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

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I love your mama, Monster dude, I want

<v Speaker 1>your soul. Woman.

<v Speaker 2>You got grown ass rustlers in the back going on Twitter.

<v Speaker 1>Come over here. Part is that pet patison? You have legs?

<v Speaker 2>I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chessed up.

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

<v Speaker 2>every every platform I can, and I would have know

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

<v Speaker 1>I cannot believe that after digging our away out of

<v Speaker 1>the last snowstorm, all of this shit is finally mostly

<v Speaker 1>melted away, not entirely, but mostly. And in a few

<v Speaker 1>hours here we're about to get hit by a blizzard

<v Speaker 1>in New York City, twenty inches of snow and fifty

<v Speaker 1>mile an hour wind gus blowing that shit all over

<v Speaker 1>the place. I feel so defeated, just all that shoveling

<v Speaker 1>last time. I just feel so defeated right now. This

<v Speaker 1>is episode nine point fifty two of The Solemn Monster

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off for Sunday, February twenty second, twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>I'm the snowy solom Monster. I'm gonna try to take

<v Speaker 1>my mind off all of that What a show on

<v Speaker 1>Friday night. And no I'm not talking about SmackDown, I'm

<v Speaker 1>talking about House of Glory, no turning back. We were

<v Speaker 1>sold out, packed in at the NYC Arena with two

<v Speaker 1>huge main events. Charles Mason defending his HG World Championship

<v Speaker 1>against androde l Idelo a tremendous match, Andrade keeps killing it. Mason.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what these companies are waiting for. Much

<v Speaker 1>as I hate the guy, he should be under contract

<v Speaker 1>somewhere even better because it gets him away from me

<v Speaker 1>and MJF. It was good chatting him up before the show.

<v Speaker 1>Defending the AW World Championship against Zillafa two. And I

<v Speaker 1>misspoke what I said that this was the second defense

<v Speaker 1>of the AW World title in an hog ring. It

<v Speaker 1>was the second time that we have had the AW

<v Speaker 1>World Champion in an hog ring. It was the first

<v Speaker 1>actual defense of that title in House of Glory against

<v Speaker 1>o were Crown Jewel Champions Zillafa two. You know you

<v Speaker 1>hear all these stories online about Zilla. I can't speak

<v Speaker 1>to any of that. What I can tell you is

<v Speaker 1>that he has been working with us now for nearly

<v Speaker 1>two years, and in that time he has been nothing

<v Speaker 1>but great to work with, always respectful, always up for

<v Speaker 1>whatever you know is put in front of him or

<v Speaker 1>asked of him. And for a guy with less than

<v Speaker 1>three years in the ring, it's been fun to see

<v Speaker 1>him grow during that time, you know. And he came

<v Speaker 1>this close to taking that title. Boy, that would have

<v Speaker 1>changed the Revolution card next month, wouldn't it. But in

<v Speaker 1>the end, mjf retains and he even did something that

<v Speaker 1>you rarely see when the match was over, he put

<v Speaker 1>Zilla over on the mic, and that says a lot

<v Speaker 1>right there. But it was supposed to be Zilla defending

<v Speaker 1>his title against Lance on Hawaii. On that show, Lance

<v Speaker 1>pulled out. I don't know what this guy is doing.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, who pulls out of a championship match like that?

<v Speaker 1>Seems a little scared. But he did show up during

<v Speaker 1>the match. He got kicked in the face for it.

<v Speaker 1>We'll make that match happen very soon. We're going to

<v Speaker 1>be in Chicago on March sixth, and then back on

<v Speaker 1>Long Island March twenty first, and then back to Los

<v Speaker 1>Angeles in May. There may be something before then, as well.

<v Speaker 1>We'll see. It's always a good time. I may be

<v Speaker 1>a bit partial, but even if I wasn't a part

<v Speaker 1>of it. I mean, you watch these shows, you watch

<v Speaker 1>these clips, you see everyone having a blast, and you

<v Speaker 1>don't even have to sell your first born or your

<v Speaker 1>kidney just to buy a ticket to get in. Shout

<v Speaker 1>out to Geronimo who was in town all the way

<v Speaker 1>from England. It was good to meet your brother. Shout

<v Speaker 1>out to my partner in crime on Tuesday nights, jd

<v Speaker 1>Back on commentary. It was like no time had passed

<v Speaker 1>at all, and Johnny Tory, who is a great dude

<v Speaker 1>and has been a great partner to work with. You

<v Speaker 1>can catch the pre show with myself and Sam Laturna

<v Speaker 1>for free on the Hog YouTube channel if you just

<v Speaker 1>want to see more of me or Sam. Probably Sam

<v Speaker 1>more than me, I mean, let's be honest, and the

<v Speaker 1>full replay is up for it purchase on Triller TV.

<v Speaker 1>I also want to thank you guys for supporting my

<v Speaker 1>newest endeavor, the Uncrowned Wrestling Show, as part of Ariel

<v Speaker 1>Helwane's Uncrowned network of shows. He just announced this week

<v Speaker 1>that the Inside Boxing Show is coming to Uncrowned, which

<v Speaker 1>is a big get. If you're a boxing fan, you

<v Speaker 1>know he's got all the bases covered, all the combat

<v Speaker 1>sports bases. He's got MMA, obviously, he's got boxing, now

<v Speaker 1>he's got wrestling. Right. That's where I come in, and

<v Speaker 1>I want my show to be the best of the bunch,

<v Speaker 1>So support share download brand new episode to drop every

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday evening on the Ariel Hellwane Show Feed wherever you're

<v Speaker 1>listening to the sound off right now, be at Apple

<v Speaker 1>podcast spot or wherever you can find ariels feed as well.

<v Speaker 1>That is where the show can be found. We're two

<v Speaker 1>episodes deep so far. Episode three come in this Tuesday.

<v Speaker 1>Email me or tweet me with your questions for the show.

<v Speaker 1>Just use the hashtag uncrowned so I know it's for

<v Speaker 1>that show specifically and I will do my best to

<v Speaker 1>get it on the pod. If you'd like to make

<v Speaker 1>a PayPal donation, you may do so the solomonster dot com.

<v Speaker 1>I want to say thank you to all of these

<v Speaker 1>fine folks and shout them out here for all the

<v Speaker 1>world to hear. The Diamond Dallas dance Machine. Look at this,

<v Speaker 1>he dances his way to the top. Arison's soap Velvet Revolver.

<v Speaker 1>Robert Murray, the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton victory guaranteed,

<v Speaker 1>Vincent Cooper, Iowen Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfeir, The Chicago Slayer,

<v Speaker 1>Willie Aichord, The Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis Shooting Star Cynthia Taylor,

<v Speaker 1>night Stalker, nif Alsafar Killshot, Keith Hart and Time Boris Weinman.

<v Speaker 1>I'm glad you enjoyed the Hog Show brother, Hopefully many

<v Speaker 1>more to come. If you missed this year's Royal Rumble,

<v Speaker 1>and you didn't miss much, but if you missed the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble, I mean outside of the aj styles and

<v Speaker 1>gunther thing, but if you want to watch it or

<v Speaker 1>most of it for free without an ESPN Plus subscription,

<v Speaker 1>ESPN is airing a condensed version of The ple tonight

<v Speaker 1>at eight pm Eastern on the main ESPN channel. Wressell

<v Speaker 1>Votes says that the decision is part of a broader

<v Speaker 1>effort to promote upcoming wwepls and allows ESPN to evaluate

<v Speaker 1>viewership data for an over the air presentation of the product.

<v Speaker 1>It's too bad that product couldn't be better because this

<v Speaker 1>was not one of the better Royal Rumbles. But free

<v Speaker 1>is free, So if you want to watch some wrestling

<v Speaker 1>on a Sunday Night. There you go. Some sad news

<v Speaker 1>this week. Kerwin Sylphie's died on Tuesday at the age

<v Speaker 1>of seventy five. He was the main director of WWE

<v Speaker 1>programming from the time he started there in nineteen eighty

<v Speaker 1>five all the way through twenty twenty, when he was

<v Speaker 1>one of the many people furlough during the pandemic. I

<v Speaker 1>think that was around the same time they released Mike Kiyota,

<v Speaker 1>who had been with the company for decades. So all

<v Speaker 1>of those major shows that I grew up on in

<v Speaker 1>the eighties. I mean, if he started there in eighty five,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know exactly when in eighty five he would

<v Speaker 1>have started, if he was there for the first WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>or if he came in right after, but eighty five,

<v Speaker 1>his word, all began as far as the big national expansion.

<v Speaker 1>I guess eighty four really, but eighty five was the

<v Speaker 1>first WrestleMania. So he goes back all the way to

<v Speaker 1>that point in time, and so he would have been

<v Speaker 1>directing all of those early Saturday nights made event shows

<v Speaker 1>on NBC and so that's old school. And Bruce Pritchard

<v Speaker 1>has said that Sylphie's had a great eye for the

<v Speaker 1>introductory vignettes that you would see on TV for new talents,

<v Speaker 1>all those vignettes they shot for like Mister Perfect and

<v Speaker 1>the Million Dollar Man. He would have been either responsible

<v Speaker 1>for it or a part of that in some way.

<v Speaker 1>The Kerwin White character that Chavo Guerrero played Kerwin Silphie's

<v Speaker 1>is where the name Kerwin came from. For it. I

<v Speaker 1>saw this on social media. It is what Adam Pierce

<v Speaker 1>wrote when I started working on Ron's SmackDown back in

<v Speaker 1>twenty fifteen. You were so patient and accommodating as I

<v Speaker 1>found my way, always a steady, calm voice, with your

<v Speaker 1>trusty mini notepad in hand, ready to take note of

<v Speaker 1>what we had cooked up. Okay, what do you got, Adam,

<v Speaker 1>You would ask me as you went around the room

<v Speaker 1>listening teaching. I learned to see what we do through

<v Speaker 1>your director's eye, to understand camera placement in a way

<v Speaker 1>that I hadn't before. And I always wondered how you

<v Speaker 1>always stood so calm under intense fire. Cool is the

<v Speaker 1>other side of the pillow experience, red wine talent, all

<v Speaker 1>of the above, I surmise, thank you for letting a

<v Speaker 1>punk kid sit under your learning Tree, my gud, my

<v Speaker 1>eye is twitching as I say Learning Tree. And though

<v Speaker 1>I'm no connoisseur, and the next time i have a

<v Speaker 1>taste of the Veno, it will be in a toast

<v Speaker 1>to you. Taz posted a nice message on x about Sylphie's, saying,

<v Speaker 1>I can't explain what a super person and great director

<v Speaker 1>Kerwin was. I worked with him for many years in WWE,

<v Speaker 1>on the road and in studio. His passion for great

<v Speaker 1>TV in the wrestling business was strong. This man once

<v Speaker 1>was working in the studio through an actual heart attack

<v Speaker 1>and kept working. Very sad to hear this. I hope

<v Speaker 1>they put him in their WWE Hall of Fame. He

<v Speaker 1>belongs prayers and support to his family. Rip He would

<v Speaker 1>certainly be someone that belongs in a company hall of

<v Speaker 1>fame considering how much of an impact he had on

<v Speaker 1>their company. I agree with that, but I mean, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the name Kerwin, Sylphie's won't sell them any tickets, so

<v Speaker 1>he's probably off the list. That's not what their hall

<v Speaker 1>of fame is for. But AW had a very classy

<v Speaker 1>tribute to him on Dynamite with Tony Shavanni talking about

<v Speaker 1>working with Sophie's in nineteen eighty nine. That was the

<v Speaker 1>one full year he worked in WWE and Brian Danielson,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he was moved to tears. He could barely

<v Speaker 1>speak while praising him for his help when he came

<v Speaker 1>into WWE. He said he knew nothing about television production,

<v Speaker 1>so that was very nice of them to carve out

<v Speaker 1>some time on their show for that. I'm sure that

<v Speaker 1>was something Shavanni probably asked for, like on Nitro in

<v Speaker 1>ninety nine when Bobby Heenan asked for time to talk

<v Speaker 1>about Guerrilla Mond. Soon, even though he never worked for WCW,

<v Speaker 1>John Cena made an appearance on the No Contest Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>podcast with Osja Jackson Junior and TJ. Jefferson. He gave

<v Speaker 1>them over two hours talking all sorts of stuff, but

<v Speaker 1>among the more interesting nuggets to come out of the interview,

<v Speaker 1>I just I grabbed a few bits and pieces here

<v Speaker 1>from what I read and what I heard, But this

<v Speaker 1>one was the interesting to me because this is something

<v Speaker 1>that I was hearing for the first time, and I

<v Speaker 1>think he was sharing it for the first time. But

<v Speaker 1>in the interview, John Cena claims that he was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to win and lose his seventeenth World Championship at SummerSlam

<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty one, and the finish got changed when

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner was suddenly booked to return on the show.

<v Speaker 1>This is what he said that night was supposed to

<v Speaker 1>go very different. In the last moment, we had a

<v Speaker 1>surprise guest booked and he came out after the match

<v Speaker 1>was over. Now let me pause here for a second.

<v Speaker 1>The match that he's referring to was it was John

<v Speaker 1>Cena against Roman Reigns, So it was like the battle

<v Speaker 1>of the past era of WWE against the present era

<v Speaker 1>of WWE. And they had only wrestled on televised once before.

<v Speaker 1>This was I don't know, maybe five or six years

<v Speaker 1>prior to this. It was a while back, and honestly,

<v Speaker 1>of the times that I have ever seen John Cena

<v Speaker 1>and Roman Reigns and the ring together one on one,

<v Speaker 1>and it was really just those two times. I never

<v Speaker 1>thought the matches were anything great, you know, but at

<v Speaker 1>the time, you know, it was booked as this big

<v Speaker 1>Summer Slam main event, and I mean Mark key wise, yes,

<v Speaker 1>it was a big time main event, but that's the

<v Speaker 1>match that he's referring to here. So he said, at

<v Speaker 1>the last minute, a surprise guest was booked to come

<v Speaker 1>out when it was over, and that being brock Lesner.

<v Speaker 1>He said, they didn't secure Brock until five pm that day.

<v Speaker 1>I was going to win seventeen. We were going to

<v Speaker 1>have someone come out and restart the match, and Roman

<v Speaker 1>was going to take it back. The way we put

<v Speaker 1>together the match was we were going to give them

<v Speaker 1>a hell of a match. Everything out the door, no rules,

<v Speaker 1>no nothing, tons of finishers, all this stuff because I

<v Speaker 1>was going to win, and then Roman was going to

<v Speaker 1>take it back. So you have this hard fought battle

<v Speaker 1>and then through a nefarious set of rules, the matches restarted.

<v Speaker 1>Then we secure Brock and talent Relations comes and says,

<v Speaker 1>I need to see you. We're switching the finish to

<v Speaker 1>what Roman over? Y yep, clean, yep, Okay, what do

<v Speaker 1>you want to do? Let me just talk to Roman

<v Speaker 1>and Paul. I go in and they're like, you got

<v Speaker 1>the news. I said, I got the news. What do

<v Speaker 1>we do? I said, one spear, that's it. Whatever match

<v Speaker 1>you want to have, that's fine. You beat me with

<v Speaker 1>your finish once. I love Paul. Paul Hayman has been

<v Speaker 1>a great mentor. He gets it and he recognizes somebody

<v Speaker 1>who sees it. It's not about them, It's about the story.

<v Speaker 1>This is going to make Roman better because they're having

<v Speaker 1>him win so he can go on to bigger and

<v Speaker 1>better things. And it switched right there. We're on the

<v Speaker 1>West coast, so it's like an hour before the thing.

<v Speaker 1>It happens to everyone. It happens from the top of

<v Speaker 1>the car down to the bottom. They will switch, they

<v Speaker 1>will cut your time, they will give you different creative

<v Speaker 1>It happens all the time. So I didn't flip out

<v Speaker 1>when Travis didn't want to do it anymore, and when

<v Speaker 1>Rock chose to go another way. It happens. I saw

<v Speaker 1>Steve Austin leave, I saw him get fired. I was

<v Speaker 1>there when they fired him in Atlanta. It happens all

<v Speaker 1>the time. But I was supposed to win seventeen that night,

<v Speaker 1>and yeah, you know, Travis not wanting to do it

<v Speaker 1>anymore and Rock choosing to go a different way. Shore

<v Speaker 1>fuck things up last year. That is true, But I

<v Speaker 1>have to correct something, so put my little nerd glasses

<v Speaker 1>on here. First of all, Austin wasn't fired in Atlanta.

<v Speaker 1>He walked out in Atlanta. They didn't fire him, but

<v Speaker 1>they did have to rebook the show, so brock Lesner,

<v Speaker 1>instead of beating Stone Cold to qualify for the King

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring in an unadvertised match, which would have

<v Speaker 1>been very stupid, he ended up beating Bubba Ray Dudley instead,

<v Speaker 1>and they if you remember, they rushed the power Struggle

<v Speaker 1>storyline with Vince McMahon, he had a match that was

<v Speaker 1>not planned in the main event that night, he wrestled

<v Speaker 1>Rick Flair and then he became the sole owner once

<v Speaker 1>again of WWE. So that's how that all went down.

<v Speaker 1>But Second SummerSlam twenty twenty one is the night that

<v Speaker 1>Ponytail brock Dave when he returned after the main event,

<v Speaker 1>or a cowboy broc I mean, whatever you want to

<v Speaker 1>call him. And I remember again that match was I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. I just felt like the match was pretty underwhelming.

<v Speaker 1>It didn't help if you remember this that they added

<v Speaker 1>the stipulation twenty four hours before on TV that if

<v Speaker 1>Roman loses. Roman said, if I lose, like it's Vegas,

<v Speaker 1>it's all or nothing, right, I either leave with the

<v Speaker 1>title or I leave WWE. And so it makes me

<v Speaker 1>wonder about this story because if that were the case,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I guess they could have just had Roman

<v Speaker 1>go back on his word. I mean, he was a heel,

<v Speaker 1>but I mean that was the stipulation. Roman loses, then

<v Speaker 1>he leaves, and here see it is claiming that he

<v Speaker 1>was winning. He was winning number seventeen until five o'clock

<v Speaker 1>that day and then everything changed. But yeah, he did

<v Speaker 1>say through a nefarious set of rules. So I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I guess there would have been some sort of loophole there.

<v Speaker 1>But I mean, I'm listening to him talk about this

<v Speaker 1>id and it's like, oh God, like, thank god that

<v Speaker 1>didn't happen. That would have been awful, What an awful idea.

<v Speaker 1>And here I thought him winning seventeen the way he

<v Speaker 1>did last year was bad. Imagine the record being set

<v Speaker 1>only for him to lose it right back ninety seconds later,

<v Speaker 1>Like that would have been fucking terrible. Like I'm listening

<v Speaker 1>to this, I'm like, boy, did we dodge a bullet?

<v Speaker 1>And also, here's the other thing that would have bothered

<v Speaker 1>me about it, like number seventeen. Had he won the

<v Speaker 1>title that night, it would have been the universal title.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I just it wouldn't have felt right

<v Speaker 1>to me. Can you even call that a world title.

<v Speaker 1>It's a universal title. It's technically not a world championship,

<v Speaker 1>but like, if he was gonna do it, if he

<v Speaker 1>was ever gonna win number seventeen, I'm glad it was

<v Speaker 1>the WWE title because for it to have been the

<v Speaker 1>universal title, I don't know that just would have felt

<v Speaker 1>wrong to me. But he also revealed a few things

<v Speaker 1>about his retirement tour. He said that Aj Styles was

<v Speaker 1>not his original opponent for Crown Jewel in Perth. He

<v Speaker 1>was initially set to wrestle Drew McIntyre on that show,

<v Speaker 1>but the decision was made to give the fans a

<v Speaker 1>feel good moment instead. He said, Aj was supposed to

<v Speaker 1>be Drew, but it pivoted. We wanted to give them

<v Speaker 1>a feel good moment because they were listening to the

<v Speaker 1>data points they listened to. You guys, they do It's real,

<v Speaker 1>He says, Oh really, see. I think it's more likely

<v Speaker 1>they realized that they botched up a good part of

<v Speaker 1>this whole retirement tour and they were like, hey, we

<v Speaker 1>better throw the fans a bone here and make them happy.

<v Speaker 1>And it does feel that way because there was no

<v Speaker 1>build up to it on TV. They literally just they

<v Speaker 1>kind they built it up on social media to make

<v Speaker 1>it sound like the fans were voicing their opinions, so

<v Speaker 1>they were like, Okay, fine, we're going to give you

<v Speaker 1>this match. But like they were planning the match long

<v Speaker 1>before Johnson to put that tweet out asking people if

<v Speaker 1>this was the kind of match that they would want

<v Speaker 1>to see, so that the people would feel like it

<v Speaker 1>was something that they willed into existence, which, hey, you know,

<v Speaker 1>smart on their part to try to convince the fans

<v Speaker 1>of that, I guess, But I think it's more likely

<v Speaker 1>they realized, like, Okay, we got to give them something

<v Speaker 1>really special here, you know, to make up for some

<v Speaker 1>of the bullshit that we've done. But also I think

<v Speaker 1>it just came down to him only having limited dates.

<v Speaker 1>As far as why we didn't get that match with

<v Speaker 1>him and Drew McIntyre. I'm glad we got Sena naj

<v Speaker 1>It was a great match Sena and Drew and the promos,

<v Speaker 1>you know, because Drew was on his promo game, that

<v Speaker 1>would have been something. But I think that, more than anything,

<v Speaker 1>just came down to the limited number of dates that

<v Speaker 1>he had. You know, I wouldn't like, you have to

<v Speaker 1>do the match with Randy Orton at some point, so

<v Speaker 1>they did it at Backlash in Randy's hometown of Saint Louis.

<v Speaker 1>You have to do John cnncmpunk at some point, so

<v Speaker 1>they elected to do it in Saudi Arabia Night of Champions.

<v Speaker 1>Like you can quibble about the dates or the locations

<v Speaker 1>for it. They did do those matches, though those matches

<v Speaker 1>had to happen at some point, but like when it

<v Speaker 1>came to the ar Truth stuff or or you know,

<v Speaker 1>he was in some tag matches with Logan Paul, Like

<v Speaker 1>there were times where if they wanted to, they could

<v Speaker 1>have you know, flipped it to sna versus Drew, but

<v Speaker 1>then it would have been heel against heel. Turning him

<v Speaker 1>heal didn't help things. Asina also said the original plan

<v Speaker 1>had been for him to turn back Babyface during his

<v Speaker 1>match with Cody Rhoades at SummerSlam, rather than doing it

<v Speaker 1>on the go Home Show. I guess that was two

<v Speaker 1>nights before. Yeah, I mean that came out of fucking nowhere. Literally,

<v Speaker 1>like a switch got flipped, and it's like we got it.

<v Speaker 1>We got to get out of this, so let's get

<v Speaker 1>him back to being a baby Face as quickly as possible.

<v Speaker 1>He also confirmed that the decision for and I think

<v Speaker 1>this was kind of understood. I don't know if he

<v Speaker 1>I don't remember if he flat out said this in

<v Speaker 1>the interview he did with Cody after he retired, but

<v Speaker 1>he did confirm that the decision for his character to

<v Speaker 1>smile and tap out in the match against Gunther was

<v Speaker 1>his own de decision. And I've already litigated this and

<v Speaker 1>I've already made my thoughts on it very clear. It

<v Speaker 1>was a very polarizing finish to that match, and my

<v Speaker 1>mind has not changed now. If John Cena wanted to

<v Speaker 1>do that finish, then you know what. It's his retirement

<v Speaker 1>match and he got to do what he wanted to do,

<v Speaker 1>so good for him. Objectively, As a fan watching that match,

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was a terrible finish. But if you

<v Speaker 1>feel otherwise, I'm happy for you now. Sina says that

<v Speaker 1>Bruce Pritchard is the one who pitched for his final

<v Speaker 1>night on Saturday Night's made event to be a one

<v Speaker 1>match show. He said, I remember Bruce Pritchard, who was

<v Speaker 1>a great friend of mine, came up to me and

<v Speaker 1>was like, for your last show, I'm thinking about a

<v Speaker 1>one match show. I said, you will kill the audience

<v Speaker 1>you will absolutely murder the live event audience. Now, WWE

<v Speaker 1>is great at production. If you were watching at home,

<v Speaker 1>that would have been great, but the win would have

<v Speaker 1>been out of the sales in DC. I said, no,

<v Speaker 1>fuck that, do two or three minute packages here and there,

<v Speaker 1>but let's get some matches. Let's bring in some marquee guys.

<v Speaker 1>And that was the right way to go. I thought

<v Speaker 1>it was smart being able to showcase newer faces like

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi and Soul Ruka from NXT, right, Javon Evans and

<v Speaker 1>Leon Slater, who I mean technically is not a WWE guy.

<v Speaker 1>I mean he will be at some point, but I

<v Speaker 1>like that. You know, it brought some variety to the show.

<v Speaker 1>And he's not wrong. I mean, you had a pack

<v Speaker 1>building that night, and to do one match for the

<v Speaker 1>entire two hours or whatever it was like that would

<v Speaker 1>have been ridiculous. Now. He also provided an explanation for

<v Speaker 1>his decision to end his career in December rather than

<v Speaker 1>waiting for a WrestleMania moment. He said that his choice

<v Speaker 1>was driven by a data centric approach to the WWE

<v Speaker 1>business model, and he noted that while the roads to

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania traditionally begins in January. December has historically been a

<v Speaker 1>month in limbo for the company, suffering from lower viewership

<v Speaker 1>and softer live attendance is due to holiday spending and travel,

<v Speaker 1>and he explained that he intentionally pitched December to Nick

<v Speaker 1>Con and Triple H to address a recurring weakness in

<v Speaker 1>the annual calendar, and by scheduling a retirement event in

<v Speaker 1>the middle of December, specifically during the quote dry zone

<v Speaker 1>between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble, he aimed to drive

<v Speaker 1>fourth quarter profitability. He said, retiring at WrestleMania is selfish.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't do anything for the business. We retire in December,

<v Speaker 1>our weakest month, and we take the middle of December

<v Speaker 1>the dry zone, that desert from the end of Survivor

<v Speaker 1>Series to the beginning of the Rumble. We put it like,

<v Speaker 1>right in the middle of December, let's show a profit

<v Speaker 1>in Q four. You know, the one thing you can

<v Speaker 1>never say about John Cena is that he is not

<v Speaker 1>a company guy. And in all of these interviews and

<v Speaker 1>every time he listened to him speak over the years

<v Speaker 1>and when he was on top, this is how he

<v Speaker 1>would speak. You know, he had an eye towards Okay,

<v Speaker 1>what's the gate and know how of the merch numbers,

<v Speaker 1>and he was very you know, he was very invested.

<v Speaker 1>And on top of that, I'm sure a lot of

<v Speaker 1>it was because he wanted to know how he was doing.

<v Speaker 1>You know, obviously, you know, how are we selling here?

<v Speaker 1>Is everything working out? Okay? But he always came across

<v Speaker 1>as someone who, you know, had an eye towards, you know,

<v Speaker 1>what's best for the company and how's the company doing overall?

<v Speaker 1>And he had an interest in the numbers and things

<v Speaker 1>that maybe, you know, other people on the roster didn't

<v Speaker 1>think about or didn't care about. So I'm not surprised

<v Speaker 1>to hear him say something like that. It's not even

<v Speaker 1>quite frankly, a stupid thing what he's saying. It really

<v Speaker 1>is a dead period. Like you can look on the

<v Speaker 1>calendar and there are multiple dead periods during the year,

<v Speaker 1>and I would argue that post wrestle media, right, is

<v Speaker 1>not usually a terribly exciting period. That period post SummerSlam

<v Speaker 1>September October, that's kind of a dead zone. And then

<v Speaker 1>you have post Survivor series where it's the holiday season,

<v Speaker 1>we're heading into New Years, and yeah, there's usually not

<v Speaker 1>a whole lot going on. We're counting down the until

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble. But it also makes you wonder why

<v Speaker 1>WWE turned down Scene is offered to work more dates

<v Speaker 1>last year. I mean that still boggles my mind. Like

<v Speaker 1>he wanted to do a full year, he wanted to

<v Speaker 1>do two hundred and twenty dates. I'm not even sure

<v Speaker 1>WWE has that many dates anymore. Now, that was probably

<v Speaker 1>too many, Okay, for forty eight year old John Sena

<v Speaker 1>to work two hundred and twenty dates is ridiculous. They

<v Speaker 1>wanted him for thirty six, which sounds like too little.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know why they couldn't meet in the middle somewhere.

<v Speaker 1>But I say this because Post Wrestling and Brandon Thurston

<v Speaker 1>had a story this week about just how much money

<v Speaker 1>those thirty six dates generated at the gate for WWE

<v Speaker 1>last year. Now, we cannot know for sure that John

<v Speaker 1>Cena was solely responsible for how many tickets that were

<v Speaker 1>sold at each of these events. I mean, they did

<v Speaker 1>have other stars on the card, right, They had Cody Rhodes,

<v Speaker 1>and they had they might have had Roman for some

<v Speaker 1>of them, and Rhea Ripley and people like that. But

<v Speaker 1>this isn't even all of them. This is just based

<v Speaker 1>on the event available data. For twenty of the events

<v Speaker 1>that he was on, they accounted for more than eighty

<v Speaker 1>million dollars in ticket sales, and it helps when you

<v Speaker 1>charge astronomical ticket prices too. Has got to point that out,

<v Speaker 1>and his retirement show in December set the all time

<v Speaker 1>arena gate record for WWE at six and a half

<v Speaker 1>million dollars. This is from the story. As WWE continues

<v Speaker 1>to break gate records, we now know John Cena's retirement

<v Speaker 1>show drew the biggest live gate for an arena event

<v Speaker 1>in company history and likely the highest such gate and

<v Speaker 1>all of pro wrestling history, even when taking inflation into account.

<v Speaker 1>Ticket sales for the Saturday Nights main event show on

<v Speaker 1>December thirteenth in Washington, DC totaled six million, five hundred

<v Speaker 1>and fifty three thousand, eight hundred eighty three dollars. This

<v Speaker 1>is according to live event trade publication Pollstar, by a

<v Speaker 1>wide margin that surpasses the earlier records said at the

<v Speaker 1>beginning of last year, when the premiere of Raw on

<v Speaker 1>Netflix sold almost four point nine million in Inglewood at

<v Speaker 1>the Intuit Dome and with seventeen thousand plus tickets sold,

<v Speaker 1>in the Capitol One Arena Forsino Seni Final match, a

<v Speaker 1>loss to Gunther. The average ticket sale was three hundred

<v Speaker 1>eighty three dollars, a figure that likely does not include

<v Speaker 1>ticketing fees that fans paid. The average ticket sale for

<v Speaker 1>the launch of Raw on Netflix was an even three

<v Speaker 1>hundred dollars. Only WrestleMania events in recent history have had

<v Speaker 1>higher known average ticket prices, and until last year, when

<v Speaker 1>taking inflation into account, no WWE arena event, and possibly

<v Speaker 1>no arena event in history, had surpassed the gate of

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania five. That event, headlined by Hulk Hogan and Randy

<v Speaker 1>Savage in nineteen eighty nine, drew a gait reportedly worth

<v Speaker 1>one point six million dollars at the time, which today

<v Speaker 1>would be the equivalent to four point two million. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>you know that doesn't get talked about enough, like the

<v Speaker 1>kind of business that Hogan and Savage did for that WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>But you know what, it's not a surprise to me.

<v Speaker 1>Like there's a reason why my favorite story in wrestling

<v Speaker 1>history and it's the one, it's one of the it's

<v Speaker 1>the biggest one that I grew up on. Not long

<v Speaker 1>after I started watching wrestling was the Mega Power storyline.

<v Speaker 1>It was the meeting of the madness in the Mania, right.

<v Speaker 1>It was Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man in that

<v Speaker 1>handshake and Elizabeth in between them. They were the two

<v Speaker 1>biggest babyfaces in the company at that time, and they

<v Speaker 1>came together. You know, of course, if they came together today,

<v Speaker 1>they would have been tag team champions. That's not how

<v Speaker 1>it worked back then. But that storyline, I mean, they

<v Speaker 1>came together in eighty seven, right, it was later in

<v Speaker 1>eighty seven, and they didn't split until early eighty nine,

<v Speaker 1>so they had all that time to play that storyline

<v Speaker 1>out Savage winning the title and the jealousy and Hogan

<v Speaker 1>lusting for Elizabeth, which he did. He was a fucking heel.

<v Speaker 1>I just was too young to realize it. But now,

<v Speaker 1>of course I realized Macho Man was right about every

<v Speaker 1>fucking thing. Hogan was all always a heel. But that

<v Speaker 1>was just such a great story and such a great

<v Speaker 1>payoff to it. The night that they broke up and

<v Speaker 1>the Megapowers exploded, and then it just built very nicely

<v Speaker 1>into that WrestleMania match. And to think that after all

<v Speaker 1>these years, you know, the money they made in the

<v Speaker 1>record they set that night up until recently still stood

<v Speaker 1>the test of time. It just goes to show you

<v Speaker 1>the kind of business they did with that story. But

<v Speaker 1>the last little piece here it says of Seena's thirty

<v Speaker 1>eight appearances for WWI I thought it was thirty six.

<v Speaker 1>Here it says thirty eight. We have data for twenty

<v Speaker 1>of them. The credit for drawing those crowds can't solely

<v Speaker 1>go to Sena, and any notion about who drew what

<v Speaker 1>in modern times raises the inevitable question about how much

<v Speaker 1>credit must go to WWE's brand before any individual wrestler.

<v Speaker 1>That said, it is worth noting that those twenty events

<v Speaker 1>alone during Scena's retirement towards were more than eighty million

<v Speaker 1>in ticket sales, which does not include Elimination, Chamber, Clash

<v Speaker 1>in Paris, SummerSlam and Survivor series, of which sales data

<v Speaker 1>is not currently available. So to sum that up for

<v Speaker 1>all to talk about the creative follies of the retirement tour,

<v Speaker 1>and they botch this and they shouldn't have done that,

<v Speaker 1>and the heel turn, and they made a lot of

<v Speaker 1>mistakes and it could have been a hell of a

<v Speaker 1>lot better than it was. WWE ain't crying over it,

<v Speaker 1>because even with you know, not the strongest creative, and

<v Speaker 1>I'm being generous when I say that they still made

<v Speaker 1>money hand over fist. They made so much money of

<v Speaker 1>John Cena, and I think they could have made even more,

<v Speaker 1>which again which I go back to them only telling him, hey,

<v Speaker 1>we only need you for thirty six dates. But that's

<v Speaker 1>something they don't have this year going into WrestleMania. They

<v Speaker 1>don't have the Rock and they don't have John Cena

<v Speaker 1>and a big retirement tour, so they're not going to

<v Speaker 1>be able to lean on that this year in the

<v Speaker 1>way that they did last year. But whatever you want

<v Speaker 1>to say about the creative as far as the tour itself,

<v Speaker 1>doesn't change the fact that they made a shit ton

<v Speaker 1>of money off of it. Raw on Monday Night was

<v Speaker 1>a bore, and SmackDown had a few things I liked,

<v Speaker 1>But I'm still waiting for the on ramp to the

<v Speaker 1>supposed road to WrestleMania. I'm waiting for it to get

<v Speaker 1>really interesting. I suspect I'll be waiting until after the

<v Speaker 1>elimination Chamber plays out and when Roman Reigns returns to

<v Speaker 1>tv LA night, he continues to feud with the Vision

<v Speaker 1>eight months after he started. He is no better off

<v Speaker 1>for it now than he was before. In fact, he

<v Speaker 1>walked out there on Monday to challenge them to a

<v Speaker 1>six man tag team match with the Ussos, where he

<v Speaker 1>proceeded to get his ass kicked for most of it

<v Speaker 1>and then his team lost. Now we wait for brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesnar to emerge from his lair tomorrow night. What he'll

<v Speaker 1>be doing and why he is there five days before

<v Speaker 1>the elimination Chamber. We don't know. They did not advertise

<v Speaker 1>him or mention him on TV at all, only on

<v Speaker 1>their social media a few weeks ago. That came right

<v Speaker 1>from WWE. This is not just internet rumors. On the

<v Speaker 1>wdas Twitter account, they said, hey, February twenty third in Atlanta,

<v Speaker 1>the Beast is back and they haven't said anything about

<v Speaker 1>it ever since. You know, on a show with the

<v Speaker 1>one final chamber qualifier tomorrow for the men and one

<v Speaker 1>for the women, and the men's qualifier has jay Usso,

<v Speaker 1>Bronson Reid, and El Grande Americano Gable forget Gable and

<v Speaker 1>I think cross read off the list. He's the one

<v Speaker 1>lone member of the Vision left to be screwed over.

<v Speaker 1>By the mass Man, right he stomped out Logan Paul

<v Speaker 1>on Monday, the mass Man did. He already screwed bron

<v Speaker 1>Breaker out of the Royal Rumble match. I think the

<v Speaker 1>mass Man caused Bronson read his qualifier tomorrow, which leaves

<v Speaker 1>Jay Usso, and if this lineup stays as is, then

<v Speaker 1>I think Jay qualifies. But I'm still hung up on

<v Speaker 1>Brock being there this week of all weeks, like there's

<v Speaker 1>got to be a good reason for it, and I'm wondering,

<v Speaker 1>Here's what I'm wondering. Okay, follow along with me here.

<v Speaker 1>I'm wondering if Gable gets taken out of the match

<v Speaker 1>by Lesner and Brock ends up taking his spot and

<v Speaker 1>winning to get him that last spot in the men's chamber,

<v Speaker 1>So a rare in ring TV appearance for the Beast,

<v Speaker 1>and that gets Brock into the chamber with Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhodes, La Knight, Javon Evans, and Trick Williams who

<v Speaker 1>qualified on Friday over Carmelo Hayes and Damian Priest, and

<v Speaker 1>with Brock in the chamber, they can kickstart his feud

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania. If this is in fact the plan with

<v Speaker 1>La Knight, because that was the rumor last week. Dave

<v Speaker 1>reported it in The Observer, and I think it's got legs.

<v Speaker 1>Where there is smoke, I believe there is fire. Look.

<v Speaker 1>Opa Femi wrestled Kit Wilson for the second time on

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown this week. He already has a match lined up

<v Speaker 1>next Friday with the mizz and they were teasing something

<v Speaker 1>with him and Russev on Raw last Monday when they

<v Speaker 1>ran into each other in the back. Call me crazy,

<v Speaker 1>but I'm not getting the sense that he's wrestling brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesnar at WrestleMania this year. Now. They're also advertising aj

<v Speaker 1>Styles for a tribute in Atlanta tomorrow night, his home

<v Speaker 1>state of Georgia. They're even flying in talent from SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>to be a part of it. Gunther's chamber hopes were

<v Speaker 1>dashed by Dragon Lee in his match on Monday, and

<v Speaker 1>I had secondhand embarrassment for Dragon Lee coming out to

<v Speaker 1>no reaction to blast Guntherer in the head with the

<v Speaker 1>ring bell, which led to Javon Evans picking up the

<v Speaker 1>win over Dominic Mysterio. So he's in the chamber. They're

<v Speaker 1>building to a Gunther Dragon Lee match, and I don't

<v Speaker 1>know if it's going to be added to the Elimination

<v Speaker 1>Chamber card because again Paul levec is allergic to putting

<v Speaker 1>a fifth match on this show, or if it'll be

<v Speaker 1>a raw match, But they could use the segment with

<v Speaker 1>AJ Tomorrow to help make that match feel like a

<v Speaker 1>bigger deal. You know, Gunther crashing the ceremony. To me,

<v Speaker 1>that feels like a given. And you know, I've been

<v Speaker 1>racking my brain trying to figure out, like, what is

<v Speaker 1>the play for Gunther rests? And I've heard names mentioned

<v Speaker 1>for potential opponents for him. There's still some people who

<v Speaker 1>think him and Randy Orton could be a WrestleMania match,

<v Speaker 1>him and Raveisterio could be a WrestleMania match, And I'm like, eh,

<v Speaker 1>that's my reaction. Eh, But maybe the play for gun

<v Speaker 1>Through at WrestleMania is staring us right in the face. Now. Look,

<v Speaker 1>I get that it would be a cheap way around

<v Speaker 1>the retirement stipulation at the Royal Rumble, But what if

<v Speaker 1>they ran it back at WrestleMania with Gunther and AJ Styles,

<v Speaker 1>but this time they run it back as an unsanctioned match,

<v Speaker 1>Like I'm just looking at potential attractions for the show. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>AJ coming back to try to get revenge on Gunther

<v Speaker 1>not in an official match, would be a nice hook

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania, and it would give AJ a proper sendoff

<v Speaker 1>on the biggest stage possible win or lose, you know. WWE.

<v Speaker 1>They put out a twenty minute vlog on their YouTube

<v Speaker 1>channel a few days ago. They were following AJ around

<v Speaker 1>ahead of his Royal Rumble match with gunther Th and

<v Speaker 1>in that video, he admitted that everybody wants to retire

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania, and he was planning on doing exactly that

<v Speaker 1>until he got hurt. That was in October of twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty four. He had that SmackDown match with Carmelo. Ohyes,

<v Speaker 1>he injured his foot. He had that Liz Frank injury.

<v Speaker 1>I think it was like a ligament injury, but it's

<v Speaker 1>like right in the middle of your foot and it's

<v Speaker 1>a very painful, very difficult injury to recover from and

<v Speaker 1>it takes time. You got to be patient. And he

<v Speaker 1>was only out for a few months, but by the

<v Speaker 1>time he came back, they were two months out from WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>where he, in his mind months earlier, had decided, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>we're gonna do a little retirement thing and call it

<v Speaker 1>quits at Mania. But now he comes back, there's only

<v Speaker 1>two months left, and he said he felt like it

<v Speaker 1>didn't feel right to come back just for two months

<v Speaker 1>and then retire. So then he started thinking, well, you know,

<v Speaker 1>what better way to go out than on the pay

<v Speaker 1>per view where I debuted. Now it may be a

<v Speaker 1>wishful thinking on my part, but I do think that

<v Speaker 1>that would be good way around the retirement stipulation from

<v Speaker 1>the Rumble. But have him actually retire at WrestleMania. That's

<v Speaker 1>when the gloves come off at the very end and

<v Speaker 1>he lays them down on the mat. And I know,

<v Speaker 1>I know, Solemn monsters talking crazy again, Brocklesner wrestling on

<v Speaker 1>Raw aj Styles getting that Mania send off. I can't

<v Speaker 1>help it. It's how my brain works. But then there's

<v Speaker 1>the crate. We have to talk about the crate, the

<v Speaker 1>mystery crate that showed up on Raw Monday night. Adam

<v Speaker 1>Pierce didn't know what to make of it. But on

<v Speaker 1>the crate it says delivered to wwe do not open

<v Speaker 1>until two twenty eight, twenty six, which happens to be

<v Speaker 1>this Saturday, the date of the elimination chamber, and he

<v Speaker 1>told Eli the delivery guy to ship the crate to

<v Speaker 1>smack down. Let Nick all this deal with it, and

<v Speaker 1>all this didn't want to deal with it either. On

<v Speaker 1>Friday and he told them get rid of it. Fucking

<v Speaker 1>Triple h and his mystery angles, like we literally had

<v Speaker 1>them in back to back seg on Monday night, you

<v Speaker 1>had the mass Man and then the Mystery Crate, like

<v Speaker 1>in the Levech household when the kids ask mom and Dad, hey,

<v Speaker 1>what's for dinner? Like, no matter what day of the

<v Speaker 1>week it is, you can bet it's a mystery meet night.

<v Speaker 1>Like last year, TKO was worried about slow ticket sales,

<v Speaker 1>so they called The Rock to save the elimination. Shamer

<v Speaker 1>saved the elimination Shamer. I mean they still had fucking

<v Speaker 1>probably twenty eight thousand tickets sold, you know, but if

<v Speaker 1>we don't have thirty one or thirty two, it's a failure.

<v Speaker 1>So fucking ari Emanual gets on the phone to call

<v Speaker 1>the Rock personally and say hey, we need you. And

<v Speaker 1>so it ends up with you know, Cody Soul. That

<v Speaker 1>was the whole thing last year, was Cody Soul. Now

<v Speaker 1>it's the Mystery Crate, and look it's a hook. It's

<v Speaker 1>a hook for the show, and people are talking about

<v Speaker 1>it online, and it's not one that's being really focused on.

<v Speaker 1>If you'll notice from Monday and Friday, it's being treated

<v Speaker 1>as sort of a comedy thing in the background, which

<v Speaker 1>probably rules out big name popping out of there. I mean, really,

<v Speaker 1>no name should be popping out of there. It's a

<v Speaker 1>fucking crate, and the idea that Chris Jericho would be

<v Speaker 1>in there for twelve days but nothing more than a

<v Speaker 1>bottle of water and a box of pop tarts is

<v Speaker 1>absurd unless they pry the damn thing open and his

<v Speaker 1>dead body falls out of it. But if it is

<v Speaker 1>a person, it will not be Chris Jericho. Based on

<v Speaker 1>the latest update that we have from Fightful Select, which

<v Speaker 1>is reporting that the belief from those around Jericho, so

<v Speaker 1>they have not been told that this is the way

<v Speaker 1>it is. It's not confirmed, but the belief from those

<v Speaker 1>around Jericho and inaw is that his contract was frozen

<v Speaker 1>after he took time off from the company in twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty five. A variety had reported in October of twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty two that Jericho signed a three year extension which

<v Speaker 1>would include increased responsibilities behind the scenes, and that he

<v Speaker 1>would now serve as a producer and creative advisor, with

<v Speaker 1>the deal keeping him in AW through December of twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty five. But Jericho is still on the roster page

<v Speaker 1>on the AW website, you know. Whereas when someone's deal

<v Speaker 1>is up, usually like with Powerhouse Hobbs, they're pulled from

<v Speaker 1>the page right away. Jericho was never pulled, you know. Now. Look,

<v Speaker 1>promoters have frozen contracts before. Usually it's due to injuries.

<v Speaker 1>Wwe did it with Ray Mysterio many years ago. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>if you're gone long enough, they could tack time on

<v Speaker 1>to the end of your contract. I think that was

<v Speaker 1>the situation with Ray Phoenix in AAW and I can

<v Speaker 1>understand it maybe in certain circumstances, if there's an injury

<v Speaker 1>that is so bad it lasts for like the majority

<v Speaker 1>of someone's contract. Like if you have a two year

<v Speaker 1>contract and you're out for eighteen months with a terrible injury.

<v Speaker 1>You know what, I get it, and you're being paid

<v Speaker 1>the entire time. I get it. Or if you have

<v Speaker 1>an injury that again it's it's multiple injuries and it

<v Speaker 1>eats up most of the time in your contract, like

<v Speaker 1>a recurring problem. But generally speaking, I think it's a

<v Speaker 1>pretty shitty thing to extend their deals out like that,

<v Speaker 1>or even worse if they're hell healthy and they can

<v Speaker 1>be used but they're not being used for some reason.

<v Speaker 1>Like that was my issue with people like Ray Phoenix

<v Speaker 1>and Ricky Starks in AAW where they weren't even being used.

<v Speaker 1>They were sitting on the bench, you know, Ricky finally

<v Speaker 1>started popping up on some indies. In Jericho's case, if

<v Speaker 1>it was his choice to leave and take time off

<v Speaker 1>and go on tour with Fozzy and film movie roles

<v Speaker 1>and do whatever he was doing, there may well be

<v Speaker 1>a clause in his contract that accounts for this kind

<v Speaker 1>of stuff, right, But that would have been his choice.

<v Speaker 1>It's not like he got hurt and he had to

<v Speaker 1>be sidelined for six months with an injury. So if

<v Speaker 1>it was his choice, then I have less sympathy and

<v Speaker 1>I can understand it. You know, Hey, I think I'm

<v Speaker 1>just I'm gonna go take nine months off. I'll still

<v Speaker 1>get paid, but I think I'm gonna take some time

<v Speaker 1>off here and then I'll leave and I'll go to WWA. Like, yes,

<v Speaker 1>I can understand AAW freezing or extending his deal if

<v Speaker 1>that's how it played out. But we don't know, right well,

<v Speaker 1>we're just speculating here. We don't know. We don't know

<v Speaker 1>what the deal was or for how much longer he

<v Speaker 1>will remain under contract to AAW, but it will not

<v Speaker 1>be him inside that crate. And I said, the only

<v Speaker 1>way that this makes any sense is if the reveal

<v Speaker 1>is for someone or something silly. And then you guys

<v Speaker 1>in the live chat on Monday, you start shouting at

<v Speaker 1>me dan Hausen, dan Hausen, and you reminded me I

<v Speaker 1>remember now that dan Hausen's AW deal was set to

<v Speaker 1>expire this month. Now, he had wanted out of his

<v Speaker 1>deal earlier if they weren't going to use him, and

<v Speaker 1>they refuse to let him go supposedly, and that's bullshit.

<v Speaker 1>By the way, I don't agree with that at all.

<v Speaker 1>If you have no plans for the man, then just

<v Speaker 1>let him walk. I mean, it's not like we're talking

<v Speaker 1>about someone who's going to move the needle here. We're

<v Speaker 1>not again, we're not talking about Jericho. We're not talking

<v Speaker 1>about John Moxley or Kenny Omega. We're talking about fucking

<v Speaker 1>Dan Hausen. So the Dan Housen thing I don't agree with,

<v Speaker 1>but yes, Dan Hausen may be a free agent very soon.

<v Speaker 1>He's still listed on their roster page, which tells me

<v Speaker 1>he's not free yet. Now there is another possibility. Finn

<v Speaker 1>Balor is challenging Cmpunk for the World Heavyweight Championship in

<v Speaker 1>Chicago this weekend, and I have been saying that I

<v Speaker 1>think that we see the Demon back at WrestleMania if

<v Speaker 1>he wrestles Dominic for the Intercontinental title. And I don't

<v Speaker 1>know if he is or not. You know, pent to

<v Speaker 1>want a match on TV this week and they said

<v Speaker 1>that he now is in line for a shot again

<v Speaker 1>at the Intercontinental title. They did not say when. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if that means WrestleMania. What if it's the

<v Speaker 1>Demon inside the crate? Like what if for his entrance

<v Speaker 1>for his match with CM Punk the crate it's just

<v Speaker 1>sitting on stage and he pops out of it and

<v Speaker 1>it's the Demon, right, because that would at least be

<v Speaker 1>a surprise that people would probably enjoy seeing, like they'll

<v Speaker 1>totally pop for the Demon if he appears. The only

<v Speaker 1>thing is how wise would it be to bring the

<v Speaker 1>Demon back only to lose to CM Punk? Not very wise?

<v Speaker 1>Especially because the last time we saw the Demon, actually

<v Speaker 1>the last two times I think we saw the Demon

<v Speaker 1>against Roman and then against Edge of wrestle Media. He

<v Speaker 1>lost both time. Supposedly he was gonna win, or Edge

<v Speaker 1>wanted him to win. Vince did not want the Ballor

<v Speaker 1>to win, and that's why Balor lost to WrestleMania. But yeah,

<v Speaker 1>that would not be very wise if they brought the

<v Speaker 1>Demon back just for him to lose, and they planned

<v Speaker 1>on keeping him as the Demon for a WrestleMania match,

<v Speaker 1>not the way that I would bring him back. That's

<v Speaker 1>the only reason I think it doesn't really work. But

<v Speaker 1>I wanted to put that out there as a possibility

<v Speaker 1>because I do think it is something that people should

<v Speaker 1>consider as a possibility for what or who is inside

<v Speaker 1>that crate. Now on SmackDown, Drew McIntyre was supposed to

<v Speaker 1>be sent home, but he was in his own luxury

<v Speaker 1>box at the top of the show, interrupting Cody Rose's

<v Speaker 1>promo and riling up Jacob Fatu, who ended up beating

<v Speaker 1>up a bunch of security guards and he had to

<v Speaker 1>be calmed down, and he brought up the same point

<v Speaker 1>did Jacob that I made last week that they now

<v Speaker 1>have an inn for him in the title match of Wrestlemane.

<v Speaker 1>Even though he didn't qualify for the Elimination Chamber. He

<v Speaker 1>had that match won last week like he had Sammy's

<v Speaker 1>Ain't dead to rights and that's when Drew McIntyre threw

<v Speaker 1>a Claymore kick. It fought too and interfered in the match.

<v Speaker 1>So he absolutely has, you know, good reason to go

<v Speaker 1>to Nick Aldis and say, hey, I deserve a shot

<v Speaker 1>at the title too. This guy cost me a shot

<v Speaker 1>inside the chamber. And by the way, Jacob was on

<v Speaker 1>Busted Open Radio and he mentioned that he had eleven

<v Speaker 1>teeth pulled with that dental surgery that he had a

<v Speaker 1>few months ago. That's why he was gone eleven teeth.

<v Speaker 1>Don't tell Dan Housen that maybe Dan, hey, you know what,

<v Speaker 1>I just had an epiphany. Maybe Danausen is the one

<v Speaker 1>who knocked all of his teeth out, and he's going

<v Speaker 1>to pop out of the crate and all the teeth

<v Speaker 1>they're going to be in a jar. Holy shit, I

<v Speaker 1>think I may have just solved the miss three. Now

<v Speaker 1>now we know what Jacob Fatu is gonna be doing

<v Speaker 1>at Wrestledmandia. But yeah, eleven teeth though, that's almost half

<v Speaker 1>the teeth in his mouth. Now. He didn't say why.

<v Speaker 1>He didn't get into why he needed eleven teeth pulled.

<v Speaker 1>But uh, kids, do do yourself a favor. Make sure

<v Speaker 1>you brush and floss. Okay, it's not enough to just

<v Speaker 1>do one or the other. I know you think it is. Oh,

<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna brush twice a day, three times a day,

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't matter. You gotta brush, you gotta floss. Trust me,

<v Speaker 1>it's gonna save you a lot of grief later in life. Now.

<v Speaker 1>Drew also caused Randy Orton his match against Alistair Black

<v Speaker 1>in the main event. Black got a win over Randy Orton, which,

<v Speaker 1>you know, you would think, wow, that's a pretty big deal.

<v Speaker 1>Is it gonna really mean a whole lot to him?

<v Speaker 1>Probably not, because it was Drew McIntyre who gave him

<v Speaker 1>the assist, And that's where the real story is, that's

<v Speaker 1>where the focus was. It was almost like Black pennying

<v Speaker 1>Orton was like an afterthought, and Cody came out to

<v Speaker 1>chase Drew off into the crowd. He didn't realize that

<v Speaker 1>Black had, you know, kicked Randy in the face when

<v Speaker 1>he got back in the ring. And he pinned Randy.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Cody didn't really do anything wrong there, but

<v Speaker 1>they keep dropping hints, and you had Black telling Randy,

<v Speaker 1>you know, you need to go back to your rootst

<v Speaker 1>You gotta go back to being the real Randy Orton.

<v Speaker 1>Right the last last week he mentioned two thousand and

<v Speaker 1>nine Randy Orton. Are we going to see that Orton

<v Speaker 1>in the chamber with Cody. I would say the most

<v Speaker 1>compelling part of the elimination Chamber would be that men's

<v Speaker 1>match coming down to Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. But

<v Speaker 1>I think they run a very big risk of the

<v Speaker 1>crowd siding mostly with Randy Orton in that scenario in Chicago,

<v Speaker 1>which I mean, it would look terrible if Cody just

<v Speaker 1>beats him and becomes number one contender for the WWE

<v Speaker 1>title your top babyface, and then he gets booed out

<v Speaker 1>of the building in Chicago. That would be a bad look.

<v Speaker 1>But I'll talk more about this in a minute here.

<v Speaker 1>Tomatonga and Ilia Dragon I want to talk about some

<v Speaker 1>of this stuff because again for the Hog Show, I

<v Speaker 1>wasn't here to do a SmackDown review on Friday. Tomatanga

<v Speaker 1>and Ilia dragonov they had a match. It was going

<v Speaker 1>along fine until the usual bullshit with the MFTs and

<v Speaker 1>then the Uncle Howdie promo after calling out Solo Sokoa,

<v Speaker 1>I wish we could fast run this to the finish,

<v Speaker 1>give him his lantern back, and let's just move on

<v Speaker 1>from the Wyats and the MFTs. But I'm actually going

<v Speaker 1>to have a word of praise here for this. We

<v Speaker 1>are actually getting some limited character building with Tomatonga because

<v Speaker 1>later on in the back Solo Socoa is after all

<v Speaker 1>the other MFTs leave the room. He's praising Toma's loyalty

<v Speaker 1>and he says, look, I know you're going to be

<v Speaker 1>the next the United States Champion, but we need to

<v Speaker 1>focus on the Wyatts right now. And so when he left,

<v Speaker 1>Tomatonga is still sitting there by himself. Shinsky Nakamorra walks

<v Speaker 1>in and he tells Toma that the MFTs are holding

<v Speaker 1>him back and he can prove that he's his own

<v Speaker 1>man by facing him again without the help of the MFTs.

<v Speaker 1>Leave your family tree in the forest. He said, that

<v Speaker 1>line goes hard. I like that, but this is what

<v Speaker 1>I've been looking for. It's not a lot, it's not

<v Speaker 1>a lot, but it's something with the MFTs, like for

<v Speaker 1>so long, they've not given us any reason to care

<v Speaker 1>about these people, Like it's nothing like the bloodline at all.

<v Speaker 1>Just give me a reason to care about the relationship

<v Speaker 1>between the different members or know more about who they are,

<v Speaker 1>like hear from them more. I barely even remember what

<v Speaker 1>Jeff Cobb's voice sounds like. Like we never hear from

<v Speaker 1>the guy. So it's not a lot, but it's something

<v Speaker 1>at least now. We also got a run of the

<v Speaker 1>Mill promo from Jade Cargill, which is a good way

<v Speaker 1>to describe her title run so far, and another run

<v Speaker 1>in with Charlotte Flair. As Charlotte was on her way

<v Speaker 1>out for her Elimination Chamber qualifying match, Jade was leaving

<v Speaker 1>and Jade was getting all up in her face, and

<v Speaker 1>it was very smart to do this because it made

<v Speaker 1>for a shock when Charlotte did not win her match.

<v Speaker 1>They made you think, here, okay, they're building something here

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania, and I actually still think they are. But

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte wrestled Naya Jackson Keana James, and it was Keana

<v Speaker 1>stealing a win off of Charlotte. When Charlotte had Naya

<v Speaker 1>in the figure eight you know, she bridges up Keana

<v Speaker 1>slid underneath Charlotte. She hooked her arms over into a

<v Speaker 1>crucifix for the pin. I thought the finish was very clever.

<v Speaker 1>It was surprising, but I pointed out the other night,

<v Speaker 1>I said they were very babyface heavy in the chamber.

<v Speaker 1>So far, Osca is the only heel to qualify, So

<v Speaker 1>now they have two. You know, it makes sense to

<v Speaker 1>get at least one more in there. But that means

<v Speaker 1>that Alexa Bliss is in the chamber now and her

<v Speaker 1>tag team partner is not. And it also means that

<v Speaker 1>Jade Cargill will not be facing It seems like Jade

<v Speaker 1>Cargill will not be facing Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, and

<v Speaker 1>we know that Bianca Belair will not be facing her either.

<v Speaker 1>Ten months after being forced out of the ring with

<v Speaker 1>an injury beyond Ika had surgery this past week to

<v Speaker 1>fix her finger, and she's already doing physical therapy to

<v Speaker 1>heal up, and it looks like she may have finally

<v Speaker 1>found a fix for the problem. She posted on Instagram

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of photos, including one very gory one of

<v Speaker 1>her finger opened up during surgery. She said there was

<v Speaker 1>video too, but I guess that was a little too gory,

<v Speaker 1>so she didn't post it, but she said this ten

<v Speaker 1>months post injury, eight months of rehab, five doctors later,

<v Speaker 1>and we are finally here. Now I can finally start

<v Speaker 1>to put this behind me. Thank you so much, doctor

<v Speaker 1>Desih for hearing me and fixing me. Fingers and joints

<v Speaker 1>are complicated, frustrating, confusing, essential. If you don't get it,

<v Speaker 1>consider yourself lucky, and I hope you never have to

<v Speaker 1>find out. Maybe one day I'll go into detail. But

<v Speaker 1>it's a lot thank you to those who have sent

<v Speaker 1>so much love my way and continue to do so.

<v Speaker 1>So that's great news that she's finally on the mend.

<v Speaker 1>It sucks that she's not going to be back in

<v Speaker 1>time for WrestleMania, but that means no Bianca, seemingly no Charlotte.

<v Speaker 1>Those were the two obvious matches for Jade. Now Jade

<v Speaker 1>ran into Meetchen and b fab in the back later

<v Speaker 1>I mean as if, I mean they'll be watching Jad's

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania match on a monitor in the back. But that

<v Speaker 1>means we're looking at Tiffany Stratton, Alexa Bliss, Oska, Rhea Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>and Keana James with one spot left to fill in

<v Speaker 1>the chamber and that will happen tomorrow night between EO, Sky,

<v Speaker 1>Rakel Rodriguez and Kyrie Sing. Now it should be EO.

<v Speaker 1>I want EO on that show on Saturday. I cannot

<v Speaker 1>rule out Raquel. Raquel is absolutely a possibility. Kyrie is not.

<v Speaker 1>Liv Morgan has been saying that she's not going to

<v Speaker 1>be rushed into making a decision on which championship she's

<v Speaker 1>going to be challenging for at WrestleMania, but then they

<v Speaker 1>announced that she's going to be making her decision tomorrow night,

<v Speaker 1>so she's had a change of heart apparently. And if

<v Speaker 1>it was a case where one of them would be

<v Speaker 1>winning a title before Mania and the other would be

<v Speaker 1>able to challenge for it, there would be more drama

<v Speaker 1>there as far as like Raquel and Live, but I

<v Speaker 1>mean there really is none. EO should be in that

<v Speaker 1>match now. Ria Ripley wrestled Julia on Friday Night. It

<v Speaker 1>was originally scheduled to be EO against Julia, but that

<v Speaker 1>got changed at the last minute and there was no

<v Speaker 1>reason given for why. Though EO was on the show.

<v Speaker 1>She even did a run in, so it's not like

<v Speaker 1>she wasn't there. I'm wondering, though, I'm wondering if maybe

<v Speaker 1>they're saving that match for Italy because WWE announced this

<v Speaker 1>week it's first ever pl E from Italy. It will

<v Speaker 1>be and this is a hell of a creative name here,

<v Speaker 1>Clash in Italy scheduled for the city of Turin on Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>May thirty first at the Analpe Arena. They say it's

<v Speaker 1>part of a larger European tour that includes shows in Italy, Spain, France,

<v Speaker 1>Portugal and the UK in May and June. So they

<v Speaker 1>said three raw episodes, two smackdowns and fives are taking

<v Speaker 1>place in addition to the pl So get those VPNs ready, everybody, boy,

<v Speaker 1>That Express VPN link is gonna come in real handy again. Now,

<v Speaker 1>Backlash is already scheduled for May ninth in Tampa, so

<v Speaker 1>that means two ples in the same month. But I

<v Speaker 1>mentioned this here because Julia spent time there as a child.

<v Speaker 1>You know, her father is Italian and she worked for

<v Speaker 1>her parents when she was younger in their Italian restaurant.

<v Speaker 1>I wonder how many WWE fans would even know that.

<v Speaker 1>You know, she's got Italian blood in her but why

<v Speaker 1>not EO against Julia on that show? I mean, unless

<v Speaker 1>they're saving it for WrestleMania, but I mean that just

<v Speaker 1>seems unlikely. The match with Rhea and Julia, like the

<v Speaker 1>one earlier with Tomatanga and Ilia Dragonov, it was going

<v Speaker 1>along well enough and it got ruined by Nya Jackson

<v Speaker 1>Lash Legend running in for the DQ. EO then ran

<v Speaker 1>out to make the save. They're defending their tag team

<v Speaker 1>titles by the Way again next week against Nia and Lash.

<v Speaker 1>Putting Julia in the ring with names like Rhea, Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>and Eosky, that's something they need to do more of,

<v Speaker 1>and they need to make her more of a threat

<v Speaker 1>as the United States Champion. They need to be using

<v Speaker 1>her better in general, and evidently Julia agrees. Based on

<v Speaker 1>something she reposted on IG the other day. Fan wrote

<v Speaker 1>the WWE needs to just let Julia be Julia. Ever

<v Speaker 1>since she was called up, it's felt like road Dog

<v Speaker 1>has been trying to book her into what he thinks

<v Speaker 1>she should be instead of what she is, and she

<v Speaker 1>reposted this, so it sounds like those frustrations are starting

<v Speaker 1>to come out. And I don't blame her, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>she needs to be more of an ass kicker, like

<v Speaker 1>we've seen this before, if you've seen any clips or

<v Speaker 1>matches of hers in the past, WeDo, she has it

<v Speaker 1>in her to be an ass kicker, but it's not

<v Speaker 1>in their image of what they see her as it's

<v Speaker 1>not in their image of what she should be. Right

<v Speaker 1>to portray her that way would mean that they need

<v Speaker 1>to push her harder than they're obviously prepared to do.

<v Speaker 1>And I said, you know, when they first put Keana

<v Speaker 1>with her, over time it became very clear that it

<v Speaker 1>was less about helping Julia by having someone cut promos

<v Speaker 1>for her and it was more about getting Keana more

<v Speaker 1>visibility on TV. Like the pairing has not really benefited

<v Speaker 1>Julia in any meaningful way. The approach that they have

<v Speaker 1>taken has not worked so far. The crowd reactions dictate

<v Speaker 1>that the crowd reactions tell you, but her working with

<v Speaker 1>bigger names like this would help, so she needs to

<v Speaker 1>be doing more of that. The real standouts on the

<v Speaker 1>show though, on Friday, were the backstage interactions between Cody Roads,

<v Speaker 1>sammy's Ay, and Trick Williams and the elimination Chamber qualifier

<v Speaker 1>with Trick Mellow and Damian Priest. But let me talk

<v Speaker 1>about the backstage stuff first, because Cody Rhads was walking

<v Speaker 1>and he ran into a very dejected Sammy's ain Sammy

<v Speaker 1>Zin seems to be dejected on most weeks. I hope

<v Speaker 1>this man is seeing a therapist. But he bumps into

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's a and he tells him, look, You've got nothing

<v Speaker 1>to be ashamed of. This is after Cody beat him

<v Speaker 1>in last week's SOO Triple Threat qualifier, and Sammy said

<v Speaker 1>he knew he didn't have anything to be ashamed of,

<v Speaker 1>and if anybody did, it was Cody. Sammy said he

<v Speaker 1>helped Cody Drew McIntyre Rader feared in the match, and Sammy,

<v Speaker 1>if you remember, he gave Drew a claim war kick

<v Speaker 1>and then Cody snuck up behind him and he gave

<v Speaker 1>him a crossroads and he said Cody stuck a knife

<v Speaker 1>in his back. My favorite part of this is when

<v Speaker 1>he said this, he made a motion of a knife

<v Speaker 1>going through his chest. So Sammy's saying clearly skipped out

<v Speaker 1>on his anatomy class in school. But Cody said, look,

<v Speaker 1>I took advantage of an opportunity to be the champion again.

<v Speaker 1>Sammy hasn't taken those same opportunities and that's why you've

<v Speaker 1>never been a world champion. And Sammy said, look, that's

<v Speaker 1>easy for you to say you're the Golden Boy. Nobody

<v Speaker 1>chose me like they chose you. He said, Cody got

<v Speaker 1>to finish his story, and Sammy's been trying to finish

<v Speaker 1>his story for ten years now. Sammy said that Cody

<v Speaker 1>doesn't know what it's like to constantly try to do

<v Speaker 1>the right thing. And Cody yelled at him and said,

<v Speaker 1>what are you talking about? The right thing? How I

<v Speaker 1>tried to do the right thing in Germany in three

<v Speaker 1>stages of hell when Jacob Fatu showed up, and it

<v Speaker 1>cost me everything. And Cody said, Sammy could walk into

<v Speaker 1>the locker room right now and beat everybody in there.

<v Speaker 1>The only thing in your way is you, and he

<v Speaker 1>walked off. And after he walked off, Trick Williams walked

<v Speaker 1>in and you could hear the fans in the arena.

<v Speaker 1>They popped as soon as he popped up on screen.

<v Speaker 1>He entered the picture and he laughed, and he said,

<v Speaker 1>with friends like Cody Rhodes, who needs enemies? And he

<v Speaker 1>said that he was going to do something tonight that

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's ain could never do, and that's get the job done.

<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about it, and off he went. Trick Williams

<v Speaker 1>bullying Sammy's ain will never get old to me, like

<v Speaker 1>he seems to derive so much pleasure from it. You know,

<v Speaker 1>my heart says Trick against Mellow at Mania for the

<v Speaker 1>US title, but my head says it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>Trick against samy'san. I think that's gonna end up being

<v Speaker 1>the match. After Trick left, Sammy called out, Now, normally

<v Speaker 1>this is where this segment would end, your typical WWE

<v Speaker 1>backstage segment. It would cut off here and cut back

<v Speaker 1>to the arena, but they kept it going, and he's

<v Speaker 1>calling out to Cody, who I guess is a very

<v Speaker 1>slow walker here, because Cody was still walking up not

<v Speaker 1>too far up ahead. So he ran over to Cody

<v Speaker 1>to catch up to him, and he apologized to Cody,

<v Speaker 1>and when he apologized to him, you could hear the

<v Speaker 1>live crowd boo. And he said, it's only a matter

<v Speaker 1>of time before you become champion again. And he told

<v Speaker 1>Cody just remember that you had a little help along

<v Speaker 1>the way, and Cody said, I don't forget. So this

<v Speaker 1>was great, you know, this was great. Storytelling here, and

<v Speaker 1>I love the way they transitioned from Cody to Trick

<v Speaker 1>and back to Sammy chasing down Cody. But of course

<v Speaker 1>he got booed, like the fans are trying to tell

<v Speaker 1>sammy' zane to stop being a pushover, like this is

<v Speaker 1>why you will never be world champion. Now, Sammy is

<v Speaker 1>not wrong in the things that he says. He has

<v Speaker 1>nothing to apologize for, yet he always wilts. He wilts

<v Speaker 1>like a flower. You know, for a minute there, it

<v Speaker 1>looked like Sammy was realizing that his old friend Kevin

<v Speaker 1>Owens was right about Cody. He almost had it, and

<v Speaker 1>then he apologized. You know, I've been talking about the

<v Speaker 1>possibility of Sammy winning the Big One at WrestleMania next

<v Speaker 1>year in Saudi right as a possible direction there. But

<v Speaker 1>there's a story to be told a lot sooner than

<v Speaker 1>that with him and Cody after Cody wins the belt back.

<v Speaker 1>Assuming Cody wins the Belt back, I know we still

<v Speaker 1>have to get Cody and Randy, and I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>talk about that in a second here. But the other

<v Speaker 1>idea would be coming out of WrestleMania, Sammy's ain't going

<v Speaker 1>heel and embracing his bad side against Cody for the

<v Speaker 1>world title this year, forget next year, like that is

<v Speaker 1>something they could do. They don't need Sammy to be

<v Speaker 1>a babyface when he finally wins the big one. It

<v Speaker 1>doesn't have to be a big babyface win at WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>you know, like it was with Cody. It doesn't have

<v Speaker 1>to be that way. He just needs to ditch the

<v Speaker 1>self righteousness and just do whatever it takes and evolve

<v Speaker 1>this character. But Trick's qualifier was the best man on

<v Speaker 1>the show, and he won clean, decisively and clean He

<v Speaker 1>pinned Priest, a former world champion, to do it, not Mellow,

<v Speaker 1>who is the United States champion, which keeps hope alive

<v Speaker 1>that they will be fighting for that title soon. Trick

<v Speaker 1>has become a highlight of the show every single week

<v Speaker 1>for me. In short order, but I mentioned Carmelo Hayes.

<v Speaker 1>He told the Good Karma Wrestling Channel that while he

<v Speaker 1>thinks these US title open challenges have been a good

<v Speaker 1>showcase for him, he agrees with the sentiment from fans

<v Speaker 1>that they need to bring back storylines to the title

<v Speaker 1>picture instead of just doing one off title defenses. This

<v Speaker 1>is what he said to be honest, I think the

<v Speaker 1>Open Challenge is becoming a little bit more. I know

<v Speaker 1>people have been talking about storylines. I do want to

<v Speaker 1>bring storylines back because I do feel like there's a

<v Speaker 1>period where guys should just be able to pull up

<v Speaker 1>every Friday and automatically get a title shot. Because if

<v Speaker 1>I didn't get until the Open Challenge opened, I had

<v Speaker 1>to earn one, he said, and it took a lot.

<v Speaker 1>If you guys remember, I was battling Andrade freaking every week,

<v Speaker 1>just killing ourselves to get an opportunity for an opportunity,

<v Speaker 1>So you know what I mean. I'd like to bring

<v Speaker 1>that back.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>The Open Challenge has been one of the biggest highlights

<v Speaker 1>on Friday nights now for months, you know, and we

<v Speaker 1>have had some horrible, boring, dull, do nothing SmackDown shows

<v Speaker 1>mixed in with some good ones, but mostly bad and boring,

<v Speaker 1>which is the worst kind of television that you could have.

<v Speaker 1>At least, if it's gonna be bad, make it so

<v Speaker 1>bad it's good. It's not even that. So the Open

<v Speaker 1>Challenge is at least when you would have Sammy's Ain

<v Speaker 1>defending or Elia Dragon of defending or Carmelo Hayes defending,

<v Speaker 1>it was the highlight of the show in most weeks

<v Speaker 1>because they were going out there just having killer matches.

<v Speaker 1>And look look at where Carmelo Hayes is now is

<v Speaker 1>compared to six months ago, Like he's gotten himself over.

<v Speaker 1>He's actually getting reactions now whereas he wasn't getting these

<v Speaker 1>kinds of reactions months ago. So it's worked out well

<v Speaker 1>for him. I still enjoy the Open Challenge. I've been

<v Speaker 1>saying that it's fine to keep doing it until a

<v Speaker 1>heel wins the title. Let's say Trick. If Trick is

<v Speaker 1>the one to beat Melo to win the US title,

<v Speaker 1>whether it's WrestleMania, whether it's television, whenever it is. Once

<v Speaker 1>the heel takes that championship away from the babyface, there's

<v Speaker 1>no incentive for the heel to keep this open Challenge going.

<v Speaker 1>They're keeping it going in the spirit of John Cena

<v Speaker 1>and in the spirit of respecting what John Cena started.

<v Speaker 1>Trick Williams has no respect. He's shown that. So as

<v Speaker 1>soon as he wins that championship, the first thing he

<v Speaker 1>should announce on SmackDown the following week is that the

<v Speaker 1>Open Challenge is hereby closed. And then you move away

<v Speaker 1>from the Open challenge gimmick, and like Melo says here,

<v Speaker 1>you get back to the story aspects because you need

<v Speaker 1>to have that. It can't just it can't always be

<v Speaker 1>about just random matches. It works for a period of

<v Speaker 1>time if you're doing the open challenge, but you can

<v Speaker 1>only do that for so long. It is going to

<v Speaker 1>get old, and as soon as the heel wins that belt,

<v Speaker 1>they need to shut that shit down and get back

<v Speaker 1>to exactly what he's talking about here. He's not wrong.

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<v Speaker 1>That's wix dot com slash Harmony. Elimination Chamber is this

<v Speaker 1>Saturday in chicag And before I get into my predictions,

<v Speaker 1>I talked last week about anger from establishments in Las

<v Speaker 1>Vegas over WWE and TKO blocking them from hosting WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>watch parties within a fifty mile radius of Allegiant Stadium.

<v Speaker 1>This is an effort to force people to buy tickets

<v Speaker 1>to the show. Emails have already gone out to people

<v Speaker 1>who have bought tickets for some of these watch parties

<v Speaker 1>of various places, letting them know that they're canceled. So

<v Speaker 1>it's being enforced, or I mean being enforced to the

<v Speaker 1>extent that these establishments are not going to risk getting fined,

<v Speaker 1>so they're sending out cancelation notices. Well, it sounds like

<v Speaker 1>this may be a new policy going forward for all pls,

<v Speaker 1>or at least the ones they're struggling to sell out,

<v Speaker 1>because the same thing is now happening in Chicago for

<v Speaker 1>Elimination Chamber. Per Fightful Select, several venues in the market

<v Speaker 1>have been informed that they cannot host watch parties for

<v Speaker 1>the event based off the last wrestle Tics update that

<v Speaker 1>I saw on Friday morning, there's an awful lot of

<v Speaker 1>blue dots on that seating chart on the floor, Like,

<v Speaker 1>there's so many floor seats that are still available. I

<v Speaker 1>don't even want to know what those seats are going for.

<v Speaker 1>But they have fourteen, eight hundred and ninety five tickets

<v Speaker 1>distributed for the show on a setup of seventeen thousand,

<v Speaker 1>which is a strong number. It's just it's not a

<v Speaker 1>sellout yet, but it's a strong number. But the cheapest

<v Speaker 1>ticket for Nosebleeds is listed at two hundred and sixty

<v Speaker 1>one dollars, and again, I don't think that's inclusive of taxes. Again,

<v Speaker 1>the watch party ban, it's just pure greed. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that's all it is. No one I want you to

<v Speaker 1>think about this. No one in their right mind who

<v Speaker 1>is going to an Elimination Chamber watch party with their

<v Speaker 1>friends at fucking Applebee's is suddenly going to go. Oh man,

<v Speaker 1>I guess I'll have to pay four hundred bucks now

<v Speaker 1>to go to the United Center and sit in the

<v Speaker 1>upper deck to watch the show. Like, no one is

<v Speaker 1>doing this now right now. It's a blackout. At some

<v Speaker 1>point you watch watch them agree to let them show

<v Speaker 1>these PLI it might not be for this one, but

<v Speaker 1>watch them allow them to show the plees but for

<v Speaker 1>some ridiculously like astronomical licensing fee that would basically be

<v Speaker 1>the equivalent of charging people who attend the same prices

<v Speaker 1>that they would charge for tickets to the actual show.

<v Speaker 1>Because that's probably what's coming up next. Like formula one

<v Speaker 1>tried this a few years ago in Vegas. They were

<v Speaker 1>threatening to block views and obstruct views of the races

<v Speaker 1>unless they paid, like establishments, hotels, bars, millions of dollars

<v Speaker 1>in fees. Here's something like fifteen hundred bucks ahead. And

<v Speaker 1>who do you think that those establishments, those hotels and

<v Speaker 1>restaurants would be passing that cost onto? Right? There was

<v Speaker 1>such an uproar over it. They ended up slashing it

<v Speaker 1>down to like fifty thousand dollars per establishment. And I

<v Speaker 1>don't know how it is now. This again, this was

<v Speaker 1>a few years ago, but don't be surprised they end

<v Speaker 1>up taking a similar route at some point, you know,

<v Speaker 1>instead of asking, you know, why why are tickets not

<v Speaker 1>selling well? Or why are they not selling as quickly

<v Speaker 1>as they were before? You know what we should do

<v Speaker 1>instead of asking the obvious question, Let's figure out other

<v Speaker 1>ways that we can make up for it by shaking

<v Speaker 1>people down. Yeah, yeah, that'll work. Now for the card,

<v Speaker 1>we still have two more qualifying matches tomorrow night, so

<v Speaker 1>these predictions are pending what happens there. If they change,

<v Speaker 1>I will talk about it on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show

<v Speaker 1>this Tuesday. We have the great reveal. I already gave

<v Speaker 1>you my thoughts, right, Dan Housend or Demon Balor. I

<v Speaker 1>think it ends up being one of those two. The

<v Speaker 1>Women's Elimination Chamber with Tiffany Stratton, Oska, Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>Keana James, and the winner of Eosky, Raquel Rodriguez and

<v Speaker 1>Kyrie Saying tomorrow night, I'm going with Eosky to qualify.

<v Speaker 1>I think she gets in, and I'm going with Alexa

<v Speaker 1>Bliss to win the Elimination Chamber match. I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>tell you why Charlotte Flair did not qualify for the Chamber.

<v Speaker 1>And I know there are people who were looking at

<v Speaker 1>this and going, well, you know, they must be building

<v Speaker 1>for Charlotte to wrestle Alexa instead, because there have been

<v Speaker 1>hints right about some issues they've had, and Charlotte's been,

<v Speaker 1>you know, trying to make it work and everything, but

<v Speaker 1>there's been some tension there. But they're in a tough

<v Speaker 1>spot right now because they do not have an obvious

<v Speaker 1>great challenger for Jade car Gill of WrestleMania. And I

<v Speaker 1>do not think Jade Cargill is losing that championship like

<v Speaker 1>Riea Ripley did last year before they get to WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>I do not see that happening. She is going to

<v Speaker 1>walk into WrestleMania as the champion. So what is the

<v Speaker 1>best option here, Ria Ripley. You know, when they there

<v Speaker 1>was another little face off between her and Jade and

<v Speaker 1>he was backstage on Friday, and the fans popped, like

<v Speaker 1>the fans would love to see Riho Ripley challenge Jade

<v Speaker 1>for the title. I just don't see it happening. I

<v Speaker 1>don't see them moving Rhea Ripley over to SmackDown. I

<v Speaker 1>don't see them pulling her away from Eo Sky and

<v Speaker 1>whatever Eo is going to be doing in WrestleMania, because

<v Speaker 1>otherwise Rhea would be would be, you know, the marquee

<v Speaker 1>choice here. I don't see it being her. I think

<v Speaker 1>Alexa wins the chamber, and I think that Charlotte is

<v Speaker 1>going to end up working her way into this situation.

<v Speaker 1>I think that the match for WrestleMania may well be

<v Speaker 1>a three way with Jade defending against both Charlotte Flair

<v Speaker 1>and Alexa Bliss, and I think Charlotte and Alexa they

<v Speaker 1>start to have issues. Those issues can spill over into

<v Speaker 1>the World title picture where Alexa qualifies, so she's got

<v Speaker 1>a guaranteed shot. Charlotte was playing it cool the other night, like,

<v Speaker 1>you know, she lost, but I'm okay, I'm okay, but

<v Speaker 1>she's not okay, and then I think that kind of

<v Speaker 1>blows over onto television in the next few weeks, and

<v Speaker 1>somehow she works her way into that title picture and

<v Speaker 1>we get a triple threat, and the issues with Charlotte

<v Speaker 1>and Alexa, they're gonna end up canceling each other out

<v Speaker 1>in that match, and that's how Jade is going to

<v Speaker 1>escape WrestleMania is still with her championship, but I think

<v Speaker 1>that's where we're headed here because I don't see that

<v Speaker 1>one obvious challenger for Jade instead of just doing Charlotte

<v Speaker 1>and Alexa non title on the undercard. I think you'll

<v Speaker 1>work both of them into the title match. I think

<v Speaker 1>that's the match for WrestleMania. Now. Becky Lynch is going

<v Speaker 1>to defend her Women's Intercontinental title against aj Lee. This

<v Speaker 1>is AJ's first singles match in eleven years. I saw

<v Speaker 1>that segment, the promo segment with them on Monday night.

<v Speaker 1>It was not good. It was not good, and it

<v Speaker 1>certainly did not do anything to get me excited to

<v Speaker 1>see this match between them on Saturday. But they're going

<v Speaker 1>to have a match, and look, I'm not really a

<v Speaker 1>big fan honestly of taking the belt off of Becky

<v Speaker 1>and putting it on aj I don't think aj needs it.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's Frankly, I just don't think that's

<v Speaker 1>the right move to make. I question, if you put

<v Speaker 1>the belt on her now, is she even going to

<v Speaker 1>defend it on television between now in WrestleMania. But it's

<v Speaker 1>very clear to me that this is the first of two,

<v Speaker 1>at least two matches that we're going to get between

<v Speaker 1>the two of them, and aj Lee is clearly not

<v Speaker 1>full time, and we don't need titles on people who

<v Speaker 1>are not going to be on television every single week.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry. So if you wanted to get the Intercontinental

<v Speaker 1>title onto aj Lee, then the place to do it

<v Speaker 1>is her adopted hometown here of Chicago. And when this

<v Speaker 1>show is over, I think you got AJM Punk walking

<v Speaker 1>out of there, both with hardware over their shoulders. If

<v Speaker 1>aj is going to get the belt, I would much

<v Speaker 1>rather her get it here than WrestleMania. I'm going with

<v Speaker 1>Ajlee to win. You want to put the championship on her,

<v Speaker 1>do it now. I mean that'll just drive Becky even

<v Speaker 1>further off the brink of sanity. And then when you

<v Speaker 1>run it back at WrestleMania, maybe with a step put

<v Speaker 1>the belt back on Becky and be done with it,

<v Speaker 1>and then Becky can defend against other people. What I

<v Speaker 1>would rather not see is aj winn it at Mania

<v Speaker 1>and then we don't even know if she's going to

<v Speaker 1>be around. How often are we going to even see

<v Speaker 1>her on TV? If she's going to be around, then

<v Speaker 1>that's fine, then go ahead and do it at Media.

<v Speaker 1>But I'm picking her to win here because I think

<v Speaker 1>that's the better way to go. Cmpunk defends his World

<v Speaker 1>Heavyweight Championship in his hometown of Chicago against Finn Balor

<v Speaker 1>Will it be Finn balor, will it be Demon Balor?

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but one thing I can tell you

<v Speaker 1>is that cmpunk is not losing the World Heavyweight Championship

<v Speaker 1>in Chicago ahead of a Wrestle Media showdown with Roman Reigns.

<v Speaker 1>Cmpunk is going to win this match and in the

<v Speaker 1>men's elimination chamber, currently we have Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>l A Knight, Javon Evans, and Trick Williams, jay Uso,

<v Speaker 1>Bronson Reed and the og El Grande Americano. They're going

<v Speaker 1>to be fighting for that final spot tomorrow night. I

<v Speaker 1>am going to say that brock Lesner knocks Gable out

<v Speaker 1>of his spots. He's not even in the match, but

<v Speaker 1>he takes his spot. He ends up winning the match

<v Speaker 1>because the alternative is jay Uso yeading inside the chamber

<v Speaker 1>and ain't nobody needs to see that. So brock Lesnar

<v Speaker 1>is going to qualify for the elimination That that's my

<v Speaker 1>bold prediction here. Brocklesnar is going to qualify for the

<v Speaker 1>elimination chamber, and then inside the chamber, brock is going

<v Speaker 1>to get eliminated by La Knight or some combination of

<v Speaker 1>Night and somebody else It could be Knight and Cody,

<v Speaker 1>just like it was of the Rumble, only to then

<v Speaker 1>destroy La Knight, which then leads to La Night being

<v Speaker 1>eliminated from the match. That then sets things in motion

<v Speaker 1>for the WrestleMania match that nobody asks for. Again, i

<v Speaker 1>am not advocating for a brocklesnar La Night match of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying I think there's a very real chance

<v Speaker 1>that's going to be the match. And how do you

<v Speaker 1>get there? What do you do to set things in

<v Speaker 1>motion to get from point A to point B? That's

<v Speaker 1>how I think it goes down the chamber Bo'm booking this.

<v Speaker 1>The chamber then comes down to two men, Cody Rhodes

<v Speaker 1>and Randy Orton, and Cody Rhodes wins the elimination chamber,

<v Speaker 1>and the show ends with an angry Randy Orton, and

<v Speaker 1>maybe he doesn't look so angry, maybe he's kind of

<v Speaker 1>fighting off demons in his head, and Cody's looking for

<v Speaker 1>a handshake and it looks like Randy's going to give

<v Speaker 1>him one, but then Randy drops Cody finally with an

<v Speaker 1>RKO out of nowhere and maybe even a punt kick

<v Speaker 1>take him off TV for a couple of weeks. Oh

<v Speaker 1>my goodness, what does this mean now for WrestleMania? Right,

<v Speaker 1>Cody's guaranteed his shot, but you've also got Jacob Fatu,

<v Speaker 1>and you've got Randy Orton beefing with Cody and Drew.

<v Speaker 1>All four men they don't like each other. And if

<v Speaker 1>we don't get a fatal four way in Las Vegas,

<v Speaker 1>we at least get a three way with FA two involved,

<v Speaker 1>and Randy could be Cody's first program coming out of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>But I think we need to finally get a resolution

<v Speaker 1>to who attacked Jacob Fatu. That storyline has still not

<v Speaker 1>been resolved. I know that Jacob thinks that Drew did it.

<v Speaker 1>Drew has always maintained I didn't do it. I wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>lie to you. If I was going to attack you,

<v Speaker 1>I'd do it to your face. I'd be on television

<v Speaker 1>gloating about it that I kicked all your teeth out.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't do it right. And we haven't heard anything

<v Speaker 1>about this story, this mystery. It just it was like dropped.

<v Speaker 1>But I think they circle back around to it. If

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton turns on Cody Rhodes at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the elimination chamber. Then coming out of that show, I say,

<v Speaker 1>we end up getting the reveal that it wasn't Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre who kicked Jacob in the mouth and knocked all

<v Speaker 1>eleven teeth out, it was Randy Orton with a punt kick,

<v Speaker 1>and that cements the heel turn because him dropping Cody

<v Speaker 1>with an RKO on its own, that ain't going to

<v Speaker 1>be enough to get this guy booed, Like some people

<v Speaker 1>will boo him, but a lot of people are going

<v Speaker 1>to cheer him for it. But if it comes out

<v Speaker 1>that he attacked Fa too like people like Jacob, it

<v Speaker 1>gives people more of a reason to boo Randy. Like

<v Speaker 1>some people just aren't going to boo him no matter what,

<v Speaker 1>and they'll always pop for the RKO out of nowhere.

<v Speaker 1>But you give people a better reason to boo this man.

<v Speaker 1>And then you can do a four way at WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>for the title, right, Or you could do Cody against

<v Speaker 1>Drew and Randy against Jacob in separate matches. But I

<v Speaker 1>don't want to see Cody against Drew one on one,

<v Speaker 1>Like I'm going four way, you give me the option

<v Speaker 1>three way, four way, I'm doing multi Man all the

<v Speaker 1>way over, Cody against Drew one on one, and then

<v Speaker 1>who's to say that Cody even needs to win the

<v Speaker 1>belt back at WrestleMania. You do a fucking four way match,

<v Speaker 1>give the belt to Randy Orton and let Cody keep

<v Speaker 1>chasing for it. Coming out of WrestleMania, Him and Jacob

<v Speaker 1>could chase after Randy because now they have reasons to

<v Speaker 1>hate Randy Orton. You got Orton back in that mix

<v Speaker 1>right there. He's got that championship and they're chasing after him.

<v Speaker 1>That's how I see it going down. And I will

<v Speaker 1>be live on YouTube when that show is over, so

<v Speaker 1>we'll have the full Elimination Chamber recap next Saturday. You'll

<v Speaker 1>get a bonus podcast from me next weekend. Suck some

<v Speaker 1>AW news here because it became official this week via

<v Speaker 1>the New York Post after Andrew's Aarien of the mat

<v Speaker 1>Men Wrestling podcast broke the news last week that AW

<v Speaker 1>Double or Nothing will be held at Louis Armstrong Stadium

<v Speaker 1>in Queens, New York. But now we know the actual

<v Speaker 1>date from the Post. They say it's going to be Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>May twenty fourth, so we figured it was going to

<v Speaker 1>be Memorial Day weekend. That's usually when double or nothing

<v Speaker 1>is held. We just didn't know if it was going

<v Speaker 1>to be Saturday or Sunday. Now we know it will

<v Speaker 1>be Sunday and Louis Armstrong Stadium. It's in the same

<v Speaker 1>tennis complex where aaw is held Grand Slams in the

<v Speaker 1>past from Arthur Ash. This is a little bit smaller,

<v Speaker 1>has a capacity of around fourteen thousand figure with a

<v Speaker 1>stage and setup. They're probably looking at maybe to max

<v Speaker 1>at around ten or eleven, which they should easily be

<v Speaker 1>able to do. And if you want tickets, they go

<v Speaker 1>on sale to the general public on Monday, March ninth,

<v Speaker 1>that is the on sale date. Let's talk about Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>from this past week. I thought it was a very

<v Speaker 1>strong show with an excellent main event, an excellent main event,

<v Speaker 1>and a big angle to close the show. Wasn't just like, oh,

<v Speaker 1>we got a great wrestling match. We actually got a

<v Speaker 1>big heel turn in a big angle to write Kenny

<v Speaker 1>Omega off television. When it was all said and done,

<v Speaker 1>Swerve Strickland and Kenny Omega they went one on one

<v Speaker 1>for the first time ever and they had a killer match,

<v Speaker 1>just a great match and Swerve won the match. At

<v Speaker 1>one point, Swerve pulled referee Aubrey Edwards in the way

<v Speaker 1>of a V trigger And yet there are still people

<v Speaker 1>out there who don't believe that this man has fully

<v Speaker 1>turned heel. He pulled Aubrey Edwards in the path of

<v Speaker 1>a Kenny Omega V trigger and she was knocked unconscious.

<v Speaker 1>But he beats Kenny Omega, and still for the people

<v Speaker 1>who don't think it was a full heel turn, that

<v Speaker 1>wasn't enough. He beat the piss out of Omega when

<v Speaker 1>the match was over, and evidently when they went off

<v Speaker 1>the air, he continued the assault until the Young Bucks

<v Speaker 1>ran out to make the save. If again, in case

<v Speaker 1>you were wondering, was this a heel turn or not?

<v Speaker 1>And the fans boot him and the fans treated it

<v Speaker 1>as such, So it was, you know, a major angle,

<v Speaker 1>but the match itself, you know, it's funny. We just

<v Speaker 1>came off the match with Tomaso Champa and Kyle Fletcher

<v Speaker 1>last week and I said, that's the best TV match

<v Speaker 1>of the year so far. Well, now we have a

<v Speaker 1>new best TV match of the year so far, which

<v Speaker 1>is Kenny Omega against Swerve Strickland. So I love what

<v Speaker 1>they did there at the end of the show, Swerve

<v Speaker 1>looked in the camera at one point after he gave

<v Speaker 1>Omega verte breaker off the steps that he had moved

<v Speaker 1>over by the announced desk, he gave him a verte

<v Speaker 1>breaker through the announced desk. He he looked dead in

<v Speaker 1>the camera and said, I needed this. I needed this, right,

<v Speaker 1>he needed to find his edge again. But think about it,

<v Speaker 1>like when they had their promo on television the week

<v Speaker 1>before and Swerves calling himself, you know, the most dangerous

<v Speaker 1>man in all of aw and Kenny laughed him off. Right,

<v Speaker 1>He looked this man dead in the face and basically said,

<v Speaker 1>now the most dangerous man in aw right now was

<v Speaker 1>rody king with a wink and a nod towards the

<v Speaker 1>chance that he gets everywhere he goes. But he basically

<v Speaker 1>laughed him off and said, no, you're not so, Swerve went,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he just went full throttle on this guy

<v Speaker 1>and just absolutely killed him to prove a point. And

<v Speaker 1>so now Kenny Omega is going to be off TV

<v Speaker 1>for a while, And the only question is for how long?

<v Speaker 1>Because it definitely felt like they're writing him off with

<v Speaker 1>the idea that he won't be a revolution that's not guaranteed.

<v Speaker 1>Now we know that he's going to be in Japan

<v Speaker 1>the week of Revolution, he is committed to I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what his role is, if he's like an MC

<v Speaker 1>or if he's playing in the tournament. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what exactly what his role is. There's some sort of

<v Speaker 1>a Capcom is having a Capcom Cup event and people

<v Speaker 1>are going to be playing I think Street Fighters six.

<v Speaker 1>But he committed to this event a long time ago,

<v Speaker 1>I think like well over a year ago, and supposedly

<v Speaker 1>they're still trying to work it out that maybe he can,

<v Speaker 1>you know, exit early and be back in time to

<v Speaker 1>get to Los Angeles for the show. But even if

<v Speaker 1>he can end up making an appearance, like, he's clearly

<v Speaker 1>not going to be able to be booked in a

<v Speaker 1>match on that show. So I'm not expecting him back

<v Speaker 1>at least until Revolution, and he's likely not going to

<v Speaker 1>be in a match on that show, So that's why

<v Speaker 1>they had to do what they did. But I think

<v Speaker 1>He'll Swerve is the best version of Swerve with that

<v Speaker 1>harder edge. I mean, you know, maybe over time he

<v Speaker 1>ends up being a tweeter, but this was a full

<v Speaker 1>on fucking heel turn that we saw on Wednesday night,

<v Speaker 1>and it's interesting and I'll talk about Hangman here in

<v Speaker 1>a second, but because you would think Hangman is certainly

<v Speaker 1>not going to be very happy about seeing Kenny Omega

<v Speaker 1>get killed by Swerve Strickland. Now, Hangman had a segment

<v Speaker 1>in the ring with MJF because we know Hangman is

<v Speaker 1>now number one contender for the AW World title that's

<v Speaker 1>going to be the match at Revolution, and they're in

<v Speaker 1>the ring together and they're cutting to promo on each

<v Speaker 1>other and MJF is saying, I hate you, I hate you,

<v Speaker 1>and Hangman says, I'm gonna really show you how serious

<v Speaker 1>I am about beating you for that championship at Revolution,

<v Speaker 1>and how confident I am. It tells MJF that if

<v Speaker 1>I cannot beat you to take back the AW World title,

<v Speaker 1>then I will never again challenge for the AW World Championship.

<v Speaker 1>He didn't say so long as you're the champion. He said, ever,

<v Speaker 1>I will never again challenge for the world title, And

<v Speaker 1>that didn't work out so well for Cody Rhodes the

<v Speaker 1>last time they tried a stipulation like this. He also

<v Speaker 1>was pitching the idea of it being a Texas Death match.

<v Speaker 1>The fans were chanting Texas Death. MJF said, give me

<v Speaker 1>a week to think over stipulation and if I agree

<v Speaker 1>to this, and even said on social media he said,

<v Speaker 1>we both pitch a stipulation. We both have to agree

<v Speaker 1>to the stipulation. Hangman has given his word that if

<v Speaker 1>we do, he will never challenge for the world title again.

<v Speaker 1>On Wednesday, we decide on the stipulation four hour match.

<v Speaker 1>They talked about Texas Death so much that it feels

<v Speaker 1>like it needs to be something else, or it needs

<v Speaker 1>to be a combination of Texas Death and something else

<v Speaker 1>for them to I mean, they're dragging it out for

<v Speaker 1>another week when again Hangman flat out demanded Texas Death

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday. So there's going to be some other little,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, hook or some kind of detour added

<v Speaker 1>here by MJF on Wednesday. But the stipulation that I'll

<v Speaker 1>never again challenge for the world title so long as

<v Speaker 1>I'm here in aw I'm not a fan of it.

<v Speaker 1>I understand why they would want to do it. It

<v Speaker 1>is a hook for the show because now you're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have people thinking fuck. I mean, there's MJF is losing

<v Speaker 1>the title. I mean, it's the only way they got

<v Speaker 1>to put the belt on Hangman. Now, you know, he's

<v Speaker 1>still he's one of the top names in the company,

<v Speaker 1>he's still relatively young. I'm sure he's still going to

<v Speaker 1>be there for many more years. Why would you box

<v Speaker 1>yourself into a position like this, especially if he's gonna lose, right,

<v Speaker 1>What do you do?

<v Speaker 2>Then?

<v Speaker 1>That there are ways around it that the easiest would

<v Speaker 1>be if he loses. The easiest would be for him

<v Speaker 1>to just go back on his word at some point

<v Speaker 1>if they ever want to turn him heel again. The

<v Speaker 1>easier way around it, which did not exist when Cody

<v Speaker 1>Rhoads was still there, would be if he loses at Revolution,

<v Speaker 1>would be to have him win the Casino Gauntlet match

<v Speaker 1>at Wembley Stadium, which would guarantee him a shot at

<v Speaker 1>the aw world title. It kind of reminds me of

<v Speaker 1>ninety three. Lex Luger went on to They completely changed

<v Speaker 1>his whole gimmick, right, he became the all He went

<v Speaker 1>from the narcissist to the all American hero. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you talk about doing a oneint eighty in terms of

<v Speaker 1>your your character or your gimmick, and they put him

<v Speaker 1>on a fucking bus and they sent him around the

<v Speaker 1>country and they built everything up with the idea that

<v Speaker 1>this man's going to win that world title at the

<v Speaker 1>Palace of Auburn Hills, at suver Slam, he's going to

<v Speaker 1>beat Yoko Zuna. And he goes in there and he

<v Speaker 1>knocks yokos Zuna unconscious out of the ring, and of

<v Speaker 1>course Yoko Zuna is big as a fucking house. No

<v Speaker 1>one's lifting him up and putting him back in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>and he gets counted out, and this fucking idiot is

<v Speaker 1>jumping up and down and celebrating, and wrestlers come out

<v Speaker 1>and put them on their shoulders, and balloons and confetti

<v Speaker 1>are falling, and even young Slabanster is watching this, going, boy,

<v Speaker 1>these people are fucking dumb. The hell are you celebrating?

<v Speaker 1>You didn't win anything. Not only that, but the stipulation

<v Speaker 1>going into the match is that Lex Luger can never

<v Speaker 1>again challenge for the WWF Championship if he does not

<v Speaker 1>win the title from Yoko Zuna. Well, he did not

<v Speaker 1>win the title from Yoko Zuna. Now the way around

<v Speaker 1>that was you have to win the Royal Rumble, which

<v Speaker 1>he did. He co won the Royal rumble with Brett Hart,

<v Speaker 1>and that's how he got a title match of WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>the following year. So in this case, you got this

<v Speaker 1>contract that now they're doing the gimmick with the casino gauntlet.

<v Speaker 1>You win the contract, you got a guaranteed title match.

<v Speaker 1>You can't cash in like money in the bank. Now

<v Speaker 1>you got to give at least a week's notice. But

<v Speaker 1>that would be the way around it, Like there are

<v Speaker 1>ways around the stipulation. Is it is not a foregone

<v Speaker 1>conclusion that, oh, this means MJF is losing his title

<v Speaker 1>at Revolution. No he's not. I don't see that happening.

<v Speaker 1>But really, what the story here should have been? And

<v Speaker 1>MJF brought this up in his promo. They had two

<v Speaker 1>matches last year. MJF lost both of those matches. He

<v Speaker 1>could not beat Hangman and it drives him absolutely nuts.

<v Speaker 1>And that's the story that even though he's the champion,

<v Speaker 1>he's coming into this match of Revolution with something to

<v Speaker 1>prove because he's got two losses that he just he

<v Speaker 1>can't shake. He has to beat this man. He knows

<v Speaker 1>he can beat this man. He's the one guy he

<v Speaker 1>could not conquer. To me, that was story enough. But

<v Speaker 1>they wanted to have a big hook for this match.

<v Speaker 1>But to go back to what I talked about before

<v Speaker 1>with Kenny and Swerve, like, who's one guy that you

<v Speaker 1>would think would have a problem with what Swerve did

<v Speaker 1>to Kenny Omega Hangman page. Now, if Hangman wins the title,

<v Speaker 1>Hangman defending against Swerve at Dynasty, that's a very appealing

<v Speaker 1>main event. But I just think it would be crazy

<v Speaker 1>to get the belt off MJF right now on the

<v Speaker 1>run that he's on, and he's still early on into

<v Speaker 1>this run. More likely, I think is that we see

<v Speaker 1>Swerve costing Hangman a win against MJF because if his

<v Speaker 1>goal is to get back the championship, he's clear in

<v Speaker 1>the deck. He already took Kenny Omega out of the picture,

<v Speaker 1>and he's got to make sure that Hangman doesn't win

<v Speaker 1>that belt back before he does. That's a lot more

<v Speaker 1>likely to me. And yes, I mean that would then

<v Speaker 1>set up a battle between two heels with MJF and Swerve.

<v Speaker 1>But I mean it's not like it can't be done,

<v Speaker 1>and it's a match we still have never gotten one

<v Speaker 1>on one. It's actually a fresh match we still haven't

<v Speaker 1>gotten MJF. And Swerve one on one. I mean, some

<v Speaker 1>people might have said the same thing about MJF and Androte.

<v Speaker 1>They wanted Androte to beat Hangman in Australia and they

<v Speaker 1>wanted him to get the shot at Revolution and they're

<v Speaker 1>still teasing it. It was wild for me to see

<v Speaker 1>footage on Collision last night from backstage at the at

<v Speaker 1>the House of Glory show with MJF searching for Andrade

<v Speaker 1>after Andrede came out during mjf's title defense against Zillaphah Too.

<v Speaker 1>He ran down the ramp. During the match, MJF was

<v Speaker 1>about to use the big burdbery belt as a weapon,

<v Speaker 1>and Andred ran down and just grabbed it. He snatched

<v Speaker 1>it right away from him and then he passed the

<v Speaker 1>belt to Zilla for Zilla to use as a weapon.

<v Speaker 1>But they're airing this on Collision last night and they

<v Speaker 1>shot that. It was funny because I went to go

<v Speaker 1>when the show was over. I went to go find

<v Speaker 1>MJF and I saw him like storming down the stairs

<v Speaker 1>and I couldn't imagine what was going on here, and

<v Speaker 1>I guess he was going to confront Andrade, so I

<v Speaker 1>kind of held back here. But he goes down the

<v Speaker 1>stairs and Andred's in the dressing room there and they're

<v Speaker 1>cutting promos on each other backstage at the NYC Arena.

<v Speaker 1>And this is what aired on TNT last night. That

<v Speaker 1>was wild to see. But Androdi said, I still have

<v Speaker 1>my sight set on that title, and I said this

<v Speaker 1>on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show on Tuesday, and I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>it on TNT as well. That should be the Grand

<v Speaker 1>Slam Mexico match in a few months, because I know

<v Speaker 1>they're planning on going back to Arena Mexico. I presume

<v Speaker 1>that would be in June. That's what they did last year.

<v Speaker 1>They're going back to Arena Mexico and they're doing a

<v Speaker 1>big show down there, and assuming MJF is still the champion,

<v Speaker 1>that is the best place to be doing that match

<v Speaker 1>in my opinion, not Revolution, So I like that they

<v Speaker 1>have different options here for where to go with all

<v Speaker 1>of this coming out of that pay per view. Is

<v Speaker 1>the plan to do MJF and Kenny at double or

<v Speaker 1>nothing or is Kenny the longer term plan for all

<v Speaker 1>in Wembley in case will Osprey is not cleared in

<v Speaker 1>time to take part in the o in for a

<v Speaker 1>shot at the title. We're seeing these weekly will Ospray vignettes,

<v Speaker 1>which I don't know that they would be running them

<v Speaker 1>unless they had a sense that he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>back soon. But it still seems kind of early to me,

<v Speaker 1>so I don't know. I don't know. I mean, if

<v Speaker 1>they're planning something big for him at all In, then

<v Speaker 1>I would hope and assume they have some sense that

<v Speaker 1>he's going to be medically cleared a lot sooner than

<v Speaker 1>that because the Owen. Trying to think, when did the

<v Speaker 1>Owen start last year? All In last year was in July.

<v Speaker 1>This year it's in August, so the Owen would have

<v Speaker 1>started in May, right late May or early June. So

<v Speaker 1>the Owen probably this year wouldn't be starting until mid

<v Speaker 1>mid to late June. So I mean, there's time. There's

<v Speaker 1>time if you want Osprey back to be in the Owen.

<v Speaker 1>They had a TVs title four away with Willow Nightingale

<v Speaker 1>retaining over Meghan Bain and oh gosh, who else was

<v Speaker 1>in the match? Meghan Bain? I just blanked on who

<v Speaker 1>the other two people were. Mina Sirkawa, hold on a second,

<v Speaker 1>and Marina Shafir. There you go. I just had a

<v Speaker 1>brain fart there. I thought it was a fun match,

<v Speaker 1>and I thought Meghan Bain was the one who came

<v Speaker 1>out of it looking the strongest, and she didn't take

<v Speaker 1>the losing fall. Mina did big surprise, I know, but

<v Speaker 1>I thought that Meghan bane was positioned well to get

<v Speaker 1>a single shot next. I think that might be the

<v Speaker 1>Revolution match. If it's me, that is the Revolution match,

<v Speaker 1>and I put the belt on Meghan Bain. Bain got

<v Speaker 1>a quick squashwaing over Beca on Collision last night, John

<v Speaker 1>Moxley and Kenoski Takeshta. It is confirmed they will have

<v Speaker 1>a rematch for the Continental title at Revolution, but this

<v Speaker 1>time there will be no time limit, and I've said

<v Speaker 1>I think that there should be a title change in

<v Speaker 1>that match, and you begin to build to the eventual

<v Speaker 1>match with Okada Champion against Champion title for title to

<v Speaker 1>unify those two titles again. You got to get back

<v Speaker 1>to that story. We got to get back to Takeshia

<v Speaker 1>and Okata soon FTR and the Young Bucks. We now

<v Speaker 1>know it is confirmed they will be meeting for the

<v Speaker 1>aw World Tag team titles at Revolution. This will be

<v Speaker 1>the first time on TOO that these teams are wrestling

<v Speaker 1>each other since Dynasty two years ago, so at least

<v Speaker 1>there's been some distance there. It's honestly, it's not a

<v Speaker 1>match that I would like to see, just because we've

<v Speaker 1>seen it so many times before. But there's been no

<v Speaker 1>other clear team that's really been built up and established

<v Speaker 1>for this spot right now. And they've lost a few

<v Speaker 1>teams due to injury right including the Hurt Syndicate, Jurassic Express,

<v Speaker 1>Mark Davis and Jake Doyle just got put together and

<v Speaker 1>they're done now because Doyle's out with an injury, So

<v Speaker 1>they've lost a few teams now. In collision. Last night,

<v Speaker 1>the Rascals did beat FTR in an eliminator match, which

<v Speaker 1>puts them in contention now for the titles. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know that in all the times that AAW has done

<v Speaker 1>these fucking eliminator matches, has there ever been a time

<v Speaker 1>where a challenger won the eliminator match and then went

<v Speaker 1>on to get their rematch and actually won. I'm almost

<v Speaker 1>positive that in every single instance, if they've won an eliminator,

<v Speaker 1>they've lost in the actual title match. I don't think

<v Speaker 1>it's happened the other way around. But the Rascals did win,

<v Speaker 1>and this puts them in contention now for the titles.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if the plan is to add them

<v Speaker 1>to the match at Revolution, I wouldn't think so, but

<v Speaker 1>they're in the mix now. And at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the show last night on Collision, they shot a big

<v Speaker 1>angle where FTR was actually wrestling the Rascals. They lost

<v Speaker 1>Gates of Agony and Ricochet ran out to attack the

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks, and FTR turned their attention to the Young

<v Speaker 1>Bucks family. At ringside, the Jackson family were in the

<v Speaker 1>front row and they proceeded to Actually it was Stokely

<v Speaker 1>Hathaway in his wheelchair who threw powder at Papa Buck,

<v Speaker 1>the Young Buck's father. And I don't know if you

<v Speaker 1>noticed this, but Papa Buck he spat right in Stokely's eye. Disgusting,

<v Speaker 1>but yeah, he got some powder to the face. And

<v Speaker 1>then they grabbed the Young Buck's younger brother. Malachi, if

<v Speaker 1>you would have stood this guy in a lineup with

<v Speaker 1>twenty other people and told me to pick out the

<v Speaker 1>guy who I think is the Young Buck's younger brother,

<v Speaker 1>and you put a gun to my head and says

<v Speaker 1>you better make the right choice. We're gonna give you

<v Speaker 1>five chances here. I'd be dead right now. There's no

<v Speaker 1>fucking way I would have picked this guy out of

<v Speaker 1>a lineup, but apparently he's their younger brother, and they

<v Speaker 1>dragged him over the barricade and they dragged him into

<v Speaker 1>the ring and they proceeded to give brother Buck a

<v Speaker 1>spike pile driver. So, like they did with Beth Phoenix

<v Speaker 1>months ago, they back to FTR attacking family members to

<v Speaker 1>put more heat on the angle. The only difference between

<v Speaker 1>that and this is that we're actually getting the fucking

<v Speaker 1>match here. Thunder Rosa was back on Dynamite and a

<v Speaker 1>backstage segment with Chris Statlander and they were being interviewed

<v Speaker 1>by Renee and Statlander mentioned that she's still not clear

<v Speaker 1>to wrestle for a few weeks, but she's coming for

<v Speaker 1>Tecla and Rosa said, well, I am cleared. I'm officially

<v Speaker 1>cleared as of today, and I don't like what's been

<v Speaker 1>happening to you. And she said that she wanted a match,

<v Speaker 1>and Statlander warned her of what Tecla is capable of,

<v Speaker 1>so on Collision, Rosa worked her first match since the

<v Speaker 1>Casino Gauntlet at all In Texas that was back in

<v Speaker 1>July and it was a singles went over Julia Hart

<v Speaker 1>from the Triangle of madness. She had been out dealing

<v Speaker 1>with an unspecified injury, and then I know she publicly

<v Speaker 1>mentioned that she and her husband of fourteen years they

<v Speaker 1>split in November, so she's obviously been dealing with some stuff.

<v Speaker 1>But she opened up in an interview that she gave

<v Speaker 1>on Off the Ropes on Busted Open Radio about not

<v Speaker 1>being sure if she would ever wrestle again and come

<v Speaker 1>back from this injury. She said, this is going to

<v Speaker 1>be the second time that I had been gone for

<v Speaker 1>a long period of time. I've been out for eight months.

<v Speaker 1>Physical therapy was key for me to come back, and

<v Speaker 1>the way that I came back, and it was rough,

<v Speaker 1>and just the fact that I had to take smaller

<v Speaker 1>steps to even do simple things. It took me a

<v Speaker 1>while and it was very scary. Everything that I'm doing,

<v Speaker 1>I'm doing to prove to myself that I still got it,

<v Speaker 1>that I deserved this spot. But I get an opportunity again.

<v Speaker 1>Life gives me an opportunity again to do something that

<v Speaker 1>I have worked so hard for the last twelve years.

<v Speaker 1>It's important not to give up, especially during dark times,

<v Speaker 1>because this injury believed me. It was dark. There were

<v Speaker 1>some moments that I was like, I'm probably never going

<v Speaker 1>to wrestle again. And again she didn't reveal what the

<v Speaker 1>injury is. I know she had a very serious back

<v Speaker 1>injury a number of years ago, and here, you know

<v Speaker 1>she's talking about taking small steps and stuff. I mean

<v Speaker 1>that screams back injury to me. But again she didn't

<v Speaker 1>specify what the injury was. But it was good to

<v Speaker 1>see her back on TV. You know, she's a former

<v Speaker 1>world champion. There, she was in the mix for a

<v Speaker 1>little while and then they kind of phased her down.

<v Speaker 1>But I know she's been through a lot of injury

<v Speaker 1>woes and so getting her back, it's just it's another

<v Speaker 1>face to add to a division that is pretty stacked

<v Speaker 1>right now. You know, when you look up and down

<v Speaker 1>the women's division that they have, it is a very

<v Speaker 1>strong division. I mean, not everybody is being utilized or

<v Speaker 1>utilized maybe in the way they should be, but they

<v Speaker 1>have no shortage of talent right now in the aw

<v Speaker 1>women's division. Let's take some quick mailbag questions. You can

<v Speaker 1>email me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com. Please

<v Speaker 1>include your name of where you are from when you

<v Speaker 1>write in Taylor and Sacramento. I'll bet the weather in

<v Speaker 1>Sacramento is a hell of a lot better than it

<v Speaker 1>is in New York right now, because I know kfab

<v Speaker 1>is dead, but AW can be such an incredibly frustrating

<v Speaker 1>company to watch. It was at Dynamite and Sacramento Omega

<v Speaker 1>versus Swerve was fun and I enjoyed the heel turn.

<v Speaker 1>After the young Bucks run off Swerve, they helped Kenny

<v Speaker 1>into the ring. Kenny is sitting there. He had just

<v Speaker 1>been in a grueling match, choked with a chain vertebraker

<v Speaker 1>through a table, killed, no medical staff around. What does

<v Speaker 1>Matt Jackson says? Kenny sits there he is glad to

<v Speaker 1>be a good guy again so that he could talk

<v Speaker 1>to the crowd nicely and say he loves us. I

<v Speaker 1>can't believe it. Can we just have a little k

<v Speaker 1>fabe please? Then Kenny takes the mic, saying that he

<v Speaker 1>wasn't planning on standing here or sitting here like this

<v Speaker 1>after the match tonight, and the crowd laps. I try

<v Speaker 1>not to roll my eyes out of my head. I

<v Speaker 1>really don't know how AW expects people to care about

<v Speaker 1>their show when they don't even seem to care about

<v Speaker 1>their own big angles. If this writes Kenny off TV,

<v Speaker 1>then it will be confirmed that paying actual money to

<v Speaker 1>see their show live is a bad decision if you

<v Speaker 1>actually want to be invested in their product, character stories

<v Speaker 1>in Magic, Well, I got news for you, brother, k

<v Speaker 1>Fabe died a long time ago. This sort of thing.

<v Speaker 1>If this happened on TV, then of course, like that

<v Speaker 1>would be the dumbest thing in the world. They did

<v Speaker 1>it off the air, and they wanted them to go

<v Speaker 1>out there and pop the crowd right and give the

<v Speaker 1>fans you what they wanted to see. So yeah, I

<v Speaker 1>would probably roll my eyes in my head too, But

<v Speaker 1>it happened off the air, Like, no one on television

<v Speaker 1>is gonna see any of that. The last image they

<v Speaker 1>had was Swerve Strickland killing Kenny Omega through a table.

<v Speaker 1>And what happens after the show when the live cameras

<v Speaker 1>stop rolling to them, It doesn't matter. It's for the

<v Speaker 1>live house. You know. They're trying to send the fans

<v Speaker 1>home happy after they just saw Kenny Omega killed. So

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I get your point, but like, I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>just something like that doesn't bother me as much as

<v Speaker 1>if they did shit like this on TV. Like when

<v Speaker 1>you have promos, people cut promos on TV and they

<v Speaker 1>use inside terms like heel or baby face like that.

<v Speaker 1>That drives me fucking nuts. You know, supposed to be

<v Speaker 1>a good guy, supposed to be a bad guy, you know, like,

<v Speaker 1>don't talk about that shit on TV. That kind of

<v Speaker 1>stuff just drives me nuts. Stuff like this off the

<v Speaker 1>air when the show is over, there isn't a single

<v Speaker 1>person who bought a ticket to go to that show

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday. Who's gonna see Kenny Omega and Matt Jackson

<v Speaker 1>or Nick Jackson cutting promos and talking about being good

<v Speaker 1>guys and bad guys and say, you know what, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not coming to the show next time. Like I guarantee

<v Speaker 1>you the aw audience they are, they're gonna be first

<v Speaker 1>in line to buy tickets to that. And Tony knows that.

<v Speaker 1>So I mean, to me, I get your point, but

<v Speaker 1>to me, it's not a big deal. Eric from Los

<v Speaker 1>Angeles has been a fan since the early fifties episodes

<v Speaker 1>and just for some perspective here we are now in

<v Speaker 1>the nine fifties, so he's been with me for a while, says,

<v Speaker 1>I'm a big Stephanie Vquer fan. That being said, do

<v Speaker 1>you think WWE made a mistake by not putting the

<v Speaker 1>world title on Raquel then having Live pick Raquel for

<v Speaker 1>a world title match of WrestleMania. No, I think that

<v Speaker 1>would have actually been a bad idea because you're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have Raquel, who's a heel, win the title, and then

<v Speaker 1>have Lived, who's a heel, challenge her for the Championship

<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania. Like that's first of all, that's not doesn't

<v Speaker 1>scream like Marquis WrestleMania title match, But like, why would

<v Speaker 1>you do that? Why would you? I don't understand why

<v Speaker 1>you wouldn't want to have a babyface in that match,

<v Speaker 1>Like it should be Stephanie or Rhea or somebody in

<v Speaker 1>the Ekadurrihea because we've already seen Rhea and Live so much.

<v Speaker 1>But no, I mean, Lookie, Stephanie's run on the main

<v Speaker 1>roster has been very disappointing. She had a really good

<v Speaker 1>match with EO right when she I guess won the championship,

<v Speaker 1>and I can't think of a single thing she's said

<v Speaker 1>or done otherwise that really stands out to me. Since

<v Speaker 1>she's been up on the main roster outside of the

<v Speaker 1>one really good match she had with EO, that's about it.

<v Speaker 1>Like I look at what she was doing in NXT,

<v Speaker 1>and then I look at the way that she's been

<v Speaker 1>booked on TV, and it's like night and day. It's

<v Speaker 1>been very very disappointing, very very underwhelming, And I actually

<v Speaker 1>do think they need to get the belt off of

<v Speaker 1>her as soon. Probably at WrestleMania they'll take it off

<v Speaker 1>of her, but that's still the right match to do.

<v Speaker 1>You don't do live in Raquel's the WrestleMania match. I

<v Speaker 1>think that'd be a mistake. And Malachi from Northeast Philly.

<v Speaker 1>Over the years, I've noticed a pattern in WWE. Once

<v Speaker 1>Vince would lock on his top baby face, it's almost

<v Speaker 1>impossible for another one to truly get a turn. We

<v Speaker 1>saw it with Hogan, Sina Roman, and now Cody. That

<v Speaker 1>got me thinking about Cain. In two thousand, when Cain

<v Speaker 1>returned with Paul Bahar, he felt like pure money. He

<v Speaker 1>was a badass, dominant and had an aura that felt

<v Speaker 1>different from everyone else. But Steve Austin still had the

<v Speaker 1>top spot in a chokehold. If you were the booker,

<v Speaker 1>could that version of Cain have been a real draw

<v Speaker 1>in a true top guy? Curious to hear your thoughts

<v Speaker 1>on whether Caine ever truly had a ceiling or if

<v Speaker 1>it was always going to be limited by who Vince

<v Speaker 1>had already chosen. You know, that version of Kin when

<v Speaker 1>he came back in early two thousand was fucking amazing.

<v Speaker 1>Like I mean, the guy that was probably physically the

<v Speaker 1>best shape that I've ever seen him in, and he

<v Speaker 1>still had the old school mask that the coloring was

<v Speaker 1>a little bit different, but he was He still looked

<v Speaker 1>like old school original Cain, but he had updated the

<v Speaker 1>look enough to where at least he made kind of

<v Speaker 1>freshened it up a little bit and made a change

<v Speaker 1>to it. But he would go out there in the

<v Speaker 1>one handed choke slams and he was laying waste to guys.

<v Speaker 1>Remember Tombstone Tory and all that stuff. He was super over,

<v Speaker 1>but he was not Steve Austin or the Rock. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he still had a mask on, and I don't remember

<v Speaker 1>at that point if he was actually cutting promos through

<v Speaker 1>the mask or if he was still like ah, I

<v Speaker 1>don't remember, but he wasn't Stone Cold, he wasn't the Rock.

<v Speaker 1>He was never going to be like the top guy

<v Speaker 1>you mentioned Cody and Roman like that was never going

<v Speaker 1>to be Kane Cain was always going to be a

<v Speaker 1>supporting player, but you asked, like, what was his ceiling?

<v Speaker 1>He could have been a world champion for an extended

<v Speaker 1>period of time, not just twenty four hours. And even

<v Speaker 1>if you go to two thousand and three when the

<v Speaker 1>mask came off and then we had bald Kine who

<v Speaker 1>was like let out of the back of an end

<v Speaker 1>mulence and chains that version of Kane also you could

<v Speaker 1>have absolutely made him a world change. Like a dominant

<v Speaker 1>world champion for a period of time is a heel

<v Speaker 1>until the big baby face takes the title from him.

<v Speaker 1>But in two thousand, like there was a reason why

<v Speaker 1>Austin and Rock and those guys were on top because

<v Speaker 1>they were draws. Kane was not a draw the way

<v Speaker 1>that those guys were. Could he have been. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think he would have been drawn the way Rock and

<v Speaker 1>Austin were, and because they would go out there and

<v Speaker 1>cut promos and stuff. It's just the character that he

<v Speaker 1>was portraying. He would always be, or he could have

<v Speaker 1>been as champion, that guy at the top that Austin

<v Speaker 1>and Rock would have to chase to get the belt back.

<v Speaker 1>He was never going to be the number one guy.

<v Speaker 1>To answer your question, but he should have been in

<v Speaker 1>that top mix for a long time, and again he

<v Speaker 1>could have had a title run. And yeah, absolutely, but

<v Speaker 1>remember in two thousand they were building up triple h

<v Speaker 1>as like the new dominant heel in the company, and

<v Speaker 1>we didn't we have multiple championships. We had one World

<v Speaker 1>champion and then the Intercontinental champion, the tag team champion,

<v Speaker 1>maybe the European champion. If that character had come along

<v Speaker 1>today where we have a WWE title and we have

<v Speaker 1>a World heavyweight title, then you put the World Heavyweight

<v Speaker 1>title on Kane right or one or the other. But

<v Speaker 1>back then you didn't have that, so you had a

<v Speaker 1>very limited number of spots open as far as the

<v Speaker 1>competition was concerned for that championship, it's just a product

<v Speaker 1>of his time. But could they have done more with

<v Speaker 1>him in that spot or put a belt on him? Absolutely,

<v Speaker 1>I mean that guy was super fucking over. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>go back and look at that return. I always point

<v Speaker 1>that match out. It was a ten man tag at

<v Speaker 1>Reunion Arena in Dallas. It was February seven, two thousand,

<v Speaker 1>I'm almost positive that's the date, and it was Rock

<v Speaker 1>and Cactus jacking too Cool against Triple h and the Radicals,

<v Speaker 1>and that was the night Paul Bear walked out in

<v Speaker 1>that red suit. He looked slim, and Caine came out

<v Speaker 1>and fucking choke slammed everybody and like, my god, like

<v Speaker 1>look at this guy. He's a monster. But people loved

<v Speaker 1>it and they were cheering for him, so you know

<v Speaker 1>that he could have been a much bigger attraction. But

<v Speaker 1>he was never going to be. He was never going

<v Speaker 1>to be Austin or Rock. He was never going to

<v Speaker 1>be the guy, the top babyface that the ceiling was.

<v Speaker 1>He would never be that. But he could have been

<v Speaker 1>champion anyway. Keep emailing me the Solo Monster at gmail

<v Speaker 1>dot com. Don't forget a brand new installment of The

<v Speaker 1>Uncrowned Wrestling Show is coming your way on Tuesday evening.

<v Speaker 1>Make sure you are subbed to the Aeriel Helwani show feed.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not talking about YouTube. I'm talking about the podcast feed.

<v Speaker 1>That is where the show is going to drop. You'll

<v Speaker 1>see the Survivor series old school style logo and you'll

<v Speaker 1>know that it's wrestling time and you guys can tune

<v Speaker 1>in and support. I want that to be the biggest

<v Speaker 1>show on the network. We'll talk about all the wrestling

<v Speaker 1>news of the week and some stuff that I did

<v Speaker 1>not cover here on the Sound of Today, and whatever

<v Speaker 1>happens on Raw tomorrow night, I can't talk about it

<v Speaker 1>because it hasn't happened yet. So we'll see if my

<v Speaker 1>predictions shift for Elimination Chamber, and I'm going to take

<v Speaker 1>more of your questions on that show as well. So again,

<v Speaker 1>Uncrowned Episode three is coming up on Tuesday. I will

<v Speaker 1>be live on YouTube all the usual nights Monday night,

<v Speaker 1>Wednesday night, Friday night, Saturday night next weekend for the

<v Speaker 1>Elimination Chamber. Tuesday night over on JD's channel, we'll have

<v Speaker 1>our live installment of Tuesday Night Titans. So you got

<v Speaker 1>a lot of content coming your way this week, and

<v Speaker 1>I just want to remind everybody I am trying to

<v Speaker 1>be and going to be more active with the shorts content,

<v Speaker 1>not just on YouTube, but on TikTok. I am on TikTok,

<v Speaker 1>so follow me on there at solom Monster. Sounds Off

<v Speaker 1>is my handle, so go follow me on there, thus,

<v Speaker 1>solom Monster on Instagram, at solom Monster on x those

<v Speaker 1>are all the places to go, you guys know. And

<v Speaker 1>I'll be back next Sunday. That's going to be I

<v Speaker 1>guess what was that March first? I think that might

<v Speaker 1>be the first March episode. I just forget February is

<v Speaker 1>the shortest month on the calendar. But next Sunday will

<v Speaker 1>be episode nine fifty of the Solo Monster sounds off,

<v Speaker 1>and we should have a lot to discuss coming out

<v Speaker 1>of the chamber and coming out of the crate. We

<v Speaker 1>will find out what comes out of the crate. So

<v Speaker 1>be well, stay safe if you are in New York

<v Speaker 1>or the East coast, if you're going to be affected

<v Speaker 1>by this storm that is about to barrel in here,

<v Speaker 1>stay safe. This is not going to be fun. I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to be stranded here probably for the entire week.

<v Speaker 1>But wherever you may be, be safe and I'll see

<v Speaker 1>you back here next Sunday. Until then, take care, guys.

<v Speaker 1>The solomn Monster sounds off. Backstage, we had Fraxium and

<v Speaker 1>the MotorCity machine guns. Holy shit, they live. So they're

<v Speaker 1>walking along backstage and Candice Lare approaches that. She said,

<v Speaker 1>look at what happened to Johnny, And we see Johnny Gargano.

<v Speaker 1>He is lying face down on top of a box

<v Speaker 1>that has marked NXT I want you to imagine flying

<v Speaker 1>all the way to work and you get there and

<v Speaker 1>you find out, okay, boss, what am I doing tonight?

<v Speaker 1>And your job after flying all the way in here

<v Speaker 1>is to lay face down on top of a box

<v Speaker 1>for two minutes and say nothing. I don't even think

<v Speaker 1>he'd blink. He looked catatonic as he was laying there.

<v Speaker 1>And that's it. That's all he did on this show.

<v Speaker 1>That was his only task today, fly into work and

<v Speaker 1>lay on top of a box. I mean, look, I

<v Speaker 1>guess it's not bad work if you can get it.

<v Speaker 2>The Solo Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,

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<v Speaker 1>I love you so long.