<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.

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

<v Speaker 1>Come over here? Is that Pet Patterson? You have legs?

<v Speaker 1>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 you won't Park.

<v Speaker 1>TKO announced this week that last year, WWE's gross earnings

<v Speaker 1>were over one point seven billion dollars as compared to

<v Speaker 1>UFC at one point five billion, which means that for

<v Speaker 1>the first time since the two merged under TKO, WWE

<v Speaker 1>generated more in annual revenue than UFC. Yet you have

<v Speaker 1>reports of WWE panicking that they're not selling WrestleMania tickets

<v Speaker 1>fast enough, and they're not. They're not selling as fast

<v Speaker 1>as they did last year. I don't know that they

<v Speaker 1>did anything last night to spur on those ticket sales.

<v Speaker 1>Elimination Chamber was not a great show. We'll talk about that.

<v Speaker 1>By the way, UFC fifty seven percent profit margin on

<v Speaker 1>that one point five billion. I don't know what all

<v Speaker 1>those fighters are making, but whatever it is, I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>it's not enough. This is episode nine fifty three of

<v Speaker 1>The Solemn Monster Sounds Off or Sunday, March first, twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty six. My god, wasn't it March first last year

<v Speaker 1>when we had the Elimination Chamber and John Cena stood

<v Speaker 1>shoulder to shoulder with the Rock and everybody was so

<v Speaker 1>excited at the end of that show. Has it really

<v Speaker 1>been a year? It's hard to believe. You'd like to

<v Speaker 1>show some love and send a PayPal donation. It's always

<v Speaker 1>appreciated The Solomn Monster At gmail dot com. You can

<v Speaker 1>get yourself a shout out and a nickname, wrestling nickname,

<v Speaker 1>ten dollars or more. Here on the show, I want

<v Speaker 1>to say thank you to our PayPal producers for this week,

<v Speaker 1>including Big B Bryant Bessara, The Portland Pop Star, Paul Hamilton,

<v Speaker 1>The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soepp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,

<v Speaker 1>Iowan Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfear, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichord,

<v Speaker 1>Big Time, Boris Vaineman, Knight Stalker and if Al Safar Killshot,

<v Speaker 1>Keith Hart and Just Joe Joe Guy, what's going on, Joe?

<v Speaker 1>Thanks for the love and bad ass. Bernard Frederick. I'm

<v Speaker 1>glad you got to be there for the AJ Styles

<v Speaker 1>tribute on Monday. We'll be talking about that as well.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry they didn't give you a better show. Atlanta

<v Speaker 1>deserved better and shout out to you. Shin super Kick

<v Speaker 1>Akuma and his girlfriend Chris from Bethlehem told me that

<v Speaker 1>she celebrated a birthday on Monday, so happy birthday to her.

<v Speaker 1>Got some fun news to drop on you here. You

<v Speaker 1>might have seen this on Twitter. But House of Glory obviously,

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to be in Chicago this upcoming Friday. We

<v Speaker 1>have our Turf Wars event back at Logan Square Auditorium,

<v Speaker 1>where we are just about sold out. There's some limited

<v Speaker 1>standing room only available if you want to snatch up

<v Speaker 1>whatever's left to that. That is going to be a

<v Speaker 1>fun show, as they always are in Chicago, and I

<v Speaker 1>always enjoy meeting you guys. Hopefully I will see some

<v Speaker 1>of you there again at Logan Square. But we also

<v Speaker 1>announced that House of Glory is coming to Sin City

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania weekend this year. Yeah, so WrestleMania week I should

<v Speaker 1>say WrestleMania forty two, of course, is at Allegiant Stadium

<v Speaker 1>in Las Vegas. That's on Saturday and Sunday. But on Thursday,

<v Speaker 1>April sixteenth, HHOG is coming to the famous Pearl Theater

<v Speaker 1>inside the Palms Casino Resort as part of a multi

<v Speaker 1>promotional event that kicks off on Thursday, April sixteen, Tokyo

<v Speaker 1>Joshi Pro is going to have a live show from

<v Speaker 1>eleven am Local time until one fifteen pm. CMLL is

<v Speaker 1>going to be which is of course on this incredible

<v Speaker 1>business run of its own right now. CMLL is going

<v Speaker 1>to be running an event from three pm until five

<v Speaker 1>thirty pm, and then when they clear out, House of

<v Speaker 1>Glory gets the evening slot and we've got our own

<v Speaker 1>show from eight pm to eleven pm. And then on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>April seventeenth, Tokyo Joshi Pro will have a fan fest

<v Speaker 1>meet and greet Stardom will have a live wrestling show

<v Speaker 1>I believe at three o'clock, and then Maple Leaf Pro,

<v Speaker 1>which is Scott Demorris Promotion, we'll close the night. That's

<v Speaker 1>on Friday from nine to eleven thirty. So the Hog

<v Speaker 1>Show is going to be on Thursday. I will be there.

<v Speaker 1>I should probably be booking my travel, which is something

<v Speaker 1>I'll have to I'll have to put that on my

<v Speaker 1>list to do. Otherwise I will not be there. But

<v Speaker 1>I am looking forward to being there. That's going to

<v Speaker 1>be a fun time. And then I'll get to zip

<v Speaker 1>on back that Friday so I can come back here

<v Speaker 1>because we got a very busy weekend with WrestleMania coverage.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, just go on the Twitter. I put up

<v Speaker 1>a poster and a ticket link and you could buy

<v Speaker 1>tickets to the show. Tickets are already on sale for

<v Speaker 1>that if you are coming into town and you are

<v Speaker 1>going to be in town early enough, and I think

<v Speaker 1>by Thursday most people will probably already be in town.

<v Speaker 1>If you're not already occupied at another wrestling show, I

<v Speaker 1>know there's a lot of them that weekend. This is

<v Speaker 1>a good opportunity to check out Hog and stop buying

<v Speaker 1>and say hello. So that's going to be fun. You know.

<v Speaker 1>The last few years have largely come up aces when

<v Speaker 1>it comes to the elimination Chamber. I thought last year's

<v Speaker 1>was one of the best shows all year, best women's

<v Speaker 1>chamber they've ever done, in my opinion, and we had

<v Speaker 1>a strong men's chamber match that John Cena one. We

<v Speaker 1>also had that great Kevin Oh and Sammy Zain unsanctioned

<v Speaker 1>match and the John Cena heel turn, which in the

<v Speaker 1>moment was great. Right, it was a great show. Twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty four I enjoyed both chambers. Twenty twenty three had

<v Speaker 1>an excellent men's chamber for the United States Championship and

<v Speaker 1>a very good women's chamber as well, So I'm usually

<v Speaker 1>very favorable to these shows. Well, that streak has come

<v Speaker 1>to an end. I was not a fan of the

<v Speaker 1>elimination Chamber show last night. It was a very paint

<v Speaker 1>by number show, half of which it felt like was

<v Speaker 1>taken up just by the entrances for the chamber matches themselves,

<v Speaker 1>with as quiet a Chicago crowd as I have ever

<v Speaker 1>seen for a wrestling show in the Windy City. And again,

<v Speaker 1>I like Chicago. I'm going to be there myself on Friday.

<v Speaker 1>But for their first event back in the United Center

<v Speaker 1>in many years, it sure didn't feel like a very

<v Speaker 1>big deal, although they did set their second biggest arena

<v Speaker 1>gate ever in company history. That's what Ciampunk said on

<v Speaker 1>the post show, still waving their dick around and the

<v Speaker 1>fans faces about those gate records, and so many of

<v Speaker 1>them are just too naive to even know what that means.

<v Speaker 1>It's very talenting. I thought that Paul Avec never went

<v Speaker 1>out to do the post show panel in front of

<v Speaker 1>the fans like he usually does when the show is over.

<v Speaker 1>He instead he talked to Jackie Redmond at the gorilla

<v Speaker 1>position backstage, hidden away from the fans, very telling. Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton and Rhea Ripley are going to WrestleMania, and those

<v Speaker 1>decisions both of them I actually agree with and I'm

<v Speaker 1>fine with. And the women's chamber match was good. It

<v Speaker 1>was not as good or as memorable as last year's match,

<v Speaker 1>but it was still the better of the two chambers

<v Speaker 1>this year. The men's elimination chamber was not good. The

<v Speaker 1>men's elimination Chamber match was among the most boring and

<v Speaker 1>heatless that I have ever seen up until I would

<v Speaker 1>say the last sixty seconds or so, maybe ninety seconds,

<v Speaker 1>if we're being generous in a twenty five minute match.

<v Speaker 1>That's not a good thing. Now, I can't sit here

<v Speaker 1>and tell you that it was worse than the elimination

<v Speaker 1>chamber from the infamous December to Dismember show in two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and six, or that terrible Intercontinental title one from

<v Speaker 1>twenty fifteen, or even the one that Shana Basler won

<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty. But this one is going to rank

<v Speaker 1>near the bottom of the list. Just a whole bunch

<v Speaker 1>of nothing until the fourth Man came in and at

<v Speaker 1>least then things started actually happening in the match. Nothing

<v Speaker 1>terribly good, but at least things started happening. We got

<v Speaker 1>some action at that point. And to be honest with you,

<v Speaker 1>I was thinking about this. You know, this is one

<v Speaker 1>of those years where I wish they did not do

<v Speaker 1>the elimination Chamber every year. I wish that they did

<v Speaker 1>not have an elimination chamber pl e and it wasn't

<v Speaker 1>just an annual Okay, you know, it's on the roads

<v Speaker 1>to WrestleMania, it's time to do the elimination Chamber. And

<v Speaker 1>like Helena sel I wish this one time that it

<v Speaker 1>was one of those gimmicks that they reserved exclusively for

<v Speaker 1>when there felt like there was a real need for it.

<v Speaker 1>Because heading into WrestleMania right now, the WWE title scene

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown feels busier than it's been in a very

<v Speaker 1>long time, and that's a good thing. You know. You've

<v Speaker 1>got Drew McIntyre running around screwing people left and right

<v Speaker 1>like a dog in heat. Cody Rhoades is trying to

<v Speaker 1>get his belt back. Jacob fought Too is getting screwed

<v Speaker 1>over as well. Randy Orton is trying to win his

<v Speaker 1>fifteenth world title. Sammy Zan is trying to win a

<v Speaker 1>world title for the first time and he just can't

<v Speaker 1>do it. If the chamber wasn't a regular thing, this

<v Speaker 1>would be the perfect time for a chamber match at WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>with Drew defending against everybody. That's the only way I

<v Speaker 1>would accept a match with five or six guys and

<v Speaker 1>wrestle media for the title. Otherwise, I don't really have

<v Speaker 1>any desire to see a six pack challenge or any

<v Speaker 1>nonsense like that. But we also on this show last

<v Speaker 1>night we had the big Mystery Create reveal. We've seen

<v Speaker 1>this crate on television now for a couple of weeks. Right,

<v Speaker 1>do not open until you get to the elimination chamber,

<v Speaker 1>And it became pretty clear over the past week especially

<v Speaker 1>that probably was not going to be the debut of

<v Speaker 1>some big name or the return of some real big

<v Speaker 1>name performer, and Dan Housen is the name that everybody

<v Speaker 1>has been talking about. And it made sense because you know, reportedly,

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen's contract with AW was set to expire this

<v Speaker 1>month and he was going to be a free man.

<v Speaker 1>And it's a silly gimmick, the crate that is, but

<v Speaker 1>so it was Dan Housen, and so it kind of

<v Speaker 1>made sense that he would be tied into this in

<v Speaker 1>some way. And then late Friday, early Saturday morning, all

<v Speaker 1>of a sudden, dan Hausen's bio disappeared from the from

<v Speaker 1>the AW roster page, which cleared the way for him

<v Speaker 1>to debut last night. And in fact it was dan

<v Speaker 1>Hausen in about six or eight women dressed like Dan Hausen,

<v Speaker 1>the Dan Housen dancers, who came out of the actually

<v Speaker 1>out of a coffin that was inside the crew. It's

<v Speaker 1>like one of these Russian tea dolls where it's like

<v Speaker 1>a fucking crate, a crate, and they all came out

<v Speaker 1>and they all danced to the ring. As dan Housen

<v Speaker 1>walked to the ring, he had his jar of teeth.

<v Speaker 1>Michael Cole had no idea what to make of any

<v Speaker 1>of this, and then he literally disappeared into a plume

<v Speaker 1>of smoke and that was the end of that. And

<v Speaker 1>this is a debut that will be up there with

<v Speaker 1>the likes of the Gobbledee Gooker and Tito Ortiz as

<v Speaker 1>the August first warning in TNA that is not good

<v Speaker 1>company to be in. They booed Dan Housen in Chicago.

<v Speaker 1>It sounded like there was maybe a light pot for

<v Speaker 1>him when he initially came out, and some people recognize

<v Speaker 1>who he was not a whole lot, but then he

<v Speaker 1>did absolutely nothing right. You had a look. You have

<v Speaker 1>to look at this and understand that the majority of

<v Speaker 1>the people in the building last night probably had no

<v Speaker 1>fucking idea who Dan Housen was. That's part of the problem. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>most people didn't know who he was, and the people

<v Speaker 1>who did were not hoping for dan Housen to be

<v Speaker 1>the one to pop out of that crape. They got

<v Speaker 1>their hopes up for nothing. Really, this entire angle and

<v Speaker 1>doing it on this show set them up for disappointment,

<v Speaker 1>them being the fans. The fans kind of set themselves

<v Speaker 1>up for it, but ww we kind of helped them

<v Speaker 1>along by doing the debut on the Elimination Chamber Show.

<v Speaker 1>Instead of doing it, let's say, in a TV segment.

<v Speaker 1>But the reaction in terms of people not necessarily knowing

<v Speaker 1>who he was or being let down by this as

<v Speaker 1>the reveal, I can't say that that comes as any

<v Speaker 1>great surprise to me. He's a comedy act, you know,

<v Speaker 1>it's a mid card or a low mid card comedy act,

<v Speaker 1>and they built this thing up for weeks like it was,

<v Speaker 1>you know, gonna be some great reveal, and of course

<v Speaker 1>you're gonna have disappointment from a lot of fans, even

<v Speaker 1>the fans who didn't necessarily have an idea in their

<v Speaker 1>head that it was gonna be Jericho, or it was

<v Speaker 1>gonna be Seth Rollins, or it's gonna be I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, put whatever big name in there you want. Naturally,

<v Speaker 1>people are going to have all of these thoughts going

<v Speaker 1>through their heads about what or who this could possibly be.

<v Speaker 1>And then imagine if you're not familiar with Dan House,

<v Speaker 1>and this fucking guy pops out and you're looking at

<v Speaker 1>this going what the hell am I watching here? I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that's really what it was. Again. I don't know that

<v Speaker 1>I expected anything any different once I saw this crate

<v Speaker 1>was you know, included in segments during the week that was,

<v Speaker 1>you know, involving people like Phraxium and los Garza and

<v Speaker 1>our Truth, and they were basically making comedy out of it.

<v Speaker 1>It became pretty clear to me, Okay, don't set your

<v Speaker 1>expectations too high for what's inside this box, which was

<v Speaker 1>a preposterous gimmick to begin with. Dan Housen is a

<v Speaker 1>comedy act that I am sure will not be wrestling

<v Speaker 1>very often. He barely wrestled in AAW and look, Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahn signed this guy when he was out with a

<v Speaker 1>broken leg. Some people forget about that he was injured

<v Speaker 1>when he got signed, and I don't know how many

<v Speaker 1>more months after that it was before he was even

<v Speaker 1>medically cleared to wrestle. I mean, that's what he did

<v Speaker 1>with Brian Cage. I think Brian Cage was injured when

<v Speaker 1>he first got signed all those years ago by AAW

<v Speaker 1>and then later on Dan Housen torres peck and he

<v Speaker 1>missed eight months, nine months and he got paid the

<v Speaker 1>entire time. So it's not like AW ruined his life

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that. But he did try to get

<v Speaker 1>out of his deal early. They said no, and he's

<v Speaker 1>been sitting at home waiting it out and biding his

<v Speaker 1>time ever since. This is what he wanted. He wanted out,

<v Speaker 1>So I mean, I'm happy for him that he got

<v Speaker 1>out and he's getting this opportunity in WWE, because it

<v Speaker 1>wasn't a Slam done guarantee that he was going to

<v Speaker 1>get an opportunity in WWE. Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer

<v Speaker 1>Radio even commented on this overnight. He said, people push

<v Speaker 1>for him, there were people who didn't want him. It

<v Speaker 1>was not a unanimous decision or anything like that. I

<v Speaker 1>would guess that the people who did not want him

<v Speaker 1>are thinking, hmm, sure didn't work out so well this time,

<v Speaker 1>but time will tell. He'll get another chill. Well, of

<v Speaker 1>course he'll get another chance. What does he imply that

<v Speaker 1>there was a chance they might kill the entire thing

<v Speaker 1>last night? The fuck did you expect debuting him like this?

<v Speaker 1>So it was not a unanimous decision that I can believe.

<v Speaker 1>I can absolutely believe there were certain people in the

<v Speaker 1>WWE writer's room or in the WWE management hierarchy who

<v Speaker 1>they don't get Dan Housen. They probably looked at Dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen and said, what's the big deal here? What am

<v Speaker 1>I looking at there are people that are going to

<v Speaker 1>have to be convinced. They're probably not convinced after last night,

<v Speaker 1>But let's see what happens. Right. They haven't actually used

<v Speaker 1>him yet. We don't yet know what his role on

<v Speaker 1>the show is going to be. Is he going to

<v Speaker 1>bounce from one show to the others? He going to

<v Speaker 1>be exclusive to one brand? Are they going to have

<v Speaker 1>him wrestling? He might not wrestle at all. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I don't know what their plans are.

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen should not be wrestling very often. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that's not what makes Dan Housen work. Right. He'll wrestle

<v Speaker 1>a few matches, but he'll be doing comedy skits with

<v Speaker 1>Our Truth before long. He'll be the one in a

<v Speaker 1>few months with Our Truth in the back trying to

<v Speaker 1>sell all the other mid carters and all the catering

<v Speaker 1>crew in the back on how to download the ESPN

<v Speaker 1>app to buy the next pl e. That will be

<v Speaker 1>his role on the show. Maybe at some point they

<v Speaker 1>send him to Triple A to do stuff with mister Iguana.

<v Speaker 1>They got all kinds of ridiculous gimmicks down there, and

<v Speaker 1>they'll make money off of Dan House in merch and

<v Speaker 1>they can make a little plastic jaw can't make them glass,

<v Speaker 1>but you can make a little plastic jars with faked

<v Speaker 1>teeth in them, and they'll make back whatever money they're

<v Speaker 1>paying him. Like to me, it's not that deep. But

<v Speaker 1>if people were disappointed and let down by the big reveal,

<v Speaker 1>they really shouldn't have been. But I can understand it.

<v Speaker 1>WWE kind of had that one coming. But the sign

<v Speaker 1>of the night on the show was actually at the

<v Speaker 1>very beginning of the show, because they opened with a

<v Speaker 1>women's chamber, and as Raquel Rodriguez was walking out, there

<v Speaker 1>was a sign in the crowd that said, I got

<v Speaker 1>stuck in traffic? When's Luger versus Tatanka. Now you'd have

<v Speaker 1>to be a longtime fan to chuckle at that one.

<v Speaker 1>I had a nice laugh when I saw that sign.

<v Speaker 1>If you don't know the only other major events WWE

<v Speaker 1>has ever done at the United Center, and I think

<v Speaker 1>last night might have been the third events of any

<v Speaker 1>kind that they've ever done at the United Center. I

<v Speaker 1>think the other one was a house show maybe about

<v Speaker 1>a decade back. But the first and only other major

<v Speaker 1>event was actually the first I think was the first event.

<v Speaker 1>I know it was the first wrestling event, but it

<v Speaker 1>might have been the first event ever at the United

<v Speaker 1>Center when it opened in nineteen ninety four, and that

<v Speaker 1>was SummerSlam. And at that Summer Slam, there was a

<v Speaker 1>match on the card between Lex Luger and Tatanka, and

<v Speaker 1>the storyline going into that match was that Tatanka believed

<v Speaker 1>that Lex Luger had sold out to the million Dollar Man.

<v Speaker 1>And they had all these segments on television that would

<v Speaker 1>lead you to believe that Luger might have sold out

<v Speaker 1>to the million dollar Man. They had a nine hundred

<v Speaker 1>number hotline they made people pay for to vote. Do

<v Speaker 1>you think Luger sold out or not? I don't remember.

<v Speaker 1>I want to say it was like fifty four percent

<v Speaker 1>said he sold out. I think was like the results.

<v Speaker 1>And of course, the big swerve at the end is that,

<v Speaker 1>in fact, Luger did not sell out to the million

<v Speaker 1>dollar Man. It was Tatanka who sold out to the

<v Speaker 1>million dollar Man. I actually enjoyed that angle. I actually

<v Speaker 1>thought it was a well done angle. But I saw

<v Speaker 1>that side and I'm like, man, traffic must be really

<v Speaker 1>bad there getting to the United Center. This guy's been

<v Speaker 1>waiting a very long time for that match. Who wants

<v Speaker 1>to be the one to tell him? I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>You see, that's a longtime fan right there. But in

<v Speaker 1>the women's chamber, Alexa Bliss was eliminated first. I had

<v Speaker 1>her as my pick to win until I saw what

<v Speaker 1>happened on SmackDown Friday night, and then I realized, ah, fuck,

<v Speaker 1>there goes my prediction. I did not expect Alexa to

<v Speaker 1>be the first one eliminated, though. They did a double

<v Speaker 1>pin spot at one point where Raquel eliminated two women

<v Speaker 1>at once. Was it Oscar and Keana, I believe on

<v Speaker 1>a double pin stack him in Pinham. I thought that

<v Speaker 1>was pretty goofy. Keana looked good in this match. This

<v Speaker 1>was her first major match since being called up to

<v Speaker 1>the main roster, and even you know, again, she wasn't

<v Speaker 1>gonna win, of course, but you could tell they set

<v Speaker 1>her up to have a good night where she was

<v Speaker 1>in there for about twenty minutes. She was one of

<v Speaker 1>the women who opened the match, and I thought she

<v Speaker 1>looked good in the match. But ultimately it came down

<v Speaker 1>to Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton. And I like that

<v Speaker 1>because you could at least argue, hey, Tiffany might actually

<v Speaker 1>win this. They might run back Tiffany and Jade at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>Thank god they're not doing that, because I had no

<v Speaker 1>interest in seeing that again. But at least you can

<v Speaker 1>go Okay, this could go either way, even though it

<v Speaker 1>was pretty clear at this point that Rhea Ripley was

<v Speaker 1>going to win the Elimination Chamber because on SmackDown Friday Night,

<v Speaker 1>she and Eosky they lost their women's tag team titles

<v Speaker 1>to Naya Jackson Lash Legend, who now can go on

<v Speaker 1>to defend them against you know, bre Mode and whoever

<v Speaker 1>else they're going to put in that match, and then

<v Speaker 1>Rhea and hopefully EO can go on to do other

<v Speaker 1>more important things on the show. But Rihea Ripley winning

<v Speaker 1>the Elimination Chamber, I mean, I don't look at this

<v Speaker 1>as any kind of hot take here, but evidently with

<v Speaker 1>some people it might be Rihea Ripley winning the Elimination

<v Speaker 1>Chamber was the right outcome. And I know there were

<v Speaker 1>people who were upset with riea way, because I heard

<v Speaker 1>from them in my timeline. They were all over the place.

<v Speaker 1>And to that, I will say this, it is roughly

<v Speaker 1>one full year almost to the day as I am

<v Speaker 1>sitting here now that Riha Ripley was a women's world

<v Speaker 1>champion of any kind. She lost the title on Raw

<v Speaker 1>last year to Eo Sky before WrestleMania. She has not

<v Speaker 1>held singles gold since for the most part now, for

<v Speaker 1>months and months and months, she's been stuck in this

<v Speaker 1>tag team division. Her Aneo. They make a very good team,

<v Speaker 1>but she's been stuck doing the tag team thing. So

<v Speaker 1>it's not like Riha has constantly been in the world

<v Speaker 1>title picture. For the last twelve months. She hasn't been.

<v Speaker 1>But there are people who were upset because, oh, it's

<v Speaker 1>Rhea Ripley, and she's gonna be and yet another championship

<v Speaker 1>match of WrestleMania, and you know, blah blah blah and

<v Speaker 1>all this stuff. And there were a couple of people

<v Speaker 1>who were saying it should have been Charlotte in that spot.

<v Speaker 1>And I just I laughed when I saw this, and

<v Speaker 1>I said, boy, this is this is where we've come to,

<v Speaker 1>now where we have people who are actually upset that

<v Speaker 1>Rha Ripley, who in their mind and always gets title

<v Speaker 1>matches a WrestleMania, is getting another title match when man,

<v Speaker 1>it should have been Charlotte Flair. Like what timeline am

<v Speaker 1>I living in?

<v Speaker 2>You?

<v Speaker 1>I'm living in the worst, most bizarre timeline. And I

<v Speaker 1>don't say that as somebody who would have been upset

<v Speaker 1>if Charlotte would have won. I actually thought, once we

<v Speaker 1>knew that Bianca wasn't going to be back in time,

<v Speaker 1>that Charlotte was the next best choice. I was pushing

<v Speaker 1>for that match. I would have had no issue if

<v Speaker 1>it was Charlotte Flack because guess what, Charlotte like Rhea

<v Speaker 1>has been out of the world title scene for about

<v Speaker 1>a year, and it was the best thing that could

<v Speaker 1>have happened to Charlotte Flair because the fans were sick

<v Speaker 1>and fucking tired of seeing Charlotte Flair in those situations,

<v Speaker 1>So get her out of there for a while. But

<v Speaker 1>at the end of the day, you want to do

<v Speaker 1>the match that is going to be the biggest marquee

<v Speaker 1>match that you can do on a card that could

<v Speaker 1>desperately use some marquee attractions. So what match would you do?

<v Speaker 1>You've already teased Charlotte and Jade multiple times on TV.

<v Speaker 1>They just did it again a few weeks ago, and

<v Speaker 1>then Charlotte got bounced out of the qualifiers, so Keana

<v Speaker 1>James went to the chamber instead. So I would have

<v Speaker 1>no issue if they went with Charlotte Flair. But I

<v Speaker 1>have no issue with them going with Rhea Ripley because

<v Speaker 1>that's the best option. Ria Ripley is one of the

<v Speaker 1>most popular names in the entire company. She has no

<v Speaker 1>other obvious, clear direction for WrestleMania. What would you have

<v Speaker 1>her doing? I would love to see Rhea against EO.

<v Speaker 1>It's very clear they're not doing that. So I ask you,

<v Speaker 1>what else would you have Rhea Ripley doing on a

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania card that could really use some attractions this year?

<v Speaker 1>All right? You want to make real good use of

<v Speaker 1>the big names that you have available to you, because

<v Speaker 1>some of them are not available to you, some of

<v Speaker 1>them are on the injury list. Rhea Ripley was the

<v Speaker 1>right outcome these people who are upset about this, not

<v Speaker 1>all of them, but believe me, you would have plenty

<v Speaker 1>of people bitching and moaning if Charlotte Flair was the

<v Speaker 1>one who won the Chamber and was going to WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>You know I'm right, you know, damn I'm rights. Instead

<v Speaker 1>of the discourse being oh God, not Ria again, it

<v Speaker 1>would be Oh my God, Charlotte again back on top

<v Speaker 1>of the world titled picture, It would be the same shit.

<v Speaker 1>Either way. Jade needs to be in there with somebody

<v Speaker 1>who probably in their view, can give her the best

<v Speaker 1>match of This is the biggest match of her career.

<v Speaker 1>They don't want her to go out there and ship

<v Speaker 1>the bed. Jade Cargill is not at the level of

<v Speaker 1>a Charlotte Flair. Jade Cargill is not at the level

<v Speaker 1>of a Rhea Ripley, But those are the kind of

<v Speaker 1>people that you want her in the ring with if

<v Speaker 1>she's going to go one on one with somebody at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>One of the reasons that we have not seen her

<v Speaker 1>defending her championship very often, not a doubt in my mind,

<v Speaker 1>is that they are trying to protect her. They don't

<v Speaker 1>want to put her in there with just anybody because

<v Speaker 1>she's not ready for that. So part of it is

<v Speaker 1>the lack of depth in the division right now, true,

<v Speaker 1>at least on Fridays, but part of it is also

<v Speaker 1>they are doing their best to protect her and make

<v Speaker 1>her look as great as they can possibly make her

<v Speaker 1>look within their power. So they're very careful and cautious

<v Speaker 1>about who they put her in the ring with one

<v Speaker 1>on one, but that is the right match. I will

<v Speaker 1>say this, and I brought this up though in my

<v Speaker 1>review last night. I would not have been opposed if

<v Speaker 1>they wanted to take this in a different kind of

<v Speaker 1>more creative way, and somebody had suggested this and I

<v Speaker 1>thought about it. I said, you know what, that's kind

<v Speaker 1>of clever. Doesn't really work because the stipulation was very

<v Speaker 1>clear this was for a shot at Jade's title of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>But if they could have found a way around that,

<v Speaker 1>you have Raquel Rodriguez win the Chamber, which would have

<v Speaker 1>shocked the hell out of a lot of people. But

<v Speaker 1>the idea is that on raw you think she's going

<v Speaker 1>after Jade, but she makes it very clear I want

<v Speaker 1>to be added to the Women's World title match. And

<v Speaker 1>now she inserts herself into a match where Live Morgan

<v Speaker 1>already won the Royal Rumble, right, but now Raquel wins

<v Speaker 1>the Chamber and says I want into I want a

<v Speaker 1>shot at Stephanie's title too. Now you've created some real

<v Speaker 1>drama and tension within the judgment day between Live and

<v Speaker 1>Raquel going into that match, and You've got seven weeks

<v Speaker 1>on the SmackDown side to figure out, how are we

<v Speaker 1>gonna you know, crown a number one contender for Jade's title,

<v Speaker 1>and WrestleMania is not until mid April. You still have

<v Speaker 1>time to set that up. That would have been very interesting.

<v Speaker 1>Aj Lee is the new Women's Intercontinental Champion with a

<v Speaker 1>win over Becky Lynch. This was AJ's first singles match

<v Speaker 1>since twenty fifteen, and I thought she looked fine. You know,

<v Speaker 1>she didn't really do anything that you wouldn't expect aj

<v Speaker 1>Lee to do. I mean again, I think people aj

<v Speaker 1>Lee was very, very popular when she was in that

<v Speaker 1>Diva's division all those years ago, but it wasn't as

<v Speaker 1>if she was one of the best in ring, you know,

<v Speaker 1>most most flashiest in ring performers they had on the roster.

<v Speaker 1>She wasn't. So you know, what we saw her doing

<v Speaker 1>in the match last night was exactly what you would

<v Speaker 1>expect that of an aj Lee match. You know, she

<v Speaker 1>hit some of her signature moves, the Shining Wizard and

<v Speaker 1>the Black Widow. She sold for a good chunk of

<v Speaker 1>the mess. She sold really the first half of the match.

<v Speaker 1>But I thought she looked fine, you know, for somebody

<v Speaker 1>who hasn't done this on her own one on one

<v Speaker 1>and so long, she looked fine. Jessica Carr was the

<v Speaker 1>referee for the match, which is something I had talked

<v Speaker 1>about a few weeks ago. I said, let's see if

<v Speaker 1>she's the referee for the match and if they draw

<v Speaker 1>attention to this heat between her and Becky which they

<v Speaker 1>seem to have gotten away from him for a while.

<v Speaker 1>And she played a role in the finish of the match.

<v Speaker 1>There was an exposed turnbuckle. She was trying to put

<v Speaker 1>the turnbuckle pad back on and she got bumped. She

<v Speaker 1>got kicked in the head by Becky. So we had

<v Speaker 1>a lot of that kind of Shenanigan's going on there.

<v Speaker 1>But in the end it was Becky who actually ran

<v Speaker 1>herself face first into the exposed buckle and she tapped

<v Speaker 1>out to the Black Widow. And so that is how

<v Speaker 1>we ended up with a new champion. And so what

<v Speaker 1>are we looking at now as we look ahead to WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>Because you would expect that this was the first of

<v Speaker 1>what's going to be probably a couple of matches that

<v Speaker 1>these two were going to have. In the likeliest scenarios

<v Speaker 1>that we get aj Lee and Becky Lynch again at WrestleMania. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I was all in favor of putting the belt on

<v Speaker 1>aj here if she's not going to be all the time,

<v Speaker 1>because you give her a little run with the championship

<v Speaker 1>and then she could always drop the belt back to

<v Speaker 1>Becky in Las Vegas. I would actually love to see

<v Speaker 1>them go in a different direction altogether and not run

<v Speaker 1>this back again. I mean, they've really been beefing with

<v Speaker 1>each other going all the way back to September. We

<v Speaker 1>had the match, The match was fine. I mean, it

<v Speaker 1>wasn't any great shakes or anything last night. I would

<v Speaker 1>love it if they went in a totally different direction,

<v Speaker 1>if they actually wanted to do something like some sort

<v Speaker 1>of special attraction type deal with Becky Lynch inviting Jessica

<v Speaker 1>Carr to get into the ring. Because Jessica has a

<v Speaker 1>wrestling background, she could absolutely work one match if they

<v Speaker 1>wanted her to work a match like that's not an issue,

<v Speaker 1>and all the people that have no idea that she

<v Speaker 1>wrestled would probably be dazzled by the stuff that she

<v Speaker 1>would do in there, and it would probably get a

<v Speaker 1>big reaction. So I think you do maybe a special

<v Speaker 1>attraction you can get away with doing like Becky against

<v Speaker 1>Jessica and then have aj go off to defend the

<v Speaker 1>championship against someone totally different on that show. And the

<v Speaker 1>name might threw out there last night was Roxanne Perez. Now.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what her health status is going to

<v Speaker 1>be for WrestleMania. I know she just had I think

<v Speaker 1>back surgery to remove a benign tumor. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what the recovery time is from something like that. Hopefully

<v Speaker 1>she'll be back in time, you know, to be on

<v Speaker 1>the show. And if she is, I think that you

<v Speaker 1>could absolutely have her challenge aj Lee and maybe even

<v Speaker 1>win the championship off of aj Lee at WrestleMania. But

<v Speaker 1>it would just be something different. You get two matches

<v Speaker 1>out of it instead of one. I don't know that

<v Speaker 1>that's what they're going to do, but that was something

<v Speaker 1>that I mentioned last night that would be something I'd

<v Speaker 1>have an interest in seeing. Cmpunk he defended the World

<v Speaker 1>Heavyweight Championship against Finn Balor. Punk got a special entrance

<v Speaker 1>being in Chicago and everything. He didn't come out to

<v Speaker 1>the ring to the song, but they showed him coming

<v Speaker 1>out of his locker room in the back and walking

<v Speaker 1>to where I guess Gorilla would be and they were

<v Speaker 1>playing serious by the Alan Parsons Project, which wasn't just

<v Speaker 1>the song all though Chicago Bulls teams but Michael Jordan

<v Speaker 1>would come out to But it was Ricky Steamboat's theme

<v Speaker 1>in WWE for many years, and it just so happened

<v Speaker 1>that yesterday was Ricky Steamboat's seventy third birthday, So happy

<v Speaker 1>birthday to old Dick Blood. Still the most disturbing shoot

<v Speaker 1>wrestler name. Ever, as far as the match itself, they

<v Speaker 1>had a good match. Crowd was a lot quieter than

<v Speaker 1>you would think for a big cm Punk title defense

<v Speaker 1>here in Chicago, and of it a lot of the

<v Speaker 1>match at the beginning, it was very methodical. It was

<v Speaker 1>Balor working over his ribcage and nothing terribly exciting, and

<v Speaker 1>then it picked up more towards the end. The big

<v Speaker 1>part of the problem here is that absolutely nobody believe

<v Speaker 1>that Cmpunk was losing that championship before he wrestles Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns or Wrestlemani, and that would go for anybody who

<v Speaker 1>was in this spot. I really think that you're stretching

<v Speaker 1>the bounds of credibility to believe that anybody you put

<v Speaker 1>in this situation was going to walk out with that

<v Speaker 1>title other than Cmpunk. But Finn Balor is certainly not

<v Speaker 1>a perceived threat from the offe here because he just

<v Speaker 1>hasn't been booked as any kind of a threat. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I was going to say in years, but really has

<v Speaker 1>he ever I'm not talking NXT, I'm talking main roster.

<v Speaker 1>Has he ever really been booked as any sort of

<v Speaker 1>real threat to anyone on this roster? The answer is no,

<v Speaker 1>but especially in the last few years. So you can

<v Speaker 1>absolutely put part of that on the booking of Finn Balor.

<v Speaker 1>Nobody was buying into it. But again, you know, it

<v Speaker 1>picked up down the stretch Punk one, of course, and

<v Speaker 1>when the match was over, Balor shook hands with him.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure that will not go over well with liv

<v Speaker 1>Morgan and the rest of the Judgment Day will get

<v Speaker 1>more Judgment Day drama on TV this week. And don't forget,

<v Speaker 1>Dom is going to be defending his Intercontinental title tomorrow

<v Speaker 1>night against Penta, so we'll see how things play out there.

<v Speaker 1>But not much else to say about this. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>Punk got a win in Chicago, AJ came out and

<v Speaker 1>husband and wife got to pose and celebrate with their

<v Speaker 1>respective championships. I saw the Instagram photo that Punk posted.

<v Speaker 1>I guess he raced back home, got to sleep in

<v Speaker 1>his own bed last night. It looked like he was

<v Speaker 1>in his garage or something, and he looked buck naked,

<v Speaker 1>and he had his World Heavyweight Championship around his privates

<v Speaker 1>and he had AJ's Intercontinental Championship wrapped around his chest.

<v Speaker 1>And I mentioned the disturbing Dick Blood before. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what's more disturbing. I don't know if Dick Blood

<v Speaker 1>is more disturbing or the photo that I saw of

<v Speaker 1>CM Punk is more disturbing. I know I won't be

<v Speaker 1>able to get that image out of my head for

<v Speaker 1>a while. That I know. And no, I am not

<v Speaker 1>turning that into a super chat, so don't ask me.

<v Speaker 1>And then we had the main event, which was the

<v Speaker 1>men's Elimination Chamber match. Almost twenty minutes of entrances for

<v Speaker 1>a twenty five minute match. That is wild, absolutely even

<v Speaker 1>by WWE standards, that is wild. Trick Williams entered first,

<v Speaker 1>and Wrestle Votes Radio on Fiteful Select reported this week

<v Speaker 1>that there have been internal discussions in WWE about turning

<v Speaker 1>Trick William's babyface after his crowd reactions, to which I say,

<v Speaker 1>leave it alone. Don't change a thing. Leave it alone.

<v Speaker 1>He's still new to the main roster. If the fans

<v Speaker 1>want to cheer for him, let him cheer. If they

<v Speaker 1>want to boo, let him boo. At some point, if

<v Speaker 1>you want to put your full weight behind him with

<v Speaker 1>a real baby face turn, you'll have time to do that.

<v Speaker 1>But don't fuck this up. The guy is getting over organically.

<v Speaker 1>The worst thing they could do is put their fingerprints

<v Speaker 1>all over it. Leave it alone. Nothing really happened in

<v Speaker 1>this match until Logan Paul entered, and he was what

<v Speaker 1>the fourth guy in. I think now, how did Logan

<v Speaker 1>Paul even end up in the elimination shamer. Logan Paul

<v Speaker 1>was not supposed to be in the elimination Shamer. To

<v Speaker 1>be honest with you, I don't think Bronson Reid was

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be in the elimination chamber. I'm I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker was originally going to be in the elimination

<v Speaker 1>chamber and probably would have been fucked over by Seth Rollins,

<v Speaker 1>but then he got hurt. So Bronton Reid was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to qualify on raw last Monday, he had a qualifying

<v Speaker 1>match with jay Usso and El Grande Americano Gable and

<v Speaker 1>he got hurt and I'm going to talk more about

<v Speaker 1>Bronson read a little bit later on. But then jay

<v Speaker 1>Uso got in and at the beginning of SmackDown on

<v Speaker 1>Friday night he was out no yeats. Somebody took him out,

<v Speaker 1>we don't know who, but he was loaded up into

<v Speaker 1>the back of an ambulance. He was unconscious. We'll see

<v Speaker 1>where that angle goes. And so they had to figure

<v Speaker 1>And by the way, by the way, we did not

<v Speaker 1>get jay Usso in the elimination chamber, but just imagine

<v Speaker 1>if we did. If we had gotten the yeating last night,

<v Speaker 1>those entrances I just talked about would have been longer,

<v Speaker 1>legitimately longer than the match itself, Like they went twenty

<v Speaker 1>minutes for the entrances without jay Uso running it back.

<v Speaker 1>That's the scary part. But in lieu of jay Uso

<v Speaker 1>being in the eliminate nation chamber, they had a qualifying

<v Speaker 1>match between Jacob Fatu and Logan Paul. Drew McIntyre got

<v Speaker 1>involved at the end and Logan Paul qualified for what

<v Speaker 1>they said was his third elimination Chamber match. And not

<v Speaker 1>only was this his third elimination Chamber match, they gave

<v Speaker 1>him three eliminations in this match. They gave him the

<v Speaker 1>Bronz and Reid spot, but they gave Logan Paul three eliminations.

<v Speaker 1>That just absolutely killed the crowd. Or I shouldn't even

<v Speaker 1>say that, more like the crowd was already dead. So

<v Speaker 1>they just put a few more slugs in the corpse.

<v Speaker 1>And then there's La Knight, La poor La Knight. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know, I don't know what to say at this point.

<v Speaker 1>La Knight had a very bad night. We actually may

<v Speaker 1>look back at last night as the final nail in

<v Speaker 1>the coffin for La Knight. It just went from bad

<v Speaker 1>to worse. He had a botch and it happens, right,

<v Speaker 1>shit happens, but just this whole sequence of events, the

<v Speaker 1>way it all panned out here, he went for that

<v Speaker 1>leaping elbow from the middle rope to the top rope.

<v Speaker 1>He does it in every match, and he's slipped up

<v Speaker 1>a few times more often than not. He nails it

<v Speaker 1>a lot of the stuff he does on the ropes, though,

<v Speaker 1>I always just kind of like cringe when he does it,

<v Speaker 1>and I hold my breath because even when he does

<v Speaker 1>the running jump to the top rope, but you'd never

<v Speaker 1>know if it's gonna work out or not. But when

<v Speaker 1>you're in a situation like this, where you're in the

<v Speaker 1>main event of this pl you're inside the elimination chamber,

<v Speaker 1>you're in a big spot like this, obviously you want

<v Speaker 1>everything to go right. And it did not go right.

<v Speaker 1>He went to go jump up to the top rope

<v Speaker 1>and he slipped, and it could have been worse. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>he could have just fallen flat on his face. He

<v Speaker 1>could have injured himself, he could have broken his fucking

<v Speaker 1>ankle or something. He basically landed on his feet and

<v Speaker 1>stumbled a little bit, and the crowd just, I mean

<v Speaker 1>the crowd grown. They're like, oh man, And so he

<v Speaker 1>just did a standing elbow drop instead butt we go

<v Speaker 1>from the embarks seem botch. There. It just goes from

<v Speaker 1>bad to worse because from there he took a nutshot

<v Speaker 1>from Logan Paul and then he got rolled up and

<v Speaker 1>pinned yet again by the vision. That was the end

<v Speaker 1>of La Knight in this match. Somehow, they were even

<v Speaker 1>quieter for this elimination. Not a good night for La Knight.

<v Speaker 1>And what that means for him for WrestleMania. I have

<v Speaker 1>no fucking idea. I'm not even convinced they'll be on

<v Speaker 1>the WrestleMania card. I don't know where you go at

<v Speaker 1>this point with La Knight, unless we do end up

<v Speaker 1>with some sort of tag team match, which actually would

<v Speaker 1>kind of make sense if it was seth Rollins in

<v Speaker 1>La Knight against the Vision, seth Rollins La Knight and

<v Speaker 1>a third person against the Vision, if maybe bron Breaker

<v Speaker 1>was going to be back in time, probably something with

<v Speaker 1>the Vision. Otherwise, I don't see a role for him

<v Speaker 1>on that show this year. So that was a bad

<v Speaker 1>enough sequence that just just killed the vibe completely. But

<v Speaker 1>then it got ridiculous because we had the mass Man.

<v Speaker 1>Now we had to expect that we were probably going

<v Speaker 1>to see the mask Man get involved here. When Bronson

<v Speaker 1>Reid was supposed to be in this match, I figured

<v Speaker 1>he's the only member of the Vision who has not

<v Speaker 1>been directly screwed over by the mass Man, so it

<v Speaker 1>will probably happen in the chamber instead of him, it

<v Speaker 1>was Logan Paul, but we have this mass Man who's

<v Speaker 1>trying to scale the chamber, trying to get inside this

<v Speaker 1>is after they shot an angle in the main event

<v Speaker 1>on Friday, when Logan beat Jacob Fatu, where the mass

<v Speaker 1>man tried to run in, Logan unmasked him and it

<v Speaker 1>was some rando that we've never seen before. We don't

<v Speaker 1>know who this person was. Apparently he was a former

<v Speaker 1>student from seth Rawlins School and he was used on

<v Speaker 1>television in a segment last year on NXT and he

<v Speaker 1>wrestled a few years ago on aw Dark, So it

<v Speaker 1>was a wrestler, but no fucking idea who this guy was. Right.

<v Speaker 1>That was on Friday, So now here in the elimination chamber,

<v Speaker 1>this person is trying to get in the cage and

<v Speaker 1>he gets pulled down by security. Adam Pierce runs out,

<v Speaker 1>they pull the man's mask off, and again it's just

<v Speaker 1>some random person that we've never seen before. It's another decoy.

<v Speaker 1>Then we get a third mask man in twenty four

<v Speaker 1>hours because the door is just fucking wide open to

<v Speaker 1>the chamber and this mask man comes in and kicks

<v Speaker 1>Slogan Paul in the gut and delivers a curb stop

<v Speaker 1>and pulls the mask off, and it is in fact

<v Speaker 1>seth Rawlins and it got the biggest pop of anything

<v Speaker 1>in the match up to that point, because it's like, oh,

<v Speaker 1>great sets here. Finally I cheered, I pop, just because

<v Speaker 1>thank god, we can be done with this stupid mass

<v Speaker 1>man angle. And he kind of looked at Cody, Cody

<v Speaker 1>looked at him, and then Rollins left through the crop.

<v Speaker 1>So we'll have to wait until Monday night, I guess

<v Speaker 1>to hear from Seth Rollins and get some sense of

<v Speaker 1>where we go from here. But we weren't done yet

<v Speaker 1>with the interference in the over book bullshit in this match,

<v Speaker 1>because the door is still wide open to the chamber

<v Speaker 1>and now it's down to Cody Roads and Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>which I like. But here comes Drew McIntyre and he

<v Speaker 1>wallops Cody in the head with the WWE title and

<v Speaker 1>gets inside the chamber and they're going at it, and

<v Speaker 1>eventually Randy Orton he's watching this, and eventually he comes

<v Speaker 1>over and he drops Drew with an RKO. He then

<v Speaker 1>stumbles up into a crossroad from Cody Rhodes and then

<v Speaker 1>Cody walks right into an RKO and is pinned by

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton. Hence Randy Orton wins the elimination chamber. The

<v Speaker 1>only thing you need to even go back and watch

<v Speaker 1>if you didn't see this show. First of all, you

<v Speaker 1>don't need to really go back and see anything, if

<v Speaker 1>we're being honest. But if you were going to see

<v Speaker 1>anything as far as this match goes, literally watch the

<v Speaker 1>last sixty seconds. That's all you need to see. The

<v Speaker 1>rest of this was just a gigantic waste of time. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I like the finish in that at least makes things

<v Speaker 1>more interesting than it was twenty four hours earlier. And

<v Speaker 1>it felt like coming out of the show, Okay, we're

<v Speaker 1>garying it, we're all but guaranteed now a triple threat

<v Speaker 1>or fatal four way for WrestleMania, because the story now

<v Speaker 1>over the next seven weeks becomes how does Cody Roads

<v Speaker 1>work his way into the WWE title picture. He's going

<v Speaker 1>to be in the championship match of WrestleMania. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>there's no doubt about bet my left not on that.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, of course he's going to be in the

<v Speaker 1>title match. The only question is does Jacob Fatu end

<v Speaker 1>up in there? Do we get a four way instead

<v Speaker 1>of a three way? But then they shot an angle

<v Speaker 1>after the show. The biggest thing to happen last night

<v Speaker 1>at the elimination chamber did not even happen on the

<v Speaker 1>actual show. It happened when the show was over. Nick All,

<v Speaker 1>this was beside himself. He had to be restrained from

<v Speaker 1>going after Drew McIntyre for what McIntyre had done. And

<v Speaker 1>then all this said, you know what, this Friday on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>you are going to defend the WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes.

<v Speaker 1>So they have made a huge title man. Cody lost

<v Speaker 1>the chamber, but he's getting his title match anyway before

<v Speaker 1>Randy does. He's getting it on Friday on SmackDown. Because

<v Speaker 1>time and time again he has been attacked. He has

<v Speaker 1>been screwed over by Drew McIntyre because McIntyre does not

<v Speaker 1>want to get back in the ring with Cody Rhoads.

<v Speaker 1>He does not want to get in the ring with Cody,

<v Speaker 1>He does not want to get in the ring with

<v Speaker 1>Jacob Fatu. The only person he's been content to get

<v Speaker 1>in the ring with is Sammy Zain. And you could

<v Speaker 1>understand why because Sammy Zain has been a fucking loser

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to Drew McIntyre. McIntyre was oh for eleven,

<v Speaker 1>so of course he's like, I'd love to wrestle you

<v Speaker 1>with the Royal Rumble, and then what happened. He went

<v Speaker 1>over Sammy went oh for twelve is what I meant

<v Speaker 1>to say. Drew was eleven and oh now he's twelve

<v Speaker 1>and oh over Sammy Zan. But he doesn't want to

<v Speaker 1>get in the ring with any of these other guys,

<v Speaker 1>and that includes Randy Orton.

<v Speaker 2>Right.

<v Speaker 1>That's that's been the whole story. So now this creates

<v Speaker 1>more intrigue because Okay, we're getting a big title match

<v Speaker 1>on Friday, and they may very well put that championship

<v Speaker 1>back on Cody Rhoads this week. And if they do that,

<v Speaker 1>then we get Cody Roads and Randy Orton one on

<v Speaker 1>one at WrestleMania for the WWE title. And you could

<v Speaker 1>do Drew McIntyre against Jacob Fatu. You could do Drew

<v Speaker 1>mac fuck I mean, you could do Drew McIntyre against

<v Speaker 1>Nick Alldis if you want. I mean, they've been beefing

<v Speaker 1>now for months and months. I would not be doing

<v Speaker 1>Drew McIntyre against Nick allD this on the same show

<v Speaker 1>that you know I would possibly be doing Becky Lynch

<v Speaker 1>and the referee. I would not do both of those matches.

<v Speaker 1>But you can't discount that as a possibility that maybe

<v Speaker 1>they'll do Drew against Nick Alldis. So I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what way they're going to go with it, and that's good.

<v Speaker 1>That's good because we have real intrigue now around this

<v Speaker 1>title scene, this world title scene on SmackDown, and it's

<v Speaker 1>really the best you can ask for at this point

<v Speaker 1>because we don't have that one big story. We don't

<v Speaker 1>have that one big story going into WrestleMania this year,

<v Speaker 1>certainly not on the SmackDown side. Everything just feels pieced

<v Speaker 1>together and kind of last minute, and so what do

<v Speaker 1>you do, right? You got to try to drum up

<v Speaker 1>interest and keep people guessing as far as what that

<v Speaker 1>championship match is going to be. But they've created genuine

<v Speaker 1>heat now between all of these different parties, Drew and

<v Speaker 1>Cody and Jacob and Randy and Sammy. That's why I

<v Speaker 1>mentioned before, if they weren't doing the elimination chamber gimmick

<v Speaker 1>every year, this would be the perfect time to do

<v Speaker 1>one at WrestleMania and just get everybody in there. Although

<v Speaker 1>what is that five? You would need a six person.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know who that six person would be. I

<v Speaker 1>guess you could throw Alistair Black in there since he

<v Speaker 1>beat Randy Orton on TV the other day, but doesn't

<v Speaker 1>really need to be in there. So that's the one

<v Speaker 1>thing I liked about this right that's it was a

<v Speaker 1>good angle they shot. And now we have a big

<v Speaker 1>title match coming up on TV this week. Of course,

<v Speaker 1>they're doing this match on a Friday that I will

<v Speaker 1>not be here. I will be in Chicago, so I

<v Speaker 1>won't be able to talk about it live. But I'm

<v Speaker 1>looking forward now to seeing the match on Friday. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what they're going to do. It's fifty to

<v Speaker 1>fifty on what they're going to do. Cody could very

<v Speaker 1>well win the championship, but I could also see Jacob

<v Speaker 1>Fatu coming out or Drew doing something to get himself

<v Speaker 1>to the squad qualify. We don't get an actual winner,

<v Speaker 1>and that is the setup in prelude to a multi

<v Speaker 1>man match of WrestleMania. Easily could see that happening, but

<v Speaker 1>we still need to find out who attacked jay Uso.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I made the comment last week that Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>in my opinion, Randy Orton will be the one who

<v Speaker 1>is revealed if we ever get a real, genuine reveal

<v Speaker 1>that it's not Drew McIntyre and somebody else kicked Jacob

<v Speaker 1>Fatu in the mouth all those months ago and put

<v Speaker 1>him out of action. That that person is going to

<v Speaker 1>be Randy Orton. It could be Sammy's ain. Sammy's ain's

<v Speaker 1>been acting very weird lately. Samy's Ain's been acting I

<v Speaker 1>won't say heelish, but he's been acting in such a

<v Speaker 1>way that would lead me to believe he may he

<v Speaker 1>may well go heal at the end of all this.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe it's Sammy's ain behind all of this. Samy's in

<v Speaker 1>imagine the heat for attacking his good friend jay Uso

<v Speaker 1>if it turned out to be him. He was on

<v Speaker 1>television Friday night accusing Jacob of possibly attacking jay Uso.

<v Speaker 1>I still say Randy Orton, but who knows. Maybe it

<v Speaker 1>ends up being sammy'sane. But this is good. They're actually

<v Speaker 1>creating some intrigue on Smackdam, which they desperately need heading

<v Speaker 1>into WrestleMania. It was announced on SmackDown that the first

<v Speaker 1>hour of WrestleMania forty two to Night one will air

<v Speaker 1>on ESPN two and the following day, the first hour

<v Speaker 1>of the second night of WrestleMania will air on ESPN proper,

<v Speaker 1>so for the first time WrestleMania, or at least a

<v Speaker 1>piece of it, is going to actually air on ESPN.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, the shows will be simulcasting on ESPN Unlimited

<v Speaker 1>in the United States and on Netflix internationally. ESPN Unlimited,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, became available for Exfinity users this week,

<v Speaker 1>and supposedly later this fall, it will become available for

<v Speaker 1>YouTube TV subscribers. So in the meantime, they expect you

<v Speaker 1>to shell out thirty bucks for each of these shows

<v Speaker 1>until then. If you are a YouTube TV subscriber, imagine

<v Speaker 1>shelling that out for that show last night. Yeah, I

<v Speaker 1>don't think so. But again, there's a reason why I

<v Speaker 1>talk about ExpressVPN every single week. Again, these shows do

<v Speaker 1>air on Netflix internationally. I'm just saying NXT Stand and

<v Speaker 1>Deliver is going to look a little bit different this

<v Speaker 1>year because it will not be a part of WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>Weekend the way that it's always been. Instead, it will

<v Speaker 1>be held in the Saint Louis area on Saturday, April fourth,

<v Speaker 1>a whole two weeks before WrestleMania, at the Factory in Chesterfield, Missouri, which,

<v Speaker 1>if you remember, is the same venue where Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>wrestled Javon Evans a couple of years back. On that

<v Speaker 1>one episode where Orton appeared. Per pw Insider, WWE moved

<v Speaker 1>NXT from Las Vegas and off WrestleMania weekend as the

<v Speaker 1>timing of holding the show on the West Coast the

<v Speaker 1>last few times that Mania has been in Los Angeles

<v Speaker 1>and Las Vegas worked against the company's overall scheduling. Pw

<v Speaker 1>Insider has been told by sources the show had been

<v Speaker 1>internally planned for Vegas. Initially, feeling was that by moving

<v Speaker 1>the show up up, Stand and Deliver would have a

<v Speaker 1>stronger chance of standing alone no pun intended, and would

<v Speaker 1>not be lost in the sea of other WWE events

<v Speaker 1>taking place. Plus, the schedule change could also a free

<v Speaker 1>WWWE production crew from having to produce three shows in

<v Speaker 1>a twenty four hour time period that being smacked down

<v Speaker 1>the Hall of Fame and NXT right before then diving

<v Speaker 1>into Night one of WrestleMania. There will be no other

<v Speaker 1>NXT events broadcast from Las Vegas this year. We were

<v Speaker 1>also cautioned that the Stand and Deliver moved from many

<v Speaker 1>a week should not be considered a permanent decision. We

<v Speaker 1>are told that year by year the company would evaluate

<v Speaker 1>and make the call as to the placement of the show.

<v Speaker 1>You know, it was always crazy to me that they

<v Speaker 1>would even do the show on the same day as WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>Like that's without me even taking into account the strain

<v Speaker 1>on their production team, which is a whole other ball

<v Speaker 1>of wax there. It's just it's insane, and it does

<v Speaker 1>get lost in the noise of everything else that's happening

<v Speaker 1>that weekend. Now, in this case, when you think about it,

<v Speaker 1>they're out on the West Coast, which means that they're

<v Speaker 1>starting to show super early in the day, which means

<v Speaker 1>it may be harder to draw because you're selling tickets

<v Speaker 1>to a wrestling show that starts at ten o'clock in

<v Speaker 1>the morning, that's coming off SmackDown and the Hall of

<v Speaker 1>Fame back to back the night before, assuming that they

<v Speaker 1>are back to back the night before, and then those

<v Speaker 1>NXT talents they probably have to report to the building

<v Speaker 1>it what like six o'clock in the morning, maybe earlier.

<v Speaker 1>Fuck that wrestling should never be held that early in

<v Speaker 1>the morning. It's one thing if it airs early in

<v Speaker 1>the morning, because you know they're in a different time zone.

<v Speaker 1>You know, it's still taking place at a normal time

<v Speaker 1>though locally wherever it's being held, But to start locally

<v Speaker 1>that early in the morning, that should just never happen.

<v Speaker 1>Miles Born, by the way, he won the NXT North

<v Speaker 1>American title off of Ethan Page on Tuesday's show. That's

<v Speaker 1>after they already had taken the Triple A Mixtag Team

<v Speaker 1>titles off of him when Chelsea Green got hurt. So

<v Speaker 1>with any hope that means a main roster car Postmania,

<v Speaker 1>I think he would make a fine addition to that

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown roster. I maintained that faction with him and Matt

<v Speaker 1>Cardona and Chelsea Green and maybe one other person would

<v Speaker 1>be a good way to go. Something to think about.

<v Speaker 1>Bodyslam dot Net on its body Slam plus Patreon this

<v Speaker 1>week reported that there is no tentative date for a

<v Speaker 1>WWE draft in twenty twenty six. The rosters could be

<v Speaker 1>reshuffled throughout the year, just like twenty twenty five, but

<v Speaker 1>as of right now, there is no draft currently scheduled,

<v Speaker 1>and they mentioned, you know, WWE did not hold a

<v Speaker 1>draft last year. ESPN reportedly wanted to host one, but

<v Speaker 1>the idea did not go anywhere, And yes, that was

<v Speaker 1>a wrestle votes report. I believe is that ESPN, which

<v Speaker 1>of course is in the draft business. They've broadcast other

<v Speaker 1>sports drafts. They were interested in doing one with WWE,

<v Speaker 1>and it just didn't work out. The last time the

<v Speaker 1>WWE held was right after WrestleMania two years ago, and

<v Speaker 1>then later that year is when we got the transfer window,

<v Speaker 1>which was this open ended thing that lasted for a

<v Speaker 1>few months, and then they shut the window. They could

<v Speaker 1>have done a better job of explaining how it was

<v Speaker 1>going to work, but I'm not convinced they knew how

<v Speaker 1>it was going to work or when they wanted to

<v Speaker 1>close it when they first opened it up in the

<v Speaker 1>first place. But it was done as a way to

<v Speaker 1>shake the rosters up a little bit without doing another draft.

<v Speaker 1>And I could not understand why they did not open

<v Speaker 1>the transfer portal back up last year when it was

<v Speaker 1>very clear, clear as day that they needed to shake

<v Speaker 1>up the rosters, especially the SmackDown roster. Now, they finally

<v Speaker 1>did call up a few faces from NXT, almost all

<v Speaker 1>at the same time, instead of staggering them. It's like

<v Speaker 1>they all came up around the same period of time.

<v Speaker 1>And they really had no choice with SmackDown going back

<v Speaker 1>to three hours again, they needed new faces, so we

<v Speaker 1>got Obafemi and Javon Evans and Trick Williams and Jordan

<v Speaker 1>Grace right all being elevated to Ron SmackDown. Hopefully we

<v Speaker 1>see faces like Ethan Page and Blake Monroe coming out

<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania maybe soul Ruka. I am no fan of

<v Speaker 1>the way the WWE does its draft. I'm not a fan.

<v Speaker 1>I think the draft is stupid, and I for one,

<v Speaker 1>am very happy that they have no plans to do

<v Speaker 1>another one because they just don't know how. Now they

<v Speaker 1>have this partnership with ESPN, the NFL Draft is treated

<v Speaker 1>like a major event on ESPN. If ESPN wanted to

<v Speaker 1>do more of a proper draft with WWE and they

<v Speaker 1>changed it up enough to where it makes sense to

<v Speaker 1>do one, then I'm open to it. But what I'm

<v Speaker 1>talking about is just the way the WWE approaches it.

<v Speaker 1>The way WWE does the draft is lazy, and those

<v Speaker 1>draft shows are boring. They are boring television. Eighty five

<v Speaker 1>percent of the moves they announced are simply people on

<v Speaker 1>Raw being drafted to Raw and people on SmackDown being

<v Speaker 1>drafted to SmackDown with very few meaningful changes. Right. They

<v Speaker 1>might be the right moves, right, the ones that make

<v Speaker 1>the most sense, but it makes for boring television unless

<v Speaker 1>you can really shake things up. They just never seem

<v Speaker 1>too keen on radically shaking up the roster. They just

<v Speaker 1>want to move a few chess pieces around. It's all cosmetic,

<v Speaker 1>which is why I always say, and I will say

<v Speaker 1>it again here, you do not need a proper draft.

<v Speaker 1>Just make better use of your general managers. You have

<v Speaker 1>three gms. You have one on Raw, you have one

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown, you have one on NXT. NXT should absolutely

<v Speaker 1>be involved in this. It would be silly for them

<v Speaker 1>not to be. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. But

<v Speaker 1>instead of getting two draft shows out of it, and

<v Speaker 1>that's it, right, you get one draft episode of Raw,

<v Speaker 1>you get one draft episode of SmackDown, and then whatever

<v Speaker 1>supplemental picks they post online. Open up the transfer window

<v Speaker 1>twice a year. This is what I've always said. Open

<v Speaker 1>up the window twice a year, once after Wrestle May

<v Speaker 1>and then again later in the year when it's usually quiet,

<v Speaker 1>like around September or October, and leave it open for

<v Speaker 1>a designated period. It could be a month, it could

<v Speaker 1>be six weeks, whatever it is, and we can get

<v Speaker 1>segments on the shows with the gms interacting, creating conflicts,

<v Speaker 1>working out trades or call ups. You know, NXT allows

<v Speaker 1>RAW to pick up so and so for a player

<v Speaker 1>to be named later, right, I mean that doesn't have

<v Speaker 1>to mean that someone moves down from the main roster,

<v Speaker 1>although it could. Maybe it's like an IOU or you know,

<v Speaker 1>NXT can call upon one of the gms to provide

<v Speaker 1>them with a big name, you know, to wrestle on

<v Speaker 1>an nxtpl E like Stand and Deliver, Right, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you could be as creative as you want to be

<v Speaker 1>with it. But where there are holes in your roster,

<v Speaker 1>or where there are injuries that wreak havoc on your roster,

<v Speaker 1>make use of your general managers. They don't do it enough.

<v Speaker 1>And when one window closes, the next one opens up

<v Speaker 1>later in the year and you do it all over again.

<v Speaker 1>Like I know, there are people who long for the

<v Speaker 1>days of those early WWE drafts, but you gotta let

<v Speaker 1>it go. You gotta let it go. That was years

<v Speaker 1>ago and WWE has not done a draft like that

<v Speaker 1>in ages. It only works when you have two warring

<v Speaker 1>gms and two brands that really feel like they are

<v Speaker 1>in competition with one another. That's what made that work.

<v Speaker 1>We don't have that anymore. There is no brand loyalty.

<v Speaker 1>The brand loyalty is the WWE. It's not to Raw,

<v Speaker 1>it's not to SmackDown, not with the way people move

<v Speaker 1>so freely between the two shows. Without true brand exclusivity,

<v Speaker 1>it just does not work. This is the better way

<v Speaker 1>to approach it. The less said about that Raw show

<v Speaker 1>on Monday Night, the better. I think. I said my

<v Speaker 1>piece already on Monday Night and then on the Uncrowned

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Show on Tuesday. It was the worst Raw of

<v Speaker 1>the entire year, and honestly, it was one of the

<v Speaker 1>worst episodes of Raw that I've seen in a very

<v Speaker 1>long time, outside of what they did at the very

<v Speaker 1>end of the show, which was the best part of

<v Speaker 1>the show, and it was a very nice, very beautiful

<v Speaker 1>tribute that they paid to AJ Styles. They actually busted

<v Speaker 1>out Creed for a video package and then AJ came out.

<v Speaker 1>They were in his hometown or his home state, I

<v Speaker 1>guess of Georgia. I know he's from Gainesville, but they

<v Speaker 1>were in Atlanta on Monday night and he got to

<v Speaker 1>address the fans. He got to address his family and

<v Speaker 1>his wife who were in the front row, and he said,

<v Speaker 1>the reason he didn't lay his gloves down in the

<v Speaker 1>ring in Saudi Arabia at the Royal Rumble is because

<v Speaker 1>he was waiting to do it at home, and he

<v Speaker 1>laid them down in the ring on top of his vest.

<v Speaker 1>And they had wrestlers come out at the very end

<v Speaker 1>on stage, and throughout the evening they showed different people

<v Speaker 1>who were there in the back, including the Monster Abyss.

<v Speaker 1>We got our first Abyss cameo on WWE television years

<v Speaker 1>after he retired. We finally get him in the mask.

<v Speaker 1>He was there, Frankie Kazarian was there, Jeremy Borash was there.

<v Speaker 1>Pete Williams who works behind the scenes, he was there,

<v Speaker 1>Bobby Rude, it was It was very nice. And then

<v Speaker 1>they had the Undertaker ride down to the ring on

<v Speaker 1>his motorcycle and he got in the ring and he

<v Speaker 1>kind of teased, like, you and I we have unfinished business.

<v Speaker 1>And I said, oh no, are they that desperate for

<v Speaker 1>another attraction on the Wrestlvadia card this year? But in

<v Speaker 1>fact he was there to announce that it was his

<v Speaker 1>esteemed honor to let AJ Styles know that he was

<v Speaker 1>joining the class of twenty twenty six in the ww

<v Speaker 1>the unbelievably big class that they've announced so far for

<v Speaker 1>the WWE Hall of Fame. We only have one other

<v Speaker 1>name announced so far, that is Stephanie McMahon. So now

<v Speaker 1>the question becomes, do they headline with Stephanie or do

<v Speaker 1>they headline with AJ Styles. They should headline with AJ Styles.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not convinced they will, but he's going into the

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame. Of course, he's deserving of being in

<v Speaker 1>the Hall of Fame. It's kind of wild that he

<v Speaker 1>and John sen are retired one right after the other,

<v Speaker 1>and he's going in before John Cena. But I think

<v Speaker 1>John Cena should be the one to induct him. If

<v Speaker 1>there was one person to induct AJ Styles into the

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame, I think John Cena would be that person.

<v Speaker 1>And I think it'll probably just come down to his availability.

<v Speaker 1>But Sena has always talked about aj in glowing terms.

<v Speaker 1>He thinks the world of him, and I think if

<v Speaker 1>he's available to do it, I think he would definitely

<v Speaker 1>do it. Now. Styles was reportedly well aware that aw

<v Speaker 1>was willing to make him a big offer if he

<v Speaker 1>chose to go in that direction, and with the announcement

<v Speaker 1>that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame,

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't sound like AJ is planning on going anywhere

<v Speaker 1>for the foreseeable future. But Justin Barrosso of Undisputed reports

<v Speaker 1>that after speaking with people close to AJ, he was

<v Speaker 1>aware that aw would have made him a substantial offer

<v Speaker 1>with a favorable schedule, one that would not cost him

<v Speaker 1>much time away from home if he decided to wrestle

<v Speaker 1>outside of WWI. But multiple sources have confirmed to p

<v Speaker 1>W Insider that WWE and AJ Styles have come to

<v Speaker 1>terms on a new deal that will keep him officially

<v Speaker 1>with the company. The belief among those we've talked to

<v Speaker 1>is that he will be helping with development of talent.

<v Speaker 1>Styles has made it clear that he is done with

<v Speaker 1>performing in the ring. Carl Anderson and Lou Gallows the

<v Speaker 1>Good Brothers, they were there on Monday night as well,

<v Speaker 1>and Carl Anderson said, after the ceremony, he says, we

<v Speaker 1>get to the back. I said, Aj, I did not

<v Speaker 1>know you were really going to retire, and he goes, really,

<v Speaker 1>I said, yeah, goes, what do you mean, really, we

<v Speaker 1>haven't spoke. How am I supposed to know if you're

<v Speaker 1>really going to retire or not? And he said, dude,

<v Speaker 1>I have to My neck is hurting too bad. I'm

<v Speaker 1>beat up. It's time. I want to help the next generation.

<v Speaker 1>And I go, well, I didn't really believe it, so

<v Speaker 1>I just kept talking on my podcast about how you

<v Speaker 1>were not going to retire, and you're going to go

<v Speaker 1>here and you're going to go there, and now I

<v Speaker 1>got to eat a lot of crow pal and styles.

<v Speaker 1>When asked why he did not want to wait for

<v Speaker 1>Restia to retire he was on the Raw Recap post show,

<v Speaker 1>he said it was coming back from an injury to WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>to a match that to me didn't have much build. Now,

<v Speaker 1>he had mentioned that previously that Liz frank is like

<v Speaker 1>a ligament injury in his foot a couple of years back,

<v Speaker 1>and it was a tough road. I mean, he wasn't

<v Speaker 1>out for like a year or anything like that, but

<v Speaker 1>that's a very difficult injury. And obviously the older you are,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the man's almost fifty years old, your body

<v Speaker 1>doesn't really come back as quickly as it would if

<v Speaker 1>you were thirty eight or if you were twenty eight.

<v Speaker 1>So that injury was a tough one. But by the

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

<v Speaker 1>His original plan was to retire at WrestleMania. This is

<v Speaker 1>going back. I guess a year or whatever. But he's like,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, I just came back and two months

<v Speaker 1>just doesn't really feel like enough time for me. I

<v Speaker 1>come back and then two months later I retire. So

<v Speaker 1>it got put off, and that's what led to him saying, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, We'll do it at the Rumble instead.

<v Speaker 1>The Rumble is ten years to the very event where

<v Speaker 1>I debuted in this company, you get a decade of

<v Speaker 1>AJ styles, and so we'll do it at the Royal

<v Speaker 1>rum So that's what he's referring to there. But then

<v Speaker 1>he made this comment which made the rounds. He said, WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry to say, used to be the most prestigious plee,

<v Speaker 1>but to me, it's kind of lost its luster a

<v Speaker 1>little bit. He said, As far as the Royal Rumble,

<v Speaker 1>that's special to me because that's where I made my debut.

<v Speaker 1>To be able to end where I started is poetic.

<v Speaker 1>So let me stop there. AJ Styles said nothing wrong

<v Speaker 1>in that comment, no lies detected in anything that he

<v Speaker 1>said there. WrestleMania has lost some of its luster, and

<v Speaker 1>it was bound to happen because when you have multiple

<v Speaker 1>pls throughout the entire year that are stadium shows in

<v Speaker 1>front of thirty, forty fifty sixty thousand people, and you

<v Speaker 1>treat all of these shows like a WrestleMania, you treat

<v Speaker 1>SummerSlam like a WrestleMania now because like Mania, Summer Slim

<v Speaker 1>is two nights, and eventually I'm sure the Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>will become two nights, and maybe other shows will be

<v Speaker 1>two nights. If a two night money in the bank, Like,

<v Speaker 1>none of this would shock me unless ticket sales really

<v Speaker 1>were to begin to plateau and fall. I think it's

<v Speaker 1>inevitable we're going to have more events that are two

<v Speaker 1>night shows. So what you're left with with WrestleMania is

<v Speaker 1>you get a really expensive, fancy set in stage, and

<v Speaker 1>what else really makes WrestleMania WrestleMania at this point? Right,

<v Speaker 1>we know the winner of the Royal Rumble goes to

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania and you get the road to Mania, right, we

<v Speaker 1>know that, but Mania itself it feels less and less special.

<v Speaker 1>Every time you take one of these other events and

<v Speaker 1>you dress it up like WrestleMania, like a cosplay WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>it makes Mania feel less special. So for AJ, it's like, well,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, yeah, it'd be cool to go to WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>and retire in front of fifty thousand people, But you

<v Speaker 1>know we we could do that in Saudi Arabia and

<v Speaker 1>have thirty or forty thousand people. We can go to

<v Speaker 1>some other you have a European pl somewhere and do

<v Speaker 1>fifty thousand right clash at the Castle. A few years

<v Speaker 1>ago they had sixty thousand people. And he's got a point.

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania is not as special as he used to be.

<v Speaker 1>It has lost some of its luster now. He further

<v Speaker 1>addressed the ongoing speculation about it possible jump to aw

<v Speaker 1>for one last run. He was on the Talking Shop

<v Speaker 1>Live show on their YouTube channel with Gallows and Anderson.

<v Speaker 1>He popped up there on stream for a little bit

<v Speaker 1>and this is what he had to say. He said,

<v Speaker 1>let me give you a little something to talk about here.

<v Speaker 1>So everybody wants to say, oh, wwe put me in

<v Speaker 1>the Hall of Fame so that I couldn't go to aw, guys,

<v Speaker 1>I am retired from wrestling in the ring. Like that's

<v Speaker 1>all this is. I make my own choices, I make

<v Speaker 1>my own decisions. I was ready, And he explained that

<v Speaker 1>he was on the verge of staying on the table

<v Speaker 1>for too long and he wants to beat the house,

<v Speaker 1>which he did by hanging up his boots. He says,

<v Speaker 1>I am still going to be working with WWE. That's

<v Speaker 1>not going to change. I have these dreams of helping

<v Speaker 1>out young talent. If somebody is not ready, once they

<v Speaker 1>get there, it's my job to hopefully help them get

<v Speaker 1>to that point to where they can do it and

<v Speaker 1>they are confident when they step into a WWE ring.

<v Speaker 1>Being able to help with that is a blessing And

<v Speaker 1>that actually sounds like a great role for someone like

<v Speaker 1>him to be in for as long as he's been

<v Speaker 1>doing this for as well respected as he is, the

<v Speaker 1>kind of performer he was, and like even in some

<v Speaker 1>of these videos they posted, like these vlogs and behind

<v Speaker 1>the scenes stuff leading up to this, like it's all

<v Speaker 1>about him and he's getting ready to go out there.

<v Speaker 1>But like they show him in the gorilla position, he's

<v Speaker 1>looking up at the monitor watching somebody's match and then

<v Speaker 1>like the cameraman's like, oh, you can't help it, right,

<v Speaker 1>you can't help yourself. He clearly is excited, you know,

<v Speaker 1>to be able to help that next generation and kind

<v Speaker 1>of be that mentor and that guide. And I think

<v Speaker 1>that that for WWEE, it's a blessing to have somebody

<v Speaker 1>like aj Styles who actually wants to be in a

<v Speaker 1>position like that. All that being said, though, Gallows and

<v Speaker 1>Anderson are not convinced that aj Styles will not eventually

<v Speaker 1>be back in the ring. They were on Busted Open

<v Speaker 1>Radio and this is what they said. This is what

<v Speaker 1>Anderson said. He said, I think he can sit it

<v Speaker 1>out for a couple of years. I think he's able

<v Speaker 1>to fix the itch by helping people. He loves teaching,

<v Speaker 1>he loves helping the next generation. He loves helping younger wrestlers.

<v Speaker 1>He knows people look up to him, he knows how

<v Speaker 1>good he is. I really believe that will satisfy the

<v Speaker 1>itch until he can't satisfy the itch anymore with it.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe he just needs a couple of years away, Maybe

<v Speaker 1>he just needs a year and a half away. I

<v Speaker 1>do think that it's going to be at least a year.

<v Speaker 1>I do think it's going to be at least a

<v Speaker 1>year and a half even But the itch is always

<v Speaker 1>going to come back. He's too competitive, man, and he's

<v Speaker 1>just too good still, and I know that at some

<v Speaker 1>point I believe he is going to have to get

<v Speaker 1>back in the ring. And Gallows agree, he said, AJ

<v Speaker 1>beat the house. But I would bet this beautiful house

<v Speaker 1>that I'm sitting in right now that he will be back.

<v Speaker 1>And I just see him coming back to the ring

<v Speaker 1>one way or another. There's too much left in the tank.

<v Speaker 1>And the itch is real. He's got that itch. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>he should see a dermatologist for that. This week's episode

<v Speaker 1>is sponsored by wis. You know. I'm not much of

<v Speaker 1>a coffee drinker. I feel like I'm in the minority

<v Speaker 1>on this, but you might be. There's probably nothing like

<v Speaker 1>the smell of fresh coffee in the morning or the

<v Speaker 1>feeling of converting your ideas into cold, hard cash. But

<v Speaker 1>if you use wix Harmony, it's a feeling that you

<v Speaker 1>may just get used to. Wick's Harmony makes it super

<v Speaker 1>easy to turn your ideas into reality, whether you're looking

<v Speaker 1>to build a professional website or take your business to

<v Speaker 1>the next level. Experience the new way to create websites.

<v Speaker 1>Wix Harmony is a hybrid website editor that offers just

<v Speaker 1>the right blend of AI and dragon Drop tools, introducing

<v Speaker 1>you to the next generation of website creation. You can

<v Speaker 1>launch a program site by entering a single prompt and

<v Speaker 1>turning your words into a full blown website. And it's

<v Speaker 1>not just your AI agent doing the work. You've got

<v Speaker 1>manual controls that allow you to switch freely between the

<v Speaker 1>two and help shape every detail of your site. Get

<v Speaker 1>built in solutions for every type of business from e

<v Speaker 1>comm to services, and rest easy knowing that your Wix

<v Speaker 1>site is backed by ninety nine point nine to nine

<v Speaker 1>percent uptime and enterprise grade security with no add ons required.

<v Speaker 1>The AI features and agents offered by wix Harmony are

<v Speaker 1>very cool, and more importantly, they're very useful, and they're

<v Speaker 1>built specifically for small businesses, including Aria, your personal AI

<v Speaker 1>agent that helps you create your website and take care

<v Speaker 1>of your business so that you don't burn yourself out,

<v Speaker 1>which trust me, is very easy to do. You can

<v Speaker 1>generate images, product descriptions, blogs, automate your email, marketing, SEO tasks,

<v Speaker 1>inventory management, and more. Enjoy easy domain registration with web

<v Speaker 1>hosting included powering over two hundred and eighty million businesses

<v Speaker 1>around the world. Wicks has been a pioneer in website

<v Speaker 1>tech for almost twenty years. It's the new way to

<v Speaker 1>create websites. Trust them with yours and see what they

<v Speaker 1>can do for you. Visit wis dot com slash harmony.

<v Speaker 1>That's Wicks dot com slash harmony. I mentioned Bronson read

<v Speaker 1>earlier and his injury. Unfortunately, he is going to be

<v Speaker 1>out for a while. The Vision is maybe maybe Dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen put a curse on the Vision, because this group

<v Speaker 1>is as cursed as any faction I've ever seen. And

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure there was a lot of cursing going on

<v Speaker 1>backstage after the injury happened. But Bronson Reid was wrestling

<v Speaker 1>Elgrande Americano and Jay Usso on Monday night, and you know,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't as if he did something that was terribly

<v Speaker 1>dangerous or visibly like, oh man, that's clearly where the

<v Speaker 1>injury happened. It was just one of those fluke things.

<v Speaker 1>And he dove onto the pile to break up a

<v Speaker 1>pin attempt as Gable was trying to pine and he

<v Speaker 1>came up to his knees and he immediately grabbed his

<v Speaker 1>arm and looked at his right arm, his like his forearm,

<v Speaker 1>and it was clear that he thought something was wrong,

<v Speaker 1>and we didn't see him again for the rest of

<v Speaker 1>the match. They had to call an audible and have

<v Speaker 1>Jay Uso go over because Reid was supposed to win,

<v Speaker 1>and unfortunately for Mike Johnson, this was on Wednesday. Bronson

<v Speaker 1>Reed was sent right to Birmingham, Alabama after Raw. The

<v Speaker 1>location of where the injury happened actually worked in his

<v Speaker 1>favor as Birmingham is just a short drive from Georgia

<v Speaker 1>and there is no word yet on how long he

<v Speaker 1>will be out of action because he suffered a biceps tear,

<v Speaker 1>a distal biceps tear, and Reid did open up and

<v Speaker 1>address his fans on social media. He shared his gratitude

<v Speaker 1>and said, appreciate the kind words. I will be back

<v Speaker 1>better than ever, causing destruction like no one else can.

<v Speaker 1>And then later on he shared a photo of himself

<v Speaker 1>lying in a hospital bed and it looked like he

<v Speaker 1>had just come out of sir injury. He was hooked

<v Speaker 1>up to all these machines and tubes and shit, and

<v Speaker 1>he said, surgery done. Tomorrow is day one. The road

<v Speaker 1>back and from an injury like that, that's probably an

<v Speaker 1>easy five or six months, or maybe four to six

<v Speaker 1>but clearly not going to be involved in WrestleMania, and

<v Speaker 1>it will be some time before we see Bronson Reid again,

<v Speaker 1>and it sucks for him. I really do. I feel

<v Speaker 1>bad for him because this is the second time now

<v Speaker 1>that he has in the last few years that he

<v Speaker 1>has suffered a very serious injury that has taken him

<v Speaker 1>out of WrestleMania. Right before WrestleMania, and he was obviously

<v Speaker 1>part of the top heel faction on Monday Night Raw,

<v Speaker 1>he was in a prime spot. I'm sure they'll slot

<v Speaker 1>him right back in there when he's back. But who

<v Speaker 1>knows if the Vision will even be a thing by

<v Speaker 1>the time he gets back, or what it's even going

<v Speaker 1>to look like. I don't know, but the timing is

<v Speaker 1>obviously very shitty, And now the Vision is reduced to

<v Speaker 1>a tag team Logan, Paul and Austin theory are what

<v Speaker 1>is left of the Vision now as we wait to

<v Speaker 1>find out when bron Breaker might be able to make

<v Speaker 1>his return from his hernia surgery. Are they going to

<v Speaker 1>just wait it out until he's ready to come back?

<v Speaker 1>Are they going to add new members and call up

<v Speaker 1>people from NXT to throw them in the Vision and

<v Speaker 1>just have an entire faction of brand new guys. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know, but the Vision to me just feels like

<v Speaker 1>a lost cause at this point. It might just be

<v Speaker 1>bad luck. It might be better to just blow the

<v Speaker 1>whole thing up and start over again. Brock Lesner, he

<v Speaker 1>was on Raw Monday night. They promoted his first appearance

<v Speaker 1>since the royal rumble. He was going to be on

<v Speaker 1>Raw in Atlanta doing what. We don't know, but I

<v Speaker 1>thought it was a little suspect that they were bringing

<v Speaker 1>him back on the go home episode of Raw before

<v Speaker 1>the Elimination Chamber, and naturally you would think, well, maybe

<v Speaker 1>he's going to factor into the elimination Chamber in some way.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe he'll even sneak into the elimination Chamber. But that

<v Speaker 1>would be asking too much. They'd probably have to pay

<v Speaker 1>him for an extra date if they wanted him to

<v Speaker 1>do that. So instead he showed up in the ring

<v Speaker 1>with Paul Hayman. I guess they could always plug him

<v Speaker 1>into the Vision, but he's never on the show, so

<v Speaker 1>what's the point of even doing that. And Paul Hammond

<v Speaker 1>did all the talking. The reason that brock Lesner was

<v Speaker 1>there if you wanted to get a hint of what

<v Speaker 1>he might be doing at WrestleMania. They are doing the

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner Open Challenge. This is what they have come

<v Speaker 1>up with. Now. It's very clear that they are trying

<v Speaker 1>to stockpile RAW as much as possible, and Netflix is

<v Speaker 1>the priority here because all of the dates that they

<v Speaker 1>have announced for Roman reigns in brock Lesner, and I

<v Speaker 1>think for Roman, what was it five or six dates?

<v Speaker 1>I think it's five dates. For Brock, they're all raw dates.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I guess it doesn't preclude them from adding

<v Speaker 1>a SmackDown date here and there, but right now, these

<v Speaker 1>are all raw dates for Roman reigns and for brock Lesner.

<v Speaker 1>And we're not going to see Brock again until the

<v Speaker 1>March sixteenth episode of RAW. I think Roman will be

<v Speaker 1>there as well. March sixteenth, they're going to be in

<v Speaker 1>San Antonio, Texas. That just so happens to be three sixteen.

<v Speaker 1>Holy shit, Stone Cold Steve Austin is going to accept

<v Speaker 1>the open challenge. We're gonna get Austin and Brock at WrestleMania. Yeah. No,

<v Speaker 1>But as Paul Hayman is cutting that promo on Monday

<v Speaker 1>Night and talking about anybody in the back doesn't have

<v Speaker 1>the guts to come out and step in the ring

<v Speaker 1>with the beast. Who do you think the fans began

<v Speaker 1>chanting for. It wasn't La Night, it was Obafemi, And

<v Speaker 1>I was just gobsmacked by the way they did this

<v Speaker 1>because literally in the segment before this, Obafemi was there.

<v Speaker 1>They showed him live in the back talking to Nick

<v Speaker 1>all this and Russev. They're teasing a match soon with

<v Speaker 1>him and Russev. They had Oba wrestling the Miz on

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown Friday Night, but he was there. They showed you

<v Speaker 1>that he was there, so they started chanting oh Bah,

<v Speaker 1>oh bah, and of course Oba didn't come out, which

<v Speaker 1>was a bad look. I don't know why you would

<v Speaker 1>film it that way, but my hope is that sanity

<v Speaker 1>will prevail here and if you're gonna have a Brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesnar match oft WrestleMania, Obafemi is the right choice. And

<v Speaker 1>so maybe they're gonna wait. I don't know if it'll

<v Speaker 1>be three to sixteen in San Antonio, but Brock's gonna

<v Speaker 1>be on the show late March in Madison Square Garden.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they shoot the angle there and Oba comes out there,

<v Speaker 1>because how are you going to drag this out until

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania and wait until WrestleMania, let's say, because some people say, well,

<v Speaker 1>maybe they'll wait until Mania and they'll just have obacome

<v Speaker 1>out at Mania and accept the open challenge. And you

<v Speaker 1>could do that. I don't know why you would, because

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi against brock Lesnar, if that is the matter you're

<v Speaker 1>gonna do, that's a fucking match you promote. Okay, you

<v Speaker 1>don't throw that shit out. There is a surprise, that's

<v Speaker 1>number one. Number two. Brock's gonna be on the show

<v Speaker 1>five more times before we get to WrestleMania. He did

<v Speaker 1>nothing on Monday Night. That was a complete waste of time.

<v Speaker 1>The only reason they had brock Lesner on Raw Monday Night,

<v Speaker 1>five days before the Elimination Chamber well so that they

<v Speaker 1>could throw his tour dates like he's some fucking returning

<v Speaker 1>rock band, throw his tour dates up on screen to

<v Speaker 1>get people to start buying tickets to go to those shows.

<v Speaker 1>And whatever they have him doing on those shows, it

<v Speaker 1>better be a hell of a lot better than what

<v Speaker 1>they had him doing on Monday Night, because that segment

<v Speaker 1>was a complete waste of time and a complete waste

<v Speaker 1>of a Brocklesner appearance. I don't see how you can

<v Speaker 1>wait until wressel Mania to announce who his opponent is

<v Speaker 1>going to be. I'm looking at that, I'm thinking Madison

<v Speaker 1>Square Garden, and that's still several weeks away. It's still

<v Speaker 1>like three or four weeks away. But I think you

<v Speaker 1>could probably drag it out until then, and that would

<v Speaker 1>be a big place to have Oba come out. You

<v Speaker 1>get the big face to face because you want to

<v Speaker 1>get that shot. You want to get that shot of

<v Speaker 1>the two of them standing in the ring eye to eye.

<v Speaker 1>Put that on all the posters and the graphics and shit.

<v Speaker 1>You can't hold out until WRESSELMANI you just you can't

<v Speaker 1>do that. But Oba Femi is the right choice. Let's

<v Speaker 1>talk about AAW here, because there was a massive story

<v Speaker 1>this week that absolutely will have an impact on AAW

<v Speaker 1>in what way we don't yet know. But who could

<v Speaker 1>have seen this coming? Who could have seen this coming?

<v Speaker 1>A bombshell in the war for Warner Brothers Discovery the

<v Speaker 1>media rights partner and minority owner in AW which looked

<v Speaker 1>like it was about to be acquired by Netflix, to

<v Speaker 1>the point where Netflix even put out a press announcement

<v Speaker 1>some time ago announcing the acquisition. And how many rejections

<v Speaker 1>that we've seen of Paramount Skydance offers. I lost counted

<v Speaker 1>how many times they were rejected. But that all changed

<v Speaker 1>this week when Paramount raised its offer to thirty one

<v Speaker 1>dollars per share for the entire company, and the WBD

<v Speaker 1>Board of Directors seemed or deemed it rather a superior proposal,

<v Speaker 1>and that then gave Netflix, I want to say, four

<v Speaker 1>business days I believe it was to submit a new bid,

<v Speaker 1>but instead Netflix pulled a major swerve and they just

<v Speaker 1>dropped out of the bidding altogether, and they walked away

<v Speaker 1>from a deal that's seen all but certain, pending regulatory approval.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, it's still had to be approved. But they

<v Speaker 1>didn't even put up a fight. They didn't even try.

<v Speaker 1>They just got up from the table, they said thank

<v Speaker 1>you very much, and they walked away, and in doing so,

<v Speaker 1>they now collect a cool two point eight billion dollar

<v Speaker 1>breakup fee for the deal falling through. In fact, Paramount

<v Speaker 1>has already paid the breakup fee. It's already been paid

<v Speaker 1>to Netflix, or maybe they paid it to WBD, and

<v Speaker 1>then WBD paid it to Netflix. However it works, but

<v Speaker 1>it's like, boy, was that quick? They had that money

<v Speaker 1>ready to go right out the door? Didn't they think

<v Speaker 1>about that? Netflix just made almost three billion dollars off

<v Speaker 1>the Ellison family for losing. If I was the conspiracy

<v Speaker 1>theorist type, I might suggest that that was their strategy

<v Speaker 1>all along, if it was hat tip to them. But

<v Speaker 1>Netflix stock was also up nearly twelve percent and trading

<v Speaker 1>on Friday. Wall Street appears to be very happy that

<v Speaker 1>they walked away from this mess. It was shocking to me,

<v Speaker 1>if only because Netflix walked away that I did not

<v Speaker 1>see coming. And apparently Paramount and Warner Brothers they were

<v Speaker 1>equally as shocked that Netflix walked. But this deal is

<v Speaker 1>going to have ripple effects across the entire entertainment industry, media, news, entertainment,

<v Speaker 1>all of it. The Ellison family they badly want control

<v Speaker 1>of CNN. Had Netflix acquired Warner Brothers Discovery, they were

<v Speaker 1>only acquiring the movie Studio and HBO and HBO Max.

<v Speaker 1>They were not bidding for all of the other cable stations,

<v Speaker 1>including CNN. It's entirely possible that Paramount would have acquired

<v Speaker 1>that later on anyway, but that was not part of

<v Speaker 1>the Netflix deal. They have no interest in being in

<v Speaker 1>the linear TV business, probably because they see it as

<v Speaker 1>a dying business. But the Ellisons want CNN, and now,

<v Speaker 1>barring any regulatory issues, they're going to get their hands

<v Speaker 1>on it. And it is just amazing to me that

<v Speaker 1>they are spending all of this money in some party.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying it's the main reason they're spending over

<v Speaker 1>one hundred billion dollars, but they are spending this money

<v Speaker 1>in part to get their hands on a news network

<v Speaker 1>that has been dying for years. Since twenty seventeen, CNN

<v Speaker 1>has lost nearly half of its audience, up to forty

<v Speaker 1>five percent of its audience gone. They routinely rank dead

<v Speaker 1>last among the major news networks. They even drop behind

<v Speaker 1>the Food Network At one point. They'll end up turning

<v Speaker 1>it into Fox News Light, which I don't really understand.

<v Speaker 1>If people want to watch Fox News, they'll watch Fox News.

<v Speaker 1>What the fuck are they going to watch CNN for.

<v Speaker 1>But the belief is that they wanted CNN as soon

<v Speaker 1>as possible, likely before the midterm elections later this year.

<v Speaker 1>Even if the deal eventually closes, they're not going to

<v Speaker 1>have CNN in time for the midterms, and they won't

<v Speaker 1>have much time to overhaul things even if they do,

<v Speaker 1>so I don't really see what difference that's going to

<v Speaker 1>make in the short term. In a joint statement, Netflix

<v Speaker 1>co CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said this on Thursday.

<v Speaker 1>The transaction that we negotiated would have created shareholder value

<v Speaker 1>with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we've always

<v Speaker 1>been disciplined and at the price required to match Paramount

<v Speaker 1>Skuydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive,

<v Speaker 1>so we are declining to match the Paramount sky Dance bid.

<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers is a world class organization and we want

<v Speaker 1>to thank David Zaslov, Gunner Whedenfels, Bruce Campbell. I always

<v Speaker 1>laugh when I see that Brad Singer and the WBD

<v Speaker 1>board for running a fair and rigorous process. We believe

<v Speaker 1>that we would have been strong stewards of Warner Brothers

<v Speaker 1>iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the

<v Speaker 1>entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in

<v Speaker 1>the US. But this transaction was always a nice to

<v Speaker 1>have at the right price, not a must have at

<v Speaker 1>any price. This is all terrible for so many reasons.

<v Speaker 1>Not that the Netflix deal would have been great either.

<v Speaker 1>Again I've said before, I don't like how any of

<v Speaker 1>these companies just they just keep getting bigger and bigger

<v Speaker 1>and fatter and fatter. But Netflix did not have its

<v Speaker 1>own studio and theatrical releases like Warner Brothers does and

<v Speaker 1>like Paramount does, which means you're like, you're combining the

<v Speaker 1>two studios here. It means lots of redundancy in jobs.

<v Speaker 1>There's gonna be a lot of job losses coming out

<v Speaker 1>of this, especially when you consider the massive amount of

<v Speaker 1>debt that Paramount is carrying, lots of unemployed people on

<v Speaker 1>a scale much greater than anything that would have been

<v Speaker 1>seen with the Netflix deal. And that's to say nothing,

<v Speaker 1>of course, on the effect it could have on the

<v Speaker 1>movie industry. I mean this comes from the Hollywood Reporter.

<v Speaker 1>If anyone thought theater owners would lay down their arms

<v Speaker 1>and stop fighting if Netflix did not prevail in its

<v Speaker 1>bid to buy Warner Brothers, think again. Just as concerning,

<v Speaker 1>if not more so, is the danger of what happens

<v Speaker 1>if David Ellison succeeds in owning two Hollywood legacy studios

<v Speaker 1>and merges Paramount with Warner Brothers. That's why no one

<v Speaker 1>at Cinema United, the leading trade group for exhibitors, was

<v Speaker 1>hardly jumping for joy on Thursday when Netflix walked away

<v Speaker 1>from its megadeal. And while exhibitors did not necessarily trust

<v Speaker 1>Ted Sarandos when he pledged that Netflix would give Warner

<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers movies a forty five day exclusive run in

<v Speaker 1>theaters as from day one at Netflix, he's refused to

<v Speaker 1>abide by theatrical windows. They find it hard to fathom

<v Speaker 1>that Warner and Paramount will be able to release a

<v Speaker 1>combined thirty films a year. Further, they believed the merger

<v Speaker 1>would vest one studio with far too much power. Cinema United,

<v Speaker 1>formerly the National Association of Theater Owners, is sure to

<v Speaker 1>use the topic of consolidation as a calling card when

<v Speaker 1>trying to stop the nuptials during visit to Capitol Hill,

<v Speaker 1>the Department of Justice, and various state attorneys General. A

<v Speaker 1>combination of Paramount and Warner Brothers would consolidate as much

<v Speaker 1>as forty percent of each year's domestic box office in

<v Speaker 1>the hands of a single dominant studio and could diminish

<v Speaker 1>the overall number of releases. In twenty sixteen, Disney and

<v Speaker 1>twenty eeth century Fox released twenty six new titles in

<v Speaker 1>more than two thousand domestic theaters each. Disney absorbed twentieth

<v Speaker 1>century Fox about seven or eight years ago. Last year,

<v Speaker 1>the combined total was fourteen. They went from twenty six

<v Speaker 1>new titles to fourteen, a forty six percent decline. The

<v Speaker 1>impact of this drop on domestic box office is that

<v Speaker 1>twentieth century Fox or whatever they're calling themselves now I

<v Speaker 1>don't even think Fox is part of the name anymore,

<v Speaker 1>is estimated to have grossed nine hundred million dollars less

<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty five than in twenty sixteen, a drop

<v Speaker 1>of sixty three percent. So you can see why those

<v Speaker 1>in Hollywood would not be fond of this deal, although

<v Speaker 1>there is an argument to be made that by allowing

<v Speaker 1>that Disney acquisition of twenty first century Fox that it

<v Speaker 1>makes it easier for a deal like this to go through,

<v Speaker 1>because how can you let two bigger companies merge and

<v Speaker 1>then turn around and tell two smaller ones that they can't.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think any of this should be allowed, but

<v Speaker 1>it's hard not to argue that the precedent for it

<v Speaker 1>hasn't already been set. But Paramount is spending one hundred

<v Speaker 1>and ten billion dollars to acquire WBD, and according to

<v Speaker 1>leaked audio from a WBD town hall with employees on

<v Speaker 1>Friday morning, they have already signed the agreement with Paramount

<v Speaker 1>one hundred and ten billion. And think about this, Paramount

<v Speaker 1>itself has a market value of around fifteen billion, with

<v Speaker 1>nearly that much in debt that they have been carrying around.

<v Speaker 1>Now they're spending one hundred and ten billion dollars for

<v Speaker 1>all of this, and once everything is combined, the new

<v Speaker 1>company will be carrying over ninety billion in debt. It's insane.

<v Speaker 1>If it's one credit card bill that I have each month,

<v Speaker 1>and I pay it off every single month, and if

<v Speaker 1>I let it linger for too long, I feel guilty.

<v Speaker 1>They're going to carry ninety billion dollars in debt around

<v Speaker 1>for the foreseeable future. Like, these numbers don't even make

<v Speaker 1>any sense to me. But David Ellison's father is worth

<v Speaker 1>over two hundred billion all by himself. In between that,

<v Speaker 1>and you have the Saudis are involved, and the Kataris

<v Speaker 1>are involved, and they're providing equity. They think they can

<v Speaker 1>make it all work. They've got money coming in from

<v Speaker 1>lots of different places. But again here I feel guilty

<v Speaker 1>when I bought that Macho King figure for forty bucks,

<v Speaker 1>thinking do I really need to be buying this? And

<v Speaker 1>I feel guilty about that. Paramount has promised six billion

<v Speaker 1>dollars in what they call cost synergies, which is just

<v Speaker 1>a fancy way of saying spending cuts in mass layoffs.

<v Speaker 1>And for the purposes of this podcast, the question is

<v Speaker 1>what does this mean for all elite wrestling? Is this

<v Speaker 1>good or is this bad for the future of AAW.

<v Speaker 1>The simple answer is, we don't know yet. We don't know.

<v Speaker 1>If Paramount is looking to cut billions of dollars in spending,

<v Speaker 1>that could be very bad. When the time comes for

<v Speaker 1>AAW to renew its media rights next year or twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty eight if they pick up. I think they have

<v Speaker 1>an option year, so it may not be next year,

<v Speaker 1>it could be twenty twenty eight. Paramount spent nearly eight

<v Speaker 1>billion dollars over seven years. Remember that announcement about the

<v Speaker 1>UFC rights. Eight billion dollars almost over seven years. That's

<v Speaker 1>the agreement that they made for UFC Media rights. That

<v Speaker 1>works out to about a billion dollars. Ye. I think

<v Speaker 1>a little more than a billion dollars a year AW

<v Speaker 1>would be a bargain for them by comparison. So if

<v Speaker 1>they think that AW is delivering value to them with

<v Speaker 1>the numbers that they bring in, not just in terms

<v Speaker 1>of television ratings, but HBO Max viewers, and you have

<v Speaker 1>pay per view purchases through HBO Max because now you

<v Speaker 1>can buy the pay per views through HBO Max. If

<v Speaker 1>they feel that AW is delivering value, then they may

<v Speaker 1>be fine.

<v Speaker 2>You know.

<v Speaker 1>The most recent deal that AW signed was reportedly for

<v Speaker 1>somewhere around one hundred and eighty five million dollars a

<v Speaker 1>year for three years, okay, with an option for a fourth.

<v Speaker 1>If we go with one eighty five as the highest

<v Speaker 1>possible number here, let's say it is one hundred and

<v Speaker 1>eighty five million a year. Okay, it could be a

<v Speaker 1>little less than that over three years. That's over five

<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty million dollars as opposed to a billion

<v Speaker 1>a year for seven years. It's a steal, but that's

<v Speaker 1>at their current deal. Tony Kahn is going to be

<v Speaker 1>looking for a better deal. The next time around, he's

<v Speaker 1>not going to want to be flat, you know, he's

<v Speaker 1>going to want an increase. This deal would keep HBO

<v Speaker 1>Max together with the TV stations, whereas with Netflix it

<v Speaker 1>all would have been separated because again, Netflix did not

<v Speaker 1>want the TV stations. It also means that Paramount would

<v Speaker 1>acquire the minority ownership stake in aaw that Warner Brothers

<v Speaker 1>Discovery currently has, which again it's a minority stake, it's

<v Speaker 1>less than ten percent. Now, Netflix was going to keep

<v Speaker 1>HBO Max as a separate streaming service, that's what they claimed.

<v Speaker 1>We don't know if Paramount plans to do the same

<v Speaker 1>or if they would merge HBO Max into Paramount Plus

<v Speaker 1>as one, but it sounds like it may be the latter.

<v Speaker 1>Now HBO Max has something like one hundred and twenty

<v Speaker 1>five million I think they say global subscribers. Paramount Plus

<v Speaker 1>has about seventy eight million. HBO is by far the

<v Speaker 1>stronger of the two services by far. And there was

<v Speaker 1>a report from Bloomberg back in October. Now it cited

<v Speaker 1>a single unnamed source. Okay, so keep that in mind,

<v Speaker 1>but this was a Bloomberg story, and the source at

<v Speaker 1>the time in October claimed that the Ellison's plan was

<v Speaker 1>to merge HBO Max into the existing Paramount Plus service

<v Speaker 1>because they want to make Paramount more compelling for their subscribers.

<v Speaker 1>So if that happens, HBO Max is gone, HBO Max

<v Speaker 1>is no more. What effect does that have on AAW right,

<v Speaker 1>which not only simulcast it's television shows on HBO Max's

<v Speaker 1>That's where I watch Dynamite every week. I watch it

<v Speaker 1>in the HBO Max app. So not only do do

<v Speaker 1>they simulcast their shows on there, but they offer their

<v Speaker 1>pay per views through there as well. And HBO Max

<v Speaker 1>is only first launching i think later this month in

<v Speaker 1>the UK and in Ireland. Right, they're not going to

<v Speaker 1>be very happy if it gets merged into Paramount now. Also,

<v Speaker 1>Paramount has a business relationship with TKO through UFC right,

<v Speaker 1>they have no direct relationship with WWE, but TKO is

<v Speaker 1>the parent company of WWE. Could there be a conflict there?

<v Speaker 1>Could that work against aaw It might Again, it all

<v Speaker 1>comes down to the numbers, Like if Paramount thinks that

<v Speaker 1>they can make decent money off aaw and they care

<v Speaker 1>enough to be in the pro wrestling business without having

<v Speaker 1>to pay through the nose for WWE content, then it

<v Speaker 1>might be worth it for them to keep wrestling under

<v Speaker 1>their umbrella. It would certainly be cheaper than any deal

<v Speaker 1>they might make with WWE would be. But do they

<v Speaker 1>care enough to even be in the pro wrestling business?

<v Speaker 2>Right?

<v Speaker 1>That's one question right there. Another question is who will

<v Speaker 1>be the person or people overseeing TNT and TBS. Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahn has talked about having this great relationship with David

<v Speaker 1>Zaslov and great relationships with the heads of the networks.

<v Speaker 1>Is that going to be the case with Paramount. Are

<v Speaker 1>the people in charge even going to like wrestling? We

<v Speaker 1>don't know. But if they have ownership in the company,

<v Speaker 1>however small it may be, and let's say they do

<v Speaker 1>keep HBO Max and they can make money off the

<v Speaker 1>pay per view sales, then I think, so long as

<v Speaker 1>they're putting up decent numbers, that works in their favor.

<v Speaker 1>You know, The reality is, until this actually goes through

<v Speaker 1>and we get a better sense of what their plans are,

<v Speaker 1>who they put in charge of these things, we don't know.

<v Speaker 1>We don't know what we don't know. And Tony Kahn

<v Speaker 1>should be thinking about and I'm sure he is thinking

<v Speaker 1>about a plan B in case things do go a

<v Speaker 1>bad way cable wise, I don't know where they would

<v Speaker 1>even land. I mean, the cable landscape has changed so much,

<v Speaker 1>and it's another reason why it sucks having a handful

<v Speaker 1>of big companies owning so many different properties. Streaming wise,

<v Speaker 1>I still maintain that Amazon I think could be a

<v Speaker 1>good option for them, but for visibility, I think they

<v Speaker 1>need to maintain a presence on cable. I don't think

<v Speaker 1>streaming is enough. You know, WWE took a chance that

<v Speaker 1>with Raw on Netflix. You know they would be fine

<v Speaker 1>because they got paid five billion dollars for it, and

<v Speaker 1>they still have a presence on TV. They have smacked

<v Speaker 1>down on USA, they have NXT on the CW. It's

<v Speaker 1>not like they're completely divorced from from television. Raw has

<v Speaker 1>also been on the air for thirty plus years. AW

<v Speaker 1>doesn't have that same luxury right, no more so than

<v Speaker 1>TNA does, even though TNA has been around a lot

<v Speaker 1>longer than AW has. They needed a good cable clearance.

<v Speaker 1>Access television wasn't going to be enough, and they ended

<v Speaker 1>up getting on AMC. If they end up off TBS

<v Speaker 1>and TNT, AW is going to have to find a

<v Speaker 1>home somewhere streaming is not going to be enough, but

<v Speaker 1>stay tuned because there's always a chance that this deal

<v Speaker 1>gets derailed. There was more leaked audio from that WBD

<v Speaker 1>town hall that I mentioned on Friday morning, where David

<v Speaker 1>Zaslov said he expects it to take six to twelve

<v Speaker 1>months for the deal to close, and that the deal

<v Speaker 1>might not close and if it doesn't, he said, quote,

<v Speaker 1>we get seven billion dollars and we get back to work. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>if the deal fails to win approval, WBD gets seven

<v Speaker 1>billion dollars for nothing. You talk about failing upward in life.

<v Speaker 1>If this goes through, this might well end up being

<v Speaker 1>a bigger disaster than the AOL Time Warner merger all

<v Speaker 1>those years ago that didn't work out too well for WCW.

<v Speaker 1>You the Hurt Syndicate might be back at full strength shortly.

<v Speaker 1>The Almighty Bobby Lashley, while appearing at the recent for

<v Speaker 1>the Love of Wrestling convention in the UK, clarified that

<v Speaker 1>he is healthy and looking forward to going after gold

<v Speaker 1>in aw Targeting the trios titles currently held by Hangman Page,

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight and Speedball Mike Bailey. He said, all I

<v Speaker 1>want to do is win titles, so That's what I'm

<v Speaker 1>really focused on when we get back Between Shelton and MVP,

<v Speaker 1>we want to do things collectively. We want to do

<v Speaker 1>things as a group. So I think we're going to

<v Speaker 1>go after the trios guys. Let's see what we can

<v Speaker 1>do with those guys, because I think that's what we need. Man,

<v Speaker 1>the crowd loves us over there. Shelton's an amazing person,

<v Speaker 1>an amazing wrestler. MVP is amazing at everything that he does,

<v Speaker 1>and same here. So it's like we just have a

<v Speaker 1>great group and we're all friends. So we all pull

<v Speaker 1>for each other. So anytime one of us is down,

<v Speaker 1>the other one pulls us up. And I think, right

<v Speaker 1>now they're pulling me up. They're yanking me back in.

<v Speaker 1>They said it. It's ready. We're ready to get back

<v Speaker 1>out there and win some titles. So I am healed.

<v Speaker 1>Everybody thought I was hurt. I'm not hurt. You can't

<v Speaker 1>hurt the Almighty, he says, everybody thought I was hurt.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not hurt. But in the same quote, he says,

<v Speaker 1>I'm healed. MA make it make sense, Please make it

<v Speaker 1>make sense. We have not seen him since full Gear

<v Speaker 1>in November. He was quite obviously hurt and now he's healed,

<v Speaker 1>and that's great news. And for as strong as the

<v Speaker 1>main events scene is right now in AW, you know,

<v Speaker 1>getting back names like lash Lee, I mean, I know

<v Speaker 1>there he said he wants to just come back and

<v Speaker 1>go after the trio's titles, but he needs to have

<v Speaker 1>a singles run at some point. You know, you get

<v Speaker 1>names back like lash Lee, will Ospray, Jay White hopefully soon.

<v Speaker 1>That's only going to make that roster and that top

<v Speaker 1>of the card that much stronger. And Dynamite on Wednesday

<v Speaker 1>was not quite as strong as last week's show. Overall,

<v Speaker 1>in my opinion, I still enjoyed it. We basically got

<v Speaker 1>an anarchy the arena match in the main event with

<v Speaker 1>the Young Bucks, Jack Perry and the Rascals against FTR

<v Speaker 1>Ricochet in the Gates of Agony, I mean right down

<v Speaker 1>to them letting Tarzan Boy loop for half the match.

<v Speaker 1>Perry pinn Ricochet to win the match, which puts him

<v Speaker 1>in line I'm sure for another crack at Ricochet's national title,

<v Speaker 1>likely at Revolution. The stipulation has been decided on for

<v Speaker 1>the AW World title match at Revolution. They had a

<v Speaker 1>segment with MJF and Hangman Adam Page. Page had already

<v Speaker 1>said that if I don't win the championship, if I

<v Speaker 1>lose it revolution, I will never again challenge for the

<v Speaker 1>aw World title. And so he wanted Texas Death, and

<v Speaker 1>MJF said, I need a week to think about what

<v Speaker 1>the stipulation is going to be and come up with

<v Speaker 1>one of my own, and then we can work it out.

<v Speaker 1>So he showed up with a coin. He was going

<v Speaker 1>to do a coin flip. If Page one, then he

<v Speaker 1>would get his wish and it would be Texas Death.

<v Speaker 1>If he lost, MJF would get his own stipulation, a

<v Speaker 1>one way no disqualification match, or Page would get disqual

<v Speaker 1>If he even so much as looked at a weapon,

<v Speaker 1>MJF he could do whatever he wants. See he flips

<v Speaker 1>the coin. He says, I pick heads, right. He flips

<v Speaker 1>the coin. Of course it comes up heads. He gets

<v Speaker 1>his match. He goes to leave and Hangman is like,

<v Speaker 1>let me see the coin, and MJF refuses, and then

<v Speaker 1>Jet Speed and Brodido they came out to block his exit.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, it ended up being a rigged coin. Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kah then relays to Tony Shavani in his ear that

<v Speaker 1>because MJF used a rigged coin, it would indeed be

<v Speaker 1>a Texas Death match at the pay per view, which

<v Speaker 1>we already knew, so I'm not really sure. I mean, look,

<v Speaker 1>this illustrates that MJF is obviously, you know, nervous, I

<v Speaker 1>guess about losing his championship, but not exactly a segment

<v Speaker 1>that we needed to have on the show. But it

<v Speaker 1>kind of fits the narrative about MJF being worried that

<v Speaker 1>maybe he can't beat Hangman, which really, to me, that's

<v Speaker 1>the real story here, that should be the real story

<v Speaker 1>of this match. They had two matches last year, Hangman

<v Speaker 1>won them both. MJF just can't beat this guy. He

<v Speaker 1>cannot beat this guy. He might actually lose his championship

<v Speaker 1>at Revolution. There you go, that's your story right there.

<v Speaker 1>But we're getting textas death, So get ready for blood

<v Speaker 1>and gore and barbed wire and cinder blocks and all

<v Speaker 1>kinds of crap in that match. Swerve Strickland after his

<v Speaker 1>heel turn, Yes, he'll turn, say it with me. That's

<v Speaker 1>what it was on Dynamite the week before. He'll turn

<v Speaker 1>On Kenny Omega. He was back to explain his actions.

<v Speaker 1>He was standing on the announced desk as he did this,

<v Speaker 1>and he had a chain around his neck, and he

<v Speaker 1>said he figured the sickos would enjoy what he did

<v Speaker 1>last week to Kenny. Then they booed, and he say, oh, well,

<v Speaker 1>I should have figured that's what happens when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to your favorites. And he feels no guilt simply for

<v Speaker 1>the fact that he warned him that whatever happens next

<v Speaker 1>is on him, right. I mean, he got in Swerve's

<v Speaker 1>way for the war title, and he had the nerve

<v Speaker 1>to call someone else the most dangerous man in aaw

<v Speaker 1>so he felt like he had a point to prove. Basically,

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega pulled his punk card and he couldn't let

<v Speaker 1>that go unpunished, and he wants to go all the

<v Speaker 1>way back to the Week of All. In Texas, he

<v Speaker 1>had this conversation with Hangmen, and Hangman asked him, do

<v Speaker 1>you regret doing all of the horrible things that you've

<v Speaker 1>done to get to the world title, And at the

<v Speaker 1>time he told him yes, But now that he reflects

<v Speaker 1>back on that, he says that was the most successful

<v Speaker 1>period of his career. So now he chooses to live

<v Speaker 1>life with no regrets. And he warned the rest of

<v Speaker 1>the roster. Every single one of you was unnoticed. Any

<v Speaker 1>of you could be clipped at any given moment, and

<v Speaker 1>he'll remind them in case they forgot who the most

<v Speaker 1>dangerous man in AW is. So this is already making

<v Speaker 1>him more interesting than he's been for many months now.

<v Speaker 1>I'm all in favor of this again. It's a heel turn.

<v Speaker 1>You want to call it something else, you, oh, he's

<v Speaker 1>a tween er. He's not a heel. He's a heel.

<v Speaker 1>But whatever you want to call it to me, it

<v Speaker 1>makes this character on TV more interesting now. It definitely

<v Speaker 1>feels to me like he's going to prove to be

<v Speaker 1>the downfall of Hangman in that title match of Revolution

<v Speaker 1>against them JF. And then how they get out of

<v Speaker 1>the stipulation that, you know, he can never again challenge

<v Speaker 1>for the championship. They'll have to figure out, you know,

<v Speaker 1>a way out of it. But I'm not convinced that

<v Speaker 1>he's winning the title in that match. They strongly hinted

<v Speaker 1>at two more matches for the Revolution card. Brody King

<v Speaker 1>got a win over Mark Davis and then he got

<v Speaker 1>on the mic and he said I want to fight

<v Speaker 1>at Revolution and he called out Swerve, and then Bendido

<v Speaker 1>was there. He goes, yeah, I want to fight too,

<v Speaker 1>and then Andrede Ledelo came out and they kind of

<v Speaker 1>pointed and pumped their fist at each other. There was

<v Speaker 1>this sort of mutual understanding like, okay, we'll do this.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it's been officially announced yet, but

<v Speaker 1>Brody King against Swerve and then Bendido against Andrade Ledlo,

<v Speaker 1>those are two fucking pretty good matches, I would say

<v Speaker 1>to add to the Revolution Code Revolution is already shaving

<v Speaker 1>up to be far better than Elimination Chamber was last night.

<v Speaker 1>And then there was an injury to Penelope Ford and

<v Speaker 1>this became a bit of a story this week for

<v Speaker 1>all the wrong reasons. We had a women's tag team

<v Speaker 1>title match. It was a rematch from Grand Slam Australia,

<v Speaker 1>so it was Willow Knightingale and Harley Cameron defending their

<v Speaker 1>titles against Meghan Bain and Penelope Ford. And in the

<v Speaker 1>course of the match, Penelope Ford went for a moon

<v Speaker 1>salt off the top rope onto Willow and Harley who

<v Speaker 1>were standing outside, and they were supposed to catch her

<v Speaker 1>right or cushion her fall. And we've seen her do

<v Speaker 1>the moon Salt in matches before. This is not like

<v Speaker 1>the first time that she's ever done it. They didn't

<v Speaker 1>catch her. She landed. Basically, she came straight down on

<v Speaker 1>her feet and rolled over and apparently she got hurt

<v Speaker 1>on the spot. According to Fight Full Select, she sustained

<v Speaker 1>an injury that ruled her out of the rest of

<v Speaker 1>the match. Midway through the match, an audible was called

<v Speaker 1>that Lena Cross, who was in their corner, would run

<v Speaker 1>in and cause a disqualification instead of leaving the match

<v Speaker 1>as two on one with the heel Meghan Bain fighting

<v Speaker 1>two babyfaces, so they called an audible to cover up

<v Speaker 1>whatever the original plan was. They didn't have any indication

<v Speaker 1>of what the original planned outcome was going to be.

<v Speaker 1>But I saw that match when it was announced. I said,

<v Speaker 1>why run this match back if you're not going to

<v Speaker 1>put the tag titles on Megan Bain and Penelope Ford.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm convinced that we were going to get a

<v Speaker 1>title change on this show. Otherwise, I'm legitimately not sure

<v Speaker 1>why you would even do this match. And Mike Johnson,

<v Speaker 1>a PW Insiders, said there was a fear that Ford

<v Speaker 1>may have broken her ankle but it may not be

<v Speaker 1>as severe as originally feared. And then Brian Alvarez chimed

<v Speaker 1>in and reported that she only sprained her ankle and

<v Speaker 1>she should be back soon, which is, if that's true,

<v Speaker 1>is very good news. I would think, you know what,

<v Speaker 1>switch to a crossbody off the top, just a suggestion.

<v Speaker 1>I feel like it would have the same effect and

<v Speaker 1>the risk of injury is far less on a move

<v Speaker 1>like that than a moon salt, which I mean, unless

<v Speaker 1>it's the finish in the grand scheme, what does it

<v Speaker 1>really mean? So maybe maybe shy away from the moon

<v Speaker 1>salt out to the floor from now on in the

<v Speaker 1>ring is one thing to the floor. I don't really

<v Speaker 1>think that that's necessary. I know a bunch of people

<v Speaker 1>do it. I know Charlotte Flair does it, and all

<v Speaker 1>these people do it. It doesn't mean that you have

<v Speaker 1>to do it too. But Harley Cameron got a lot

<v Speaker 1>of hate online because people were spreading the clip from

<v Speaker 1>a different camera angle. Maybe it was a fan cam,

<v Speaker 1>I don't remember, but I saw the clip as well.

<v Speaker 1>And if you watch the clip, as they're standing there

<v Speaker 1>outside the ring and they're supposed to catch this woman

<v Speaker 1>on the moon salt, it clearly looks like she noped

<v Speaker 1>right out of there on the spot. She kind of

<v Speaker 1>backed away, and she got a lot of shit for it,

<v Speaker 1>to the point where Harley deactivated her ex account because

<v Speaker 1>she was getting not just a lot of criticism, but

<v Speaker 1>probably a lot of harassment, because of course, you have

<v Speaker 1>people that are part of the wrestling fandom here on

<v Speaker 1>social media who are not all there. They are a

<v Speaker 1>fuge chicken nugget shy the happy meal, and they decide, hey,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, this woman didn't catch this girl on

<v Speaker 1>a dive, or she moved this way when she should

<v Speaker 1>have moved that way, and so we have to hurl

<v Speaker 1>all kinds of horrible harassment at this woman. And obviously

<v Speaker 1>the mutants online who do that sort of thing, I

<v Speaker 1>would like to say that they should know better, but

<v Speaker 1>they may not be capable of knowing any better. They

<v Speaker 1>may not be operating with a full deck of cards.

<v Speaker 1>Obviously it's all terrible. Obviously it's all fucking bullshit. I

<v Speaker 1>see some of the dumb comments online. There's a difference

<v Speaker 1>between criticism and harassment. What I'm talking about is not criticism.

<v Speaker 1>Should she have you caught her on the spot? She

<v Speaker 1>should have and she didn't and Okay, it happened, right.

<v Speaker 1>It happens in other instances in wrestling too. There's a

<v Speaker 1>difference between criticizing a or a move or a person

<v Speaker 1>for something they did or didn't do, and then just

<v Speaker 1>going all outright with harassment. She should be fired, you

<v Speaker 1>suck at your job, you're fucking terrible, and whatever else

<v Speaker 1>would I saw some screenshots of things that were said,

<v Speaker 1>and it's horrible, horrible stuff. I don't blame her for

<v Speaker 1>deactivating on social media. I don't know that I would

<v Speaker 1>be on there if I didn't feel like I had

<v Speaker 1>to be to promote my shows. I mean, that's how

<v Speaker 1>bad it's got, right. I enjoy interacting with certain people,

<v Speaker 1>But then, my god, I had some of that last

<v Speaker 1>night during the elimination chamber. And then you look at

<v Speaker 1>some of their profiles and it's just, I mean, my god,

<v Speaker 1>it's like a psychiatrist dream or nightmare. I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know which it is, but I can only

<v Speaker 1>imagine what some of these wrestlers, you know, and some

<v Speaker 1>of these female wrestlers deal with on a daily basis.

<v Speaker 1>So she took a lot of shit. She's off social media.

<v Speaker 1>She'll probably pop back up there at some point. But

<v Speaker 1>you know, again, I don't blame her. I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>think this is the same thing they did. Was it

<v Speaker 1>was it? Mean? Who was it?

<v Speaker 2>Oh?

<v Speaker 1>Was Riho? That's what it was. Yeah. I think Riho

<v Speaker 1>also got a lot of harassment and then they chased

<v Speaker 1>her away from social media too. It's sad, it's pathetic,

<v Speaker 1>but I can't say I'm surprised by any of it.

<v Speaker 1>As far as the Revolution card is concerned, other matches

<v Speaker 1>that either are official or appear to be happening, They're

<v Speaker 1>likely going to end up doing a rematch between Tecla

<v Speaker 1>and Chris Statlander for the AW Women's title FTR and

<v Speaker 1>the Young Bucks for the tag team titles. John Moxley

<v Speaker 1>and Knoski Takeshta is official for the Continental title with

<v Speaker 1>no time limit this time. Brody King against Swerve Strickland.

<v Speaker 1>I would think that the winner of that match would

<v Speaker 1>probably end up being number one contender for the AW

<v Speaker 1>World title, just because I don't see Swerve losing that match,

<v Speaker 1>and I think Swerve is probably going to get the

<v Speaker 1>shot at Dynasty, so that's how he gets it. Androtia

<v Speaker 1>against Bandido, which is going to be fucking incredible ricochet

<v Speaker 1>against Jack Perry for national title. Seems pretty likely they've

<v Speaker 1>teased Kyle Fletcher and Tamaso Champa for the TNT title,

<v Speaker 1>although that doesn't necessarily need to be on that show,

<v Speaker 1>but I think it probably will be. They've been doing

<v Speaker 1>stuff with Darby Allen and Gabe Kidd and Clark Conners,

<v Speaker 1>so we'll see what that ends up being. So the

<v Speaker 1>card is filling out, you know, it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>a pretty stacked card as they usually are. Probably a

<v Speaker 1>good five hour show. But Revolutions so far is shaping

<v Speaker 1>up pretty good.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>One more note here. News wise, last spring, we had

<v Speaker 1>the announcement that former WWE executive and head of talent

<v Speaker 1>Relations John Laurnidis was dropped as a defendant in the

<v Speaker 1>Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon, Laurnidis and WWE.

<v Speaker 1>He was one of the defendants. He agreed to cooperate

<v Speaker 1>and provide evidence to Janelle Grant's team, and so they

<v Speaker 1>dropped him. And if you recall Laurentidis, of course he

<v Speaker 1>made the claim that he too was a victim in

<v Speaker 1>all of this. Let me pull out my tiny violin

<v Speaker 1>you fucking creep. So then recently, it was announced that

<v Speaker 1>Laurenidis would be making an appearance for Big Time Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>on March fourteenth, and while speaking to the two Man

<v Speaker 1>Power Trip of Wrestling show, Lauraiis commented on his return

<v Speaker 1>to wrestling. He said, March Madness is going to be

<v Speaker 1>historic in the sense that it's actually my first ever

<v Speaker 1>public appearance for a company. Part of the reason I'm

<v Speaker 1>doing that is because it's kind of ironic that the

<v Speaker 1>Road Warriors are going to be inducted into the Ohio

<v Speaker 1>Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. There's actually a tribute match

<v Speaker 1>to the Road Warriors, so it's kind of nice that

<v Speaker 1>my first appearance is going to be something that honors

<v Speaker 1>my brother. I think the way Big Time Wrestling is

<v Speaker 1>approaching things. I've had discussions with Bobby and Dylan, and

<v Speaker 1>what they're looking to do is make it the place

<v Speaker 1>to be, so to speak. In other words, there are

<v Speaker 1>ideas about bringing in international talent, bringing in more high

<v Speaker 1>profile names. I'm really looking forward to their future, and

<v Speaker 1>I'm hoping I can be a part of that in

<v Speaker 1>some way, whether it's behind the scenes or helping them

<v Speaker 1>with promoting and things like that. I think the more

<v Speaker 1>places there are for talent to work, the better opportunity

<v Speaker 1>it is for the business. I don't know if everybody

<v Speaker 1>realizes this, but I have been in the developmental system

<v Speaker 1>with WWE for twenty years. My one love is and

<v Speaker 1>this is a real quote. I'm not making this up.

<v Speaker 1>This is not AI. This is a real fucking quote.

<v Speaker 1>My one love is to help develop and groom young talent.

<v Speaker 1>And I think that's the strategy for Big Time Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>right now, to find younger talent and develop them into

<v Speaker 1>the stars of tomorrow. These are actual words that left

<v Speaker 1>the man's mouth. He thought it would be a good

<v Speaker 1>idea to talk about his love for grooming talent when

<v Speaker 1>he worked for WWE. There are no words. There are

<v Speaker 1>no words. I had to do a double take to

<v Speaker 1>see that this was actually a legitimate quote. Unbelievable. Crawl

<v Speaker 1>back into the hole from whence you came? All right,

<v Speaker 1>We got a bunch of mail bag questions here. If

<v Speaker 1>you would like to email me and submit your own,

<v Speaker 1>you may do so the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com.

<v Speaker 1>Please include your name and where you are from when

<v Speaker 1>you write in. Start here with the miles from Los

<v Speaker 1>Angeles Miles, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate that,

<v Speaker 1>especially from someone in your field. With Cody pushing for

<v Speaker 1>the return of house shows, here's a pitch. Bring back

<v Speaker 1>in your house, but as a non televised house show

<v Speaker 1>fans get some nostalgia. It fits the vibe perfectly, assuming

<v Speaker 1>WWE would actually lean into the house show phrasing and

<v Speaker 1>you keep it special, say two to three house shows

<v Speaker 1>a month, nothing overproduced that would compare to a TV production,

<v Speaker 1>but still lean into the mid nineties in your house aesthetic.

<v Speaker 1>Go all in on quarterly merch poster shirts, tour t

<v Speaker 1>shirts with all the dates on the back. It's cool

<v Speaker 1>retro and gets used and more importantly underused talent, more reps,

<v Speaker 1>and it gives fans the chance to see non TV

<v Speaker 1>live events from time to time, which you could argue

<v Speaker 1>is more fun to attend than a four match PLA

<v Speaker 1>or three hour raw with commercial breaks and backstage segments.

<v Speaker 1>Oh you mean you're not interested in seeing twenty minutes

<v Speaker 1>of entrances for a twenty five minute match. This doesn't

<v Speaker 1>appeal to you, Miles, He says. Nostalgia plus live wrestling

<v Speaker 1>and collectible tour merch. WWE bring back in your house.

<v Speaker 1>What is not to love. I don't disagree that it's

<v Speaker 1>a bad concept, and I've talked about how I think

<v Speaker 1>they should find some sort of happy medium where these

<v Speaker 1>people aren't on the road constantly, but you know, you're

<v Speaker 1>able to do a few house shows a month. Then

<v Speaker 1>they get reps and they get to go out there

<v Speaker 1>and they get to work, let the wrestlers wrestle, and

<v Speaker 1>then if you want to sort of mask it within

<v Speaker 1>your house or you want to come up with some

<v Speaker 1>other I mean, they were doing that years ago. It's

<v Speaker 1>Saturday Night's main event, and they're not going to do

<v Speaker 1>that now because it's back as a TV show. But

<v Speaker 1>they actually brought back the Saturday Nights made event branding.

<v Speaker 1>I want to say it was the late two thousands,

<v Speaker 1>maybe early twenty tens, maybe it was maybe it was

<v Speaker 1>early to mid twenty tens, but they brought it back.

<v Speaker 1>So it's the same concept that you're talking about. But

<v Speaker 1>then you know, you create t shirts and you merchandise

<v Speaker 1>it and you market it. I used to like when

<v Speaker 1>the WWE network first started in twenty fourteen. One of

<v Speaker 1>the things that I suggested I thought would be cool

<v Speaker 1>for them to start doing at least from time to time,

<v Speaker 1>you do these drop ins or these cut ins at

<v Speaker 1>a house show, and maybe you do it for the

<v Speaker 1>bigger ones. So if you have like a big live

<v Speaker 1>event in New York or Chicago or someplace like that,

<v Speaker 1>but it's you know, it's a house show, but you

<v Speaker 1>have a camera and you I'm not saying broadcast the

<v Speaker 1>entire thing. You could do that, but you have like

<v Speaker 1>these cut ins from these live events and you stream

<v Speaker 1>them in real time on the WWE network and maybe

<v Speaker 1>just pick your spots, you know, pick a big match

<v Speaker 1>or if you know something big is going to happen

<v Speaker 1>on the house show that night, maybe you want to

<v Speaker 1>show that or something. But it would be it would

<v Speaker 1>be a cool feature for the network, but it would

<v Speaker 1>also show people, hey, you should probably buy a ticket

<v Speaker 1>to come to these shows because these shows are fun.

<v Speaker 1>Or hey, look something big happened on this show. You

<v Speaker 1>never know what might happen, you know, on the house shows.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm all for it. I think that'd be a

<v Speaker 1>pretty cool idea. Kennedy from Orlando, Florida. I have an

<v Speaker 1>idea and what they could do with Raquel Rodriguez and

<v Speaker 1>Live Morgan. They should have Lived win the women's world

<v Speaker 1>title of WrestleMania and have Raquel win money in the

<v Speaker 1>bank with Live and the Judgment Day, thinking that she

<v Speaker 1>will go to SmackDown, even though Raquel has not yet

<v Speaker 1>made up her mind. Taking a page at the Evolution playbook,

<v Speaker 1>we find out that Live has been playing Raquel the

<v Speaker 1>entire time, buttering her up. The Judgment Day throws a

<v Speaker 1>going away party on Raw where Raquel makes her decision

<v Speaker 1>to face Live for the title one on one. I

<v Speaker 1>think this could give Raquel a chance to be a

<v Speaker 1>good babyface. I like that idea. I like the idea of, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>we think we know what choice you're gonna make. Here

<v Speaker 1>gonna you're gonna go to the other show. You're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have that title. I've got this title. We're gonna control

<v Speaker 1>both brands, so let's have a big Let's have a

<v Speaker 1>big going away party next Monday for Raquel. Like you

<v Speaker 1>would probably see it coming, but I like that idea.

<v Speaker 1>I like that idea. When the time comes that they're

<v Speaker 1>ready to split them up and turn Raquel babyface, I

<v Speaker 1>think that might be that might be a good way

<v Speaker 1>to go. Of course, Live has to first win the

<v Speaker 1>title of WrestleMania. But the idea of Raquel winning money

<v Speaker 1>in the bank, I mean, let's see where we are.

<v Speaker 1>Money in the bank, though, is just it's so far away.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, money in the bank this year is God,

<v Speaker 1>is it the end of August or is it the

<v Speaker 1>beginning of September. I think it might be Labor Day weekend.

<v Speaker 1>I think it's actually September sixth. It's a lot later

<v Speaker 1>than it's ever been before. It's not in June. So

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if this idea would work, but I

<v Speaker 1>kind of like it. Sam from Atlanta, GA, if wwe

<v Speaker 1>handed you the book today, who would you build the

<v Speaker 1>company around for the next five years? So I had

<v Speaker 1>to jot this down here because that's quite a loaded

<v Speaker 1>question here, And this is what I jotted down, and

<v Speaker 1>feel free to chime in. And I'd be curious what

<v Speaker 1>you guys think or who you would build around. But

<v Speaker 1>we're talking about building for the future, and so the

<v Speaker 1>names that I came up with on the men's side

<v Speaker 1>were Oba Femi. Now I'm not including Cody or Roman.

<v Speaker 1>It kind of goes without saying those guys are still

<v Speaker 1>going to be around in some way. I'm not in

<v Speaker 1>voting names like that Oba Femi, Trick, Williams, Jacob Fatu,

<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker, Dominic Mysterio. On the women's side, Rea Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>because even though she's already a big name, like she's

<v Speaker 1>still only twenty nine years old. Like, you're gonna be

<v Speaker 1>building around Ria for many more years to come. So

<v Speaker 1>Rea Ripley, Eo Sky, Blake, Monroe, soul Ruka, and I'll

<v Speaker 1>throw Kendall Gray in there. She's not there yet, but

<v Speaker 1>Kendall Gray is gonna be a big deal. Those are

<v Speaker 1>the names I would target to build around for the

<v Speaker 1>next five years and beyond. Kevin from Albany, New York.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think they drag out Lesnar's opponent or do

<v Speaker 1>we find out during his next appearance in March they

<v Speaker 1>don't bring out an opponent or multiple ones during his

<v Speaker 1>next appearance, they make the whole roster look like a

<v Speaker 1>bunch of chumps. Yeah, I mean, somebody's got to come out.

<v Speaker 1>That's the whole thing about him making all these appearances.

<v Speaker 1>I think they could probably hold off until they get

<v Speaker 1>to the garden. But that's like March, I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>thirtieth or whatever whatever the day did whatever that last

<v Speaker 1>Monday is in March, I think is when they're in

<v Speaker 1>Madison Square Garden. So if he's gonna be on TV,

<v Speaker 1>let's say twice before, then you have to have someone

<v Speaker 1>come out. Maybe they do a comedy thing where fucking

<v Speaker 1>Kit Wilson or Dan Hausen comes out or something, or

<v Speaker 1>it could be somebody else and he just sort of

<v Speaker 1>obliterates them. Somebody's got to come out, though he can't

<v Speaker 1>just come out and nothing happens. I agree, somebody will

<v Speaker 1>have to come out, whoever it is. Let's say that

<v Speaker 1>gets destroyed. Hopefully it's nobody that they're planning on pushing.

<v Speaker 1>That's why I just threw out a bunch of you know,

<v Speaker 1>mid card names like that because it almost doesn't even matter.

<v Speaker 1>Dallas from Minnesota Powerhouse Hobbes, boy, I forgot all about

<v Speaker 1>that guy. Powerhouse Hobbs debuted at the Royal Rumble and

<v Speaker 1>they have done fuck all with him since it was

<v Speaker 1>a good showing, but they made the mistake of debuing

<v Speaker 1>him in Saudi Arabia three weeks later, nothing but a

<v Speaker 1>dark match on main Event. In a podcast episode with

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie McMahon, I will have you know Dallas. That is

<v Speaker 1>steph McMahon to you, you gotta get it right. It

<v Speaker 1>is now Steph McMahon keeping him off WWETV tells casual

<v Speaker 1>fans that he is not important, and I'm sorry, how

<v Speaker 1>is that Apollo Cruse? How is it that Apollo Cruse,

<v Speaker 1>a guy who has done nothing of note for years,

<v Speaker 1>gets TV time over Hobbes. Are they deliberately setting him

<v Speaker 1>up to fail? Or are they this uncreative and incompetent? Well,

<v Speaker 1>to answer your question, they are not intentionally setting him

<v Speaker 1>up to fail, So make of that what you will. Look.

<v Speaker 1>I can only imagine that they have no plans for

<v Speaker 1>him at WrestleMania, but they want to start him on

<v Speaker 1>the main roster and not NXT, So for the time being,

<v Speaker 1>they're giving him reps on main event or in dark

<v Speaker 1>matches like it's the only thing I can figure because

<v Speaker 1>to debut him in the Royal Rumble and then not

<v Speaker 1>have him on television makes little sense to me. Right,

<v Speaker 1>But they're preparing a card for WrestleMania right now. They

<v Speaker 1>don't seem to have a spot for him on that show,

<v Speaker 1>so instead of him sitting at home for three months

<v Speaker 1>and again, if they don't want him in NXT, that's

<v Speaker 1>what he would be doing. Then they have him working

<v Speaker 1>main event matches in dark matches, and then maybe that

<v Speaker 1>first raw. I mean, it depends on what show he's on,

<v Speaker 1>the first Raw or the first SmackDown coming out of

<v Speaker 1>Las Vegas, then he makes his proper debut. It's the

<v Speaker 1>only thing that makes sense to me, the only explanation

<v Speaker 1>logically for what they're doing unless he's going to accept

<v Speaker 1>the brock lesnar Open Challenge. Can't discount that as a possibility.

<v Speaker 1>Why you would go with him and not Obafemi in

<v Speaker 1>that spot, I don't know, but that would be the

<v Speaker 1>only other potential explanation here. Daniel in Atlanta, it's been

<v Speaker 1>fifteen years I started listening. Thank you for all you

<v Speaker 1>do well, thank you for listening for fifteen years. That's

<v Speaker 1>a long time. I was at this most recent raw

<v Speaker 1>in Atlanta. While I think the in person aspect generally

<v Speaker 1>enhances the experiences of live shows, I was unfortunately not

<v Speaker 1>surprised to hear you on the live stream called this

<v Speaker 1>the worst raw of the year so far. There wasn't

<v Speaker 1>exactly a whole lot to be excited for, especially for

<v Speaker 1>a go home show during WrestleMania's season I'm wondering, what

<v Speaker 1>would you say is your most enjoyable and least enjoyable

<v Speaker 1>WWE televised show live show experiences. Are there any that

<v Speaker 1>you attended that you thought were really good or maybe

<v Speaker 1>felt like the crowd was really into but were then

<v Speaker 1>surprised to find it didn't come across that way for

<v Speaker 1>people watching on TV. On a side note, the main

<v Speaker 1>event taping on Monday again featured a match with Royce Keys.

<v Speaker 1>What the fuck are we even doing? Daniel? May I

<v Speaker 1>introduce you to Dallas. I think the two of you

<v Speaker 1>will get along very well. You know what? I hear

<v Speaker 1>people say that sometimes where they'll come home from an event.

<v Speaker 1>I'll be live on YouTube and I'll get a super

<v Speaker 1>chat from someone I just got home and you know,

<v Speaker 1>how did it come across? It was hot in the building,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, dude, it was like a fucking funeral

<v Speaker 1>on TV. That's never happened to me before. I can't

<v Speaker 1>remember a time where I went to a show and

<v Speaker 1>then I watched it back and I was like, man,

<v Speaker 1>that sounds really quiet, Like I personally have never had

<v Speaker 1>that experience before. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but

<v Speaker 1>I can't remember a time. I mean as far as

<v Speaker 1>the events that I had the most fun at, you know,

<v Speaker 1>live experience wise. I think back to those Attitude Era

<v Speaker 1>ras that I went to, the first one I ever

<v Speaker 1>went to. I think the second one I ever went

<v Speaker 1>to was the night that Austin poured the cement in

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon's corvette. A big boss Man came back at

<v Speaker 1>the end of that show. I think we had at

<v Speaker 1>an Intercontinental title match final maybe of a tournament. I

<v Speaker 1>think Ken Shamrock beat XPOC that I'm just going, I'm

<v Speaker 1>just freestyling here from what I remember, But it was

<v Speaker 1>the experience of being there at those shows. It wasn't

<v Speaker 1>even necessarily any individual match, right, Yeah. I didn't go

<v Speaker 1>to those shows expecting, oh man, we're going to get

<v Speaker 1>a five star match here tonight. It just felt like

<v Speaker 1>a fucking party, it really did. So I always had

<v Speaker 1>funded those shows. I'd been to eight WrestleManias, and WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>thirty in New Orleans is probably tops for me in

<v Speaker 1>my book. I mean, really, that whole trip and all

<v Speaker 1>the people I met, all the it was just a

<v Speaker 1>fun experience, it really was. But that WrestleMania was really special,

<v Speaker 1>and being in the building for the streak ending is

<v Speaker 1>as stupid as I thought it was. There's a reason

<v Speaker 1>why when the camera cuts to me in the crowding,

<v Speaker 1>you see me in the corner of the screen like

<v Speaker 1>I'm the last I think, the last fan shot that

<v Speaker 1>you see before Justin Roberts makes his announcement if you

<v Speaker 1>look at the lower right, and I'm like the only

<v Speaker 1>person who's laughing. And the reason I'm laughing is because

<v Speaker 1>I had never experienced anything like that in person before

<v Speaker 1>at a wrestling event where there was a genuine feeling

<v Speaker 1>of shock. I have to think that the closest thing

<v Speaker 1>that would compare to it up until that point would

<v Speaker 1>be the Montreal screw Job, just a feeling of like,

<v Speaker 1>what the fuck just happened here? But it was just

<v Speaker 1>it was such a weird feeling. But I feel like

<v Speaker 1>grateful to have been there for it because I just

<v Speaker 1>feel like it was such a unique experience. But then

<v Speaker 1>you had all the Daniel Bryant stuff in the main event,

<v Speaker 1>which you know, the confetti falling, and it was great.

<v Speaker 1>It was great, So I probably would have that one,

<v Speaker 1>honestly at the top of my list if I had

<v Speaker 1>a narrow it down to just one that and then

<v Speaker 1>some of the post WrestleMania Ross. You know what, I

<v Speaker 1>can't leave out the post WrestleMania twenty nine raw. That one,

<v Speaker 1>to me, that's got to be I mean, that's got

<v Speaker 1>to be tops. That building was literally rumbling when Dolf

<v Speaker 1>Ziggler came out to cash in his money in the

<v Speaker 1>bank and he beat Dell Dipshit for the championship. My god,

<v Speaker 1>like you could feel the earth moving beneath your feet.

<v Speaker 1>People were stopping their feet, and they were banging and

<v Speaker 1>they were cheering. It was great. It was so great.

<v Speaker 1>That was so much fun. We got Eddie from Annapolis,

<v Speaker 1>Maryland as a person who has to get up very

<v Speaker 1>early in the morning for work and cannot watch the

<v Speaker 1>nighttime shows. Thank you for the daily Recap. A lot

<v Speaker 1>of times in the movie industry, the failure of a

<v Speaker 1>movie is often attributed to interference from the film studios

<v Speaker 1>or producer trying to get their hands on the creative

<v Speaker 1>process and messing up the director's vision for the film.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think the same is happening with wwe are

<v Speaker 1>Ari Emmanuel and Tko influencing the creative process, ruining the

<v Speaker 1>vision of Triple H. So I have two different answers

<v Speaker 1>for you. Number one, do I think that there is

<v Speaker 1>an influence from TKO or that TKO is in some

<v Speaker 1>way influencing creative in WWE? I think indirectly, Yes, I

<v Speaker 1>think that they're I think Triple H and Nick con

<v Speaker 1>are well aware that there are certain I don't know

<v Speaker 1>benchmarks is the right word, but there are certain expectations

<v Speaker 1>that their bosses have of them. And I do think

<v Speaker 1>that it colors the creative process, even even indirectly. Do

<v Speaker 1>I think Ari Emmanuel or Mark Shapiro or you know,

<v Speaker 1>anyone like that is saying, hey, we want this person

<v Speaker 1>you know to do this storyline, or we don't want

<v Speaker 1>you to push that like No. I think at best

<v Speaker 1>they might be like, hey, we we should be doing

<v Speaker 1>more with this person, let's feature them more like that

<v Speaker 1>maybe I can see, But I don't think they're getting

<v Speaker 1>directly involved in the creative process. I really don't. But

<v Speaker 1>the decisions they make in creative, or the decisions Triple

<v Speaker 1>H makes in creative could very well be indirectly influenced

<v Speaker 1>by things that he knows TKO is looking for. But

<v Speaker 1>I also am not going to sit here and say that, oh,

<v Speaker 1>poor Triple H. He's got this great vision if only

<v Speaker 1>we could see it. But the evil TKO is preventing

<v Speaker 1>us from seeing the true vision of what Triple H

<v Speaker 1>would love to be doing on the main roster. No,

<v Speaker 1>Triple H loves to put his face on everything that

<v Speaker 1>WWE does. His face is front, like he'll open WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>this year. If it's not him, it'll be Stephanie. It'll

<v Speaker 1>definitely be one of them. Maybe not Stephanie because she's

<v Speaker 1>going into the Hall of Fame and they'll save her

<v Speaker 1>entrance for you know, later in the show. But he's

<v Speaker 1>in the commercials, he's on the posters, he's everywhere. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>and that's great, that's great if you want to make

<v Speaker 1>sure that people are well aware that this is the

<v Speaker 1>Paulovec era of WWE. But are There's also a downside

<v Speaker 1>to that, which is that when you have people who

<v Speaker 1>are disenfranchised with the product and they don't like creatively

<v Speaker 1>what they're seeing, you also get the blame. You get

<v Speaker 1>the credit, but you get the blame. Do not take

<v Speaker 1>Triple H out of the equation and suggest that because

<v Speaker 1>things are bad, it might not be his fault. The

<v Speaker 1>buck stops with him. Creative right now is in a

<v Speaker 1>bit of a rut. Okay, Creative has not been great.

<v Speaker 1>That's on Triple H. He's the head of Creative, He's

<v Speaker 1>the chief content officer. He bears the responsibility for that,

<v Speaker 1>plain and simple. Make no excuses for Triple H. Do

<v Speaker 1>not make excuses for Triple H. When things get good,

<v Speaker 1>hopefully they will get really good again. At some point

<v Speaker 1>it will be able to be like, oh man, we

<v Speaker 1>have this creative resurgence in WWE. I'll be happy to

<v Speaker 1>give him credit, but he does not escape blame when

<v Speaker 1>things are as fucking boring as they have been. That's

<v Speaker 1>on him. James from Staten Island. I think most reasonable

<v Speaker 1>people will agree that, in spite of some injuries, WWE

<v Speaker 1>could have done a much better job with Samoa Joe. Now,

<v Speaker 1>you don't say which scenario would you have been more

<v Speaker 1>excited of or excited for as a fan of Joe,

<v Speaker 1>Samoa Joe and Rock Lesnar being more than just a

<v Speaker 1>one off culminating in a Hell and a Cell match

<v Speaker 1>to elevate Joe to a top tier level, or Joe

<v Speaker 1>being called up to the main roster much sooner and

<v Speaker 1>facing the returning Daniel Bryan when he came out of

<v Speaker 1>retirement in twenty eighteen in a program for the Intercontinental Championship. Well,

<v Speaker 1>to answer your question, scenario one, I would much rather

<v Speaker 1>scenario one over scenario two. And man, you know, Joe,

<v Speaker 1>Joe is one of the biggest what ifs to me

<v Speaker 1>in WWE history. He really is. It's really sad that

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon just took one look at him and just

<v Speaker 1>was not impressed by what he sawd visually, physically, and

<v Speaker 1>that worked against Joe for so many years. It's a

<v Speaker 1>shame that Joe spent as much time as he did

<v Speaker 1>in TNA because it got bad there towards the end,

<v Speaker 1>and had he come into WWE and the Vince would

<v Speaker 1>have been more open to having someone like him in

<v Speaker 1>WWE years before he finally brought him into the main roster,

<v Speaker 1>maybe things would have been different. Maybe things would have

<v Speaker 1>been different. We'll never know, But to me, he's one

<v Speaker 1>of the biggest what ifs. And I always go back

<v Speaker 1>to the match that he and Brock had at that

<v Speaker 1>Great Balls of Fire show, and it was quick, it

<v Speaker 1>was like six minutes or something, but it was really

<v Speaker 1>good and there were reports that Brock loved working with Joe,

<v Speaker 1>he loved Joe's intensity and just he was a big

<v Speaker 1>fan of Joe's. And I know there were reports that

<v Speaker 1>like he and Hayman wanted to drop the belt to Joe.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that I buy that that was always

<v Speaker 1>a story that was out there, But I can believe

<v Speaker 1>that Brock liked Joe and enjoyed working with him and

<v Speaker 1>probably would have loved to have worked with him even more.

<v Speaker 1>I mean technically they did. I mean they were part

<v Speaker 1>of that four way match at SummerSlam the following month,

<v Speaker 1>which was a great match. But I just think back

<v Speaker 1>to that match and then Raw the next night. I

<v Speaker 1>always go back to that segment on Raw the next

<v Speaker 1>night where Hayman and Brock are in the ring. Roman Reigns,

<v Speaker 1>the Big Dog is in the ring, Kurt Angle, he

<v Speaker 1>was the GM. He's in the ring, and here I'm

<v Speaker 1>Samoa Joe and Joe is just he's spitting fire on

<v Speaker 1>the mic, as only Samoa Joe does, and he's getting

<v Speaker 1>up in Brock's face and Brock's giving it right back

<v Speaker 1>to him, and Brock goes like forehead to forehead with him,

<v Speaker 1>and again the intensity just the intensity went up to

<v Speaker 1>a level that was not there when Brock was in

<v Speaker 1>the ring where Roman reigns that night, Okay, let's just

<v Speaker 1>let's just say that. And then he dropped that line

<v Speaker 1>on him where he's saying, you know you didn't beat me,

<v Speaker 1>you survived me, and then he looks over at Roman.

<v Speaker 1>Brock does he looks over at Roman as Joe is talking,

<v Speaker 1>and Joe is like, you better look at me when

<v Speaker 1>I'm talking to you and everybody in the crowd. Oh,

<v Speaker 1>and then they had a shot of Brock's face and

<v Speaker 1>Brock almost he almost smiled because even he at that

<v Speaker 1>point is probably like, oh, this is good shit. There

<v Speaker 1>was so much more that they could have done there.

<v Speaker 1>Part of the problem was injuries. It's not just booking.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, everything I said just now is one hundred

<v Speaker 1>percent true. But you can't ignore the fact that injuries

<v Speaker 1>did play a role, you know, in him not having

<v Speaker 1>a bigger run in WWE. Right, he had a couple

<v Speaker 1>of concussions. I don't I don't remember if there was

<v Speaker 1>another injury. I know concussions were a big thing with him.

<v Speaker 1>I think that's the reason why he's been off aw

<v Speaker 1>television recently. I think he was in their concussion protocol.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if he had one or if they

<v Speaker 1>were just if it was just a precaution everything, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know, but man, just like, what a what a

<v Speaker 1>missed opportunity not not pushing him all the way and

<v Speaker 1>putting a world title on him at some point. But unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>injuries did play a role. It wasn't just the Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon factor. Injuries played a role. You know, at that point,

<v Speaker 1>he was very beat up. He had been wrestling for

<v Speaker 1>a very long time. He had worked a very hard style.

<v Speaker 1>And it's kind of like the the AJ Styles thing

<v Speaker 1>or the Sting thing, where it's like, man like, these

<v Speaker 1>guys should have been big fucking deals in WWE a

<v Speaker 1>lot earlier than they were, and they could have had

<v Speaker 1>a lot of other big names to work with. They

<v Speaker 1>could have won more championships, and it's just what if,

<v Speaker 1>you know, what if Sting didn't keep signing those little

<v Speaker 1>one year renewals with Dixie Carter, What if AJ Styles

<v Speaker 1>had left, you know a little bit sooner, and maybe

<v Speaker 1>he would have gotten that match he always wanted with

<v Speaker 1>Shawn Michaels, although probably not, I mean, Sean retired in

<v Speaker 1>twenty ten. Yeah, that probably was never gonna happen. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>the only reason Sean came out of retirement for the

<v Speaker 1>Saudi match was he just wanted to work with his friends.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that he was looking to go out

<v Speaker 1>there and have a super competitive match against someone like

<v Speaker 1>aj Styles, So that one might not have happened anyway.

<v Speaker 1>But it's definitely one of the biggest what ifs to

<v Speaker 1>me in WWE history. What if what if Vince McMahon

<v Speaker 1>got his hands on a healthy Samoa Joe years earlier

<v Speaker 1>and actually got it? What if he got Joe? How

<v Speaker 1>big could he have been? And Ronnie from Belgium, And

<v Speaker 1>there's so many questions here that I pulled this week.

<v Speaker 1>We're gonna end it with this one, though. I'm going

<v Speaker 1>to save some of these for next week. I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>maybe I'll even save a couple of these for the

<v Speaker 1>un Crown Show tomorrow. We'll see. But Ronnie from Belgium,

<v Speaker 1>I think we can all agree that Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin,

<v Speaker 1>the Rock, and John Cena were the four biggest stars

<v Speaker 1>in Vince McMahon's WWE. Which four stars would you place

<v Speaker 1>behind those four men. Well, first of all, no, we

<v Speaker 1>can't all agree. If you ask five people, you'll get

<v Speaker 1>three or four different answers to a question like that.

<v Speaker 1>Look no further than social media. So I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that we can all agree on anything. But I would say,

<v Speaker 1>and this is in no particular order, as far as

<v Speaker 1>who I would put, I actually happen to agree with you.

<v Speaker 1>I agree with you. I'm just saying other people might

<v Speaker 1>not agree with you. But you got Hogan, Austin rock Sena.

<v Speaker 1>If I had to put four names behind them, Undertaker

<v Speaker 1>Triple H. And honestly, it's either Brett Hart and Sean

<v Speaker 1>Michaels because those were the guys that really held that

<v Speaker 1>company up in the mid nineties, or Shawn Michaels and

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns. And I might have to leave Brett off.

<v Speaker 1>I know, sacrilege. He might not have been over the

<v Speaker 1>way that Vince wanted him to be that entire time

<v Speaker 1>talking about Roman, But I mean, how many wrestle many

<v Speaker 1>of main events did he feed to Roman Reigns right

<v Speaker 1>long before he became the tribal chief. Roman was that

<v Speaker 1>top guy. Again, he may not have been getting the

<v Speaker 1>reactions that Vince would have loved for him to get

<v Speaker 1>but you know he was still put in that position

<v Speaker 1>even when the Bloodline story started. Vince was still running

<v Speaker 1>the show, so he would have been overseeing things throughout

<v Speaker 1>that entire run. You know that Roman had on top.

<v Speaker 1>So you're asking me again the question that he asked

<v Speaker 1>me here is who were the biggest stars in Vince's

<v Speaker 1>era of running WWE. So I think he got to

<v Speaker 1>have him on there. It's probably Taker, Triple HBK, and Roman.

<v Speaker 1>It's probably what it is. And right behind those guys

<v Speaker 1>would be Brett Hart, Randy Savage, and I would throw

<v Speaker 1>Brock Lesner in there. I actually think there's an argument

<v Speaker 1>for Brock to be on the second tier, not even

<v Speaker 1>the third. But I'm just struggling, like, who would I hm,

<v Speaker 1>who would I replace him with? I mean, Undertaker, Triple H, Sean,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I mean, I guess maybe Roman, but

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Brock was also mostly part time during

<v Speaker 1>his second run. I would put Brock on the third tier.

<v Speaker 1>I'd put him on that tier with guys like Breton,

<v Speaker 1>Macho men. Anyway, good shit, there's a lot more here.

<v Speaker 1>We get to save some of this for next week,

<v Speaker 1>but keep emailing me the solon Monster at gmail dot com.

<v Speaker 1>Don't forget that this Tuesday a brand new episode, episode

<v Speaker 1>four of the Uncrowned Wrestling Show on the Ariel hell

<v Speaker 1>Wani Show feed wherever you get your podcast from, not

<v Speaker 1>the YouTube channel. Ariel's got a pot podcast feed where

<v Speaker 1>all his shows go various shows, MMA, boxing, We got

<v Speaker 1>a wrestling show on there. I want this to be

<v Speaker 1>a big, big success. So far, so good, So go

<v Speaker 1>listen to the Uncrowned Show. It will drop sometime probably

<v Speaker 1>around seven or eight pm or so on Tuesday evening.

<v Speaker 1>Obviously we'll talk about Elimination Chamber, but there's a lot

<v Speaker 1>of other shit to talk about as well, including stuff

<v Speaker 1>I did not cover here. And you could send in

<v Speaker 1>questions for that show as well. You could email me

<v Speaker 1>or you can tweet me at Solo Monster. Just put

<v Speaker 1>the hashtag on Crowned so I know that it is

<v Speaker 1>specifically for that show. Don't forget to follow me as

<v Speaker 1>well on TikTok. Trying to post some more shorts on

<v Speaker 1>there at Solo Monster sounds off on the TikTok, trying

<v Speaker 1>to be more active there as well. I will be

<v Speaker 1>with you on Monday night for the Raw post show Tuesday,

<v Speaker 1>obviously I mentioned on Crowned and of course Tuesday Night

<v Speaker 1>Titans with JD on his channel Wednesday night the Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>post show. There will be no SmackDown post show this

<v Speaker 1>Friday because I will be in Chicago go for a

<v Speaker 1>House of Glory, which you can stream if you would

<v Speaker 1>like to watch the show trailer TV plus. I will

<v Speaker 1>be on the call for that show and then back

<v Speaker 1>here next Sunday for episode nine fifty four of The

<v Speaker 1>Solom Monster Sounds Up. So until then, be well, stay safe.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you for all the love, including last night on

<v Speaker 1>the stream. You guys killed it, and we'll do it

<v Speaker 1>all over again next Sunday as always. Till then, take care, guys,

<v Speaker 1>the Solom Monster crashes out. I don't know why we

<v Speaker 1>are still sitting here, why we are watching La Knight

<v Speaker 1>and the ussos still after all this time feuding with

<v Speaker 1>the Vision, rinse repeat with this shit. Do you realize

<v Speaker 1>how long La Knight has been feuding with the Vision

<v Speaker 1>for the first time that he started getting into the

<v Speaker 1>rim with members of the Vision June of last year.

<v Speaker 1>Money in the bank eight months, nine months, and he's

<v Speaker 1>certainly no better off for it. I mean, it's almost

<v Speaker 1>like there there's not a creative thought in their head

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to some of these people. And you know,

<v Speaker 1>I just realized something here. If that match happens at WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>I was gonna sit here and say, well, a least,

<v Speaker 1>if you read brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, at least it's

<v Speaker 1>someone different, right. But technically, if he were to wrestle

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner, would brock Lesnar not be technically considered part

<v Speaker 1>of the Vision. He would still be working with the Vision.

<v Speaker 1>Fuck my god, I'm not going to make it. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not going to make it.

<v Speaker 2>Through this review, The Solo Monster Sounds off bringing you

<v Speaker 2>the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check out the

<v Speaker 2>weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and follow The

<v Speaker 2>Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and X The Solo Monster.

<v Speaker 2>Fuck