<v Speaker 1>It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monsters

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I love you so, mama monster, dude, I

<v Speaker 1>want your soulier woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in

<v Speaker 1>the back going on Twitter. Come over here? Is that

<v Speaker 1>Pet Patterson? You have legs? I was ninety nine percent

<v Speaker 1>positive it was just chessed up. Now I have been

<v Speaker 1>begging him for a job on every every platform I can,

<v Speaker 1>and I would have know the reason why you won't park.

<v Speaker 1>This is episode nine of the Solo Monsters Sounds Off.

<v Speaker 1>It is Sunday, February first, twenty twenty six. I am

<v Speaker 1>the Solemn Monster. The Royal Rumble has come and gone,

<v Speaker 1>not one of the better royal rumbles that WWE has

<v Speaker 1>ever produced. Now it is over and we are on

<v Speaker 1>the road to WrestleMania, so hopefully things will start to

<v Speaker 1>get really interesting and pick up on TV. We had

<v Speaker 1>talked about this Royal Rumble, and I also have this week,

<v Speaker 1>as I told you, I I was watching WWE Unreal

<v Speaker 1>Season two, so I've watched all five episodes. I'm going

<v Speaker 1>to have a full overview with my thoughts on Unreal,

<v Speaker 1>so that'll be coming up a little bit later. We

<v Speaker 1>got some aw news and notes, and then some mailbag questions,

<v Speaker 1>so it's going to be a good Sunday. I want

<v Speaker 1>to say thank you to everybody who attended the House

<v Speaker 1>of Glory debut in LA. We were making our Los

<v Speaker 1>Angeles debut Friday night, City of Angels at the Iconic

<v Speaker 1>Globe Theater. I was not able to be there, but

<v Speaker 1>from all accounts we had a hot crowd, a packed house,

<v Speaker 1>a great show. I'm looking forward to seeing it. There

<v Speaker 1>were some internet issues, unfortunately, the stream did not go

<v Speaker 1>as planned on Triller, but I know they are working

<v Speaker 1>on getting the footage of the full event up as

<v Speaker 1>soon as possible, hopefully in the next few days. So

<v Speaker 1>we apologize for that, but looking forward to seeing that

<v Speaker 1>event and of course the next event. Next time we

<v Speaker 1>are going to be live, it's going to be back

<v Speaker 1>in New York City on February twentieth, back in Queen's

<v Speaker 1>at the NYC Arena, and we have the AEW World

<v Speaker 1>Champion mjf making an appearance. You can get your tickets

<v Speaker 1>right now hog Wrestling dot Net. That's going to be

<v Speaker 1>a big one. If you would like to make a

<v Speaker 1>PayPal donation and support the show, you may do so

<v Speaker 1>on the solomonster dot com. The link is at the

<v Speaker 1>top of the page. Ten dollars or more, we'll get

<v Speaker 1>your nickname and a shout out. I don't want to

<v Speaker 1>say thank you to a few people, including Recon Russell

<v Speaker 1>Bulwaar Russell, My goodness, thank you. What's going on? Brother?

<v Speaker 1>Ms Madness, Michelle Mills. Holy crap. I did get your emails,

<v Speaker 1>A very kind message and obviously I appreciate your support

<v Speaker 1>now and always. Big B Bryant, Bessara, the Portland pop Star,

<v Speaker 1>Paul Hamilton, The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soepp, Velvet Revolver,

<v Speaker 1>Robert Murray, I'm glad you made it through that ice storm,

<v Speaker 1>The Chicago Slayer, Willie chord Iowen Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfeir,

<v Speaker 1>Night Stalker and if Alsaphar Killshot, Keith Hart and Max

<v Speaker 1>the Axe Volado says he had a fun time with

<v Speaker 1>his brother Kevin at the Hog Show in La. Wish

<v Speaker 1>you could have been there, Yeah, man, I wish. I

<v Speaker 1>wish the timing didn't work out, but I am sure

<v Speaker 1>it will not be our last time in La. Also

<v Speaker 1>show your role, Chris Ludag. You could check out his

<v Speaker 1>what could have been in Wrestling series on YouTube. Some

<v Speaker 1>of his recent videos include what could have been if

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Angle had stayed in WWE in two thousand and six.

<v Speaker 1>I can answer that one. He would have ended up dead.

<v Speaker 1>That's what would have happened. Thankfully that did not happen.

<v Speaker 1>But also what if the Nexus had debuted on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>instead of Raw? And a bunch of other videos as well.

<v Speaker 1>Search for Chris Luddeck by name on YouTube. That's lud

<v Speaker 1>e Cke and his channel shall be the first thing

<v Speaker 1>that pops up. And there's one other thing also, This

<v Speaker 1>is very cool I wanted to mention here, and that

<v Speaker 1>is wressel Rave has announced a first time ever match

<v Speaker 1>and it is a very unique one because it pits

<v Speaker 1>the reigning WWEID Men's Champion against a current aw star.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure all of the tribalists will react perfectly rationally

<v Speaker 1>to this. It all goes down on Saturday, February seventh,

<v Speaker 1>with the Bounty Hunter Brian Keith in the main event

<v Speaker 1>taking on WWEID Champion Cold Brew Cappuccino Jones for the

<v Speaker 1>first time ever. It happens at four to three eats

<v Speaker 1>in Tomball Texas. It's the tom Brawl. I love it.

<v Speaker 1>It'll be a full night of action with more match

<v Speaker 1>announcements in the days to come, but don't wait. Get

<v Speaker 1>your tickets now go to wravemirch dot com along with

<v Speaker 1>exclusive merchandise that you can pick up while you are there.

<v Speaker 1>You could also like and subscribe on the official wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Rave YouTube channel for full event and match uploads featuring

<v Speaker 1>commentary from Walker Stellar. It's the voice of New Japan

<v Speaker 1>Pro Wrestling, a wressel. Rave continues to do big things

<v Speaker 1>in the Houston area. I hear a lot about them,

<v Speaker 1>and not just Houston, but really Houston and beyond. So

<v Speaker 1>check them out again. Wravemirch dot com for tickets for

<v Speaker 1>the tom Brawl, just coming up this Saturday. The Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble was yesterday in Riod's, Saudi Arabia, inside of a

<v Speaker 1>twenty five thousand seat stadium that did not exist a

<v Speaker 1>month ago. As Triple H said, it was a parking lot.

<v Speaker 1>It was a strip of dirt in his words, And

<v Speaker 1>they worked around the clock to get this thing up

<v Speaker 1>and so they were ready to go. And I will

<v Speaker 1>say as far as the stage and everything, it was

<v Speaker 1>very elaborate. It looked like a WrestleMania type of stage right.

<v Speaker 1>They obviously put a lot of money and a lot

<v Speaker 1>of time into it, although there were other issues with

<v Speaker 1>the stadium, which I'll get to. But I had number

<v Speaker 1>four in our Royal Rumble Facebook pool, which was Naya

<v Speaker 1>Jacks in the women's rumble and then raymus Stereo entered

<v Speaker 1>at number four in the men's rumbles. So I didn't

<v Speaker 1>win shit, but hopefully you did. I know, Julian put

<v Speaker 1>some prizes up in our rumble pool. I got to

<v Speaker 1>pick the winners. Though we have the ultimate rumble pool winners.

<v Speaker 1>I'll have to choose probably on the raw post show

<v Speaker 1>stream tomorrow night on YouTube. We'll bust out the randomizer

<v Speaker 1>and pick some winners. We do it for fun every year.

<v Speaker 1>I believe this year we had over eleven hundred entrance

<v Speaker 1>in the rumble pool in the Facebook group. And thank

<v Speaker 1>you again to Julian for all of his effort in

<v Speaker 1>putting that together. I also want to say thank you

<v Speaker 1>to the three thousand plus that hung out with me

<v Speaker 1>last night live on YouTube. We went over four hours,

<v Speaker 1>which I didn't even realize, longer than the pl itself,

<v Speaker 1>and had more fun than we did watching it, or

<v Speaker 1>at least I know I did. This was not one

<v Speaker 1>of the better Royal Rumbles that WWE has ever done.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it was a total throwaway garbage show

<v Speaker 1>like some people think. I mean, there's some extreme opinions

<v Speaker 1>on this show. It was not great. It was not amazing.

<v Speaker 1>What was the website? Look, everyone's entitled to their opinion.

<v Speaker 1>There was some review I won't say where, and they

<v Speaker 1>said the show was amazing. I said, were you watching

<v Speaker 1>the same show that I was watching? Or have the

<v Speaker 1>standards really fallen that far? Amazing is not a word

<v Speaker 1>I would use to at least not in a positive way.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe in a negative way some of the stuff on

<v Speaker 1>the show. But amazing is not a word I would

<v Speaker 1>use to describe the Royal Rumble. But you know, it

<v Speaker 1>was not without its moments, very much a mixed bag.

<v Speaker 1>We had a women's rumble that outshined the men's rumble,

<v Speaker 1>mainly in the second half, and had more story beats

<v Speaker 1>to it than the men's match did. We had a

<v Speaker 1>great final match for aj Styles against Gunther, followed by

<v Speaker 1>a lackluster WWE Championship match and a disappointing men's rumble

<v Speaker 1>with the safe, predictable outcome. And while predictable does not

<v Speaker 1>always mean bad, I always say it. In this case,

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't call it good. Not when the winner shows

<v Speaker 1>up half a dozen times a year on TV. We

<v Speaker 1>got to get away from that. Let me just take

<v Speaker 1>it from the top. I'll give some quick overview thoughts

<v Speaker 1>here if you want some more in depth thoughts on video.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, the full video review is up on YouTube.

<v Speaker 1>But the Women's Royal Rumble is what they opened the

<v Speaker 1>show with. Not a big surprise there, and liv Morgan

<v Speaker 1>is your twenty twenty six Women's Royal Rumble winner, and

<v Speaker 1>somewhat in my mentions said this, and I laughed when

<v Speaker 1>I saw because it's so true. You had the women

<v Speaker 1>out there all looking like they were ready to go

<v Speaker 1>skydiving in their jumpsuits. I don't know why I didn't

<v Speaker 1>put two or two together, but when I read that,

<v Speaker 1>I said, that's so true. That's exactly what they look like. Now.

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned the stage stage looked nice. What did not

<v Speaker 1>look nice were the led lights in this new stadium

<v Speaker 1>that they had on the back of each and every seat.

<v Speaker 1>And I know that the arena out there in LA

<v Speaker 1>where they had the first Raw on Netflix last year.

<v Speaker 1>I think they have something similar, but I don't remember

<v Speaker 1>it being this awful. They have these led lights when

<v Speaker 1>you are looking and I don't know how it is

<v Speaker 1>when you're there in the building, but when you are

<v Speaker 1>watching this on TV, it looks like there is nobody

<v Speaker 1>in those seats. It looks like it makes the building

<v Speaker 1>look practically empty when you look out into the crow,

<v Speaker 1>which is a horrible look. I know what that looks like. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>we all lived through the Thunderdeve Mara, the pre thunderdel

<v Speaker 1>era during COVID. I don't want to go back to that.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want to be looking out and see what

<v Speaker 1>appears to be empty seats all over the place for

<v Speaker 1>one of the biggest shows of the year. So just aesthetically,

<v Speaker 1>it looked fucking terrible, and thankfully as the women's rumble

<v Speaker 1>went on pretty early on in the match, they pretty

<v Speaker 1>much figured out like, wow, this is really bad, so

<v Speaker 1>they turned the lights off. I actually don't think there

<v Speaker 1>were that many people there for the women's Rumble. I

<v Speaker 1>think what did Michael Cole say on Friday for SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>because they were in the same building. I think he

<v Speaker 1>made the comment like, I'll a late arriving crowd. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>that's what it was. It was definitely more full there

<v Speaker 1>by the end of the show. But yeah, hopefully they

<v Speaker 1>take a lesson from the led light stuff. I don't

<v Speaker 1>even know where WrestleMania is being hosted in Saudi next year.

<v Speaker 1>If it's that same venue or a different place, it's

<v Speaker 1>probably a different place, a bigger one. Yeah, hopefully they

<v Speaker 1>ditched that, because even when they would put the lights

<v Speaker 1>back on for the entrances, I don't know. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I guess they were going for something fancy. I just

<v Speaker 1>think it looks stupid. Now. The final three in the

<v Speaker 1>women's Rumble where Live Morgan, Tiffany Stratton and Sol Ruka.

<v Speaker 1>And I actually thought that the finish was very well done.

<v Speaker 1>Soul Ruka had a very strong night. They're all out

<v Speaker 1>on the apron though for the final sequence, and sol

<v Speaker 1>Ruka made a rookie mistake. She went to go execute

<v Speaker 1>her finish on the apron. Now, if you know her finish,

<v Speaker 1>the Soul Snatcher, you would look at this and go, well,

<v Speaker 1>how is that going to go? That's not gonna end

<v Speaker 1>well for soul Ruca. Sure enough, it didn't and she

<v Speaker 1>went for the move and Tiffany basically just pushed her

<v Speaker 1>off and down to the floor she went, and then

<v Speaker 1>Live Morgan came flying in with an oblivion that sent

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany to the floor. Hence liv Morgan wins the Royal Rumble.

<v Speaker 1>More than half of this match was just terribly uninteresting.

<v Speaker 1>It was a bore. Where it got great was the

<v Speaker 1>last I would say ten or fifteen minutes or maybe

<v Speaker 1>even ten to twelve minutes. That was the best part

<v Speaker 1>and it cleared anything they did in the men's rumble. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I said coming into this that Bianca bel Air was

<v Speaker 1>my pick to win. I made that very clear. But

<v Speaker 1>I also said that if Bianca was not there, then

<v Speaker 1>Live Morgan was going to win the Royal Rumble. So

<v Speaker 1>in this case, it was, I guess, kind of a

<v Speaker 1>predictable finish, but a predictable finish. I don't have an

<v Speaker 1>issue with this, as predictable finishes go. I have no

<v Speaker 1>issue with her winning. As of this moment, she will

<v Speaker 1>be challenging Stephanie Vequier or Jade Cargill at Wrestle Media.

<v Speaker 1>But remember Riquel Rodriguez is getting a championship match with

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie on Raw Tomorrow night, They're gonna be having a

<v Speaker 1>Philadelphia street fight, so we could, in theory end up

<v Speaker 1>would Live Morgan against Raquel for the title of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>And there was a spot in the Rumble where Raquel

<v Speaker 1>was eliminated by Live, so there's definitely gonna be some

<v Speaker 1>fallout from that come Raw tomorrow night. Now, the three

<v Speaker 1>big surprises for me in the women's Rumble or no

<v Speaker 1>Bianca Bellair, no aj Lee. I was sure we would

<v Speaker 1>see her in there doing something with Becky Lynch, And

<v Speaker 1>the return of bre Mode Brie Bella to the biggest

<v Speaker 1>pop of just about anything on the entire show. And

<v Speaker 1>I'm not even exaggerating when I say that, Like, if

<v Speaker 1>you would have told me coming into the show that

<v Speaker 1>Bribella was going to be on the show, that in

<v Speaker 1>and of itself wouldn't have surprised me. If you would

<v Speaker 1>have told me that Bribella was going to be on

<v Speaker 1>the show and get the biggest pop of just about

<v Speaker 1>anything on the show, then I would have said, you're

<v Speaker 1>on drugs. But there she was, and everyone's doing the

<v Speaker 1>yes chance, doing the yes kicks. Everybody was as loud

<v Speaker 1>for that as they were for anything else in the

<v Speaker 1>entire Women's Royal reumbele unbelievable. And I said, like, if

<v Speaker 1>this was meant to be a one off, and I'm

<v Speaker 1>pretty sure it wasn't, But if it was meant to

<v Speaker 1>be a one off, or let's do it once and

<v Speaker 1>see how it goes, there ain't no way they're keeping

<v Speaker 1>that as a one off. After the reaction that she got,

<v Speaker 1>the Bellows are going to be challenging for and probably

<v Speaker 1>winning the women's tag team titles of wrestle Metia. I

<v Speaker 1>know that's always been a goal of theirs. They want

<v Speaker 1>to win the women's tag team titles, which didn't exist

<v Speaker 1>back when they were together in the company. I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>they're going to be involved in that. At WrestleMania, the

<v Speaker 1>nxt surprises were j C. Jaane, the NXTO Women's Champion,

<v Speaker 1>sol Ruka, Lola Weis, and Kellannie Jordan. Of the names

<v Speaker 1>they really put over here in this match, sol Ruka

<v Speaker 1>lasted close to an hour. I thought they put her

<v Speaker 1>over huge. Lash legend was in there and I said

<v Speaker 1>coming into this that she's going to get the monster spot.

<v Speaker 1>That's what I thought, That's what I would do, And

<v Speaker 1>she got the most eliminations in the match. They gave

<v Speaker 1>her the monster spot and they were all impactful ones too.

<v Speaker 1>It wasn't like she was just throwing out Ivy Nile

<v Speaker 1>and Maxine Dupree and Selina Vega. Like she eliminated Charlotte Flair,

<v Speaker 1>who went about an hour and entered at number one.

<v Speaker 1>She eliminated EO. Sky, she eliminated Jordan Grace, She eliminated

<v Speaker 1>both Bellas at the same time and got heat for it.

<v Speaker 1>So Lash, I thought, came away from this looking good,

<v Speaker 1>and now we have a lot of fallout coming out

<v Speaker 1>of this match because they did. And this is what

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned before, I said different story beats. You had

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte Flair accidentally eliminating Alexa Bliss, you had liv Morgan

<v Speaker 1>dumping out Raquel Rodriguez. You had Kyrie Saine who vowed

<v Speaker 1>coming into this, I will do whatever it takes to

<v Speaker 1>make sure that Oscar wins the Royal Rumble, and she

<v Speaker 1>inadvertently eliminated OSCA from the match. So we had more

<v Speaker 1>story elements and potential story elements coming out of this.

<v Speaker 1>Then we got in the men's match. If I had

<v Speaker 1>to rank this out of ten, I would go maybe

<v Speaker 1>maybe six and a half. On the women's rumble, I'd

<v Speaker 1>go higher for the last like, you know, five or

<v Speaker 1>ten minutes, but on the whole I would go about

<v Speaker 1>six and a half out of ten. And then we

<v Speaker 1>had aj Styles putting his career on the line against Gunther.

<v Speaker 1>Out of ten, this was a solid eight and a

<v Speaker 1>half right here. Aj Styles comes into this match and

<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of questions about whether or not, you know,

<v Speaker 1>he is actually going to lose this early in the year,

<v Speaker 1>and if he does lose, is that the end of

<v Speaker 1>his career or is that the end of his WWE career?

<v Speaker 1>Right there's still a lot of questions coming out of this.

<v Speaker 1>We don't know all the answers. But because of that stipulation,

<v Speaker 1>it added a lot of drama to this match, and

<v Speaker 1>it added a lot of drama to every near fall

<v Speaker 1>in this match. And very early on they told the

<v Speaker 1>story where aj his ribs were hurt and Gunther dropped

<v Speaker 1>him on top of the announced desk and he sliced

<v Speaker 1>his arm up pretty good, his forearm, he had a

<v Speaker 1>gash on there. He was bleeding all over the place.

<v Speaker 1>And there were just tons of great near falls here

<v Speaker 1>in this match until Gunther just started blistering him and

<v Speaker 1>brutalizing him with chops in the corner to the point

<v Speaker 1>where the referee, you know, it looked like he might

<v Speaker 1>disqualify him for not backing off. But Aj, you know,

<v Speaker 1>he showed that fighting spirit. He tried a few comebacks.

<v Speaker 1>It got great reactions each time. People did not want

<v Speaker 1>to see AJ Styles lose this match, and in the end,

<v Speaker 1>AJ Styles did in fact lose the match because coming

<v Speaker 1>into this show, you look at this and go what

<v Speaker 1>have like, what have they done here? Like they booked

<v Speaker 1>themselves into a corner unless AJ's just going in there

<v Speaker 1>and losing, because how else do you do this unless

<v Speaker 1>you do some sort of cheap DQ or countouts. It's

<v Speaker 1>kind of like a back door way for AJ's career

<v Speaker 1>to go on. I mean, there were ways that you

<v Speaker 1>could have done it, but it just like booking wise,

<v Speaker 1>put them in a very tough position unless they just

<v Speaker 1>go with the most obvious finish, which is that AG

<v Speaker 1>is just gonna go in there and fucking lose. They

<v Speaker 1>did the gimmick where if you remember the John Cena

<v Speaker 1>match at Saturday Night's main event, they did the gimmick,

<v Speaker 1>which is very old school in WWE where the arm

<v Speaker 1>is dropped once, and the arm is dropped twice, and

<v Speaker 1>the arm almost drops three times, but the baby face

<v Speaker 1>throws the arm up in the air, still showing signs

<v Speaker 1>of life, right the old Hogan thing. They did that

<v Speaker 1>with Sina in that match. Here they did the arm

<v Speaker 1>drop once in the referee call for the stoppage. So

<v Speaker 1>again I think there needs to be more consistency in

<v Speaker 1>that type of stuff, because I know I wasn't the

<v Speaker 1>only one asking that question. How come they did it

<v Speaker 1>one way a month ago and then this month it's,

<v Speaker 1>you know, a totally different situation. I don't know it. Basically,

<v Speaker 1>it's it's a work and they could just change the

<v Speaker 1>rules as they go and do whatever the fuck they want.

<v Speaker 1>It's not a great answer, but that's that's the answer.

<v Speaker 1>But the arm drops, he's in the sleeper, he's going

<v Speaker 1>nowhere to go, and Dan Engler calls for the bell

<v Speaker 1>and the crowd is sitting there in just stun silence.

<v Speaker 1>And a week ago I would not have believed it

<v Speaker 1>myself that this was truly going to be the end

<v Speaker 1>of AJ and WWE. Not this soon, not this early

<v Speaker 1>in the year, when there's money on the table, if

<v Speaker 1>not in an entire year like they did with Cina,

<v Speaker 1>certainly heading into WrestleMania, maybe heading into SummerSlam. There's other

<v Speaker 1>big matches for him to do. He's a more proper sendoff.

<v Speaker 1>It was almost like this could be a way for

<v Speaker 1>them to kind of course correct and do better by

<v Speaker 1>AJ and a way they didn't do by John Cena

<v Speaker 1>last year. But it can't be over this soon. It's January,

<v Speaker 1>it's the Royal Rumble, you're this close to WrestleMania. But

<v Speaker 1>then I saw what they were doing in the last

<v Speaker 1>couple of weeks and the way they were speed running

<v Speaker 1>through all of these different things. You know, the fact

<v Speaker 1>that they went to this match with Gunther with this

<v Speaker 1>stipulation instead of holding off for Wrestlemanie like that should

<v Speaker 1>have told me right there. I still wasn't convinced, But

<v Speaker 1>the fact they were going to that stipulation this soon

<v Speaker 1>was like, hmm, it's a little soon to be going

<v Speaker 1>to the career being put on the line, and then

<v Speaker 1>the Shin Skan Nakamora thing being put together on short

<v Speaker 1>notice so that they can get one last match in together.

<v Speaker 1>That was another tell. And then of course Knackamora went

<v Speaker 1>and spoil. As we look back on it now, Knockamora did,

<v Speaker 1>in fact spoil that this was going to be the

<v Speaker 1>end for AJ and WWE, and then he quickly took

<v Speaker 1>that blog post down. But it was Monday night where

<v Speaker 1>I was just, you know, fully, you know, convinced he's done.

<v Speaker 1>He really is done. You know, the fact that he

<v Speaker 1>came out and they just put that match together with

<v Speaker 1>him and Cmpunk for the World Heavyweight Championship with no

<v Speaker 1>advanced promotion or notice or anything like that. It's like, hey,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, tonight it's going to be you and

<v Speaker 1>me for the world title. It's like, wow, I mean

<v Speaker 1>they're just giving everything away. Something must be going down. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>what's going down is that he's done. So coming into this,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't really a shock to see him go out,

<v Speaker 1>but you know, it's still you watch that and the

<v Speaker 1>look on people's faces. There were a lot of people

<v Speaker 1>who were not convinced that this was going to be

<v Speaker 1>the end, and they were very sad and they were

<v Speaker 1>very depressed and disappointed. Styles got to his feet and

<v Speaker 1>the fans were just showering him with applause. He slowly

<v Speaker 1>removed his gloves. He went to lay them down on

<v Speaker 1>the map, but he just couldn't do it. He put

<v Speaker 1>them back on and everybody cheered. I think they again,

<v Speaker 1>I think they thought he was changing his mind. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not done yet, but he just put them back on

<v Speaker 1>to do one final salute, you know, to each side

<v Speaker 1>of the ring. I really wouldn't read too much into that.

<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty sure we'll see him giving a retirement speech

<v Speaker 1>on Raw tomorrow night. But this was everything that the

<v Speaker 1>John Cena match with Gunther should have been. You know.

<v Speaker 1>AJ fought tooth and nail all the way through, right

<v Speaker 1>until the very end. All the abuse that he took,

<v Speaker 1>he kept fighting back, right the bloody arm and everything

<v Speaker 1>right up until the very end. He gave everything that

<v Speaker 1>he got until he just went out. You know, I

<v Speaker 1>called it last night the emotional spectacle that I was

<v Speaker 1>hoping it would be. This was everything that I would

<v Speaker 1>hope that a match like this would be. Is the

<v Speaker 1>exact opposite of what we got on Saturday Night's main event. Now,

<v Speaker 1>Triple H during the Rumble post show, said this, He said,

<v Speaker 1>obviously we expected it. Later in the year, we had

<v Speaker 1>a lot of conversations about it. AJ is one of

<v Speaker 1>those people that absolutely wants to give back and be

<v Speaker 1>a part of this business. I don't want to speak

<v Speaker 1>for him, but the conversations that he had with me,

<v Speaker 1>he made it very clear that he was just done

<v Speaker 1>with the end Ring. There's a point where you just

<v Speaker 1>reaching your career where you say I don't want to

<v Speaker 1>do this anymore, and when your heart goes no matter

<v Speaker 1>how good you are, he hasn't lost a step. But

<v Speaker 1>when you say I'm just at a place where I

<v Speaker 1>don't want to do this anymore, it's time before you

<v Speaker 1>get hurt, before you get told you're not allowed to

<v Speaker 1>do this anymore. I think he was there, and that's

<v Speaker 1>the question. Is he really done? I don't know. I'm

<v Speaker 1>fifty to fifty on it right now. Is he truly

<v Speaker 1>done or does he want to go on more of

<v Speaker 1>a proper retirement tour that sees him back in TNA,

<v Speaker 1>Because he has said before he would love to do

<v Speaker 1>one more match in TNA. He just didn't know if

<v Speaker 1>it was something that was you know, with WWE, that

<v Speaker 1>was in the cards. So it's not like he wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>want to do it. Do we see him wrestle at

<v Speaker 1>least one more time? In TNA. Do we see him

<v Speaker 1>wrestle in aw It still seems far fetched, but it

<v Speaker 1>seems a lot less far fetched now than it did

<v Speaker 1>six months ago. Where he goes around and has an

<v Speaker 1>actual tour where he's wrestling guys that he hasn't worked

<v Speaker 1>with in twenty years, right, or maybe he works with

<v Speaker 1>some people he's never worked with ever before. I'm looking

<v Speaker 1>at this and I'm hoping that's the case, because I

<v Speaker 1>think that would be incredible. I Mean, you talk about

<v Speaker 1>the year of AJ Styles, that would be the year

<v Speaker 1>of AJ Styles, just to see him, yeah, like the

<v Speaker 1>tour Superstar one last time, you know, going around and

<v Speaker 1>doing the thing. And it doesn't have to be for

<v Speaker 1>the entire year, of course, But I'm I'm just I'm

<v Speaker 1>fifty to fifty right now, and whether or not that's

<v Speaker 1>actually what we're going to see, you know, him putting

<v Speaker 1>the gloves back on and not leaving them in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>him not leaving his boots in the ring, which is

<v Speaker 1>something we saw Scena do with his sneakers, right? Is

<v Speaker 1>there a reason for that? Should we read into that

<v Speaker 1>that he's done here? But he's not like done done,

<v Speaker 1>He's not fully done yet. I don't know, but you know,

<v Speaker 1>if by chance we just saw the last match of

<v Speaker 1>his career, it was a hell of a match for

<v Speaker 1>him to go out on. I know some people are

<v Speaker 1>going to quibble about it not being back in the

<v Speaker 1>States or on a big show like WrestleMania. It was

<v Speaker 1>in Saudi Arabia at the Rumble. It was ten years

<v Speaker 1>to the Royal Rumble where he debuted. I mean, so,

<v Speaker 1>I guess it's kind of poetic in that way. And look,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Triple H said it. I'm sure that's one

<v Speaker 1>hundred percent shoot where they were hoping and expecting that

<v Speaker 1>it would go deeper into the year because of course

<v Speaker 1>they see the dollar signs they did with John Cena,

<v Speaker 1>and in a perfect world, they would not be you know,

<v Speaker 1>they would not want to see AJ's career end this

<v Speaker 1>early in the year. So I one believe that that's

<v Speaker 1>the case, but maybe it was just AJ's decision. I

<v Speaker 1>just can't do this anymore. I don't want to do

<v Speaker 1>this anymore. I'm done. I'm finished. And I pointed this

<v Speaker 1>out last night. I mentioned the spot in the tag

<v Speaker 1>match where it was him and Dragon Lee. It's Saturday

<v Speaker 1>night's main event on the sena show against Javon Evans

<v Speaker 1>and Leon Slater where he went for the phenomenal forearm

<v Speaker 1>and he slipped. You know, he botched the spot and

<v Speaker 1>it really wasn't in the grand scheme. It wasn't a

<v Speaker 1>big deal, and I thought Leon Slater covered for it

<v Speaker 1>very well. But I could see something like that kind

<v Speaker 1>of affirming in AJ's mind, like you know what this

<v Speaker 1>this is it, I'm right on this, Like I can't.

<v Speaker 1>I can't accept going out there and having more matches

<v Speaker 1>where maybe I have a slip up like that and

<v Speaker 1>people start to look and say, oh, there's a pattern here,

<v Speaker 1>or people look at that and go, oh, you know, Aj,

<v Speaker 1>he's not quite what he used to be. I can

<v Speaker 1>see that. I can see him not wanting to be

<v Speaker 1>that guy and wanting to go out now and you know,

<v Speaker 1>in a great match against someone like Gunther and letting

<v Speaker 1>that be you know what people remember him for. And

<v Speaker 1>he's had a fucking incredible career, you know, a world

<v Speaker 1>champion everywhere that he has been. I mean, he found

<v Speaker 1>that to find the success that he found in three

<v Speaker 1>different promotions, right a world champion in TNA, a world

<v Speaker 1>champion in New Japan, and I would even argue that

<v Speaker 1>that was the shortest run in a major promotion in

<v Speaker 1>his career. And I still feel like that Bullet Club

<v Speaker 1>run with him as the IWGP champion was his best

<v Speaker 1>and then a world champion in WWE in his first year.

<v Speaker 1>No less, when you look back on his first year

<v Speaker 1>in the company, he was actually a pretty incredible year.

<v Speaker 1>But not many people can say that they've done that.

<v Speaker 1>Some but not many. And Gunther, you know, with the

<v Speaker 1>career killer stuff. You know, look, I don't know how

<v Speaker 1>long they're going to drag that on for. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know how long they can drag that on for. How

<v Speaker 1>many other careers are they're left for him to kill? Right,

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton's not going anywhere anytime soon. I don't think

<v Speaker 1>Brock is either. Frankly, who else is there? I think

<v Speaker 1>it's getting a little old. I would just protect him

<v Speaker 1>as much as I can, and hopefully when the time

<v Speaker 1>comes for him to lose to someone they you know,

<v Speaker 1>can really benefit from it. There's no sense in someone

<v Speaker 1>who already is an established name being the one to

<v Speaker 1>ultimately beat Gunther. It has to be someone new, it

<v Speaker 1>has to be someone who it will help level them

<v Speaker 1>up to a level that they are not currently at,

<v Speaker 1>and that's the best you can hope for with it.

<v Speaker 1>This like career killer. I'm going to retire this guy

<v Speaker 1>and that guy, you know, collecting all the Infinity Stones. Eh.

<v Speaker 1>To me, I'm already tired of it. I don't think

<v Speaker 1>he needs to keep doing that. We had Drew McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>successfully defending his WWE Championship going twelve and oh against

<v Speaker 1>sammy' z ain and I missed it the first time.

<v Speaker 1>I did go back to rewatch certain parts of the show,

<v Speaker 1>and I can't believe I missed this the first time.

<v Speaker 1>Mark Nash was doing the introductions in the ring for

<v Speaker 1>this match, he forgot which title he was announcing. I

<v Speaker 1>started laughing. He was about to go this is for that.

<v Speaker 1>You can see like he had a quickly glance down

<v Speaker 1>at his card. They undisputed, and look, Mark Nash seems

<v Speaker 1>like a really nice guy. I think he did an

<v Speaker 1>interview with Chris van Vliet many months ago and he

<v Speaker 1>came down as like a fan and very down to earth.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm not saying he's a bad ring announcer, but

<v Speaker 1>there's he is to me, the very definition of someone

<v Speaker 1>who tries too hard. That's how it comes across to

<v Speaker 1>me when he does some of these announcements, like he's

<v Speaker 1>too over the top with it to the point where

<v Speaker 1>it will actually affect it, like his voicel crack sometimes.

<v Speaker 1>But just I don't know the way that he does

<v Speaker 1>some of these announcements. He tries way too hard and yeah,

<v Speaker 1>so I just thought it was funny that he briefly

<v Speaker 1>forgot which championship he was about to announce, which could

<v Speaker 1>have been very embarrassing. But these guys went out there

<v Speaker 1>and you know, they had a match that had no heat,

<v Speaker 1>which was surprising because of how popular Sammy's Ain is

<v Speaker 1>and here he is going after the top title in

<v Speaker 1>the company, and people were just very indifferent towards it.

<v Speaker 1>The crowd was not reacting in a way that made

<v Speaker 1>you think that they saw this as either a big

<v Speaker 1>deal or saw this as Sammy's Ain having a realistic

<v Speaker 1>shot of walking out as the champion. And it never

<v Speaker 1>felt that way. It never felt that way, and it

<v Speaker 1>was never going to feel that way. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that they could have done anything, frankly, in the lead

<v Speaker 1>up to this show, given that they only anointed Sammy

<v Speaker 1>as the number one contender, like a week ago and

<v Speaker 1>Drew just won the belt. This was his first defense.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think anything they could have done to convince

<v Speaker 1>me or most other people that Drew McIntyre wasn't walking

<v Speaker 1>out of Riod as the WWE champion. That coupled with

<v Speaker 1>the placement of the match coming right after that emotional

<v Speaker 1>rollercoaster that we just had with aj Styles retiring and

<v Speaker 1>people being very upset about that, those two things conspired

<v Speaker 1>together to make for a very dull match, Like in ring.

<v Speaker 1>It was fine, it was solid, but that's all it was.

<v Speaker 1>And it ended with Drew hitting not one but two

<v Speaker 1>Claymore kicks and retaining the title. This was the comedown match. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>there was a period of time like twenty years ago,

<v Speaker 1>or it would always there would always be a women's match.

<v Speaker 1>They would stick the women's match in there because they

<v Speaker 1>knew that people were going to go to the concession stands,

<v Speaker 1>they were going to go to the bathroom, they were

<v Speaker 1>not going to be terribly interested, and everybody was waiting

<v Speaker 1>for the main event, right, So it's kind of weird

<v Speaker 1>here to see the WWE Championship match in that spot.

<v Speaker 1>Somebody actually compared this to Brock Lesner defending the title

<v Speaker 1>against Bob Holly at the Royal Rumble in two thousand

<v Speaker 1>and four. I guess it would have been I kind

<v Speaker 1>of I wouldn't go that far, but I see what

<v Speaker 1>you're trying to say there. It was devoid of any

<v Speaker 1>real heat and the idea that Sammy's Ain is going

<v Speaker 1>to go into WrestleMania next year in Saudi and maybe

<v Speaker 1>complete his story there and win his first World championship

<v Speaker 1>on that show. I think that story is still very

<v Speaker 1>much alive. I think they them telling the story consistently

<v Speaker 1>over and over again and having him go out there

<v Speaker 1>on TV and say that I'm going to be a champion.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to be a champion has to at some

<v Speaker 1>point be leading somewhere. But I'm watching this and I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>I don't have any interest in seeing that. Like I

<v Speaker 1>find myself souring on the idea with each passing year

<v Speaker 1>of Sammy's Ain going to the main event of wrestlemaniaan

<v Speaker 1>winning the World Championship. I'd rather see other people. I'd

<v Speaker 1>rather see newer faces involved in the title scene. I'm

<v Speaker 1>just I'm rapidly lose interest in that is an idea,

<v Speaker 1>and then we had the Men's Royal Rumble match, they

<v Speaker 1>spoiled the number one entrant on Friday Night, bron Breaker

<v Speaker 1>ended up entering at number two, even though the graphic

<v Speaker 1>they put on screen briefly on the SmackDown Friday Night

<v Speaker 1>showed bron Breaker number one in the Royal Rumbles, so

<v Speaker 1>they had to do something. So instead of number one,

<v Speaker 1>he ended ended up entering at number two and Oba

<v Speaker 1>Femi was number one. And as Braun is walking to

<v Speaker 1>the ring with Paul Hayman, he gets jumped by another

<v Speaker 1>masked man. We have a problem here in WWE, and

<v Speaker 1>you would think that security would be beefed up in

<v Speaker 1>these situations, but we have had multiple masked individuals cloaked

<v Speaker 1>in their hoodies that are always running out there and

<v Speaker 1>attacking people. And there is something in that Triple h.

<v Speaker 1>It just loves sending these guys out there in hoods.

<v Speaker 1>And so we were deprived of a proper face off

<v Speaker 1>between bron Breaker and Oba Femi because this mass individual

<v Speaker 1>not only attacked bron Breaker, he stomped him. And then

<v Speaker 1>once Braun was deposited into the ring, Opa Femi immediately

<v Speaker 1>eliminated bron Breaker. So you talk about a waste of

<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker in the Royal Rumble. I presume this is

<v Speaker 1>going to lead to something worthwhile, but until I see

<v Speaker 1>what that is, I'm watching this going wow, that's that's

<v Speaker 1>quite a choice there as far as how to utilize

<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker on this show. Raymisterio, who was hurt on

<v Speaker 1>Raw Monday Night, we weren't even sure if he was

<v Speaker 1>going to be in the Rumble. He did appear. He

<v Speaker 1>entered at number four, twenty years after he last won

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble, and somebody said, man, I saw you

<v Speaker 1>tweet that out, and I hadn't watched the show yet.

<v Speaker 1>I thought you were tweeting that because Raymisterio had won

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble again. I said, no, no, no, there's

<v Speaker 1>a better chance I think of me winning the Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble than Raymisterio winning another one. But no, Raymisterio of

<v Speaker 1>twenty years though, you believe that twenty years later, he's

<v Speaker 1>still in there now. He was moving around a little

<v Speaker 1>slower than maybe normally he would be, but the fact

<v Speaker 1>that he's even able to go out there and just

<v Speaker 1>fly around and do all the shit that he does

<v Speaker 1>is pretty incredible. Now. Cody Rhodes he entered pretty early.

<v Speaker 1>What was he number ten or eleven? I think it

<v Speaker 1>was number eleven, So for him, for a big name

<v Speaker 1>like that, he entered pretty early. This year, he threw

<v Speaker 1>out Trick Williams with no fanfare at all. We had

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner entering, I believe in number twenty two, and

<v Speaker 1>we got a very brief confrontation that was teased between

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner and Obafemi. And instead of Obafemi eliminating brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner is what I pitched coming into this match, they

<v Speaker 1>did the exact opposite, and they had brock Lesner eliminate

<v Speaker 1>Oba Femi because Oba had gone after Logan Paul, he

<v Speaker 1>took his eye off the ball, and so brock dumped

<v Speaker 1>him out. Now, if we end up getting that WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>match out of it that I'm hoping we do, and

<v Speaker 1>Oba wins, which he absolutely should, then it's fine. But

<v Speaker 1>I thought that this was completely asked backwards of the

<v Speaker 1>way that they did this, especially when you look at

<v Speaker 1>the way that they wasted brock Lesner's elimination. Now, before

<v Speaker 1>I even get to that, there was something in this match.

<v Speaker 1>It was brief, and it was in the grand scheme

<v Speaker 1>of things, not a big deal, but it pissed me

<v Speaker 1>off because Ilia Dragonov has been pushed as you know,

<v Speaker 1>this tough as nails guy, the man Dragon on SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>He's going out there every week and he's having these

<v Speaker 1>killer matches and he's always fucking bleeding. He's so intense.

<v Speaker 1>He's the most intense guy on the WWE roster, right,

<v Speaker 1>but he's getting over through his matches and his n

<v Speaker 1>ring work, and lord knows they need more stars on

<v Speaker 1>Smackden and more guys like that to get over. So

<v Speaker 1>the first time that we've had any sort of interaction

<v Speaker 1>with him in Brock Lesner and you could have some

<v Speaker 1>fun with that, but of course we can't have that,

<v Speaker 1>So what do you do? They have a spot in

<v Speaker 1>the corner where Ilia Dragonov is absolutely just lacing into

<v Speaker 1>Brock with these chips, which is something that we see

<v Speaker 1>him doing on television every single week, and it's one

<v Speaker 1>of It's like Gunther and the Chops, right, It's one

<v Speaker 1>of his signature moves, and Brock is no selling his

<v Speaker 1>entire offense and like literally is looking at him and

<v Speaker 1>laughing at him, and then he just dumps him out

<v Speaker 1>like a jabron I fucking hated that, And to me,

<v Speaker 1>that was like a microcosm of everything that is wrong

<v Speaker 1>with WWE when it comes to the way that some

<v Speaker 1>of these bigger names and elder statesmen are booked relative

<v Speaker 1>to some of the newer guys on the roster. Fucking

<v Speaker 1>hated that. But speaking of things I hated, we had

<v Speaker 1>jay Uso entering at number twenty five. Now, jay Uso

<v Speaker 1>won the Royal Rumble last year. This could be my

<v Speaker 1>maya culpa here. Jay Uso entered the Royal Rumble last year,

<v Speaker 1>and I said, coming into that rumble, I said I

<v Speaker 1>didn't he wasn't my pick to win, but I did say, hey,

<v Speaker 1>keep your eye on jay Uso. He could be a

<v Speaker 1>dark horse to win this thing. Because at the time

<v Speaker 1>I said that, I mean, people look back on it

<v Speaker 1>now and probably like, well, you know, I'm sure there

<v Speaker 1>were a lot of people saying that. When I said it,

<v Speaker 1>I felt like I was in the wilderness, like there

<v Speaker 1>were not a lot of people who shared that opinion.

<v Speaker 1>But just the way that he was being booked, it

<v Speaker 1>felt to me like, you know what he's got, He's

<v Speaker 1>got a real chance, Like don't count him out. And

<v Speaker 1>then he went and he won the Royal Rumble, and

<v Speaker 1>then I was in a position to have to defend

<v Speaker 1>this because to me, it was like he was over

<v Speaker 1>and you could see why the company would want to

<v Speaker 1>push him in a major way to try to capitalize

<v Speaker 1>on his popularity, and there was a story there where

<v Speaker 1>he could go into WrestleMania and challenge for and finally

<v Speaker 1>win the world championship, which he had tried to before,

<v Speaker 1>and he failed and he tried, and he failed every

<v Speaker 1>time he was in the ring with Gunther, even I

<v Speaker 1>think for the Icy title. I think they wrestled for

<v Speaker 1>the ice and maybe they didn't, but they had prior

<v Speaker 1>matches and he just was unsuccessful. And so at least

<v Speaker 1>there's a story there that you can tell. I wasn't

<v Speaker 1>advocating that I wanted to see jay Uso as the

<v Speaker 1>World heavyweight champion. That's just how it worked out. But

<v Speaker 1>I look back on that whole period now and it's like, man,

<v Speaker 1>that's fucking terrible. It really was. It was just it

<v Speaker 1>was awful. But anyway, he comes yeating through the crowd,

<v Speaker 1>and it took forever for him to get down to

<v Speaker 1>ringside as this was going on, as he is still

<v Speaker 1>making his entrance and everyone's attention is turned to this

<v Speaker 1>guy yeating through the crowd in the ring. Cody Rhodes

<v Speaker 1>and La Knight team up to close line and eliminate

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner out of the ring, and then Jay gets

<v Speaker 1>in the ring and the music stops, but he's gotta

<v Speaker 1>run it back again, and so he runs it back

<v Speaker 1>again until Roman Reigns comes out and he puts a

<v Speaker 1>stop to all of the silliness, and you know, because

<v Speaker 1>he was also like, oh yea, let's run it back again,

<v Speaker 1>and then he just fucking punched him in the face.

<v Speaker 1>But I watched this entire thing and I'm like, are

<v Speaker 1>you fucking kidding me? Who is booking this nine? They

<v Speaker 1>have different producers who all have a hand in this,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm sure Triple H does as well, But they

<v Speaker 1>have a lot of different opinions and a lot of

<v Speaker 1>different voices that are involved in booking various parts of

<v Speaker 1>these Royal rumble matches. So I don't know who the

<v Speaker 1>culprit was in particular, who was responsible for this entire

<v Speaker 1>sequence here, this whole sequence really from the time that

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi was eliminated by brock lesnar On through Jay usso's

<v Speaker 1>forever entrance was one of the worst stretches, maybe the

<v Speaker 1>worst stretch that I have ever seen in a Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble match, and I have seen every single Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>match going back to nineteen eighty eight. Okay, that's a

<v Speaker 1>lot of rumbles. That was by far the worst stretch

<v Speaker 1>that I've ever seen. This is what I thought of

<v Speaker 1>that stretch. You can flush that entire sequence down the

<v Speaker 1>fucking commode, and whoever was responsible for that should be

<v Speaker 1>ashamed and never put in that position again. Apparently, Shane

<v Speaker 1>McMahon when he came in few years ago and tried

<v Speaker 1>to help out and assist and produce behind the scenes,

<v Speaker 1>was so awful that his own father sent him home

<v Speaker 1>and basically fired him. So if they could do that

<v Speaker 1>to Shane McMahon, yeah, you can do that to whoever

<v Speaker 1>was responsible for that. Sit them down next time you

<v Speaker 1>put a match like this together, because this was awful.

<v Speaker 1>Number thirty was Gunther and they had a spot here

<v Speaker 1>because Randy Orton was twenty nine. Well, I mean, Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton hasn't been twenty nine in about fifteen years, but

<v Speaker 1>he entered at number twenty nine. But they did a

<v Speaker 1>spot where Cody and Randy were working together and Randy

<v Speaker 1>was holding Gunther for Cody to hit a Cody cutter,

<v Speaker 1>but then Gunther moved and so Cody inadvertently dropped Randy

<v Speaker 1>with the Cody cutter. I assume that'll play into things.

<v Speaker 1>At some point they did a spot where Cody was

<v Speaker 1>almost dumped out, but he was skinning the cat. As

<v Speaker 1>he is skinning the cat and trying to make his

<v Speaker 1>way back in, Drew McIntyre flies in from out of

<v Speaker 1>nowhere and Claymore's and right in the side of the

<v Speaker 1>head and eliminates Cody. Rhodes and Jacob Fatu is looking

<v Speaker 1>down glaring and McIntyre. Roman then dumps out of distracted

<v Speaker 1>fa Tu. The final four in this match were Roman Reigns,

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton, Gunther, and Logan Paul. This was the third

<v Speaker 1>time that Logan Paul was in the final four of

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble match. Last year he was in the

<v Speaker 1>final three. I mean, what are we doing here? He

<v Speaker 1>stumbled badly by the way on that buckshot into the ring.

<v Speaker 1>If he can't stick the land and that's not the

<v Speaker 1>first time that's happened. If he can't stick that landing,

<v Speaker 1>and make it look good. He needs to find another

<v Speaker 1>move before he tears his knee out, because if he

<v Speaker 1>keeps doing that, it's only a matter of time he's

<v Speaker 1>gonna tear knee out. But at that point, you look

<v Speaker 1>at the final four and you already know it's either

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns or Randy Orton, and neither one was honestly

<v Speaker 1>a very appealing choice, especially as you know, primarily part

<v Speaker 1>time guys these days. Randy Orton he'll show up for yeah,

<v Speaker 1>maybe a couple months, and then he'll disappear for like

<v Speaker 1>three or four. Roman Reigns, I mean, we all know

<v Speaker 1>what kind of schedule he's on. Those were our options

<v Speaker 1>here because Logan Paul wasn't winning and Gunther wasn't winning.

<v Speaker 1>Once Orton got thrown out, it was down to Roman

<v Speaker 1>and gun Through. The match was effectively over. We were

<v Speaker 1>just waiting for Roman to toss his ass out, which

<v Speaker 1>he did, and so Roman rains wins his second Royal Rumble. Now,

<v Speaker 1>these surprises were La Knight, Mister Iguana, and La Parca

<v Speaker 1>from Triple A, who nobody cared about. They got no reaction.

<v Speaker 1>Chad Gable was back as El Grande Americano to go

<v Speaker 1>with the other El Grande Americano Kaiser Americano, and we

<v Speaker 1>had the debuting Powerhouse Hobbs and he comes out. They

<v Speaker 1>actually put the name Powerhouse Hobbs on the screen and

<v Speaker 1>Michael Cole on commentary said, you know, he used to

<v Speaker 1>be Powerhouse Hobbs, but now he's Royce Keys, Royce Keys,

<v Speaker 1>which we already knew he had heard that was the

<v Speaker 1>name he was going to be going with. He made

<v Speaker 1>his debut here, so I guess Jim Ross was right.

<v Speaker 1>Jim Ross was convinced that we're going to see him

<v Speaker 1>in the Rumble, not because anybody told him anything, but

<v Speaker 1>why would you sign a guy like that this close

<v Speaker 1>to the Royal Rumble and not debut him in the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble. So he got in there and he actually

<v Speaker 1>the first thing he did was eliminate a former world

<v Speaker 1>heavyweight champion in Damian Priest. I don't think he was

<v Speaker 1>in there for that long, but what they had him

<v Speaker 1>in there doing, I thought that as debuts go, it

<v Speaker 1>was fine. I mean, he was not going to be

<v Speaker 1>the most protected or the most featured guy like an

<v Speaker 1>Oba Femi was. But if you were going to debut

<v Speaker 1>him in the rumble. You want to at least give

<v Speaker 1>him a few eliminations and it just make him look good.

<v Speaker 1>And I thought to that extent that that's what they

<v Speaker 1>did here. Now, of course, we wait to find out

<v Speaker 1>which brand he's going to end up on. I think

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown would be a good landing spot for him. But

<v Speaker 1>no Chris Jericho, because I know a lot of people.

<v Speaker 1>I was fifty to fifty on it. I think I

<v Speaker 1>said the other day, like I could also see them

<v Speaker 1>or Jerich being like, hey, why don't we save you

<v Speaker 1>this big return first time back in seven or eight

<v Speaker 1>years for a different time, so that you know, it

<v Speaker 1>could get all the attention. And he's not just one

<v Speaker 1>of thirty guys in the rumble. So there was no

<v Speaker 1>Jericho in the match, there was no dirty dom I

<v Speaker 1>thought Dominic would be back here. Dominic is going to

<v Speaker 1>be back on the Triple A show next week. I

<v Speaker 1>guess he's going to be confronting El Grande Americano. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if he's medically cleared. I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>he's going to do anything physical on that show. The

<v Speaker 1>fact that he wasn't in the rumble tells me he's

<v Speaker 1>not cleared. So he wasn't there. Joe Henry. I thought

<v Speaker 1>we might see Joe Hendry. He was not there. Actually,

<v Speaker 1>there was no one from TNA. Now that I think

<v Speaker 1>about it, they didn't and I think they've had well

<v Speaker 1>when Hendry was in there last year, right, he was

<v Speaker 1>the champion. He was still with TNA. We've had the

<v Speaker 1>knockouts champion appearing in the Rumble a couple of times,

<v Speaker 1>you know, Jordan Grace and Mickey James. So yeah, there

<v Speaker 1>was no one from TNA and either Rumble. And maybe

<v Speaker 1>the most surprising, even more so than Jericho not being

<v Speaker 1>in there, no Kit Wilson, and Kit Wilson was there.

<v Speaker 1>He was in Riod, but he was not in the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble. Now he's been getting over with this stupid

<v Speaker 1>theme song of his and how they didn't have him

<v Speaker 1>in the Rumble to do some sort of comedy spot

<v Speaker 1>and get an entrance at least, I have no idea.

<v Speaker 1>Apparently it was very important to have mister Iguana to crickets.

<v Speaker 1>He should have come out with a cricket on his

<v Speaker 1>shoulder instead of an iguana, because that's what he got

<v Speaker 1>coming out to the ring. It was more important to

<v Speaker 1>have guys like him and Laparka in there than it

<v Speaker 1>was Finn Balor or Kit Wilson who actually probably would

<v Speaker 1>have gotten a big response coming out to that music.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe the Undertaker had to agrease some palms and lobby

<v Speaker 1>to get his triple A guys on the show. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. Somebody else who was not in the Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble was Alistair Black. He was in Saudi Arabia. He

<v Speaker 1>flew all the way there, I guess with the idea

<v Speaker 1>that he would be in the Rumble, and then they

<v Speaker 1>decided we're not going to have him in the Rubble.

<v Speaker 1>We're going to bring him back on SmackDown in a

<v Speaker 1>different way. And I made this comment during the review

<v Speaker 1>last night. You know, when I look back at what

<v Speaker 1>guys like Black and Russev we're doing in aaw and

<v Speaker 1>as awful as their runs, and especially Miro, as awful

<v Speaker 1>as things ended up being, It's like, man, you know,

<v Speaker 1>if they come back to wwey it can't possibly be

<v Speaker 1>any worse for him, right because we never even saw

<v Speaker 1>him on television. It was ridiculous. Somehow, somehow these two

<v Speaker 1>guys are in a worse position in WWE so far.

<v Speaker 1>Then they were working for Tony Kahn in aaw for

<v Speaker 1>all the faults with their booking and what he was

<v Speaker 1>doing or not doing with them, and it was awful.

<v Speaker 1>Don't get me wrong. I don't see how you can

<v Speaker 1>honestly look at the runs that these two guys have

<v Speaker 1>had so far since they have come back home to

<v Speaker 1>WWE and honestly sit there with a straight face and

<v Speaker 1>tell me that they're better off for doing so booking wise,

<v Speaker 1>better off creatively for having come back than they were

<v Speaker 1>in AW At the very least, they're flat. At the

<v Speaker 1>very least, it was just a lateral move and they

<v Speaker 1>are in no better place now so far than they

<v Speaker 1>were in AW And I never would have thought I'd

<v Speaker 1>sit here saying that, But that's the reality of the situation.

<v Speaker 1>It's ridiculous. Rusev comes in, He's instantly dumped out of

<v Speaker 1>the ring. You want to tell people not to give

<v Speaker 1>a shit about somebody, you go ahead and book them

<v Speaker 1>the way that you book guys like Russev and Ray

<v Speaker 1>Phoenix in that Royal rumble last night. Ridiculous. But let's

<v Speaker 1>go back to Roman Reigns here, because Roman Reigns made

<v Speaker 1>some news this week even before he won the rumble.

<v Speaker 1>He was on Pat McAfee show, and he had a

<v Speaker 1>message that he was going to be sending out here

<v Speaker 1>to the members of the WWE roster. He addressed his

<v Speaker 1>schedule during the McAfee show and cut what clearly was

<v Speaker 1>mostly an in character promo, but in the promo he

<v Speaker 1>challenged everyone else in WWE to step up. He said,

<v Speaker 1>there's always a mindset of that. Responding to whether or

<v Speaker 1>not it feels like WWE will always be his show,

<v Speaker 1>he says, but to be completely honest and transparent, two

<v Speaker 1>years ago, it all changed around, and what I've been

<v Speaker 1>doing out there hasn't exactly been the same as what

<v Speaker 1>I've done before. And the way I look at it is,

<v Speaker 1>I'm a generous tribal chief. I give the people plenty

<v Speaker 1>of time. These young talents, they say, we hog all

<v Speaker 1>the TV time. They'll complain about one thing, and then

<v Speaker 1>I leave an opening. I give them plenty of space

<v Speaker 1>to create whatever type of superstardom they want. Get over, kids,

<v Speaker 1>Get over you know what I mean. And we're two

<v Speaker 1>years here now and we haven't advanced, we haven't evolved.

<v Speaker 1>We have great leadership and Nick Kahn, God bless him,

<v Speaker 1>what a businessman. He's a genius. But we have to

<v Speaker 1>be able to keep up with that creatively. And that's

<v Speaker 1>why people like me, people who are striving to be

<v Speaker 1>the very best, the greatest, the goats. I just can't

<v Speaker 1>sit aroun and see mediocrity, not when I set it

<v Speaker 1>up for everybody to just slam it home, because we're

<v Speaker 1>on Netflix, for crying out loud. You got to capitalize.

<v Speaker 1>We have people playing around and trying to figure it out,

<v Speaker 1>and I got the formula. I know how to cook

<v Speaker 1>it up. So it's been a tough couple of years

<v Speaker 1>for me. But at the same time, when you come

<v Speaker 1>off such a hell of a run, you've got to

<v Speaker 1>kind of pump the brakes for a second. Now, clearly,

<v Speaker 1>again this was in character, but it was laced with

<v Speaker 1>some hard truth about creative. And I will point out

<v Speaker 1>to you. You'll notice who he did not mention there,

<v Speaker 1>Paul Eveck. He mentions Nick Cohn, great businessman, what a genius,

<v Speaker 1>but we need the creative to back it up. But

<v Speaker 1>note how Roman said, I give them plenty of space

<v Speaker 1>to create whatever type of stardom they want. Get over

<v Speaker 1>and we're two years here now and we haven't advanced

<v Speaker 1>we haven't evolved. He's right about one thing. They have

<v Speaker 1>not evolved. Roman Reigns is the man who declared for

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble via a graphic on TV. He won

<v Speaker 1>the whole damn thing. And it's funny to listen to him,

<v Speaker 1>whether it's in character or not, telling the younger guys

<v Speaker 1>get over. We have an advance. You need to get over,

<v Speaker 1>because here's a guy who was pushed very hard from

<v Speaker 1>day one, despite not being over at the level they

<v Speaker 1>were hoping he would be. As a babyface, they tried anyway,

<v Speaker 1>and they were shoving him down your throat, whether you

<v Speaker 1>like it or not. And they pushed him anyway at

<v Speaker 1>the expense of others on that roster, and he became

<v Speaker 1>the poster child and the fans rebelled. And it wasn't

<v Speaker 1>until he went away and he came back as a

<v Speaker 1>heel that everything started to click. He won the Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble once before. That was eleven years ago. He got

<v Speaker 1>booed out of the building. I remember they bowed the

<v Speaker 1>rock all because he got in the ring. All he

<v Speaker 1>did was raise Roman's hand and he got booed. It's

<v Speaker 1>been eleven years of Roman Reigns in WWE, and here

<v Speaker 1>he is again about to break his own record with

<v Speaker 1>the most Wrestlmania main events. What kind of message does

<v Speaker 1>that send? Triple H on the post show said, Roman

<v Speaker 1>is going to take some time to think about his

<v Speaker 1>choice for a WrestleMania opponent, and he doesn't know when

<v Speaker 1>he'll show up next. Maybe he can announce his choice

<v Speaker 1>in a few weeks in the form of an on

<v Speaker 1>screen graphic, or he can send out some sort of

<v Speaker 1>smoke signal and let everybody know he's made his choice. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>good choice there, WWE. So now Roman Reigns is going

<v Speaker 1>to WrestleMania everybody, and he's either going to be wrestling Cmpunk,

<v Speaker 1>which honestly is the biggest I mean outside of him

<v Speaker 1>in the Rock of course, it's the biggest match they

<v Speaker 1>could do. And it's a match one on one that

<v Speaker 1>we still haven't gotten. Closest we got to it was

<v Speaker 1>the Triple Threat from last year that had Seth Rollins involved. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>it was last year. He was on a podcast and

<v Speaker 1>he was talking about how the only way to elevate

<v Speaker 1>the World Heavyweight Championship would be for him to hold it.

<v Speaker 1>If you give it to me, I'll elevate that title. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 1>it's always going to be little brother to the WWE Championship.

<v Speaker 1>So perhaps that will be part of the story if

<v Speaker 1>he chooses to challenge cmpunk, which he should, and then

<v Speaker 1>Drew McIntyre. Look, there's still a very good chance Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre is not going to walk into WrestleMania as the

<v Speaker 1>WWE Champion. We still have the Elimination Chamber coming up

<v Speaker 1>in Chicago, and Cody Roads got eliminated from the Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble last night because of Drew McIntyre. So you know

<v Speaker 1>that Drew McIntyre has a bullseye on his ass and

<v Speaker 1>Cody ain't done with him yet. And I'll tell you

<v Speaker 1>one thing right now, if they were going to do

<v Speaker 1>another singles match between Cody and Drew, you cannot do

<v Speaker 1>that at WrestleMania. If you had to do one on one,

<v Speaker 1>do it at the Elimination Chamber. Just get it over with,

<v Speaker 1>have Cody beat him and get it over with, honestly.

<v Speaker 1>But Cody could very well beat him at the Elimination

<v Speaker 1>Chamber and walk into WrestleMania as the defending champion. And

<v Speaker 1>if Triple h is saying that Roman's going to take

<v Speaker 1>some time to make his decision. We may not get

<v Speaker 1>a decision for another month. We may not get a

<v Speaker 1>decision until after the elimination chamber, and they could still

<v Speaker 1>give us Cody Roman three for all to talk about

<v Speaker 1>how leavec made the choice. He didn't want to tire

<v Speaker 1>the fans out give him another Roman and Cody match,

<v Speaker 1>third time in four years. We could very well still

<v Speaker 1>end up with Cody Rhoads and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>They did a little tease in the Rumble last night

<v Speaker 1>where they came face to face. At one point they

<v Speaker 1>were eyeballing each other. That also would be a mistake.

<v Speaker 1>As big of a match as that would still be,

<v Speaker 1>we don't need to see it again in the main

<v Speaker 1>event of WrestleMania. We don't need to see Cody Rhods

<v Speaker 1>and Drew McIntyre one on one again and doing that

<v Speaker 1>in the main event of WrestleMania, not without inserting Jacob

<v Speaker 1>Fatu and or Randy Orton. You have to involve either

<v Speaker 1>one or both of those guys just to add a

<v Speaker 1>little different spice and flavor to the match instead of

<v Speaker 1>going back to the well one on one between those two.

<v Speaker 1>So for Roman, who do I think he's going to

<v Speaker 1>pick probably Cee Mpunk. I think he should pick CM

<v Speaker 1>Punk And sure, that's a big match. But the idea

<v Speaker 1>of Roman Reigns going to the main event of WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>again to challenge for a championship, I just don't see

<v Speaker 1>how in the long run that is beneficial to anyone.

<v Speaker 1>I could see in the short term, you have a

<v Speaker 1>big name like Roman in the manium main event. But again,

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns will make maybe half a dozen appearances all

<v Speaker 1>year long. Do we really need someone like him back

<v Speaker 1>in the main event challenging for or god forbid, winning

<v Speaker 1>again the championship. No, we don't, But that's the situation

<v Speaker 1>that we now find ourselves in. That's my issue with this,

<v Speaker 1>Above and beyond anything else. Roman had thirteen hundred days

<v Speaker 1>as the WWE champion. For that reason alone, I would

<v Speaker 1>be perfectly fine with him being a special attraction and

<v Speaker 1>not consistently, you know, having this need in your brain

<v Speaker 1>to be like, Okay, we have to have him in

<v Speaker 1>a championship match. Who can he wrestle for the championship

<v Speaker 1>on the show? How about no One? How about he's

<v Speaker 1>like the new Undertaker. You kind of treat him that

<v Speaker 1>way where he can be a big attraction on the show,

<v Speaker 1>and you leave that other spot open for someone else

<v Speaker 1>who can benefit from it, who has not had ten

<v Speaker 1>or eleven WrestleMania main events to their name in the

<v Speaker 1>way that Roman. I don't, dude, it's so ridiculous. I

<v Speaker 1>don't even know off him what the exact number is.

<v Speaker 1>I know he's got the record. He had two of

<v Speaker 1>them a couple of years ago in Philadelphia. He was

<v Speaker 1>in the Night one main event and the Night two

<v Speaker 1>made events. So is Cody, I guess. But he's got

<v Speaker 1>more Wrestlemaniam Maine events than anybody else alive or dead.

<v Speaker 1>But we keep going back to this well and it

<v Speaker 1>just feels wrong. I'm not saying the guy's not over.

<v Speaker 1>He's still a superstar, right. He got big cheers from

<v Speaker 1>the fans there in Saudi Arabia. They love their OTC.

<v Speaker 1>But there is just something that it's like you take

<v Speaker 1>one step forward and two steps back. I see a

<v Speaker 1>lot of new names from NXT that were part of

<v Speaker 1>that show last night. Either they were just called up

<v Speaker 1>or they're still in NXT andy. They'll be on the

<v Speaker 1>main roster soon. And it gives me hope for the

<v Speaker 1>future when I see people like Obafemi and I see

<v Speaker 1>people like Trick Williams and soul Ruka, and I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, the future is bright. They have a

<v Speaker 1>lot of really talented men and women and hopefully we

<v Speaker 1>will start to see them doing big things on the

<v Speaker 1>main roster so that they can be in these spots

<v Speaker 1>and we don't have to rely on people like this

<v Speaker 1>to win the Royal Rumble in the future. Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>would not have been much better. Randy Orton winning the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble would not have been much better than Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reign's wing. That's my biggest issue with it. As predictable

<v Speaker 1>as it was, it was just not a great choice

<v Speaker 1>to be given. And when the Rumble was over, I

<v Speaker 1>felt like, men, it's funny Roman using that word mediocrity

<v Speaker 1>in that interview on McAfee show, because mediocrity is a

<v Speaker 1>great word to describe the twenty twenty six Royal Rumble.

<v Speaker 1>Very mediocre. But hey, Brimode got over and was the

<v Speaker 1>most popular thing on the show, so hey, hat tip

<v Speaker 1>to her. I'll give her her flowers. Brie Bella got

<v Speaker 1>the biggest reaction of anything on the entire show, and

<v Speaker 1>If that doesn't sum up the Royal rumble this year,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what does. WWE announced Backlash for Tampa,

<v Speaker 1>Florida on May nine, and not Puerto Rico, as Post

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling suggested back in December, was the front runner for

<v Speaker 1>the show. Actually, Post Wrestling posted an update on their

<v Speaker 1>original article, saying on January thirty first, Paul Levek announced

<v Speaker 1>that Backlash would be taking place on May ninth and

<v Speaker 1>Tampa and not Puerto Rico. Post Wrestling reported this story

<v Speaker 1>based on multiple sources, including one stating that San Juan

<v Speaker 1>was listed on the company's internal calendar for that date.

<v Speaker 1>So that's too bad because that Backlash crowd in twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty three is still one of the best crowds in

<v Speaker 1>the history of that company and made that show a

<v Speaker 1>very memorable one. That was the night that I think

<v Speaker 1>Bianca and Eo opened the show and had a banger

<v Speaker 1>of a match, and then of course Bad Bunny and

<v Speaker 1>Damian Priest. I think that was the one with Cody

<v Speaker 1>and Brock in the main event. So they're not going

<v Speaker 1>to San Juan. Maybe they'll go there for a different show,

<v Speaker 1>but it will not be for Backlash. Although I do

<v Speaker 1>think that they are supposed to be running Italy. I

<v Speaker 1>think for a PL the end of May, so I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if that's still kind of hanging out there

<v Speaker 1>as I don't think that's been confirmed yet, but that

<v Speaker 1>was the belief that they were going to be having

<v Speaker 1>a PL in Italy, possibly at the end of them month.

<v Speaker 1>So we will see if that happens. But the other

<v Speaker 1>news out of WWE this week had to do with

<v Speaker 1>the NXT general manager Ava. She is gone from WWE,

<v Speaker 1>and she released a statement on Friday revealing that Tuesday's

<v Speaker 1>episode of This Past Tuesday was her last with the

<v Speaker 1>company and that she decided not to renew her contract.

<v Speaker 1>She said, this past Tuesday was my last appearance on

<v Speaker 1>NXT and subsequently WWE. Thank you to all who have cheered,

<v Speaker 1>watched and supported me through my journey. While my decision

<v Speaker 1>to not renew my contract was very difficult, it's also

<v Speaker 1>a new turning point in my life. It has been

<v Speaker 1>an honor and a privilege to be Ava now. In

<v Speaker 1>a statement, the company wished Ava real name Simone Johnson,

<v Speaker 1>of course she is the daughter of the Rock. They

<v Speaker 1>wished her all the best in her future endeavors and

<v Speaker 1>said WWE thanks and applauds Simon own Garcia Johnson for

<v Speaker 1>her stellar work as Ava and beyond. Her passion, dedication,

<v Speaker 1>and impact were felt across the entire NXT and WWE community.

<v Speaker 1>We wish her the very best in all future endeavors.

<v Speaker 1>So this was very much out of left field, especially

<v Speaker 1>because she was still very intertwined in a lot of

<v Speaker 1>different stories on the program on NXT and to that end,

<v Speaker 1>Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez on Observer Radio, we're talking

<v Speaker 1>about this last night. This is what Meltzer said. I've

<v Speaker 1>talked to and heard from several people, and the general

<v Speaker 1>thing was that she just didn't want to do it anymore.

<v Speaker 1>There was no compelling reason. It was just one of

<v Speaker 1>those things where her parents own a studio and they

<v Speaker 1>thought that she's probably gonna end up working there. She

<v Speaker 1>doesn't have to do it. One person had contacted me

<v Speaker 1>and mentioned that Tatiana Duma of its Dumas, we'll say Dumas.

<v Speaker 1>I know Lita was Amy Duma, so I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if that's how you pronounce her name, but anyway, that's

<v Speaker 1>her girlfriend. Apparently she was cut recently, which he says,

<v Speaker 1>we did not hear just a couple of weeks ago.

<v Speaker 1>They weren't quite saying that's why she quit, but it

<v Speaker 1>was something that people said, and maybe it had something

<v Speaker 1>to do with it, maybe it didn't. I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>It was her decision. It's not like they were going

<v Speaker 1>to get rid of her or anything like that. And

<v Speaker 1>then Alvarez mentioned that there was no mention on Tuesday's

<v Speaker 1>episode of NXT that she would be leaving soon, and

<v Speaker 1>in fact, there was an angle involving her and Tony

<v Speaker 1>DiAngelo that's been playing out in recent weeks on television.

<v Speaker 1>So that's what makes this sound very sudden. Whether or

<v Speaker 1>not it's tied into her girlfriend being cut, people will

<v Speaker 1>speculate on that. But it was her call and she's gone,

<v Speaker 1>and that means that there is now an opening on

<v Speaker 1>NXT for a new general manager. So if anybody knows

<v Speaker 1>any authority figures out there who might be able to

<v Speaker 1>fill that spot, you should go ahead and let them know.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they can audition for the job, or they could

<v Speaker 1>just bring William Regal back, but he's a little bit

<v Speaker 1>busy right now doing scouting and whatever he's doing for

<v Speaker 1>a Triple H. I don't know if he would have

<v Speaker 1>time to go back to NXT. He was. He's still

<v Speaker 1>the best NXT general manager they've ever had, so if

<v Speaker 1>they wanted to go back to a mister Regal, I

<v Speaker 1>certainly wouldn't mind that. But I'm also not watching NXT

<v Speaker 1>week to week, so at the end of the day,

<v Speaker 1>I just don't give a shit, but I wish her

<v Speaker 1>all the best. Let's talk about WWE Unreal. I finished

<v Speaker 1>all five episodes of WWE Unreal Season two on Netflix,

<v Speaker 1>and season two was very much like season one in

<v Speaker 1>that if you are not a WWE fan and you

<v Speaker 1>come into this cold, I think you'll find it all

<v Speaker 1>very interesting as far as like how the sausage is made,

<v Speaker 1>and you'll come away from it with a greater appreciation

<v Speaker 1>for what goes into making the show what it is.

<v Speaker 1>By the show, I mean like WWE in general, right

<v Speaker 1>from the talent to the production, to the writing and

<v Speaker 1>everything in between. I don't think that this is a

<v Speaker 1>show that is making very many new fans, though. I

<v Speaker 1>think it's more than likely it's existing fans that are

<v Speaker 1>going to be watching because they always want to know

<v Speaker 1>what's going on behind the scenes. Many times, what's going

<v Speaker 1>on behind the scenes is more interesting than what's going

<v Speaker 1>on on camera, and that remains my biggest issue with

<v Speaker 1>the show. Nobody. Look, nobody is forcing me to watch this, right,

<v Speaker 1>I wanted to, and I wanted to review it here

<v Speaker 1>on my show, so I watched it. But I just

<v Speaker 1>hate how much they give away. Like I know k

<v Speaker 1>Fave is dead, and we know, you know, wrestling is

<v Speaker 1>a collaboration, it's a show. We all know that, but

<v Speaker 1>not every magician needs to give away every trick that

<v Speaker 1>they do. And I feel like today's wrestling they give

<v Speaker 1>too much away and they throw it in your face

<v Speaker 1>too much that it's all just a show, to the

<v Speaker 1>point where they promote this during the actual shows, where

<v Speaker 1>if I didn't want to watch on real it's still

<v Speaker 1>being thrown in my face any given night by Michael Cole. Hey,

<v Speaker 1>we're taking to the writers the writer's room. Then these

<v Speaker 1>people really don't hate each other, Like I hate being

<v Speaker 1>beaten over the head with it during Raw and SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>That's my biggest gripe. But that doesn't mean that the

<v Speaker 1>show is without its benefits, Like I like the focus

<v Speaker 1>on people like Penta and Chelsea Green at different points

<v Speaker 1>during the season. The cameras follow them around and not

<v Speaker 1>just backstage, but like at their home or Penta has

<v Speaker 1>I guess it's his school or Jim and he's training

<v Speaker 1>kids to become wrestlers and his daughter was there, Like

<v Speaker 1>that was very cool. That kind of stuff really helps

<v Speaker 1>shine a light on their personalities in a way that

<v Speaker 1>we don't get to see on the weekly shows. So

<v Speaker 1>I think it could be useful for some talents in

<v Speaker 1>that way. But I do have to say I think

<v Speaker 1>the biggest sin with a show like this in today's

<v Speaker 1>modern WWE it's just how boring it is compared to

<v Speaker 1>what a show like this would have looked like twenty

<v Speaker 1>or thirty years ago. Like I'm glad we didn't have

<v Speaker 1>this thirty years ago to kill the illusion, but like

<v Speaker 1>if we did, if there was an Unreal in the

<v Speaker 1>mid nineties or the late nineties, it would have been

<v Speaker 1>so much more entertaining, Like it would have been so

<v Speaker 1>much more interesting with actual conflict on the show. You'd

<v Speaker 1>have people that really did hate each other or were

<v Speaker 1>looking to step over each other to make it to

<v Speaker 1>the top. Like imagine the Brett Hart and Sean Michael

<v Speaker 1>stuff playing out on a show like Unreal. You almost

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't even believe it was real. You would have to

<v Speaker 1>think it was all manufactured. But no, those guys really

<v Speaker 1>did not like each other there for a period of time, so, like,

<v Speaker 1>you know, real personality clashes behind the scenes. Here, it's

<v Speaker 1>just like the way they portray it. It's just one big,

<v Speaker 1>happy family. Everyone's just happy to be there. Everyone is

<v Speaker 1>always looking for for Triple H's affirmation, and after a

<v Speaker 1>while it's like, all right, we get it, like watching

<v Speaker 1>CM Punk and Triple H all lovey dovey together. Like

<v Speaker 1>in many ways, this show came a couple of decades late,

<v Speaker 1>when it would have been a more interesting back then.

<v Speaker 1>Everything now is just too polished. It's too sanitized. It's

<v Speaker 1>too nice and neat. They have scenes from these creative

<v Speaker 1>meetings that are just not very interesting, like this, very

<v Speaker 1>little conflict, very little pushback on anything, or at least

<v Speaker 1>that's what they choose to show us. Of course, they

<v Speaker 1>edit the shit out of this, so who knows what's

<v Speaker 1>left on the cutting room floor. But yeah, there's like

<v Speaker 1>a few scenes where they make road Dog this season

<v Speaker 1>look like a blithering idiot, but to his credit, like

<v Speaker 1>at least he's offering ideas that he believes in, right,

<v Speaker 1>he just doesn't have any sort of follow up to them.

<v Speaker 1>Like when he gets called out on stuff, he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>have a good rationale for it. So what happens is

<v Speaker 1>he just comes off his reactionary like a fan online,

<v Speaker 1>this is what I think we should do. Oh okay,

<v Speaker 1>but if we do that, then what happens here? Oh

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. You're probably right, you know we shouldn't

<v Speaker 1>do it. Then forget I said anything like Okay, boy,

<v Speaker 1>what a great creative meeting. This is like there were

<v Speaker 1>multiple things said in those creative meetings that just made

<v Speaker 1>me shake my head. So, I mean, it's hard to

<v Speaker 1>know where the fiction ends and where the fact begins.

<v Speaker 1>With this show. They absolutely manufacture things, you know, for

<v Speaker 1>the sake of it's reality TV, So I mean, what

<v Speaker 1>else do you expect? But I do believe a lot

<v Speaker 1>of the reactions that we see from the talents are genuine.

<v Speaker 1>Like Lyra Valkyrias, she was in tears after her summer

<v Speaker 1>slide match with Becky Lynch. They had a bad match, Like,

<v Speaker 1>just objectively, it was not good, the only bad one

<v Speaker 1>I've seen them have. But it was the big blowoff

<v Speaker 1>to their feud, remember the zip ties and all the

<v Speaker 1>stuff with the weapons and the plunder. They did a

<v Speaker 1>plunder match and it didn't work. When what made their

<v Speaker 1>matches great with letting them go out there and fucking wrestle,

<v Speaker 1>they decided to do a garbage match and it shit

<v Speaker 1>the bed. So I think it came right after also

<v Speaker 1>a TLC match that night and that didn't help matters.

<v Speaker 1>But like you see how devastated Lyra is that they

<v Speaker 1>just had a bad night. Even John Cena comes over

<v Speaker 1>to her to give her a pep talk and try

<v Speaker 1>to lift her spirits, but like there's no convincing her,

<v Speaker 1>Like she's she's not buying it. She knew it was bad,

<v Speaker 1>and you feel bad for her, you know, watching her

<v Speaker 1>talk about it, because you can see how much it

<v Speaker 1>bothers her that they couldn't go out there and in

<v Speaker 1>the capper to this big program they had really just

<v Speaker 1>kind of put a nice bow on it and have

<v Speaker 1>this great blowoff, and instead it's like, oh, you know,

<v Speaker 1>that wasn't good. And that's one of the stories they

<v Speaker 1>focus on this season is Becky Lynch's return and her

<v Speaker 1>program with Lyra. All the way through SummerSlam, they cover

<v Speaker 1>Our Truths contract expiring and not being renewed, Naomi winning

<v Speaker 1>money in the bank and that eventually cashing in to

<v Speaker 1>become the World champion, and the fake seth Rollins injury

<v Speaker 1>that led to his world title win at SummerSlam. One

<v Speaker 1>of the more ridiculous moments, and this was in the

<v Speaker 1>very first episode, has Bruce Pritchard in a creative meeting

<v Speaker 1>as they are talking about Backlash and the match between

<v Speaker 1>Gunther and Pat McAfee, suggesting that it would be too

<v Speaker 1>predictable for Gunther to just go in there and beat

<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee. Now, mind you, he made this argument while

<v Speaker 1>the cameras were rolling, so he was you know, was

<v Speaker 1>he just doing it for the cameras or did he

<v Speaker 1>really think that anything other than what they ended up

<v Speaker 1>doing was the right outcome for that match. The fact

<v Speaker 1>that it was even suggested that McAfee might possibly beat Gunther,

<v Speaker 1>even on a fluke, is so batshit crazy, like, especially

<v Speaker 1>when you remember that Gunther had just tapped out to

<v Speaker 1>the yeat Man at WrestleMania. He had just tapped out

<v Speaker 1>to Jay Uso. Can you imagine after tapping out to

<v Speaker 1>jay Usso and losing the World Heavyweight Championship, the World

<v Speaker 1>Heavyweight Championship if On the very next pl they had

<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee steal a win off of Gunther, Like, if

<v Speaker 1>you wanted to kill Gunther dead, then that's exactly what

<v Speaker 1>you would do. You could just tape a sign on

<v Speaker 1>his back too that says kick me, and he could

<v Speaker 1>walk everywhere he walks with the sign people are kicking

<v Speaker 1>him in his ass. Just because something is predictable does

<v Speaker 1>not make it bad or it doesn't mean that you

<v Speaker 1>don't do it. You can come up with ways to

<v Speaker 1>dress it up and make it exciting and make people

<v Speaker 1>believe that maybe it could happen. Give McAfee a couple

<v Speaker 1>of hope spots, but in the end, you do what

<v Speaker 1>makes sense. You don't do something just to shock people. Thankfully,

<v Speaker 1>there was another writer in the room, their VP of

<v Speaker 1>creative who was the voice of reason here, and he said,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know why Gunther would be losing to our

<v Speaker 1>color commentator, and then he's going to have to go

<v Speaker 1>out there on TV the next week, and Pat's going

<v Speaker 1>to be sitting ten feet away and Gumphther's not gonna

<v Speaker 1>do anything about it. Like when you think about it

<v Speaker 1>like that, it's pretty damn silly. Then there's the art

<v Speaker 1>Truth stuff. He was going to be working a match

<v Speaker 1>with Johnson. This was their match on Saturday Night's main event.

<v Speaker 1>Road Dog, who has been tight with Truth going back

<v Speaker 1>over twenty years. I mean, he's the reason Truth got

<v Speaker 1>his job in WWE. He tells Triple H that Truth

<v Speaker 1>wants to shave his head for the match with John Cena,

<v Speaker 1>and Triple H cannot understand why, and road Dog doesn't

<v Speaker 1>react well to this. He goes literally, he goes, oh,

<v Speaker 1>everything is the shits. I can't wait for this to

<v Speaker 1>just be over with. If Triple H keeps pushing, he doesn't.

<v Speaker 1>He just doesn't understand what Truth cutting his hair before

<v Speaker 1>the match is supposed to accomplish, which, to be fair,

<v Speaker 1>it would have been at a left field, but it's like,

<v Speaker 1>why not use that as a way to put more

<v Speaker 1>heat on John Cena, like with this floundering heel turn

<v Speaker 1>that he ended up having for the most part, like

<v Speaker 1>everyone loves our Truth, why not have the match John

<v Speaker 1>Cena wins and then after the match have seen a

<v Speaker 1>cut Truth's braids off, and then he could hold him

<v Speaker 1>up like a trophy like that would gotten him some heat.

<v Speaker 1>This was never brought up during the meeting, at least

<v Speaker 1>not on camera. This was never This was never broached.

<v Speaker 1>It's a truth and seeing that they have their match,

<v Speaker 1>everything goes fine. And then Truth is taking his daughter

<v Speaker 1>to dance class one day and he says he gets

<v Speaker 1>a phone call telling him that he's released, which is

<v Speaker 1>when he put that tweet out letting everybody know that

<v Speaker 1>he just got released. And this is why no one

<v Speaker 1>is safe, by the way, even someone like Miss, and

<v Speaker 1>I think it was with Chris van Vliet, he interviewed

<v Speaker 1>Miz and Miss said that even he worries about getting

<v Speaker 1>that call one day, about getting swept up in some

<v Speaker 1>mass wave of releases. No one is immune from losing

<v Speaker 1>their job. No one signs a lifetime contract with WWE,

<v Speaker 1>no one is owed a job for life. But there

<v Speaker 1>are just certain talents that you would just never think

<v Speaker 1>would be let go. They're too well liked. They're a

<v Speaker 1>great utility player for them to plug in wherever the

<v Speaker 1>company needs them, or they're there for comic relief, you know,

<v Speaker 1>whatever their role may be on the show. That's our truth,

<v Speaker 1>that's the miz. So when Truth said he got released,

<v Speaker 1>it was shocking, and it was very upsetting to a

<v Speaker 1>lot of people, especially on their own roster. The way

<v Speaker 1>Triple H explains it, Truth's contract was coming due and

<v Speaker 1>there was a breakdown in communication between the two sides

<v Speaker 1>on what a new deal would look like, which, if

<v Speaker 1>you read between the lines, they were offering less money

<v Speaker 1>and Truth did not want to take less money, so

<v Speaker 1>they were letting him know, we're not going to renew

<v Speaker 1>your deal, right, that's their position. He said that Truth

<v Speaker 1>went and put that tweet out when the hope was

<v Speaker 1>from their end, like we'll tell him that, okay, we're

<v Speaker 1>going to let your deal expire, and then he'll come

<v Speaker 1>back to the table and say, ohh wait a minute,

<v Speaker 1>hold on a second here, let's talk this out. Let's

<v Speaker 1>make a deal. So they put it back on him

<v Speaker 1>that he was unwilling to accept where they were offering him.

<v Speaker 1>But he says that Truth was not He was never

<v Speaker 1>not under contract, He was never technically fired because his

<v Speaker 1>contract still wasn't up yet. And Road Dog agrees with

<v Speaker 1>this and says Truth being released made perfect business sense

<v Speaker 1>because of how old Truth is. Maybe you're not going

<v Speaker 1>to get the same return on your investment, but Honestly,

<v Speaker 1>what have they done with him in the last five

<v Speaker 1>years that was going to be radically different in the

<v Speaker 1>next five, Like unless you wanted an easier schedule, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know how much easier it can get, seeing as

<v Speaker 1>how they barely do any house shows anymore. I mean, honestly,

<v Speaker 1>neither side really came off well here, I thought, because

<v Speaker 1>truth says well, you know, when I got the phone call,

<v Speaker 1>I took it to mean that I was fired, which

<v Speaker 1>technically wasn't true. And he put the tweet out. You know,

<v Speaker 1>was he looking to get sympathy out of it and

<v Speaker 1>rile people up to let the company know how they feel.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe if he was, it was a great strategy because

<v Speaker 1>it worked, and based on the way they've used him since,

<v Speaker 1>it's clear that they had no special plans for him.

<v Speaker 1>Either his contract was going to lapse and he was

<v Speaker 1>going to be done, or he was going to take

<v Speaker 1>what they were on offering, and he would have been

<v Speaker 1>in the exact same spot he's always been in. So

<v Speaker 1>they shot the angle where he cut his hair on TV,

<v Speaker 1>and you know, he was gonna be all serious ron killings,

<v Speaker 1>and then it never went anywhere, and now he's back

<v Speaker 1>to being goofy and telling and talking to Nick all

<v Speaker 1>this about his balls on TV every week, and the

<v Speaker 1>real reason by the way that he cut his hair.

<v Speaker 1>He admitted he was going bald, so we got that

<v Speaker 1>little reveal like I love hell at the very end

<v Speaker 1>of that episode. It's like just truth looking into the camera.

<v Speaker 1>You know why I cut my hair because I was

<v Speaker 1>going bald. And that's how it ends. They featured Naomi

<v Speaker 1>and they briefly talked about her and Sasha Banks walking

<v Speaker 1>out when they were the women's tag team champions in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two. Triple H said that he wasn't involved

<v Speaker 1>at the time, so he didn't have much to really

<v Speaker 1>say about it, and they more or less glossed over

<v Speaker 1>the whole thing. It's one of those domino effect things

<v Speaker 1>that when wrestling, where I look back at that, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the Sasha and Naomi walk out. That's what led to

<v Speaker 1>CM punk tweeting about workers' rights. He tweeted in support

<v Speaker 1>of them when they walked out, and he mentioned workers'

<v Speaker 1>rights in his tweet. Hangman Page then threw back in

<v Speaker 1>his face the whole workers rights thing in that infamous

<v Speaker 1>promo on Dynamite, which eventually played a role in Punk

<v Speaker 1>crashing out of brawl Out. That wasn't the only thing,

<v Speaker 1>because there was also the cult Cabana stuff, but it

<v Speaker 1>was a big part of why Punk had that meltdown.

<v Speaker 1>And so it makes you wonder, like, if Punk doesn't

<v Speaker 1>tweet that out and Hangman doesn't bring it up, does

<v Speaker 1>all of that other stuff go down the way that

<v Speaker 1>it did. We'll never know. It'll forever be one of

<v Speaker 1>those great what ifs. The third episode is where they

<v Speaker 1>featured Penta and also Chelsea Green and imagine my surprise

<v Speaker 1>when they started showing footage of Chelsea's match with Penta

<v Speaker 1>in Luca Underground. I was transported back there for a minute,

<v Speaker 1>and I missed it all over again. You hear Matt

<v Speaker 1>Striker on commentary and they're showing you footage. They're showing

<v Speaker 1>you highlight from this. I wonder who owns that footage

<v Speaker 1>that they were able to show that, but yeah, they're

<v Speaker 1>so they're showing this and they had a killer match. Actually,

<v Speaker 1>Chelsea goes it will never happen again because you can't

<v Speaker 1>redo perfection, and I'm just watching that. I'm like, really,

<v Speaker 1>is that what it is? Is that why we're never

<v Speaker 1>going to see it again. So there's a creative meeting

<v Speaker 1>where road Doug pitches putting the United States title back

<v Speaker 1>on Chelsea. Triple H, though, wants to know who does

<v Speaker 1>she work with if you do that, because all you

<v Speaker 1>have are Meechen, Bfab, and Zelena, all women. He says

<v Speaker 1>that she's already worked with anyone outside of those names,

<v Speaker 1>and she has to lose, right, this is what they're saying.

<v Speaker 1>Road Doug looks like he takes this shit very personally

<v Speaker 1>whenever one of his ideas gets shot down. And I

<v Speaker 1>love how Triple H correctly points out the lack of

<v Speaker 1>women for her to work with, like where is the

<v Speaker 1>voice in the room? Though that says to him, well,

<v Speaker 1>why haven't we called anyone new up yet? From NXT

<v Speaker 1>might help solve that problem. But it's the comments that

<v Speaker 1>Michael Hayes makes about Chelsea Green and the way in

<v Speaker 1>which he says them that really rubbed me the wrong way.

<v Speaker 1>Michael Hayes talks about how entertaining Chelsea is like he's

<v Speaker 1>trying to put her over while at the same time

<v Speaker 1>burying her by saying that she's entertaining, but she's not

<v Speaker 1>built for nor should she be in a Charlotte Flair

<v Speaker 1>role or a Tiffany Stratton role, because Chelsea's job is

<v Speaker 1>to help make those people. And just the way that

<v Speaker 1>he said it, it did not come across like it

<v Speaker 1>didn't come across as well, this is her role now,

<v Speaker 1>that's her job now. But at some point maybe she

<v Speaker 1>can be that person. It came off as in his

<v Speaker 1>own words, she's not built to be that person, like

<v Speaker 1>this is her ceiling and this is her role, and

<v Speaker 1>this is as good as it's ever going to get.

<v Speaker 1>And if he honestly believes that, then he shouldn't be

<v Speaker 1>in the position that he's in because Chelsea Green absolute

<v Speaker 1>slutely has what it takes to be a world champion

<v Speaker 1>in that division one day. She's already very popular, so

<v Speaker 1>it's not a matter of like, oh, she can't get

<v Speaker 1>over in that role. Yeah, I mean with her, it's

<v Speaker 1>very comedic the stuff they have her doing on TV.

<v Speaker 1>It would not be that difficult if you wanted to

<v Speaker 1>come up with a story for Chelsea. Word something happens

<v Speaker 1>and all of a sudden, shit gets a little more

<v Speaker 1>serious with her because we've seen her do that before. Dude,

<v Speaker 1>on this fucking episode. In the footage from Luca Underground

<v Speaker 1>that they were showing like we know she's got it

<v Speaker 1>in her and I'm like listening to him say this stuff,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, fuck that she absolutely can. He's right

<v Speaker 1>about that not being her role right now. Right now, Yes,

<v Speaker 1>her role is to elevate other people, but that shouldn't

<v Speaker 1>be her only role. That shouldn't be the only thing

<v Speaker 1>that she's good for. Like she's gotten as far as

<v Speaker 1>she's ever gonna go. And to hear him say that

<v Speaker 1>really irk the shit out of me, and I thought

<v Speaker 1>it was a real slap in her face. Bobby Rude

<v Speaker 1>An Abyss they got more screen time this season as producers.

<v Speaker 1>If you remember last season, Abyss was so eager to

<v Speaker 1>please Bruce Pritchard, especially that first raw on Netflix. He

<v Speaker 1>was like a little kid, like letting down Bruce was

<v Speaker 1>the worst thing in the world, like he was letting

<v Speaker 1>down his dad. And he comes across as very likable

<v Speaker 1>and very affable, but just very how shall I say this,

<v Speaker 1>He comes across as very over eager, Like there were

<v Speaker 1>times where he's talking to Triple H or Bruce at

<v Speaker 1>Gorilla about something, asking over and over and over again, like,

<v Speaker 1>oh was that okay? Was that okay? Is that what

<v Speaker 1>you wanted? You know, like, this is what we were

<v Speaker 1>trying to do. Did you like it? Did you like

<v Speaker 1>it was that? Okay? And they they're sitting there and

<v Speaker 1>they have a look on their faces like, oh God,

<v Speaker 1>this guy again. Like they had a look on their

<v Speaker 1>faces like they were annoyed with him and they wanted

<v Speaker 1>him to go away. And I kind of felt the

<v Speaker 1>same way, honestly, Like I can see where when he

<v Speaker 1>turns his back to go walk away, they probably make

<v Speaker 1>fun of him behind his back or something like they

<v Speaker 1>would totally do that. But he just really wants to

<v Speaker 1>do a good job, but he wants to make his

<v Speaker 1>boss proud. And then there's Bobby Rude. It's very clear

<v Speaker 1>that he's become someone that they really like and trust

<v Speaker 1>in big situations. He was one of the very few

<v Speaker 1>people they actually clued in about the fake seth rollins

<v Speaker 1>injury at Saturday night's main event. I love, by the way,

<v Speaker 1>all of the TNA influence that they now have backstage.

<v Speaker 1>You got Bobby Rude, you got Abyss, you got p. D. Williams.

<v Speaker 1>But Abyss was overseeing the men's money in the bank

<v Speaker 1>match last year and they had a plan finish with

<v Speaker 1>Seth Rollins in La Night. They had it all mapped

<v Speaker 1>out and as the match progresses, Abyss is in the back,

<v Speaker 1>he's on headset, he's all hyped up, they're hitting their cues.

<v Speaker 1>Everything's going great. And then the ending got screwed up

<v Speaker 1>and it didn't go the way that they had discussed it.

<v Speaker 1>And there was supposed to be a face to face

<v Speaker 1>at the top of the ladder with Night on one

<v Speaker 1>side of the ladder Rollins on the other side, and

<v Speaker 1>it was going to be this big dramatic thing where

<v Speaker 1>he kind of knocks Rollins down a few steps or

<v Speaker 1>maybe knocks him off the ladder, and it's like, oh shit,

<v Speaker 1>he might actually La Night might actually win this right

<v Speaker 1>to bring the crowd back up, But then Rollins will

<v Speaker 1>race back up the ladder. You're just playing with people's emotions, right.

<v Speaker 1>They had this whole thing all mapped out, and then

<v Speaker 1>ultimately Seth stomps him, and then he goes back up

<v Speaker 1>and he grabs a briefcase. But they wanted it to

<v Speaker 1>be a real struggle for a while to build a drama.

<v Speaker 1>It didn't work out that way. It did not work out,

<v Speaker 1>and I don't know if I don't know who's to

<v Speaker 1>blame for that. My impression was La Night that maybe

<v Speaker 1>he just blanked on what the spot was. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know if it was him or Rollin, I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>It just it did not go the way that they

<v Speaker 1>wanted it to go. And Triple H is not thrilled

<v Speaker 1>and poor Abyss like he had to be shitting himself.

<v Speaker 1>Triple H had to put his mind at ease and

<v Speaker 1>just remind Abyss like, look, the talents are out there.

<v Speaker 1>They're the ones who have to do the work. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>I'll put this on you. It's not your fault. And

<v Speaker 1>he's right, like when shit goes sideways like that, or

<v Speaker 1>if someone forgets their spot, that's on them, Like, you

<v Speaker 1>can't blame the producer for that. It's like a coach

<v Speaker 1>who calls a play. It's up to the players to

<v Speaker 1>go out on the field and actually carry out and

<v Speaker 1>execute the play. And it's a great play, it should

<v Speaker 1>win the game. But if the players don't execute or

<v Speaker 1>they drop the ball, that's not the coach's fault. But

<v Speaker 1>that's where the clip comes from. That I saw people

<v Speaker 1>sharing on social media completely out of context of La

<v Speaker 1>Knight kneeling down at Guerrilla while Triple Ah brow beats him.

<v Speaker 1>People online were making it seem like the reason Night

<v Speaker 1>looks so dejected is because he was told he was

<v Speaker 1>losing when that clip came after the match, and the

<v Speaker 1>reason that he was upset is because he botched the

<v Speaker 1>finish and Triple Ah is explaining to him like that

<v Speaker 1>the way the finish was designed, it was designed for

<v Speaker 1>you to try to make you look strong even though

<v Speaker 1>you were losing. It was designed to make you look

<v Speaker 1>a strong possible. And I had no problem with the

<v Speaker 1>way the Triple H spoke to him, or the fact

<v Speaker 1>that he was sitting down and La Knight had to

<v Speaker 1>crouch down to like be at his level. It's like

<v Speaker 1>like this is what people were complaining about online. I

<v Speaker 1>am convinced that people there are people who wake up

<v Speaker 1>in the morning looking for things to get upset about,

<v Speaker 1>like the shit that I get upset about, and I

<v Speaker 1>get upset about a lot of shit like that just

<v Speaker 1>comes organically. It's just like something pisses me off, I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna tell you about it. But I don't wake up

<v Speaker 1>in the morning and brush my teeth and think, you know,

<v Speaker 1>what could I be pissed off about today, Like, I

<v Speaker 1>don't need to do that because I already know there's

<v Speaker 1>gonna be a good five to ten things they're gonna

<v Speaker 1>piss me off. But like, are we really bashing Triple

<v Speaker 1>H for sitting in his chair and La Night crouching down?

<v Speaker 1>Like is this what we're doing now? They covered the

<v Speaker 1>period from Saturday Night's main event up until SummerSlam and

<v Speaker 1>Jelly Roll. He got a lot of FaceTime in the

<v Speaker 1>fourth episode he came off I thought, very well, very likable.

<v Speaker 1>He's obviously a huge fan, He's very humble, and we

<v Speaker 1>already knew this, but this did confirm that it was

<v Speaker 1>his idea to lose in the Summer Slam match with

<v Speaker 1>him and Randy Orton against Drew McIntyre. Logan Paul, he

<v Speaker 1>wanted to put the heels over a lot of times.

<v Speaker 1>In these celebrity matches, it goes the other way. I

<v Speaker 1>don't want to say every single time, but I would

<v Speaker 1>say ninety five percent plus of the time when you

<v Speaker 1>have a celebrity match, the celebrity goes over. Look at

<v Speaker 1>mister t Look at Lawrence Taylor at WrestleMania eleven, Look

<v Speaker 1>at Floyd Mayweather, at WrestleMania twenty four, Snookie Johnny Knoxville

<v Speaker 1>against Sammy's Aye David Arquette in WCW won their fucking

<v Speaker 1>world title. Kevin Fetterline still owns a win over John

<v Speaker 1>Cena that John Cena, by the way, never avenged and

<v Speaker 1>now he never will. I'm surprised we didn't see him

<v Speaker 1>during that retirement tour. The Rollins injury angle, they came

<v Speaker 1>most people in the dark about it, including the referee.

<v Speaker 1>Medical had to know, so the doctors were aware, as

<v Speaker 1>was La Knight, which if Seth Rollins had his way,

<v Speaker 1>La Knight would not have known. Rollins did not want

<v Speaker 1>Knight to know, like he was like, why does he

<v Speaker 1>have to know? And Triple H correctly points out, like

<v Speaker 1>how shitty that would be, and how if the shoe

<v Speaker 1>was on the other foot and nobody clues you in,

<v Speaker 1>like you would be beside yourself with rage, and Rollins

<v Speaker 1>was like, yeah, you're probably right, but like imagine being

<v Speaker 1>La Night. You're wrestling this guy, you think he's legitimately hurt,

<v Speaker 1>and they rush you, know, they rush you to the finish.

<v Speaker 1>You feel terrible, only to then find out they worked

<v Speaker 1>you like you were one of the marks in the crowd.

<v Speaker 1>You got worked. Yeah, I'd be pretty pissed off about that.

<v Speaker 1>You want to play with the fans emotions, that's fine,

<v Speaker 1>that's what wrestling does. They play with your emotions. You

<v Speaker 1>don't do that with the talent. And they showed Triple

<v Speaker 1>H telling the timekeeper and his headset or someone to

<v Speaker 1>let the timekeeper know, like, do not ring the fucking

<v Speaker 1>bell until I tell you to do so. Don't ring

<v Speaker 1>the fucking bell. It's like a bizarro version of Montreal.

<v Speaker 1>It's like the inverse of Montreal. Don't ring the bell.

<v Speaker 1>It's like John Cena when he went heeled. Instead of

<v Speaker 1>never give up, it's like telling all the little kids,

<v Speaker 1>don't ever give up? Right, all the make a wish stuff,

<v Speaker 1>all the wonderful stuff that John Cena did, and then

<v Speaker 1>when he went heel, I saw people mocking up these

<v Speaker 1>these illustrations of John Cena, like in a hospital telling

<v Speaker 1>kids to give up. This is horrible, but I still laughed.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, I love the stuff with EO Sky and

<v Speaker 1>the build to her main event with Rhea Ripley at Evolution,

<v Speaker 1>which was one of the best matches all year. In

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five, I love Triple H putting over Eo

<v Speaker 1>so strongly, and he made the comedy goes if something

<v Speaker 1>happened to the roster and I had to start from scratch,

<v Speaker 1>a fucking plane crash or something, and I had to

<v Speaker 1>start from scratch. If you just gave me EO Sky,

<v Speaker 1>I would be good, which is pretty high praise. And also,

<v Speaker 1>speaking of things online that people made a big deal about,

<v Speaker 1>I gotta mention this people online. I know Vince Russo

<v Speaker 1>was one of these. He was fucking apoplectic about this.

<v Speaker 1>But there were people online who made a big deal

<v Speaker 1>about EO Sky coming back to Gorilla after the match,

<v Speaker 1>and they were all so very happy because the match

<v Speaker 1>was awesome, and she jumps up into Triple H's arms

<v Speaker 1>for a big hug. She was just so happy with

<v Speaker 1>how the match went. And like people are like, oh,

<v Speaker 1>this is how inappropriate this is, and they're sharing pictures

<v Speaker 1>of the hug, and I'm like, again, is this what

<v Speaker 1>we have chosen to be mad about today? Is this

<v Speaker 1>what we woke up and decided, Hey, we're gonna die

<v Speaker 1>on this hill. It's not that deep. It's really not.

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon would literally book himself to make out with

<v Speaker 1>all of the divas on TV. If Eo Sky jumping

<v Speaker 1>into Triple H's arms for a hug in a moment

<v Speaker 1>of joy is the worst in front of all the cameras.

<v Speaker 1>By the way, it's not like they went off into

<v Speaker 1>the fucking broom closet and did this. If we're jumping

<v Speaker 1>into Triple Ah's arms for a hug in a moment

<v Speaker 1>of joy is the worst thing that this man does.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm sure it's not, but if that's the worst

<v Speaker 1>thing he does, I'm not going to be fake outraged

<v Speaker 1>over it. The last episode covered Summer Slam, with Seth

<v Speaker 1>doing the surprise cash and Cody winning the belt back

<v Speaker 1>from John Cena. They recognized the WrestleMania match was no

<v Speaker 1>good and they wanted to make up for it, which

<v Speaker 1>they did. That match was awesome, but the reason they

<v Speaker 1>turned Sena so suddenly two days before their match was

<v Speaker 1>because Cody was going to be away for six weeks

<v Speaker 1>filming Street Fighter, because they had an idea to do

<v Speaker 1>something after SummerSlam so Cody would win the belt back.

<v Speaker 1>Scena still heal, but then Sena maybe comes to his

<v Speaker 1>aid in like an angle on TV, and he turns

<v Speaker 1>a baby Face that way, but they had to do

<v Speaker 1>it sooner because Cody wasn't going to be around. But honestly,

<v Speaker 1>like it was best to just rip the band aid

<v Speaker 1>off and just get it over with a few other

<v Speaker 1>observations here about this season. I don't remember it being

<v Speaker 1>this latent. This really hit me watching this. I don't

<v Speaker 1>remember it being this blatant in the first season, but here,

<v Speaker 1>like they would cut back to the gorilla position for

<v Speaker 1>some of the matches and you'd see the producers are

<v Speaker 1>on headset and they're producing, and you would see like

<v Speaker 1>Bobby Rude or Abyss on headset giving I presume the

<v Speaker 1>referee cues about what move was coming next, And I'm

<v Speaker 1>not even talking about like the finish, just like the

<v Speaker 1>next spot. Like, I didn't realize just how much they

<v Speaker 1>micro manage every little thing, right down to the individual

<v Speaker 1>moves in every match. That's crazy to me. Like I

<v Speaker 1>can understand giving them the heads up on big spots,

<v Speaker 1>you want to make sure that you get the right

<v Speaker 1>camera shot or like the right crowd shot for it,

<v Speaker 1>but every little move, like I can see why so

<v Speaker 1>many wrestlers prefer the house shows to TV because they're

<v Speaker 1>able to go out there and just fucking work like

<v Speaker 1>actual pro wrestlers, call shit on the fly, go out there,

<v Speaker 1>have fun, try new things. You don't have to like

<v Speaker 1>run every little move by someone before you go out there.

<v Speaker 1>It makes total sense to me. And then, as with

<v Speaker 1>season one, they had the whiteboards in the writer's room

<v Speaker 1>in some of the episodes giving insight into some of

<v Speaker 1>the things that were planned that ended up not happening.

<v Speaker 1>So the original King and Queen of the Ring finals

<v Speaker 1>at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia were supposed to

<v Speaker 1>be Cody Rhoads against Russev, which is just laughable looking

<v Speaker 1>back at it now, especially after the way he was

<v Speaker 1>booked in the Royal Rumble last night, Cody Roads against

<v Speaker 1>Russev and Rhea Ripley against Julia. That would have been

<v Speaker 1>a big spot for Julia. Instead she ended up not

<v Speaker 1>even being in the tournament, and Rhea got bounced out

<v Speaker 1>of the opening round and they got Jade Cargill in

<v Speaker 1>there in the finals against Oscar and Jade then went

<v Speaker 1>on to challenge for the title at SummerSlam and she lost.

<v Speaker 1>Russev also ended up getting bounced in the opening round,

<v Speaker 1>with Jay Usse advancing and we got Cody Roads against

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton in the finals, which was definitely the bigger match,

<v Speaker 1>but it seems they had a bigger push in mind

<v Speaker 1>for Russev and they soured on him pretty early on

<v Speaker 1>into his return. Then for SummerSlam, early plans had Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns wrestling bron Breaker, which would have been bigger than

<v Speaker 1>the tag match they did. But I actually don't mind

<v Speaker 1>them doing Roman against Bronson Reed first because now it

<v Speaker 1>sets up a much bigger match down the road first

<v Speaker 1>time ever between Roman and Braun. They had seth Rollins

<v Speaker 1>penciled in here against Sammy Zain, Finn Balor as the

<v Speaker 1>Demon against Dominic Mysterio, which gives away what the plan is,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, for the eventual Baler Babyface term when

<v Speaker 1>he finally wrestles dom I think that's probably the WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>match this year. We probably get the Demon jay Uso

<v Speaker 1>against Russev, which just proves my point that Russev was

<v Speaker 1>clearly earmarked for a much bigger push and they soured

<v Speaker 1>on it for whatever reason. Rhea Ripley again Osca Trish

<v Speaker 1>Stratus was supposed to have a match against someone she

<v Speaker 1>ended up not being on the show at all. They

<v Speaker 1>actually ended up doing less with her than I thought

<v Speaker 1>they would last year, considering it was twenty five years

<v Speaker 1>of Trish Stratus and WWA. I know she was in

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble, she had that tag match with Tiffany

<v Speaker 1>I think, right, Yeah, they teamed up an elimination chamber,

<v Speaker 1>and then she wrestled Tiffany for the title at Evolution,

<v Speaker 1>and that was a very rushed match with no build.

<v Speaker 1>But that was it, you know, That's all they did

<v Speaker 1>with Trish Last year. They were going to do Becky

<v Speaker 1>against Bailey for the Intercontinental title and Liv Morgan tagging

<v Speaker 1>with Riquel Rodriguez against the Bella Twins. So literally the

<v Speaker 1>entire card ended up changing. Outside of the top two

<v Speaker 1>title matches, which were CM Punk against Gunther and John

<v Speaker 1>Cena against Cody Rhodes, everything else changed, and comparing what

<v Speaker 1>they did to what they wanted to do, the original

<v Speaker 1>card was stronger than what they ended up giving us,

<v Speaker 1>although Liv got hurt so she wasn't going to be

<v Speaker 1>wrestling regardless. So if you're not a fan of them

<v Speaker 1>pulling back the curtains so much for this stuff, if

<v Speaker 1>you really hate that, then this is not the show.

<v Speaker 1>For you. But if you dig some of the backstage stuff,

<v Speaker 1>or you know, a look the creative process to the

<v Speaker 1>extent that what they're showing you is genuine, then it's

<v Speaker 1>an easy watch. And you do gain a greater appreciation

<v Speaker 1>for certain individuals, like the producers and what goes into

<v Speaker 1>their roles, because they don't get the kind of love

<v Speaker 1>that someone like Triple h gets because he's front and

<v Speaker 1>center with everything, like he's the face of it. So

<v Speaker 1>you get a window into who these other guys are,

<v Speaker 1>what their contributions are to the show. I spied Molly Holly.

<v Speaker 1>She was also in some of the episodes, she wasn't

<v Speaker 1>really featured. She's someone who I would like to see

<v Speaker 1>them maybe do more of a deep dive into what

<v Speaker 1>her role is and her history with the company and

<v Speaker 1>in wrestling. You just sort of saw her here and

<v Speaker 1>there in the back. But she's another one. She's worked

<v Speaker 1>as a producer now for them for a number of years,

<v Speaker 1>and in many ways they're the unsung heroes, you know,

<v Speaker 1>because they make some very significant contributions to the shows,

<v Speaker 1>and in most cases, you will never know about it.

<v Speaker 1>You will never hear about it, you will never know

<v Speaker 1>about it. They don't get credits at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the show like Paul Leveck and leaf Fitting do at

<v Speaker 1>the end of every episode. I was hoping in season

<v Speaker 1>two they would focus on the announcers also, but they

<v Speaker 1>didn't really do that outside of Pat McAfee, and he's

<v Speaker 1>barely even an announcer for them anymore, although supposedly he's

<v Speaker 1>going to be coming back soon, whatever that means. It's

<v Speaker 1>already been renewed for a third season. This season ended

<v Speaker 1>after seen his match at Summer Slam, with Brock Lesner

<v Speaker 1>coming out at the end, So Brock is going to

<v Speaker 1>factor into the next season, and the main story is

<v Speaker 1>going to be the final months of John Cena's retirement tour,

<v Speaker 1>so that'll be dropping sometime this summer. I would be

<v Speaker 1>surprised if this AJ styles retirement stuff is in one

<v Speaker 1>of the top stories in season four, not three, but

<v Speaker 1>probably season four, although I guess that'll depend on whether

<v Speaker 1>or not he leaves and goes and works somewhere else.

<v Speaker 1>Then I guess it won't be, but otherwise we could

<v Speaker 1>probably expect to see some stuff on AJ in season four.

<v Speaker 1>On the aw front, they have a mini tournament set

<v Speaker 1>up to decide on who will be mjf's next challenger

<v Speaker 1>at Revolution for the AW World Championship. We had a

<v Speaker 1>match on Dynamite on Friday night between Swerve Strickland and

<v Speaker 1>Andrade l Edelo and it was actually an excellent main

<v Speaker 1>event and Andrade picked up the win. He got a

<v Speaker 1>big win, the biggest win of his AW run past

<v Speaker 1>or present over Swerve. And now the match is set

<v Speaker 1>up for Kenny Omega to challenge Andrade on Dynamite in

<v Speaker 1>Las Vegas this Wednesday. So the way this is going

<v Speaker 1>to work is Hangman Adam Page is going to meet

<v Speaker 1>the winner of the Kenny Omega Andrade match from Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>this week. And I'm happy they're doing that match match

<v Speaker 1>because obviously when he came back to the company, Andrade

<v Speaker 1>attacked Omega and there was no follow up to it whatsoever.

<v Speaker 1>So at least we're going to get some kind of

<v Speaker 1>closure there and I'm sure Omega will beat him. Omega

<v Speaker 1>would then go on to wrestle Hangman at their Grand

<v Speaker 1>Slam Australia show, which is going to be a special

<v Speaker 1>edition of Collision. I believe that is Valentine's Day. They're

<v Speaker 1>taping that in Australia. I don't know how that's going

<v Speaker 1>to come off, because apparently they used to have TV

<v Speaker 1>in Australia. I don't believe they have TV in Australia anymore.

<v Speaker 1>So I haven't checked out how ticket sales are doing,

<v Speaker 1>but I do wonder how that might impact their ticket

<v Speaker 1>sales over there. So we're probably going to get Hangman

<v Speaker 1>and Omega on that Grand Slam Australia show. The winner

<v Speaker 1>of that match would then go on to challenge mjfort

<v Speaker 1>Revolution on March fifteenth for the AW World Championship. The

<v Speaker 1>reason why Hangman doesn't apparently have to wrestle anybody to

<v Speaker 1>get to Grand Slam unless I misunderstood all of this

<v Speaker 1>and he's got to wrestle someone from the Kallis family.

<v Speaker 1>But I think he's basically got to buy into that match.

<v Speaker 1>I believe the idea. What I believe is that he

<v Speaker 1>was probably gonna be wrestling Samoa Joe. And they mentioned

<v Speaker 1>on TV on Wednesday that Samoajo suffered a non contact

<v Speaker 1>injury during training, and they didn't specify what the injury was.

<v Speaker 1>Apparently it's not a cover. He really did get hurt.

<v Speaker 1>Hopefully it's not too serious. But it's serious enough that

<v Speaker 1>he's not going to be cleared probably for a little bit.

<v Speaker 1>And so if they can't do Hangman against Joe, then

<v Speaker 1>I guess Hangman is just gonna go to Australia to

<v Speaker 1>meet the winner of this match coming up on Wednesday. Meanwhile,

<v Speaker 1>MJF is going to be wrestling Brody King on Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>in Las Vegas this week in an eliminator match. So

<v Speaker 1>they do a lot of these eliminator matches in AW

<v Speaker 1>where basically you got to beat the champion twice if

<v Speaker 1>you want to become the champion. In this case, I

<v Speaker 1>don't mind it because there is a story that is

<v Speaker 1>attached to it. This is not some randomly announced eliminator match.

<v Speaker 1>Brody King has been teasing that he's coming after MJF

<v Speaker 1>now for weeks, and so I'm fine with it. The

<v Speaker 1>idea is that if he can beat MJF on Wednesday

<v Speaker 1>at Grand Slam Australia, he will then challenge MJF for

<v Speaker 1>the AW World title. That's two big matches they've already

<v Speaker 1>set up for Dynamite this week. The other thing, and

<v Speaker 1>I didn't mention this on Wednesday, but Don Callous in

<v Speaker 1>the opening segment because Kenny Omega came out. He beat

<v Speaker 1>Rocky Romero and he could beat Rocky Romero with his

<v Speaker 1>eyes closed, so it was a quick match. And then

<v Speaker 1>Hangman came out and Swerve came out, and then Callous

<v Speaker 1>came out on stage to cut a promo and it

<v Speaker 1>looked like he was chewing gum and as he was speaking,

<v Speaker 1>the gum almost fell out of his mouth. That's how

<v Speaker 1>I took it. And then somebody sent me a link

<v Speaker 1>back to the segment and said, hey, he lost his

<v Speaker 1>dentures in the middle of the promo. I said what,

<v Speaker 1>So I watched it over again and yeah, that ain't

<v Speaker 1>no piece of gum. Like in the middle of his

<v Speaker 1>promo his dentures fell out. I thought it was gum.

<v Speaker 1>He was struggling, like he put the microphone up to

<v Speaker 1>his mouth to try to cover his mouth. And it

<v Speaker 1>was like, wow, Okay, that explains that, because it got

<v Speaker 1>a little weird there for a little bit. So that

<v Speaker 1>was kind of funny. Now, now Davis and Doyle Mark

<v Speaker 1>Davis and Jake Doyle there of course a new tag team.

<v Speaker 1>They are part of the Kallis family and they challenged

<v Speaker 1>FTR for the aw Tag team titles on Wednesday. Davis

<v Speaker 1>and Doyle haven't been together for very long, but I

<v Speaker 1>like the team and I like that, you know, Jake Doyle,

<v Speaker 1>the former Jake Something is being given something to do

<v Speaker 1>here in aaw and then they go out there and

<v Speaker 1>they have the match. And unfortunately, in the middle of

<v Speaker 1>this match, there was a spot on the apron where

<v Speaker 1>Cash Wheeler went to give Doyle a DDT on the

<v Speaker 1>apron and as the move, he's in mid move here

<v Speaker 1>Doyle's right arm, he's still holding onto the top rope,

<v Speaker 1>but his body is brought down for the DDT, and

<v Speaker 1>as soon as Wheeler hits the move, Doyle pops up

<v Speaker 1>and you can hear him mouthed the words I just

<v Speaker 1>tore my bicep and we didn't see him again for

<v Speaker 1>the rest of the match. And then ultimately Davis went

<v Speaker 1>on to lose because John Moxley and the Death Riders

<v Speaker 1>got involved. He got hit in the head with the

<v Speaker 1>Continental title. This was all payback for Davis and Doyle

<v Speaker 1>jumping Moxley earlier in the show. Right, what's good for

<v Speaker 1>one is good for the other. So they cost the

<v Speaker 1>Callous Family potentially the tag team titles, but it's been

<v Speaker 1>confirmed that, in fact, Jake Doyle did suffer a torn biceps,

<v Speaker 1>and we don't know if he's going to have surgery,

<v Speaker 1>if he's going to try to heal it. I guess

<v Speaker 1>with just rehab. Either way, he's going to be out

<v Speaker 1>for a while. I mean, that's months that we're not

<v Speaker 1>going to see him, and if he has surgery, then

<v Speaker 1>he's gonna be out even longer. He'll be out probably

<v Speaker 1>a good six or seven months. So that fucking sucks.

<v Speaker 1>I feel bad for the guy. He just debuted here

<v Speaker 1>and they were just getting this team going and then

<v Speaker 1>this happens. And from Mark Davis, it was a new

<v Speaker 1>partner for him because Kyle Fletcher obviously is off doing

<v Speaker 1>his own thing, and he had his own injury that

<v Speaker 1>he came back from not too long ago, and then

<v Speaker 1>they start this new team and now all of a sudden,

<v Speaker 1>he just lost the partner. Now, the good news for

<v Speaker 1>him is that there are seventeen other members of the

<v Speaker 1>don Kallis family. All you got to do is plug

<v Speaker 1>somebody else into that spot, So you can plug in

<v Speaker 1>Lance Archer if you want to, and he can be

<v Speaker 1>part of this new team, or Josh Alexander or anybody really,

<v Speaker 1>but that really sucks. The big thing though, on Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>was the debut of Tamaso Champa. Boy that was quick

<v Speaker 1>in a deal that was agreed to on Monday, per Fightful,

<v Speaker 1>so this all came together very quickly. He made his

<v Speaker 1>debut on AW Dynamite, so basically AW gets Tomasso Champa

<v Speaker 1>and WWE gets Powerhouse Hobbs. But Mark Briscoe was out

<v Speaker 1>there extending an open challenge for the TNT title on Collision.

<v Speaker 1>When the lights went out, we saw a beating heart

<v Speaker 1>up on the utron, some new badass music. We saw

<v Speaker 1>the words Psycho Killer, and then it changed to Tomaso

<v Speaker 1>Champa and he emerged and got a very good response

<v Speaker 1>from the crowd. And Champa explained the move from WWE

<v Speaker 1>to AW two Sports Illustrated in his own words, It's

<v Speaker 1>something I've been leaning towards for quite some time. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know that I can say there's one sole factor

<v Speaker 1>that led to it or caused it. I think it's

<v Speaker 1>one of those things where your contract is coming to

<v Speaker 1>an end, you naturally have discussions. So he said, those

<v Speaker 1>discussions started at home with his wife and daughter. They

<v Speaker 1>collectively sat down as a family and discussed where the

<v Speaker 1>best place would be for him to continue his career. Ultimately,

<v Speaker 1>the decision was made to part ways with WWE after

<v Speaker 1>a decade long tenure. He said, if I wrestled in

<v Speaker 1>the nineties, I would want to be a part of

<v Speaker 1>ECW early two thousands, you want to be a part

<v Speaker 1>of Ring of Honor. I was lucky that I got

<v Speaker 1>to do that a little bit twenty ten's. I think

<v Speaker 1>for me, at least, I wanted to be a part

<v Speaker 1>of NXT Black and Gold. And when I looked at

<v Speaker 1>the landscape professional wrestling in the twenty twenties, the answer

<v Speaker 1>was aw man, that's what I want to be a

<v Speaker 1>part of. So he showed up. He accepted the challenge.

<v Speaker 1>They had their match on Collision last night. I did

<v Speaker 1>go back and watch them as a very good match,

<v Speaker 1>and I was hoping that they would do a title change,

<v Speaker 1>because why debut this guy in such fashion and then

<v Speaker 1>just have him lose. And they did the title change.

<v Speaker 1>We have a brand new TNT champion and his name

<v Speaker 1>is Tamaso Champa. So that's a very good kickoff for

<v Speaker 1>him that He also in that interview with Sports Illustrated

<v Speaker 1>said that he was unable to fully bring his Psycho

<v Speaker 1>Killer persona to WWE's main roster. He said, there were

<v Speaker 1>a lot of times I tried, and for one reason

<v Speaker 1>or another over the years, it just wasn't something that

<v Speaker 1>I could do. But for Tony Kahn and the whole

<v Speaker 1>crew to just collaborate the way they did and have

<v Speaker 1>open arms and see the vision and just allow it

<v Speaker 1>to breathe and have a chance, I'm already thinking six months,

<v Speaker 1>twelve months ahead on the evolution of the Psycho Killer.

<v Speaker 1>And he went on to say that he is a

<v Speaker 1>better performer now than he was when he was in

<v Speaker 1>Black and Gold. And I think this right here is

<v Speaker 1>kind of the key quote that really clues you into

<v Speaker 1>his mindset as far as why he made this jump.

<v Speaker 1>He said, for a long time, I had to listen

<v Speaker 1>to people telling me, not so much directly to my face,

<v Speaker 1>but more so online that twenty eighteen was prime Champa

<v Speaker 1>and he basically said that it makes him sick. I

<v Speaker 1>think he said that in another interview that he did,

<v Speaker 1>but here he said that I'm one hundred times better

<v Speaker 1>now than I was then. That was nothing, That was

<v Speaker 1>absolutely nothing. I finally have a shot to find out

<v Speaker 1>if I am as good as I think I am.

<v Speaker 1>And it was in another interview that I saw with

<v Speaker 1>him on YouTube where he said the same thing, and

<v Speaker 1>he said that it made him absolutely sick to hear

<v Speaker 1>people saying that he goes in every facet, I am

<v Speaker 1>better now than I was then. In terms of my

<v Speaker 1>in ring, I'm a better in ring performer, in terms

<v Speaker 1>of my storytelling ability, better storyteller now. In terms of

<v Speaker 1>my promos, I'm a better promo. Like in every single category,

<v Speaker 1>I am better now than that version of Tamaso Champa.

<v Speaker 1>And he has to constantly listen to people reminisce and

<v Speaker 1>romanticize about the great days of Champa when he was

<v Speaker 1>at his peak in twenty eighteen in NXT. And so

<v Speaker 1>if he honestly believes that he is a better performer

<v Speaker 1>now and more well rounded performer now than he was,

<v Speaker 1>then sure you can see where that would really get

<v Speaker 1>under his skin and it would bother him. Like in

<v Speaker 1>his head, he had to know that if he stayed

<v Speaker 1>in WWE, nothing was going to change. Like the last

<v Speaker 1>things that he was really doing, he was doing this

<v Speaker 1>story where people were going around on SmackDown calling him

<v Speaker 1>a Jackass and turning it into comedy. And the last

<v Speaker 1>match he had, of course, he had a killer match

<v Speaker 1>with Ilia Dragonov I think right when he still had

<v Speaker 1>the belt or was it Carmelo Hayes. I think it

<v Speaker 1>was Ilia Dragonov and they had that killer match together.

<v Speaker 1>But you know for a fact that if he were

<v Speaker 1>to re sign with WWE for another three or four years,

<v Speaker 1>ain't nothing going to be different for him. He had

<v Speaker 1>his role on the show, the Psycho Killer, all these

<v Speaker 1>ideas he had for himself. If it didn't happen by now,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't going to happen a year from now or

<v Speaker 1>two years from now. He had to make a choice,

<v Speaker 1>and if it really made him sick to his stomach

<v Speaker 1>to hear people saying these things like, man, if I

<v Speaker 1>stay here, they're always going to think that I peaked

<v Speaker 1>out in twenty eighteen. They're not going to have any

<v Speaker 1>concept of how good I really am. Now I've got

<v Speaker 1>to go somewhere else and prove this to them. And

<v Speaker 1>I agree with him wholeheartedly. If that's what was in

<v Speaker 1>his head and in his heart, he had to leave.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he didn't have to go to AW He

<v Speaker 1>could have gone to TNA. He could have gone to Japan,

<v Speaker 1>apparently he has an interest maybe in wrestling with New Japan.

<v Speaker 1>He could have worked indies every weekend and been killing

<v Speaker 1>it on there, just to go out there and show people.

<v Speaker 1>I'll show you, I'll show you Peak Champa, right, but

<v Speaker 1>he chose to go to AW in AW. I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>you know, is he going to work indies? He might not.

<v Speaker 1>He may end up being exclusive to AW. Some people

<v Speaker 1>only do AW, some people work indies. I guess time

<v Speaker 1>will tell. But he made his choice because this is

<v Speaker 1>where he wanted to be, and I'm glad that. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he seems to be a lot happier now for it. Creatively,

<v Speaker 1>it looks like he'll have a lot more freedom to

<v Speaker 1>collaborate on certain things that he would not have had

<v Speaker 1>in WWE. And I would say as far as getting

<v Speaker 1>a head start on things, him winning the TNT title

<v Speaker 1>less than a week after debuting, it's a pretty good

<v Speaker 1>way to start things out. And I'll tell you another

<v Speaker 1>great way to start things out his entrance music. I

<v Speaker 1>talk about the importance of entrance music. We just had

<v Speaker 1>a Royal Rumble last night, where again, like in the

<v Speaker 1>women's Rumble, especially you have women coming out to the

<v Speaker 1>most generic sounding garbage and it's hard even to identify

<v Speaker 1>who the music is attached to. Sometimes. In AW, Mikey

<v Speaker 1>Ruckis is the one who was responsible on very short notice.

<v Speaker 1>He had like a thirty six hour window to whip

<v Speaker 1>up new theme music for Tamaso Champa and he was

<v Speaker 1>able to do that. And the music is badass. It's

<v Speaker 1>a great thing. Like I thought, the whole presentation from

<v Speaker 1>the beating heart and everything right on into the music

<v Speaker 1>when he walks out was spot on. I just thought

<v Speaker 1>it was. It was very well done. I want to

<v Speaker 1>give a shout out to John Kiernan and on his

<v Speaker 1>Ropes and Rips podcast he had Joe Altier on as

<v Speaker 1>his guest. He's the vocalist for the band Brand New Sin,

<v Speaker 1>and he's the voice that you hear in big shows

<v Speaker 1>themes in WWE and AW. He is the vocalist on

<v Speaker 1>Champa's new AW theme which is called My Shadow Nos.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it's on Spotify yet. If not,

<v Speaker 1>it should be soon. But he's the voice that you

<v Speaker 1>hear at the beginning of the song. And considering it

<v Speaker 1>all came together on very short notice, I think it's

<v Speaker 1>a great piece of business. So so far, so good.

<v Speaker 1>It's only been a week, it's only week number one.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know where Champa ultimately will fall in the

<v Speaker 1>pecking order there. I'm not saying he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>a world champion, but I think he'll be able now

<v Speaker 1>to go out there and actually show what he can

<v Speaker 1>do and not feel like he's sort of trapped in

<v Speaker 1>a little box like this is your role, and this

<v Speaker 1>is what your role on the show is, and you

<v Speaker 1>can't go out there and have these killer matches. You

<v Speaker 1>can't go out there and do this. You can't go

<v Speaker 1>out there and do that. And now hopefully he'll have

<v Speaker 1>the ability to do so. Hopefully he'll be able to

<v Speaker 1>go out there and have those kinds of matches. And

<v Speaker 1>top female wrestling prospect Bozilla is going to miss quite

<v Speaker 1>some time because she suffered a completely torn acl that

<v Speaker 1>will require surgery. She took to Instagram on Thursday to

<v Speaker 1>confirm the news that she sustained the injury in a

<v Speaker 1>January eleventh match at Stardom's New Year Stars event in Tokyo.

<v Speaker 1>She noted that she was able to make it through

<v Speaker 1>the rest of the match. It was a five on

<v Speaker 1>four handicap match, but in the course of working the match,

<v Speaker 1>her knee completely gave out. At the very end, she said, honestly,

<v Speaker 1>it still doesn't seem real. I'm deeply devastated and still

<v Speaker 1>struggling to find the right words. I wish this wasn't true,

<v Speaker 1>but unfortunately it's reality. And she credited the Stardom team

<v Speaker 1>for their head that night, and she has begun her

<v Speaker 1>road to recovery. She has no idea when she's going

<v Speaker 1>to be back, how long she's going to be out

<v Speaker 1>for the surgery still has not happened yet, but she

<v Speaker 1>said the next chapter will be the road to recovery.

<v Speaker 1>And I hope to keep you or keep your continuing

<v Speaker 1>support through this chapter of my life. So she's been

<v Speaker 1>very impressive. She's very young, only twenty two years old.

<v Speaker 1>She was a standout. If you remember Forbidden Door last summer,

<v Speaker 1>that four away with Mercedes Monette and Persephone and Alex Windsor.

<v Speaker 1>She was probably the standout, honestly of that match. And

<v Speaker 1>I think recently she has been doing a lot of

<v Speaker 1>tag team stuff over in Japan with Meghan Bain. But

<v Speaker 1>best wishes to her. That's a tough injury to come

<v Speaker 1>back from. But I'm sure she'll be back all right.

<v Speaker 1>Let's take some mailbag questions. You can email me the

<v Speaker 1>solom Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your name

<v Speaker 1>of where you are from when you write in. Connor

<v Speaker 1>from Wingcoat, Pennsylvania. With the WWE and ESPN partnership, it

<v Speaker 1>got me thinking. For years, ESPN barely acknowledged WWE or

<v Speaker 1>pro wrestling. I always assume that if ESPN ever got involved,

<v Speaker 1>it would be used to help legitimize wrestling to the

<v Speaker 1>broader public, presenting it closer to real combat, a real

<v Speaker 1>combat sport like boxing, kickboxing or UFC instead of the

<v Speaker 1>usual it's fake argument that non fans love to fall

<v Speaker 1>back on, especially now with UFC and TKO under the

<v Speaker 1>same umbrella. That's where I get conflicted with today's WWE product.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't feel very competitive or physical most of the time.

<v Speaker 1>We rarely see high intensity matches or true wars anymore.

<v Speaker 1>And on top of them, most of WWE's top stars

<v Speaker 1>barely wrestle on weekly TV Cody Roman, Gunther. They're presented

<v Speaker 1>more as attractions than active competitors. If the goal of

<v Speaker 1>a partnership with ESPN is to legitimize wrestling to new

<v Speaker 1>audiences from a combat and athletic perspective, Do you think

<v Speaker 1>WWE is actually the right company for that role? And

<v Speaker 1>if it were up to you, which promotion do you

<v Speaker 1>think would have been better suited to bring in new

<v Speaker 1>fans and viewers through hard hitting, physical match driven wrestling WWE,

<v Speaker 1>aw TNA, NXT or New Japan. Well first, NXT is

<v Speaker 1>not technically a promotion, but that's splitting hairs. I think

<v Speaker 1>you're coming at this the wrong way, though. The goal

<v Speaker 1>of this ESPN partnership, at least from ESPN's perspective, has

<v Speaker 1>nothing to do with legitimizing pro wrestling. They don't care

<v Speaker 1>about legitimizing pro wrestling. If they did, they would have

<v Speaker 1>been covering it like a sport years ago. It's not

<v Speaker 1>a sport though. It's not a straight sport anyway, right,

<v Speaker 1>which is why they wanted nothing to do with it.

<v Speaker 1>This is a partnership based on making money. WWE is

<v Speaker 1>a business partner for them. WWE is making a lot

<v Speaker 1>of money right now, and they're generating a lot of

<v Speaker 1>social media engagement. WWE is also year round entertainment. They

<v Speaker 1>have no offseason like every other sport does. So that

<v Speaker 1>was all very appealing to ESPN, and they made a

<v Speaker 1>deal for that reason, to make money. It's a business arrangement,

<v Speaker 1>nothing more and nothing less. They can dress it up

<v Speaker 1>anyway they want to. This has very little to do

<v Speaker 1>with legitimizing pro wrestling. It is about using WWE's popularity

<v Speaker 1>to generate more eyeballs and more subscriptions for their streaming service.

<v Speaker 1>And that's it. Now. If the goal was to partner

<v Speaker 1>with a product that would offer something competitive and physical,

<v Speaker 1>AW would be a better fit. They'll give you more matches.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, they'll give you so many matches you don't

<v Speaker 1>even have time for all of them. But if they're

<v Speaker 1>looking for a product that's meant to appeal to more

<v Speaker 1>non wrestling fans, like you mentioned, trying to hook in

<v Speaker 1>like a new audience, then WWE is the right partner

<v Speaker 1>for them because non wrestling fans they don't give a

<v Speaker 1>shit about wrestling matches. I know some people are not

<v Speaker 1>going to want to hear that, but they don't. And

<v Speaker 1>this partnership is not likely to generate many new fans.

<v Speaker 1>It's just not. The ones that it does generate are

<v Speaker 1>more likely to tune in because of the characters and

<v Speaker 1>the stories, and WWE is more driven by that than

<v Speaker 1>AW is. Right, doesn't mean that you know they're telling

<v Speaker 1>interesting stories, but I do think a non fan or

<v Speaker 1>a casual at best fan, you know, who's willing to

<v Speaker 1>give wrestling a chance or maybe kind of likes it,

<v Speaker 1>but they don't really pay too much attention to it,

<v Speaker 1>they're going to find the WWE product more appealing. That's

<v Speaker 1>what I think. The AW product is not cater to

<v Speaker 1>non fans. It does not cater to casual fans. They've

<v Speaker 1>made that very clear. Those shows are geared to one audience,

<v Speaker 1>hardcore wrestling fans. They are not generating any new fans.

<v Speaker 1>They're trying to give the hardcore fans the type of

<v Speaker 1>wrestling that they they being. Tony Kah thinks they like

<v Speaker 1>or feel like they're not getting it from the other guys.

<v Speaker 1>WWE gives you four matches on a fucking premium live event.

<v Speaker 1>AW gives you closer to fourteen than they do four

<v Speaker 1>and wrestling fans may love that, but someone who's not

<v Speaker 1>a fan and maybe wants to sample it, it's too

<v Speaker 1>overwhelming for them and they don't they don't know enough

<v Speaker 1>about who these people are, you know, where the stories.

<v Speaker 1>The WWE product is a lot slower and more dumb

<v Speaker 1>down for those people. It's easier to follow, and you

<v Speaker 1>have the big elaborate entrances with the fancy production and

<v Speaker 1>the drones and everything else that goes into the presentation.

<v Speaker 1>It's a product that's more likely to appeal to someone

<v Speaker 1>who is not a big fan than AW would be.

<v Speaker 1>And it's definitely not TNA. I mean TNA is trying

<v Speaker 1>to be WWE at that point. They're gonna at that

<v Speaker 1>point if you're someone who's trying to sample wrestling here,

<v Speaker 1>like you're just gonna watch WWE, You're not gonna watch

<v Speaker 1>a smaller version of WWE with worse production values. So

<v Speaker 1>you could take TNA off the table, and then New

<v Speaker 1>Japan you could take them off the table too. There's

<v Speaker 1>no way that they're partnering with a non American product,

<v Speaker 1>Like the last thing ESPN is going to put money

<v Speaker 1>into is a partnership with the Japanese promotion, especially one

<v Speaker 1>that does not do weekly TV, because how does that

<v Speaker 1>benefit them? They're a touring promotion, a cold a touring

<v Speaker 1>promotion that happens to have special events, and they barely

<v Speaker 1>do any of them in the US anymore. I would

<v Speaker 1>be surprised if New Japan runs more than half a

<v Speaker 1>dozen shows over here in the States in all of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six. So at the end of the day,

<v Speaker 1>WWE really is the best fit for ESPN. Speaking of

<v Speaker 1>New Japan, though we've got miles from Arizona, What is

<v Speaker 1>your take on the current state of New Japan? Since

<v Speaker 1>their top stars like Kazuchka Okada, will Ospray, Kenny Omega,

<v Speaker 1>the Young Bucks, Hiroshi Tanahashi, etc. Have all either left

<v Speaker 1>or retired from the promotion. I mean the current state

<v Speaker 1>of New Japan is that they are in a rebuilding phase.

<v Speaker 1>That's why they had to put the IWGP belt on

<v Speaker 1>Yotasuji at the Tokyo Dome. It's time beyond time for

<v Speaker 1>them to make some new guys at the very tippy

<v Speaker 1>top of the card like it's it's crazy that they

<v Speaker 1>have waited so long to really put their muscle, even

<v Speaker 1>behind someone like Suji in that role. These guys have

<v Speaker 1>been aging out and leaving though for years. This is

<v Speaker 1>not like a new phenomenon, like it's snuck up behind them,

<v Speaker 1>Like they didn't sneak up on them like this has

<v Speaker 1>been This has been very visible. We knew that this

<v Speaker 1>is where things were headed because people have been leaving

<v Speaker 1>now for the last few years, and you could tell like,

<v Speaker 1>oh shit, Nido and Tanahashi like they're the only ones

<v Speaker 1>that are left, and guess what, now they're not even

<v Speaker 1>there anymore. So now they have no choice but to

<v Speaker 1>try to get new stars over. And the key there

<v Speaker 1>is keeping those new stars. It's not enough to just

<v Speaker 1>make them. You've got to keep them from leaving to

<v Speaker 1>go to WWE. You've got to keep them from leaving

<v Speaker 1>and going to Awaw's taken a lot of former New

<v Speaker 1>Japan talents and they made that choice. It's not like

<v Speaker 1>Tony snuck in like a bank robber and stuffed them

<v Speaker 1>a sack and stole them and brought them back to

<v Speaker 1>the States. Okata was going to make more money working

<v Speaker 1>for Tony Kahan. Probably easier on his body too. Ospray Jy.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, we can go up and down the list

<v Speaker 1>of all the names that have migrated over from New

<v Speaker 1>Japan to AW. So they're in a rebuilding phase right

<v Speaker 1>now and it's still a very cold product compared to

<v Speaker 1>what it was, you know, five ten years ago, and

<v Speaker 1>they just have to hope that these new names will

<v Speaker 1>get over and that maybe they can see some sort

<v Speaker 1>of resurgence at some point. But this is what happens

<v Speaker 1>when you just waste so much time and take so long,

<v Speaker 1>or maybe the guys that you wanted to push weren't

<v Speaker 1>quite ready for that role yet. But this is what happens.

<v Speaker 1>It's just going to take time. I hope it all

<v Speaker 1>works out. I hope they can, you know, get a

<v Speaker 1>hot streak going. I mean, they they did big business

<v Speaker 1>for Russell Kingdom this year, but that was based entirely

<v Speaker 1>off of Tanahashi's retirement. Tanahashi's a he's done, it's over.

<v Speaker 1>The question was always going to be when you wake

<v Speaker 1>up the next morning, now what, Well, now you got

<v Speaker 1>to hope that these newer, younger names they stick around

<v Speaker 1>and they can get over. But even still, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I think Clark Connors I talked about this recently, like Evil,

<v Speaker 1>for example, Evil's gone, Evil's probably coming to WWE. But

<v Speaker 1>wherever Evil goes, they already announced, like Evil is has

<v Speaker 1>left the company, and he won't be the only one.

<v Speaker 1>Clark Connors, it's believed that he is signed with AW

<v Speaker 1>I think he was on the collision last night wrestling

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen Gabe kid right, He's still there, but he's

<v Speaker 1>kind of splitting his time. Who's he gonna sign with

<v Speaker 1>David Finley. There's still a lot of questions about guys

<v Speaker 1>over there, but they're in every building phase. Sean from

<v Speaker 1>Byron Illinois. I'm writing this ahead of the Royal Rumble.

<v Speaker 1>Like you, I believe this has been one of the

<v Speaker 1>worst builds to the event, with even part timers like

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns and brock Lesnar entering the Rumble in lazy fashion.

<v Speaker 1>It seems WWE maybe putting in minimal effort because the

<v Speaker 1>event is in Saudi Arabia, they already have the guaranteed revenue,

<v Speaker 1>and they likely expect a backlash from US fans to

<v Speaker 1>who understandably won't travel for it. Looking ahead, what can

<v Speaker 1>WWE do to make the best of a difficult situation

<v Speaker 1>regarding WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia next year? Fans

<v Speaker 1>may be unsupportive as soon as the WrestleMania sign drops.

<v Speaker 1>What is the most effective way for them to promote

<v Speaker 1>the event and get viewers excited despite the location. There's

<v Speaker 1>really nothing they can do other than just try to

<v Speaker 1>promote the matches in the strongest way possible. It's the

<v Speaker 1>same advice that I would give for WrestleMania every year.

<v Speaker 1>I'd give it for WrestleMania this year in Vegas. It's

<v Speaker 1>all they can do. Like, they've already announced they're running

<v Speaker 1>in Saudi Arabia. Some people are not going to like that.

<v Speaker 1>Nothing the WWE says or does is going to change that.

<v Speaker 1>And they've already made the commitment to Saudi. They're getting

<v Speaker 1>paid a fuck ton of money. Whatever the dollar amount is,

<v Speaker 1>you know, it's going to be in one hundreds of

<v Speaker 1>millions of dollars. And that's why they're doing it. That's

<v Speaker 1>why this whole relationship started in the first place. It

<v Speaker 1>was a relationship built on a mound of money that

<v Speaker 1>the company was going to be able to make. It

<v Speaker 1>was a business decision. So they're taking their business to

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia for WrestleMania next year. Right, it's set in stone.

<v Speaker 1>Nothing is going to change that. So what can they do?

<v Speaker 1>Just put together the strongest card possible and get people

<v Speaker 1>excited to want to tune in. And that's all you

<v Speaker 1>can do. The people who are not going to watch.

<v Speaker 1>You ain't going to convince them to watch because they

<v Speaker 1>have very strong reasons for not wanting to watch, so

<v Speaker 1>there's nothing you can do about that. Just put together

<v Speaker 1>the strongest possible card and the strongest matches in the

<v Speaker 1>strongest build that you can to get people excited and go,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, I really want to see this show.

<v Speaker 1>I think I'll tune in. And that's it, very simple.

<v Speaker 1>We got Waldough. I want to make sure I pronounced

<v Speaker 1>this correctly. Waldough from Strumsoon, Yemtland, Sweden. Man. I hope

<v Speaker 1>I said that right. I'm gonna be very impressed with

<v Speaker 1>myself if I said that right. But he's been listening

<v Speaker 1>for eleven years. Back in twenty fifteen, I stayed up

<v Speaker 1>until five in the morning to watch the Royal Rumble,

<v Speaker 1>only to see Big Show and Caine in the final three.

<v Speaker 1>I was so angry at the booking that night, but

<v Speaker 1>that frustration led me to your Royal Rumble twenty fifteen review,

<v Speaker 1>and I've been a regular listener ever since. See at

<v Speaker 1>least something good came out of that Royal Rumble. Do

<v Speaker 1>you think Vince McMahon regrets selling WWE to TKO before

<v Speaker 1>the Janelle grant lawsuit became public. Would it have benefited

<v Speaker 1>Vince if the story had come out before the sale?

<v Speaker 1>And do you think that he would still have been

<v Speaker 1>in charge today if the timing had been different, I

<v Speaker 1>honestly don't. I don't think it's the sort of thing

<v Speaker 1>that he would be able to continue to lead the company.

<v Speaker 1>Would he be fully out in the way that he

<v Speaker 1>is now? Maybe not? And I could see him wanting

<v Speaker 1>to kind of snake his way back in, and he

<v Speaker 1>probably would have been able to, So things probably would

<v Speaker 1>be different. But in terms of like he would have to,

<v Speaker 1>especially when the lawsuit first dropped, it was a bombshell

<v Speaker 1>and the stuff that's in there, you can't be the

<v Speaker 1>face of this company with that sort of shit hanging

<v Speaker 1>over you and the company. It just it rubs off

<v Speaker 1>on the company. It's a stain on the company itself.

<v Speaker 1>And if for no other reason, to try to shield

<v Speaker 1>the company from that while this stuff is still pending,

<v Speaker 1>you have to go away, even if just temporarily, you

<v Speaker 1>have to go away. So I don't think that would

<v Speaker 1>have changed. But would he already be back, you know,

<v Speaker 1>would he or would he have a plan ready to

<v Speaker 1>go as soon as this is all settled and taken

<v Speaker 1>care of to come back into power, probably because you know,

<v Speaker 1>if it were up to him, he'd still be sitting

<v Speaker 1>in that chair with that headset on his head. I

<v Speaker 1>got Karen from Denver. My question is about money in

<v Speaker 1>the bank. Over the past years, I've heard you talk

<v Speaker 1>about being tired of the concept, and honestly I get it.

<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it feels like the briefcase puts more pressure on

<v Speaker 1>the winner and the audience than it should, especially when

<v Speaker 1>the cash in fails or the wrong person wins. We've

<v Speaker 1>seen failed or disappointing runs with winners like Damian Sandou,

<v Speaker 1>Baron Corbin Austin theory, and then there are choices that

<v Speaker 1>felt unnecessary or outright wrong like John Cena, brock Lesnar

<v Speaker 1>or even the Otis win. A lot of the time,

<v Speaker 1>it turns into fans waiting all year, not if someone

<v Speaker 1>will cash in, but when, and that gets staled very fast.

<v Speaker 1>What would you think about the briefcase being defended like

<v Speaker 1>a championship until the actual cash in the idea would

<v Speaker 1>be that the briefcase could change hands throughout the year.

<v Speaker 1>It could create edge of your seat matches, similar to

<v Speaker 1>the US Open Challenge on SmackDown and keep the concept

<v Speaker 1>fresh all year long. That way, instead of knowing who's

<v Speaker 1>going to cash in months in advance, the mystery becomes

<v Speaker 1>who will even have the briefcase by the time we

<v Speaker 1>get to the end of the year. The holder could

<v Speaker 1>always change, which keeps fans invest that it makes the

<v Speaker 1>eventual cash and feel more epic and unpredictable. Now, I

<v Speaker 1>always say that the last thing we need in either

<v Speaker 1>of these companies are more championships. But since the gimmick

<v Speaker 1>already exists and it's not going anywhere, I don't hate

<v Speaker 1>the idea. You know what it would also do. It

<v Speaker 1>would force the holder to then make a decision is

<v Speaker 1>it worth it for me to hold on to this

<v Speaker 1>briefcase or should I cash it in as soon as possible,

<v Speaker 1>Because the longer I hold on to it, I could

<v Speaker 1>potentially lose this thing. So it would force the holder

<v Speaker 1>into an earlier cash in instead of just being very casual.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to hold it all year long. Well, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you can hold it all year long, but then you

<v Speaker 1>might lose it. So I don't hate the idea, because

<v Speaker 1>money in the bank's not going anywhere. Your money in

<v Speaker 1>the bank is still a very successful concept for them.

<v Speaker 1>This would add a new wrinkle to it, and I

<v Speaker 1>don't hate it. I would consider it. Dak in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think a wrestling company should introduce a title? No?

<v Speaker 1>Next question, Oh, let's finish this. Do you think a

<v Speaker 1>wrestling company should introduce a title that acts in a

<v Speaker 1>similar manner as the Gift of the Gods Championship in

<v Speaker 1>Luca Underground. Now, it doesn't need to be exactly the same,

<v Speaker 1>and that you have to assemble seven medallions. But having

<v Speaker 1>a title that sole purpose is to be vacated for

<v Speaker 1>a shot at the world title with one week's notice.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think there is value in having a title

<v Speaker 1>like that in today's wrestling world? I don't. I don't.

<v Speaker 1>And that gets into the fact that, again, we already

<v Speaker 1>have enough championships. Money at the bank at least already exists.

<v Speaker 1>So like what we just talked about now is adding

<v Speaker 1>a new wrinkle to a gimmick that already exists and

<v Speaker 1>is going to be there no matter what. Adding new

<v Speaker 1>championships to me is pointless. We have so many of

<v Speaker 1>them already. Look at it. I mean like you HADEMI

<v Speaker 1>and NXT right, he didn't lose his championship, he just

<v Speaker 1>decided to surrender it and go to the main roster

<v Speaker 1>and move on to bigger and better things. And so

<v Speaker 1>I think, you know, if you're an intercontinental champion, if

<v Speaker 1>you're a United States champion, there's just sort of this

<v Speaker 1>implicit understanding that at some point you would maybe trade up,

<v Speaker 1>and so if you lose it, then maybe you would

<v Speaker 1>kind of elevate yourself into the world title picture. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>that's a dated concept. I don't know. It's not like

<v Speaker 1>I see Chelsea Green, who has been the US champion,

<v Speaker 1>or Julia who is the US champion, being tapped to

<v Speaker 1>challenge for the world title anytime soon. But I would

<v Speaker 1>just do a better job of booking my existing mid

<v Speaker 1>car titles and make them make them mean something like

<v Speaker 1>they used to in that people who hold them, after

<v Speaker 1>they're done holding them, it is a stepping stone for

<v Speaker 1>them to something bigger and better. I don't think you

<v Speaker 1>need to introduce another belt in order to do that.

<v Speaker 1>A hunter from Columbus, Kansas. My question is a simple

<v Speaker 1>one that still gets asked almost four years later since

<v Speaker 1>her debut, and that is why doesn't Tony Kahan use

<v Speaker 1>Athena regularly on Dynamite. There has to be something politically

<v Speaker 1>going on, because it just baffles me how she hasn't

<v Speaker 1>done much in her four year stint in AAW outside

<v Speaker 1>of Ring of Honor. I wish I had a better

<v Speaker 1>answer for you. I don't. I don't. The only thing

<v Speaker 1>I keep coming back to is that he had hopes

<v Speaker 1>that Ring of Honor would already be on TV somewhere,

<v Speaker 1>and he was counting on her to be one of

<v Speaker 1>the top two faces of the brand. And here we

<v Speaker 1>are and Ring of Honor still has no TV show.

<v Speaker 1>They're still on Honor Club and Athena you know, she'll

<v Speaker 1>show up in AW from time to time, but she's

<v Speaker 1>still you know, she's still the face of Ring of Honor.

<v Speaker 1>And what that really means and the grand scheme of

<v Speaker 1>things here, I don't think it means much. It just

<v Speaker 1>feels like a waste to me. I wish I had

<v Speaker 1>a better answer for you. Is there something politically? I

<v Speaker 1>don't think so. I don't think there's anything politically going on.

<v Speaker 1>I just that's what I believe. I believe he expected

<v Speaker 1>there to be an ROHTV show by now and needed

<v Speaker 1>her for that show. In his mind. That's why he

<v Speaker 1>hasn't taken the belt off her. She's still the champion.

<v Speaker 1>She's been champion for over a thousand days. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>where's the finish line here? What's the end goal for

<v Speaker 1>this rain? Is there even an end goal? Is it

<v Speaker 1>open ended? I have no idea David from Essex UK

<v Speaker 1>buy or sell AJ Style's career in WWE or aj

<v Speaker 1>styles career in TNA. Well, I mean he spent about

<v Speaker 1>the same amount of time in each, like maybe a

<v Speaker 1>year or so more in TNA. TNA is what set

<v Speaker 1>the groundwork for what he was able to do in

<v Speaker 1>New Japan and then in WWE, like it laid the

<v Speaker 1>foundation in Ring in Ring, his best body of work

<v Speaker 1>was in TNA. There was also a lot of bad

<v Speaker 1>stuff that he was involved in, right like them making

<v Speaker 1>him cosplay as the new Rick Flair, the Claire Lynch

<v Speaker 1>stuff was awful and I wish he would have come

<v Speaker 1>over to WWE sooner. Like Brett Hart said the same thing.

<v Speaker 1>What was it twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. It was towards

<v Speaker 1>the end of his TNA run and Brett said that

<v Speaker 1>aj was the best wrestler in the world and he

<v Speaker 1>needed to leave the Bush League. He needed to leave

<v Speaker 1>Bush League TNA and go to the big time because

<v Speaker 1>he didn't want him to waste his life in TNA.

<v Speaker 1>I'll never forget it. He thought aj was wasting his

<v Speaker 1>life in TNA, and it got bleak there for him

<v Speaker 1>those last few years. But I still think his greatest

<v Speaker 1>body of work is in TNA. So I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>buy on his TNA career and I'm going to sell

<v Speaker 1>on his WWE career. That's part of his WWE career

<v Speaker 1>by far. I mean to me, it's not even close.

<v Speaker 1>Is the program with John Cena, That three match series

<v Speaker 1>that they had is still the gold standard for him

<v Speaker 1>in WWE. But like in TNA, I mean the matches

<v Speaker 1>with Samoa, Joe, Kurt Angle, Christopher Daniels, Abyss, I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>I'm missing a whole bunch like that's what defined his career.

<v Speaker 1>Jim from Pennsylvania. I've seen some discussion online about how

<v Speaker 1>important Triple Ah really was during the Attitude era. WWE

<v Speaker 1>revisionist history seems to portray him as big and as

<v Speaker 1>a vital part of that era as much as Austin

<v Speaker 1>and Rock. While plenty of people on the line have

<v Speaker 1>called him a glorified mid Carter who only achieved bigger

<v Speaker 1>success due to Austin getting injured and fully retiring from

<v Speaker 1>full time work. I was born while the Attitude Era

<v Speaker 1>was in full swing, so I don't know for sure

<v Speaker 1>how big Triple Ah felt during that time. How important

<v Speaker 1>was Triple H really during the Attitude Era and where

<v Speaker 1>would you rank him in terms of the era's biggest names.

<v Speaker 1>Triple H was not that big of a deal during

<v Speaker 1>the Attitude era as like a main eventor DX was

<v Speaker 1>a big deal. And I actually thought the best version

<v Speaker 1>of DX was the second one, which is the one

<v Speaker 1>that he led. I thought that was the better version

<v Speaker 1>of DX, even than the original one. So as part

<v Speaker 1>of DX, he was a big deal on his own.

<v Speaker 1>He wasn't that big of a deal he really was.

<v Speaker 1>It really did not happen, like the switch did not

<v Speaker 1>get flipped until two thousand and he had that street

<v Speaker 1>fight of Madison Square Garden with Cactus Jack, and that's

<v Speaker 1>where everything started to fall into place for him as

<v Speaker 1>a main event. That's where I started to really buy

<v Speaker 1>into him as a main eventor in that company. And

<v Speaker 1>so that was still during the Attitude era, But you know,

<v Speaker 1>I feel like what you're asking me here is like

<v Speaker 1>peak Attitude era when Austin before the injury, Austin Rock

<v Speaker 1>and Mankind Undertake or Minute Street like all that kind

<v Speaker 1>of stuff. He was not on the level of Austin

<v Speaker 1>In Rock. Let's just put it that way. He was

<v Speaker 1>a level below. I would even have a Foley way

<v Speaker 1>ahead of Triple H. As far as his importance to

<v Speaker 1>that era, I mean, it's to me, it's not even comparable.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Foley was a far more important part of

<v Speaker 1>that Attitude era than Triple H was. I mean, look

<v Speaker 1>at the work that he did in putting over guys

<v Speaker 1>like Rock and Austin. Part of the reason they were

<v Speaker 1>able to get over the way they were is because

<v Speaker 1>Foley was right there to work with them and put

<v Speaker 1>them over. And that's to say nothing, of course, of

<v Speaker 1>the stuff that he did with the Undertaker, but that

<v Speaker 1>kind of predated the Attitude era. So where he ranks,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he's below Rock and Austin and Foley maybe four.

<v Speaker 1>You got Undertaker as well. For me, he's four or

<v Speaker 1>five on the list. He's top five, but he's at

<v Speaker 1>the bottom of the top five. Daniel from Los Angeles,

<v Speaker 1>who do you think is ww's big I guess what

<v Speaker 1>if when it comes down to them getting behind a

<v Speaker 1>wrestler who had gotten organically over with the crowd, who

<v Speaker 1>do you think would have been successful if they were

<v Speaker 1>allowed to get the ball and have a run with it. Myself, personally,

<v Speaker 1>I would have liked to have seen Damian Sandow win

<v Speaker 1>the world title from Sina when he cashed in his

<v Speaker 1>money in the bank in twenty thirteen. I enjoyed his work.

<v Speaker 1>He reminded me of an old school, pompous, arrogant heel,

<v Speaker 1>kind of like Nick Bockwinkle. He could have been the

<v Speaker 1>superior world champion. I like Damian Sandou and I think

<v Speaker 1>he could. He could have had a better run. He

<v Speaker 1>was never going to be a superior world champion, like

<v Speaker 1>he was not going to be at that level. But

<v Speaker 1>to answer your question, I'll spit out a current name

<v Speaker 1>at you. We just saw him last night, in fact,

<v Speaker 1>and the Royal Rum will make his return. La Knight.

<v Speaker 1>How's that for a name. He's in the middle of

<v Speaker 1>his run, his run's not even done yet, and I

<v Speaker 1>already have him as a what if? So La Night

<v Speaker 1>is one sosorrow is another sosorrow is like sand Out,

<v Speaker 1>not a guy who I think would have gone on

<v Speaker 1>to become a world champion and had like a long run.

<v Speaker 1>But in a company that had two world titles, could

<v Speaker 1>he have been World heavyweight champion and gotten a short

<v Speaker 1>run with it? Yes, and forget the title for a second.

<v Speaker 1>There was no reason that they could not have pushed

<v Speaker 1>him as one of Paul Hayman's guys and eventually tried

<v Speaker 1>to build to something with him in brock Lesner. I

<v Speaker 1>always felt like that was a missed opportunity not doing

<v Speaker 1>that match. I think you got to have mister Kennedy

<v Speaker 1>on that list, someone who should have had a lot

<v Speaker 1>more success than he did. I mean, he was over

<v Speaker 1>enough as a heel and I think he could have

<v Speaker 1>been a babyface where he would have been a big

<v Speaker 1>star for them, but things happened and it just didn't

<v Speaker 1>work out that way. So are those are some names

<v Speaker 1>that come to mind? And Jesse from Dallas, Texas? What

<v Speaker 1>is some of the worst merch that you can remember

<v Speaker 1>bwe ever producing? And have you watched the teasers for

<v Speaker 1>Avengers Doomsday and if so, what are your expectations for

<v Speaker 1>this movie. I have not seen the teasers, so I

<v Speaker 1>cannot comment on it, but oh, what a question. There

<v Speaker 1>have been so many bad shirts. You know. The absolute

<v Speaker 1>best worst shirt that they ever made, it has to

<v Speaker 1>be the APA one, always pounding ass, bar and grill.

<v Speaker 1>Find me one that's worse than that. It's the bar

<v Speaker 1>and grill part that really puts it over the top,

<v Speaker 1>Like there's an actual bar and grill somewhere out there

<v Speaker 1>where you can just start pounding ass. I would think

<v Speaker 1>that would be a health department violation myself. I would

<v Speaker 1>not want to eat at that place. But I mean,

<v Speaker 1>there's just there's so many of them. I remember the

<v Speaker 1>Sinkara one made them look like a giant penis. The

<v Speaker 1>test one test he had a shirt that said I

<v Speaker 1>love my testicles on the front. I gotta be careful,

<v Speaker 1>I shouldn't be saying that too loud, but yes, that

<v Speaker 1>was a real shirt that they saw. Imagine being a

<v Speaker 1>kid wearing that to school. Carlito had a shirt I

<v Speaker 1>remember it was yellow and it had an apple on

<v Speaker 1>It had an apple saying do you spit or swallow?

<v Speaker 1>There was a nevill shirt. The Nevill one was it

<v Speaker 1>was offensively bad just because of how lazy it was.

<v Speaker 1>There was nothing offensive on it. But I remember they

<v Speaker 1>did a shirt for him. They put so little effort

<v Speaker 1>into it. Even he called it out on Twitter. He

<v Speaker 1>called his own T shirt and atrocity. It was so bad.

<v Speaker 1>And then as far and I know you were asking

<v Speaker 1>for about WWE shirts, but I got to include this one,

<v Speaker 1>and it's an aw shirt. It is among the worst

<v Speaker 1>shirts that I have ever seen. It's the one with

<v Speaker 1>Britt Baker's face on it when she had a black eye. Like,

<v Speaker 1>who the fuck would walk around wearing that? Who would

<v Speaker 1>walk around with a shirt that just has this rectangle

<v Speaker 1>regular image of a woman on it with a black eye.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, given the state of the world right now,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure there were some fucking people out there who

<v Speaker 1>would love to walk around with a shirt like that.

<v Speaker 1>Those are enough people I care to associate myself with.

<v Speaker 1>But who would spend money on that? Who thought that

<v Speaker 1>was a good idea? We could probably do a whole

<v Speaker 1>show on nothing but just bad wrestling shirts. But those

<v Speaker 1>are the top ones that come to mind for me. Anyway,

<v Speaker 1>keep emailing me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you again for everyone who hung out with me

<v Speaker 1>and supported in a big way on the Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>stream last night. The full video full review is up

<v Speaker 1>on the YouTube channel right now and climbing rapidly towards

<v Speaker 1>forty thousand views, So thank you for that. Next time

<v Speaker 1>I'm Live with You is going to be actually back

<v Speaker 1>on YouTube tomorrow night. It's gonna be a big raw.

<v Speaker 1>It's the first raw coming out of the Royal Rumble.

<v Speaker 1>We'll see if anybody declares for the Rumble. Not that

<v Speaker 1>I'm expecting Roman to be there, but we'll see if

<v Speaker 1>anybody declares, and if anybody else pops up who maybe

<v Speaker 1>did not pop up in the Royal Rumble itself. But

<v Speaker 1>I'll be live for the full review normal time on YouTube,

<v Speaker 1>and then of course Tuesday Night Titans, we'll be talking

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble among other things on Tuesday night. Wednesday

<v Speaker 1>night on the channel will be the Dynamite Post Show,

<v Speaker 1>and they got a couple of big matches on that show.

<v Speaker 1>And then Friday night will be the first SmackDown coming

<v Speaker 1>out of the Rumble. And then back here with you

<v Speaker 1>next Sunday for episode nine. Fifty Holy shit, fifty more.

<v Speaker 1>We hit a thousand. It's getting close. We still got

<v Speaker 1>a little bit of time, but it's getting close, so

<v Speaker 1>what is that? Another year? All right? Fifty two weeks

<v Speaker 1>in a year, fifty more episodes to go. We'll get there,

<v Speaker 1>so that'll be next Sunday. Until then, be well, stay safe,

<v Speaker 1>have yourselves a great rest of your week. Bundle up

<v Speaker 1>wherever you may be. It is bitter cold here in

<v Speaker 1>New York. I think it's ten degrees outside. And then

<v Speaker 1>come on back next Sunday. We'll do it all over

<v Speaker 1>again for nine to fifty until then, take care, guys.

<v Speaker 1>The Solomons sounds off. Duffsvid says, why shouldn't you play

<v Speaker 1>poker with a plumber because a good flush beats a

<v Speaker 1>full house every time? And I give you a flood,

<v Speaker 1>he said, flushed. I had to give you a flash, Ashley,

<v Speaker 1>kind of what I'm dealing with right now. Actually, I

<v Speaker 1>have a toilet here that will not stop flushing. It's

<v Speaker 1>just going and going and going and going and going,

<v Speaker 1>and it will not stop. And I go, what the

<v Speaker 1>fuck am I supposed to do? So I turn the

<v Speaker 1>water off. I know how to do that, and I'm

<v Speaker 1>waiting for this plumber to return, and I have no idea,

<v Speaker 1>and I try to put the water back on and

<v Speaker 1>the flushing just continues. That's kind of annoying. Where's T. L.

<v Speaker 1>Hopper when you need it? The Solo Monster sounds off,

<v Speaker 1>bringing you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check

<v Speaker 1>out the weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and

<v Speaker 1>follow The Sola Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and X The

<v Speaker 1>Solo Monster. I love you so long.