 1: last among the major news networks. They even drop behind
1:18:33
Speaker 1: the Food Network At one point. They'll end up turning
1:18:36
Speaker 1: it into Fox News Light, which I don't really understand.
1:18:39
Speaker 1: If people want to watch Fox News, they'll watch Fox News.
1:18:42
Speaker 1: What the fuck are they going to watch CNN for.
1:18:44
Speaker 1: But the belief is that they wanted CNN as soon
1:18:47
Speaker 1: as possible, likely before the midterm elections later this year.
1:18:50
Speaker 1: Even if the deal eventually closes, they're not going to
1:18:52
Speaker 1: have CNN in time for the midterms, and they won't
1:18:56
Speaker 1: have much time to overhaul things even if they do,
1:18:58
Speaker 1: so I don't really see what difference that's going to
1:19:00
Speaker 1: make in the short term. In a joint statement, Netflix
1:19:04
Speaker 1: co CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said this on Thursday.
1:19:08
Speaker 1: The transaction that we negotiated would have created shareholder value
1:19:12
Speaker 1: with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we've always
1:19:16
Speaker 1: been disciplined and at the price required to match Paramount
1:19:19
Speaker 1: Skuydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive,
1:19:23
Speaker 1: so we are declining to match the Paramount sky Dance bid.
1:19:26
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers is a world class organization and we want
1:19:29
Speaker 1: to thank David Zaslov, Gunner Whedenfels, Bruce Campbell. I always
1:19:37
Speaker 1: laugh when I see that Brad Singer and the WBD
1:19:41
Speaker 1: board for running a fair and rigorous process. We believe
1:19:44
Speaker 1: that we would have been strong stewards of Warner Brothers
1:19:47
Speaker 1: iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the
1:19:50
Speaker 1: entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in
1:19:54
Speaker 1: the US. But this transaction was always a nice to
1:19:57
Speaker 1: have at the right price, not a must have at
1:20:00
Speaker 1: any price. This is all terrible for so many reasons.
1:20:07
Speaker 1: Not that the Netflix deal would have been great either.
1:20:10
Speaker 1: Again I've said before, I don't like how any of
1:20:12
Speaker 1: these companies just they just keep getting bigger and bigger
1:20:15
Speaker 1: and fatter and fatter. But Netflix did not have its
1:20:19
Speaker 1: own studio and theatrical releases like Warner Brothers does and
1:20:23
Speaker 1: like Paramount does, which means you're like, you're combining the
1:20:28
Speaker 1: two studios here. It means lots of redundancy in jobs.
1:20:31
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of job losses coming out
1:20:34
Speaker 1: of this, especially when you consider the massive amount of
1:20:36
Speaker 1: debt that Paramount is carrying, lots of unemployed people on
1:20:42
Speaker 1: a scale much greater than anything that would have been
1:20:45
Speaker 1: seen with the Netflix deal. And that's to say nothing,
1:20:48
Speaker 1: of course, on the effect it could have on the
1:20:50
Speaker 1: movie industry. I mean this comes from the Hollywood Reporter.
1:20:54
Speaker 1: If anyone thought theater owners would lay down their arms
1:20:57
Speaker 1: and stop fighting if Netflix did not prevail in its
1:21:00
Speaker 1: bid to buy Warner Brothers, think again. Just as concerning,
1:21:04
Speaker 1: if not more so, is the danger of what happens
1:21:06
Speaker 1: if David Ellison succeeds in owning two Hollywood legacy studios
1:21:10
Speaker 1: and merges Paramount with Warner Brothers. That's why no one
1:21:14
Speaker 1: at Cinema United, the leading trade group for exhibitors, was
1:21:18
Speaker 1: hardly jumping for joy on Thursday when Netflix walked away
1:21:21
Speaker 1: from its megadeal. And while exhibitors did not necessarily trust
1:21:26
Speaker 1: Ted Sarandos when he pledged that Netflix would give Warner
1:21:29
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers movies a forty five day exclusive run in
1:21:33
Speaker 1: theaters as from day one at Netflix, he's refused to
1:21:36
Speaker 1: abide by theatrical windows. They find it hard to fathom
1:21:40
Speaker 1: that Warner and Paramount will be able to release a
1:21:42
Speaker 1: combined thirty films a year. Further, they believed the merger
1:21:46
Speaker 1: would vest one studio with far too much power. Cinema United,
1:21:50
Speaker 1: formerly the National Association of Theater Owners, is sure to
1:21:54
Speaker 1: use the topic of consolidation as a calling card when
1:21:57
Speaker 1: trying to stop the nuptials during visit to Capitol Hill,
1:22:02
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice, and various state attorneys General. A
1:22:06
Speaker 1: combination of Paramount and Warner Brothers would consolidate as much
1:22:09
Speaker 1: as forty percent of each year's domestic box office in
1:22:13
Speaker 1: the hands of a single dominant studio and could diminish
1:22:16
Speaker 1: the overall number of releases. In twenty sixteen, Disney and
1:22:20
Speaker 1: twenty eeth century Fox released twenty six new titles in
1:22:24
Speaker 1: more than two thousand domestic theaters each. Disney absorbed twentieth
1:22:29
Speaker 1: century Fox about seven or eight years ago. Last year,
1:22:32
Speaker 1: the combined total was fourteen. They went from twenty six
1:22:36
Speaker 1: new titles to fourteen, a forty six percent decline. The
1:22:41
Speaker 1: impact of this drop on domestic box office is that
1:22:43
Speaker 1: twentieth century Fox or whatever they're calling themselves now I
1:22:48
Speaker 1: don't even think Fox is part of the name anymore,
1:22:51
Speaker 1: is estimated to have grossed nine hundred million dollars less
1:22:55
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five than in twenty sixteen, a drop
1:22:58
Speaker 1: of sixty three percent. So you can see why those
1:23:02
Speaker 1: in Hollywood would not be fond of this deal, although
1:23:04
Speaker 1: there is an argument to be made that by allowing
1:23:07
Speaker 1: that Disney acquisition of twenty first century Fox that it
1:23:11
Speaker 1: makes it easier for a deal like this to go through,
1:23:13
Speaker 1: because how can you let two bigger companies merge and
1:23:17
Speaker 1: then turn around and tell two smaller ones that they can't.
1:23:21
Speaker 1: I don't think any of this should be allowed, but
1:23:24
Speaker 1: it's hard not to argue that the precedent for it
1:23:26
Speaker 1: hasn't already been set. But Paramount is spending one hundred
1:23:31
Speaker 1: and ten billion dollars to acquire WBD, and according to
1:23:36
Speaker 1: leaked audio from a WBD town hall with employees on
1:23:39
Speaker 1: Friday morning, they have already signed the agreement with Paramount
1:23:43
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten billion. And think about this, Paramount
1:23:47
Speaker 1: itself has a market value of around fifteen billion, with
1:23:52
Speaker 1: nearly that much in debt that they have been carrying around.
1:23:55
Speaker 1: Now they're spending one hundred and ten billion dollars for
1:23:59
Speaker 1: all of this, and once everything is combined, the new
1:24:03
Speaker 1: company will be carrying over ninety billion in debt. It's insane.
1:24:09
Speaker 1: If it's one credit card bill that I have each month,
1:24:12
Speaker 1: and I pay it off every single month, and if
1:24:14
Speaker 1: I let it linger for too long, I feel guilty.
1:24:17
Speaker 1: They're going to carry ninety billion dollars in debt around
1:24:20
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. Like, these numbers don't even make
1:24:23
Speaker 1: any sense to me. But David Ellison's father is worth
1:24:27
Speaker 1: over two hundred billion all by himself. In between that,
1:24:30
Speaker 1: and you have the Saudis are involved, and the Kataris
1:24:33
Speaker 1: are involved, and they're providing equity. They think they can
1:24:37
Speaker 1: make it all work. They've got money coming in from
1:24:39
Speaker 1: lots of different places. But again here I feel guilty
1:24:44
Speaker 1: when I bought that Macho King figure for forty bucks,
1:24:46
Speaker 1: thinking do I really need to be buying this? And
1:24:50
Speaker 1: I feel guilty about that. Paramount has promised six billion
1:24:55
Speaker 1: dollars in what they call cost synergies, which is just
1:24:59
Speaker 1: a fancy way of saying spending cuts in mass layoffs.
1:25:03
Speaker 1: And for the purposes of this podcast, the question is
1:25:06
Speaker 1: what does this mean for all elite wrestling? Is this
1:25:09
Speaker 1: good or is this bad for the future of AAW.
1:25:12
Speaker 1: The simple answer is, we don't know yet. We don't know.
1:25:15
Speaker 1: If Paramount is looking to cut billions of dollars in spending,
1:25:19
Speaker 1: that could be very bad. When the time comes for
1:25:21
Speaker 1: AAW to renew its media rights next year or twenty
1:25:24
Speaker 1: twenty eight if they pick up. I think they have
1:25:26
Speaker 1: an option year, so it may not be next year,
1:25:28
Speaker 1: it could be twenty twenty eight. Paramount spent nearly eight
1:25:32
Speaker 1: billion dollars over seven years. Remember that announcement about the
1:25:36
Speaker 1: UFC rights. Eight billion dollars almost over seven years. That's
1:25:41
Speaker 1: the agreement that they made for UFC Media rights. That
1:25:45
Speaker 1: works out to about a billion dollars. Ye. I think
1:25:47
Speaker 1: a little more than a billion dollars a year AW
1:25:51
Speaker 1: would be a bargain for them by comparison. So if
1:25:54
Speaker 1: they think that AW is delivering value to them with
1:25:58
Speaker 1: the numbers that they bring in, not just in terms
1:25:59
Speaker 1: of television ratings, but HBO Max viewers, and you have
1:26:03
Speaker 1: pay per view purchases through HBO Max because now you
1:26:06
Speaker 1: can buy the pay per views through HBO Max. If
1:26:09
Speaker 1: they feel that AW is delivering value, then they may
1:26:13
Speaker 1: be fine.
1:26:14
Speaker 2: You know.
1:26:15
Speaker 1: The most recent deal that AW signed was reportedly for
1:26:17
Speaker 1: somewhere around one hundred and eighty five million dollars a
1:26:20
Speaker 1: year for three years, okay, with an option for a fourth.
1:26:24
Speaker 1: If we go with one eighty five as the highest
1:26:27
Speaker 1: possible number here, let's say it is one hundred and
1:26:30
Speaker 1: eighty five million a year. Okay, it could be a
1:26:32
Speaker 1: little less than that over three years. That's over five
1:26:36
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars as opposed to a billion
1:26:39
Speaker 1: a year for seven years. It's a steal, but that's
1:26:44
Speaker 1: at their current deal. Tony Kahn is going to be
1:26:46
Speaker 1: looking for a better deal. The next time around, he's
1:26:48
Speaker 1: not going to want to be flat, you know, he's
1:26:50
Speaker 1: going to want an increase. This deal would keep HBO
1:26:54
Speaker 1: Max together with the TV stations, whereas with Netflix it
1:26:58
Speaker 1: all would have been separated because again, Netflix did not
1:27:00
Speaker 1: want the TV stations. It also means that Paramount would
1:27:04
Speaker 1: acquire the minority ownership stake in aaw that Warner Brothers
1:27:08
Speaker 1: Discovery currently has, which again it's a minority stake, it's
1:27:11
Speaker 1: less than ten percent. Now, Netflix was going to keep
1:27:15
Speaker 1: HBO Max as a separate streaming service, that's what they claimed.
1:27:19
Speaker 1: We don't know if Paramount plans to do the same
1:27:21
Speaker 1: or if they would merge HBO Max into Paramount Plus
1:27:25
Speaker 1: as one, but it sounds like it may be the latter.
1:27:28
Speaker 1: Now HBO Max has something like one hundred and twenty
1:27:31
Speaker 1: five million I think they say global subscribers. Paramount Plus
1:27:34
Speaker 1: has about seventy eight million. HBO is by far the
1:27:38
Speaker 1: stronger of the two services by far. And there was
1:27:42
Speaker 1: a report from Bloomberg back in October. Now it cited
1:27:46
Speaker 1: a single unnamed source. Okay, so keep that in mind,
1:27:50
Speaker 1: but this was a Bloomberg story, and the source at
1:27:53
Speaker 1: the time in October claimed that the Ellison's plan was
1:27:57
Speaker 1: to merge HBO Max into the existing Paramount Plus service
1:28:01
Speaker 1: because they want to make Paramount more compelling for their subscribers.
1:28:05
Speaker 1: So if that happens, HBO Max is gone, HBO Max
1:28:09
Speaker 1: is no more. What effect does that have on AAW right,
1:28:13
Speaker 1: which not only simulcast it's television shows on HBO Max's
1:28:17
Speaker 1: That's where I watch Dynamite every week. I watch it
1:28:19
Speaker 1: in the HBO Max app. So not only do do
1:28:22
Speaker 1: they simulcast their shows on there, but they offer their
1:28:24
Speaker 1: pay per views through there as well. And HBO Max
1:28:28
Speaker 1: is only first launching i think later this month in
1:28:30
Speaker 1: the UK and in Ireland. Right, they're not going to
1:28:33
Speaker 1: be very happy if it gets merged into Paramount now. Also,
1:28:37
Speaker 1: Paramount has a business relationship with TKO through UFC right,
1:28:41
Speaker 1: they have no direct relationship with WWE, but TKO is
1:28:45
Speaker 1: the parent company of WWE. Could there be a conflict there?
1:28:48
Speaker 1: Could that work against aaw It might Again, it all
1:28:52
Speaker 1: comes down to the numbers, Like if Paramount thinks that
1:28:55
Speaker 1: they can make decent money off aaw and they care
1:28:58
Speaker 1: enough to be in the pro wrestling business without having
1:29:01
Speaker 1: to pay through the nose for WWE content, then it
1:29:04
Speaker 1: might be worth it for them to keep wrestling under
1:29:06
Speaker 1: their umbrella. It would certainly be cheaper than any deal
1:29:08
Speaker 1: they might make with WWE would be. But do they
1:29:12
Speaker 1: care enough to even be in the pro wrestling business?
1:29:15
Speaker 2: Right?
1:29:15
Speaker 1: That's one question right there. Another question is who will
1:29:18
Speaker 1: be the person or people overseeing TNT and TBS. Tony
1:29:23
Speaker 1: Kahn has talked about having this great relationship with David
1:29:26
Speaker 1: Zaslov and great relationships with the heads of the networks.
1:29:29
Speaker 1: Is that going to be the case with Paramount. Are
1:29:32
Speaker 1: the people in charge even going to like wrestling? We
1:29:37
Speaker 1: don't know. But if they have ownership in the company,
1:29:40
Speaker 1: however small it may be, and let's say they do
1:29:43
Speaker 1: keep HBO Max and they can make money off the
1:29:46
Speaker 1: pay per view sales, then I think, so long as
1:29:49
Speaker 1: they're putting up decent numbers, that works in their favor.
1:29:51
Speaker 1: You know, The reality is, until this actually goes through
1:29:54
Speaker 1: and we get a better sense of what their plans are,
1:29:56
Speaker 1: who they put in charge of these things, we don't know.
1:29:59
Speaker 1: We don't know what we don't know. And Tony Kahn
1:30:01
Speaker 1: should be thinking about and I'm sure he is thinking
1:30:04
Speaker 1: about a plan B in case things do go a
1:30:07
Speaker 1: bad way cable wise, I don't know where they would
1:30:09
Speaker 1: even land. I mean, the cable landscape has changed so much,
1:30:13
Speaker 1: and it's another reason why it sucks having a handful
1:30:15
Speaker 1: of big companies owning so many different properties. Streaming wise,
1:30:20
Speaker 1: I still maintain that Amazon I think could be a
1:30:22
Speaker 1: good option for them, but for visibility, I think they
1:30:26
Speaker 1: need to maintain a presence on cable. I don't think
1:30:29
Speaker 1: streaming is enough. You know, WWE took a chance that
1:30:31
Speaker 1: with Raw on Netflix. You know they would be fine
1:30:35
Speaker 1: because they got paid five billion dollars for it, and
1:30:39
Speaker 1: they still have a presence on TV. They have smacked
1:30:41
Speaker 1: down on USA, they have NXT on the CW. It's
1:30:43
Speaker 1: not like they're completely divorced from from television. Raw has
1:30:48
Speaker 1: also been on the air for thirty plus years. AW
1:30:51
Speaker 1: doesn't have that same luxury right, no more so than
1:30:54
Speaker 1: TNA does, even though TNA has been around a lot
1:30:56
Speaker 1: longer than AW has. They needed a good cable clearance.
1:31:00
Speaker 1: Access television wasn't going to be enough, and they ended
1:31:03
Speaker 1: up getting on AMC. If they end up off TBS
1:31:06
Speaker 1: and TNT, AW is going to have to find a
1:31:09
Speaker 1: home somewhere streaming is not going to be enough, but
1:31:13
Speaker 1: stay tuned because there's always a chance that this deal
1:31:15
Speaker 1: gets derailed. There was more leaked audio from that WBD
1:31:19
Speaker 1: town hall that I mentioned on Friday morning, where David
1:31:22
Speaker 1: Zaslov said he expects it to take six to twelve
1:31:24
Speaker 1: months for the deal to close, and that the deal
1:31:27
Speaker 1: might not close and if it doesn't, he said, quote,
1:31:32
Speaker 1: we get seven billion dollars and we get back to work. Yes,
1:31:38
Speaker 1: if the deal fails to win approval, WBD gets seven
1:31:43
Speaker 1: billion dollars for nothing. You talk about failing upward in life.
1:31:49
Speaker 1: If this goes through, this might well end up being
1:31:52
Speaker 1: a bigger disaster than the AOL Time Warner merger all
1:31:55
Speaker 1: those years ago that didn't work out too well for WCW.
1:32:00
Speaker 1: You the Hurt Syndicate might be back at full strength shortly.
1:32:05
Speaker 1: The Almighty Bobby Lashley, while appearing at the recent for
1:32:09
Speaker 1: the Love of Wrestling convention in the UK, clarified that
1:32:12
Speaker 1: he is healthy and looking forward to going after gold
1:32:15
Speaker 1: in aw Targeting the trios titles currently held by Hangman Page,
1:32:19
Speaker 1: Kevin Knight and Speedball Mike Bailey. He said, all I
1:32:24
Speaker 1: want to do is win titles, so That's what I'm
1:32:26
Speaker 1: really focused on when we get back Between Shelton and MVP,
1:32:29
Speaker 1: we want to do things collectively. We want to do
1:32:32
Speaker 1: things as a group. So I think we're going to
1:32:34
Speaker 1: go after the trios guys. Let's see what we can
1:32:37
Speaker 1: do with those guys, because I think that's what we need. Man,
1:32:39
Speaker 1: the crowd loves us over there. Shelton's an amazing person,
1:32:42
Speaker 1: an amazing wrestler. MVP is amazing at everything that he does,
1:32:47
Speaker 1: and same here. So it's like we just have a
1:32:49
Speaker 1: great group and we're all friends. So we all pull
1:32:52
Speaker 1: for each other. So anytime one of us is down,
1:32:55
Speaker 1: the other one pulls us up. And I think, right
1:32:57
Speaker 1: now they're pulling me up. They're yanking me back in.
1:32:59
Speaker 1: They said it. It's ready. We're ready to get back
1:33:01
Speaker 1: out there and win some titles. So I am healed.
1:33:04
Speaker 1: Everybody thought I was hurt. I'm not hurt. You can't
1:33:08
Speaker 1: hurt the Almighty, he says, everybody thought I was hurt.
1:33:12
Speaker 1: I'm not hurt. But in the same quote, he says,
1:33:14
Speaker 1: I'm healed. MA make it make sense, Please make it
1:33:20
Speaker 1: make sense. We have not seen him since full Gear
1:33:23
Speaker 1: in November. He was quite obviously hurt and now he's healed,
1:33:26
Speaker 1: and that's great news. And for as strong as the
1:33:29
Speaker 1: main events scene is right now in AW, you know,
1:33:31
Speaker 1: getting back names like lash Lee, I mean, I know
1:33:33
Speaker 1: there he said he wants to just come back and
1:33:35
Speaker 1: go after the trio's titles, but he needs to have
1:33:38
Speaker 1: a singles run at some point. You know, you get
1:33:40
Speaker 1: names back like lash Lee, will Ospray, Jay White hopefully soon.
1:33:46
Speaker 1: That's only going to make that roster and that top
1:33:49
Speaker 1: of the card that much stronger. And Dynamite on Wednesday
1:33:53
Speaker 1: was not quite as strong as last week's show. Overall,
1:33:56
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I still enjoyed it. We basically got
1:33:59
Speaker 1: an anarchy the arena match in the main event with
1:34:01
Speaker 1: the Young Bucks, Jack Perry and the Rascals against FTR
1:34:05
Speaker 1: Ricochet in the Gates of Agony, I mean right down
1:34:08
Speaker 1: to them letting Tarzan Boy loop for half the match.
1:34:11
Speaker 1: Perry pinn Ricochet to win the match, which puts him
1:34:14
Speaker 1: in line I'm sure for another crack at Ricochet's national title,
1:34:17
Speaker 1: likely at Revolution. The stipulation has been decided on for
1:34:21
Speaker 1: the AW World title match at Revolution. They had a
1:34:24
Speaker 1: segment with MJF and Hangman Adam Page. Page had already
1:34:28
Speaker 1: said that if I don't win the championship, if I
1:34:30
Speaker 1: lose it revolution, I will never again challenge for the
1:34:33
Speaker 1: aw World title. And so he wanted Texas Death, and
1:34:38
Speaker 1: MJF said, I need a week to think about what
1:34:40
Speaker 1: the stipulation is going to be and come up with
1:34:42
Speaker 1: one of my own, and then we can work it out.
1:34:45
Speaker 1: So he showed up with a coin. He was going
1:34:47
Speaker 1: to do a coin flip. If Page one, then he
1:34:50
Speaker 1: would get his wish and it would be Texas Death.
1:34:52
Speaker 1: If he lost, MJF would get his own stipulation, a
1:34:56
Speaker 1: one way no disqualification match, or Page would get disqual
1:35:00
Speaker 1: If he even so much as looked at a weapon,
1:35:03
Speaker 1: MJF he could do whatever he wants. See he flips
1:35:06
Speaker 1: the coin. He says, I pick heads, right. He flips
1:35:10
Speaker 1: the coin. Of course it comes up heads. He gets
1:35:12
Speaker 1: his match. He goes to leave and Hangman is like,
1:35:15
Speaker 1: let me see the coin, and MJF refuses, and then
1:35:19
Speaker 1: Jet Speed and Brodido they came out to block his exit.
1:35:23
Speaker 1: Of course, it ended up being a rigged coin. Tony
1:35:27
Speaker 1: Kah then relays to Tony Shavani in his ear that
1:35:30
Speaker 1: because MJF used a rigged coin, it would indeed be
1:35:33
Speaker 1: a Texas Death match at the pay per view, which
1:35:35
Speaker 1: we already knew, so I'm not really sure. I mean, look,
1:35:39
Speaker 1: this illustrates that MJF is obviously, you know, nervous, I
1:35:43
Speaker 1: guess about losing his championship, but not exactly a segment
1:35:48
Speaker 1: that we needed to have on the show. But it
1:35:50
Speaker 1: kind of fits the narrative about MJF being worried that
1:35:54
Speaker 1: maybe he can't beat Hangman, which really, to me, that's
1:35:56
Speaker 1: the real story here, that should be the real story
1:35:59
Speaker 1: of this match. They had two matches last year, Hangman
1:36:02
Speaker 1: won them both. MJF just can't beat this guy. He
1:36:06
Speaker 1: cannot beat this guy. He might actually lose his championship
1:36:09
Speaker 1: at Revolution. There you go, that's your story right there.
1:36:13
Speaker 1: But we're getting textas death, So get ready for blood
1:36:16
Speaker 1: and gore and barbed wire and cinder blocks and all
1:36:21
Speaker 1: kinds of crap in that match. Swerve Strickland after his
1:36:24
Speaker 1: heel turn, Yes, he'll turn, say it with me. That's
1:36:29
Speaker 1: what it was on Dynamite the week before. He'll turn
1:36:32
Speaker 1: On Kenny Omega. He was back to explain his actions.
1:36:36
Speaker 1: He was standing on the announced desk as he did this,
1:36:40
Speaker 1: and he had a chain around his neck, and he
1:36:42
Speaker 1: said he figured the sickos would enjoy what he did
1:36:44
Speaker 1: last week to Kenny. Then they booed, and he say, oh, well,
1:36:48
Speaker 1: I should have figured that's what happens when it comes
1:36:50
Speaker 1: to your favorites. And he feels no guilt simply for
1:36:54
Speaker 1: the fact that he warned him that whatever happens next
1:36:57
Speaker 1: is on him, right. I mean, he got in Swerve's
1:36:59
Speaker 1: way for the war title, and he had the nerve
1:37:01
Speaker 1: to call someone else the most dangerous man in aaw
1:37:04
Speaker 1: so he felt like he had a point to prove. Basically,
1:37:07
Speaker 1: Kenny Omega pulled his punk card and he couldn't let
1:37:09
Speaker 1: that go unpunished, and he wants to go all the
1:37:12
Speaker 1: way back to the Week of All. In Texas, he
1:37:14
Speaker 1: had this conversation with Hangmen, and Hangman asked him, do
1:37:17
Speaker 1: you regret doing all of the horrible things that you've
1:37:19
Speaker 1: done to get to the world title, And at the
1:37:22
Speaker 1: time he told him yes, But now that he reflects
1:37:25
Speaker 1: back on that, he says that was the most successful
1:37:28
Speaker 1: period of his career. So now he chooses to live
1:37:31
Speaker 1: life with no regrets. And he warned the rest of
1:37:34
Speaker 1: the roster. Every single one of you was unnoticed. Any
1:37:37
Speaker 1: of you could be clipped at any given moment, and
1:37:40
Speaker 1: he'll remind them in case they forgot who the most
1:37:42
Speaker 1: dangerous man in AW is. So this is already making
1:37:47
Speaker 1: him more interesting than he's been for many months now.
1:37:51
Speaker 1: I'm all in favor of this again. It's a heel turn.
1:37:54
Speaker 1: You want to call it something else, you, oh, he's
1:37:56
Speaker 1: a tween er. He's not a heel. He's a heel.
1:37:58
Speaker 1: But whatever you want to call it to me, it
1:37:59
Speaker 1: makes this character on TV more interesting now. It definitely
1:38:03
Speaker 1: feels to me like he's going to prove to be
1:38:05
Speaker 1: the downfall of Hangman in that title match of Revolution
1:38:09
Speaker 1: against them JF. And then how they get out of
1:38:12
Speaker 1: the stipulation that, you know, he can never again challenge
1:38:14
Speaker 1: for the championship. They'll have to figure out, you know,
1:38:17
Speaker 1: a way out of it. But I'm not convinced that
1:38:19
Speaker 1: he's winning the title in that match. They strongly hinted
1:38:24
Speaker 1: at two more matches for the Revolution card. Brody King
1:38:27
Speaker 1: got a win over Mark Davis and then he got
1:38:29
Speaker 1: on the mic and he said I want to fight
1:38:31
Speaker 1: at Revolution and he called out Swerve, and then Bendido
1:38:35
Speaker 1: was there. He goes, yeah, I want to fight too,
1:38:37
Speaker 1: and then Andrede Ledelo came out and they kind of
1:38:41
Speaker 1: pointed and pumped their fist at each other. There was
1:38:45
Speaker 1: this sort of mutual understanding like, okay, we'll do this.
1:38:48
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's been officially announced yet, but
1:38:51
Speaker 1: Brody King against Swerve and then Bendido against Andrade Ledlo,
1:38:54
Speaker 1: those are two fucking pretty good matches, I would say
1:38:58
Speaker 1: to add to the Revolution Code Revolution is already shaving
1:39:03
Speaker 1: up to be far better than Elimination Chamber was last night.
1:39:06
Speaker 1: And then there was an injury to Penelope Ford and
1:39:09
Speaker 1: this became a bit of a story this week for
1:39:11
Speaker 1: all the wrong reasons. We had a women's tag team
1:39:14
Speaker 1: title match. It was a rematch from Grand Slam Australia,
1:39:17
Speaker 1: so it was Willow Knightingale and Harley Cameron defending their
1:39:20
Speaker 1: titles against Meghan Bain and Penelope Ford. And in the
1:39:24
Speaker 1: course of the match, Penelope Ford went for a moon
1:39:26
Speaker 1: salt off the top rope onto Willow and Harley who
1:39:30
Speaker 1: were standing outside, and they were supposed to catch her
1:39:33
Speaker 1: right or cushion her fall. And we've seen her do
1:39:36
Speaker 1: the moon Salt in matches before. This is not like
1:39:38
Speaker 1: the first time that she's ever done it. They didn't
1:39:42
Speaker 1: catch her. She landed. Basically, she came straight down on
1:39:45
Speaker 1: her feet and rolled over and apparently she got hurt
1:39:48
Speaker 1: on the spot. According to Fight Full Select, she sustained
1:39:52
Speaker 1: an injury that ruled her out of the rest of
1:39:53
Speaker 1: the match. Midway through the match, an audible was called
1:39:57
Speaker 1: that Lena Cross, who was in their corner, would run
1:40:01
Speaker 1: in and cause a disqualification instead of leaving the match
1:40:04
Speaker 1: as two on one with the heel Meghan Bain fighting
1:40:07
Speaker 1: two babyfaces, so they called an audible to cover up
1:40:11
Speaker 1: whatever the original plan was. They didn't have any indication
1:40:15
Speaker 1: of what the original planned outcome was going to be.
1:40:17
Speaker 1: But I saw that match when it was announced. I said,
1:40:20
Speaker 1: why run this match back if you're not going to
1:40:23
Speaker 1: put the tag titles on Megan Bain and Penelope Ford.
1:40:26
Speaker 1: So I'm convinced that we were going to get a
1:40:28
Speaker 1: title change on this show. Otherwise, I'm legitimately not sure
1:40:33
Speaker 1: why you would even do this match. And Mike Johnson,
1:40:36
Speaker 1: a PW Insiders, said there was a fear that Ford
1:40:39
Speaker 1: may have broken her ankle but it may not be
1:40:43
Speaker 1: as severe as originally feared. And then Brian Alvarez chimed
1:40:47
Speaker 1: in and reported that she only sprained her ankle and
1:40:50
Speaker 1: she should be back soon, which is, if that's true,
1:40:53
Speaker 1: is very good news. I would think, you know what,
1:40:57
Speaker 1: switch to a crossbody off the top, just a suggestion.
1:41:01
Speaker 1: I feel like it would have the same effect and
1:41:03
Speaker 1: the risk of injury is far less on a move
1:41:06
Speaker 1: like that than a moon salt, which I mean, unless
1:41:08
Speaker 1: it's the finish in the grand scheme, what does it
1:41:12
Speaker 1: really mean? So maybe maybe shy away from the moon
1:41:15
Speaker 1: salt out to the floor from now on in the
1:41:17
Speaker 1: ring is one thing to the floor. I don't really
1:41:20
Speaker 1: think that that's necessary. I know a bunch of people
1:41:22
Speaker 1: do it. I know Charlotte Flair does it, and all
1:41:24
Speaker 1: these people do it. It doesn't mean that you have
1:41:26
Speaker 1: to do it too. But Harley Cameron got a lot
1:41:30
Speaker 1: of hate online because people were spreading the clip from
1:41:35
Speaker 1: a different camera angle. Maybe it was a fan cam,
1:41:38
Speaker 1: I don't remember, but I saw the clip as well.
1:41:41
Speaker 1: And if you watch the clip, as they're standing there
1:41:43
Speaker 1: outside the ring and they're supposed to catch this woman
1:41:46
Speaker 1: on the moon salt, it clearly looks like she noped
1:41:51
Speaker 1: right out of there on the spot. She kind of
1:41:53
Speaker 1: backed away, and she got a lot of shit for it,
1:41:56
Speaker 1: to the point where Harley deactivated her ex account because
1:42:00
Speaker 1: she was getting not just a lot of criticism, but
1:42:03
Speaker 1: probably a lot of harassment, because of course, you have
1:42:06
Speaker 1: people that are part of the wrestling fandom here on
1:42:09
Speaker 1: social media who are not all there. They are a
1:42:11
Speaker 1: fuge chicken nugget shy the happy meal, and they decide, hey,
1:42:14
Speaker 1: you know what, this woman didn't catch this girl on
1:42:16
Speaker 1: a dive, or she moved this way when she should
1:42:19
Speaker 1: have moved that way, and so we have to hurl
1:42:21
Speaker 1: all kinds of horrible harassment at this woman. And obviously
1:42:25
Speaker 1: the mutants online who do that sort of thing, I
1:42:27
Speaker 1: would like to say that they should know better, but
1:42:30
Speaker 1: they may not be capable of knowing any better. They
1:42:32
Speaker 1: may not be operating with a full deck of cards.
1:42:35
Speaker 1: Obviously it's all terrible. Obviously it's all fucking bullshit. I
1:42:39
Speaker 1: see some of the dumb comments online. There's a difference
1:42:41
Speaker 1: between criticism and harassment. What I'm talking about is not criticism.
1:42:47
Speaker 1: Should she have you caught her on the spot? She
1:42:51
Speaker 1: should have and she didn't and Okay, it happened, right.
1:42:54
Speaker 1: It happens in other instances in wrestling too. There's a
1:42:58
Speaker 1: difference between criticizing a or a move or a person
1:43:01
Speaker 1: for something they did or didn't do, and then just
1:43:03
Speaker 1: going all outright with harassment. She should be fired, you
1:43:07
Speaker 1: suck at your job, you're fucking terrible, and whatever else
1:43:11
Speaker 1: would I saw some screenshots of things that were said,
1:43:14
Speaker 1: and it's horrible, horrible stuff. I don't blame her for
1:43:19
Speaker 1: deactivating on social media. I don't know that I would
1:43:22
Speaker 1: be on there if I didn't feel like I had
1:43:24
Speaker 1: to be to promote my shows. I mean, that's how
1:43:26
Speaker 1: bad it's got, right. I enjoy interacting with certain people,
1:43:29
Speaker 1: But then, my god, I had some of that last
1:43:31
Speaker 1: night during the elimination chamber. And then you look at
1:43:34
Speaker 1: some of their profiles and it's just, I mean, my god,
1:43:38
Speaker 1: it's like a psychiatrist dream or nightmare. I don't know.
1:43:42
Speaker 1: I don't know which it is, but I can only
1:43:45
Speaker 1: imagine what some of these wrestlers, you know, and some
1:43:48
Speaker 1: of these female wrestlers deal with on a daily basis.
1:43:53
Speaker 1: So she took a lot of shit. She's off social media.
1:43:55
Speaker 1: She'll probably pop back up there at some point. But
1:43:58
Speaker 1: you know, again, I don't blame her. I mean, I
1:43:59
Speaker 1: think this is the same thing they did. Was it
1:44:01
Speaker 1: was it? Mean? Who was it?
1:44:02
Speaker 2: Oh?
1:44:02
Speaker 1: Was Riho? That's what it was. Yeah. I think Riho
1:44:06
Speaker 1: also got a lot of harassment and then they chased
1:44:08
Speaker 1: her away from social media too. It's sad, it's pathetic,
1:44:13
Speaker 1: but I can't say I'm surprised by any of it.
1:44:15
Speaker 1: As far as the Revolution card is concerned, other matches
1:44:18
Speaker 1: that either are official or appear to be happening, They're
1:44:22
Speaker 1: likely going to end up doing a rematch between Tecla
1:44:25
Speaker 1: and Chris Statlander for the AW Women's title FTR and
1:44:29
Speaker 1: the Young Bucks for the tag team titles. John Moxley
1:44:31
Speaker 1: and Knoski Takeshta is official for the Continental title with
1:44:35
Speaker 1: no time limit this time. Brody King against Swerve Strickland.
1:44:40
Speaker 1: I would think that the winner of that match would
1:44:42
Speaker 1: probably end up being number one contender for the AW
1:44:46
Speaker 1: World title, just because I don't see Swerve losing that match,
1:44:50
Speaker 1: and I think Swerve is probably going to get the
1:44:52
Speaker 1: shot at Dynasty, so that's how he gets it. Androtia
1:44:55
Speaker 1: against Bandido, which is going to be fucking incredible ricochet
1:44:59
Speaker 1: against Jack Perry for national title. Seems pretty likely they've
1:45:03
Speaker 1: teased Kyle Fletcher and Tamaso Champa for the TNT title,
1:45:06
Speaker 1: although that doesn't necessarily need to be on that show,
1:45:08
Speaker 1: but I think it probably will be. They've been doing
1:45:11
Speaker 1: stuff with Darby Allen and Gabe Kidd and Clark Conners,
1:45:14
Speaker 1: so we'll see what that ends up being. So the
1:45:17
Speaker 1: card is filling out, you know, it's going to be
1:45:20
Speaker 1: a pretty stacked card as they usually are. Probably a
1:45:23
Speaker 1: good five hour show. But Revolutions so far is shaping
1:45:28
Speaker 1: up pretty good.
1:45:30
Speaker 2: Now.
1:45:30
Speaker 1: One more note here. News wise, last spring, we had
1:45:36
Speaker 1: the announcement that former WWE executive and head of talent
1:45:42
Speaker 1: Relations John Laurnidis was dropped as a defendant in the
1:45:49
Speaker 1: Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon, Laurnidis and WWE.
1:45:54
Speaker 1: He was one of the defendants. He agreed to cooperate
1:45:57
Speaker 1: and provide evidence to Janelle Grant's team, and so they
1:46:00
Speaker 1: dropped him. And if you recall Laurentidis, of course he
1:46:03
Speaker 1: made the claim that he too was a victim in
1:46:06
Speaker 1: all of this. Let me pull out my tiny violin
1:46:10
Speaker 1: you fucking creep. So then recently, it was announced that
1:46:15
Speaker 1: Laurenidis would be making an appearance for Big Time Wrestling
1:46:18
Speaker 1: on March fourteenth, and while speaking to the two Man
1:46:22
Speaker 1: Power Trip of Wrestling show, Lauraiis commented on his return
1:46:27
Speaker 1: to wrestling. He said, March Madness is going to be
1:46:30
Speaker 1: historic in the sense that it's actually my first ever
1:46:34
Speaker 1: public appearance for a company. Part of the reason I'm
1:46:37
Speaker 1: doing that is because it's kind of ironic that the
1:46:39
Speaker 1: Road Warriors are going to be inducted into the Ohio
1:46:42
Speaker 1: Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. There's actually a tribute match
1:46:45
Speaker 1: to the Road Warriors, so it's kind of nice that
1:46:47
Speaker 1: my first appearance is going to be something that honors
1:46:49
Speaker 1: my brother. I think the way Big Time Wrestling is
1:46:53
Speaker 1: approaching things. I've had discussions with Bobby and Dylan, and
1:46:56
Speaker 1: what they're looking to do is make it the place
1:46:59
Speaker 1: to be, so to speak. In other words, there are
1:47:01
Speaker 1: ideas about bringing in international talent, bringing in more high
1:47:05
Speaker 1: profile names. I'm really looking forward to their future, and
1:47:08
Speaker 1: I'm hoping I can be a part of that in
1:47:10
Speaker 1: some way, whether it's behind the scenes or helping them
1:47:12
Speaker 1: with promoting and things like that. I think the more
1:47:15
Speaker 1: places there are for talent to work, the better opportunity
1:47:19
Speaker 1: it is for the business. I don't know if everybody
1:47:22
Speaker 1: realizes this, but I have been in the developmental system
1:47:25
Speaker 1: with WWE for twenty years. My one love is and
1:47:30
Speaker 1: this is a real quote. I'm not making this up.
1:47:32
Speaker 1: This is not AI. This is a real fucking quote.
1:47:37
Speaker 1: My one love is to help develop and groom young talent.
1:47:43
Speaker 1: And I think that's the strategy for Big Time Wrestling
1:47:46
Speaker 1: right now, to find younger talent and develop them into
1:47:50
Speaker 1: the stars of tomorrow. These are actual words that left
1:47:57
Speaker 1: the man's mouth. He thought it would be a good
1:48:00
Speaker 1: idea to talk about his love for grooming talent when
1:48:06
Speaker 1: he worked for WWE. There are no words. There are
1:48:12
Speaker 1: no words. I had to do a double take to
1:48:14
Speaker 1: see that this was actually a legitimate quote. Unbelievable. Crawl
1:48:19
Speaker 1: back into the hole from whence you came? All right,
1:48:23
Speaker 1: We got a bunch of mail bag questions here. If
1:48:24
Speaker 1: you would like to email me and submit your own,
1:48:26
Speaker 1: you may do so the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com.
1:48:30
Speaker 1: Please include your name and where you are from when
1:48:32
Speaker 1: you write in. Start here with the miles from Los
1:48:37
Speaker 1: Angeles Miles, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate that,
1:48:40
Speaker 1: especially from someone in your field. With Cody pushing for
1:48:44
Speaker 1: the return of house shows, here's a pitch. Bring back
1:48:47
Speaker 1: in your house, but as a non televised house show
1:48:51
Speaker 1: fans get some nostalgia. It fits the vibe perfectly, assuming
1:48:54
Speaker 1: WWE would actually lean into the house show phrasing and
1:48:58
Speaker 1: you keep it special, say two to three house shows
1:49:01
Speaker 1: a month, nothing overproduced that would compare to a TV production,
1:49:04
Speaker 1: but still lean into the mid nineties in your house aesthetic.
1:49:07
Speaker 1: Go all in on quarterly merch poster shirts, tour t
1:49:10
Speaker 1: shirts with all the dates on the back. It's cool
1:49:13
Speaker 1: retro and gets used and more importantly underused talent, more reps,
1:49:18
Speaker 1: and it gives fans the chance to see non TV
1:49:21
Speaker 1: live events from time to time, which you could argue
1:49:23
Speaker 1: is more fun to attend than a four match PLA
1:49:26
Speaker 1: or three hour raw with commercial breaks and backstage segments.
1:49:29
Speaker 1: Oh you mean you're not interested in seeing twenty minutes
1:49:33
Speaker 1: of entrances for a twenty five minute match. This doesn't
1:49:35
Speaker 1: appeal to you, Miles, He says. Nostalgia plus live wrestling
1:49:40
Speaker 1: and collectible tour merch. WWE bring back in your house.
1:49:45
Speaker 1: What is not to love. I don't disagree that it's
1:49:49
Speaker 1: a bad concept, and I've talked about how I think
1:49:52
Speaker 1: they should find some sort of happy medium where these
1:49:54
Speaker 1: people aren't on the road constantly, but you know, you're
1:49:58
Speaker 1: able to do a few house shows a month. Then
1:50:00
Speaker 1: they get reps and they get to go out there
1:50:01
Speaker 1: and they get to work, let the wrestlers wrestle, and
1:50:07
Speaker 1: then if you want to sort of mask it within
1:50:10
Speaker 1: your house or you want to come up with some
1:50:12
Speaker 1: other I mean, they were doing that years ago. It's
1:50:14
Speaker 1: Saturday Night's main event, and they're not going to do
1:50:16
Speaker 1: that now because it's back as a TV show. But
1:50:19
Speaker 1: they actually brought back the Saturday Nights made event branding.
1:50:22
Speaker 1: I want to say it was the late two thousands,
1:50:24
Speaker 1: maybe early twenty tens, maybe it was maybe it was
1:50:28
Speaker 1: early to mid twenty tens, but they brought it back.
1:50:30
Speaker 1: So it's the same concept that you're talking about. But
1:50:32
Speaker 1: then you know, you create t shirts and you merchandise
1:50:36
Speaker 1: it and you market it. I used to like when
1:50:39
Speaker 1: the WWE network first started in twenty fourteen. One of
1:50:43
Speaker 1: the things that I suggested I thought would be cool
1:50:45
Speaker 1: for them to start doing at least from time to time,
1:50:49
Speaker 1: you do these drop ins or these cut ins at
1:50:52
Speaker 1: a house show, and maybe you do it for the
1:50:55
Speaker 1: bigger ones. So if you have like a big live
1:50:56
Speaker 1: event in New York or Chicago or someplace like that,
1:51:00
Speaker 1: but it's you know, it's a house show, but you
1:51:02
Speaker 1: have a camera and you I'm not saying broadcast the
1:51:06
Speaker 1: entire thing. You could do that, but you have like
1:51:08
Speaker 1: these cut ins from these live events and you stream
1:51:10
Speaker 1: them in real time on the WWE network and maybe
1:51:14
Speaker 1: just pick your spots, you know, pick a big match
1:51:17
Speaker 1: or if you know something big is going to happen
1:51:19
Speaker 1: on the house show that night, maybe you want to
1:51:20
Speaker 1: show that or something. But it would be it would
1:51:22
Speaker 1: be a cool feature for the network, but it would
1:51:26
Speaker 1: also show people, hey, you should probably buy a ticket
1:51:28
Speaker 1: to come to these shows because these shows are fun.
1:51:31
Speaker 1: Or hey, look something big happened on this show. You
1:51:34
Speaker 1: never know what might happen, you know, on the house shows.
1:51:37
Speaker 1: So I'm all for it. I think that'd be a
1:51:39
Speaker 1: pretty cool idea. Kennedy from Orlando, Florida. I have an
1:51:43
Speaker 1: idea and what they could do with Raquel Rodriguez and
1:51:45
Speaker 1: Live Morgan. They should have Lived win the women's world
1:51:48
Speaker 1: title of WrestleMania and have Raquel win money in the
1:51:52
Speaker 1: bank with Live and the Judgment Day, thinking that she
1:51:55
Speaker 1: will go to SmackDown, even though Raquel has not yet
1:51:58
Speaker 1: made up her mind. Taking a page at the Evolution playbook,
1:52:01
Speaker 1: we find out that Live has been playing Raquel the
1:52:04
Speaker 1: entire time, buttering her up. The Judgment Day throws a
1:52:07
Speaker 1: going away party on Raw where Raquel makes her decision
1:52:11
Speaker 1: to face Live for the title one on one. I
1:52:14
Speaker 1: think this could give Raquel a chance to be a
1:52:17
Speaker 1: good babyface. I like that idea. I like the idea of, Hey,
1:52:24
Speaker 1: we think we know what choice you're gonna make. Here
1:52:27
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna go to the other show. You're gonna
1:52:29
Speaker 1: have that title. I've got this title. We're gonna control
1:52:32
Speaker 1: both brands, so let's have a big Let's have a
1:52:35
Speaker 1: big going away party next Monday for Raquel. Like you
1:52:38
Speaker 1: would probably see it coming, but I like that idea.
1:52:42
Speaker 1: I like that idea. When the time comes that they're
1:52:44
Speaker 1: ready to split them up and turn Raquel babyface, I
1:52:47
Speaker 1: think that might be that might be a good way
1:52:49
Speaker 1: to go. Of course, Live has to first win the
1:52:52
Speaker 1: title of WrestleMania. But the idea of Raquel winning money
1:52:54
Speaker 1: in the bank, I mean, let's see where we are.
1:52:56
Speaker 1: Money in the bank, though, is just it's so far away.
1:52:59
Speaker 1: I mean, money in the bank this year is God,
1:53:02
Speaker 1: is it the end of August or is it the
1:53:05
Speaker 1: beginning of September. I think it might be Labor Day weekend.
1:53:08
Speaker 1: I think it's actually September sixth. It's a lot later
1:53:12
Speaker 1: than it's ever been before. It's not in June. So
1:53:15
Speaker 1: I don't know if this idea would work, but I
1:53:18
Speaker 1: kind of like it. Sam from Atlanta, GA, if wwe
1:53:23
Speaker 1: handed you the book today, who would you build the
1:53:26
Speaker 1: company around for the next five years? So I had
1:53:31
Speaker 1: to jot this down here because that's quite a loaded
1:53:34
Speaker 1: question here, And this is what I jotted down, and
1:53:37
Speaker 1: feel free to chime in. And I'd be curious what
1:53:40
Speaker 1: you guys think or who you would build around. But
1:53:43
Speaker 1: we're talking about building for the future, and so the
1:53:47
Speaker 1: names that I came up with on the men's side
1:53:51
Speaker 1: were Oba Femi. Now I'm not including Cody or Roman.
1:53:56
Speaker 1: It kind of goes without saying those guys are still
1:53:58
Speaker 1: going to be around in some way. I'm not in
1:54:00
Speaker 1: voting names like that Oba Femi, Trick, Williams, Jacob Fatu,
1:54:07
Speaker 1: bron Breaker, Dominic Mysterio. On the women's side, Rea Ripley,
1:54:14
Speaker 1: because even though she's already a big name, like she's
1:54:17
Speaker 1: still only twenty nine years old. Like, you're gonna be
1:54:20
Speaker 1: building around Ria for many more years to come. So
1:54:23
Speaker 1: Rea Ripley, Eo Sky, Blake, Monroe, soul Ruka, and I'll
1:54:29
Speaker 1: throw Kendall Gray in there. She's not there yet, but
1:54:33
Speaker 1: Kendall Gray is gonna be a big deal. Those are
1:54:36
Speaker 1: the names I would target to build around for the
1:54:38
Speaker 1: next five years and beyond. Kevin from Albany, New York.
1:54:43
Speaker 1: Do you think they drag out Lesnar's opponent or do
1:54:45
Speaker 1: we find out during his next appearance in March they
1:54:48
Speaker 1: don't bring out an opponent or multiple ones during his
1:54:51
Speaker 1: next appearance, they make the whole roster look like a
1:54:53
Speaker 1: bunch of chumps. Yeah, I mean, somebody's got to come out.
1:54:57
Speaker 1: That's the whole thing about him making all these appearances.
1:55:00
Speaker 1: I think they could probably hold off until they get
1:55:02
Speaker 1: to the garden. But that's like March, I don't know,
1:55:06
Speaker 1: thirtieth or whatever whatever the day did whatever that last
1:55:08
Speaker 1: Monday is in March, I think is when they're in
1:55:11
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden. So if he's gonna be on TV,
1:55:14
Speaker 1: let's say twice before, then you have to have someone
1:55:18
Speaker 1: come out. Maybe they do a comedy thing where fucking
1:55:21
Speaker 1: Kit Wilson or Dan Hausen comes out or something, or
1:55:25
Speaker 1: it could be somebody else and he just sort of
1:55:27
Speaker 1: obliterates them. Somebody's got to come out, though he can't
1:55:31
Speaker 1: just come out and nothing happens. I agree, somebody will
1:55:35
Speaker 1: have to come out, whoever it is. Let's say that
1:55:37
Speaker 1: gets destroyed. Hopefully it's nobody that they're planning on pushing.
1:55:41
Speaker 1: That's why I just threw out a bunch of you know,
1:55:44
Speaker 1: mid card names like that because it almost doesn't even matter.
1:55:48
Speaker 1: Dallas from Minnesota Powerhouse Hobbes, boy, I forgot all about
1:55:52
Speaker 1: that guy. Powerhouse Hobbs debuted at the Royal Rumble and
1:55:55
Speaker 1: they have done fuck all with him since it was
1:55:58
Speaker 1: a good showing, but they made the mistake of debuing
1:56:00
Speaker 1: him in Saudi Arabia three weeks later, nothing but a
1:56:03
Speaker 1: dark match on main Event. In a podcast episode with
1:56:07
Speaker 1: Stephanie McMahon, I will have you know Dallas. That is
1:56:10
Speaker 1: steph McMahon to you, you gotta get it right. It
1:56:14
Speaker 1: is now Steph McMahon keeping him off WWETV tells casual
1:56:20
Speaker 1: fans that he is not important, and I'm sorry, how
1:56:23
Speaker 1: is that Apollo Cruse? How is it that Apollo Cruse,
1:56:26
Speaker 1: a guy who has done nothing of note for years,
1:56:29
Speaker 1: gets TV time over Hobbes. Are they deliberately setting him
1:56:33
Speaker 1: up to fail? Or are they this uncreative and incompetent? Well,
1:56:38
Speaker 1: to answer your question, they are not intentionally setting him
1:56:41
Speaker 1: up to fail, So make of that what you will. Look.
1:56:46
Speaker 1: I can only imagine that they have no plans for
1:56:49
Speaker 1: him at WrestleMania, but they want to start him on
1:56:52
Speaker 1: the main roster and not NXT, So for the time being,
1:56:56
Speaker 1: they're giving him reps on main event or in dark
1:56:58
Speaker 1: matches like it's the only thing I can figure because
1:57:01
Speaker 1: to debut him in the Royal Rumble and then not
1:57:03
Speaker 1: have him on television makes little sense to me. Right,
1:57:07
Speaker 1: But they're preparing a card for WrestleMania right now. They
1:57:10
Speaker 1: don't seem to have a spot for him on that show,
1:57:13
Speaker 1: so instead of him sitting at home for three months
1:57:16
Speaker 1: and again, if they don't want him in NXT, that's
1:57:18
Speaker 1: what he would be doing. Then they have him working
1:57:21
Speaker 1: main event matches in dark matches, and then maybe that
1:57:24
Speaker 1: first raw. I mean, it depends on what show he's on,
1:57:27
Speaker 1: the first Raw or the first SmackDown coming out of
1:57:30
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, then he makes his proper debut. It's the
1:57:35
Speaker 1: only thing that makes sense to me, the only explanation
1:57:38
Speaker 1: logically for what they're doing unless he's going to accept
1:57:42
Speaker 1: the brock lesnar Open Challenge. Can't discount that as a possibility.
1:57:48
Speaker 1: Why you would go with him and not Obafemi in
1:57:51
Speaker 1: that spot, I don't know, but that would be the
1:57:54
Speaker 1: only other potential explanation here. Daniel in Atlanta, it's been
1:57:59
Speaker 1: fifteen years I started listening. Thank you for all you
1:58:02
Speaker 1: do well, thank you for listening for fifteen years. That's
1:58:06
Speaker 1: a long time. I was at this most recent raw
1:58:08
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. While I think the in person aspect generally
1:58:11
Speaker 1: enhances the experiences of live shows, I was unfortunately not
1:58:15
Speaker 1: surprised to hear you on the live stream called this
1:58:17
Speaker 1: the worst raw of the year so far. There wasn't
1:58:20
Speaker 1: exactly a whole lot to be excited for, especially for
1:58:22
Speaker 1: a go home show during WrestleMania's season I'm wondering, what
1:58:26
Speaker 1: would you say is your most enjoyable and least enjoyable
1:58:29
Speaker 1: WWE televised show live show experiences. Are there any that
1:58:35
Speaker 1: you attended that you thought were really good or maybe
1:58:37
Speaker 1: felt like the crowd was really into but were then
1:58:40
Speaker 1: surprised to find it didn't come across that way for
1:58:42
Speaker 1: people watching on TV. On a side note, the main
1:58:46
Speaker 1: event taping on Monday again featured a match with Royce Keys.
1:58:50
Speaker 1: What the fuck are we even doing? Daniel? May I
1:58:54
Speaker 1: introduce you to Dallas. I think the two of you
1:58:56
Speaker 1: will get along very well. You know what? I hear
1:59:00
Speaker 1: people say that sometimes where they'll come home from an event.
1:59:05
Speaker 1: I'll be live on YouTube and I'll get a super
1:59:07
Speaker 1: chat from someone I just got home and you know,
1:59:10
Speaker 1: how did it come across? It was hot in the building,
1:59:12
Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, it was like a fucking funeral
1:59:14
Speaker 1: on TV. That's never happened to me before. I can't
1:59:18
Speaker 1: remember a time where I went to a show and
1:59:22
Speaker 1: then I watched it back and I was like, man,
1:59:26
Speaker 1: that sounds really quiet, Like I personally have never had
1:59:30
Speaker 1: that experience before. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but
1:59:34
Speaker 1: I can't remember a time. I mean as far as
1:59:38
Speaker 1: the events that I had the most fun at, you know,
1:59:41
Speaker 1: live experience wise. I think back to those Attitude Era
1:59:45
Speaker 1: ras that I went to, the first one I ever
1:59:47
Speaker 1: went to. I think the second one I ever went
1:59:50
Speaker 1: to was the night that Austin poured the cement in
1:59:54
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon's corvette. A big boss Man came back at
1:59:58
Speaker 1: the end of that show. I think we had at
2:00:00
Speaker 1: an Intercontinental title match final maybe of a tournament. I
2:00:04
Speaker 1: think Ken Shamrock beat XPOC that I'm just going, I'm
2:00:06
Speaker 1: just freestyling here from what I remember, But it was
2:00:09
Speaker 1: the experience of being there at those shows. It wasn't
2:00:12
Speaker 1: even necessarily any individual match, right, Yeah. I didn't go
2:00:16
Speaker 1: to those shows expecting, oh man, we're going to get
2:00:17
Speaker 1: a five star match here tonight. It just felt like
2:00:20
Speaker 1: a fucking party, it really did. So I always had
2:00:23
Speaker 1: funded those shows. I'd been to eight WrestleManias, and WrestleMania
2:00:30
Speaker 1: thirty in New Orleans is probably tops for me in
2:00:33
Speaker 1: my book. I mean, really, that whole trip and all
2:00:36
Speaker 1: the people I met, all the it was just a
2:00:39
Speaker 1: fun experience, it really was. But that WrestleMania was really special,
2:00:43
Speaker 1: and being in the building for the streak ending is
2:00:46
Speaker 1: as stupid as I thought it was. There's a reason
2:00:49
Speaker 1: why when the camera cuts to me in the crowding,
2:00:51
Speaker 1: you see me in the corner of the screen like
2:00:53
Speaker 1: I'm the last I think, the last fan shot that
2:00:57
Speaker 1: you see before Justin Roberts makes his announcement if you
2:01:00
Speaker 1: look at the lower right, and I'm like the only
2:01:02
Speaker 1: person who's laughing. And the reason I'm laughing is because
2:01:05
Speaker 1: I had never experienced anything like that in person before
2:01:08
Speaker 1: at a wrestling event where there was a genuine feeling
2:01:12
Speaker 1: of shock. I have to think that the closest thing
2:01:16
Speaker 1: that would compare to it up until that point would
2:01:19
Speaker 1: be the Montreal screw Job, just a feeling of like,
2:01:23
Speaker 1: what the fuck just happened here? But it was just
2:01:27
Speaker 1: it was such a weird feeling. But I feel like
2:01:30
Speaker 1: grateful to have been there for it because I just
2:01:32
Speaker 1: feel like it was such a unique experience. But then
2:01:35
Speaker 1: you had all the Daniel Bryant stuff in the main event,
2:01:38
Speaker 1: which you know, the confetti falling, and it was great.
2:01:42
Speaker 1: It was great, So I probably would have that one,
2:01:44
Speaker 1: honestly at the top of my list if I had
2:01:47
Speaker 1: a narrow it down to just one that and then
2:01:51
Speaker 1: some of the post WrestleMania Ross. You know what, I
2:01:54
Speaker 1: can't leave out the post WrestleMania twenty nine raw. That one,
2:01:58
Speaker 1: to me, that's got to be I mean, that's got
2:02:00
Speaker 1: to be tops. That building was literally rumbling when Dolf
2:02:04
Speaker 1: Ziggler came out to cash in his money in the
2:02:06
Speaker 1: bank and he beat Dell Dipshit for the championship. My god,
2:02:08
Speaker 1: like you could feel the earth moving beneath your feet.
2:02:11
Speaker 1: People were stopping their feet, and they were banging and
2:02:14
Speaker 1: they were cheering. It was great. It was so great.
2:02:17
Speaker 1: That was so much fun. We got Eddie from Annapolis,
2:02:21
Speaker 1: Maryland as a person who has to get up very
2:02:25
Speaker 1: early in the morning for work and cannot watch the
2:02:27
Speaker 1: nighttime shows. Thank you for the daily Recap. A lot
2:02:30
Speaker 1: of times in the movie industry, the failure of a
2:02:32
Speaker 1: movie is often attributed to interference from the film studios
2:02:36
Speaker 1: or producer trying to get their hands on the creative
2:02:39
Speaker 1: process and messing up the director's vision for the film.
2:02:42
Speaker 1: Do you think the same is happening with wwe are
2:02:45
Speaker 1: Ari Emmanuel and Tko influencing the creative process, ruining the
2:02:49
Speaker 1: vision of Triple H. So I have two different answers
2:02:54
Speaker 1: for you. Number one, do I think that there is
2:02:58
Speaker 1: an influence from TKO or that TKO is in some
2:03:01
Speaker 1: way influencing creative in WWE? I think indirectly, Yes, I
2:03:06
Speaker 1: think that they're I think Triple H and Nick con
2:03:08
Speaker 1: are well aware that there are certain I don't know
2:03:11
Speaker 1: benchmarks is the right word, but there are certain expectations
2:03:14
Speaker 1: that their bosses have of them. And I do think
2:03:17
Speaker 1: that it colors the creative process, even even indirectly. Do
2:03:21
Speaker 1: I think Ari Emmanuel or Mark Shapiro or you know,
2:03:24
Speaker 1: anyone like that is saying, hey, we want this person
2:03:28
Speaker 1: you know to do this storyline, or we don't want
2:03:30
Speaker 1: you to push that like No. I think at best
2:03:33
Speaker 1: they might be like, hey, we we should be doing
2:03:36
Speaker 1: more with this person, let's feature them more like that
2:03:39
Speaker 1: maybe I can see, But I don't think they're getting
2:03:41
Speaker 1: directly involved in the creative process. I really don't. But
2:03:46
Speaker 1: the decisions they make in creative, or the decisions Triple
2:03:49
Speaker 1: H makes in creative could very well be indirectly influenced
2:03:53
Speaker 1: by things that he knows TKO is looking for. But
2:03:57
Speaker 1: I also am not going to sit here and say that, oh,
2:04:01
Speaker 1: poor Triple H. He's got this great vision if only
2:04:04
Speaker 1: we could see it. But the evil TKO is preventing
2:04:07
Speaker 1: us from seeing the true vision of what Triple H
2:04:09
Speaker 1: would love to be doing on the main roster. No,
2:04:12
Speaker 1: Triple H loves to put his face on everything that
2:04:17
Speaker 1: WWE does. His face is front, like he'll open WrestleMania
2:04:20
Speaker 1: this year. If it's not him, it'll be Stephanie. It'll
2:04:23
Speaker 1: definitely be one of them. Maybe not Stephanie because she's
2:04:27
Speaker 1: going into the Hall of Fame and they'll save her
2:04:29
Speaker 1: entrance for you know, later in the show. But he's
2:04:31
Speaker 1: in the commercials, he's on the posters, he's everywhere. Okay,
2:04:35
Speaker 1: and that's great, that's great if you want to make
2:04:39
Speaker 1: sure that people are well aware that this is the
2:04:41
Speaker 1: Paulovec era of WWE. But are There's also a downside
2:04:45
Speaker 1: to that, which is that when you have people who
2:04:47
Speaker 1: are disenfranchised with the product and they don't like creatively
2:04:50
Speaker 1: what they're seeing, you also get the blame. You get
2:04:53
Speaker 1: the credit, but you get the blame. Do not take
2:04:57
Speaker 1: Triple H out of the equation and suggest that because
2:05:02
Speaker 1: things are bad, it might not be his fault. The
2:05:06
Speaker 1: buck stops with him. Creative right now is in a
2:05:10
Speaker 1: bit of a rut. Okay, Creative has not been great.
2:05:13
Speaker 1: That's on Triple H. He's the head of Creative, He's
2:05:16
Speaker 1: the chief content officer. He bears the responsibility for that,
2:05:21
Speaker 1: plain and simple. Make no excuses for Triple H. Do
2:05:25
Speaker 1: not make excuses for Triple H. When things get good,
2:05:29
Speaker 1: hopefully they will get really good again. At some point
2:05:32
Speaker 1: it will be able to be like, oh man, we
2:05:33
Speaker 1: have this creative resurgence in WWE. I'll be happy to
2:05:37
Speaker 1: give him credit, but he does not escape blame when
2:05:40
Speaker 1: things are as fucking boring as they have been. That's
2:05:43
Speaker 1: on him. James from Staten Island. I think most reasonable
2:05:47
Speaker 1: people will agree that, in spite of some injuries, WWE
2:05:50
Speaker 1: could have done a much better job with Samoa Joe. Now,
2:05:53
Speaker 1: you don't say which scenario would you have been more
2:05:56
Speaker 1: excited of or excited for as a fan of Joe,
2:05:59
Speaker 1: Samoa Joe and Rock Lesnar being more than just a
2:06:01
Speaker 1: one off culminating in a Hell and a Cell match
2:06:04
Speaker 1: to elevate Joe to a top tier level, or Joe
2:06:07
Speaker 1: being called up to the main roster much sooner and
2:06:09
Speaker 1: facing the returning Daniel Bryan when he came out of
2:06:12
Speaker 1: retirement in twenty eighteen in a program for the Intercontinental Championship. Well,
2:06:19
Speaker 1: to answer your question, scenario one, I would much rather
2:06:23
Speaker 1: scenario one over scenario two. And man, you know, Joe,
2:06:29
Speaker 1: Joe is one of the biggest what ifs to me
2:06:32
Speaker 1: in WWE history. He really is. It's really sad that
2:06:38
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon just took one look at him and just
2:06:42
Speaker 1: was not impressed by what he sawd visually, physically, and
2:06:46
Speaker 1: that worked against Joe for so many years. It's a
2:06:49
Speaker 1: shame that Joe spent as much time as he did
2:06:51
Speaker 1: in TNA because it got bad there towards the end,
2:06:54
Speaker 1: and had he come into WWE and the Vince would
2:06:57
Speaker 1: have been more open to having someone like him in
2:06:59
Speaker 1: WWE years before he finally brought him into the main roster,
2:07:04
Speaker 1: maybe things would have been different. Maybe things would have
2:07:07
Speaker 1: been different. We'll never know, But to me, he's one
2:07:10
Speaker 1: of the biggest what ifs. And I always go back
2:07:11
Speaker 1: to the match that he and Brock had at that
2:07:13
Speaker 1: Great Balls of Fire show, and it was quick, it
2:07:16
Speaker 1: was like six minutes or something, but it was really
2:07:19
Speaker 1: good and there were reports that Brock loved working with Joe,
2:07:22
Speaker 1: he loved Joe's intensity and just he was a big
2:07:25
Speaker 1: fan of Joe's. And I know there were reports that
2:07:26
Speaker 1: like he and Hayman wanted to drop the belt to Joe.
2:07:29
Speaker 1: I don't know that I buy that that was always
2:07:32
Speaker 1: a story that was out there, But I can believe
2:07:34
Speaker 1: that Brock liked Joe and enjoyed working with him and
2:07:37
Speaker 1: probably would have loved to have worked with him even more.
2:07:40
Speaker 1: I mean technically they did. I mean they were part
2:07:42
Speaker 1: of that four way match at SummerSlam the following month,
2:07:44
Speaker 1: which was a great match. But I just think back
2:07:47
Speaker 1: to that match and then Raw the next night. I
2:07:49
Speaker 1: always go back to that segment on Raw the next
2:07:51
Speaker 1: night where Hayman and Brock are in the ring. Roman Reigns,
2:07:54
Speaker 1: the Big Dog is in the ring, Kurt Angle, he
2:07:56
Speaker 1: was the GM. He's in the ring, and here I'm
2:08:00
Speaker 1: Samoa Joe and Joe is just he's spitting fire on
2:08:04
Speaker 1: the mic, as only Samoa Joe does, and he's getting
2:08:07
Speaker 1: up in Brock's face and Brock's giving it right back
2:08:09
Speaker 1: to him, and Brock goes like forehead to forehead with him,
2:08:12
Speaker 1: and again the intensity just the intensity went up to
2:08:16
Speaker 1: a level that was not there when Brock was in
2:08:19
Speaker 1: the ring where Roman reigns that night, Okay, let's just
2:08:21
Speaker 1: let's just say that. And then he dropped that line
2:08:24
Speaker 1: on him where he's saying, you know you didn't beat me,
2:08:27
Speaker 1: you survived me, and then he looks over at Roman.
2:08:31
Speaker 1: Brock does he looks over at Roman as Joe is talking,
2:08:33
Speaker 1: and Joe is like, you better look at me when
2:08:36
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you and everybody in the crowd. Oh,
2:08:39
Speaker 1: and then they had a shot of Brock's face and
2:08:41
Speaker 1: Brock almost he almost smiled because even he at that
2:08:45
Speaker 1: point is probably like, oh, this is good shit. There
2:08:48
Speaker 1: was so much more that they could have done there.
2:08:52
Speaker 1: Part of the problem was injuries. It's not just booking.
2:08:55
Speaker 1: I mean, everything I said just now is one hundred
2:08:58
Speaker 1: percent true. But you can't ignore the fact that injuries
2:09:01
Speaker 1: did play a role, you know, in him not having
2:09:03
Speaker 1: a bigger run in WWE. Right, he had a couple
2:09:07
Speaker 1: of concussions. I don't I don't remember if there was
2:09:09
Speaker 1: another injury. I know concussions were a big thing with him.
2:09:13
Speaker 1: I think that's the reason why he's been off aw
2:09:15
Speaker 1: television recently. I think he was in their concussion protocol.
2:09:18
Speaker 1: I don't know if he had one or if they
2:09:20
Speaker 1: were just if it was just a precaution everything, I
2:09:22
Speaker 1: don't know, but man, just like, what a what a
2:09:27
Speaker 1: missed opportunity not not pushing him all the way and
2:09:30
Speaker 1: putting a world title on him at some point. But unfortunately,
2:09:33
Speaker 1: injuries did play a role. It wasn't just the Vince
2:09:35
Speaker 1: McMahon factor. Injuries played a role. You know, at that point,
2:09:38
Speaker 1: he was very beat up. He had been wrestling for
2:09:40
Speaker 1: a very long time. He had worked a very hard style.
2:09:43
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like the the AJ Styles thing
2:09:47
Speaker 1: or the Sting thing, where it's like, man like, these
2:09:50
Speaker 1: guys should have been big fucking deals in WWE a
2:09:53
Speaker 1: lot earlier than they were, and they could have had
2:09:56
Speaker 1: a lot of other big names to work with. They
2:09:58
Speaker 1: could have won more championships, and it's just what if,
2:10:01
Speaker 1: you know, what if Sting didn't keep signing those little
2:10:04
Speaker 1: one year renewals with Dixie Carter, What if AJ Styles
2:10:06
Speaker 1: had left, you know a little bit sooner, and maybe
2:10:09
Speaker 1: he would have gotten that match he always wanted with
2:10:11
Speaker 1: Shawn Michaels, although probably not, I mean, Sean retired in
2:10:14
Speaker 1: twenty ten. Yeah, that probably was never gonna happen. I mean,
2:10:19
Speaker 1: the only reason Sean came out of retirement for the
2:10:22
Speaker 1: Saudi match was he just wanted to work with his friends.
2:10:25
Speaker 1: I don't know that he was looking to go out
2:10:27
Speaker 1: there and have a super competitive match against someone like
2:10:29
Speaker 1: aj Styles, So that one might not have happened anyway.
2:10:33
Speaker 1: But it's definitely one of the biggest what ifs to
2:10:35
Speaker 1: me in WWE history. What if what if Vince McMahon
2:10:40
Speaker 1: got his hands on a healthy Samoa Joe years earlier
2:10:43
Speaker 1: and actually got it? What if he got Joe? How
2:10:48
Speaker 1: big could he have been? And Ronnie from Belgium, And
2:10:53
Speaker 1: there's so many questions here that I pulled this week.
2:10:55
Speaker 1: We're gonna end it with this one, though. I'm going
2:10:57
Speaker 1: to save some of these for next week. I don't know,
2:11:00
Speaker 1: maybe I'll even save a couple of these for the
2:11:02
Speaker 1: un Crown Show tomorrow. We'll see. But Ronnie from Belgium,
2:11:06
Speaker 1: I think we can all agree that Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin,
2:11:09
Speaker 1: the Rock, and John Cena were the four biggest stars
2:11:13
Speaker 1: in Vince McMahon's WWE. Which four stars would you place
2:11:17
Speaker 1: behind those four men. Well, first of all, no, we
2:11:22
Speaker 1: can't all agree. If you ask five people, you'll get
2:11:26
Speaker 1: three or four different answers to a question like that.
2:11:29
Speaker 1: Look no further than social media. So I don't know
2:11:32
Speaker 1: that we can all agree on anything. But I would say,
2:11:36
Speaker 1: and this is in no particular order, as far as
2:11:38
Speaker 1: who I would put, I actually happen to agree with you.
2:11:41
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I'm just saying other people might
2:11:43
Speaker 1: not agree with you. But you got Hogan, Austin rock Sena.
2:11:47
Speaker 1: If I had to put four names behind them, Undertaker
2:11:51
Speaker 1: Triple H. And honestly, it's either Brett Hart and Sean
2:11:58
Speaker 1: Michaels because those were the guys that really held that
2:12:01
Speaker 1: company up in the mid nineties, or Shawn Michaels and
2:12:05
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns. And I might have to leave Brett off.
2:12:08
Speaker 1: I know, sacrilege. He might not have been over the
2:12:13
Speaker 1: way that Vince wanted him to be that entire time
2:12:16
Speaker 1: talking about Roman, But I mean, how many wrestle many
2:12:19
Speaker 1: of main events did he feed to Roman Reigns right
2:12:22
Speaker 1: long before he became the tribal chief. Roman was that
2:12:27
Speaker 1: top guy. Again, he may not have been getting the
2:12:29
Speaker 1: reactions that Vince would have loved for him to get
2:12:32
Speaker 1: but you know he was still put in that position
2:12:36
Speaker 1: even when the Bloodline story started. Vince was still running
2:12:39
Speaker 1: the show, so he would have been overseeing things throughout
2:12:42
Speaker 1: that entire run. You know that Roman had on top.
2:12:47
Speaker 1: So you're asking me again the question that he asked
2:12:49
Speaker 1: me here is who were the biggest stars in Vince's
2:12:53
Speaker 1: era of running WWE. So I think he got to
2:12:57
Speaker 1: have him on there. It's probably Taker, Triple HBK, and Roman.
2:13:02
Speaker 1: It's probably what it is. And right behind those guys
2:13:05
Speaker 1: would be Brett Hart, Randy Savage, and I would throw
2:13:08
Speaker 1: Brock Lesner in there. I actually think there's an argument
2:13:12
Speaker 1: for Brock to be on the second tier, not even
2:13:13
Speaker 1: the third. But I'm just struggling, like, who would I hm,
2:13:19
Speaker 1: who would I replace him with? I mean, Undertaker, Triple H, Sean,
2:13:25
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I guess maybe Roman, but
2:13:28
Speaker 1: I don't know. Brock was also mostly part time during
2:13:31
Speaker 1: his second run. I would put Brock on the third tier.
2:13:34
Speaker 1: I'd put him on that tier with guys like Breton,
2:13:37
Speaker 1: Macho men. Anyway, good shit, there's a lot more here.
2:13:40
Speaker 1: We get to save some of this for next week,
2:13:43
Speaker 1: but keep emailing me the solon Monster at gmail dot com.
2:13:48
Speaker 1: Don't forget that this Tuesday a brand new episode, episode
2:13:51
Speaker 1: four of the Uncrowned Wrestling Show on the Ariel hell
2:13:55
Speaker 1: Wani Show feed wherever you get your podcast from, not
2:13:58
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel. Ariel's got a pot podcast feed where
2:14:00
Speaker 1: all his shows go various shows, MMA, boxing, We got
2:14:06
Speaker 1: a wrestling show on there. I want this to be
2:14:08
Speaker 1: a big, big success. So far, so good, So go
2:14:11
Speaker 1: listen to the Uncrowned Show. It will drop sometime probably
2:14:13
Speaker 1: around seven or eight pm or so on Tuesday evening.
2:14:17
Speaker 1: Obviously we'll talk about Elimination Chamber, but there's a lot
2:14:20
Speaker 1: of other shit to talk about as well, including stuff
2:14:22
Speaker 1: I did not cover here. And you could send in
2:14:25
Speaker 1: questions for that show as well. You could email me
2:14:27
Speaker 1: or you can tweet me at Solo Monster. Just put
2:14:30
Speaker 1: the hashtag on Crowned so I know that it is
2:14:33
Speaker 1: specifically for that show. Don't forget to follow me as
2:14:36
Speaker 1: well on TikTok. Trying to post some more shorts on
2:14:38
Speaker 1: there at Solo Monster sounds off on the TikTok, trying
2:14:43
Speaker 1: to be more active there as well. I will be
2:14:46
Speaker 1: with you on Monday night for the Raw post show Tuesday,
2:14:49
Speaker 1: obviously I mentioned on Crowned and of course Tuesday Night
2:14:52
Speaker 1: Titans with JD on his channel Wednesday night the Dynamite
2:14:55
Speaker 1: post show. There will be no SmackDown post show this
2:14:57
Speaker 1: Friday because I will be in Chicago go for a
2:15:00
Speaker 1: House of Glory, which you can stream if you would
2:15:02
Speaker 1: like to watch the show trailer TV plus. I will
2:15:05
Speaker 1: be on the call for that show and then back
2:15:07
Speaker 1: here next Sunday for episode nine fifty four of The
2:15:11
Speaker 1: Solom Monster Sounds Up. So until then, be well, stay safe.
2:15:15
Speaker 1: Thank you for all the love, including last night on
2:15:17
Speaker 1: the stream. You guys killed it, and we'll do it
2:15:19
Speaker 1: all over again next Sunday as always. Till then, take care, guys,
2:15:25
Speaker 1: the Solom Monster crashes out. I don't know why we
2:15:28
Speaker 1: are still sitting here, why we are watching La Knight
2:15:31
Speaker 1: and the ussos still after all this time feuding with
2:15:34
Speaker 1: the Vision, rinse repeat with this shit. Do you realize
2:15:37
Speaker 1: how long La Knight has been feuding with the Vision
2:15:40
Speaker 1: for the first time that he started getting into the
2:15:43
Speaker 1: rim with members of the Vision June of last year.
2:15:46
Speaker 1: Money in the bank eight months, nine months, and he's
2:15:49
Speaker 1: certainly no better off for it. I mean, it's almost
2:15:51
Speaker 1: like there there's not a creative thought in their head
2:15:53
Speaker 1: when it comes to some of these people. And you know,
2:15:55
Speaker 1: I just realized something here. If that match happens at WrestleMania,
2:15:58
Speaker 1: I was gonna sit here and say, well, a least,
2:15:59
Speaker 1: if you read brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, at least it's
2:16:01
Speaker 1: someone different, right. But technically, if he were to wrestle
2:16:04
Speaker 1: brock Lesner, would brock Lesnar not be technically considered part
2:16:08
Speaker 1: of the Vision. He would still be working with the Vision.
2:16:11
Speaker 1: Fuck my god, I'm not going to make it. I'm
2:16:13
Speaker 1: not going to make it.
2:16:14
Speaker 2: Through this review, The Solo Monster Sounds off bringing you
2:16:18
Speaker 2: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check out the
2:16:21
Speaker 2: weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and follow The
2:16:24
Speaker 2: Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and X The Solo Monster.
2:16:29
Speaker 2: Fuck