<v Speaker 1>Hi wrestling fans, it's Tony Shavati. You're listening to Solo

<v Speaker 1>Monsters sounds off and we're desperately out of time. It's

<v Speaker 1>business time, baby, you are listening to solo Monsters sounds off.

<v Speaker 1>I love you, monster, dude. I want your soulier.

<v Speaker 2>You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter?

<v Speaker 1>Come over here is that pet Madison? You have legs?

<v Speaker 1>I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chested up.

<v Speaker 2>Now I have been begging him for a job on

<v Speaker 2>every every platform I can, and I want to know

<v Speaker 2>the reason why you won't hurt me.

<v Speaker 1>The Sandman is wrestling his final match in Las Vegas

<v Speaker 1>Wrestle Many a weekend on Joey Janella's Spring Break show,

<v Speaker 1>and his opponent is going to be none other than

<v Speaker 1>the Invisible Man who died seven years ago, just forty

<v Speaker 1>nine years of age, only to later be brought back

<v Speaker 1>to life. And he was brought back to the ring.

<v Speaker 1>He lost a ninety person match at last year's Spring

<v Speaker 1>Break show to a thirteen year old boy. So now

<v Speaker 1>he's wrestled a zombie and an invisible man. Can it

<v Speaker 1>really be any worse though? Than his match was? Saboo

<v Speaker 1>at that one November to remember pay per view. I

<v Speaker 1>don't remember what year it was. I doubt it would

<v Speaker 1>be any worse than that. That was pretty bad from

<v Speaker 1>what I remember. This is episode nine fifty one of

<v Speaker 1>the Solemn Monster Sounds up for Sunday, February fifteenth, twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty six. Oh what a week it was. I want

<v Speaker 1>to thank everybody for all of the very positive feedback

<v Speaker 1>to the big announcement on Tuesday that as of this

<v Speaker 1>past week, I am now hosting a brand new wrestling podcast.

<v Speaker 1>I have a lot of these, of course, the flagship

<v Speaker 1>you're listening to right now, but every Tuesday, every Tuesday evening,

<v Speaker 1>a new audio podcast dropping on the Ariel Helwani Show.

<v Speaker 1>Feed Ariel made the announcement. He's over in Lavigno, Italy

<v Speaker 1>right now covering the Winter Olympics. But he posted the

<v Speaker 1>announcement and had some very kind words for me, which

<v Speaker 1>I greatly appreciate. Yeah, we've been talking about this now

<v Speaker 1>for a while. I had to sit on this announcement

<v Speaker 1>before we can go public with it. But it was

<v Speaker 1>very exciting and very cool to get all of the

<v Speaker 1>feedback that I got. Hopefully we'll even get some new

<v Speaker 1>listeners here on the sound up, But anyway, that show

<v Speaker 1>is going to be covering the news in the world

<v Speaker 1>of wrestling, very similar to what you get here on

<v Speaker 1>the SoundOff. There will be some overlap with some of

<v Speaker 1>the top stories. There'll be some stuff I covered there

<v Speaker 1>that is not covered here, and we'll try to work

<v Speaker 1>some feedback and Q and A into that as well.

<v Speaker 1>It's meant to be kind of like a bite sized

<v Speaker 1>version of the sound Off for a new audience. But

<v Speaker 1>certainly hopefully you guys will migrate over there too and

<v Speaker 1>check out the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. It is a part

<v Speaker 1>of the Uncrowned Network, and y'all who's sports and very

<v Speaker 1>excited to begin a new era with a new family

<v Speaker 1>over there at Uncrowned. They've got a great team of

<v Speaker 1>great people and hopefully you will join us over there.

<v Speaker 1>But again, that's going to be dropping on Ariels feed.

<v Speaker 1>So he's got a bunch of other shows. A lot

<v Speaker 1>of them are MMA related. I know he's got a

<v Speaker 1>new boxing show that's going to be premiering very soon,

<v Speaker 1>and you need to have a wrestling component there because

<v Speaker 1>you got to serve the wrestling audience. That's where I

<v Speaker 1>come in, So just search for the Ariel Helwani show

<v Speaker 1>feed and you can subscribe there. And every Tuesday Tuesday evening.

<v Speaker 1>There's no set time, but it will drop. It has

<v Speaker 1>no effect on anything existing that I'm doing. It has

<v Speaker 1>no effect on Tuesday Night Titans. I will still be

<v Speaker 1>live on JD's channel every Tuesday night. We're killing it.

<v Speaker 1>We did almost fifty thousand views on that show a

<v Speaker 1>couple of weeks ago. We killed it again last week.

<v Speaker 1>That is not changing. That is not going anywhere. It's

<v Speaker 1>just more work on my plate and more solemn monster. Right.

<v Speaker 1>That's never a bad thing. Anyway. We got a lot

<v Speaker 1>to get into this week. If you would like to

<v Speaker 1>make make a PayPal donation, you may do so on

<v Speaker 1>the solomonster dot com ten dollars and more. We'll get

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

<v Speaker 1>thank you to Big B Bryant, Visera, the Diamond, Dallas

<v Speaker 1>Dance Machine, Harrison Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Portland

<v Speaker 1>Pop Star, Paul Hamilton, The Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis Shooting Star,

<v Speaker 1>Cynthia Taylor, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iicherd, Grinny the Great,

<v Speaker 1>I hope you're doing well. Night Stalker, nif Alsafar, Best

<v Speaker 1>in the Game, Trey Porter Killshot, Keith Hart I own

<v Speaker 1>corn farmer Jesse Lamfeir, who wanted to say thank you

<v Speaker 1>for recommending the VPN. He says, with the combo of

<v Speaker 1>Express VPN and Amazon Firestick, I now save one hundred

<v Speaker 1>and twenty bucks a monthly because I no longer need

<v Speaker 1>Hulu Live for WWEPL SmackDown and NXT. Hey look for

<v Speaker 1>a lot of people. It's a great deal and I

<v Speaker 1>have no complaints. Again, I legitimately use it myself every

<v Speaker 1>single week, not for all the wrestling shows I watch.

<v Speaker 1>I have found myself in recent weeks sometimes at RAW,

<v Speaker 1>I just I don't even care. I've got lazy with Raw.

<v Speaker 1>But I use it for SmackDown, I use it for

<v Speaker 1>other things. So again, take advantage of it. You know,

<v Speaker 1>there's a reason I've been working with them for so

<v Speaker 1>long and big time Boris Weinman, thank you for the

<v Speaker 1>kind words on the new gig with Uncrowned. I appreciate

<v Speaker 1>that this Friday, House of Glory returns home for our

<v Speaker 1>first show of the year at the NYC Arena in Queens.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, we had our Los Angeles premiere, our Hollywood

<v Speaker 1>premiere back on January thirtieth, and we are going to

<v Speaker 1>be coming back to La very soon, so keep your

<v Speaker 1>eyes peeled any day now. Actually, we're going to be

<v Speaker 1>making that announcement and I intend to be there this time.

<v Speaker 1>But this is our first New York City show of

<v Speaker 1>the year, no turning back. Friday Night, February twentieth with

<v Speaker 1>the AEW World Champion and still MJF he will be

<v Speaker 1>in action. Charles Mason will defend the Hog World Championship

<v Speaker 1>against Andrede l Idelo and Lance Anawai. You might have

<v Speaker 1>seen some of this drama on social media this week.

<v Speaker 1>Lance a Awai he pulled out of his match that

<v Speaker 1>was previously announced with Zilla fought too, for reasons that, frankly,

<v Speaker 1>are still unclear to me. I know he's been messing

<v Speaker 1>with Zilla's head over the last few months, and Zilla

<v Speaker 1>is pissed off at him. He wants to get his

<v Speaker 1>hands on him in the worst way. You know, Lance

<v Speaker 1>is saying he's gotten threatening messages from him, voicemails. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he doesn't feel safe, all kinds of nonsense. So I

<v Speaker 1>responded to him this week, and I made it very

<v Speaker 1>clear if he's not going to show up on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>and I would advise still that he does. But if

<v Speaker 1>he does not show up on Friday, Zilla is going

<v Speaker 1>to have a major match on that show. And I

<v Speaker 1>have decided on an opponent. The match is made and

<v Speaker 1>it is going to be announced shortly possibly and by

<v Speaker 1>the time you are listening to this, this is not

<v Speaker 1>going to be a show that you are going to

<v Speaker 1>want to miss. Trust me, It's a seven pm start time,

<v Speaker 1>not eight pm. So usually it's eight pm. This is

<v Speaker 1>a seven o'clock start time, So be aware that Live

<v Speaker 1>on Triller TV plus. Limited tickets are still available at

<v Speaker 1>hog Wrestling dot Net. Because I will be at the show,

<v Speaker 1>there will be no SmackDown review on YouTube this Friday,

<v Speaker 1>So I'll get you all caught up on my thoughts

<v Speaker 1>next Sunday here on the soundof And I also want

<v Speaker 1>to just to remind everybody that kind of pop in

<v Speaker 1>here every now and then with a reminder about Audible.

<v Speaker 1>You can still get yourself a free book Brett Hart's

<v Speaker 1>book Hitman, My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>now on Audible twenty five hours of narration from the

<v Speaker 1>Hitman himself, maybe the greatest wrestling book ever written. You

<v Speaker 1>can order the book for free when you use my

<v Speaker 1>link to sign up for a thirty day trial audibletrial

<v Speaker 1>dot com, slash Sola Monster. And if you're an Amazon

<v Speaker 1>price I remember I do believe that you are entitled

<v Speaker 1>to two free books, so if you have not yet

<v Speaker 1>taken advantage of this offer, it is still available to you.

<v Speaker 1>The Brett Hart book is one of many that you

<v Speaker 1>could cash in on for free, but I would highly

<v Speaker 1>recommend it again. Audibletrial dot Com, slash Sla Monster. I

<v Speaker 1>watched aw Grand Slam Australia last night Valentine's Day. I

<v Speaker 1>was live on YouTube. If you want the full video review,

<v Speaker 1>it is up for your viewing pleasure. But it was

<v Speaker 1>a special episode of Collision. Last year they did thirteen

<v Speaker 1>thousand fans in Brisbane. This year they were down to

<v Speaker 1>seven thousand in Sydney in a much bigger venue. I

<v Speaker 1>thought last year's show is excellent. I thought this year's

<v Speaker 1>show it was an easy two and a half hours

<v Speaker 1>to watch. It was basically a glorified dynamite with some

<v Speaker 1>title matches on it. Although we had more title matches

<v Speaker 1>on the actual Dynamite on Wednesday than we did last night.

<v Speaker 1>We had none, but there were no major angles or

<v Speaker 1>anything like that. No, nothing major in that regard. Very

<v Speaker 1>much like a Saturday Night's main event for them before

<v Speaker 1>their next pay per view. If you missed the show,

<v Speaker 1>you know you missed some good wrestling, but not much else.

<v Speaker 1>At least we didn't get any complaints about the ring

<v Speaker 1>this year. Remember last year the ring was back to

<v Speaker 1>its normal size this year. They also ran a rare

<v Speaker 1>house show in Brisbane earlier today that featured the debut

<v Speaker 1>of The Inspiration Cassie Lee and Jess McKay. They dropped

<v Speaker 1>their Knockouts tag team titles in TNA to the Elegance

<v Speaker 1>brand and they ended up signing here. Tony Khan chose

<v Speaker 1>to debut them here as a surprise for the locals.

<v Speaker 1>I mean normally, if this was like a really big

<v Speaker 1>name that he had signed and he debuted them off

<v Speaker 1>TV at a house show, I would say what are

<v Speaker 1>you doing? But I mean in this case, it's the Inspiration,

<v Speaker 1>Like you know, we had to save it as a

<v Speaker 1>surprise for the locals. Fine, they won a quick match,

<v Speaker 1>then they issued an open challenge, which brought out the

<v Speaker 1>Brawling Birds that's the new team name for Jamie Hayter

<v Speaker 1>and Alex Windsor, and when they came out, the Inspiration bailed.

<v Speaker 1>Look are they the best tag team out there? No,

<v Speaker 1>They're not not even close. But they have a women's

<v Speaker 1>tag team division now, and they at least bring something

<v Speaker 1>different to the product as far as the comedy stuff

<v Speaker 1>that they do. So if you want a little variety,

<v Speaker 1>you know, I guess they bring that, But I don't

<v Speaker 1>see Tony being gaga for them to where they get

<v Speaker 1>heavily pushed or anything like that. You know, if he

<v Speaker 1>uses them to put over existing teams that they have,

<v Speaker 1>then that's fine, and frankly, I would rather he sticks

<v Speaker 1>the inspiration in the tag team division and not someone

<v Speaker 1>like Jamie Hayter, who should be contending for the TBS

<v Speaker 1>title at least, if not the world title. Well. One

<v Speaker 1>of the other matches on the House Show earlier was

<v Speaker 1>a trios match with Hangman, Adam Page, Brody King and

<v Speaker 1>Robbie Eagles against MJF and the Reunited Aussie Open. Mark

<v Speaker 1>Davis got his old tag team partner back for one night,

<v Speaker 1>which is good. Because the update on his new tag

<v Speaker 1>team partner is not great, at least not for Mark Davis.

<v Speaker 1>Fightful Select reported this week that Jake Doyle, the former

<v Speaker 1>Jake Something, is recovering after undergoing successful surgery for a

<v Speaker 1>torn biceps suffered during a tag team title match with

<v Speaker 1>FTR on Dynamite a few weeks ago. That was back

<v Speaker 1>on January twenty eighth. Do you remember there was a

<v Speaker 1>spot during that match Doyle and Cash Wheeler were out

<v Speaker 1>on the apron and Doyle took a DDT he held

<v Speaker 1>onto the top row as he was going down for

<v Speaker 1>the move, and that is where the injury happened. He

<v Speaker 1>immediately grabbed the arm and he looked up at Wheeler.

<v Speaker 1>He said, I tore my bicep. Like he knew right away.

<v Speaker 1>He knew instantly, and unfortunately that was confirmed later on.

<v Speaker 1>So he had surgery, which means he's gonna be out

<v Speaker 1>for a while. He's gonna be out for many months.

<v Speaker 1>So Mark Davis is without a tag team partner, but

<v Speaker 1>at least for one night, he got his old partner back.

<v Speaker 1>On the Grand Slam card, John Moxley defended the Continental

<v Speaker 1>title against Kenoski to Keshen and I thought there might

<v Speaker 1>be a title change here, but I had an I

<v Speaker 1>towards Takashdan Okada Revolution because by the time he gets

<v Speaker 1>a Revolution, it will have been several months since they

<v Speaker 1>had that first match in the Continental Classic, so you

<v Speaker 1>would imagine, Okay, the next pay per view isn't until

<v Speaker 1>March fifteenth. Their last match was in December, all right,

<v Speaker 1>you can kind of build it up for Revolution, and

<v Speaker 1>it sure doesn't look like that's the match that we're

<v Speaker 1>going to be getting here because these two went to

<v Speaker 1>a time limit draw twenty minutes. An ex Caliber pointed

<v Speaker 1>out on commentary just to clarify twenty minute time limit

<v Speaker 1>for these Continental title matches on TV, sixty minutes on

<v Speaker 1>pay per view, and I said, hmm, interesting that he

<v Speaker 1>would point that out. So then we got a time

<v Speaker 1>limit draw. On the fans, of course, we're not very

<v Speaker 1>happy about that. They were going nuts for the last

<v Speaker 1>like thirty seconds of this match with all the time

<v Speaker 1>calls and everything, and they wanted a winner, so they

<v Speaker 1>were not happy they didn't get one. Takesha ended up

<v Speaker 1>laying him out with a raging fire after the match.

<v Speaker 1>Clearly we are going to get this one more time.

<v Speaker 1>It seems to me that that match would happen at Revolution.

<v Speaker 1>So it looks to me like we're getting John Moxley

<v Speaker 1>into Cashday in Los Angeles and I'm watching this and

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, is Tony gonna make us wait until Wembley

<v Speaker 1>in August to circle back to Takeshta and Okada, Like

<v Speaker 1>I can understand him looking at that and going, you

<v Speaker 1>know what, in the way that Okada and Omega in

<v Speaker 1>that big unification match was a big deal all in

<v Speaker 1>in Texas last year, right, this could be a big

<v Speaker 1>deal for Wembley at all in this year, which is

<v Speaker 1>a month later than it was last year, by the way.

<v Speaker 1>But we gotta wait until August if that's the idea here,

<v Speaker 1>because I think when we eventually get that match, Takesha

<v Speaker 1>is the Continental champion, Ocata is still the International champion,

<v Speaker 1>and they have a unification match, and whoever wins, which

<v Speaker 1>should be Takeshta, they would bring back the unified title

<v Speaker 1>that they created, which is now sitting on a shelf

<v Speaker 1>collecting dust somewhere. But that's the vibe I'm getting out

<v Speaker 1>of this now. The Revolution is going to be Takeshta

<v Speaker 1>and Moxley, and maybe he wins the belt there and

<v Speaker 1>I guess possibly holds off until all In. Again, that's

<v Speaker 1>just me spitballing here, but that was the vibe that

<v Speaker 1>I got from watching this. And if I have to

<v Speaker 1>wait until August to get that next match between these two,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna be very happy about this. We had

<v Speaker 1>the Babes of Wrath retaining their aw tag team titles

<v Speaker 1>over Meghan Bain and Penelope Forward, and the match was fine.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it was decent enough, But the story here

<v Speaker 1>came after the match where we had the debut of

<v Speaker 1>Lena Cross in Australia, indie wrestler who has traveled the world.

<v Speaker 1>And I can tell you we have had Lena Cross.

<v Speaker 1>It was only one time, but we had her in

<v Speaker 1>House of Glory for a match a couple of years ago,

<v Speaker 1>and ironically it was against Meghan Bain and they had

<v Speaker 1>a hell of a match. And so I started watching

<v Speaker 1>more of her work, and even in preparation for that show,

<v Speaker 1>I was really, you know, kind of studying up on her,

<v Speaker 1>watching her matches. She's very impressive. This is a good signing.

<v Speaker 1>This is a solid, rock solid signing here for this

<v Speaker 1>women's division. I am just bewildered by the way in

<v Speaker 1>which they debuted her. Now I can understand Tony wanting

<v Speaker 1>to debut her here in Australia, but to do so

<v Speaker 1>when the match was over and Megabet had already lost,

<v Speaker 1>because I think that they should have done a title

<v Speaker 1>change here, and so it would have made total sense

<v Speaker 1>if Lena Cross showed up and factored into the finish

<v Speaker 1>in some way and she helped Megabet win the tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles. Instead, she just kind of showed up when

<v Speaker 1>the match was over and then the heels all pose

<v Speaker 1>with the belts that didn't belong to them. So maybe

<v Speaker 1>that's the end goal here, is to get the belts

<v Speaker 1>on them. But I would have done the title change

<v Speaker 1>here on this show and it would have made her

<v Speaker 1>debut more impactful that way. So that was very strange

<v Speaker 1>to me. But yeah, Lena Cross is a signing in

<v Speaker 1>that women's division. That is that is a good signing.

<v Speaker 1>I like that Orange Cassidy. In Timeless Tony Storm, they

<v Speaker 1>got a win over Wheeler Youda and Marina Shafir Dah

<v Speaker 1>took the losing fall, so he was shaved mostly bald.

<v Speaker 1>That was the stipulation the loser of the fall gets

<v Speaker 1>shaved bald, so you'd got a haircut, which he desperately needed.

<v Speaker 1>So this was like the comedy relief on the show

<v Speaker 1>we got. We got more intergender action than I thought

<v Speaker 1>we would get here. In this match. There was a

<v Speaker 1>big spot where you gave Tony a pile driver on

<v Speaker 1>top of a i think an equipment case in the crowd.

<v Speaker 1>But that's you know again, the people wanted to see

<v Speaker 1>somebody get their head shaved, preferably someone from the Death Riders.

<v Speaker 1>The fans were happy that they got to see it.

<v Speaker 1>We had Hangman Page handing Andred l Idelo his first

<v Speaker 1>defeat since returning to AW and this was a very

<v Speaker 1>good match. I think it could have used more time.

<v Speaker 1>I usually complained about the opposite Usually matches on some

<v Speaker 1>of these big shows get too much time. In this case,

<v Speaker 1>if this was on pay per view, like if this

<v Speaker 1>was a Revolution match, they would have easily gotten five

<v Speaker 1>to ten more minutes and I would not have complained

<v Speaker 1>at all, Like it just felt like they were about

<v Speaker 1>to hit that next gear and then the match ended.

<v Speaker 1>So I think another five to seven matches would have helped.

<v Speaker 1>But Hangman gets to win. I'm not surprised. It's the

<v Speaker 1>reason why I picked him to win here. And I

<v Speaker 1>know some people you know, are gonna be upset about

<v Speaker 1>that because they're tired of Hangman MJF. It's been done before,

<v Speaker 1>Androt would have been fresh, he's been undefeated. You keep

<v Speaker 1>the momentum going. My hope is that Tony Kah does

<v Speaker 1>keep the momentum going because Androte is putting in the

<v Speaker 1>best work of his career right now. There's no reason

<v Speaker 1>for it to end just because he lost one match.

<v Speaker 1>But the story is with Hangman. They're the ones with

<v Speaker 1>the history, right. I mean again, everything was set up

<v Speaker 1>to where nobody should be terribly surprised by the outcome here.

<v Speaker 1>Believe me, I would have been fine if andrede one,

<v Speaker 1>But it makes sense to me that Hangman is the

<v Speaker 1>one to go on because now he becomes number one

<v Speaker 1>contender at Revolution for the AW World title. The story

<v Speaker 1>is with them. However, I do have one big ripe.

<v Speaker 1>What I do not like is having Hangman page as

<v Speaker 1>one third of the Trio's champions, challenging now for the

<v Speaker 1>AW World title, which is where his focus is going

<v Speaker 1>to be and should be. They did the same thing

<v Speaker 1>with Samoa Joe Right, he had multiple titles. I don't

<v Speaker 1>like jetsby talking about going after the aw tag team

<v Speaker 1>titles because they comprise the other two thirds of the

<v Speaker 1>Trios champions. They already have belts, but they're talking about

<v Speaker 1>other belts. What I don't like is Willow Nightingale as

<v Speaker 1>TBS champion when she's already won half of the women's

<v Speaker 1>tag team champions. Think about how many people they have

<v Speaker 1>on this roster, and he is continuing to sign more

<v Speaker 1>and more With all of the people on this bloated roster,

<v Speaker 1>why do we need to constantly have people holding championships

<v Speaker 1>simultaneously like this? Like why is this a thing? I mean,

<v Speaker 1>we're not just talking about one person, this is multiple

<v Speaker 1>people now. It's just it's an annoying habit that Tony has.

<v Speaker 1>I wish he would stop. Kyle Fletcher. He retained the

<v Speaker 1>TNT title in a ladder match with Mark Briscoe. This

<v Speaker 1>was after taking the title from Tamaso Champa on Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>Wednesday Night. Champion did not have very long with that TNT.

<v Speaker 1>I said, t TNT Championship, and I love the way

<v Speaker 1>that they debuted him and his presentation and everything. I

<v Speaker 1>can't say enough good things about the way they introduced him.

<v Speaker 1>Taking the title away from him this quickly and almost

<v Speaker 1>shuffling him off to the side. That made me scratch.

<v Speaker 1>I had especially because you could have done a time

<v Speaker 1>limit draw with them on Wednesday, run the match back

<v Speaker 1>last night. They would have had a kick ass match,

<v Speaker 1>ladder batch or no ladder match in Australia. And if

<v Speaker 1>you wanted you know, Fletcher to have his crowning moment

<v Speaker 1>in his home country, he still could have walked out

<v Speaker 1>as the TNT champion, but at least that it would

<v Speaker 1>have given you know, the two of them this big

<v Speaker 1>blowoff match to have after having what I thought was

<v Speaker 1>the best television match of the year so far on Wednesday.

<v Speaker 1>So in this match here, I mean there were some

<v Speaker 1>brutal bumps. I mean there was a Jade driller onto

<v Speaker 1>a ladder. There was a brainbuster by Fletcher off of

<v Speaker 1>a ladder. I wish these spots had more time to

<v Speaker 1>marinate and breathe instead of just quickly moving on to

<v Speaker 1>the next. And yeah, I could say that, well they

<v Speaker 1>were on TV. They only got you know whatever, the

<v Speaker 1>twelve thirteen minutes. They were limited on time, so they

<v Speaker 1>had to move on to the next But let's not

<v Speaker 1>pretend that even if this was on pay per view

<v Speaker 1>and they got twenty two minutes, that we wouldn't have

<v Speaker 1>had the same thing where you just kind of move

<v Speaker 1>on from one spot to the next. That's the thing

<v Speaker 1>about these ladder batches. So that and the anti climactic

<v Speaker 1>finish are really the only critiques I have about this.

<v Speaker 1>The way they did that finish where they were both

<v Speaker 1>on a ladder, separate ladders, and Fletcher very slowly, you know,

<v Speaker 1>tipped over. He tilted the ladder that Briscoe was on,

<v Speaker 1>and brisco took a very like slow motion fall off

<v Speaker 1>the ladder. And it wasn't like a super tall ladder

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that, but he just fell off the

<v Speaker 1>ladder and you know, he got draped over the top

<v Speaker 1>rope and he was down on the mat. Now, by

<v Speaker 1>the standards of what we see in these even in

<v Speaker 1>this match, I'm like, that's the finish that was. That

<v Speaker 1>was very anti climactic, and then Fletcher just pulled down

<v Speaker 1>the title. So he remains TNT champion. What's next for

<v Speaker 1>Tomasso Champa, I don't know, but I hope they have

<v Speaker 1>something decent for him, preferably as a heel, because I

<v Speaker 1>think that's where he really shines and does his best work.

<v Speaker 1>But I floated this idea in the review last night.

<v Speaker 1>You know, could we be headed Maybe not right now,

<v Speaker 1>but could we be headed for Andrade going after the

<v Speaker 1>TNT title. Yeah, we talk about keeping the momentum up

<v Speaker 1>with Shampa. Just say the same thing about Andrade. He

<v Speaker 1>lost last night, but that doesn't mean that he can't

<v Speaker 1>keep putting in this great body of work he's been

<v Speaker 1>putting in and being in meaningful matches on TV. He

<v Speaker 1>should be wrestling for a championship. And if it's not

<v Speaker 1>going to be the world title, the TNT title is

<v Speaker 1>one step below. And now they're both members of the

<v Speaker 1>Callus family, so that could present some interesting problems there.

<v Speaker 1>It seems to me like they are trending in the

<v Speaker 1>direction of Fletcher. I don't know how deep into the future,

<v Speaker 1>but splitting away from the Callous family and going babyface,

<v Speaker 1>they could use that as a way to get there,

<v Speaker 1>as a means to get there and build to Andrade

<v Speaker 1>and Fletcher again. I don't know if that's revolution or

<v Speaker 1>if it's a few months from now. That's a direction

<v Speaker 1>I would definitely explore, and then we had Brodie King

<v Speaker 1>MJF for the AAW World Championship in the main event.

<v Speaker 1>We actually got a proper match here between these two,

<v Speaker 1>not a sixty second squash. I was hoping that maybe

<v Speaker 1>possibly we would see Buddy Matthews back here on this show,

<v Speaker 1>you know, even if just to be out there to

<v Speaker 1>cheer on his friend Brody King. We have not seen

<v Speaker 1>Buddy Matthews in a year. It was actually on this

<v Speaker 1>show a year ago where he injured his ankle and

<v Speaker 1>it ended up being a far worse injury than anybody

<v Speaker 1>thought at the beginning. I know he's had some complications.

<v Speaker 1>I haven't been following every single update on his social media.

<v Speaker 1>I've seen some of them, but I was kind of

<v Speaker 1>hoping that men, maybe you know, they're just keeping it

<v Speaker 1>hush hush, and they've been waiting for this next Australia

<v Speaker 1>show and he would show up, and maybe they would

<v Speaker 1>even shoot an angle where he factored into Brody King

<v Speaker 1>losing this match, and you could do something with Brody

<v Speaker 1>and Buddy. Buddy was never even mentioned. He wasn't there. Obviously,

<v Speaker 1>He's still not anywhere near one hundred percent. I wish him. Well,

<v Speaker 1>Bandido was there, although he didn't show up until midway

<v Speaker 1>into the match. He ran out to be cheerleader for

<v Speaker 1>brody King because MJF was working over his knee and

<v Speaker 1>they were telling that story. So Bandido comes out and

<v Speaker 1>he's banging on the mat and he's cheerleading for him,

<v Speaker 1>and Bendido's got a brace on his or sleeve whatever

<v Speaker 1>it was, on his left hand. He has a hand

<v Speaker 1>injury that he's been dealing with. So they had a

<v Speaker 1>good match. It was a good main event. I could

<v Speaker 1>actually say the same thing about the finish here, where

<v Speaker 1>it kind of came off as anti climactic, where, you know,

<v Speaker 1>for all the stuff they were doing to each other,

<v Speaker 1>dropping each other on their heads and whatnot, the MJF

<v Speaker 1>hit a heat seeker and then just pinned him. But again,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, once Hangman became number one contender, not that

<v Speaker 1>we didn't already know. You know that MJF was not

<v Speaker 1>losing his championship to brody King, But I mean once

<v Speaker 1>Hangman became number one contender, it was preordained, like we

<v Speaker 1>knew where this was going here, and so MJF retains

<v Speaker 1>the title. Hangman comes out with a contract for Revolution

<v Speaker 1>signs it, so I guess we don't have to worry

<v Speaker 1>about a contract signing, although we are getting a face

<v Speaker 1>to face on TV this week between them and so

<v Speaker 1>now the main event of Revolution has been set. So

<v Speaker 1>Brody loses, but he won more than he lost with

<v Speaker 1>all of the attention that he got this week, and

<v Speaker 1>we got to talk about this Dave Meltzer report that

<v Speaker 1>caused a colossal shit storm to the point where Warner

<v Speaker 1>Brothers Discovery felt the need to respond to it. On

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite last Wednesday. Brodi King was not on the show

<v Speaker 1>but for a video package hyping up his match with MJF,

<v Speaker 1>and MJF was not on the show either. He was

<v Speaker 1>in the video package as well. And Hangman wasn't there,

<v Speaker 1>and Andrede wasn't there, So it's not like Brody King

<v Speaker 1>was the only one missing from the show. Will O

<v Speaker 1>Nightingale and Harley Camberon they weren't there either because ex

<v Speaker 1>Caliber said they had already flown to Australia, which is

<v Speaker 1>why they weren't there to help Chris Statlander and her

<v Speaker 1>loss TECHLA. So I didn't think anything of it. I

<v Speaker 1>just reasonably assumed they had all either left for Australia

<v Speaker 1>and they were in flight or they were already down there.

<v Speaker 1>But later that night on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer

<v Speaker 1>suggested that Brody King was intentionally held off the show

<v Speaker 1>by Warner Brothers Discovery, which seems to be wielding an

<v Speaker 1>awful lot of power lately. If you believe the Train

<v Speaker 1>Miguel story that they didn't want him on their networks

<v Speaker 1>when they signed the Rascals, and even that story doesn't

<v Speaker 1>really hold up to scrutiny when you really look at

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's possible, but I think it's more likely

<v Speaker 1>that somebody in that company just didn't want Train me

<v Speaker 1>Gel working there. But then Dave says that it was

<v Speaker 1>a WBD call not to have Brody on the show

<v Speaker 1>after the crowd in Las Vegas the week before broke

<v Speaker 1>into anti Ice Chance before his match with MJF. According

<v Speaker 1>to Dave, Warner Brothers Discovery were worried, The people that

<v Speaker 1>worked there were worried about the prospect of more Chance,

<v Speaker 1>and they didn't want to upset the president because of

<v Speaker 1>the pending acquisition of the company by Netflix. By the way,

<v Speaker 1>Paramount Skydance sweetened its existing offer for the company this

<v Speaker 1>week it had not budged from its offer of thirty

<v Speaker 1>dollars per share, and they really still haven't, but they

<v Speaker 1>have sweetened it up in other ways. This is the

<v Speaker 1>point in the relationship where the other person takes out

<v Speaker 1>a restraining order because they now fear for their life.

<v Speaker 1>It gets more and more embarrassing for them by the week.

<v Speaker 1>But if the Netflix deal is to go through, it's

<v Speaker 1>going to need regulatory approval, and if anybody should get

<v Speaker 1>all up in their feelings, it could scuttle the Netflix deal.

<v Speaker 1>But this is what Dave said. The deal is that

<v Speaker 1>they didn't want the fans in the arena to be

<v Speaker 1>chanting that if Brody came out, there was that risk

<v Speaker 1>when he comes back, it will happen again. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know how they're going to handle it. This is again

<v Speaker 1>not a Tony call. This is from above. Again with this,

<v Speaker 1>it came from above. I just laugh every time I

<v Speaker 1>hear him say that or I read that. He said,

<v Speaker 1>you know what it is, nobody wants to get on

<v Speaker 1>Trump's bad side. If it wasn't for that, nobody would care.

<v Speaker 1>It's just a chant. But unfortunately they've got a company

<v Speaker 1>they're trying to sell and get regulatory approval from a

<v Speaker 1>guy who is going to take that stuff personal. That's

<v Speaker 1>just how it is. No brody King on the show

<v Speaker 1>when he absolutely, of course brody King and MJF should

<v Speaker 1>have had a segment on the show. Sean Ross Sappa.

<v Speaker 1>Fightful then refuted this, saying the rumors that brody King

<v Speaker 1>was kept off Dynamite by WBD were vehemently denied to me.

<v Speaker 1>Andrewsarian of The Matman Podcast echoed Shawn's tweet, saying I

<v Speaker 1>can piggyback on this. I reached out to WBD contacts

<v Speaker 1>and they had not heard of anything regarding this. Fightful

<v Speaker 1>was then given an official statement from Warner Brothers Discovery

<v Speaker 1>they actually had to respond to this shit, saying Warner

<v Speaker 1>b Other's Discovery did not have any involvement in brody

<v Speaker 1>King's upcoming AW schedule. Any speculations to the contrary is

<v Speaker 1>categorically false. Brody is scheduled to appear during the next

<v Speaker 1>AW event, which will air this Saturday on TNT and

<v Speaker 1>HBO Max So. Brandon Thurston of Post Wrestling, who was

<v Speaker 1>given the same statement when they reached out to WBD,

<v Speaker 1>followed up by asking, you know, hey, some might interpret

<v Speaker 1>you saying Brody's upcoming schedule kind of leaves open the

<v Speaker 1>possibility that you did prevent him from appearing this week.

<v Speaker 1>And the spokesperson said that their denial includes yesterday's show,

<v Speaker 1>while emphasizing that the report is quote categorically false. You

<v Speaker 1>know a lot of times we hear reports about WBD this,

<v Speaker 1>WBD that, and we never get any actual statement or

<v Speaker 1>feedback from WBD. This is one of those rare occasions

<v Speaker 1>where they responded, and they were pretty adamant in their

<v Speaker 1>denial of the entire thing. And last night, before Brody's

<v Speaker 1>match with MJF, the fans in Australia, they broke out

<v Speaker 1>into the same chant as the fans in Las Vegas,

<v Speaker 1>and they were not edited out of the show. Now,

<v Speaker 1>there was a noticeable jump cut right before the match

<v Speaker 1>started where it looked like they may have cut out

<v Speaker 1>some of the chants. But if it was such a

<v Speaker 1>problem for them, they would have had the power to

<v Speaker 1>edit them out of the show entirely or just mute

<v Speaker 1>the audio. Again, it was a tape show that aired

<v Speaker 1>last night and they didn't do that. Now. Meltzer, for

<v Speaker 1>his part, later tweeted those at aw have said. Nobody

<v Speaker 1>from WBD asked them not to use brody King on

<v Speaker 1>last night's show, and this was just how it was booked,

<v Speaker 1>to only use him in a video package. We had

<v Speaker 1>heard over the weekend that there were concerns about how

<v Speaker 1>much pub the situation had gotten from the WBD side,

<v Speaker 1>but those at AW said that they were not told

<v Speaker 1>not to put him on the show. So after the

<v Speaker 1>official denial from WBD, Dave then tweeted, so this corrects

<v Speaker 1>the report from last night. It had been a topic

<v Speaker 1>of conversation over the weekend. Yes, it corrects the report

<v Speaker 1>that he put out there. It's like the time he

<v Speaker 1>fell for the fake backlash posters saying backlash was coming

<v Speaker 1>to the Tokyo Dome last year, so he reported it

<v Speaker 1>and it started to spread, only to later tweet that

<v Speaker 1>he can confirm backlash is not coming to the Tokyo Dome. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>because you tweeted it. The false report came from him,

<v Speaker 1>only to then turn around to be the first to

<v Speaker 1>report that it wasn't true. Right, Or the time that

<v Speaker 1>he wrote a whole paragraph in The Observer which he

<v Speaker 1>later deleted because it ain't there though no more. But

<v Speaker 1>this was before WrestleMania forty when they were teasing on

<v Speaker 1>screen issues and tension between The Rock and Triple H,

<v Speaker 1>and he reported that they filmed a segment. He had

<v Speaker 1>watched a segment that they filmed with the two of

<v Speaker 1>them going nose to nose, cutting promos on each other

<v Speaker 1>in preparation for a potential match, a match with Triple H,

<v Speaker 1>who has a defibrillator implanted in his chest after he

<v Speaker 1>almost died. I'm reading his description of this segment, and

<v Speaker 1>I realize someone tweeted him or shared in some way

<v Speaker 1>with him a video of a backstage segment from an

<v Speaker 1>episode of SmackDown in twenty fourteen. Now, how that happened?

<v Speaker 1>I have no fucking idea, because it's bad enough. Like,

<v Speaker 1>if you look in the background, there's a two K

<v Speaker 1>fifteen poster on the wall. Why the hell would they

<v Speaker 1>be advertising two K fifteen here in whatever year? This

<v Speaker 1>would have been twenty twenty four, But it's not like

<v Speaker 1>they even looked the same. It was ten years ago.

<v Speaker 1>But he mistook it as a recent segment. And look,

<v Speaker 1>people make mistakes. I make mistakes. No one bats a thousand,

<v Speaker 1>but those are some massive mistakes for someone in his position.

<v Speaker 1>Who has been doing this for forty plus years. His

<v Speaker 1>words carry weight him reporting that could have an impact

<v Speaker 1>on Brody King's career, and you could have a positive

<v Speaker 1>effect if fans rally behind him for it, or it

<v Speaker 1>could have a negative impact on his career. If it

<v Speaker 1>gets to a point now where it does become an

<v Speaker 1>issue for WBD and it affects Tony's ability, then to

<v Speaker 1>use him on TV, that would be bad. But it

<v Speaker 1>shouldn't come as the result of something erroneous that Dave reported.

<v Speaker 1>That's the point I doubt Brody cares since it only

<v Speaker 1>draws more attention to something that he obviously is very

<v Speaker 1>passionate about. And I also don't blame him for going

<v Speaker 1>out there and expressing himself on TV because it is

<v Speaker 1>something that his boss allows him to do. Tony Khan

<v Speaker 1>gives his wrestlers, however you feel about it, the freedom

<v Speaker 1>to express themselves openly in ways that wrestlers in other

<v Speaker 1>companies cannot. So instead they post videos on social media,

<v Speaker 1>like Becky Lynch did a few weeks ago in character

<v Speaker 1>she's walking outside in the cold saying that she hates ice.

<v Speaker 1>It's very dangerous and it hurts people. She said Tony

<v Speaker 1>has no issue with it, so Brody is free to

<v Speaker 1>express himself however he chooses, so long as it isn't

<v Speaker 1>overly vulgar, and if it bothers you that much, then

<v Speaker 1>wear earplugs or don't watch the product. I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what to tell you. It is a choice

<v Speaker 1>that Tony Khan has made as far as how he

<v Speaker 1>wants to run his company. And one day when a

<v Speaker 1>wrestler says something or he wears a shirt on TV

<v Speaker 1>that pisses off the wrong people, then they won't be

<v Speaker 1>so free to express themselves anymore. But Dave claiming that

<v Speaker 1>WBD is basically trying to silence this man. If enough

<v Speaker 1>people think, hey, wait a minute, they don't want us

<v Speaker 1>to do it, well, then shit, we're gonna have to

<v Speaker 1>do it even more now, right. I mean, it's like

<v Speaker 1>you tell someone they can't do something. What do you

<v Speaker 1>think they're gonna do? As big as this blew up

<v Speaker 1>on Thursday? You know, everywhere Brody King goes, they're gonna

<v Speaker 1>follow him around. I mean, they were chanting in Australia

<v Speaker 1>and just look at the schedule that they have coming up.

<v Speaker 1>They're in California. Each of the next three weeks leading

<v Speaker 1>up to Revolution, which is in Los Angeles, and then

<v Speaker 1>they're in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the end of March.

<v Speaker 1>It's not going away, and neither is Brody. He cut

<v Speaker 1>a promo after the show last night saying that he's

<v Speaker 1>getting back into the world title hunt, not this week,

<v Speaker 1>but next Wednesday, the twenty fifth. He's going to be

<v Speaker 1>back on Dynamite looking for a fight. So I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I took that to me, and he's not going to

<v Speaker 1>be on the show this week. For aw They've gotten

<v Speaker 1>a ton of mainstream publicity out of all this, including

<v Speaker 1>a long article on the CNN website on Saturday about

<v Speaker 1>wrestling and politics, and Brody King is the focal point

<v Speaker 1>of their story. I hate that I even have to

<v Speaker 1>talk about this stuff here because everything is politicized these days.

<v Speaker 1>Even things that should not inherently be political end up

<v Speaker 1>being turned into a political football, which is why I

<v Speaker 1>don't get into this stuff here. But whether Dave just

<v Speaker 1>made an assumption or he got bad information from someone,

<v Speaker 1>it's a bad look for him either way. I actually

<v Speaker 1>listened to the segment on Observer Radio. I didn't just

<v Speaker 1>read the aggregated reports about it. People pick and choose

<v Speaker 1>quotes from it. Or sometimes somebody says something and you

<v Speaker 1>can't get the full context unless you hear the way

<v Speaker 1>in which they said it. Sometimes somebody says something humorous

<v Speaker 1>and then you read it and you take it seriously.

<v Speaker 1>So sometimes it's important to go back and watch or

<v Speaker 1>listen to the actual segment to get the full context.

<v Speaker 1>Because the subject that just came up naturally in the

<v Speaker 1>course of him and Brian Alvarez discussing dynamite, so I

<v Speaker 1>listened to it. It was pretty clear Dave was not

<v Speaker 1>just giving his opinion, he was reporting on it like

<v Speaker 1>it was fact. And it's one thing to say that

<v Speaker 1>it was a topic of conversation over the weekend, but

<v Speaker 1>it's another to suggest, well, this is the reason why

<v Speaker 1>he was not on the show on Wednesday. It's not

<v Speaker 1>even an outrageous conclusion to reach, you know, given the

<v Speaker 1>WBD has a pending multi billion dollar acquisition that could

<v Speaker 1>be blown up for any number of stupid things, it's

<v Speaker 1>not unreasonable for him to infer that. But how does

<v Speaker 1>someone in his position not fact check something or double

<v Speaker 1>or triple source something like that before running with it?

<v Speaker 1>So matter of factly, like he has to know that

<v Speaker 1>when he's giving an opinion on something, especially on his

<v Speaker 1>radio show, it's always getting aggregated, is fact. Or you

<v Speaker 1>have these Twitter accounts that will just they'll post a

<v Speaker 1>quote and they'll attribute it to, you know, Meltzer or

<v Speaker 1>won Right Wrestling Observer newsletter and they'll post it and

<v Speaker 1>it just spreads like wildfire. But it may well have

<v Speaker 1>been something where he and Alvarez were having a conversation.

<v Speaker 1>He was just giving his opinion on something, or he

<v Speaker 1>was guessing, well, maybe they'll do this, maybe they'll do that,

<v Speaker 1>and then it gets reported on his fact and I

<v Speaker 1>actually think that's very unfair to him a lot of

<v Speaker 1>the time when it's very clear he's just giving his

<v Speaker 1>opinion on something. But that's not what this was, and

<v Speaker 1>so it ended up taking on a life of its

<v Speaker 1>own that's on him. Now. In that same CNN story,

<v Speaker 1>in a random sentence that was right there in the

<v Speaker 1>middle of it, they had this disclosure where they confirmed

<v Speaker 1>what a lot of us already suspected, which is that

<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers Discovery, which is CNN's parent company, owns a

<v Speaker 1>minority steak in all elite wrestling. Now, this is not

<v Speaker 1>really news most media outlets will disclose that type of

<v Speaker 1>thing if they're reporting on something that is tied to

<v Speaker 1>the company that owns them or they have some sort

<v Speaker 1>of business relationship with them. It's something that Tony Kahan

<v Speaker 1>has never confirmed publicly, but he's never denied it either,

<v Speaker 1>which would have been very easy for him to do.

<v Speaker 1>He has only said that he owns all voting shares

<v Speaker 1>in his company. But the belief is that WBD Steak

<v Speaker 1>is less than ten percent because its ownership Steak has

<v Speaker 1>never been disclosed in any lawsuits that AW has been

<v Speaker 1>involved in, which is something that would be required if

<v Speaker 1>it owned ten percent or more. That's because WBD is

<v Speaker 1>a publicly traded company. You'd have to disclose that, and

<v Speaker 1>that's the law. So the fact that it's never been

<v Speaker 1>mentioned before tells you that whatever the exact number is,

<v Speaker 1>the ownership stake is under ten percent. And I don't

<v Speaker 1>see this as being a terribly big deal. But now

<v Speaker 1>at least we have confirmation and so we can move

<v Speaker 1>beyond this now aew, there's some other news here. This

<v Speaker 1>has yet to be confirmed by AW. But I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>andrews Arian before of the met Men Wrestling podcast. He

<v Speaker 1>was the first to report this week that AW Double

<v Speaker 1>or Nothing is headed to New York City for the

<v Speaker 1>first time, specifically to Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York,

<v Speaker 1>which is part of the same tennis complex where AW

<v Speaker 1>has run events before from Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is

<v Speaker 1>undergoing renovations ahead of next year's US Open. Arthur Ashen

<v Speaker 1>and Louis Armstrong, the two stadiums are basically right next

<v Speaker 1>to each other. Louis Armstrong is small, then Arthur ash

<v Speaker 1>has a max capacity of about fourteen thousand. Accounting for

<v Speaker 1>the stage and the setup, they'd probably be looking at

<v Speaker 1>ten or eleven thousand fans, which should be easily doable

<v Speaker 1>for them in New York for a big event like this.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure that thing's going to sell out. Yeah. If

<v Speaker 1>there's one thing that AW does not seem to be

<v Speaker 1>struggling with and having problems selling tickets for, it's their

<v Speaker 1>pay per views, Like they already had that many tickets

<v Speaker 1>sold for Revolution next month without a single match announced.

<v Speaker 1>Arthur Ash's capacity is closer to twenty three thousand, and

<v Speaker 1>each time they've run that venue, it's been the law

<v Speaker 1>of diminishing returns. As far as the attendance goes, it

<v Speaker 1>just goes down, down, down, So it makes sense to

<v Speaker 1>run a smaller venue here pack it in rather than

<v Speaker 1>run a bigger venue and only fill it up halfway.

<v Speaker 1>But if they have renovations going on, it may not

<v Speaker 1>have been their choice. Regardless, they may have wanted to

<v Speaker 1>do Arthur Ash and they just had no choice, so

<v Speaker 1>they're like, Okay, well we'll run the smaller building. I

<v Speaker 1>think in the end that's going to be better for them.

<v Speaker 1>Now AW has yet to confer the news, but they

<v Speaker 1>have not denied it either. I think they're just waiting

<v Speaker 1>to make the announcement double or nothing is typically held

<v Speaker 1>Memorial Day weekend. We just don't know if this is

<v Speaker 1>going to be that Saturday or if it's going to

<v Speaker 1>be that Sunday. It would have been cool to go

<v Speaker 1>to a Mets game at City Field during the day

<v Speaker 1>and then walk over to the stadium right after for

<v Speaker 1>the pay per view. Again, all of these stadiums are

<v Speaker 1>basically right next to each other, but the Mets are

<v Speaker 1>away that weekend. I look forward to WWE announcing NXT

<v Speaker 1>Memorial Day Madness that weekend because you know they will,

<v Speaker 1>you know there'll be some kind of nx T show

<v Speaker 1>that they're gonna end up running that weekend now. Andrews

<v Speaker 1>Arian also tweeted out something very interesting on Wednesday morning

<v Speaker 1>from his personal Twitter account. He said, the AW world

<v Speaker 1>title picture is going to be really interesting this year

<v Speaker 1>now that on its face is not anything earth shattering.

<v Speaker 1>I've talked about how the best thing going in AW

<v Speaker 1>right now is the world title scene and all the

<v Speaker 1>different challengers that they have set up for MJF without

<v Speaker 1>giving any context whatsoever. Though he posted this, then he

<v Speaker 1>also tweeted from the official Matt Men Podcast Twitter and

<v Speaker 1>he quote tweeted the original tweet to say, sounds pretty

<v Speaker 1>phenomenal that that is after MJF. In his interview this

<v Speaker 1>week with Chris van Vliet, which was recorded almost two

<v Speaker 1>weeks ago, I think in talking about wrestler retirements when

<v Speaker 1>he mentioned AJ style because you mentioned John Cena. When

<v Speaker 1>he mentioned AJ styles, he put retirement in air quotes

<v Speaker 1>and he winked at the camera. Either that or his

<v Speaker 1>eye began to twitch, whichever it was. There may be

<v Speaker 1>smoke to this fire. You know, the world title scene

<v Speaker 1>in AW right now, it's as strong as it's ever been,

<v Speaker 1>you know, really is the main thing carrying the TV

<v Speaker 1>shows right now story wise, and really they rely on

<v Speaker 1>great matches to carry their weekly shows. But again, he's

<v Speaker 1>got multiple challengers lined up right now. They really don't

<v Speaker 1>need anybody else. They have enough people lined up as

<v Speaker 1>it is. But if aj Styles was to come in

<v Speaker 1>for a short run and wrestle for the aw World title,

<v Speaker 1>that would be massive for them. I mean, they've already

<v Speaker 1>got Kenny Omega and Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Andrade could potentially end up back in the mix at

<v Speaker 1>some point. Will ospray when he returns Darby Allen, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you toss aj Styles into that mix. It's exciting to

<v Speaker 1>think about. We still don't know what his contract status

<v Speaker 1>says with WWE, but if you watch that interview he

<v Speaker 1>did with Stephanie McMahon, he definitely did not shut the

<v Speaker 1>door on getting back in the ring again. That much

<v Speaker 1>was very clear. I mean, he controls his own destiny

<v Speaker 1>right now as far as what he wants to do,

<v Speaker 1>So if he wants a real retirement tour, he can

<v Speaker 1>have it. Remember he said twenty twenty six would be

<v Speaker 1>his final year in the ring. There were lots of

<v Speaker 1>rings outside of wwe for him to work in. This

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<v Speaker 1>Harmony for free at wix dot com slash Harmony. That's

<v Speaker 1>wix dot com slash harmony. There was another big story

<v Speaker 1>this week about internal concerns in WWE and people second

<v Speaker 1>guessing Triple h as WrestleMania plans spiral and change amid

<v Speaker 1>concerns about ticket prices. Now, given how bad of a

<v Speaker 1>week this was for Dave Meltzer, keep that in mind

<v Speaker 1>when I read this report to you. But it did

<v Speaker 1>make headlines this week, and it feeds into a larger

<v Speaker 1>story about TKO's concern over WrestleMania ticket sales so far.

<v Speaker 1>That has been echoed by people other than Dave. But

<v Speaker 1>it was on Wrestling Observer Radio Monday night that Meltzer

<v Speaker 1>and Alvarez they revealed that WWE officials have grown increasingly

<v Speaker 1>frustrated with how often creative plans have shifted, with Paul

<v Speaker 1>Leveck taking the brunt of that criticism. Meltzer said, before

<v Speaker 1>the Rumble they had a complete card for WrestleMania, but

<v Speaker 1>I was told that everything is up in the air.

<v Speaker 1>According to him, that uncertainty has led to pointed criticism

<v Speaker 1>of Leveck from those within the company, with some comparing

<v Speaker 1>the situation to the old Vince McMahon era of constant

<v Speaker 1>last minute changes. There's been a lot of internal criticism

<v Speaker 1>of Paul levec They have a plan and then they

<v Speaker 1>change the plan. They think that changing a card that

<v Speaker 1>nobody knows makes sense. It's not like they have a

<v Speaker 1>bad card out there and people aren't buying tickets. They

<v Speaker 1>don't have a card out there. So Paulavec is supposedly

<v Speaker 1>on the hot seat. First of all, I don't care

<v Speaker 1>how many times he changes his mind. Weeks in advance

<v Speaker 1>on what direction he might want to take for WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>It is a far cry from the days of Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon ripping up scripts and blowing up plans three hours

<v Speaker 1>before every show. Okay, let's not compit that the two

<v Speaker 1>aren't exactly apples to apples. Okay, it's still better than that.

<v Speaker 1>But I can understand people internally being frustrated being this

<v Speaker 1>close to WrestleMania and having plans constantly shifting. If that

<v Speaker 1>is what's happening, or or if top talents don't even

<v Speaker 1>know what the hell they're doing yet on that show,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm sure a lot of them don't. They're probably

<v Speaker 1>reading the same reports that you and I are, and

<v Speaker 1>they're wondering, Hey, what the hell am I going to

<v Speaker 1>be doing WrestleMania. Now. Compared this to a few years ago,

<v Speaker 1>and it was very clear months and months in advance

<v Speaker 1>that it was going to be Cody Roades challenging Roman Reigns,

<v Speaker 1>and that Kevin Owens and sammy's Ay and they were

<v Speaker 1>going to be wrestling the USOS on Night one for

<v Speaker 1>the tag team titles. They had these stories that were

<v Speaker 1>playing out. I mean, it may have been predictable but

<v Speaker 1>they had that bloodline story mapped out, all the key

<v Speaker 1>players knew what their role was on that show. It

<v Speaker 1>doesn't seem to be like that anymore. And one of

<v Speaker 1>the reasons for all of these creative changes there was

<v Speaker 1>said to be a card laid out before the Royal Rumble,

<v Speaker 1>and now it may be changing yet again. It may

<v Speaker 1>well be that the heat that Leveck is supposedly feeling

<v Speaker 1>right now from ticket sales not being as hot as

<v Speaker 1>TKO thought they would be. I mean, ticket sales right

<v Speaker 1>now for both nights of WrestleMania are nearly twenty percent

<v Speaker 1>lower than they were this time last year. The only

<v Speaker 1>thing we know for sure is that Roman Reigns is

<v Speaker 1>challenging Cmpunk for the World Heavyweight title, very likely on

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania Sunday. Barring injury. That match is rock solid. That's

<v Speaker 1>not getting changed. Okay, sorry, Finn Balor, that match is

<v Speaker 1>not getting changed. He'll be challenging Punk for the title

<v Speaker 1>of Elimination Chamber. Balor will be but the only belt

<v Speaker 1>that Balor is going to be taking home is from

<v Speaker 1>the merch stand. Okay, he can by himself a replica.

<v Speaker 1>WWE creative has been stagnant for a while now. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>they have no compelling stories. They had one compelling segment

<v Speaker 1>a few weeks ago, but they have no compelling stories

<v Speaker 1>that they have been telling. Levick was able to coast

<v Speaker 1>on the Bloodline story for a long time. Okay, it

<v Speaker 1>was a story that started before he even took the book.

<v Speaker 1>It started under Vince. But he was very fortunate to

<v Speaker 1>have that dumped in his lap. But what story or

<v Speaker 1>stories has he himself come up with that you would

<v Speaker 1>consider to truly be compelling or must see? CM Punk

<v Speaker 1>and Drew McIntyre. They had a great feud that was

<v Speaker 1>born out of Punk getting hurt. If Punk never gets injured,

<v Speaker 1>we don't get that story. Drew mcinti social media game

<v Speaker 1>was on point while CM punk was out. I give

<v Speaker 1>most of the credit to him and Punk for making

<v Speaker 1>that as great as it was. Outside of that, there

<v Speaker 1>has been nothing. They have been on autopilot for a

<v Speaker 1>while now. Kay Leveck was handed a gold mine in

<v Speaker 1>John Cena's retirement tour last year. He managed to nearly

<v Speaker 1>fuck the whole thing up for the sake of creating

<v Speaker 1>a viral moment. Hey, let's turn John Cena, heel and

<v Speaker 1>he takes credit for the idea, no plan to follow

<v Speaker 1>up on it. WWE creative is boring and uninspired. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>so that doesn't help when you're trying to sell fifty

<v Speaker 1>or sixty thousand tickets back to back nights in the

<v Speaker 1>same venue and the same city, which is already one

<v Speaker 1>of the most expensive destinations in the country for a

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania that in the same venue and city last year

<v Speaker 1>was a disappointment. Last year Night one was a boring

<v Speaker 1>show with a great ending. Night two was a very

<v Speaker 1>good show with a terrible ending. That shit the bed

<v Speaker 1>on the whole. Definitely not one of the better WrestleManias

<v Speaker 1>they've ever done. What do you think is going to

<v Speaker 1>happen when you continue charging outrageous prices for tickets to

<v Speaker 1>a show like that come showtime. Look, I have no

<v Speaker 1>doubt that comes showtime, they're going to have most of

<v Speaker 1>those seats filled, all right. As they continue to announce

<v Speaker 1>matches and they start offering ticket deals Allegiant Stadium just

<v Speaker 1>announced twenty five percent off tickets now through Monday, then

<v Speaker 1>you have people who wait until the week of the event,

<v Speaker 1>days before the event for prices to come down. The

<v Speaker 1>problem with that, of course, is that I would guess

<v Speaker 1>that of the fifty or sixty thousand people that are

<v Speaker 1>going to be in Allegiance Stadium both those nights, the

<v Speaker 1>vast majority of them are not from Las Vegas. They're

<v Speaker 1>from other places. They're flying in for the show. You

<v Speaker 1>have to have time to arrange to travel to WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>You don't just buy a ticket and show up unless

<v Speaker 1>you're local. So there are a lot of people who

<v Speaker 1>can't wait until five days before the show and then

<v Speaker 1>first go ahead and book a flight and book a hotel.

<v Speaker 1>Do you know how hard it's going to beat a

<v Speaker 1>book a hotel probably even now, let alone a week

<v Speaker 1>before the show to go to WrestleMania. It's not practical

<v Speaker 1>for a lot of people, especially if you have a

<v Speaker 1>family or if you're a group of friends, four or

<v Speaker 1>five people who want to go. But there are people

<v Speaker 1>who wait until the week of and then prices drop

<v Speaker 1>a little bit and then they scoop up tickets like

<v Speaker 1>that always happens. But I don't have any doubt they'll

<v Speaker 1>have at least forty five thousand fans in the building

<v Speaker 1>each night, and then they'll announce much more than that.

<v Speaker 1>But I'm sure there'll be a minimum forty five k

<v Speaker 1>each night in those building or in that building, but

<v Speaker 1>that's not good enough for TKO. They don't like that

<v Speaker 1>ticket sales are lagging behind last year. It's a bad

<v Speaker 1>look for them at wrestle Votes Radio on Fight Full

<v Speaker 1>Select reported that WWE held a multi department company meeting

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday to address WrestleMania ticket sales. According to a source,

<v Speaker 1>leadership acknowledged internally that the current numbers are below expectations,

<v Speaker 1>and all departments have been tag with developing strategies and

<v Speaker 1>promotions to roll out beginning in late February in an

<v Speaker 1>effort to boost momentum and sales heading into the event. Additionally,

<v Speaker 1>we're told WWE intends to keep current ticket pricing as

<v Speaker 1>is for the time being. Oh, you're going to have

<v Speaker 1>to pull them kicking and screaming to get them to

<v Speaker 1>change those prices. Right now, they have almost thirty eight

<v Speaker 1>thousand tickets out for each night. Okay, so they were

<v Speaker 1>around ten thousand or so behind where they were this

<v Speaker 1>time last year for each night. That is a far cry.

<v Speaker 1>Just to illustrate where we were a few years ago.

<v Speaker 1>That is a far cry from four years ago when

<v Speaker 1>tickets first went on sale for WrestleMania thirty nine, which

<v Speaker 1>I guess, I mean, that would have been the first

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania really under Triple H, even though Vince was still

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't fully out right Vince. I think Vince was

<v Speaker 1>actually there for night too. I think they said he

<v Speaker 1>was sitting in Gorilla for that show, and then of

<v Speaker 1>course he fucking blew up Raw the next night. But

<v Speaker 1>that would have technically been the first Triple H WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania thirty nine. Triple H announced months before that, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>in the summer of twenty twenty two, he was the

<v Speaker 1>one who announced they sold ninety thousand tickets in the

<v Speaker 1>first twenty four hours that WrestleMania tickets went on sale.

<v Speaker 1>In the first twenty four hours, they had forty eight

<v Speaker 1>thousand tickets out for Night one. They had forty nine

<v Speaker 1>thousand tickets out for Night two. And that was in August.

<v Speaker 1>That means ten months out from WrestleMania, they were already

<v Speaker 1>at about eighty percent capacity. You know, one of the

<v Speaker 1>realities right now is that the product is just not

<v Speaker 1>hot like it used to be. It's not it's not

<v Speaker 1>it's more mainstream, and they do a very good job

<v Speaker 1>of making it feel like it's the hottest thing in

<v Speaker 1>the world. But it's not. They peaked. We're on the

<v Speaker 1>other side of the peak now. It's like climbing to

<v Speaker 1>the summit of Mount Everest, right you get to the

<v Speaker 1>top of the mountain, and then you have to start

<v Speaker 1>descending the mountain and climbing down. They're not all the

<v Speaker 1>way on the bottom. Okay, they're not anywhere close. They're

<v Speaker 1>still pretty high up there, but they're on the other

<v Speaker 1>side of the mountain now and they have started their descent.

<v Speaker 1>Then you factor in ticket prices and location on top

<v Speaker 1>of all that, and there's your answer. You want to

<v Speaker 1>know why they're lagging in ticket sales, there's your number

<v Speaker 1>one answer right there. You're running Vegas back to back years,

<v Speaker 1>which is expensive enough. When it comes to airfare and

<v Speaker 1>hotel and food and entertainment and everything else. It's not cheap.

<v Speaker 1>That is absolutely part of it. And I said it

<v Speaker 1>on X the other day. I said, this would not

<v Speaker 1>be happening if they had brought the show to New

<v Speaker 1>Orleans like they originally intended. They publicly announced they have

<v Speaker 1>the Rock go out on TV and announced WrestleMania forty

<v Speaker 1>two is coming to New Orleans. It's coming to the

<v Speaker 1>Big Easy, and then they yanked it. And I said,

<v Speaker 1>this wouldn't be happening if they had kept the show

<v Speaker 1>in New Orleans. And I said, greed is good until

<v Speaker 1>it's not. They saw how much money they made last year,

<v Speaker 1>and even though they have the rock go out on

<v Speaker 1>TV and announce New Orleans, they couldn't help themselves, right.

<v Speaker 1>Their greed consumed them and they pulled out in favor

<v Speaker 1>of going back to Las Vegas. They had dollar signs

<v Speaker 1>in their eyes and they say, we got to go back.

<v Speaker 1>That greed was bound to bite them on the ass

<v Speaker 1>at some point. And look, they're still going to make

<v Speaker 1>a lot of them. I don't want to make it

<v Speaker 1>sound like they're going they're going to go bankrupt for

<v Speaker 1>this show. They're still going to make a shitload of

<v Speaker 1>money this year. But that greed is going to bite

<v Speaker 1>you on the ass at some point. And I'm not saying.

<v Speaker 1>And some people thought, well, you know, yeah, you were

<v Speaker 1>ignoring ticket price. I wasn't ignoring ticket prices when I

<v Speaker 1>tweeted that. I'm not saying if they would have run

<v Speaker 1>New Orleans that tickets would have been twenty bucks a pop.

<v Speaker 1>They would still be charging high prices, but being back

<v Speaker 1>there for the first time in eight years, and generally

<v Speaker 1>a trip to New Orleans being cheaper than a trip

<v Speaker 1>to Vegas would be, they would absolutely be outpacing what

<v Speaker 1>they have sold so far. I have no doubt about that.

<v Speaker 1>And there's another reason that some people are sighting, which

<v Speaker 1>is the decline in tourism in Las Vegas. Now, I

<v Speaker 1>don't rank this too high on the list of reasons,

<v Speaker 1>but you can't ignore it. It is a factor, you know,

<v Speaker 1>with the political climate being what it is, fewer people

<v Speaker 1>are vacationing in the US. Tourism from other countries accounted

<v Speaker 1>for one hundred and eighty one billion dollars spent in

<v Speaker 1>the US two years ago. That with thirty billion dollars

<v Speaker 1>more than the year before. Last year, that number was

<v Speaker 1>projected to fall to just under one hundred and sixty

<v Speaker 1>nine billion. So that's a real thing, but it's a

<v Speaker 1>small part of it. It's them charging premium prices for

<v Speaker 1>a product that does not feel premium right now. That

<v Speaker 1>is the biggest reason why tickets are lagging, and now

<v Speaker 1>they're pissing a whole bunch of people off by imposing

<v Speaker 1>a ban on WrestleMania airings within a fifty mile radius

<v Speaker 1>of Allegiant Stadium the day of the shows. This is

<v Speaker 1>their latest effort to try to force people to buy

<v Speaker 1>tickets to actually go to the show if they want

<v Speaker 1>to watch it. So they're telling bars and other establishments

<v Speaker 1>at hotels and what have you that maybe we're planning

<v Speaker 1>on hosting viewing parties. You ain't going to be allowed

<v Speaker 1>to host a viewing party because you're not going to

<v Speaker 1>be allowed to air the show, even the ones that

<v Speaker 1>are willing to pay a licensing fee for it. Sean

<v Speaker 1>Rossappa Fightful says that there are a lot of venues,

<v Speaker 1>businesses and hotels tied to the city that have communicated

<v Speaker 1>big frustration about the watch parties being blacked out. They

<v Speaker 1>felt like the city paid a site fee for WWE

<v Speaker 1>to help encourage tourism and they are restricting it with

<v Speaker 1>this move. I mean, when the lowest price for a

<v Speaker 1>nosebleed seat up in section three hundred is two hundred

<v Speaker 1>sixty six dollars before taxes, Okay, I looked it up.

<v Speaker 1>You can see why tickets would not be moving as

<v Speaker 1>fast that's a nosebleed seed. And right now they're missing

<v Speaker 1>that one hot star or that one really hot angle

<v Speaker 1>or story. They don't have it. They don't have either one.

<v Speaker 1>They have stars who are very popular and moving m

<v Speaker 1>and I'm not saying Roman Reigns is not a star

<v Speaker 1>Sampung Cody Rhoades. They have stars, but they don't have

<v Speaker 1>that one white hot act or that one white hot

<v Speaker 1>story like they did with the Bloodline stuff a few

<v Speaker 1>years ago. They don't have either one, but they're acting

<v Speaker 1>like they do a lot of the stories they do have,

<v Speaker 1>they and they dragged them out forever in a day.

<v Speaker 1>You got four match ples. They're charging you more for less.

<v Speaker 1>And it reminds me of what Mark Shapiro of TKOS

<v Speaker 1>said last year when he was talking about ticket prices,

<v Speaker 1>and he said, we know we have a lot of

<v Speaker 1>room there. Vince McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families

<v Speaker 1>and wasn't totally focused on maxing the opportunity. They're going

<v Speaker 1>to make me defend Vince McMahon here, But when it

<v Speaker 1>comes to business, the man knew what he was doing.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, he wanted to make a lot of money,

<v Speaker 1>but he was also smart enough not to chase the

<v Speaker 1>way families by pricing them out, Like I became a

<v Speaker 1>fan because my father watched wrestling, and he became a

<v Speaker 1>fan because his father watched wrestling. You win over those kids,

<v Speaker 1>and eventually those kids become adults, and they're gonna make

<v Speaker 1>fans out of their own kids. TKO is about the

<v Speaker 1>hear and now, how can we make as much money

<v Speaker 1>as possible off these people right now without paying any

<v Speaker 1>mind to what that audience might look like a few

<v Speaker 1>years down the road. It can't just be about the present.

<v Speaker 1>It's about the future. Vince understood that, and it's not

<v Speaker 1>that TKO doesn't. They just don't care. After the SoundOff

<v Speaker 1>went up last weekend, the news broke about bron Breaker

<v Speaker 1>being injured and his WrestleMania plans, whatever those were, being

<v Speaker 1>in jeopardy. The news was that he had undergone surgery

<v Speaker 1>for a hernia and there was no timetable for his return,

<v Speaker 1>and then at the top of the show on Monday night,

<v Speaker 1>Michael Pull announced that Breaker was injured in training and

<v Speaker 1>sustained an undisclosed injury for which he underwent surgery, and

<v Speaker 1>he would be out indefinitely. Later in the show. Paul

<v Speaker 1>Hayman claimed that it was a hiatal hernia that Breaker

<v Speaker 1>sustained when he deadlifted more weight than any human beings

<v Speaker 1>should be deadlifting by themselves. That's their cover reason. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if that's supposed to make him tough or stupid.

<v Speaker 1>He was eliminated first in the Royal Rumble match Mike Johnson,

<v Speaker 1>though a PW Insider dot Com insists that had nothing

<v Speaker 1>to do with any injury. His elimination was always planned

<v Speaker 1>the way that it was, but rather the injury happened

<v Speaker 1>on Raw two nights later, when Breaker came out at

<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the show and he flipped over the

<v Speaker 1>announced desk. That damn reinforced the announced desk. Those things

<v Speaker 1>are made of lead. By Wednesday, it was determined that

<v Speaker 1>he would need to undergo emergency surgery to repair the issue,

<v Speaker 1>and that the hernia was something that he was already

<v Speaker 1>dealing with previously, so it was considered minor, and I

<v Speaker 1>guess after he flipped the desk over, it went from

<v Speaker 1>minor to major and they decided, Okay, this can't be

<v Speaker 1>helped any other way. We got to go under the knife,

<v Speaker 1>and so he had surgery because if you leave that untreated,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, if it's that serious, it could be life threatening.

<v Speaker 1>And Dave Meltzer says that the expectation is that Breaker

<v Speaker 1>will not be back in time for WrestleMania, especially if

<v Speaker 1>Hayman was talking about it on TV like it was

<v Speaker 1>a major surgery. It wasn't something that was done laparoscopically.

<v Speaker 1>That's also Paul Hayman saying this on TV, So I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you know, take that with a grain of salt. But

<v Speaker 1>if he is out for WrestleMania, I mean, that's a

<v Speaker 1>blow to the card because he's obviously been pushed very hard.

<v Speaker 1>He was going to have a big match on that show.

<v Speaker 1>The working plan was very likely a match with Seth Rawlins,

<v Speaker 1>because nothing else really makes any sense if he wasn't

<v Speaker 1>going to be wrestling for the World Heavyweight title, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>what the hell else would he be doing. Rollins himself

<v Speaker 1>is still out injured, but there's a lot of chatter

<v Speaker 1>that he'll be back in time for WrestleMania, or at

<v Speaker 1>least there's a good chance. The expectation, the hope is

<v Speaker 1>that he will be back in time for WrestleMania, barring

<v Speaker 1>any unforeseen setbacks and he would be medically cleared. So

<v Speaker 1>now it's Rollins who may be without an opponent. If

<v Speaker 1>he can make it back in time that they're not

<v Speaker 1>going to rush Breaker back just for WrestleMania. You don't

<v Speaker 1>rush back from an injury like that. But if Rollins

<v Speaker 1>can get cleared, he's gonna want to be on that

<v Speaker 1>show in a match. Okay. It's probably his number one

<v Speaker 1>driving force right now during his rehab is to make

<v Speaker 1>it back in time for WrestleMania. I think that that

<v Speaker 1>he can. If he can get cleared, you can't deny

<v Speaker 1>him that. Okay. Now, with the year that he was

<v Speaker 1>having last year before he got hurt, he can be

<v Speaker 1>back in time for WrestleMania, then you put him on

<v Speaker 1>the card. So on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show last week,

<v Speaker 1>I pitched the idea of doing a tag team match.

<v Speaker 1>And this may be far out there because there's really

<v Speaker 1>been nothing reported to suggest that Bad Bunny is wrestling

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania. But Logan Paul, you know, shutting down a

<v Speaker 1>reporter's question at the Super Bowl about whether or not

<v Speaker 1>he would be watching the halftime show. He said, he said, no,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna be watching it. That got a lot

<v Speaker 1>of people talking about a Bad Bunny Logan Paul match,

<v Speaker 1>and I don't doubt that that would generate a lot

<v Speaker 1>of interest. Any match with Bad Bunny involved is going

<v Speaker 1>to generate a lot of interest, especially coming off him

<v Speaker 1>being the Super Bowl halftime show performer this year. I

<v Speaker 1>mean it was the fourth most watched halftime show in

<v Speaker 1>Super Bowl history. Okay, he had one hundred and twenty

<v Speaker 1>eight million eyeballs on him or I guess two hundred

<v Speaker 1>and fifty six million eyeballs. I guess it would be

<v Speaker 1>Tko would love to be back in the Bad Bunny business.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think he's touring for the six weeks or

<v Speaker 1>so before WrestleMania, so I mean it's at least possible

<v Speaker 1>he could make an appearance there. If he was going

<v Speaker 1>to be there, you could do a tag team match,

<v Speaker 1>and you can have Rollins tag with Bad Bunny against

<v Speaker 1>the Vision. It could be against Logan, Paul and either

<v Speaker 1>Bronson Reid or Austin theory. I say theory because if

<v Speaker 1>you need a fall guy, if you need the Vision

<v Speaker 1>to lose, he's your man. But again, it's just an idea.

<v Speaker 1>Since Logan is a part of the Vision, Rollins hates

<v Speaker 1>the vision. It's a match that would at least make sense,

<v Speaker 1>you know. And that tag match at SummerSlam with Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton in Jelly Roll against Logan and Drew was well received,

<v Speaker 1>so there's no reason you can't do something like that here.

<v Speaker 1>But we're less than two weeks out from the Elimination

<v Speaker 1>Chamber and we got two more matches made official on

<v Speaker 1>Raw Monday night, Cempunk will be defending the World Heavyweight

<v Speaker 1>title in Chicago against Finn Balor and Missus Punk. Aj

<v Speaker 1>Lee is back. She will be getting a match in

<v Speaker 1>Chicago as well, against Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental title,

<v Speaker 1>a little bit earlier than I was expecting. That's going

<v Speaker 1>to be AJ's first singles match since twenty fifteen on

<v Speaker 1>Raw against Nicki Bella. And the more I think about it,

<v Speaker 1>the more I like that they're doing this here and

<v Speaker 1>they're not waiting until WrestleMania for the first match. And

<v Speaker 1>I'll tell you why, because at the end of all

<v Speaker 1>of this, aj Lee should not be the Intercontinental Champion

<v Speaker 1>if she is not going to be around, and it

<v Speaker 1>sure don't look like she's going to be around anywhere

<v Speaker 1>close to full time, even part time, frankly, but if

<v Speaker 1>they want to have her win the title, have her

<v Speaker 1>win it in Chicago. Chicago is basically her adopted hometown, right.

<v Speaker 1>I know she's not from there, but she married into it.

<v Speaker 1>She's a Chicago girl now and her husband is the

<v Speaker 1>world heavyweight champion defending on the same show. What a

<v Speaker 1>moment for the two of them, right if they both

<v Speaker 1>leave with titles. But just make sure that Jessica Carr

<v Speaker 1>is the referee for the match, so that Becky can

<v Speaker 1>blame her for the loss and they can pick back

<v Speaker 1>up with that angle again. They kind of got away

<v Speaker 1>from it in more recent to weeks. I still think

<v Speaker 1>we may actually get a match between them at some point. Yeah.

<v Speaker 1>Jessica Carr, she wrestles, so I mean you could absolutely

<v Speaker 1>do a match. It's like a one off, like an

<v Speaker 1>attraction on TV, doesn't even necessarily have to be a

<v Speaker 1>pl But they've they've gotten away from that story. I'd

<v Speaker 1>like to see them come back to it. You have

<v Speaker 1>aj win the title at the Chamber and then you

<v Speaker 1>rematch them at WrestleMania. You have Becky win the belt back,

<v Speaker 1>so that way you don't have the issue of putting

<v Speaker 1>the belt on someone that isn't going to be around,

<v Speaker 1>and Becky can work with someone new at that point, right,

<v Speaker 1>which did a world of good for Lyra Valkyria last year.

<v Speaker 1>Not so much for Maxine dupri But Maxine is nowhere

<v Speaker 1>near the wrestler that Lyra is. I mean, Becky's good,

<v Speaker 1>but she's no miracle worker. You know. Maxine is doing okay,

<v Speaker 1>but she's still only on level three of a ten

<v Speaker 1>stage video game. I would rather see AJ win it. Now,

<v Speaker 1>get that moment, now hold it for however many weeks

<v Speaker 1>there are left between now in Mania, seven weeks, eight weeks,

<v Speaker 1>whatever it is, and then drop it, not win it

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania CIA. I'm punk had another great promo, I

<v Speaker 1>thought on Monday night Ben Balor gives him something to

<v Speaker 1>do at the Chamber while everyone waits for Roman Reigns

<v Speaker 1>to come back next month. Balor's direction is not the

<v Speaker 1>World Heavyweight title. I think his direction is Dominic Mysterio

<v Speaker 1>and the intercontinental title of Mania. If Triple H would

<v Speaker 1>stop pussy footing around with his judgment day shit and

<v Speaker 1>actually commit to a match between the two of them already,

<v Speaker 1>I mean he's only been teasing it for like two

<v Speaker 1>and a half years now. Jade Cargill. She had her

<v Speaker 1>first defense finally of the WWE Women's title on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>Friday Night, after one hundred days as champion. She retained

<v Speaker 1>over Jordan Grace while Live Morgan was out there eating

<v Speaker 1>chicken nuggets and observing and teasing that she might pick

<v Speaker 1>Jade as her WrestleMania opponent. She won't. I mean, who

<v Speaker 1>wants to even see that match? Honestly, Of all the

<v Speaker 1>potential matches that I think people are mapping out of

<v Speaker 1>their minds, myself included, has anybody landed on Jade Cargill

<v Speaker 1>and Lived Morgan as a match they'd like to see?

<v Speaker 1>I don't think so, but it does beg the question, then,

<v Speaker 1>who challenges Jade at WrestleMania. Even WWE hasn't figured out

<v Speaker 1>the answer to that question yet. According to Russell Votes

<v Speaker 1>Radio v Fightful Select, WWE has yet to solidify her opponent.

<v Speaker 1>Internal talks are said to be ongoing, and multiple high

<v Speaker 1>profile names are being considered. Among the top contenders being discussed,

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton. Now Jade and Tiffany has

<v Speaker 1>already been done. I don't want to see that again.

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte Flair against Jade is a match that they have

<v Speaker 1>teased a few times now, and it would be fresh

<v Speaker 1>because it's not been done before, So I'm cool with that.

<v Speaker 1>They definitely have been teasing a possible split or at

<v Speaker 1>least issues between Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, like even

<v Speaker 1>before what happened at the Royal Rumble, they were little

<v Speaker 1>hints and teases of it. Alexa is already in the chamber.

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte has a chance to get in next week. She

<v Speaker 1>just has to beat Nia Jackson Keana James in a

<v Speaker 1>qualifying match. If she gets in, and let's say again,

<v Speaker 1>she causes Bliss to be eliminated and Charlotte ends up

<v Speaker 1>winning the chamber, you could totally have Alexa fuck her

<v Speaker 1>out of the belt at WrestleMania and just hold off

<v Speaker 1>on that first Charlotte and Alexa match instead of doing it.

<v Speaker 1>Let's say at WrestleMania, you do it coming out of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>You're gonna need some story directions coming out of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>Bianca bel Air is nowhere to be found, So if

<v Speaker 1>she's not coming back to take a chamber spot, then

<v Speaker 1>I think Charlotte against Jade has to be the Mania match.

<v Speaker 1>Jade needs something. Her run has been a complete waste

<v Speaker 1>of time since winning that Championshoky. She won that championship

<v Speaker 1>on November first. Before her match with Jordan Grace on

<v Speaker 1>Friday night, she logged a whopping total of seven minutes

<v Speaker 1>of singles matches Singles Action on TV, all of which

<v Speaker 1>were quick squashes, and the match on Friday with Jordan

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't bad, but she really needs that one big

<v Speaker 1>name to spar with to try to get something going here.

<v Speaker 1>And if you don't have Bianca in the history of

<v Speaker 1>the Bianca and Jade have, then Charlotte. I mean, as

<v Speaker 1>far as SmackDown goes, Charlotte would be the next best choice.

<v Speaker 1>I mean they even hinted at Riha Ripley and Jade Cargill.

<v Speaker 1>They had a little face off for a few seconds

<v Speaker 1>their backstage on Friday night. But I don't get the

<v Speaker 1>sense that's the direction here for the women's chamber. Tiffany Stratton,

<v Speaker 1>Rhea Ripley, and Alexa Bliss have all qualified. I think

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte gets in this Friday. Osca Bailey and Natty they're

<v Speaker 1>having a qualifier tomorrow night. I think Osca gets in.

<v Speaker 1>That leaves one spot open, and since Rhea is already in,

<v Speaker 1>I'll say that EO claims the final spot, because why

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't EO claim the final spot? Why wouldn't you want

<v Speaker 1>EO on that show? For the men's chamber? Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>is in and something to pay attention to. There was

<v Speaker 1>a vignette that aired on SmackDown on Friday Night with

<v Speaker 1>Alistair Black and Zelena, and Black was addressing Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>because they were both part of a triple threat qualifier

<v Speaker 1>with Solo Socoa the week before. In the course of

<v Speaker 1>his promo here, Black said that you are undoubtedly still

<v Speaker 1>one of the greats that match shades of two thousand

<v Speaker 1>and nine, Randy Orton. But I can't help but wonder

<v Speaker 1>what's gonna happen if Cody qualifies. I wonder what roads

<v Speaker 1>you'll take. Is it just me or doesn't feel like

<v Speaker 1>they basically gave Carry and Cross's gimmick to Alistair back,

<v Speaker 1>Like we used to have Carry and Cross and then

<v Speaker 1>Scarlett would just kind of be in the background, and

<v Speaker 1>so now we have Alistair Black and Zelina. They've basically

<v Speaker 1>transferred the same fucking gimmick over to him. So I like,

<v Speaker 1>I'm listening to this and I'm reviewing Smack that on

<v Speaker 1>Friday night, and I said, well, it looks like we

<v Speaker 1>may not be done with Randy Orton and Alistair Black,

<v Speaker 1>and maybe we're not. I mean, you know, as a

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania match, it could be, I guess, but maybe I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way,

<v Speaker 1>and maybe it was more a tease for something that

<v Speaker 1>will go down in the chamber with Orton and Cody,

<v Speaker 1>because we still again, we still haven't gotten anything with

<v Speaker 1>Cody and Randy. We've had hints of it, we've had

<v Speaker 1>teases of it. They had that one King of the

<v Speaker 1>Ring match last year and that's it. They have otherwise

<v Speaker 1>avoided this, and somebody's got to go heal in this situation,

<v Speaker 1>and it ain't going to be Cody. So I'm wondering

<v Speaker 1>if that could Maybe it's less a tease of an

<v Speaker 1>Orton Alistair Black WrestleMania match and more of a tease

<v Speaker 1>of Orton finally pulling the trigger on Cody Rhods. But again,

<v Speaker 1>if he did that, I don't get the sense that

<v Speaker 1>they're doing anything with them a WrestleMania so I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. It was a curious little segment there

<v Speaker 1>in the show, but I am wondering if he's trying

<v Speaker 1>to stoke the fires here and tease that something's about

<v Speaker 1>to go down with Cody and Randy. So, Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>is in the elimination chamber. La Knight, I'll get to

<v Speaker 1>him in a second. La Night is in the elimination chamber,

<v Speaker 1>and Cody Rhodes is in after his win over Jake

<v Speaker 1>fa two and Sammy's ain't. On Friday Night, Jacob actually

<v Speaker 1>had the match one over Sammy were it not for

<v Speaker 1>Drew McIntyre flying in with a Claymore kick. He did

<v Speaker 1>the same to Cody and then he drags Sammy on

<v Speaker 1>top of him. Cody kicked out, so Drew went back

<v Speaker 1>after him until Sammy flew in with a Halluba kick

<v Speaker 1>to McIntyre and he took his eye off the ball though,

<v Speaker 1>and he ended up eating Acrossroads and Cody pins Sammy

<v Speaker 1>to move on to the chamber. So that leaves three

<v Speaker 1>spots open now Tomorrow night it is Gunther, Javon Evans,

<v Speaker 1>and Dominic Mysteria. I see absolutely no reason to put

<v Speaker 1>Gunther in the chamber if he is not going to

<v Speaker 1>win it, because then you have to beat Gunther and

<v Speaker 1>it's an elimination match, so you gotta pit him. Not ideal.

<v Speaker 1>I think Dragon Lee caused Gunther his match tomorrow night.

<v Speaker 1>Javon sneaks into the chamber, That's what I would do.

<v Speaker 1>That is going to be a lot more fun with

<v Speaker 1>him in it. Then on Friday it's Damian Priez, Trick Williams,

<v Speaker 1>and Carmelo Hayes in another qualifier. I don't think Mello's

<v Speaker 1>getting in. It's either Priest or Trick, and it really

<v Speaker 1>it should be Trick Williams. I would be pushing for

<v Speaker 1>a Mello and Trick Us title match of WrestleMania, but

<v Speaker 1>the way the Trick is still going out there cutting

<v Speaker 1>promos on Sammy's Ain and he had Sammy backstage on

<v Speaker 1>Friday giving Ray Phoenix a pep talk and telling him

<v Speaker 1>to go out there and you know, set Trick straight.

<v Speaker 1>I'm thinking that it's going to be Sammy's Ains match

<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania this year against Trick Williams is what I'm thinking.

<v Speaker 1>So Trick and Javon get in, that would leave one

<v Speaker 1>spot open one spot left open in the men's Elimination

<v Speaker 1>Chamber match, which brings me to this. WWE announced this

<v Speaker 1>week that brock Lesner is returning to RAW on February

<v Speaker 1>twenty third in Atlanta, So that is the final Raw

<v Speaker 1>before the Elimination Chamber. Now, why would they be bringing

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner back to TV the week before the Elimination

<v Speaker 1>Chamber if he was not going to factor into the

<v Speaker 1>chamber in some way? And why wouldn't he want to

<v Speaker 1>be in the chamber. He was in the Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>for a shot at the Championship at WrestleMania, So why

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't he want to be in the elimination Chamber. He

<v Speaker 1>was in the rumble and he lost. And do you

<v Speaker 1>know why he lost? Because while jay Uso was yeading

<v Speaker 1>his way to the ring, Cody Rhoades in La Night

<v Speaker 1>teamed up to eliminate him. And in this week's Observer,

<v Speaker 1>Meltzer reported that as of late January, brock Lesnar against

<v Speaker 1>La Knight was listed internally as the match for WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>forty two. And the thing I hate about this is

<v Speaker 1>it is at least plausible because La Knight was the

<v Speaker 1>one who dumped him out of the Royal Rumble, and

<v Speaker 1>I hate that this could be true because that is

<v Speaker 1>not the match that I want to see, not when

<v Speaker 1>you've got Oba Femi right there, like he's right there.

<v Speaker 1>You saw the way the fans reacted to it in

<v Speaker 1>the Rumble when they teased it. Instead, what do they do?

<v Speaker 1>They have Obafemi feuding with Kit Wilson on SmackDown. He's

<v Speaker 1>wrestling Kit Wilson again this Friday. This is what they

<v Speaker 1>have Obafemi doing. And they have Royce Keys wrestling dark

<v Speaker 1>matches at the SmackDown taping, Like, what are we doing here?

<v Speaker 1>But Brock is going to be on next week show,

<v Speaker 1>not this week. He's gonna be on next week's show

<v Speaker 1>for a reason. La Knight is already in the chamber.

<v Speaker 1>If Brock declared himself for the elimination Chamber, which I

<v Speaker 1>could see them having here, I'll just declare myself. But no,

<v Speaker 1>if he enters the last qualifying match and he wins,

<v Speaker 1>then that would fill the final spot. And I know,

<v Speaker 1>I know, don't laugh, Okay, don't laugh the idea of

<v Speaker 1>Brock Lesnar wrestling on television. I mean, you'll see the

<v Speaker 1>Jets win another Super Bowl Before that ever happened. When

<v Speaker 1>was the last time he wrestled on TV. Probably when

<v Speaker 1>he squashed KOFE Kingston in eight seconds That was in

<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen. That probably was the last time Brocklesner saw

<v Speaker 1>action in the ring on television. So I know it's

<v Speaker 1>very unlikely, but why bring him back on that show

<v Speaker 1>if he's not going to factor into the Chamber in

<v Speaker 1>some way? Right now? It could have to do with

<v Speaker 1>La Night. I really hope that's not the case. It's

<v Speaker 1>gonna be ten years since that awful WrestleMania match with

<v Speaker 1>Brocklesner and Dean Ambrose. What a disappointment that was. This

<v Speaker 1>has WrestleMania thirty two written all over it, and it

<v Speaker 1>will not end well for La Night. It'll be a

<v Speaker 1>big match for him on the show, but believe me,

<v Speaker 1>it will not end well for La Night. But Jimmy

<v Speaker 1>Usso was on Raw talking about his brother qualifying for

<v Speaker 1>the Chamber. You got to go on and qualify for

<v Speaker 1>the Chamber so that you can go to WrestleMania to

<v Speaker 1>get the WWE title. Fuck out of here with that nonsense,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, but that does mean that Jay Usso

<v Speaker 1>is going to be in that last quoiqualifying match. So

<v Speaker 1>maybe they stick a member of the Vision in there,

<v Speaker 1>Bronson Reed or Logan Paul, and then they have a

<v Speaker 1>third spot to fill. Brock and Oba both should be

<v Speaker 1>in that chamber match. You know you want to book

<v Speaker 1>this out. Brock Lesner and Oba Femi should both be

<v Speaker 1>in the elimination chamber, and Oba Femi should eliminate brock Lesner,

<v Speaker 1>and then brock Lesner in a fit of rage, goes

<v Speaker 1>nuts and causes Oba to be eliminated, and you've got

<v Speaker 1>your WrestleMania match. That's what I would do. Get them

<v Speaker 1>both in there, make the chamber really interesting, and then

<v Speaker 1>branch off into a WrestleMania match instead of feuding this

<v Speaker 1>man with Kit fucking Wilson. Eight weeks before WrestleMania, Janelle

<v Speaker 1>Grant is scheduled to make a rare appearance and speak

<v Speaker 1>this Thursday at an event hosted by the Connecticut Alliance

<v Speaker 1>to End Sexual Violence. Grant will be a guest speaker

<v Speaker 1>on Thursday, February nineteenth at the Legislative Office Building in

<v Speaker 1>heart Orford, Connecticut. The event is focused on advocating for

<v Speaker 1>policy changes aimed at strengthening protections for survivors of sexual violence.

<v Speaker 1>One stated goal of the event is to pursue reforms

<v Speaker 1>to non disclosure agreement policies that can prevent survivors from

<v Speaker 1>speaking publicly about past abuse. Grant's NDA with WWE and

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon is a significant aspect of her ongoing litigation.

<v Speaker 1>This all stems from her complaint against McMahon, John Laurnidis,

<v Speaker 1>and WWE that she filed in January twenty twenty four

<v Speaker 1>alleging sexual misconduct, including being assaulted and trafficked. Lauriniitis has

<v Speaker 1>since been dropped from the suit in exchange for his

<v Speaker 1>cooperation in providing evidence against McMahon and WWE. Grant was

<v Speaker 1>quoted in a press release issued on Wednesday saying we

<v Speaker 1>are all more vulnerable to courus of control than we realize.

<v Speaker 1>Chorus of control happens in increments and entire industries are

<v Speaker 1>built on systems of coors of control. Tools such as

<v Speaker 1>NDAs can be used to ominously justify anything and even

<v Speaker 1>turn a life into someone else's storyline. Keeping even those

<v Speaker 1>who have not signed confidentiality agreements working in fear any

<v Speaker 1>system that sacrifices people, whether current or former employees. At

<v Speaker 1>the expense of safety and human dignity is dangerous if

<v Speaker 1>not impossible, for someone to leave. I'm not alone in

<v Speaker 1>living a life looking over my shoulder. Evolving systems and

<v Speaker 1>holistic change in how we address sexual violence remains painfully slow.

<v Speaker 1>I'm here to be a part of the solution and

<v Speaker 1>give a voice to people in Connecticut who are living

<v Speaker 1>and working in fear. I want to empower others with

<v Speaker 1>information in the hopes that we can create a better

<v Speaker 1>and safer world. Last week, Judge Sarah Russell denied Grant's

<v Speaker 1>request for early discovery in her lawsuit against McMahon WWE,

<v Speaker 1>although she did indicate that Grant may renew the motion

<v Speaker 1>later in the proceedings. We're still waiting on the big

<v Speaker 1>decision here as to whether or not the judge is

<v Speaker 1>going to allow the case to proceed to trial as

<v Speaker 1>Janelle Grant wants, or to private arbitration, which is what

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon WWE want. You know, we're not getting any

<v Speaker 1>real movement in this case until that gets decided. And

<v Speaker 1>I got a chuckle out of this story here. This

<v Speaker 1>was a thing. This week, Kevin Nash has opened up

<v Speaker 1>about what he says is the real reason that his

<v Speaker 1>scheduled match against CM Punk was canceled in twenty eleven.

<v Speaker 1>This was during the WWE version of the Summer of Punk.

<v Speaker 1>You remember, Kevin Nash showed up at SummerSlam to stick

<v Speaker 1>it to CM Punk and he dropped him with a

<v Speaker 1>jackknife power bomb cost him the WWE Championship to Alberto

<v Speaker 1>Dell Dipshit, and that set up a program between the

<v Speaker 1>two of them. However, we never did get the match

<v Speaker 1>between them. At Night of Champions it was very abruptly

<v Speaker 1>changed and Kevin Nash was replaced by Triple H and

<v Speaker 1>he beat Punk in a noticed qualification match. So Nash

<v Speaker 1>was on his podcast Click This, and he revealed a

<v Speaker 1>specific off script comment made by CM Punk during a

<v Speaker 1>promo infuriated Triple H so much because I guess the

<v Speaker 1>comment referred to him and Stephanie McMahon or it referred

<v Speaker 1>to Stephanie in some way, but it infuriated him so

<v Speaker 1>much that it led to Triple H inserting himself into

<v Speaker 1>the match. This is what he said when I was

<v Speaker 1>supposed to wrestle CM Punk after I cost him the belt.

<v Speaker 1>He said something that pissed off Paul about something with

<v Speaker 1>him and Stephanie and it wasn't on script, and it

<v Speaker 1>pissed Paul off, and Paul came back and basically said,

<v Speaker 1>you're not wrestling punk I am. I'm beating that motherfucker.

<v Speaker 1>He was that hot. Paul isn't a bitch. It was like,

<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, motherfucker. Basically like, oh okay, click rules, like

<v Speaker 1>you want to pull them out, measure them? Here we go,

<v Speaker 1>suck on that a fucking vision. I know how fucking

<v Speaker 1>much Paul cares for him now and to bring him

<v Speaker 1>back and everything that happened, and Paul to entrust Phil

<v Speaker 1>with everything that he's done and vice versa for each other.

<v Speaker 1>So that's what people don't understand that aren't in the business,

<v Speaker 1>is that you can have that kind of fucking heat

<v Speaker 1>with somebody ten years ago, four years ago, three years ago,

<v Speaker 1>but when you got to make money and make music together,

<v Speaker 1>fucking how quickly that dissolves. And while that is completely

<v Speaker 1>one hundred percent believable, and I think a lot of

<v Speaker 1>us figured it went something like that. This is what

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Nash told Wade Keller in twenty twelve, because he

<v Speaker 1>has given a totally different accounting in the past of

<v Speaker 1>why this match never happened. That had nothing to do

<v Speaker 1>with Triple H. This is what he told to Wade

<v Speaker 1>Keller over a decade ago. So what happened was because

<v Speaker 1>of the wellness program. My and my dad died of

<v Speaker 1>a heart attack at thirty six years old. They do

<v Speaker 1>beyond a thorough physical well My heart and everything else

<v Speaker 1>was fine. But I'm on plavix, and Plavix is a

<v Speaker 1>blood platelet agulator. They call it a blood thinner. It's not.

<v Speaker 1>It stops your platelets from sticking together, so you don't

<v Speaker 1>get cardiovascular disease and blockages in your arteries and have

<v Speaker 1>a heart attack. It's also for stroke. It's very common

<v Speaker 1>to take with a statin drug if you have anybody

<v Speaker 1>in your heredity who died before fifty, let alone having

<v Speaker 1>a father who died of a massive car in area

<v Speaker 1>at thirty six. So I was on plavix. So this

<v Speaker 1>comes through. When the doctor sees that I'm on plavix,

<v Speaker 1>I can't wrestle. So now I'm supposed to wrestle Ceampunk,

<v Speaker 1>I can't. They won't medically clear me. Triple H has

<v Speaker 1>to take my spot. It screws up the entire angle.

<v Speaker 1>That's how all that came about Wwe would never because

<v Speaker 1>that's the class of the program. Never let that come out.

<v Speaker 1>But I need to make sure people realize it wasn't

<v Speaker 1>Creative's fault. It was that a fifty two year old

<v Speaker 1>guy was on Plavix and I had to go off

<v Speaker 1>of it. I had to be off of it for

<v Speaker 1>a certain amount of time before I I could go

<v Speaker 1>back to work. It just so happened that I was

<v Speaker 1>finishing the Soderberg film Magic Mike at the time and

<v Speaker 1>I had to go shoot that. So it coincided with

<v Speaker 1>me going away for a while. I took the shot

<v Speaker 1>with the sledgehammer in Buffalo at Night of Champions, and

<v Speaker 1>that got me away until I could be cleared, and

<v Speaker 1>then I came back and we went into the match

<v Speaker 1>with Paul and I. At that point, Phil and I

<v Speaker 1>sort of missed our opportunity to have that match. That's

<v Speaker 1>the true, untold story that I give only Wade Keller.

<v Speaker 1>That's a very different story than the one he's telling now.

<v Speaker 1>And he wasn't done either. In that interview, he said

<v Speaker 1>had the storyline played out as originally conceived, John Laurinidis

<v Speaker 1>would have been revealed as the one who texted him

<v Speaker 1>at SummerSlam. He said, it would have been Johnny. It

<v Speaker 1>would have been Johnny trying to end around in me,

<v Speaker 1>trying to say that Paul had changed because he was

<v Speaker 1>a blue blood now and he wasn't click. He was

<v Speaker 1>in the McMahon threshold. We were going to get a

<v Speaker 1>Johnny Ace click of guys to try to take over

<v Speaker 1>control of the company. That's when Vince would have gotten fired,

<v Speaker 1>and then we would have been after Paul to try

<v Speaker 1>to take control of the company. You know, good storyline.

<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, yeah, great storyline. Right, the same Johnny Ace, who,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, slithered out of his hole in the

<v Speaker 1>ground this week to announce his first signing in years

<v Speaker 1>for Big Time Wrestling next month. Let's not pretend that

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't a shit character back then either on TV.

<v Speaker 1>So pick whichever story you want to believe. It was

<v Speaker 1>Triple H's call or it was the plavix. I choose

<v Speaker 1>to believe the Triple H story because it is the

<v Speaker 1>most Triple H story of all Triple H stories, and

<v Speaker 1>it is completely believable that that would have happened exactly

<v Speaker 1>the way that he described it. Because people in wrestling

<v Speaker 1>have very fragile egos, and some people wanted me to

<v Speaker 1>talk about this, so we're going to run through this

<v Speaker 1>real quick. The Wrestling Observer Newsletters twenty twenty five Awards

<v Speaker 1>issue came out this week, as voted on by the

<v Speaker 1>Observer readership and others within the industry itself. So these

<v Speaker 1>are not hands selected by Dave Meltzer himself, although I

<v Speaker 1>am sure he would agree with most of these, Nor

<v Speaker 1>is this all of the categories. But this is a

<v Speaker 1>good chunk of them, the important one. So I'm just

<v Speaker 1>going to run through them here and we'll see who

<v Speaker 1>won it. Maybe I'll chime in along the way. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>you'll be entertained by this. The luth As Rick Flair Award,

<v Speaker 1>which is the Wrestler of the Year award, voted number

<v Speaker 1>one Mystico, number two, Hangman Adam Page, number three, John Moxley.

<v Speaker 1>And it's hard to argue with the number one spot here.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Mystico first won the award in two thousand

<v Speaker 1>and six, that was twenty years ago, and so here

<v Speaker 1>he is now. This is the twenty twenty five awards,

<v Speaker 1>so he repeats almost twenty years later. He is the

<v Speaker 1>only non heavyweight to ever win the award and the

<v Speaker 1>only wrestler based in Mexico to ever win the award.

<v Speaker 1>I can't argue against it. Every but he has their

<v Speaker 1>own criteria for Wrestler of the Year and what goes

<v Speaker 1>into it. Are you talking about the most outstanding in

<v Speaker 1>ring worker? Are you factoring that in along with their

<v Speaker 1>drawing power? Because if you put those two things together,

<v Speaker 1>then Mystico is the answer. I can't even argue it.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the man has had at least half a

<v Speaker 1>dozen sellouts already this month, and he has a couple

<v Speaker 1>more to his name in Japan later this month. So

<v Speaker 1>this is coming off a month of January here where

<v Speaker 1>he was credited with I think somewhere around seventeen or

<v Speaker 1>eighteen sellouts. I mean, he is just he's on another

<v Speaker 1>planet right now. As far as his drawing power, there's

<v Speaker 1>no one even close, not in WWE or anywhere else

<v Speaker 1>in terms of a singular attraction, and so he was

<v Speaker 1>doing that all throughout last year. But that's just what's

<v Speaker 1>happened so far this year. So I don't know that

<v Speaker 1>there's any other wrestler who has been more important to

<v Speaker 1>the promotion for which they work than Mystico. So I

<v Speaker 1>don't have any issue with that, And then you got

<v Speaker 1>Hangman and Moxley, and that rounds out the top three.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Takeshta was my best in ring of the Year.

<v Speaker 1>When I did my awards several weeks ago, I had

<v Speaker 1>Kenoskate Takeshta as my best in ring performer of the Year.

<v Speaker 1>But I did have Hangman as my Men's Wrestler of

<v Speaker 1>the Year overall, so I don't really have any issue

<v Speaker 1>with that. Most Outstanding Wrestler Number one, Canoskate Takeshta, number

<v Speaker 1>two Bandido, and number three Kyle Fletcher. Again no issue

<v Speaker 1>from my end. I had Takeshta as my my in

<v Speaker 1>ring worker of the year. Kyle Fletcher, I had him

<v Speaker 1>as my breakout Star of the Year. Tag Team of

<v Speaker 1>the Year number one, the Young Bucks, number two, FTR,

<v Speaker 1>number three, Brody King, and Bandido. So the only WWE

<v Speaker 1>team to make the list here was Fraxium. They came

<v Speaker 1>in in number seven. And I have talked a lot

<v Speaker 1>about the state of the tag team division in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, don't even get me started on that. So

<v Speaker 1>the fact that there was no WWE team in the

<v Speaker 1>top three or the top five here makes a lot

<v Speaker 1>of sense. Although I would have had Brody Kingham Bendido

<v Speaker 1>at number one, I would not have had the Bucks

<v Speaker 1>or FTR ahead of them. To me, Brody King and Bendido,

<v Speaker 1>they were kind of like a revelation that came out

<v Speaker 1>of nowhere as this unexpected team kind of late in

<v Speaker 1>the year, maybe mid midway through the year, and they

<v Speaker 1>were just a lot of fun to watch, right and

<v Speaker 1>then they won the tag team titles and they had

<v Speaker 1>some killer matches. So I disagree with this for me,

<v Speaker 1>Brody Kingham Bendido, that's your tag team of the Year.

<v Speaker 1>Best on interviews. Hangman Page was number one. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know how they arrived at that, But number two was

<v Speaker 1>John Moxley. Number three was timeless Tony Storm. When I

<v Speaker 1>did my awards, I had cmpunk as my number one.

<v Speaker 1>Cmpunk was on this list at number four, so he

<v Speaker 1>did make the I just think, you know, this is

<v Speaker 1>not cm punk from you know, fifteen years ago or

<v Speaker 1>thirteen years ago, where he was, you know, he was

<v Speaker 1>dropping bombs every week. But when he's out there on

<v Speaker 1>most weeks and he's got something really solid to sink

<v Speaker 1>his teeth in two, he's still, if not the best

<v Speaker 1>in the world among the very best in the world

<v Speaker 1>on the microphone. Nothing has really changed in that regard.

<v Speaker 1>He just needs the right material and the right person

<v Speaker 1>to work with. We saw that with Drew McIntyre. We

<v Speaker 1>saw that when he was in the ring with Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns a few weeks ago. I really liked the promo

<v Speaker 1>with Finn Balor on Monday Night. You know, Punk still

<v Speaker 1>got it in that way. Even if you think he's

<v Speaker 1>fallen off in ring on the mic he hasn't. So

<v Speaker 1>I had him at number one. But if you want

<v Speaker 1>to have Tony Storm at number one, I don't have

<v Speaker 1>an issue with that. Tony Storm is fucking great. But

<v Speaker 1>Hangman Page and John Moxley ahead of both of them. Now.

<v Speaker 1>Promotion of the Year number one, CMLL, number two, ae

<v Speaker 1>W number three. Stardom WWE was number four. So I

<v Speaker 1>know there's gonna be a lot of people who laugh

<v Speaker 1>at this award. And look, I mean, by all accounts,

<v Speaker 1>Stardom I think actually had a better year financially than

<v Speaker 1>New Japan did. Start them had a pretty good year.

<v Speaker 1>Should they be at number three over WWE? Again, that's

<v Speaker 1>a very subjective thing WWE. But before anybody says that, well,

<v Speaker 1>of course this is the you know, it's the aw

<v Speaker 1>award and it's the audience. I will point out to

<v Speaker 1>you WWE they came in number one each of the

<v Speaker 1>previous two years, so it's not like they haven't won

<v Speaker 1>this award before. They just want it back to back

<v Speaker 1>years they went. They went back to back like Cody

<v Speaker 1>Rhoades did in the Royal Rumble. But this year they

<v Speaker 1>came in at number four. And you know what, as

<v Speaker 1>dead creatively as the company was for most of the year,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to argue. And I know CMLL did

<v Speaker 1>big business last year on the back of Mystico. Mostly

<v Speaker 1>they're still doing big business. I don't know how how

<v Speaker 1>long this boom is going to last for them down there,

<v Speaker 1>but it look I mean business. Their business is on

<v Speaker 1>fire right now. You know, they're packing them in. The

<v Speaker 1>people love coming to the shows. They find the show's

<v Speaker 1>fun to watch, and I don't watch the show's week

<v Speaker 1>to week. I don't watch their show, so it's hard

<v Speaker 1>for me to really sit here and judge. They're not

<v Speaker 1>my promotion of the year, But I can't sit here

<v Speaker 1>and say they don't deserve consideration for the number one

<v Speaker 1>spot when you look at the business they've done. And

<v Speaker 1>I'm also looking at a year where frankly, WWE and

<v Speaker 1>AW didn't exactly inspire me all that much to where

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to sit here and go, oh man, they

<v Speaker 1>should have been number one. I'm like, eh, you know what, Fine,

<v Speaker 1>give it to CMLL. This was not the best year

<v Speaker 1>that we just came off of creatively for either one

<v Speaker 1>of those two companies. But this is the first time

<v Speaker 1>in history that CMLL has won this award. It's only

<v Speaker 1>the second time that a Lucha libre promotion has ever

<v Speaker 1>won it, after TRIPAA won it in nineteen ninety four. Now,

<v Speaker 1>but if you're going to look at this, you take

<v Speaker 1>into account the character, the stories, the matches. So you

<v Speaker 1>want to look at the matches. That's where AW shines.

<v Speaker 1>So this kind of goes to the question earlier of

<v Speaker 1>like who's the Wrestler of the Year. It really all

<v Speaker 1>depends on what your criteria is for it. You know,

<v Speaker 1>if you're primarily interested in who gave me the best

<v Speaker 1>wrestling matches last year, then put AW at number one.

<v Speaker 1>They should be number one. But when you factor in

<v Speaker 1>all of these different things, you know, you gotta look

<v Speaker 1>at the big picture here, then it's a little fuzzier.

<v Speaker 1>Worst Promotion of the Year Number one WWE, which is

<v Speaker 1>just it's funny to be because they won the award

<v Speaker 1>for Best Promotion of the Year last year, but this

<v Speaker 1>year they were the worst Promotion of the Year number

<v Speaker 1>two NWA, number three TNA, and ae W was all

<v Speaker 1>the way down at the bottom of the list at

<v Speaker 1>number two. I mean, that's it's just funny to me.

<v Speaker 1>It's just funny, but man, I mean the hatred for

<v Speaker 1>WWE to rank them above the NWA Best Weekly TV

<v Speaker 1>Show number one aw Dynamite, number two CML Super Viernes

<v Speaker 1>and number three aw Collision Worst Weekly Show number one NXT.

<v Speaker 1>Actually that makes a lot more sense than when we

<v Speaker 1>get to the Worst Announcer Award number one NXT. Number

<v Speaker 1>two SmackDown, Well, that is undoubtedly true. I'm not going

<v Speaker 1>to sit here and defend SmackDown that pile of shit

<v Speaker 1>that it was for a good part of the year

<v Speaker 1>last year. And number three TNA Impact Best Major Wrestling Show,

<v Speaker 1>number one aw All in Texas, number two a A

<v Speaker 1>double or nothing. I had that as my number one

<v Speaker 1>show of the year, so I wasn't too far off

<v Speaker 1>number three, Stardom, All Star Grand Queendom. That's your top

<v Speaker 1>three best major shows of the year. I had Double

<v Speaker 1>or Nothing as my number one, but I had the

<v Speaker 1>Elimination Chamber as my number two. Elimination Chamber was ranked

<v Speaker 1>here at number six. Worst major wrestling show number one,

<v Speaker 1>Wrestle Palooza number two, Survivor Series number three, Wrestle Maybia

<v Speaker 1>forty one Night two. Well, look, I mean, we talk

<v Speaker 1>about these pay per views and major shows. The one

<v Speaker 1>thing where AW shines more often than not is when

<v Speaker 1>it comes to their pay per views. And I'm not

<v Speaker 1>a fan of these marathon five hour shows we get

<v Speaker 1>sometimes I think it's just it's so fucking ridiculous. But

<v Speaker 1>in terms of the quality of the shows and the

<v Speaker 1>in ring matches and what we get on those shows,

<v Speaker 1>the fact that there's no AW shows here, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>surprised by that. Like, they know how to do their

<v Speaker 1>their major shows and WWE, they know how to put

<v Speaker 1>on a big production, but their shows are very hit

<v Speaker 1>or miss. You can get a great PLA and then

<v Speaker 1>you could turn around and get one that shit and

<v Speaker 1>you know only has four matches, and so if those

<v Speaker 1>four matches don't hit and you only have four matches

<v Speaker 1>to go by, then that's not going to be a

<v Speaker 1>very good show, you know. But it was also a

<v Speaker 1>year where we got Evolution, which was one of my

<v Speaker 1>favorite shows of the entire year. Match of the year

<v Speaker 1>Number one Kenny Omega against Gabe Kid at the Tokyo Dome.

<v Speaker 1>Number two Bendido against Kenoski Takeshta in Ring of Honor.

<v Speaker 1>Number three Hangman versus Moxley at All in Texas. The

<v Speaker 1>only WWE match that made the top ten here was

<v Speaker 1>the Triple Threat from WrestleMania with Rhea Ripley, Eo Sky

<v Speaker 1>and Bianca bel Air that came in in number eight.

<v Speaker 1>So clearly I disagree here because that was my match

<v Speaker 1>of the year, especially in WWE. That was a tremendous

<v Speaker 1>piece of business with those three ladies. Last year, these

<v Speaker 1>other matches were all great, you know, Hangman and Moxley.

<v Speaker 1>They got the big payoff there at the end with

<v Speaker 1>the Death Riders losing their grip on the championship. This again,

<v Speaker 1>that was kind of like their Avengers endgame moment, all

<v Speaker 1>the cameos by different people, and so yeah, I mean

<v Speaker 1>that was great. Omega and Gabe Kid at the beginning

<v Speaker 1>of the year was. What makes that match even more

<v Speaker 1>remarkable is just the fact that it was Kenny's first

<v Speaker 1>match back after over a year where he almost potentially

<v Speaker 1>fucking died from diverticulitis. His first match back and he

<v Speaker 1>goes out and has the kind of match that he

<v Speaker 1>had with Gabe Kid. Certainly one of the matches of

<v Speaker 1>the year. Now the worst match of the year. Number

<v Speaker 1>one John Cena against Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania forty one.

<v Speaker 1>Number two Minoru's Suzuki against Butterbean in Las Vegas WrestleMania weekend.

<v Speaker 1>I have heard a lot about this match this week.

<v Speaker 1>I will tell you I have not seen this match,

<v Speaker 1>and there were people insisting that it was that there

<v Speaker 1>was absolutely nothing worse than this match last year, and

<v Speaker 1>I can believe it, but I just I haven't seen it,

<v Speaker 1>and now having heard about it, I really don't want

<v Speaker 1>to see it. But that came in at number two

<v Speaker 1>and number three brock Lesnar against John Cena at Wressell Palooza,

<v Speaker 1>truly one of the worst matches of the entire year.

<v Speaker 1>Most improved Number one Harley Cameron, Number two, Kyle Fletcher,

<v Speaker 1>number three Kendall Gray. Kendall Gray is going to be

<v Speaker 1>a very big deal very soon. I have no idea

<v Speaker 1>how Raquel Rodriguez did not make the top ten. She

<v Speaker 1>wasn't just not in the top three, she was not

<v Speaker 1>even in the top ten. She was my most improved

<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty five. How the hell is she not

<v Speaker 1>on this lege Most Overrated? Number one? Jay Usso, number two,

<v Speaker 1>cm Punk number three, Jade Cargill and in fact, WWE

<v Speaker 1>Talons took seven of the top ten spots here on

<v Speaker 1>this list, including John Cena at number nine. John Cena

<v Speaker 1>Most Overrated in twenty twenty five. I mean, jay Uso

<v Speaker 1>being in the number one spot is not It's not surprising.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you know, we had the jay Uso story,

<v Speaker 1>we had the j Uso push, we had the Juso

<v Speaker 1>world title run, and there were a lot of people

<v Speaker 1>who didn't even want that, but we got it. And

<v Speaker 1>it's just a lot of people who have just soured

<v Speaker 1>on it and the whole Yeat stuff and everything else,

<v Speaker 1>and they don't want to see it anymore. The WWE

<v Speaker 1>audience seems to want to see it whenever he comes

<v Speaker 1>out to the ring, but beyond that, there are a

<v Speaker 1>lot of people who I think the biggest issue was

<v Speaker 1>him being in the position that he was in, not

<v Speaker 1>that he was even the show, but that he was

<v Speaker 1>being booked in this main event spot and being given

<v Speaker 1>that kind of spotlight at the top of the card,

<v Speaker 1>and people just you know, they soured on it, you know,

<v Speaker 1>And I'm one of those people. I don't disagree with

<v Speaker 1>those people. It's hard to argue, honestly when that is

<v Speaker 1>as being the number one, you know, in this category

<v Speaker 1>now most Underrated. The Beast Mortos came in at number one.

<v Speaker 1>The Beast Morteas is very good. I don't know why

<v Speaker 1>he loses all the time. He is very good. Number

<v Speaker 1>two Javon Evans and number three Commander La Knight was

<v Speaker 1>on this list. He was tied with Chad Gable at

<v Speaker 1>number nine. The Jim Ross Slash Best Television Announcer Award.

<v Speaker 1>Number one Brian Danielson who doesn't even do it full time.

<v Speaker 1>They ranked him at number one, Number two Walker Stewart,

<v Speaker 1>who actually does a very good job for New Japan

<v Speaker 1>Pro Wrestling, and number three three ex Caliber, Number four

<v Speaker 1>Nigel McGinnis, Number five Michael Cole. They had ian Rick

<v Speaker 1>Abonni in number six, which feels low to me. They

<v Speaker 1>had Corey Graves in number eight, and they had Joe

<v Speaker 1>Tessitur at number nine over Michael Cole, who did not

<v Speaker 1>have his best year last year. I mean, he's had

<v Speaker 1>a lot of questionable moments over the last several months.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want to say he's checked out, but even

<v Speaker 1>him at number five, it seems a little high to

<v Speaker 1>me on this list. I certainly would not have had

<v Speaker 1>Corey and Joe that low on the list. The Worst

<v Speaker 1>Television Announcer Number one Booker T, number two, Pat McAfee,

<v Speaker 1>number three, Michael Cole. I don't know what it says,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, about the state of just the announcing

<v Speaker 1>situation in general with the top promotions when you have

<v Speaker 1>Michael Cole coming in at number five in the top five,

<v Speaker 1>okay for best TV announcer, but he comes in number

<v Speaker 1>three as the worst TV announcer. I've tried. I'm trying

<v Speaker 1>to reconcile this. Number four Vic Joseph and number five

<v Speaker 1>Tony Schavani. So this means that Booker T has won

<v Speaker 1>the award for Worst Announcer three straight years. Boy, the

<v Speaker 1>Observer readers, they really don't like Booker T. Do they now?

<v Speaker 1>They also voted NXT as the worst weekly show. How

<v Speaker 1>much of that was because they don't like Booker T.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Look the thing with Booker T. Booker

<v Speaker 1>T is very entertaining. Booker T is a showman. Booker

<v Speaker 1>T on commentary is an acquired taste. Booker T has also,

<v Speaker 1>I think played a very big role in the elevation

<v Speaker 1>of someone like Trick Williams, who has now gone on.

<v Speaker 1>He hasn't been on the main roster very long, but

<v Speaker 1>he's already a bit star on the main roster. But him,

<v Speaker 1>you know, singing his song and cheerleading forum on commentary

<v Speaker 1>I think did actually a world of good for Trick Williams.

<v Speaker 1>So that's one example of him actually helping to elevate

<v Speaker 1>a talent. But look at me. He's on there to

<v Speaker 1>be entertaining. That's his role. He's not on there to

<v Speaker 1>give you know, deep analysis. You know, there are Booker

<v Speaker 1>Team moments where sometimes it's like, all right, you know,

<v Speaker 1>we could dial it back, And then there's Booker Team

<v Speaker 1>moments where you know, I'm laughing my ass off, and

<v Speaker 1>he's very entertaining. What I call him the worst TV announcer.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know about that. That seems a little extreme

<v Speaker 1>to me. But I will also admit to you I'm

<v Speaker 1>not watching NXT week to week. I check in with

<v Speaker 1>certain things. I do not watch the show week to week.

<v Speaker 1>And it's not because of Booker T. I can tell

<v Speaker 1>you that. So I don't know. Has he gotten worse?

<v Speaker 1>I don't. I don't know. I mean, I disagree with that,

<v Speaker 1>but boy, I mean three years in a row to

<v Speaker 1>win that award. These these people do not like Booker T.

<v Speaker 1>That is what I am getting here from the voting results.

<v Speaker 1>I don't have the issue with him that other people

<v Speaker 1>seem to have, But I don't know. Apparently there's this

<v Speaker 1>deep hatred there. Most disgusting promotional tactic Number one WWE

<v Speaker 1>bringing back brock Lesnar Number two, tkowwe UFC relationship with

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia Number three tkowwe UFC relationship with Trump. How

<v Speaker 1>the hell did Rajah Jackson that whole thing only make

<v Speaker 1>number four on this list? This should have been number

<v Speaker 1>one without hesitation. It's not just the incident itself at

<v Speaker 1>the Knox Pro Show where he almost beat a man

<v Speaker 1>to death. They have this listed here as the Raja

<v Speaker 1>Jackson incident and a promotion advertising him for their show.

<v Speaker 1>They have both of these things listed here number four. Now,

<v Speaker 1>if you don't know about that, this was less than

<v Speaker 1>a week after the incident with Psychostu, there was another

<v Speaker 1>indie promotion. Danger Pro Wrestling out of San Diego advertised

<v Speaker 1>Raja Jackson for an upcoming show. Now, I don't think

<v Speaker 1>they ever actually booked him. I think they did it

<v Speaker 1>as a gag to try to drum up interest in

<v Speaker 1>their show the venue that they were running. They didn't

<v Speaker 1>find it very funny. They said that Raja Jackson was

<v Speaker 1>banned from appearing, but the fact that they would even

<v Speaker 1>do that, and this is like not even a week

<v Speaker 1>after the incident happened. I know wrestling is a very

<v Speaker 1>carni business with a lot of very carne people in it,

<v Speaker 1>but you have to be a real scumbag to think

<v Speaker 1>that that's a good idea to drum up interest in

<v Speaker 1>your shitty promotion. So as actual promotional tactics go, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that is the name of the fucking category. This should

<v Speaker 1>have been number one with a bullet. The funny thing

<v Speaker 1>about this category, though, I still cannot get over how

<v Speaker 1>Bob Beckland as WWF Champion was voted number one for

<v Speaker 1>this category in nineteen eighty two. To this day, I'm

<v Speaker 1>still wondering, how is this the most disgusting promotional attack?

<v Speaker 1>Do you mean to tell me that back then, in

<v Speaker 1>the early eighties, in the old days of territory wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>there was nothing more disgusting promotionally being done in the

<v Speaker 1>business than Vince Senior sticking with Bob Backland as the

<v Speaker 1>WWF champion. I find that very hard to believe. And

<v Speaker 1>then Booker of the Year. You know how this goes

<v Speaker 1>number one? I mean you could tell just based on

<v Speaker 1>how so many of these other rewards have gone number one,

<v Speaker 1>Tony Kahn, number two, tarot Okata for stardom, and number three.

<v Speaker 1>The CMLL booking team Paul Leavec came in at number four,

<v Speaker 1>and you know what, good because twenty twenty five was

<v Speaker 1>not a great year for Paul Lavec, especially the way

<v Speaker 1>that John Cena story was handled. Being number one. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know about that either, But paula Vec, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not going to cry about him coming in. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>gonna cry about any of this shit because I don't

<v Speaker 1>really give a fuck. But Paula vec coming in at

<v Speaker 1>number four. Yeah, okay, good sounds about right to me.

<v Speaker 1>I certainly didn't look at you know, Paula Veck or

<v Speaker 1>Tony Conn and go man, that's my booker of the Year.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't really feel anything for either one of them

<v Speaker 1>when it came to this award, So I don't really

<v Speaker 1>care one way or the other. But give it to

<v Speaker 1>the CMLL booking team for all I care. The business

<v Speaker 1>they did last year, make them number one, start them again.

<v Speaker 1>I can't speak to it. I know they had a

<v Speaker 1>good year. I can't speak to their storylines and how

<v Speaker 1>they were booking matches and stuff, so I can't even

<v Speaker 1>comment on that. But give it to CMLL. There's your

<v Speaker 1>Booker of the Year, and those are your observer awards

<v Speaker 1>that made headlines and had people talking here for twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty five. Let's take some mailbag questions. You could email

<v Speaker 1>me the Solomn Monster at gmail dot com. Please include

<v Speaker 1>your name where you are from when you write in.

<v Speaker 1>I will point out to you, by the way, the

<v Speaker 1>same email address for the Uncrowned Wrestling show that I

<v Speaker 1>am doing for Uncrowned. If you would like to submit

<v Speaker 1>questions to potentially be read on that show. Just make

<v Speaker 1>sure you put uncrowned somewhere in the subject line Solo

<v Speaker 1>Monster at gmail dot com. And for that show, you

<v Speaker 1>could also tweet me at Sola Monster. Just put the

<v Speaker 1>hashtag uncrowned at the end of your tweet and those

<v Speaker 1>will be considered as well. Let's get into this here.

<v Speaker 1>Bernard from the YouTube channel says, I hate to bring

<v Speaker 1>this up, but I just have to find out from

<v Speaker 1>you if you heard any rumors that Vince McMahon might

<v Speaker 1>be coming back to WWE. There have been a few

<v Speaker 1>red flags for his return. The latest was at the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble in a video package of pass Rumbles, showing

<v Speaker 1>his image in the video package, and it was also

<v Speaker 1>said that the reason why Adam Pierce has been acting

<v Speaker 1>or responding to bron Breaker is because he's acting on

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon's behalf and Vince is the one pulling the strings.

<v Speaker 1>I hope this is not true. What are your thoughts?

<v Speaker 1>It is not true. That's a bunch of people who

<v Speaker 1>are running amuck with their own silly ideas on social media.

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon is not coming back. Miles from Avondale, Arizona

<v Speaker 1>and WWE, we have now seen or will see three

<v Speaker 1>to four different versions of the Judgment Day. Are the

<v Speaker 1>Judgment Day dead or like the Bloodline, they will continue

<v Speaker 1>to add more members and venture forth. I think he

<v Speaker 1>answered your own question there at the very end. Are

<v Speaker 1>they dead? No, They're not dead. They're very much alive.

<v Speaker 1>And I think that WWE likes the Judgment Day. The

<v Speaker 1>Judgment Day has actually proven to be a very useful

<v Speaker 1>vehicle for helping to get people over and getting them

<v Speaker 1>on television with some sort of story. Now, it may

<v Speaker 1>not always be the best story, and I absolutely believe

<v Speaker 1>that they have dragged out some of these stories for

<v Speaker 1>too long. You know the tension with Balor and Dom

<v Speaker 1>as one example of that. But the Judgment Day has

<v Speaker 1>actually proven to be something where I think I would

<v Speaker 1>keep it together, but I would definitely cycle out new members,

<v Speaker 1>cycle out old members, bringing new ones. I think it

<v Speaker 1>could be very useful. So I believe it is going

<v Speaker 1>to venture forth. I don't believe the Judgment Day is

<v Speaker 1>going anywhere. Sufi from Malaysia, on a recent episode of

<v Speaker 1>the Sound of If, you mentioned how there are so

<v Speaker 1>many titles in wrestling, if you could get rid of

<v Speaker 1>any of them in WWE, and AW what would they be? Yes,

<v Speaker 1>I should just leave the question right there and just

<v Speaker 1>say yes and move on. Yes. First you want to

<v Speaker 1>what I would do, I'll tell you what I would do.

<v Speaker 1>First things first, get rid of all the speed titles. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>the speed titles are completely pointless, so get rid of those.

<v Speaker 1>I would have a women's Intercontinental Champion. I would get

<v Speaker 1>rid of the women's US title. Okay. They have demonstrated

<v Speaker 1>that they do not have the ability to book the

<v Speaker 1>women's US title with any real degree of foresight, with

<v Speaker 1>anything of any real value. They don't really give a shit.

<v Speaker 1>It seems to be more of a nuisance to them

<v Speaker 1>than anything else. And I'll say what I said before

<v Speaker 1>they even introduced either one of these titles. Have one

<v Speaker 1>mid card title for the women that is cross branded. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>so that's something else I would do. I would merge

<v Speaker 1>the two men's tag team titles back into one and

<v Speaker 1>let them float because they do not have the talent

<v Speaker 1>at the moment. They do not have either Tag Team

<v Speaker 1>Division or ra SmackDown stockpiled in such a way where

<v Speaker 1>I think the tag ting division should be existing individually

<v Speaker 1>on either show. It's not strong enough and they don't

<v Speaker 1>give it enough attention. There should not be two sets

<v Speaker 1>of tag team titles. Merge them, have one division, have

<v Speaker 1>one set of champions, let them work across brands. And

<v Speaker 1>if I was gonna add any belts, I would consider

<v Speaker 1>adding mixed tag team titles like they have in TRIPLEA.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm just saying if I was going to add one,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying we need more belts. I'm trying to

<v Speaker 1>subtract them. But if you were going to add a

<v Speaker 1>new title, because we're like in AW they added the

<v Speaker 1>national title and WWE, we have these speed titles with

<v Speaker 1>these three minute matches they do. You could do speed

<v Speaker 1>matches if you want to. I don't really see the

<v Speaker 1>need to have a speed champion, but if you're going

<v Speaker 1>to add one, that would be it. Now. In AW,

<v Speaker 1>get rid of the national title. I'm sure Ricochet would

<v Speaker 1>tweet his displeasure over this, but oh well, get rid

<v Speaker 1>of it, and get rid of the continental title too.

<v Speaker 1>Fuck it. No more continental title, no more unified title.

<v Speaker 1>You keep the international title, the winner of the Continental Classic.

<v Speaker 1>It's a nice trophy and a shot at the AW

<v Speaker 1>World Championship. You do not need all of these excess titles.

<v Speaker 1>There was some poor guy in the crowd. Shout out

<v Speaker 1>to him, he's doing the wrestling lord's work. Here last

<v Speaker 1>night a Grand Slam. This one lone guy in the

<v Speaker 1>crowd in Australia held up a sign that said there's

<v Speaker 1>too many belts, too many titles. I said, that's my guy.

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't be surprised if he was a sound off

<v Speaker 1>listener right there in the crowd. So right there, you

<v Speaker 1>still have a lot of titles, but I just eliminated

<v Speaker 1>a whole bunch of them that are completely unnecessary. Mike

<v Speaker 1>from New Jersey, now that we are in the thick

<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania season, what do you consider the greatest road

<v Speaker 1>to WrestleMania in terms of build to the big show

<v Speaker 1>and what made them fun now? He mentions in his

<v Speaker 1>email here, WrestleMania forty that would be one of them,

<v Speaker 1>for sure. I mean, once everything got blown up and

<v Speaker 1>we got Final Boss Rock on TV, it made things

<v Speaker 1>a lot more interesting. And you know, with the Night

<v Speaker 1>one main event feeding directly into the Night two main event,

<v Speaker 1>there was synergy there between the two nights. I thought

<v Speaker 1>that was cool. That's not something you could do every year,

<v Speaker 1>but I thought that was cool, So that one is

<v Speaker 1>definitely up there. WrestleMania thirty and the Yes movement stuff

<v Speaker 1>is another one, although I don't remember much else about

<v Speaker 1>that Road to WrestleMania for being on it. WrestleMania seventeen,

<v Speaker 1>that one may get my vote. If it's not forty

<v Speaker 1>for me, it's probably seventeen. I mean, there was just

<v Speaker 1>so much hype for that show. And I'll throw an

<v Speaker 1>old school one at you. Before the Road to WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>was even really a thing, but it started with the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble that year, and that's nineteen ninety two, WrestleMania eight,

<v Speaker 1>all the controversy around the world title scene and trying

<v Speaker 1>to decide who the challenger would be to Rick Flair,

<v Speaker 1>and then it gets changed. He had Roddy Piper winning

<v Speaker 1>his first singles title and building to a match with

<v Speaker 1>Brett Hart. Two babyfaces, the Undertaker, Jake, the Snake, Roberts

<v Speaker 1>stuff after Undertaker term babyface right the funeral parlor segment.

<v Speaker 1>I've got that one pretty high up on my list.

<v Speaker 1>Dorian from Kinston, North Carolina. I was listening to your

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble review and you mentioned Macho Man going for

<v Speaker 1>a pin in the match. Would it be so bad

<v Speaker 1>if they changed the rules of the Rumble to where

<v Speaker 1>the with the last two people left in the match,

<v Speaker 1>it turns into one fall to a finish. I think

<v Speaker 1>it makes it more interesting, you know, I am I

<v Speaker 1>am open to jazzing up the Royal Rumble. I always

<v Speaker 1>love the Aztec Warfare match in Lujah Underground. It didn't

<v Speaker 1>have any over the top rope eliminations, but it works.

<v Speaker 1>You know, rumble style where wrestlers enter in two minute intervals,

<v Speaker 1>but it's pinfall or submission elimination only. I would incorporate

<v Speaker 1>the over the top rope elimination. I wouldn't get rid

<v Speaker 1>of that otherwise, just adopt the Aztec Warfare rules. You know,

<v Speaker 1>you can have a referee slide in whenever someone goes

<v Speaker 1>for a pin or a submission. You have referees all

<v Speaker 1>over the ring anyway outside with your idea. I like it,

<v Speaker 1>but I would make it pinfall, submission or over the

<v Speaker 1>top rope elimination, so you can when you get down

<v Speaker 1>to those two, you can win by any of those three.

<v Speaker 1>Jesse from and by the way, just to go back

<v Speaker 1>to that for a second. It doesn't even have to

<v Speaker 1>be the final two people. I mean, you can make

<v Speaker 1>it that way with the final three, final four, doesn't

<v Speaker 1>just have to be the final two. Jesse from Dallas,

<v Speaker 1>Texas with WWE going back to Roman Reigns for yet

<v Speaker 1>another wrestle many a main event. Do you think this

<v Speaker 1>is indicative that Triple H has so far been unable

<v Speaker 1>to make any new true main events since he has

<v Speaker 1>taken over Creative Also another buyer sell on these two

<v Speaker 1>albums by Metallica, Master of Puppets or the black album

<v Speaker 1>Master of Puppets. So your first question though, to an extent, yes,

<v Speaker 1>but I think Triple H is going with who he

<v Speaker 1>thinks is going to be the biggest attraction so that

<v Speaker 1>he can sell the most tickets because he has masters

<v Speaker 1>to answer to, and if they stop selling as many tickets,

<v Speaker 1>he knows he's going to be on the hot seat,

<v Speaker 1>which evidently he might already be. We're already hearing chatter

<v Speaker 1>about this. But yes, I mean, they're running with the

<v Speaker 1>same faces they've been running with for years now, right

<v Speaker 1>only now does it feel like they're really trying to

<v Speaker 1>build up a few new names who could be in

<v Speaker 1>that spot by next year? Oba Femi Bron breaker as

<v Speaker 1>good as Oba already is. Right, He's only got three

<v Speaker 1>years in the business, which is pretty crazy to think about.

<v Speaker 1>They need more people like him, right. You can only

<v Speaker 1>run with Roman Reigns and see on punkin Seth Rollins

<v Speaker 1>and Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton so many times without

<v Speaker 1>getting some new blood in there. Jacob Fatu, He's some

<v Speaker 1>new blood. You can add him to that list, also

<v Speaker 1>with Oba and bron Is he from thatcher Arizona. I

<v Speaker 1>remember The Rock having issues with Shawn Michaels stemming back

<v Speaker 1>to his grandmother's promotion. I was recently watching a video

<v Speaker 1>and in the comments it explained about the fight that

<v Speaker 1>The Rock and Shawn Michaels had backstage due to a

<v Speaker 1>stiff sweet chin music from Sean I assume from the

<v Speaker 1>Triple H match on smack Down. Can you explain further?

<v Speaker 1>I had no idea about this, Yeah, well, I mean

<v Speaker 1>you had no idea about this, because I don't think

<v Speaker 1>it happened. I don't know how true that story is.

<v Speaker 1>I want to say that story came from Rocky Johnson.

<v Speaker 1>I think Rock's father may have told the story. I've

<v Speaker 1>never seen Rock himself talk about it or confirm it.

<v Speaker 1>As the story goes, supposedly the superkick that he took

<v Speaker 1>in that match. So we're talking about the very first

<v Speaker 1>official episode of SmackDown in nineteen ninety nine. They had

<v Speaker 1>a pilot episode in April, the show got picked up

<v Speaker 1>by UPN. The first episode was in August of nineteen

<v Speaker 1>ninety nine and they had a main event of Rock

<v Speaker 1>against Triple H for the WWF Championship. Sean Michaels was

<v Speaker 1>in there as the special guest referee. I don't remember

<v Speaker 1>if he was still the commissioner at that point. I

<v Speaker 1>think he was. And Rock is going for the People's elbow.

<v Speaker 1>He comes off the ropes and Sean Michael super kicks

<v Speaker 1>him in the face and so Triple A t wins

<v Speaker 1>the match and he retains the title and DX is

<v Speaker 1>all back together. So that would be the matching question,

<v Speaker 1>because there was no other time that Shawn Michaels would

<v Speaker 1>have superkicked a Rock. As the story goes, Rock confronted

<v Speaker 1>him about the kick backstage. He said it was stiff,

<v Speaker 1>and Sean responded with something to the effect of, well

<v Speaker 1>then you're in the wrong business, and Rock went after him.

<v Speaker 1>I don't believe the story myself. I can't say it

<v Speaker 1>didn't happen, but I mean, you would think that there

<v Speaker 1>were others who either were there or who would have

<v Speaker 1>heard about it, who would have verified it. And I

<v Speaker 1>never hear anybody talking about that Brendan in Texas twenty

<v Speaker 1>five years ago. The wrestling world as we know it

<v Speaker 1>changed when WCW went out of business. Eric Bischoff had

<v Speaker 1>a plan for what he was going to do with WCW,

<v Speaker 1>and WWE had plans for what they were going to

<v Speaker 1>do before the invasion angle. My question is what would

<v Speaker 1>have been for WCW Bischoff buying it and doing his plans,

<v Speaker 1>or WWE doing their original plan for WCW. I look,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that Bischoff would have succeeded with it

<v Speaker 1>or not. They had plans in place right, He had

<v Speaker 1>his his financial partners, Fusion Media. They had publicly announced

<v Speaker 1>that they were buying the company until they weren't. They

<v Speaker 1>got greedy. I've talked about this story before. It was

<v Speaker 1>from the Nitro book, that Great Guy Evans book where

<v Speaker 1>Fusion had put I believe it was a clause in

<v Speaker 1>the purchase agreement where if things didn't work out with

<v Speaker 1>WCW or the show was canceled or whatever, Fusion would

<v Speaker 1>still own the time slot on the Turner network, whatever network.

<v Speaker 1>It would have been of course like Turner's like, you know,

<v Speaker 1>what the fuck are we going to agree to that for?

<v Speaker 1>That's ridiculous, And it ended up really blowing the whole

<v Speaker 1>thing up. But had they gone through it that, they

<v Speaker 1>were already advertising in like WCW magazine, this big pay

<v Speaker 1>per view called the Big Bang. They were going to

<v Speaker 1>go dark for a few months and then they were

<v Speaker 1>gonna come back with this Big Bang pay per view.

<v Speaker 1>And I can't say if it would have been successful

<v Speaker 1>or not. It probably would have ended up as another

<v Speaker 1>Hulk Hogan vanity project built around him. But truthfully, Bischoff

<v Speaker 1>buying it and running it is the only way WCW

<v Speaker 1>truly could have continued because if WWE would have run it,

<v Speaker 1>it was never gonna work. They were never going to

<v Speaker 1>allow WCW to exist as its own true entity, not

<v Speaker 1>without making it little brother to WWA like Vince. Vince

<v Speaker 1>would not have allowed that to happen. He made and

<v Speaker 1>Vince had a plan in place to run it as

<v Speaker 1>a separate promotion. They were going to give it the

<v Speaker 1>Monday Night Ross Slot SmackDown was going to become the

<v Speaker 1>WWE show. In theory, they could have really built up

<v Speaker 1>to like a big dream supercard, like a big inter

<v Speaker 1>promotional pay per view, maybe even as early as WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>eighteen had things gone the way that you know ideally

<v Speaker 1>they should have gone. But under Vince mcmat like, there's

<v Speaker 1>no way they had conditioned their audience that WCW was

<v Speaker 1>the enemy. They were always going to be number two

<v Speaker 1>and they were always going to be less than and

<v Speaker 1>it wouldn't have felt like WCW in Vince's hands. It

<v Speaker 1>would never have truly been WCW, at least with Bischoff.

<v Speaker 1>Even if it would have gone down in flames within

<v Speaker 1>a couple of years, it was really the only way

<v Speaker 1>to go. Would WCW still be around today? No, No,

<v Speaker 1>either way, I think WCW would no longer be around today.

<v Speaker 1>I really I think in either scenario, we're not looking

<v Speaker 1>at a wrestling world where WCW still exists. But it

<v Speaker 1>would have had a ripple effect. It's one of those

<v Speaker 1>what if questions where if WCW had continued on even

<v Speaker 1>for a few years, maybe there's no TNA look at

<v Speaker 1>all the people who got their start in TNA and

<v Speaker 1>got an opportunity in TNA, who went on to parlay

<v Speaker 1>that into something in WWE and other places. You know,

<v Speaker 1>So what effect does it have on that? And of honor?

<v Speaker 1>I mean, aw came many many many years later, so

<v Speaker 1>I mean that's just impossible to think about the impact

<v Speaker 1>that would have had on that. But now it would

<v Speaker 1>have had a ripple effect on the wrestling business, and

<v Speaker 1>maybe not in the best of ways. And Ronnie from

<v Speaker 1>Belgium by rent Or sell On, who should have been

<v Speaker 1>the higher power in nineteen ninety nine, Hulk Hogan, Brett

<v Speaker 1>Hart or Randy Savage. Ronnie, you forgot the correct answer,

<v Speaker 1>which is none of the above. I would not have

<v Speaker 1>done the higher power angle. I don't think there was

<v Speaker 1>a payoff to the higher power angle that would have

<v Speaker 1>been sufficient. I really and honestly like the idea of

<v Speaker 1>it being any of the people that you just mentioned,

<v Speaker 1>like that the Undertaker is subservient to Hulk Hogan or

<v Speaker 1>Brett Hart's It just it doesn't make any sense. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>at the time, I could tell you as being a

<v Speaker 1>fan at the time, and you know, I was wondering,

<v Speaker 1>like everybody else, who's it going to be? And it's

<v Speaker 1>an easy way to get people kind of invested when

<v Speaker 1>you have that sort of mystery person, mystery man angle.

<v Speaker 1>The names Ted Dbassi, Jake Roberts, those are the names

<v Speaker 1>that were really coming up the most. And actually with

<v Speaker 1>Jake and Dbassi at least there was that pass connection

<v Speaker 1>to the Undertaker, so you could have made that work.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that the uh, the state that Jake

<v Speaker 1>would have been in at the time was ideal for

<v Speaker 1>him to be on television. Let's just put it that way.

<v Speaker 1>And if it was DBAs, I don't think anybody would

<v Speaker 1>have cared. I really don't. You know. Dbassi went to WCW,

<v Speaker 1>he was a manager, he was in the nWo. Nobody

<v Speaker 1>gave a shit. So you know Dbasse coming back and

<v Speaker 1>being that guy, I mean, you know, he would have

<v Speaker 1>been a good character, I guess on TV. But would

<v Speaker 1>Debase have even wanted to do it? You think Ted

<v Speaker 1>Dbiassi as you know this, this devout man that he became,

<v Speaker 1>would want to return to WWE to be part of

<v Speaker 1>this satanic cult faction. I don't like. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that DBAs wanted to be the higher power for that

<v Speaker 1>version of the Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness when

<v Speaker 1>he was literally running his own ministry at the time,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think he even would have wanted to do it,

<v Speaker 1>So you take those names out and who he left with. Realistically,

<v Speaker 1>there was chatter that maybe it was going to be

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie McMahon. I mean, it probably was always going to

<v Speaker 1>be a McMahon, and I remember when Vince revealed himself,

<v Speaker 1>it was like, that was my reaction to it. I'm like, really,

<v Speaker 1>what the fuck? Because your mind starts to like run

<v Speaker 1>wild with ideas of like, oh, who could this person be.

<v Speaker 1>It could be like a big name, you know, coming back,

<v Speaker 1>or a big name that we're not thinking of, and

<v Speaker 1>who would make sense in this role, and then it

<v Speaker 1>just turns out to be Vince and it was some

<v Speaker 1>big ruse that he pulled over, you know, to pull

<v Speaker 1>the wool over everyone's eyes, and it's like, ah, fuck

<v Speaker 1>this shit man. That was my reaction to the higher power.

<v Speaker 1>But we did end up out of it getting it

<v Speaker 1>was right after this right that we got I think

<v Speaker 1>that night that we got stone cold as the CEO.

<v Speaker 1>So at least we got some entertaining skits out of

<v Speaker 1>that with him at Titan Tower, drinking on the job,

<v Speaker 1>sitting in on the big boardroom meeting. It wasn't a

<v Speaker 1>total loss. I just wouldn't have done the angle anyway.

<v Speaker 1>Keep emailing me the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Also,

<v Speaker 1>in case you didn't notice, I posted a short, a

<v Speaker 1>YouTube short also on my TikTok which I never mentioned.

<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to be more active now going forward on TikTok,

<v Speaker 1>I'm working with somebody. We're trying something new here as

<v Speaker 1>far as some shorts content. If you guys are interested,

<v Speaker 1>you can follow me on TikTok at Solo Monster Sounds Off.

<v Speaker 1>It's the full name of the show at Solo Monster

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off on TikTok and we'll get some more shorts

<v Speaker 1>content up and we'll see how it does, and then

<v Speaker 1>I'll make a determination if it's worth continuing to do

<v Speaker 1>it or not. I'm always trying to, you know, just

<v Speaker 1>think of new things and give you guys content that

<v Speaker 1>I think you're interested in. So again, if you're not

<v Speaker 1>following me on TikTok at Sola Monster Sounds Off. Got

<v Speaker 1>a very busy week coming up. We've got the raw

<v Speaker 1>post show on YouTube Tomorrow night Tuesday, dropping later in

<v Speaker 1>the day on the Ariel hell Wanie Show feed will

<v Speaker 1>be episode two of The Uncrowned Wrestling Show. Help help

<v Speaker 1>make the new show a success and tune in. You

<v Speaker 1>can get it wherever you get this podcast, whatever you use,

<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever it may be. And then Tuesday

<v Speaker 1>Night Live on YouTube. I will be with JD for

<v Speaker 1>a brand new episode of Tuesday Night Titans. And then

<v Speaker 1>Wednesday night we have aw Dynamite. Friday. There will be

<v Speaker 1>no SmackDown review, but Friday is a very big House

<v Speaker 1>of Glory show and mjf will be on that show.

<v Speaker 1>Andrada is on that show. We got other matches planned

<v Speaker 1>for that show. You'll see announcements coming this week Fast

<v Speaker 1>and Furious, and I have a feeling, you know, Friday

<v Speaker 1>night is it's gonna be an interest. So if you

<v Speaker 1>can join live the NYC Arena tickets hog Wrestling dot Net.

<v Speaker 1>If they're not all gone, they probably will be. They

<v Speaker 1>almost assuredly will be by the time we get to

<v Speaker 1>the end of the week. Last I checked, I think

<v Speaker 1>we had opened up Fifth Row and I know those

<v Speaker 1>were going and we had general admission was basically all

<v Speaker 1>we had left, So if you're going to be at

<v Speaker 1>the show, make sure you say hello. Always enjoy seeing

<v Speaker 1>you guys there, And if you can't be there, we'll

<v Speaker 1>be streaming live on Triller TV Plus and you'll hear

<v Speaker 1>my voice on commentary among others. So that'll be coming

<v Speaker 1>up on Friday, and I guess next weekend is kind

<v Speaker 1>of a quiet weekend, and then Elimination Chamber is the

<v Speaker 1>following weekend, so we'll save the Elimination Chamber of predictions

<v Speaker 1>for next week. But then I'll be back with you

<v Speaker 1>here for episode nine fifty two next Sunday. So until then,

<v Speaker 1>be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of

<v Speaker 1>your week. I hope you will join me for all

<v Speaker 1>the content and I'll see you right back here for

<v Speaker 1>a brand new sounduff next Sunday. As always, until then,

<v Speaker 1>take care of guys.

<v Speaker 2>The solom Monster sounds off.

<v Speaker 1>Backstage, we had Phraxium and the MotorCity Machine Gun. Holy shit,

<v Speaker 1>they live. So they were walking along backstage and Candice

<v Speaker 1>Larray approaches that she said, look at what happened to

<v Speaker 1>Johnny And we see Johnny Gargano. He is lying face

<v Speaker 1>down on top of a box that has marked NXT.

<v Speaker 1>I want you to imagine flying all the way to

<v Speaker 1>work and you get there and you find out, okay, boss,

<v Speaker 1>what am I doing tonight? And your job after flying

<v Speaker 1>all the way in here is to lay face down

<v Speaker 1>on top of a box for two minutes and say nothing.

<v Speaker 1>I don't even think he'd blinked. He looked catatonic as

<v Speaker 1>he was laying there. And that's it. That's all he

<v Speaker 1>did on this show. That was his only task, to

<v Speaker 1>fly into work and lay on top of a box.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, I guess it's not bad work if

<v Speaker 1>you can get it.

<v Speaker 2>The Solo Monster sounds off, bringing you the good, the bad,

<v Speaker 2>and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus

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<v Speaker 2>and Ax the Salad Monster.

<v Speaker 1>I love you so long.