<v Speaker 1>Goods. Business time, Baby, you are listening to Solo Monsters

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I love your solo Mama monster, dude, I

<v Speaker 1>want your soulier mind a woman. You got grown ass

<v Speaker 1>wrestlers in the back going on Twitter. Come over here,

<v Speaker 1>hot May is that pet Patison you have legs? Weekend?

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

<v Speaker 1>Now I have been begging him for a job on

<v Speaker 1>every every platform I can, and I want another reason

<v Speaker 1>why you won't Park Welcome to episode nine fifty four

<v Speaker 1>of The Solemn Monster Sounds Off. In his Sunday March eighth,

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six, I am the solom Monster back from Chicago.

<v Speaker 1>Always good to see some of you guys in Chicago

<v Speaker 1>at the House of Glory show. We were sold out

<v Speaker 1>at Logan Square Auditorium on Friday night for hour Turf

<v Speaker 1>Wars event. Hopefully you had a chance to watch on

<v Speaker 1>Triller TV or if you were there live even better

<v Speaker 1>packed in their standing room only. With some great action

<v Speaker 1>on the show, including a surprise appearance from the bounty

<v Speaker 1>Hunter Brian Keith, who was in the main event challenging

<v Speaker 1>Charles Mason for the hog World Championship. The slimy son

<v Speaker 1>of a bitch that he is faking an injury, was

<v Speaker 1>able to get himself out of that match. I will

<v Speaker 1>say it was very clever. It was very clever. He

<v Speaker 1>had me fooled. I bought into it. I feel like

<v Speaker 1>an idiot, but they were having a really good match

<v Speaker 1>up until that point. We had the debut of Bishop

<v Speaker 1>Dyer as well the former Baron Corbin taking on Zillafatu

<v Speaker 1>for the Crown Jewel Championship, Killer Kelly and Shatzi for

<v Speaker 1>the Women's title. We had private party on the show,

<v Speaker 1>just a really fun night of wrestling. Overall. We will

<v Speaker 1>be back to Chicago in no time, I am sure,

<v Speaker 1>in the next few months to come. But before we

<v Speaker 1>get there, we got Long Island coming up on Saturday night,

<v Speaker 1>March twenty first, as part of the Big Event Expo.

<v Speaker 1>Just like we did back in November, We're coming back

<v Speaker 1>for another super Clash. We've got some big matches announced

<v Speaker 1>for that as well. We've got Amazing Red and Sammy

<v Speaker 1>Gavara for the first time ever on that show. Mina

<v Speaker 1>is coming, Yes, Mina Shirakawa is coming to the show.

<v Speaker 1>But then we also have our big Culture Class show

<v Speaker 1>that was announced for Las Vegas at the Pearl Theater

<v Speaker 1>at the Palms Casino Resort. That's coming up on Thursday night,

<v Speaker 1>April sixteenth. We got the Hardys Hog Tag Team champions

<v Speaker 1>are going to be back in action, and we just

<v Speaker 1>made the announcement big bed brody King I said a

<v Speaker 1>few months ago. I said, man, we got to give

<v Speaker 1>brody King in and we were able to make it happen.

<v Speaker 1>Brody King is going to be making an appearance against

<v Speaker 1>Zillafa Tu. Talking about meat madness, we got some of

<v Speaker 1>it there and we locked in another big name too.

<v Speaker 1>I can't say who just yet, but trust me, we've

<v Speaker 1>got some more announcements coming. So tickets are on sale

<v Speaker 1>right now. You'll want to be a part of that.

<v Speaker 1>I will be there. I'm looking forward to seeing some

<v Speaker 1>folks out out well. I haven't been out there in

<v Speaker 1>a while. And we'll have more news on our next

<v Speaker 1>LA show coming up soon as well. So thank you

<v Speaker 1>all for the support there. Hopefully you enjoyed a JD

<v Speaker 1>and I on commentary for the show on Friday night.

<v Speaker 1>You also have the SmackDown show from Friday night that

<v Speaker 1>we have to get into because I wasn't here, So

<v Speaker 1>I didn't even get to watch smack that until last night,

<v Speaker 1>but boy, I got a lot of feedback about the

<v Speaker 1>show from you guys. I knew what was already going

<v Speaker 1>to happen, because it was already spoiled for me well

<v Speaker 1>in advance. I knew that was going to be unavoidable.

<v Speaker 1>But man, there was a lot of feedback to that

<v Speaker 1>main event and that SmackDown show from Friday night. So

<v Speaker 1>we're going to talk about that, but that is the

<v Speaker 1>least of what we are going to discuss because there

<v Speaker 1>was a shit ton of things to get into. So

<v Speaker 1>let me just say first thank you to everybody who

<v Speaker 1>dropped a PayPal donation this week. We got a big

<v Speaker 1>roll call here. You can always drop a dono if

<v Speaker 1>you go to the solo monster dot com. The PayPal

<v Speaker 1>link is conveniently there for you right at the top

<v Speaker 1>of the page. Or you could probably just use the

<v Speaker 1>the email address also the solom Monster at gmail dot com.

<v Speaker 1>But either way, ten dollars or more, we'll get you

<v Speaker 1>a nickname. In a shout out, I want to say

<v Speaker 1>thank you to first of all the Portland pop star

<v Speaker 1>Paul Hamilton, not only for his support this week, but

<v Speaker 1>Paul was representing the sound off front and center on

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown Friday Night. He had the shirt on, he had

<v Speaker 1>a sign. I mean he was dead center, front row

<v Speaker 1>on hardcam all night. So Paul, thank you, Big b

<v Speaker 1>Bryant Bessera, The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison so Up,

<v Speaker 1>Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The Iowan Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfear,

<v Speaker 1>The Georgia Knightmare, Timothy Tillis, Shooting Star, Cynthia Taylor, Big

<v Speaker 1>Time Boris Vainman, night Stalker, Ni f Alsafar, the Chicago Slayer,

<v Speaker 1>Willie Iicherd. Great to see you guys. I saw Willy,

<v Speaker 1>I saw Mama Iicred. They always come out to the

<v Speaker 1>Chicago shows, and when I see them, especially when I

<v Speaker 1>see Mama Ikred, I get a smile on my face.

<v Speaker 1>And I always asked him did you have fun? And

<v Speaker 1>the answer is always yes, and I'm like, that's all

<v Speaker 1>that matters. So those good seeing you guys. Kind of

<v Speaker 1>a big deal. Corey Blake and Killshot Keith Hart. I

<v Speaker 1>also want to give a shout out to show your

<v Speaker 1>role Chris Ludek and tell you guys to check out

<v Speaker 1>his what could have been in wrestling series on YouTube.

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

<v Speaker 1>if Hulk Cogan had stayed in WWE after WrestleMania eight

<v Speaker 1>or if cmpunk did not shatter his foot in aw

<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty two. Search for Chris Ludeck by name

<v Speaker 1>on YouTube. That's lud e Cke on YouTube. Before I

<v Speaker 1>even get into any of the actual news here, Front

<v Speaker 1>Office Sports broke the news on Wednesday that the Big

<v Speaker 1>Flag Football event planned by Tom Brady and Fanatics for

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia later this month is very likely moving to

<v Speaker 1>the United States given the dumb war that has broken

<v Speaker 1>out in the region. This is according to sources familiar

<v Speaker 1>with the situation. The Fanatics Flag Football Classic was scheduled

<v Speaker 1>for Riodd on March twenty first, but it is trending

<v Speaker 1>towards moving because of airstrikes and travel restrictions in the

<v Speaker 1>region with everything that's been going on there. And then

<v Speaker 1>late in the week, The New York Times reported that

<v Speaker 1>the event will relocate to Los Angeles and it will

<v Speaker 1>be held at BMO Stadium, the home of Major League

<v Speaker 1>Soccer's Los Angeles FC and the NWSL's Angel City FC,

<v Speaker 1>and the exact date, whether it's still the twenty first,

<v Speaker 1>so they move it. The exact date is still to

<v Speaker 1>be determined, you know. I find it hilarious that the

<v Speaker 1>Saudi's paid all of that money, said to be in

<v Speaker 1>the tens of millions of dollars to bring in Tom

<v Speaker 1>Brady and all of these other names, just for them

<v Speaker 1>to move the event to the United States. I just

<v Speaker 1>I find that funny. Now, there was talk of WWE

<v Speaker 1>potentially bringing Knight of Champions back to Saudi in June.

<v Speaker 1>That's where John Cena and cm punk had their last year.

<v Speaker 1>That's got to be in jeopardy now right, as are

<v Speaker 1>any other Saudi shows, and I think they were planning

<v Speaker 1>up to three of them this year. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if that counts to the Royal Rumble. Maybe. I think

<v Speaker 1>counting the Royal Rumble it would have been three. But yeah,

<v Speaker 1>all that's in jeopardy now until things calm down in

<v Speaker 1>the region, and there's no sign of that happening anytime soon,

<v Speaker 1>and it is too early to say whether it's going

<v Speaker 1>to have any effect on wrestle Mania next year. But

<v Speaker 1>boy are they happy that they didn't book Saudi Mania

<v Speaker 1>for twenty twenty six. They got to be dancing a

<v Speaker 1>jig right now, like whoo, catastrophe avoided or maybe not again?

<v Speaker 1>Who the hell knows? Like where this is all going

<v Speaker 1>to lead and how long this is going to drag on?

<v Speaker 1>For it ain't ending anytime soon, so we'll have to

<v Speaker 1>wait and see on that. But this comes. The reason

<v Speaker 1>I bring all this up is not just the WWE

<v Speaker 1>events and are they in jeopardy? But this comes in

<v Speaker 1>the same week from Wressell Votes Radio. The recent conflict

<v Speaker 1>between Tom Brady and Paul and other WWE stars may

<v Speaker 1>be part of something bigger between WWE and the greatest

<v Speaker 1>football player of all time, which I know is going

<v Speaker 1>to be a subjective thing. I mean, that's what they

<v Speaker 1>said here. But greatest QB of all time, greatest football

<v Speaker 1>player of all time. I don't necessarily disagree with that.

<v Speaker 1>All I know my brother would. I've had arguments with

<v Speaker 1>him about this, he says, Lawrence Taylor, but teach there on.

<v Speaker 1>Brady appeared on Paul's podcast to hype up a new

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabian back flag football league that they are both

<v Speaker 1>involved in. During his appearance, he said that he loved

<v Speaker 1>WWE and that it was cute, which got CM punk Live, Morgan,

<v Speaker 1>Oba Feme and others to respond on social media to

<v Speaker 1>defend WWE. On Thursday's wrestle Votes Radio, they reported that

<v Speaker 1>logos specialty merchandise and branding using the terms T Bone

<v Speaker 1>and the Untouchable Tom Brady have been worked on within

<v Speaker 1>some WWE departments. They also reported that as recently as

<v Speaker 1>last year, there were conversations between WWE and Brady's people

<v Speaker 1>about him appearing at WrestleMania as it returns to Vegas

<v Speaker 1>for a second straight year. Brady is a minority owner

<v Speaker 1>in the Las Vegas Raiders, who play at Allegiant Stadium,

<v Speaker 1>which will host WrestleMania. He also has a merchandising deal

<v Speaker 1>with Fanatics, who are also partners with WWE. Any WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>appearance does not appear to be in ring related, but

<v Speaker 1>just of the personal appearance variety. Well, well, it looks

<v Speaker 1>like this was all the work to lead to a

<v Speaker 1>Tom Brady appearance to WrestleMania. Years ago, it was Rob Gronkowski,

<v Speaker 1>Now it's T Bone. I smell a Dan Housen comedy

<v Speaker 1>segment incoming. Maybe he'll put a curse on Tom Brady.

<v Speaker 1>Let's go back to Friday Night here, because on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>we got a rare WWE title change, even more rare

<v Speaker 1>that we got two of them in the span of

<v Speaker 1>two months. That is very unusual. That's like Attitude Era

<v Speaker 1>unusual that that would happen. But first, we had a

<v Speaker 1>major shakeup on the SmackDown writing team this week, per

<v Speaker 1>pw Insider as well as bodyslam dot Net. On Thursday,

<v Speaker 1>WWE Hall of Famer road Dog Brian James left World

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Entertainment. Today, Mike Johnson says, the word making the

<v Speaker 1>rounds is that he made the decision himself to leave

<v Speaker 1>his position on the company's creative team, where he had

<v Speaker 1>been working on the SmackDown brand, and that is true.

<v Speaker 1>He had been working on the SmackDown brand as the

<v Speaker 1>co lead writer of the show alongside John Swakata, so

<v Speaker 1>he was not the lone lead writer, but he was

<v Speaker 1>the co lead writer of Friday Night SmackDown. Corey Hayes

<v Speaker 1>of bodyslam dot Net reports that Roaddog's exit may have

<v Speaker 1>been connected to frustration which changes to his role within

<v Speaker 1>WWE's creative structure. He said he's out. The word is

<v Speaker 1>he didn't enjoy being moved out of his position. So,

<v Speaker 1>at least up until I think the beginning of the year,

<v Speaker 1>he was the co lead writer of SMA. If that

<v Speaker 1>had changed in the last few months, I don't know

<v Speaker 1>exactly what his title would have been. Maybe he was

<v Speaker 1>still the co lead writer, but his influence had waned clearly.

<v Speaker 1>There were some changes that were made, but what they

<v Speaker 1>officially would have been, I don't know. But Mike Johnson

<v Speaker 1>chimed in later again in the same day on Thursday

<v Speaker 1>to say this. He said, PW Insider has received emails

<v Speaker 1>asking about a story being passed around that road Dog

<v Speaker 1>exited the company as part of a quote creative readjustment.

<v Speaker 1>That is incorrect. James quit the company earlier today. We

<v Speaker 1>are told he did so in person. WWE sources have

<v Speaker 1>cited that James openly expressed his unhappiness and tendered his

<v Speaker 1>resignation from the creative team. He was not let go

<v Speaker 1>and nothing that happened today was as a result of

<v Speaker 1>WWE removing him. In fact, it was the exact opposite

<v Speaker 1>where he walked away from the job. And Dave Meltzer

<v Speaker 1>and The Observer this week shined a little more light

<v Speaker 1>on this and said James got his annual review. The

<v Speaker 1>belief is that he wasn't with it and he left.

<v Speaker 1>He may say that he left over something else, and

<v Speaker 1>only he would know exactly why he did so, But

<v Speaker 1>it was his decision and it came after his annual review.

<v Speaker 1>One person close to the situation said that it had

<v Speaker 1>been brewing. He was going to do a convention later

<v Speaker 1>this month and it was approved, and then the approval

<v Speaker 1>was rescinded and he had to cancel. But in pulling out,

<v Speaker 1>he pretty much said that it wouldn't be an issue

<v Speaker 1>starting in a little while. So this is not the

<v Speaker 1>first time that road Doug has been a part of

<v Speaker 1>WWE creative or that he has worked behind the scenes.

<v Speaker 1>This was his, i believe, second stint on the creative team. Previously,

<v Speaker 1>he had been the head writer of SmackDown. This was

<v Speaker 1>going back to god, what year was that, twenty seventeen,

<v Speaker 1>somewhere in that range. Aj Styles at one point he

<v Speaker 1>defended road Dog Bice because he got a lot of

<v Speaker 1>criticism and a lot of shit from fans over the

<v Speaker 1>quality of the show when he was in charge of it,

<v Speaker 1>and AJ Styles once said that you know when Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon was with the company, Like road Dog's ideas basically

<v Speaker 1>were picked apart so much that they weren't even his

<v Speaker 1>ideas anymore. So you got to cut the guy some slack.

<v Speaker 1>And obviously we were not in the room when this

<v Speaker 1>would have been happening. We don't know what ideas were

<v Speaker 1>road Dogs if they were neutered. If the dog got

<v Speaker 1>neutered by Vince McMahon, maybe he had great ideas and

<v Speaker 1>then Vince, you know, kind of put his stamp on it.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not so sure about that. But look, aj would

<v Speaker 1>have been working with Rod Doug at the time, so

<v Speaker 1>maybe he's got some stories that he hasn't told yet.

<v Speaker 1>He knows more about that than most. But what happened was,

<v Speaker 1>you know, when he was he left that role. I

<v Speaker 1>believe that was his decision as well. But he left

<v Speaker 1>that role I think in twenty nineteen, and he was

<v Speaker 1>still working behind the scenes for the company until twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty two and he was released and then once Paul

<v Speaker 1>Leveck ascended to the throne, he got brought back. All

<v Speaker 1>I'll say about your road Doug is this, if road

<v Speaker 1>Dog was the co lead writer of SmackDown, and clearly

<v Speaker 1>had some creative influence on the show right to say

<v Speaker 1>the least SmackDown has SmackDown can be very jeckyal and

<v Speaker 1>hide where you'll get one really good episode, but for

<v Speaker 1>the most part, the quality of SmackDown has been, if

<v Speaker 1>I may say, dog shit for a while now, maddeningly so,

<v Speaker 1>because the talent is there right the key. When you're

<v Speaker 1>in a position like that, it's like you're being handed

<v Speaker 1>this plate, right, this platter with all the talent on it,

<v Speaker 1>and now you have to figure out where all the

<v Speaker 1>pieces go. It's like a puzzle, and it's maddening to

<v Speaker 1>see the talent there and either not being used or

<v Speaker 1>being utilized in a way that you know as a

<v Speaker 1>viewer and as a fan, you look at and it's

<v Speaker 1>just frustrating, like, man, why aren't they doing more with

<v Speaker 1>this person or they have them doing this, or they

<v Speaker 1>have them in this role and they're so much better

<v Speaker 1>than that, and it's not like men. The show is

<v Speaker 1>firing on all cylinders and we only have so many spots,

<v Speaker 1>and so that person just has to wait for their opportunity.

<v Speaker 1>It's like, no, the show is fucking garbage on some

<v Speaker 1>weeks and you see the these people that they're not

<v Speaker 1>doing anything with, and it's like, it doesn't have to

<v Speaker 1>be this way. But it all goes up to the

<v Speaker 1>very top, right, It's all about the vision of the

<v Speaker 1>guy in charge, who in this case, by the way,

<v Speaker 1>is not road Dog, It's Paulavc. He's the chief content officer.

<v Speaker 1>Road Dog could be the lead writer, the co lead writer.

<v Speaker 1>He is writing the show. Ultimately, the show that we

<v Speaker 1>see on television has to be approved by the lead voice,

<v Speaker 1>and the lead voice is Paulavec. So the buck will

<v Speaker 1>always stop with him, just like the buck always stop

<v Speaker 1>with Vince McMahon. Just because Triple H is in and

<v Speaker 1>Vince is out and people didn't like Vince, doesn't mean

<v Speaker 1>that Triple H gets extra credit. It doesn't mean that

<v Speaker 1>you grate on a curve. I'm sure people did at

<v Speaker 1>the beginning because they were just happy to see a

<v Speaker 1>new voice, a new face at the top of the

<v Speaker 1>food chain. But it's been a few years now and

<v Speaker 1>we could look at the SmackDown Women's division and the

<v Speaker 1>lack of depth. We could look at the tag team division,

<v Speaker 1>the nonexistent tag team division. If we're being honest on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>some of the same faces being used over and over

<v Speaker 1>at the top of the card. Now they're starting to

<v Speaker 1>finally work some new faces in there, whether it's Obafemi

<v Speaker 1>or Jacob Fatu or Trick Williams. And it took him

<v Speaker 1>long enough to do that. But again, I can't sit

<v Speaker 1>here and defend the quality of SmackDown. SmackDown for the

<v Speaker 1>most part, I think has been largely atrocious now for

<v Speaker 1>a number of months. There are obviously people on the

<v Speaker 1>show that are carrying the show. There are people on

<v Speaker 1>the show that I really like and I enjoy watching,

<v Speaker 1>and the US title Open Challenge for a period of time.

<v Speaker 1>It feels like it's petering out now, But the Open

<v Speaker 1>Challenge for the longest time was really carrying this show.

<v Speaker 1>And I would have a couple of people go carrying

<v Speaker 1>the show. You kind of comment is that to make?

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I want you to tell me, what do

<v Speaker 1>you think is carrying smackd And you know they wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>have a legitimately good answer for me. They couldn't tell

<v Speaker 1>me Cody and Drew is Cody and Drew carrying smack Down.

<v Speaker 1>I'll tell you what smack that is really missing, Someone

<v Speaker 1>like Kevin Owens and I'll have an update on him

<v Speaker 1>in a little bit. Hopefully we'll get him back eventually.

<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I'm not going to cry any tears for

<v Speaker 1>road Doug no longer being in the position. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he didn't get fired, he chose to quit. Good. Let

<v Speaker 1>him move on and do something else, and let's get

<v Speaker 1>some new blood at the top there on SmackDown, some

<v Speaker 1>new ideas, some new voices. The thing is like, road

<v Speaker 1>Dog stepping away is really not going to change much,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think, because if he was upset that his

<v Speaker 1>position had been diminished, that means there's somebody else who

<v Speaker 1>was working alongside him or maybe superseding him. I haven't

<v Speaker 1>heard of any other changes being made to the SmackDown team.

<v Speaker 1>You think road Doug leaving is going to all of

<v Speaker 1>a sudden lead to some sort of renaissance on SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>I have my doubts. I have my doubts that him

<v Speaker 1>leaving and him alone is going to change a whole

<v Speaker 1>hell of a lot about this show. But you know what,

<v Speaker 1>if it does good good, any change will be welcome.

<v Speaker 1>And he didn't come off well, by the way on

<v Speaker 1>that unreal show, And you never know what kind of

<v Speaker 1>editing is being done. Michael Hayes has complained about the

<v Speaker 1>way that you know, his interview was edited to make

<v Speaker 1>them look bad after the Chelsea Green Stuff. Of course,

<v Speaker 1>you know, the only person who made Michael Hayes look

<v Speaker 1>bad with the Chelsea Green Stuff was Michael Hayes. But

<v Speaker 1>they've all complained about like the way they edit the

<v Speaker 1>show to create you know, heat on certain people. And

<v Speaker 1>who knows, maybe there were some trickery there with road Dog,

<v Speaker 1>but I know what I saw watching season two, and

<v Speaker 1>there were a couple of instances where road Doug just

<v Speaker 1>did not come off well. You know, he's very he

<v Speaker 1>was very emotional and very reactionary and defensive in the

<v Speaker 1>clips that we saw, and that wasn't edited. It wasn't

<v Speaker 1>Ai road Dog, right. I know what I saw on

<v Speaker 1>the show, and some of the stuff, frankly was embarrassing,

<v Speaker 1>Like I'm watching this and I'm going, why are we

<v Speaker 1>seeing this? Like putting cameras in the writer's room, like

<v Speaker 1>this was the worst thing that they could have done.

<v Speaker 1>It does not make them look good, any of them,

<v Speaker 1>any of them, Road Dog, Bruce, any of them. Does

<v Speaker 1>not make any of them look good at all. It's

<v Speaker 1>something that frankly, we should not be seeing and I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. I'm not going to say that's what did

<v Speaker 1>him in, but it's kind of funny that, you know,

<v Speaker 1>he got a lot of criticism for some of the

<v Speaker 1>things that he said on that show, and now Road

<v Speaker 1>Dog is out, you know, he is opted to take

<v Speaker 1>his ball and go home, as it were. We also

<v Speaker 1>learned this week, though, via her LinkedIn account, that WWE

<v Speaker 1>senior writer and producer Alexandra Williams has been promoted to

<v Speaker 1>vice president, a vice president role in the company and

<v Speaker 1>lead writer of Monday Night Raw and she has been

<v Speaker 1>with the company since October of twenty twenty. She started

<v Speaker 1>as a writer and producer for RAW, and she got

<v Speaker 1>a promotion to senior writer and producer in February of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty four. This move is unrelated to the Road

<v Speaker 1>Dog stuff. It just happened to be reported this week.

<v Speaker 1>There was some word that maybe this was something that

<v Speaker 1>happened as early as January, but she had just posted

<v Speaker 1>something on x the other day about her promotion and

<v Speaker 1>then on her LinkedIn, and then it caught fire and

<v Speaker 1>it became news. But as far as the SmackDown situation goes,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, road Doug is out fine, whoever it is,

<v Speaker 1>whether the other writers now step up with more responsibility,

<v Speaker 1>or there's someone that we're not even thinking of who

<v Speaker 1>would take that spot and be some sort of lead

<v Speaker 1>voice on the show. The talent on that show deserves

<v Speaker 1>better the viewers, We the fans, deserve better for giving

<v Speaker 1>three hours of our time to that show every single week.

<v Speaker 1>And now, of course we're heading into WrestleMania season, where

<v Speaker 1>you would expect things to peak. I don't care just

<v Speaker 1>about WrestleMania season. I don't WWE television shouldn't just be

<v Speaker 1>exciting from January until April. I'm worried about May and

<v Speaker 1>June and September, October, Nove Like, I'm worried about the

<v Speaker 1>entire calendar. What is SmackDown going to look like? Where

<v Speaker 1>are the pieces going to go, What are the big

<v Speaker 1>stories that they are going to focus on? Can we

<v Speaker 1>get more women in the women's division. Can we get

<v Speaker 1>the tag team division going in a way that it

<v Speaker 1>was a year ago? Like, there's a lot of questions

<v Speaker 1>that are still out there right now. Road Dog being gone, great,

<v Speaker 1>maybe we'll get somebody else in there, or maybe it'll

<v Speaker 1>be the same old shit, right. We don't know what

<v Speaker 1>we don't know, but any kind of change would be welcome.

<v Speaker 1>But SmackDown on Friday Night was in Portland, Oregon. Again

<v Speaker 1>shout out to Paul Hamilton in the front row representing

<v Speaker 1>the sound off love seeing that this SmackDown show currently

<v Speaker 1>stands at a two point one seven rating out of

<v Speaker 1>ten on cagematch dot net. And I know it's cage match,

<v Speaker 1>but I just I saw someone post that online and

<v Speaker 1>I just hadn't watched the show yet, and I just said, man,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't really that bad because I only got back

<v Speaker 1>from Chicago yesterday at like five o'clock. I again, I

<v Speaker 1>hadn't watched it yet, but that score would make it

<v Speaker 1>one of the lowest rated WWE shows of all time.

<v Speaker 1>And now having seen it, yes, the internet was being

<v Speaker 1>a little over dramatic. I have seen far worse. I

<v Speaker 1>have seen worse WWE shows in just the last couple

<v Speaker 1>of months, let alone all time. So no, it was

<v Speaker 1>not one of the worst of all time. But it

<v Speaker 1>was by no means a great show. In case you

<v Speaker 1>were wondering, Royce Keys is still working Dark Matches, which

<v Speaker 1>he will be doing at least through WrestleMania. I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>because it is very clear even though they put him

<v Speaker 1>in the Royal Rumble, they don't have any actual plans

<v Speaker 1>for him right now. And at this point you're building

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania, you're building the card out, there's no need

<v Speaker 1>to even have him on TV. But he beat Ray Phoenix,

<v Speaker 1>who was relegated to dark match job duty while his

<v Speaker 1>brother celebrates his Intercontinental title win on Monday. Then Jordan Grace.

<v Speaker 1>She was injured during her match on the main event

<v Speaker 1>taping with Alba fire As. She said, her ankle glitched out.

<v Speaker 1>You watch the clip that she posted on her social media.

<v Speaker 1>I mean that looked really bad. The match had to

<v Speaker 1>be stopped. She was backstage in a walking boot. Chelsea

<v Speaker 1>Green was posing for photos with her like they were

<v Speaker 1>ankle buddies. Hopefully her ankle is not broken the way

<v Speaker 1>that Chelsea's is. But on SmackDown Itself, I'm just gonna

<v Speaker 1>bounce around here to some of this stuff. Carmelo Hayes,

<v Speaker 1>he had another open challenge. Nick All This said he

<v Speaker 1>had some great competition lined up for him, and he

<v Speaker 1>was like, I don't want to know who it is.

<v Speaker 1>I'll find out when I go out there, and his

<v Speaker 1>opponent turned out to be l e Hodel, Doctor Wagner Junior,

<v Speaker 1>the Triple A Latin American champion, and where we were

<v Speaker 1>getting a lot closer by the way to dynamite territory

<v Speaker 1>here with all the belts from other companies popping up

<v Speaker 1>on their shows. Look, it wasn't a terrible match. I

<v Speaker 1>just didn't think it was all that great. I personally like,

<v Speaker 1>I don't watch Triple A week to week. Right, I've

<v Speaker 1>seen a bunch of the Triple A shows. I know

<v Speaker 1>who kind of the core players are. Some of them

<v Speaker 1>impress me, some of them are fun. I don't really

<v Speaker 1>get the appeal of Doctor Wagner Junior here. I don't

<v Speaker 1>really I don't see it. I don't get it. These

<v Speaker 1>two clearly had never worked together before. There were some

<v Speaker 1>real rough moments here, especially early on in the match.

<v Speaker 1>They just were not on the same page. I just

<v Speaker 1>you know, it was okay. I wasn't really impressed with this.

<v Speaker 1>We had Damian Priest and we had Bald Truth. Our

<v Speaker 1>Truth is now completely bald, that's his new look. And

<v Speaker 1>they were put together, unbeknownst to Damian Priest, as a

<v Speaker 1>tag team for a tag Team Turmoil match, which is

<v Speaker 1>basically a gauntlet match. They called it tag team Turmoil.

<v Speaker 1>We had tag team Turmoil at SummerSlam back in nineteen

<v Speaker 1>ninety nine, same thing. Forgot who won that one, though

<v Speaker 1>I know Apa was in there. I just I don't

<v Speaker 1>remember who won. But anyway, I would have rather have

<v Speaker 1>gone back and watched that. But we had Priest in

<v Speaker 1>Truth and they got the win here in tag Team

<v Speaker 1>Turmoil over actual tag teams. They got the win over

<v Speaker 1>the MotorCity Machine Guns, over Phraxium los Garza and the

<v Speaker 1>Wyatt Six, who were screwed out of a win by

<v Speaker 1>the MFTs to dead silence in Portland. Because these fans

<v Speaker 1>could not give any less of a shit about this

<v Speaker 1>feud if they tried, I don't think it is humanly

<v Speaker 1>physically possible to care any less about this than they

<v Speaker 1>already do. So that means that Priest and Truth are

<v Speaker 1>now in line for a shot at the WWE tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles. These people are totally lost. They are totally

<v Speaker 1>out to lunch on what to do with Damian Priest.

<v Speaker 1>His fall needs to be studied, it really does. But

<v Speaker 1>more importantly, here is yet another example of actual full

<v Speaker 1>time tag teams in the division, the ones they actually

<v Speaker 1>have left being leapfrog by a makeshift team that they

<v Speaker 1>have decided to slap together because we can't think of

<v Speaker 1>anything better for these guys to be doing, so we'll

<v Speaker 1>make them a tag team. We'll make them a comedy duo,

<v Speaker 1>and they'll leap frog all the actual tag teams in

<v Speaker 1>the division. The tag team situation on both shows is

<v Speaker 1>a complete embarrassment. It is a total epic failure. Three

<v Speaker 1>hours of SmackDown instead of two has done nothing to

<v Speaker 1>address this or try to correct this, And maybe it

<v Speaker 1>could have right with more time to develop actual stories

<v Speaker 1>between them, but they have not. You could expand the

<v Speaker 1>show to six hours and we would just end up

<v Speaker 1>with the Mizz and Dan Housen as tag team champions,

<v Speaker 1>and as it is, we may yet get that because

<v Speaker 1>we had an interaction between them later in the show.

<v Speaker 1>But outside of the WWE title change, the other big

<v Speaker 1>thing I think people were waiting to see as far

<v Speaker 1>as how this is going to play out was the

<v Speaker 1>first real interaction, the first in ring interaction between Rhea

<v Speaker 1>Ripley and Jade Cargill, who are now on a collision

<v Speaker 1>course for the WWE Women's Championship a wrestleman. But there

<v Speaker 1>has been other drama controversy around these two on social

<v Speaker 1>media that was going on all week, which is why

<v Speaker 1>people were very curious to see how this segment was

<v Speaker 1>going to turn out. So we take it back to

<v Speaker 1>Mike Johnson via pw Insider, and this was has since

<v Speaker 1>been circulated in various other places, but this is what

<v Speaker 1>he reported earlier in the week. Weird told the back

<v Speaker 1>and forth between Jade Cargill and other WWE performers was

<v Speaker 1>not something devised by WWE Creative, with a number of

<v Speaker 1>sources placing the blame for the blow up on Cargill.

<v Speaker 1>Now let me stop there. You missed it. There was

<v Speaker 1>a back in. I don't remember how it started. I

<v Speaker 1>think it started with Rhea and Jade, and then other

<v Speaker 1>people ended up jumping in, like Chelsea Green and Piper

<v Speaker 1>Niven kind of ganging up on Jade. It was just,

<v Speaker 1>you know, trash talking that was going back and forth,

<v Speaker 1>and it was very like some of the stuff was

<v Speaker 1>very cringe, you know, especially when Jade I think, brought

<v Speaker 1>up the creative team and Rea cozying up to the creator.

<v Speaker 1>It was like, what is you know, what I mean,

<v Speaker 1>But that's how it all started, and then it sort

<v Speaker 1>of just spiraled out of control and people, oh, is

<v Speaker 1>it a word because it a shoot, So that's what

<v Speaker 1>he's referring to. One source noted that Cargill has been

<v Speaker 1>criticized by a number of talents for how she rubs

<v Speaker 1>others the wrong way, and that when the back and

<v Speaker 1>forth with Rhea began, it wasn't hard for others to

<v Speaker 1>want to jump in and voice their opinions. They cited

<v Speaker 1>this wasn't the first time that Jade has upset others

<v Speaker 1>with how she conducted herself, and intimated that when there

<v Speaker 1>were erroneous reports about Jade being hurt last year, the

<v Speaker 1>real reason she disappeared and spent time in the WWE

<v Speaker 1>Performance Center was to let personal issues going on at

<v Speaker 1>the time subside with the passing of time. So actually,

<v Speaker 1>what he's referring to is twenty twenty four, which is

<v Speaker 1>when they shot that angle where Jade was found dead

<v Speaker 1>on the car and we had the big mystery of

<v Speaker 1>you know who done it with Jade Cargill, she went

<v Speaker 1>away for a while. Another source in the company tried

<v Speaker 1>to downplay the situation, but later on admitted that sooner

<v Speaker 1>or later they expected management would have to step in

<v Speaker 1>and speak to Cargill about her relationship with the locker room.

<v Speaker 1>The source noted that everyone in the locker room has

<v Speaker 1>been happy to do whatever they need to do to

<v Speaker 1>get Jade over, but that respect that they show her

<v Speaker 1>does not feel requided. They described that as Cargill coming

<v Speaker 1>off as insecure when she should not have any reason

<v Speaker 1>to feel that way. One source close to Cargill blew

<v Speaker 1>off the entire situation, citing that she is a type

<v Speaker 1>A personality and that this is what happens when competitive

<v Speaker 1>personalities are in the same space. One aspect of the

<v Speaker 1>situation that multiple people we spoke to found troubling was

<v Speaker 1>the idea that Rhea Ripley was presented by Jade on

<v Speaker 1>Twitter is someone kissing up to or chasing wwe creative

<v Speaker 1>to get attention, which we are told is not how

<v Speaker 1>Rhea conducts herself. One person described it as an upsetting

<v Speaker 1>character assassination. The exchange over the weekend led to Ripley

<v Speaker 1>posting on social media not having fun, not friends, learn

<v Speaker 1>to work, and never lie to defame someone's real human

<v Speaker 1>character by quote breaking the fourth wall, you know, whenever

<v Speaker 1>I see stuff like this, to me, it's all just

<v Speaker 1>silly nonsense. Like there's a way to leverage social media

<v Speaker 1>in a situation like this, I think, to try to

<v Speaker 1>get people excited or invested or believe that there's real

<v Speaker 1>heat between two people. And then there's just times where

<v Speaker 1>you're posting stuff that again, it's just very cringe, and

<v Speaker 1>it's very when you break the fourth wall and you

<v Speaker 1>start getting into some of the shit that they were

<v Speaker 1>getting into here. It's just like, this doesn't do anything

<v Speaker 1>to make me any more interested in seeing these two

<v Speaker 1>get in the ring and wrestle. Right, maybe there's a

<v Speaker 1>way to do that on social media. This ain't it.

<v Speaker 1>It's one of those situations that just everybody came off

<v Speaker 1>looking bad, which led to the segment On Friday night,

<v Speaker 1>they had a face to face in the ring and

<v Speaker 1>Jade went first, and the first thing she did was

<v Speaker 1>she put her hand out for a handshake, and Ria

<v Speaker 1>reluctantly accepted, and Jade was giving her her flowers and said,

<v Speaker 1>I'm shaking your hand because I respect you, and she

<v Speaker 1>went through all of Ria's accomplishments and how the fans

<v Speaker 1>loved her. I respect you, but I'm not impressed. And

<v Speaker 1>then she talked about her physique being better than Rhea's

<v Speaker 1>and she said that she was going to beat the

<v Speaker 1>hell out of Rihat WrestleMania and there's nothing you could

<v Speaker 1>do about it because I'm that bitch. So then it

<v Speaker 1>was Rhea's turn and she put a hand out. She said,

<v Speaker 1>I respect the honesty. She told Jade that she respected

<v Speaker 1>her physically. Her arms may be bigger, her shoulders may

<v Speaker 1>be bigger, her legs may be bigger. But she said

<v Speaker 1>that even if Jade gave her her best shot, she

<v Speaker 1>would not stay down. But if Ria delivered her best shot,

<v Speaker 1>ain't no way that Jade would get back up. And

<v Speaker 1>she said that Jade's body was built for show. My

<v Speaker 1>body is built for fighting. When that bell rings, you

<v Speaker 1>can flex all you want to, but I'm gonna fight

<v Speaker 1>and I'm gonna take that WWE Women's Championship away from you,

<v Speaker 1>and there's nothing you could do about it because I'm

<v Speaker 1>that bitch. And she had her mic drop moment. Jaye

<v Speaker 1>did the same thing where she dropped the mic. Boy,

<v Speaker 1>we have really taken the idea of the mic drop

<v Speaker 1>moment and just completely bastardized it. Haven't we There were

<v Speaker 1>no real mic drop moments here. That's number one. I

<v Speaker 1>also didn't think the promo was as awful as I

<v Speaker 1>heard some people like that, Oh my god, this is

<v Speaker 1>like such a terrible promo. It wasn't great. I've seen worse.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe the worst thing I could say about it is

<v Speaker 1>that it really didn't do a whole hell of a

<v Speaker 1>lot to get me excited for their match. Right, and

<v Speaker 1>there's still six weeks left. They're gonna, believe me, they're

<v Speaker 1>gonna have to come up with some ideas on what

<v Speaker 1>to do with these two women in the next six weeks,

<v Speaker 1>so we'll see what they have up their sleeve. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not terribly encouraged, but I said this last week. I

<v Speaker 1>think I said this. You know, even coming into this,

<v Speaker 1>Jade Cargill is not someone that you can rely on

<v Speaker 1>to cut like a long promo. She has sound bites,

<v Speaker 1>She has sound bites, and then she has her closing line.

<v Speaker 1>I'm that bitch. A lot of her promos are literally

<v Speaker 1>thirty seconds long. Like after she won the championship. I

<v Speaker 1>want to say, the first time we saw her on

<v Speaker 1>television in the ring, she got in the ring, she

<v Speaker 1>said a few words. Twenty seconds later she was done.

<v Speaker 1>WWE treats her promos the way they treat her matches,

<v Speaker 1>where they want to hide her weaknesses. Her weakness is wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>She's not a great wrestler. She's capable. She can do

<v Speaker 1>the things that she does well, but if you have

<v Speaker 1>her in there for too long, or you have her

<v Speaker 1>in there with the wrong person, she'll be exposed. And

<v Speaker 1>it's the same thing on the microphone. She's not going

<v Speaker 1>to go out there and give you a great five

<v Speaker 1>minute promo. I mean, there are people on the roster

<v Speaker 1>who can do a great ten or fifteen minute promo,

<v Speaker 1>but you're not gonna get a whole lot out of her.

<v Speaker 1>You have her go out there and you kind of

<v Speaker 1>hit the greatest hits, You hit the closing line, and

<v Speaker 1>you go home. But Ria Ripley in all the years

<v Speaker 1>that she's been in w W, and I love Riha

<v Speaker 1>and I think Riea's had some great matches. She's had

<v Speaker 1>much better matches than Jade Cargill has had. She's a

<v Speaker 1>better wrestler than Jade is. She's not a great promo either.

<v Speaker 1>Where is this one Jade or Ria Ripley promo or two?

<v Speaker 1>Ria Ripley promos that you can point me to that

<v Speaker 1>are sort of like on her mantle, is like her

<v Speaker 1>greatest work. There really is not any one single promo

<v Speaker 1>I could think of. Right, She's okay, but she's not great.

<v Speaker 1>And so you have two women here who have six

<v Speaker 1>weeks left now to promote a WrestleMania match where promos

<v Speaker 1>are not exactly their strong suit, and so I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what they're going to do here, but I still

<v Speaker 1>maintain this is as a match at WrestleMania, the best

<v Speaker 1>match that they were left with. Once Bianca, you know

<v Speaker 1>it was Claire Bianca was not going to be back,

<v Speaker 1>and once they decided to eliminate Charlotte from even being

<v Speaker 1>in the elimination chamber and they went a different way,

<v Speaker 1>the only other name that made sense was Rhea Ripley.

<v Speaker 1>It is still the biggest match at the moment that

<v Speaker 1>they could do. Getting there, though was going to be rough.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't draw, by the way, on any of the

<v Speaker 1>social media stuff in this promo, and I don't believe

<v Speaker 1>for a second the social media stuff was all a shoot.

<v Speaker 1>It just so happens that these two were getting in

<v Speaker 1>a social media tiff when they have a WrestleMania match

<v Speaker 1>with no backstory to promote. You gotta be kidding me,

<v Speaker 1>do I think that it draws on some very real

<v Speaker 1>opinions about Jade. Sure, I'm sure they're working that into

<v Speaker 1>their their their tweets and their comments, right, but they're

<v Speaker 1>working it into a shoot. They're trying to get something

<v Speaker 1>going here, which is why it was puzzling to me

<v Speaker 1>that they didn't. They didn't draw from any of that

<v Speaker 1>here in this segment. I don't think that means, oh well,

<v Speaker 1>that means it was a shoot. No, I don't believe

<v Speaker 1>for a second the whole thing was a shoot. I

<v Speaker 1>think they're trying to get something going for WrestleMania. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>in the weeks to come they will draw on some

<v Speaker 1>of the social media stuff, but they didn't draw on

<v Speaker 1>any of it here, and the stuff that they did

<v Speaker 1>do was very bare bones. So it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>a struggle. This is the match they're left with. It's

<v Speaker 1>the biggest match they could do, but it's going to

<v Speaker 1>be a struggle. And honestly, I think if you had

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte Flair in this situation, I don't think the promos

<v Speaker 1>would be that much better. I think you'd be in

<v Speaker 1>the same exact position where it's going to be an

<v Speaker 1>uphill climb for them to get to Wrestleman. Just to

<v Speaker 1>get to that match and get it over with, it's

<v Speaker 1>going to be an uphill climb. If I'm being totally honest,

<v Speaker 1>The most compelling stuff from SmackDown on Friday Night actually

<v Speaker 1>involves the one person who just recently as far as

<v Speaker 1>his own story, really it just hasn't really done much

<v Speaker 1>for me. But they're really building some compelling television with

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's ain and these backstage interactions with people like Cody Rhodes.

<v Speaker 1>He had another run in with Cody backstage on Friday

<v Speaker 1>night and he said, look, I'm not trying to get

<v Speaker 1>in your head before your big match, but it's kind

<v Speaker 1>of crazy this match is even happening to begin with,

<v Speaker 1>and Cody took offense to this or what's so crazy

<v Speaker 1>about it. Sammy said, look, look, when you beat me

<v Speaker 1>to qualify for the elimination chamber, I let it go.

<v Speaker 1>But you went to the elimination chamber and you lost.

<v Speaker 1>It's like everything falls into your lab. You get a

<v Speaker 1>second chance. You know who's not getting a second chance.

<v Speaker 1>Me and Cody just sounded off on this guy and

<v Speaker 1>sounded like you were politicking for a title match even

<v Speaker 1>though you haven't won the championship yourself yet. And that

<v Speaker 1>upset Sammy and he asked Cody if you know he

<v Speaker 1>thought that he was being self servying or trying to

<v Speaker 1>snake his way into a title match, and Cody's like,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I don't know. You tell me, and

<v Speaker 1>Sammy said, look, I don't know either. I came to

<v Speaker 1>tell you good luck. I legitimately just wanted to come

<v Speaker 1>wish you good luck in your match tonight, and then

<v Speaker 1>look at what it's turned into. He said, you may

<v Speaker 1>not believe it. I want what's best for you and

<v Speaker 1>go out there and do what you do best and

<v Speaker 1>you become WWE champion and Cody, you know, he walked

<v Speaker 1>off it again. Sammy's, you know, throwing water bottles around

<v Speaker 1>that he's all upset. Then there was a segment later

<v Speaker 1>in the show where you know, Randy Orton was walking

<v Speaker 1>and Sammy's aine walked up to him. He said, I'm

<v Speaker 1>really happy for you, and you know, Cody qualified for

<v Speaker 1>the elimination chamber when Drew McIntyre got involved and I

<v Speaker 1>tried to do the right thing, but you like the

<v Speaker 1>same thing happened to you during the elimination chamber match

<v Speaker 1>and you had no hesitation in dropping Cody and winning

<v Speaker 1>the match. And he asked Orton, I got to know, like,

<v Speaker 1>how do you do it? And you know, he questioned,

<v Speaker 1>how you know Orton could talk the way that he

<v Speaker 1>talks about Cody and be such good friends with him,

<v Speaker 1>but then drop him the second that he turns his back,

<v Speaker 1>And Randy asked him, he goes, you want me to

<v Speaker 1>be honest, sometimes you gotta be selfish. And Sammy asked

<v Speaker 1>him if that makes him a bad person, and Orton said, look,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know about all that, but it did make

<v Speaker 1>me a fourteen time world champion, and so Sammy wished

<v Speaker 1>him luck and said I really hope you win number fifteen,

<v Speaker 1>and Orton grabbed him and said, look, I believe in you.

<v Speaker 1>You just need to believe in yourself. And Orton pointed

<v Speaker 1>at his own head and he said, maybe try listening

<v Speaker 1>to the voices. So off he went, and then Alistair

<v Speaker 1>Black and Zelena were there and Black told Sammy, don't

<v Speaker 1>worry about him, and Zelena said, yeah, he couldn't help himself.

<v Speaker 1>Black said, it's just the nature of the beast. That's

<v Speaker 1>their stick. Now they just pop up in these random

<v Speaker 1>situations backstage and they have a couple of words and

<v Speaker 1>then they walk off. So again the Sammy's Ain stuff.

<v Speaker 1>What is it leading to? Is it leading to a

<v Speaker 1>heel turn? It sure feels like it. I still would not.

<v Speaker 1>I'm hanging on to this. I am not letting go

<v Speaker 1>of the possible that I thought maybe it would be

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton. It doesn't appear to be that way, but

<v Speaker 1>maybe Sammy's Ain it comes out later on as the

<v Speaker 1>one who actually attacked Jacob Fatu. I just I was

<v Speaker 1>gonna say, I can't believe, but maybe I can believe,

<v Speaker 1>given who we're dealing with here, that they would just

<v Speaker 1>go with Drew. You know, the most basic answer, even

<v Speaker 1>though Drew was, you know, denying it and denying it

<v Speaker 1>up and down for months, that ultimately it's just, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>Drew McIntyre's the one who kicked him in the mouth

<v Speaker 1>and put him on the shelf. I don't know. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>maybe it'll eventually come out that it was Sammy's Ain.

<v Speaker 1>In a moment of weakness and rage, he just lost it.

<v Speaker 1>He couldn't stand that, you know, Jacob is new to

<v Speaker 1>the roster and he's getting opportunities that he deserves, and

<v Speaker 1>he did it. And then eventually when they're ready to

<v Speaker 1>pull the trigger on a heel turn, maybe that's when

<v Speaker 1>we get the admission and maybe that's a feud coming

<v Speaker 1>out of WrestleMania. Maybe maybe we get something with Jacob

<v Speaker 1>Fatu and Sammy's ain out of it. I just I

<v Speaker 1>still think it is at least a possibility. But then

<v Speaker 1>we get to the main event. The show was really

<v Speaker 1>built around Cody Roads and Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship.

<v Speaker 1>As Sammy said, Cody lost in the Elimination Chamber, but

<v Speaker 1>he got a title match because Drew got involved, which

<v Speaker 1>Drew has done time and time and time again, and

<v Speaker 1>so he said, enough is enough. We're going to do

<v Speaker 1>this match on SmackDown this week and you're gonna put

<v Speaker 1>your championship on the line, And they had a Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntire Cody Rhads match, like it was a good match.

<v Speaker 1>If you've seen one Cody Roads Drew McIntire match, going

<v Speaker 1>back to the matches they had last year, you've basically

<v Speaker 1>seen them all, and we've seen a lot of them

<v Speaker 1>going back to Wressell Palooza. But late in the match,

<v Speaker 1>Cody cleared off the announced desk. He was going to

<v Speaker 1>try something on top of the desk. He took McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>on top, about to hit Crossroads and Drew was able

<v Speaker 1>to get out of it, and the table ended up

<v Speaker 1>collapsing under their weight, which doesn't happen very often these

<v Speaker 1>days the way they reinforced these tables. So to make

<v Speaker 1>up for the blown spot, Cody went and he pulled

<v Speaker 1>a table, a slim gym table out from under the ring,

<v Speaker 1>and McIntyre ended up attacking him. He set the table

<v Speaker 1>up and then he just put Cody through it with

<v Speaker 1>a power bomb, so the fans were able to get

<v Speaker 1>their table spot. So in the ring, and by the way,

<v Speaker 1>now that I think about it, this was not a

<v Speaker 1>notice qualification match. I'm not sure why that wouldn't have

<v Speaker 1>been a DQ. But in the ring, McIntyre put Roads

<v Speaker 1>in position for a Crossroads. He was gonna give him

<v Speaker 1>his own Crossroads and did, but it wasn't enough. He

<v Speaker 1>set them up for a clay More that got blocked.

<v Speaker 1>Cody decided to hit a clay More of his own,

<v Speaker 1>not a very good one, but he had a clay

<v Speaker 1>More for a nearfall. So there were two different situations

<v Speaker 1>here where Charles Robinson was able to avoid the sure doom. Unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>the third time there was no avoiding it and McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>pulled him in the way of a disaster kick and

<v Speaker 1>down ghost charged l Robinson. He rolls out to the

<v Speaker 1>floor and so of course it all leads to a

<v Speaker 1>spot where he hits the Claymore kick on Cody. He

<v Speaker 1>got a near fall out of it, but there was

<v Speaker 1>a delay prior to that because it took time for

<v Speaker 1>another referee to come out. So he throws Cody into

<v Speaker 1>the post a couple of times, shoulder first. Then he

<v Speaker 1>turns his attention to the new referee and he hits

<v Speaker 1>him with a Glasgow kiss, just head butts him. Out

<v Speaker 1>of frustration, he leaves the ring. He grabs a chair,

<v Speaker 1>gets back in the ring and before he could use

<v Speaker 1>the chair, Jacob Fought too magically appears. He grabs the

<v Speaker 1>chair away from Drew and Cody rolled him up, only

<v Speaker 1>got a near fall. McIntyre hit future shock and he

<v Speaker 1>had Cody in position after this for a claymoar. Cody

<v Speaker 1>moved out of the way and then he hit a

<v Speaker 1>super Cody Cutter and then one Crossroads and that's all

<v Speaker 1>she run. And I know people are going to look

<v Speaker 1>at that and go, man, it makes Drew look so weak.

<v Speaker 1>It only took one Crossroads to beat him. Good. You

<v Speaker 1>got to start somewhere. It's time that Cody actually used

<v Speaker 1>his finish as a fucking finish. I can't hate on that,

<v Speaker 1>but that was it. Cody Rhodes got the pin, and

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhods is now a three time WWE champion. He

<v Speaker 1>will defend the title against Randy Orton one on one.

<v Speaker 1>At least we presume one on one at WrestleMania. You know,

<v Speaker 1>we can't discount the possibility that it still may not

<v Speaker 1>end up being a multiman match, but as things stand,

<v Speaker 1>it looks like a singles match now. Perbodyslam dot Net.

<v Speaker 1>Sources indicate that discussions began regarding Orton against Rhodes around

<v Speaker 1>the beginning of February to shake things up for WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>season and give a payoff to the teases over the

<v Speaker 1>last few years. Why don't you think about that years

<v Speaker 1>years they've been teasing this. Rhodes and McIntyre did not

<v Speaker 1>officially find out about the change until last week. McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>is set to begin filming for the movie Highlander immediately

<v Speaker 1>after WrestleManias. So regardless whether he went into WrestleMania as

<v Speaker 1>the champion or not, it seemed pretty clear Drew McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>was not leaving WrestleMania as the WWE champion. That was

<v Speaker 1>just never going to happen. And fight full Select chimed

<v Speaker 1>in and said, one of the reasons the WWE title

<v Speaker 1>was taken off of Cody Rhoades in the first place

<v Speaker 1>was that so he could be featured in the Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble and the Elimination Chamber matches, adding to the draw

<v Speaker 1>of those shows. And that's one of the keys here

<v Speaker 1>is that, you know, you're looking ahead in TKO. They

<v Speaker 1>have tickets to sell, they have shows that they have

<v Speaker 1>to promote, and it was just more appealing to them

<v Speaker 1>to be like, you know what, taking the belt off

<v Speaker 1>of him for a little bit might not be such

<v Speaker 1>a bad idea because then we have Cody in the

<v Speaker 1>Rumble and maybe he three peats and then we can

<v Speaker 1>have Cody in the Chamber. Right. Oh, it's his last

<v Speaker 1>opportunity to go to WrestleMania, and then if he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>win the chamber. Oh my god, that that house Cody

<v Speaker 1>going to get in the title match. That's it, right,

<v Speaker 1>So absolutely I can believe that that was part of

<v Speaker 1>their calculus here as far as hey, you know what

<v Speaker 1>might not be so bad idea to get the belt

<v Speaker 1>off him for a while. And this title change here,

<v Speaker 1>this is really where the low cage match score comes from.

<v Speaker 1>To say nothing of all the dislikes that one person

<v Speaker 1>botted on the WWE YouTube video showing the title change.

<v Speaker 1>This guy posted a receipt online. I don't even think

<v Speaker 1>his account is active anymore, but he posted a receipt

<v Speaker 1>online showing it cost him two hundred and fifty bucks

<v Speaker 1>to bot sixty five thousand dislikes on that video. He

<v Speaker 1>bought sixty five thousand dislikes for two hundred and fifty dollars.

<v Speaker 1>Like if any of that is even true, Like how

<v Speaker 1>much of a loser do you need to be to

<v Speaker 1>do something like that? But that's where it all comes from.

<v Speaker 1>It comes from people being upset that they put the

<v Speaker 1>belt back on Cody, and this is their way of

<v Speaker 1>lashing out and review bombing and look sending a message

<v Speaker 1>to WWE that they're not happy about it. As far

<v Speaker 1>as putting the belt back on Cody, I'm fine with it.

<v Speaker 1>I would have been fine with it if they would

<v Speaker 1>have kept the belt on Drew going into Wrestlemandia. I'm

<v Speaker 1>just I'm kind of indifferent to all of it. At

<v Speaker 1>this point. Everything just seems so haphazardly planned out that

<v Speaker 1>this is where we are right now. I would have

<v Speaker 1>been fined with either scenario. But Cody winning the belt

<v Speaker 1>back does not make me mad. It does not bother

<v Speaker 1>me the way it seems to bother some other people.

<v Speaker 1>And this is what I think some fans have to

<v Speaker 1>be reminded about, is that for months, many of us,

<v Speaker 1>myself included, were harping on the booking of Drew McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>in this feud with Cody Rhoads, and he just kept

<v Speaker 1>losing right every opportunity he would lose. He talks a

<v Speaker 1>big talk, but then he can't go in there and

<v Speaker 1>win the big one. And when they announced that three

<v Speaker 1>stages of Hell match for Germany at the beginning of January,

<v Speaker 1>I said, it's do or die for Drew MacIntyre, like,

<v Speaker 1>he has to win the belt here, even if he

<v Speaker 1>gets a short run. And this is what I said,

<v Speaker 1>and a lot of people said the same thing. Even

<v Speaker 1>if it's a short run, how are you gonna beat

<v Speaker 1>him again? Right? You got to at least put the

<v Speaker 1>belt on him, shake things up a little bit on

<v Speaker 1>the road to WrestleMania. What's the harm in doing that?

<v Speaker 1>And that's what they did. They finally put the championship

<v Speaker 1>on Drew MacIntyre And now here we are two months later,

<v Speaker 1>and he lost the belt back to Cody, and a

<v Speaker 1>lot of these people now, who I'm sure were probably

<v Speaker 1>saying things very similar to that two months ago, are

<v Speaker 1>now bitching and moaning about the fact that, oh my god,

<v Speaker 1>I can't believe they took the belt off Drew and

<v Speaker 1>they put it back on Cody when you knew that

<v Speaker 1>if they put the belt on Drew it was only

<v Speaker 1>going to be temporary. And there were a lot of

<v Speaker 1>people who were okay with it then who probably suddenly

<v Speaker 1>are not okay with it. And it's not like Drew

<v Speaker 1>did anything in this run to really win you over.

<v Speaker 1>He defended the title one fucking time before losing it

<v Speaker 1>to Cody on Friday. He had two total defenses. What

<v Speaker 1>did you expect? Sure, maybe they could have allowed him

<v Speaker 1>to go into WrestleMania as the champion. Okay, fine, but

<v Speaker 1>you knew from the moment he won the belt it

<v Speaker 1>was going to be temporary. You want to the belt

<v Speaker 1>off of Cody. They took the belt off of Cody,

<v Speaker 1>and now you're upset they put the belt back on him.

<v Speaker 1>You mean to tell me you did not see this coming? Like,

<v Speaker 1>if you are one of those people, you can't be

<v Speaker 1>okay with putting the belt on Drew, even if it's

<v Speaker 1>only for a couple of months, and then a couple

<v Speaker 1>of months go by and he loses it and you're

<v Speaker 1>all bent out of shape. It's totally fine if you're

<v Speaker 1>sick and tired of seeing Cody Rhodes as the champion.

<v Speaker 1>Where you don't want Cody to be in another wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Many a main event, although he's got some catching up

<v Speaker 1>to do if he wants to catch up to Roman.

<v Speaker 1>But that's fine. I'm not saying that you should not

<v Speaker 1>be upset or tired of seeing Cody in that spot.

<v Speaker 1>I feel it too. You know, there's there's definitely some

<v Speaker 1>Cody fatigue there. But look, when he won that championship

<v Speaker 1>on Friday, wasn't like he was booed out of the

<v Speaker 1>building in Portland. Those fans cheered. I'm sure part of

<v Speaker 1>it was they were just excited to see a world

<v Speaker 1>title change. But it wasn't like they were booing Cody

<v Speaker 1>out of the building and rejecting this win. You know,

<v Speaker 1>they with them now? Are they going to be with

<v Speaker 1>him in the feud? But Randy, that's a different story.

<v Speaker 1>I definitely think the reactions are going to be a

<v Speaker 1>hell of a lot more mixed, and maybe maybe they'll

<v Speaker 1>even lean more towards Randy. And that's fine. You got

<v Speaker 1>two babyfaces. So what you're doing now is you're telling

<v Speaker 1>the fans, like you pick and choose who you want.

<v Speaker 1>You got two baby faces here. It's probably one of

<v Speaker 1>the reasons why they didn't want to do Babyface John

<v Speaker 1>Cena against Babyface Cody Roads last year and split the crowd, right,

<v Speaker 1>and the don't want to split the baby That's what

<v Speaker 1>they're gonna be doing here because if anybody is going heel,

<v Speaker 1>and I don't know if they are, it's not happening

<v Speaker 1>until WRESTLEMANI it shouldn't happen until WrestleMania. Whether it's Cody,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it's gonna be Cody. I think it's

<v Speaker 1>a lot more likely to be Randy. But whoever it is,

<v Speaker 1>if someone is going heel, you have it happen at WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>either during the match or when the match is over.

<v Speaker 1>So now we have babyface against a babyface, and the

<v Speaker 1>fans are gonna have the ability to choose. But Cody

<v Speaker 1>and Randy, there's a lot of history there. There is,

<v Speaker 1>there is a story to be I can't sit here

<v Speaker 1>and tell you that. There's some rich story now with

<v Speaker 1>Cody and Randy. There's history between them. Whether or not

<v Speaker 1>WWE decides to tell the right story is up in

<v Speaker 1>the air. Just because two people have history together, that

<v Speaker 1>in and of itself is not a story. You still

<v Speaker 1>have to tell that story. You have to bring up

<v Speaker 1>that when Cody came into the company, one of the

<v Speaker 1>first people he wrestled with was Randy Orton and he

<v Speaker 1>was on the same side. Randy took him under his

<v Speaker 1>wing as part of legacy and then cast him away. Right,

<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of history there. And then when he

<v Speaker 1>came back to the company, Right, they've been like best

<v Speaker 1>friends ever since. And he's not a stupid man. He's

<v Speaker 1>seen Randy peeking over at the championship and you know,

<v Speaker 1>spying on the title at various points like that. If

<v Speaker 1>they tell the right story, it can be very compelling.

<v Speaker 1>That's going to be up to you know, Levec and

<v Speaker 1>the SmackDown team and whoever is leading that team. Now,

<v Speaker 1>if they would have kept the belt on Drew, I

<v Speaker 1>think that Fatal four away would have made all the

<v Speaker 1>sense in the world this year, because one of the

<v Speaker 1>more interesting things about SmackDown of late is the fact

<v Speaker 1>that there have been these issues between all of these

<v Speaker 1>people around the title. Drew hates Cody, Cody h Drew,

<v Speaker 1>Drew h Jacob. Jacob hates Cody and Drew. Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>just wants to win the belt back. He doesn't like Drew,

<v Speaker 1>he's friends with Cody, he's indifferent towards Jacob. And then

<v Speaker 1>there's Sammy's ain who just is begging to win a

<v Speaker 1>world championship but just hasn't been able to pull the trigger.

<v Speaker 1>Where does he fit into all this? And it's like, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>you've got all of these different personalities. Sammy would be

<v Speaker 1>the odd man out of a fatal four way, but

<v Speaker 1>you could do Cody and Drew and Jacob and Randy

<v Speaker 1>all in the same match. They've made the decision that

<v Speaker 1>we don't want to do that seemingly. Seemingly it's going

<v Speaker 1>to be one on one, and I'm fine with that,

<v Speaker 1>And that would make it very likely that Drew McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>instead would wrestle Jacob Fatu at WrestleMania. Sammy's Ain again,

<v Speaker 1>maybe Trick Williams. Otherwise, I'm not really sure where he

<v Speaker 1>fits into the equation here. The one change I would

<v Speaker 1>have made Drew McIntyre should have won the championship earlier

<v Speaker 1>than he did. He should have won the title either

<v Speaker 1>at Wressell Palooza to really make a statement on that

<v Speaker 1>first ESPN show, or at Survivor Series instead of the

<v Speaker 1>two of them just being thrown into the Wargames match,

<v Speaker 1>which they really had nothing to do with anything as

<v Speaker 1>far as what was going on there. Survivor Series might

<v Speaker 1>have made more sense, just so you don't have Cody

<v Speaker 1>win the belt back from Johnsen at Summerslim and then

<v Speaker 1>just lose it again the very next month. So he

<v Speaker 1>should have absolutely won the championship earlier than he did

<v Speaker 1>in three Stages of Hell, that's the one change I

<v Speaker 1>would have made. But as far as a WrestleMania main

<v Speaker 1>event gos Cody Roads and Randy Orton. This is a

<v Speaker 1>match that should have been done a long time ago.

<v Speaker 1>This was not part of some grand plan where it's like, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>we have this really you know, great idea where we're

<v Speaker 1>going to hold off on the match for like two

<v Speaker 1>fucking years and then at wrestle Mania forty we're gonna

<v Speaker 1>come to Cody ret Like, no, no, it landed in

<v Speaker 1>their lap and they made the decision that now is

<v Speaker 1>the right time to do the match. And it's a

<v Speaker 1>match I've been waiting for them to do. Is it

<v Speaker 1>a Night one WrestleMania main event worthy match or Night too?

<v Speaker 1>Is it a WrestleMania main event worthy match? Yes? And

<v Speaker 1>the Fatal four way would have been also, and that

<v Speaker 1>could have been fun. But I don't have an issue

<v Speaker 1>with them doing Cody and Randy. It's a match I've

<v Speaker 1>been waiting for them to do. I just I don't

<v Speaker 1>understand why it took this long to get there, But

<v Speaker 1>here we are now. The other WrestleMania main event we

<v Speaker 1>know is CM Punk and Roman reigns for the World

<v Speaker 1>Heavyweight Championship and with elimination Chamber out of the way.

<v Speaker 1>Roman Rains was back on TV this week, so we

<v Speaker 1>had another face to face between the two of them,

<v Speaker 1>of which, among other highlights here, Roman mentioned that we

<v Speaker 1>brought you back, Phil to entertain the thirty to forty

<v Speaker 1>year old virgins who still live with their mo mom

<v Speaker 1>and dad, and to sell a few T shirts and

<v Speaker 1>maybe draw a house in Chicago, but not to be

<v Speaker 1>the champion. Can't trust you. That's too much responsibility and

<v Speaker 1>power for you. And you're a liar. You lie to

<v Speaker 1>all these people. You have them believing that you're running

<v Speaker 1>all these tours with a smile on your face. Meanwhile

<v Speaker 1>you're bitching and moaning in the back. You're not CM Punk,

<v Speaker 1>You're just a punk ass bitch. I'm noticing again the

<v Speaker 1>trend to using that word, that be word a lot

<v Speaker 1>in these promos, right Jade and Rhea, I'm that bitch.

<v Speaker 1>Roman to Punk, you're a punk ass bitch. He say

<v Speaker 1>he's gonna put them on one of these John Cena

<v Speaker 1>retirement tours, gonna make as much money off you as

<v Speaker 1>we can. And then Punk came back and said, who's

<v Speaker 1>this wi that you keep talking about? You got some

<v Speaker 1>extra Samoan goblins in your pocket. That we can't see.

<v Speaker 1>There is no wi. You're all alone. Your cousins aren't

<v Speaker 1>with you anymore. You don't have the Shield with you anymore,

<v Speaker 1>or you don't even have a wise man anymore thanks

<v Speaker 1>to me, says you're going to retire me. Now I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to bury you, and then you won't be alone anymore,

<v Speaker 1>because I'm going to bury you next to your father,

<v Speaker 1>your dead father. So now it's only a matter of

<v Speaker 1>time before we hear about Punk's dead dog being brought

<v Speaker 1>into the storyline here. And I said this on Monday

<v Speaker 1>in the review, I said this, this was good. The

<v Speaker 1>back and forth and the intensity from them was good.

<v Speaker 1>This was not as good as their first exchange after

<v Speaker 1>the Rumble. I'm actually hoping this would be a little

<v Speaker 1>bit longer. But you know, as with Rhea and Jade

<v Speaker 1>and all these other feuds, and you know, you got

<v Speaker 1>another six weeks left to go until WrestleMania, you got

<v Speaker 1>to save some of that. They got Roman. I think

<v Speaker 1>what is it five four or five more times on

<v Speaker 1>television between now and then, I think five, including a

<v Speaker 1>stretch coming up here later in March where he's going

<v Speaker 1>to be on the show for three weeks in a row,

<v Speaker 1>and if we presume that Roman is not wrestling on

<v Speaker 1>the show, I don't know what he is going to

<v Speaker 1>be doing, But we'll see, We'll see what they come

<v Speaker 1>up with. You got to save some of it for

<v Speaker 1>those shows. The thing I like about it is that

<v Speaker 1>you can buy into the fact that there is this real,

<v Speaker 1>visceral hatred between these two men. It really does feel

<v Speaker 1>like a grudge match between these two and if they

<v Speaker 1>could find a way to manufacture that on television with

<v Speaker 1>Rhea and Jade, that will also help that match a lot.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if they can get there. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know if I don't know if if Jade is that

<v Speaker 1>good of an actor to make that possible. But that's

<v Speaker 1>the one thing about the Roman and Punk match that

<v Speaker 1>I really enjoy more than any of the other matches

<v Speaker 1>that we know of so far right, I can believe

<v Speaker 1>that these two guys really do hate each other and

<v Speaker 1>they're going to throw down here at any given moment.

<v Speaker 1>I'm just you know, you're waiting for the pull apart

<v Speaker 1>brawl one week between these two. Now. Roman is not

<v Speaker 1>going to be on the show tomorrow night. He is

<v Speaker 1>back in San Antonio on three sixteen, and then for

<v Speaker 1>the next two weeks after that. I mentioned Dan Housen earlier.

<v Speaker 1>He was backstage on Raw Monday Night and he put

<v Speaker 1>a curse on Dominic Mysterio, who was very disrespectful to him,

<v Speaker 1>and then dom went on to lose the Intercontinental Championship

<v Speaker 1>to Penta. So that was kind of amusing. You kind

<v Speaker 1>of knew at that point, like, uh oh, I think

<v Speaker 1>we're getting a title change here on this show, which

<v Speaker 1>we had to my god. I mean I talked about

<v Speaker 1>Cody and Drew earlier and going into three stages of hell, God,

<v Speaker 1>Drew's got to win this. He can't lose again. This

<v Speaker 1>was like pentus seventh or eighth opportunity at the Intercontinental title.

<v Speaker 1>He had to win that match on Monday Night. So

<v Speaker 1>with a little help from Dan House and he was

<v Speaker 1>able to do that, and they actually had as a

<v Speaker 1>very good match, and it was a very cool moment.

<v Speaker 1>You know, see Penta celebrating after and he was so

<v Speaker 1>happy backstage to get his side plates. It's good. I'm

<v Speaker 1>glad to see him get that championship. Now, we just

<v Speaker 1>got to get him in an actual match at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>But then Dan Housen also showed up on SmackDown on

<v Speaker 1>Friday Night and was introduced by Nick All, this to

<v Speaker 1>the Mizz, who was not thrilled to see him, and

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen's merchandise reportedly has pleasantly surprised those in WWE

<v Speaker 1>with how well the merch has been selling according to

<v Speaker 1>the early numbers. I don't know why they should be

<v Speaker 1>surprised at all. I mean Dan Housen to me, one

<v Speaker 1>of the biggest reasons to bring him in is to

<v Speaker 1>be able to market all kinds of kookie merchandise that

<v Speaker 1>you can sell and make money off of. Like whatever

<v Speaker 1>they're paying him, they can probably make that back just

<v Speaker 1>in merch sales alone over this next year, and then

<v Speaker 1>you can bounce him around from show to show, brand

<v Speaker 1>to brand. He could do some comedy stuff, like I

<v Speaker 1>find him entertaining and amusing, and I think, you know,

<v Speaker 1>plugging him in there with the right people, you can

<v Speaker 1>come up with some pretty fun television segments with him,

<v Speaker 1>and then you get to throw some T shirts and

<v Speaker 1>shit on WWE's shop and make money off him there.

<v Speaker 1>You want to bounce him over to NXT use him

<v Speaker 1>in NXT. You want to bounce him over to Triple A.

<v Speaker 1>Use him in Triple A. I'm sure the Undertaker would

<v Speaker 1>love to get his hands on Dan Housen, but I

<v Speaker 1>made a suggestion on how you can actually work Dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen into a pretty important angle on Monday Night. Ron

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned this on TNT on Tuesday Night. You know,

<v Speaker 1>we know that Brock Lesner has this open challenge for WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>and you would hope that Oba Femi is going to

<v Speaker 1>accept it because that's the match that so many people

<v Speaker 1>want to see. They teased it at the Royal Rumble,

<v Speaker 1>and hopefully it's not one of these, you know Paul

<v Speaker 1>Levek teases where they've been teasing Cody and Randy for

<v Speaker 1>three years and now we're finally actually four years and

<v Speaker 1>now we're finally getting it. And so hopefully it won't

<v Speaker 1>take two or three years to get Lesner and Femi

<v Speaker 1>or Brock may well be done by that point, but

<v Speaker 1>he has this open challenge. And Paul Haman got taken

<v Speaker 1>out by Seth Rollins. He got stomped and bloodied up

<v Speaker 1>on Monday night. I don't know if he's going to

<v Speaker 1>be back on TV this week like nothing ever happened

<v Speaker 1>or if that was their way of writing him off

<v Speaker 1>television for a few weeks. We're not going to see

<v Speaker 1>Brock back on TV until San Antonio on three sixteen.

<v Speaker 1>Is he going to be there alone? Is Hayman going

<v Speaker 1>to be with him? I don't know. You would think

<v Speaker 1>that he would have something to say to Seth Rollins

<v Speaker 1>about Rollins beating up Hayman. Which is why I don't

<v Speaker 1>think we can discount the possibility of Seth Rollin's wrestling

<v Speaker 1>Brock Lesner at WrestleMania. I'm not saying that's the match

<v Speaker 1>I think is going to happen, but I think if

<v Speaker 1>they are not yet locked in on who it is

<v Speaker 1>going to be, that Rollins has to be on the

<v Speaker 1>shortlist because now there's a built in reason why Brock

<v Speaker 1>would be upset with him. But where Denhausen comes into play,

<v Speaker 1>and I don't know if they would do this in

<v Speaker 1>San Antonio. You've got Madison Square Garden coming up later

<v Speaker 1>in the month. I think Brock is supposed to be there.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they do it at the garden where Danhausen comes

<v Speaker 1>out during one of these segments with Brock Lesner. The

<v Speaker 1>last fucking person in the world that you would expect

<v Speaker 1>to walk out during a Brock Lesner segment, and he

<v Speaker 1>comes out to the ring and we get some Brockhausen humor,

<v Speaker 1>only for him to put a curse on brock Lesner,

<v Speaker 1>which Brock of course laughs off because the whole thing

<v Speaker 1>is just so ridiculous. But it's him putting the curse

<v Speaker 1>on Brock and him laughing it off, where the lights

<v Speaker 1>go out and the music hits, and we get Oba

<v Speaker 1>Feme to come out to accept the open challenge, and

<v Speaker 1>we get the stare down between Brock and Oba, and again,

<v Speaker 1>Brock can laugh it off all he wants. It's almost

<v Speaker 1>like a nervous laughter, and he backs down, and there's

<v Speaker 1>your match for WrestleMania. That is, assuming, of course, that

<v Speaker 1>Oba Femi is going to be his opponent at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>But I think that would be a great way to

<v Speaker 1>go about doing it, because it's kind of silly that

<v Speaker 1>even in that first week, but let's say he comes

<v Speaker 1>back for a second week or a third week, and

<v Speaker 1>you don't have anybody with any real credibility coming out

<v Speaker 1>to confront him or accept the open challenge. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>it sort of defies all logic. But the idea that

<v Speaker 1>they would use this Danhausen curse as a way to

<v Speaker 1>really illustrate like the curse means something. If he puts

<v Speaker 1>a curse on somebody, something bad's about to happen to

<v Speaker 1>that person. And Brock of course finds this all to

<v Speaker 1>be just humorous and he's laughing it off, but then

<v Speaker 1>the music hits right and out comes OBA. I think

<v Speaker 1>that could work, I really do. I think that would

<v Speaker 1>be a fun way to kind of get him out

<v Speaker 1>there and set that match up for wrestle man. And then,

<v Speaker 1>of course Dan Housen would have nothing to do with

<v Speaker 1>any of this, because you got to at that point

<v Speaker 1>you get him out of there as quickly as possible

<v Speaker 1>because he should have nothing to do with a Brocklesner

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi match beyond setting it up. But I think that'd

<v Speaker 1>be a fun way to do it. Now. The other

<v Speaker 1>thing about Raw Monday Night, the best part about Raw

<v Speaker 1>Monday Night, quite frankly, was that banger of a match

<v Speaker 1>that Gunther and Dragon Lee had, and it was Dragon

<v Speaker 1>Lee's best match on the main roster easily. It was, not,

<v Speaker 1>though without controversy. During the match, his mask ended up

<v Speaker 1>being ripped off by Gunther and then guntherer put him

<v Speaker 1>in a sleeper hole and Dragon Lee quickly tapped out

<v Speaker 1>and then was hiding his face. He was burying his

<v Speaker 1>face in the mat, but for a second there the

<v Speaker 1>camera caught his full face. His full face was exposed

<v Speaker 1>on television, and some fans were very upset over his

<v Speaker 1>face being exposed, however brief it was, and responding to

<v Speaker 1>one such fan on x Sean Ross Sap a Fight

<v Speaker 1>Full revealed that it was a planned angle, that the

<v Speaker 1>company actually pitched it to Dragon Lee, and he agreed.

<v Speaker 1>He said they didn't actively shoot around it. They pitched it,

<v Speaker 1>he agreed, They scripted it into a wrestling show, they

<v Speaker 1>filmed it, they produced it. They showed his face while

<v Speaker 1>he sold on top of a slim gym logo. Because

<v Speaker 1>there was a lot of anger being directed towards Sean

<v Speaker 1>because Sap had posted a photo after the match of

<v Speaker 1>Dragon Lee's exposed face. He got a screenshot of that

<v Speaker 1>exact moment and he posted it. He said, Dragonly's mask

<v Speaker 1>has been ripped off, and there were a lot of

<v Speaker 1>fans who complained about it on social media, and Sewan

<v Speaker 1>doubled down and said, look, wwe aired his unmasking on Netflix.

<v Speaker 1>They posted the video on their YouTube channel, they ran highlights,

<v Speaker 1>they posted it to all of their socials unedited. It

<v Speaker 1>was not an accident. Get over it, and John Albo

<v Speaker 1>of Sports Illustrated said of WWE was concerned about Dragonly's

<v Speaker 1>face being seen, then they either don't do the spot,

<v Speaker 1>or they would shoot it in a way that there's

<v Speaker 1>no chance that the viewers at home will see it.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe the people on the front row would see it,

<v Speaker 1>but the people at home wouldn't be able to see it.

<v Speaker 1>It was pretty deliberately shot, he said, for the camera

<v Speaker 1>to catch it. And that's really the key. Yeah, the

<v Speaker 1>fact that it was not edited out of any of

<v Speaker 1>their socials. This was very clearly something that they planned

<v Speaker 1>and they wanted to put out there to probably cause

<v Speaker 1>this very type of discourse where people would be talking

<v Speaker 1>about it and sharing it on social media. But where

<v Speaker 1>things got very heated was when Ernesto Ocampo, who was

<v Speaker 1>a Mexican journalist, he was very upset about Sean posting

<v Speaker 1>that photo. He's saying that it was a disrespectful gesture

<v Speaker 1>towards Mexicans and Mexican culture. He said, WWE is not

<v Speaker 1>to blame what happened to curs all the time. In Mexico.

<v Speaker 1>It is very common for wrestlers to end up with

<v Speaker 1>their faces exposed, and it is also common for photographers

<v Speaker 1>to capture images of that exact moment. However, those photos

<v Speaker 1>are not published. One example is this photo of Huvintune

<v Speaker 1>Guerrera against Ray Mysterio, which remained archive That's super Lucas

<v Speaker 1>and was not published until he lost the mask in

<v Speaker 1>March of nineteen ninety nine, said you're absolutely right that

<v Speaker 1>journalisms because they were going back and forth, and he said,

<v Speaker 1>you're absolutely right that journalism school doesn't teach you to

<v Speaker 1>protect k fabe's secrets. But that's not really the point here.

<v Speaker 1>The issue isn't whether you can report mass wrestler's identities.

<v Speaker 1>It's whether you should when covering a culture where that

<v Speaker 1>act is considered disrespectful. Mexican wrestling operates on a specific

<v Speaker 1>social contract with its audience. Journalism ethics are not just

<v Speaker 1>about what your professors taught you. They're also about contextual

<v Speaker 1>sensitivity to the communities that you cover. Mexican fans aren't

<v Speaker 1>asking for special treatment, they're asking for the same respect

<v Speaker 1>that you would give any cultural practice that you don't

<v Speaker 1>personally share and Apollo Valdez, another Mexican journalist, chimed in

<v Speaker 1>and said, any journalist who covers professional wrestling in Mexico

<v Speaker 1>knows that they must not reveal the identity of mass wrestlers.

<v Speaker 1>Those who do are rejected by the profession itself, as

<v Speaker 1>well as by fans and wrestlers. It is not a

<v Speaker 1>written rule, but it is a rule of honor and respect.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, what we are talking about here is not

<v Speaker 1>wrestling in Mexico. This is wrestling in WWE. I just

<v Speaker 1>have to point that out because I did see a

<v Speaker 1>lot of comments about that this was not a match

<v Speaker 1>that happened at Arena Mexico, Okay or Arena Coliseo. There's

<v Speaker 1>a match that happened on Monday Night raws. It's a

<v Speaker 1>little bit different here. But I will just say this,

<v Speaker 1>just because you can doesn't mean you should. Right, you've

<v Speaker 1>heard that expression before. I saw someone. I think it

<v Speaker 1>might have been on Reddit. Use the analogy that you know,

<v Speaker 1>if one of the women's breasts popped out of their

<v Speaker 1>top and it got caught on TV for a split second, right,

<v Speaker 1>you wouldn't screenshot it and post it online. I mean

<v Speaker 1>I know some people would do that, but no one

<v Speaker 1>with any sort of credibility would do that, right, Dave

<v Speaker 1>Meltzer and Mike Johnson, Sean Ross, SAP, they're not going

<v Speaker 1>to do that. They wouldn't even think about doing that.

<v Speaker 1>And look, I get both arguments. I don't think Sean

<v Speaker 1>was doing anything with any sort of ill intent, right,

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't, That wasn't his purpose in doing so. And

<v Speaker 1>the fact that this was still being debated and going

<v Speaker 1>back and forth online with such feuror four days later,

<v Speaker 1>five days later, I just think it is ridiculous. But

<v Speaker 1>I can also understand Ocompo's point about how important that is,

<v Speaker 1>you know, culturally in Mexico, and if he wants to

<v Speaker 1>take it up with SAP, then that's his business, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the way that you know, Sean responded, and I think

<v Speaker 1>Sean somewhere in there posted an apology for the way

<v Speaker 1>that he sort of responded to it. Again, there were

<v Speaker 1>so many messages going back and forth. I'm sure I

<v Speaker 1>missed dozens of them. I didn't see all of them.

<v Speaker 1>But I think even he admits, oh, you know, maybe

<v Speaker 1>he shouldn't have responded in a certain way that he

<v Speaker 1>did to him or certain other people. But if he

<v Speaker 1>wants to take it up with SAP, that's his business.

<v Speaker 1>To absolve WWE completely and say it has nothing to

<v Speaker 1>do with WWE, which is what he led that statement

<v Speaker 1>off with. That is just being silly, okay, especially if

<v Speaker 1>this was a planned angle and they intended to do

<v Speaker 1>what they did, then you have to also take WWE

<v Speaker 1>to task for disrespecting Mexican culture if it bothers you

<v Speaker 1>that much, take Dragon Lee to task. He's the one

<v Speaker 1>who agreed to the angle. He could have said no,

<v Speaker 1>he said okay, sure, yeah, we'll do that. But the

<v Speaker 1>idea that well, it's not WWE's fault. You can't absolve

<v Speaker 1>WWE or Dragon Lee of any responsibility in this and

<v Speaker 1>just go after someone for posting a photo of it

<v Speaker 1>on their fucking page. I mean, that's just stupid. Not

<v Speaker 1>only did WWE come up with the angle and Dragon

<v Speaker 1>Lee went along with it, they posted it on their

<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel after and they never bothered to it out.

<v Speaker 1>It's still there. This is exactly what they wanted and

<v Speaker 1>it's likely going to play into Raymisterio wrestling gun Through

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania, if that is indeed the plan for disrespecting

<v Speaker 1>Mexican culture, and it's going to probably lead to a match,

<v Speaker 1>right that may be the match because I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what else you do with gun thro at WrestleMania at

<v Speaker 1>this point. Another failure of WWE creative not having a

<v Speaker 1>clear laid out story for one of their biggest heels

<v Speaker 1>heading into their biggest show of the year. Fail. Aj

<v Speaker 1>Lee had a promo on Raw coming off her Intercontinental

<v Speaker 1>Championship win recently over Becky Lynn. She talked about wanting

<v Speaker 1>to get her hands on some of the women in

<v Speaker 1>the locker room, as she said, come at me if

<v Speaker 1>you think that you're championship material, if you want to

<v Speaker 1>face your favorite wrestler's favorite wrestler, come and get it.

<v Speaker 1>And then later they announced the number one Contenders match

<v Speaker 1>for tomorrow night on Raw, for a shot. They didn't

<v Speaker 1>say it WrestleMania. They just said for a shot at

<v Speaker 1>the Women's Intercontinental title. Eo Sky, Osca, Raquel Rodriguez, Bailey Lyra, Valkyria,

<v Speaker 1>and Ivy Nile are all involved in this match. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I did not realize this was advertised as a gauntlet

<v Speaker 1>match when I said on my Raw review that I

<v Speaker 1>thought Ivy Nile might win this match because I just

<v Speaker 1>you look at the lineup of names and the one

<v Speaker 1>that sticks out like a sore thumb is Ivy Nile.

<v Speaker 1>Ivy Nile is the only one who is not pushed

<v Speaker 1>out of all the other names in the match. So

<v Speaker 1>of course you would look at that and go, well,

<v Speaker 1>she's in there to take the pin. And I'm like, no, no,

<v Speaker 1>AJ lisaid, the next time you see me in this ring,

<v Speaker 1>I'll be defending my title, which means it's going to

<v Speaker 1>be a raw match, And so they're going to go

<v Speaker 1>with the shocking conclusion of Ivy Nile sneaking out a

<v Speaker 1>win just to do AJ and Ivy so AJ can

<v Speaker 1>get a win in a title match on raw. And

<v Speaker 1>then I saw that, oh wait, it's a gauntlet match.

<v Speaker 1>I said, well that changes everything. Ivy Nihilate win and

<v Speaker 1>shit in a gauntlet match. So my mistake. Oscar or

<v Speaker 1>Eo Sky, those are the only names that should win

<v Speaker 1>this match. Osca or EO should win this and then

<v Speaker 1>they do the match in San Antonio, I think the

<v Speaker 1>following week, maybe on three sixteen. That's what I would do.

<v Speaker 1>To me, It's got to be one or the other

<v Speaker 1>you want if you want to heal. Then Oscar is

<v Speaker 1>your choice here because I do think that ultimately this

<v Speaker 1>is going to lead to something for Oscar at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>That's why I say Oscar, not Raquel, but Oscar EO

<v Speaker 1>should win that match, and then we get aj defending

<v Speaker 1>the title against one of them. But this leads nicely

<v Speaker 1>into this other piece of news I wanted to mention here.

<v Speaker 1>According to wressel Votes Radio on fight Ful, select discussions

<v Speaker 1>within WWE Creative include the possibility of booking more women's

<v Speaker 1>matches on the WrestleMania card than ever before. They said

<v Speaker 1>there is currently an idea within WWE Creative that would

<v Speaker 1>see up to six women's matches make the Restia card,

<v Speaker 1>with five of those considered firm plans as we stand,

<v Speaker 1>and they said that this would mark a new record

<v Speaker 1>for a single WrestleMania, topping WrestleMania at thirty six, which

<v Speaker 1>featured five women's matches if you include the live Morgan

<v Speaker 1>versus Natalia kickoff match and tc from wrestle Votes said

<v Speaker 1>they've added a lot of free agents, They've added women

<v Speaker 1>to the roster. Tag teams have been emphasized as well,

<v Speaker 1>so there's a lot more room now for women to

<v Speaker 1>have a bigger platform in WWE. There's been a lot

<v Speaker 1>of emphasis on the women's storylines and the programming. A

<v Speaker 1>big portion of the weekly programming on Ron's SmackDown has

<v Speaker 1>been women's matches. I've talked about the strength of the

<v Speaker 1>women's division overall, women's division. The women's division on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>was just ravaged and they just were far too slow

<v Speaker 1>and trying to build it back up. And they're still

<v Speaker 1>trying to build it back up. But injuries, injuries especially,

<v Speaker 1>I think, really played havoc with whatever their plans were

<v Speaker 1>would have been for WrestleMania this year. But they have

<v Speaker 1>a very strong pool of women's talent to draw from,

<v Speaker 1>not just on Ron's SmackDown, but at the Performance Center

<v Speaker 1>in NXT, and it has been strengthened a lot by

<v Speaker 1>all of the female talent they have recruited over the

<v Speaker 1>past several years that are down at the PC right,

<v Speaker 1>it's like they've had them stockpile down there. Evolution last

<v Speaker 1>year was one of the best shows all year. I

<v Speaker 1>had it as the second best WWE show of the

<v Speaker 1>year behind Elimination Chamber. As far as WrestleMania is concerned,

<v Speaker 1>the women have stolen the show or have come pretty

<v Speaker 1>damn close multiple times over the past few years. Last year,

<v Speaker 1>my match of the Year was Ria Ripley versus Eo

<v Speaker 1>Sky versus Bianca Bellair. You go back to WrestleMania at

<v Speaker 1>thirty nine, Charlotte Flair and Ria Ripley had one of

<v Speaker 1>the best matches all weekend. Same for Becky Lynch and

<v Speaker 1>Bianca bell Air Wrestlemanni at thirty eight. Bianca and Sasha

<v Speaker 1>they got the night one main event at Wrestlemanni at

<v Speaker 1>thirty seven, and they had a great one too. Boy,

<v Speaker 1>Bianca ties into a lot of these matches, doesn't she.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't mind this. I don't mind this. I

<v Speaker 1>think it would be well earned if it works out

<v Speaker 1>this way, because in many ways they have been carrying

<v Speaker 1>things for a while and if they're going to get

<v Speaker 1>that many matches in the card, then it would be

<v Speaker 1>well deserved. So what are we looking at? Well, we

<v Speaker 1>know Riho Ripley is challenging Jade Cargill for the WWE

<v Speaker 1>Women's Championship, and you know, eventually when we do get

<v Speaker 1>Bianca bell Air back Bianca against Jade, that's not even

<v Speaker 1>the match. I really want to see. It's real Ripley

<v Speaker 1>against Bianca bell Air. That could be a big enough

<v Speaker 1>match with the right story told to main event one

<v Speaker 1>of the two Knights of WrestleMania easily easily. But we're

<v Speaker 1>getting Rea against Jade. We're getting liv Morgan against Stephanie

<v Speaker 1>Vakaer for the women's world title. So those two are guaranteed.

<v Speaker 1>We already know those two are confirmed. Now we're probably

<v Speaker 1>going to end up getting another aj Lee Becky Lynch

<v Speaker 1>match for the Intercontinental title, even though I wouldn't mind

<v Speaker 1>seeing them split off and do other things. It's probably

<v Speaker 1>going to be the match that's three Nia Jackson Lash legend.

<v Speaker 1>They're gonna be defending the women's tag team titles, I'm sure,

<v Speaker 1>at least against the Bella Twins, who we have not seen,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, in over a month since they proclaimed

<v Speaker 1>that they were going after the women's tag team titles.

<v Speaker 1>We have not seen them since. That does not mean

<v Speaker 1>they will not be on the wrestle media card. I

<v Speaker 1>am sure they will be fighting for those championships, and

<v Speaker 1>it's looking like it's probably going to be a multi

<v Speaker 1>team match. That's how you get Charlotte Flair and Alexa

<v Speaker 1>Bliss in there because they've done nothing to suggest they're gonna,

<v Speaker 1>you know, kind of fewed them against each other yet,

<v Speaker 1>So Charlotte and Alexa are still going after the tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles. They made that clear, I think on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>Bailey and Lyra right, where the hell else do they

<v Speaker 1>fit in if not in here? So we're probably looking

<v Speaker 1>maybe at a maybe a four way Yeah, maybe a

<v Speaker 1>four way women's tag team title match. What is that?

<v Speaker 1>Is that? Four one two? Yeah? So that's probably what

<v Speaker 1>we're looking at there, maybe even a ladder match. The

<v Speaker 1>only title that would not be defended though, if all

<v Speaker 1>of these championships I just mentioned are defended, that would

<v Speaker 1>only leave the Women's United States Championship to not be

<v Speaker 1>defended on this show, and it just seems, I don't know, implausible.

<v Speaker 1>I guess it's really not implausible given these people, but

<v Speaker 1>it seems very unfair if it ends up that every

<v Speaker 1>other championship is defended but that one. What a slap

<v Speaker 1>in the fucking face to Julia that would be. So

<v Speaker 1>maybe we end up with Julia against EO Sky right,

<v Speaker 1>although the way her promo, the way their promo went

<v Speaker 1>on Monday, it was Ria Ripley saying goodbye to EO

<v Speaker 1>for now because EO was staying on Raw readventures off

<v Speaker 1>to SmackDown. So I'm not sure that EO is going

<v Speaker 1>to venture over to SmackDown to join her and then

<v Speaker 1>end up challenging Julia. I think what may be more

<v Speaker 1>likely if LEO. Let's say EO wins that Gauntlet match

<v Speaker 1>tomorrow night, and let's say that she gets a title

<v Speaker 1>match with aj Lee on television, and then next couple

<v Speaker 1>of weeks, Becky Lynch gets involved, or Oscar and Kyrie

<v Speaker 1>get involved. Either way, right, either way they screw EO

<v Speaker 1>out of a win. It would make more sense for

<v Speaker 1>it to be OSCA though, if the plan was to

<v Speaker 1>do EO against Osca at WrestleMania, which is a match

<v Speaker 1>that I have been waiting to see and we still

<v Speaker 1>haven't gotten it yet, EO against Oscar with Kyrie at ringside,

<v Speaker 1>and this is where Kyrie's saying, you know, finally breaks

<v Speaker 1>free of Oscar's spell and stands up for herself, Right,

<v Speaker 1>that would be a good story to tell. Then they

<v Speaker 1>could have Julia instead defend the US title against Tiffany Stratton,

<v Speaker 1>because Tiffany is a pretty big name on that SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>roster that has no obvious match or direction for WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>and she was gone for a while and she came

<v Speaker 1>back recently. It would defy all logic for her not

<v Speaker 1>to have a match of WrestleMania when a year ago

<v Speaker 1>on that show she was wrestling Charlotte Flair for the

<v Speaker 1>Women's Championship. Now we've seen Tiffany beefing on TV recently

<v Speaker 1>with Chelsea Green and Alba Fire. Chelsea has a legit

<v Speaker 1>broken ankle. I don't know what her status for WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>is going to be. It's not a horrendous break, but

<v Speaker 1>there is a break in her ankle. So Julia against

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany may be the way to go, and that would

<v Speaker 1>get us to six women's matches. And that's without even

<v Speaker 1>accounting for Raquel Rodriguez Roxane Perez. But again, Bailey and Lyra,

<v Speaker 1>Roxanne and Raquel, you could always have them involved in

<v Speaker 1>that tag team championship match. Doesn't have to be four teams.

<v Speaker 1>It could be five, it could be six. It almost

<v Speaker 1>feels like it's gonna end up being a dumping ground

<v Speaker 1>for all the women that don't have another match of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte and Alexa again, then that's not going to be

<v Speaker 1>a singles match. They're gonna be involved in whatever's going

<v Speaker 1>on with the tag team titles. But what this also

<v Speaker 1>means is that we could be looking at the largest

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania car top to bottom in the history of this company,

<v Speaker 1>with as many as sixteen matches planned for restle this year,

<v Speaker 1>which I believe would tie the record set by WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>four in nineteen eighty eight that had that one night

<v Speaker 1>only tournament for the WWF title. That show also had

<v Speaker 1>sixteen matches, sixteen mostly very short matches. At least here

<v Speaker 1>it would be spread out over the course of two nights. Right,

<v Speaker 1>you have eight matches on one night, eight matches on

<v Speaker 1>the next night. I like that. I think that's a

<v Speaker 1>good number. This comes from bodyslam dot Net. Sources indicate

<v Speaker 1>the Body Slam the WrestleMania of forty two will feature

<v Speaker 1>at least fourteen matches over the two nights. Another source

<v Speaker 1>indicated that the card could have a solid sixteen matches

<v Speaker 1>this year with the earlier start time that was announced recently.

<v Speaker 1>That announced start time is six pm Eastern. Because remember

<v Speaker 1>the first night of WrestleMania is going to be live

<v Speaker 1>for the first hour on ESPN two, and then the

<v Speaker 1>first hour of the second night of WrestleMania is going

<v Speaker 1>to be live on ESPN, and then everybody will have

<v Speaker 1>to switch over over to ESPN Unlimited if they're not

<v Speaker 1>already watching it on there, it'll be simulcasting on there. So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the way things have been trending with these

<v Speaker 1>shorter pl e cards, I was worried it was going

<v Speaker 1>to be less. Like if it ends up being sixteen

<v Speaker 1>or fifteen or whatever, I'll be pleasantly surprised because I

<v Speaker 1>really didn't think the way things have been trending that

<v Speaker 1>we would even get that many matches. You know, getting

<v Speaker 1>eight matches per night would be a good thing. I

<v Speaker 1>think for a big show like this, just keep the

<v Speaker 1>filler very minimal. Even if they do seven matches one

<v Speaker 1>night and then eight matches on the other night, I

<v Speaker 1>think that's fine. Because you got the Hall of Fame inductees,

<v Speaker 1>they have to be introduced on one of those nights,

<v Speaker 1>so one of those nights could be shorter by a

<v Speaker 1>match to accommodate for the Hall of Fame stuff. And

<v Speaker 1>speaking of the Hall of Fame, This has been my

<v Speaker 1>favorite thing to talk about all week, and now I

<v Speaker 1>get to talk about it here on the sounduff Oh

<v Speaker 1>Happy Day. First of all, WWE announced on Monday that

<v Speaker 1>the twenty twenty six Hall of Fame Ceremony is going

<v Speaker 1>to be held at Dolby Live at Park MGM in

<v Speaker 1>Las Vegas on Friday night, April seventeenth, with a nine

<v Speaker 1>pm local start time, so that's midnight Eastern, shortly after

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown ends that night at the Team Mobile Arena and

<v Speaker 1>broadcast details for the ceremony have not yet been revealed.

<v Speaker 1>Dolby Live is listed as having a capacity of around

<v Speaker 1>fifty two hundred seats. It is different from last year's venue.

<v Speaker 1>Last year's ceremony was held at the Fontaine Blue Hotel.

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie McMahon aj styles have already been announced, and the

<v Speaker 1>announcement came on Monday from the Undertaker, who facetimed with

<v Speaker 1>these two men to let them know that Acts and

<v Speaker 1>Smash Demolition is finally, at long last, taking their rightful

<v Speaker 1>place in the WWE Hall of Fame. This has been

<v Speaker 1>a long time coming, to say the least. They were

<v Speaker 1>my favorite tag team as a kid. I have been

<v Speaker 1>lobbying for this. I mean, you listen to this sounduff

<v Speaker 1>for any umber of years, any length of time, you

<v Speaker 1>guys know what goes back at least fifteen years. I've

<v Speaker 1>been talking about this on the podcast. They were my

<v Speaker 1>favorite tag team as a kid. Just I loved everything

<v Speaker 1>about them, the look, the music, the iconic Rick Darren

<v Speaker 1>Drew music. I know, the knock on them was always

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of Road Warrior ripoffs. Well, you know what,

<v Speaker 1>I didn't have any concept to that when I was

<v Speaker 1>first you know, watching them, and to me, they were

<v Speaker 1>to me what the Road Warriors were. I'm sure to

<v Speaker 1>a lot of other people who were watching them in

<v Speaker 1>Jim Crockett promotions and wherever else that you know, they

<v Speaker 1>were watching Hawk and Animal. For me, it was accent Smash,

<v Speaker 1>although clearly you know, both teams drew influence from the

<v Speaker 1>Mad Max movie, but Demolition was the shit to me.

<v Speaker 1>And I had the chance to interview them or wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Khan as part of Wrestlemanting a thirty three weekend in

<v Speaker 1>Orlando number of years ago, god, probably eight years ago now,

<v Speaker 1>and it was it was a thrill to be able

<v Speaker 1>to chat with them, and of course I asked them

<v Speaker 1>to same question I'm sure a lot of other people

<v Speaker 1>have asked them over the years, which is, hey, when

<v Speaker 1>are you going to go into the Hall of Fame.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure no one is happier to go into the

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame than these two, not not even for

<v Speaker 1>the honor of being able to, you know, get that

<v Speaker 1>kind of news and to be able to, you know,

<v Speaker 1>get their flowers, and that's all very cool, but they'll

<v Speaker 1>be very happy to not have to answer any more

<v Speaker 1>fucking questions about hey, when are you going into the

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame? How come you're not in the Hall

<v Speaker 1>of fame. I'm they're breathing a sigh of relief they

<v Speaker 1>don't have to answer those questions anymore. But one of

<v Speaker 1>the biggest reasons I'm very, very happy and excited to

<v Speaker 1>see this is because so many other people who should

<v Speaker 1>have had the opportunity to, you know, go and speak

<v Speaker 1>to the fans and to their peers and to have

<v Speaker 1>that speech never had the opportunity because Vince McMahon did

<v Speaker 1>not want them in the Hall of Fame for one

<v Speaker 1>reason or another, or he just and maybe it wasn't

<v Speaker 1>even anything personal, but he just it was his decision

<v Speaker 1>to make ultimately at the time, and he just decided

<v Speaker 1>that this was not the year for this person to

<v Speaker 1>go in or that person to go in, and then

<v Speaker 1>they fucking died, And then they didn't have the chance

<v Speaker 1>even when they were eventually inducted, to accept it and

<v Speaker 1>to cut a speech and to speak and be alive,

<v Speaker 1>to get their flowers one last time. And I'll never

<v Speaker 1>forgive him for that. When it comes to Randy Savage,

<v Speaker 1>you know the fact that the macho man went into

<v Speaker 1>the Hall of Fame and he was already gone. His

<v Speaker 1>brother had to accept on his behalf. What would a

<v Speaker 1>macho man Hall of Fame speech have looked like? Like

<v Speaker 1>we were deprived of ever knowing because of the bad

<v Speaker 1>blood there. Then Evince had, you know, with him or

<v Speaker 1>for him for so many years, and it was inevitable

<v Speaker 1>that he was going to go into the fucking Hall

<v Speaker 1>of Fame, but he waited too long. Vader is another one.

<v Speaker 1>Vader literally knew that he was going to die, Like

<v Speaker 1>his doctor told him, you were on borrowed time. You

<v Speaker 1>have a bad heart. You have two years to live.

<v Speaker 1>I remember when he tweeted that because he was active

<v Speaker 1>on Twitter, I have two years to live, and in

<v Speaker 1>those two years he was but you know, often he

<v Speaker 1>would lobby and talk about how important it is for

<v Speaker 1>him to be in the Hall of Fame. They had

<v Speaker 1>him in to do the induction for stan Hansen, and

<v Speaker 1>he was very entertaining. He was talking about the eyeball

<v Speaker 1>story where they had that match in Japan where his

<v Speaker 1>eye fucking popped out, and I think he had the

<v Speaker 1>like the wacky glasses like. He was telling cracking jokes

<v Speaker 1>and everything that I'm like, man like, I hope he

<v Speaker 1>has the chance one day when he goes in to

<v Speaker 1>be there for his own speech, and hopefully it's as

<v Speaker 1>entertaining as the one he's giving for stan Hansen. But again,

<v Speaker 1>he knew he was on borrow time and then he died.

<v Speaker 1>They did not put him in the Hall of Fame

<v Speaker 1>until after he was already gone, and that could have

<v Speaker 1>very well happened with these two. So, if for no

<v Speaker 1>other reason, I'm very happy that they are actually still

<v Speaker 1>alive and breathing and above ground and that they will

<v Speaker 1>be able to enjoy this. And they put out a

<v Speaker 1>new episode of their demo pod. They have their own podcast,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, and they thanked everybody who helped get

<v Speaker 1>them into the Hall of Fame, and Barry Darco said this,

<v Speaker 1>we really do have to say, Yeah, you brought up

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Nash. He's a great guy and he's been pushing

<v Speaker 1>for us to get into the Hall of Fame for years.

<v Speaker 1>We have to thank him. Brett Hart. There's so many guys.

<v Speaker 1>Rick Flair called me up last year and said, congratulations,

<v Speaker 1>you're getting into the Hall of Fame. And I said, Rick, no,

<v Speaker 1>not yet, we're not there. And Flair said, oh, I

<v Speaker 1>thought you were going in. Yeah, Rick was. He had

<v Speaker 1>already downed a few I guess by that point in

<v Speaker 1>the morning when he made that phone call, so you

<v Speaker 1>have to excuse him. But they said that the Hardy's

<v Speaker 1>and the Dudley's aren't Anderson, Untully, Blanchard, the Warlord, the

<v Speaker 1>Barbarian Typhoon, They're just some of the people that have

<v Speaker 1>reached out to them since news of the induction broke.

<v Speaker 1>Shout out by the way to Typhoon, Fred Otman. He

<v Speaker 1>has been going through some rough health issues. Hopefully the

<v Speaker 1>worst of that is behind him now. His gallbladder exploded

<v Speaker 1>basically inside of his body and it caused all sorts

<v Speaker 1>of complications. He was in the hospital for over thirty days.

<v Speaker 1>I think he's on the men now, hopefully he's doing well.

<v Speaker 1>Bill Eady said, it's nice to be back in the

<v Speaker 1>frat house. We were in the fraternity for years, but

<v Speaker 1>we weren't allowed in the frat house for some reason.

<v Speaker 1>But now we're back in the house. And you know,

<v Speaker 1>you look back at the career of these two guys,

<v Speaker 1>and it was a lot more than just Demolition, but

<v Speaker 1>Demolition as a tag team. Originally, Barry Darco was not

<v Speaker 1>part of that tag team. It was Bill Edy and

<v Speaker 1>Randy Cully in the role who played Moondog Rex from

<v Speaker 1>the Moondog's Tag Team, and Darso, I mean he replaced

<v Speaker 1>him very quick. I want to say. Cully portrayed Smash

<v Speaker 1>for maybe three matches and then they made the switch

<v Speaker 1>to Barry Darso. I guess because too many people recognized

<v Speaker 1>that it was Moondog Rex. They said, Okay, we can't

<v Speaker 1>have him in this spot, so they switched. But they

<v Speaker 1>went on to hold the tag team titles three different

<v Speaker 1>times in the late eighties and early nineties. Their first

<v Speaker 1>run spanned four hundred and seventy eight days. That was

<v Speaker 1>the longest for years and years and years, the longest

<v Speaker 1>in WWE history until that record was broken by the

<v Speaker 1>New Day in twenty sixteen, ten years ago at four

<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty three days, and then that record was

<v Speaker 1>later broken by the Ussos at six hundred and twenty

<v Speaker 1>two days when they dropped the belts to Kevin Owens

<v Speaker 1>and Sammy's Ain in the Night one main event at

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania thirty nine. But you look at the tag teams

<v Speaker 1>like a murderer's row of teams that these two guys

<v Speaker 1>had to work with back then. I mean, this was

<v Speaker 1>this was the pinnacle of tag team wrestling anyway back then.

<v Speaker 1>But the Heart Foundation, the Legion of Doom, the Brainbusters,

<v Speaker 1>the Rockers, Powers of Pain, Strike Force, the Bulldogs. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Barry Darsa. I mentioned that these two guys are more

<v Speaker 1>than just Demolition. I mean, Barry Darca. They may be

<v Speaker 1>going in his demolition, but Darso he had a very

<v Speaker 1>successful run in Jim Crockett Promotions as Krusher Khrushchev, you know,

<v Speaker 1>and every other character he portrayed for the remainder of

<v Speaker 1>his career was more just for comedy, and he was

<v Speaker 1>Repoman I repel man will always be a guilty pleasure

<v Speaker 1>of mine. I don't care what anybody says. The gimmick,

<v Speaker 1>the entrance music, the corny promos, and the vignettes. If

<v Speaker 1>you never saw the vignettes of him repossessing he repossessing

<v Speaker 1>this kid's bike and someone's car out of their garage

<v Speaker 1>late at night. It was on one of the Colisseum videos.

<v Speaker 1>So yeah, Repo Man, Blacktop, Bully God who had the

<v Speaker 1>hole in one dar Soo, the evil Golfer. Like, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you know, man's got to work, right. Money is money,

<v Speaker 1>it's a payday. It's got a family to feed. But nothing,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you could say maybe Crush or Crusher, but

<v Speaker 1>nothing really ever hit the peak that Demolition did. And

<v Speaker 1>as far as Bill Edy goes, he was the mass

<v Speaker 1>superstar for many years, and he worked with big names

<v Speaker 1>when they were on top as the champion, like Bob

<v Speaker 1>Backland and Hulk Hogan. And so what ended up happening was,

<v Speaker 1>you know, later on in the nineties he sued them

<v Speaker 1>over the rights to the Demolition name, and that was

<v Speaker 1>a civil case that dragged out for many many years.

<v Speaker 1>Ultimately I think he did win the rights. It took

<v Speaker 1>a long time and a lot of bad blood, a

<v Speaker 1>lot of money, and then he and Dars were later

<v Speaker 1>part of that class action concussion lawsuit against WWE, and

<v Speaker 1>that's likely what did them in for so long. But

<v Speaker 1>last year they signed Legends contracts and they were personally

<v Speaker 1>invited to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony last year

<v Speaker 1>by Triple H. So at that point it seemed pretty

<v Speaker 1>clear the ice had thawed between them, them and the

<v Speaker 1>company and that Vince McMahon leaving had a lot to

<v Speaker 1>do with that. And Vince McMahon is still in charge.

<v Speaker 1>Demolition ain't going into the Hall of Fame. That's just

<v Speaker 1>the fact. But I look back at Demolition. Do I

<v Speaker 1>have favorite matches and moments? You bet your ass I do.

<v Speaker 1>I mean the double turn at Survivor Series eighty eight,

<v Speaker 1>It just it came out of nowhere, but it's still

<v Speaker 1>a memorable moment, that big ass Survivor Series elimination match.

<v Speaker 1>And in the middle of it, because Demolition were healed,

<v Speaker 1>powers of pain came in his babyfaces right and mister

<v Speaker 1>Fuji was managing Demolition, but they did a double and

<v Speaker 1>that's probably the earliest memorable Demolition moment for me. The

<v Speaker 1>second oldest most memorable Demolition moment for me was the

<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty nine Royal Rumble, And so the Rumble, this

<v Speaker 1>was only the second one they ever did as far

<v Speaker 1>as like a big event and you have one member

<v Speaker 1>of Demolition come out to open the match. I don't

<v Speaker 1>remember who it was. Was it Ax who came out?

<v Speaker 1>I think it was Axukin No, maybe it was Smash,

<v Speaker 1>I don't remember now, but one of them came out

<v Speaker 1>at number one and then they hit the Demolition music

<v Speaker 1>again and the other one came out at number two

<v Speaker 1>and it was like, holy shit, like this is fucking unbelievable.

<v Speaker 1>So that was a memorable moment. They were part of

<v Speaker 1>probably my favorite Survivor series team ever in eighty nine

<v Speaker 1>with Hulk, Hogan and Jake the Snake Roberts. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>like if you could sum up eighties WWE in one image, like,

<v Speaker 1>there it is, right, you got Hogan, Jake the Snake,

<v Speaker 1>Demolition all on the same team. I mean, there it is.

<v Speaker 1>But they had some really good matches on Saturday Nights

<v Speaker 1>made Event against the Rockers and the brain Busters. They

<v Speaker 1>won the Tag team Championships back Probably the most memorable

<v Speaker 1>Demolition moment. My favorite Demolition moment is WrestleMania six. Right.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want to say that was a great match,

<v Speaker 1>but they had a match with Andre, who was I mean,

<v Speaker 1>Andre was basically at the bitter end of his in

<v Speaker 1>ring career at that point. There wasn't much he could do.

<v Speaker 1>But it was him and Haku. They were the Colossal Connection,

<v Speaker 1>and so they had taken the titles off of them

<v Speaker 1>and put them on the brain Busters. They left, I

<v Speaker 1>want to say Tully failed a drug test. Whatever it was.

<v Speaker 1>Aren't finished up. They weren't supposed to leave that soon,

<v Speaker 1>but they ended up leaving. They had to get the

<v Speaker 1>belts off of them, so the Belts went back to

<v Speaker 1>Demolition just for them to lose them to the Colossal Connection. Right,

<v Speaker 1>Since the brain Busters weren't around anymore, they went from

<v Speaker 1>one Bobby Heenen team to another. It's like the fucking

<v Speaker 1>Don Kallis family. There was no shortage of members back then.

<v Speaker 1>But that moment where they won the belts back and

<v Speaker 1>they three peeded it WrestleMania six, Like when they got

<v Speaker 1>the three count and you just see sixty eight thousand

<v Speaker 1>people at the SkyDome leaped to their feet. This just

<v Speaker 1>great moment. And then after the match is when Bobby

<v Speaker 1>Heenen was putting his finger in Andrea's face and he

<v Speaker 1>smacked him paint brushed him right across the face, and

<v Speaker 1>this was the Andre babyface turn. It's like, all right,

<v Speaker 1>Andre physically is done, so this is going to be

<v Speaker 1>his big heroic moment where we flip him back to babyface.

<v Speaker 1>A very very memorable segment at that WrestleMania. But their

<v Speaker 1>best match that I ever saw Demolition have was later

<v Speaker 1>that year at Summer Slim in nineteen ninety they had

<v Speaker 1>a best two out of three falls match with the

<v Speaker 1>Heart Foundation where the Heart Foundation won the belts. Back

<v Speaker 1>to me, that's the best Demolition match, and Crush was

<v Speaker 1>in that match. So what had happened is that Ax

<v Speaker 1>he was still there. They became a trio, and the

<v Speaker 1>reason they added cross USh is because Axe had some

<v Speaker 1>health issues. He had an allergy to shellfish. He had

<v Speaker 1>an allergic reaction. He almost died. I think it had

<v Speaker 1>an effect on his heart, and so they needed somebody

<v Speaker 1>to step into his place until he was ready to

<v Speaker 1>come back. So that's why Demolition became a trio and

<v Speaker 1>they added Brian Adams that was the birth of Crush

<v Speaker 1>with Demolition, and he is not listed as being a

<v Speaker 1>part of this induction. Obviously he's dead, so he's not

<v Speaker 1>actually physically around anymore. But there's no mention of Crush,

<v Speaker 1>there's no mention of them going in as a trio.

<v Speaker 1>I'm okay with it because, honestly like his run as

<v Speaker 1>part of Demolition. While it is memorable and he did

<v Speaker 1>get to stand in as one half of the tag

<v Speaker 1>team champions, it was so short and to me it's

<v Speaker 1>like an early chunk of his career when he was

<v Speaker 1>very young, and he went on to have a singles

<v Speaker 1>run and another tag team run is part of a

<v Speaker 1>completely different team with Brian Adams, Brian Clark. Rather that,

<v Speaker 1>I don't really see the need for Crush to be

<v Speaker 1>a part of a Demolition induction. To me, I just

<v Speaker 1>like when I think of Demolition, I don't think of

<v Speaker 1>the trio in nineteen ninety. I think of Demolition as

<v Speaker 1>a tag team. And if Crush is ever going to

<v Speaker 1>go into the Hall of Fame, I think you could

<v Speaker 1>put him into the Hall of Fame separately. One day,

<v Speaker 1>he had a pretty good run for himself as a

<v Speaker 1>singles in that company, both as a baby face and

<v Speaker 1>a heel. He doesn't need to be part of the

<v Speaker 1>induction here, although I would imagine they would probably shout

<v Speaker 1>him out and mention him during their speech unless there

<v Speaker 1>was bad blood there for some reason, I would imagine

<v Speaker 1>they would probably shout him out. But the thing I

<v Speaker 1>hate about what happened there at the end of their

<v Speaker 1>run is just the way that they were discarded by

<v Speaker 1>WWE once they got their hand. Once Vince got his

<v Speaker 1>hands on the Road Warriors and he brought them in

<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety, Demolition was like, Okay, we don't need

<v Speaker 1>you anymore. And I know Ax was on his way

<v Speaker 1>out anyway. It wasn't the original team anymore. But to

<v Speaker 1>see how they were used at the end. We never

<v Speaker 1>got a proper feud with Demolition and LD It was

<v Speaker 1>so one sided. Whenever they did wrestle, it was just

<v Speaker 1>Led would kick their asses and like their last wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Mini Imagine ninety one, it was Smashing Crush against Tenru

<v Speaker 1>and Katao from one of the Japanese promotions. I forgot

<v Speaker 1>which one SWS Maybe I don't think it was all Japan,

<v Speaker 1>but whoever they were affiliated with, they bring in these

<v Speaker 1>these two wrestlers from Japan and Tendru was I mean,

<v Speaker 1>he was obviously a big name, but like the fans

<v Speaker 1>in WWI didn't know. They didn't know who these fucking

<v Speaker 1>guys were. And they're in there against demolition and they're

<v Speaker 1>doing and they're doing jobs, and I'm like, man, you

<v Speaker 1>talk about cutting their nuts off on the way out.

<v Speaker 1>It was it was sad, and they took their music

<v Speaker 1>away from them. They were coming out of some generic music. Now.

<v Speaker 1>It was awful. It was awful the way their run

<v Speaker 1>ended in that company. But Barry Darso says they have

<v Speaker 1>been in conversations with WWE over who will be inducting them,

<v Speaker 1>And I know, from my point of view, I could

<v Speaker 1>see WWE wanting a current team to induct them, maybe

<v Speaker 1>one of the teams who surpassed their record, so either

<v Speaker 1>the New Day or the Ussos. But you got Warlord

<v Speaker 1>and Barbarian Men. They're still around, so are Arn Anderson

<v Speaker 1>and Tully Blanchard, and they're not affiliated with AW anymore. Right,

<v Speaker 1>the Brainbusters they're right there, they're right there. They had

<v Speaker 1>some great battles with those two, and Darso, I know,

<v Speaker 1>is very good friends with Arn he's been on Arn's

<v Speaker 1>podcast before. I'm sure Arn Anderson would give one hell

<v Speaker 1>of a speech. So if I had a vote, I

<v Speaker 1>think the Brainbusters would be a fine choice. But those

<v Speaker 1>conversations are ongoing. But very very happy that Demolition is

<v Speaker 1>finally taking their spot in the Hall of Fame. And

<v Speaker 1>now I guess we're gonna wait to see when Rick

<v Speaker 1>Martel's gonna go in. He deserves to be in there,

<v Speaker 1>without question. I think, look, Ken Shamrock is going to

<v Speaker 1>be another name to keep an eye out for because

<v Speaker 1>I think Shamrock finally signed a Legends deal or a

<v Speaker 1>merchandising deal last year with them. That's what happened with Demolition,

<v Speaker 1>and now they're going into the Hall of Fame. So

<v Speaker 1>maybe Ken Shamrock gets added to the class this year.

<v Speaker 1>But Wressel Votes Radio reports that the next edition of

<v Speaker 1>Saturday Night's main event is currently slated for May twenty third,

<v Speaker 1>and the location for the show is not yet confirmed,

<v Speaker 1>but they note that Nashville is being considered. That's a

<v Speaker 1>week before their clash in Italy, PL but also the

<v Speaker 1>same weekend as aw Double or Nothing from New York City.

<v Speaker 1>That show is on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend,

<v Speaker 1>so there's no direct conflict between the two shows unless

<v Speaker 1>Nashville is not the location and WWE decides to run

<v Speaker 1>New York, which would be par for the course with

<v Speaker 1>this company if that was to happen, and perbodyslam dot Net,

<v Speaker 1>sources indicate that Kevin Owens is set to undergo reevaluation

<v Speaker 1>this summer to see how things are coming along recovery

<v Speaker 1>wise with his neck. Another source indicates that WWE is

<v Speaker 1>hopeful that Owens will be able to return at some

<v Speaker 1>point in twenty twenty six. That would be a welcome

<v Speaker 1>addition to the roster. He is sorely missed on that

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown brand, and he was also confirmed as one of

<v Speaker 1>the new coaches along with Natty for WWELFG Season three,

<v Speaker 1>which is premiering on April twenty sixth on the A

<v Speaker 1>and E Network. They are replacing Undertaker and Michelle McCool

<v Speaker 1>I guess they're very busy with their podcast obligations and

<v Speaker 1>Undertaker has become He's l hefe now down in a

<v Speaker 1>triple A. He's a little busy now for LFG. I

<v Speaker 1>think Kevin Owens is a fine addition to that show.

<v Speaker 1>This week's episode is sponsored by Wicks. We got to

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<v Speaker 1>slash harm that's Wix dot com slash harmony. I've been

<v Speaker 1>talking about this whole Warner Brothers Discovery sago with Paramount,

<v Speaker 1>Skydance and Netflix. Paramount seemingly has won the bidding. Now

<v Speaker 1>it just comes down to regulatory approval. What effect is

<v Speaker 1>this going to have on AAW It was an interesting

<v Speaker 1>update this week from Alex Sherman, who's a media and

<v Speaker 1>sports reporter for CNBC. This was from his CNBC Sports

<v Speaker 1>newsletter title, CBS may unwind at Turner Sports strategy and

<v Speaker 1>I'll just read to you from some of this and

<v Speaker 1>then we'll get into the potential effect on AW here.

<v Speaker 1>But it says for employees, one of the frustrating ripple

<v Speaker 1>effects of going through a merger is that corporate strategy

<v Speaker 1>can shift on a dime. That's likely what's about to

<v Speaker 1>happen to Turner Sports if Paramount's deal for Warner Brothers

<v Speaker 1>Discovery is approved by shareholders and regulators. For nearly two years,

<v Speaker 1>around the time it lost its NBA Live games, wbd's

<v Speaker 1>Turner Sports has invested in a bunch of less expensive

<v Speaker 1>sports rights to fill the gap. In twenty twenty four,

<v Speaker 1>Turner cut a deal with ESPN to sub license early

<v Speaker 1>round college football playoff games. Later that year, Turner scooped

<v Speaker 1>up French open rights in a ten year agreement, and

<v Speaker 1>they follow that with a multi year agreement for the

<v Speaker 1>three on three women's basketball league Unrivaled. It also renewed

<v Speaker 1>its deal with all Elite Wrestling that October. These smaller

<v Speaker 1>sports deals buoyed Turner's existing portfolio of MLB, NHL, March Madness,

<v Speaker 1>and Big East College basketball games. The point of these

<v Speaker 1>deals was to support distribution for TNT in its sister networks,

<v Speaker 1>including TBS. During carriage renewal negotiations with PayTV providers, WBD

<v Speaker 1>CEO David Zaslov and the team at TNT Sports thought

<v Speaker 1>that if TNT could pick up a bunch of smaller sports,

<v Speaker 1>the combined effect could essentially equal the distribution power of

<v Speaker 1>the NBA. The early results showed its strategy seemed to

<v Speaker 1>be working. Comcast struck a deal with WBD in late

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty four, and TNT's carriage fees remain flat despite

<v Speaker 1>the loss of the NBA. But while non NFL and

<v Speaker 1>non NBA sports rights are important, if not essential, to

<v Speaker 1>the survival of smaller modern media companies with cable exposure.

<v Speaker 1>They're not nearly as important to companies that already spend

<v Speaker 1>billions of dollars each year on marquee sports. Buying or

<v Speaker 1>renewing Tier two or Tier three sports is probably not

<v Speaker 1>the best use of capital for a company that's looking

<v Speaker 1>for six billion dollars in synergies ie cuts and has

<v Speaker 1>promised to make thirty theatrical films. The NFL will also

<v Speaker 1>be looking for a lot more money from its media

<v Speaker 1>partners when it begins renewal talks, likely later this year.

<v Speaker 1>And by the way, when I say Tier two, i'm

<v Speaker 1>including MLB and NHL at least MLB and NHL regular

<v Speaker 1>season games. TNT's rights for both are up after the

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty eight season now is part of paramount. Those

<v Speaker 1>rights are far less important. Maybe CBS Sports would renew them.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe not chances our CBS would want playoff games, but

<v Speaker 1>maybe quite willing to live without lower rated regular season packages.

<v Speaker 1>This isn't to say that Turner will abandon sports. It

<v Speaker 1>likely has covenance with PayTV providers that mandate a certain

<v Speaker 1>amount of live sports, and some of its current deals

<v Speaker 1>are long. It's like the agreement with the French open,

<v Speaker 1>but still conversations with sports executives this week suggested it

<v Speaker 1>might be wise for CBS to cut the amount of

<v Speaker 1>sports on TNT to its bare minimum. The cable network

<v Speaker 1>no longer needs to rely on Turner deals for carriage.

<v Speaker 1>It now has the heft of the CBS portfolio already.

<v Speaker 1>This week, Paramounts CEO David Ellison said Paramounts deal with

<v Speaker 1>UFC gives the company the flexibility to air matches on

<v Speaker 1>TNT air matches on TN air fights their fights on TNT.

<v Speaker 1>So the long and short of this here is that

<v Speaker 1>AW would have to be considered tier three. Probably it is.

<v Speaker 1>It is a lower level. I struggle to even say

<v Speaker 1>sport because supposedly it's not under the sports banner of

<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers Discovery. It's under the Entertainment division. But I'm

<v Speaker 1>not even sure how true that is, because whenever I

<v Speaker 1>watch Dynamite in the HBO Max app, it's under the

<v Speaker 1>sports tab. So I don't know how the fuck they

<v Speaker 1>classify AW. You would think it's classified under sport, and

<v Speaker 1>if so, then that could potentially be a problem because

<v Speaker 1>AW would not be a priority then for Paramount, if

<v Speaker 1>they're looking again, that's the key here. They're looking to

<v Speaker 1>make six billion dollars basically in cuts and there's going

<v Speaker 1>to be mass layoffs. There's going to be a lot

<v Speaker 1>of bloodshed here, and is aw going to be a priority.

<v Speaker 1>Tony Khan evidently thinks this is great. There was an

<v Speaker 1>item in The Observer this week. Those close to Tony

<v Speaker 1>Khan say that he was thrilled when the news came

<v Speaker 1>out about Paramount winning the bidding for WBD, feeling that

<v Speaker 1>this was the best possible scenario for him. Others are

<v Speaker 1>claiming that it's the death knell because Paramount either to

<v Speaker 1>cut back on costs or due to pressure from TKO,

<v Speaker 1>given how they have contracts with UFC and Zoofa Boxing

<v Speaker 1>will get rid of TKO's only real significant wrestling competition.

<v Speaker 1>Not much has happened past David Ellison saying that the

<v Speaker 1>plan is to merge HBO Max and Paramount Plus into

<v Speaker 1>a single service, which is what I talked about last week,

<v Speaker 1>the combined But this little nugget right here, I didn't

<v Speaker 1>know about this until I saw this in the Observer.

<v Speaker 1>The combined new service, whatever its name would be, would

<v Speaker 1>combine those two services along with Discovery Plus, b Et

<v Speaker 1>Plus and Pluto TV. Now, wait just a minute. I

<v Speaker 1>am a big Pluto TV fan. I love Pluto TV.

<v Speaker 1>I love some of the twenty four hour channels on

<v Speaker 1>Pluto TV. You realize they have a twenty four hour

<v Speaker 1>a day Bob Barker Specific Prices right channel on Pluto TV.

<v Speaker 1>That's how specific some of these channels are. They have

<v Speaker 1>a Matlock channel they have They have all kinds of

<v Speaker 1>channels on there, and I probably only I probably watched

<v Speaker 1>the same like four over and over again. They have

<v Speaker 1>a Bob Ross channel if you ever want to watch

<v Speaker 1>The Joy of Painting. I love fucking Pluto even with

<v Speaker 1>all the commercials. It's a free service, so you got

<v Speaker 1>tons of commercials, but it's free and it's great. And

<v Speaker 1>now the idea that this is gonna get sucked into

<v Speaker 1>this Paramount plus bullshit gives me pause, Like what is

<v Speaker 1>that gonna look like? Now? Is Pluto gonna go away?

<v Speaker 1>Is it gonna end up being a tab under Paramount

<v Speaker 1>Plus that you have to pay for? I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure they'll fuck it up somehow. We can't have

<v Speaker 1>nice things like the WWE network. Right, we didn't know

<v Speaker 1>what we had until it was gone. But when I

<v Speaker 1>saw Pluto, I said, wait a minute, now, that's a

<v Speaker 1>red line for me. You keep your fucking hands off

<v Speaker 1>Pluto TV. Anyway, that's the update on that. Well, we'll

<v Speaker 1>say Tony Kahn apparently seems to think that this is

<v Speaker 1>gonna work out really well for him, But I truly

<v Speaker 1>don't even think he knows. I think he's trying to

<v Speaker 1>be optimistic. Yeah. Again, the idea that you know, are

<v Speaker 1>they gonna get rid of AW and that's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>the death Now, it's not the death. Now. If AW

<v Speaker 1>has to go find television somewhere else, they will. You know,

<v Speaker 1>the numbers they do are good enough that someone will

<v Speaker 1>want to pick them up and do something with them.

<v Speaker 1>The question is how much money are they going to get?

<v Speaker 1>Because if they're getting five or six hundred million dollars

<v Speaker 1>right now and their current deal from Warner Brothers Discovery,

<v Speaker 1>can they find another cable network with a decent reach

<v Speaker 1>that's going to pay them that or more. That's the question.

<v Speaker 1>That's where it gets a little bit diceier, but dynamite.

<v Speaker 1>This week, it was a good night, bad night scenario

<v Speaker 1>for Kevin Knight, whose stock continues to rise despite the

<v Speaker 1>people who thought, oh my god, he lost twice in

<v Speaker 1>one night. They're burying the guy. What are they doing

<v Speaker 1>to this guy? Of course, you're looking at it all wrong.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he has been all over these shows. There's

<v Speaker 1>a lot of people on that roster, bigger names than

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight, by the way, who can't buy television time.

<v Speaker 1>The kind of TV exposure he's been getting over the

<v Speaker 1>last couple of months, He's going to be just fine.

<v Speaker 1>He had a World Championship match with MJF and then

<v Speaker 1>he ended up in an impromptu main event that was

<v Speaker 1>made in the middle of the show, losing the trios

<v Speaker 1>titles for his team to Okata, Kyle Fletcher, and Mark Davis.

<v Speaker 1>They are the new Trios Champions, which I don't mind

<v Speaker 1>because it gets the Trio's Belt off of Hangman. He

<v Speaker 1>doesn't have to have the Trio's belt. He's wrestling MJF

<v Speaker 1>at Revolution. The fuck does he need to be a

<v Speaker 1>trios champion for He didn't need to be a trios

<v Speaker 1>Champion any more than Samoa Joe did, so I don't

<v Speaker 1>mind them doing the title change. But Fightful Select is

<v Speaker 1>reporting that Kevin Knight recently re signed with AW He

<v Speaker 1>had signed a one year deal at the beginning of

<v Speaker 1>last year, but the new contract is said to be

<v Speaker 1>for multiple years, which I mean, fucking no shit, it

<v Speaker 1>should be. I mean, they've spent the last few months

<v Speaker 1>of television telling us what a bright future he has

<v Speaker 1>and how great he is. Re Signing him should have

<v Speaker 1>been a no brainer. He is one of those young

<v Speaker 1>guys on that roster that should end up being part

<v Speaker 1>of their core group of guys for years to come.

<v Speaker 1>Like the potential for that is there. Whether they see

<v Speaker 1>that through time will tell, but he should be part

<v Speaker 1>of that core group of talent that Tony can build around,

<v Speaker 1>whether it's four or five six guys in the years

<v Speaker 1>to come. One thing I will say, though, looking at

<v Speaker 1>this match that they signed, and I'm gonna get to

<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna run down the Revolution card in a little

<v Speaker 1>bit and give my early predictions here because the pay

<v Speaker 1>per view is a week away. It is next Sunday.

<v Speaker 1>But they added a match totally random to the Revolution

<v Speaker 1>card where Okada will not be defending his international title,

<v Speaker 1>nor will Kyle Fletcher be defending his TNT championship. But Okada,

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher and Davis are going to put their titles on

<v Speaker 1>the line against Kevin Knight, Speedball, Mike Bailey and Mystic

<v Speaker 1>Oh why it's Mystico trying to get some of that

<v Speaker 1>Mystico rub I guess by having him on the show.

<v Speaker 1>I don't fucking know. It's very sad to see what

<v Speaker 1>has happened to the international title. I still maintain the

<v Speaker 1>TNT Championship is the one that, really, when you consider

<v Speaker 1>the value of these titles, has been greatly diminished as

<v Speaker 1>compared to any of the other men's belts on the show.

<v Speaker 1>By the addition of all of these belts, the TNT

<v Speaker 1>title is the one that's really taken a hit the most.

<v Speaker 1>But it's sad to see, you know, what's happened to

<v Speaker 1>the international title. Okata has it and they don't have

<v Speaker 1>him doing anything with it. You know, he's certainly not

<v Speaker 1>out there defending it internationally the way that Ricochet is

<v Speaker 1>defending it in outside promotions. You know, the national title.

<v Speaker 1>It's just sad and now here he is in a

<v Speaker 1>fucking trios match at one of their biggest shows of

<v Speaker 1>the year, Like, what are we doing here? David Finley,

<v Speaker 1>he debuted the answer to the question, where is David

<v Speaker 1>Finley going to go? Well, we have our answer now.

<v Speaker 1>He debuted on Dynamite and fight Full is reporting it

<v Speaker 1>is a multi year deal that he signed with the company.

<v Speaker 1>He has been reunited with his War Dogs teammates Gabe

<v Speaker 1>Kid and Clark Conners. Corey Hayes of bodyslam dot Net

<v Speaker 1>reported that Finley rejected what was said to be a

<v Speaker 1>lower level contract offer to start with NXT from WWE,

<v Speaker 1>and that led to him signing with aw this past week,

<v Speaker 1>and it led to the announcement that all three men

<v Speaker 1>are now Elite, including Gabe Kid and Clark Conners. Gabe Kid,

<v Speaker 1>mister I love New Japan, I want to be here

<v Speaker 1>for New Japan is now all Elite and Dave Meltzer

<v Speaker 1>is reporting that his decision this being Findley now was

<v Speaker 1>driven at least in part by the fact that he

<v Speaker 1>recently had a child and he wanted to move away

<v Speaker 1>from the rigorous international travel schedule with New Japan to

<v Speaker 1>be home more often. Which makes sense, right, You mean

<v Speaker 1>your family is growing, maybe you're home sick, you want

<v Speaker 1>to come home write nothing wrong with that, he says.

<v Speaker 1>The creative pitch from WWE was for him to headline

<v Speaker 1>the NXT brand as the leader of a new second

<v Speaker 1>generation stable called The Dogs, with names like Lexus King,

<v Speaker 1>Stax Lorenzo, Arianna Grace, and Uriah Conners who's actually Finley's

<v Speaker 1>younger brother Brogan. Yes, the Dogs, which is actually what

<v Speaker 1>they are going by now in AAW NXT ae W.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't matter. It's a bad name either way. War

<v Speaker 1>Dogs at least sounded cool. The Dogs, Yeah, I think

<v Speaker 1>we could probably do a little bit better than that.

<v Speaker 1>I think Finley is a good signing. He has really

<v Speaker 1>grown over the last three or four years, you know,

<v Speaker 1>working in New Japan, and he's really come into his

<v Speaker 1>own and I think he would have been a great

<v Speaker 1>pickup for either WWE or AW. The question is where

<v Speaker 1>does he fit in better, And he probably fits him

<v Speaker 1>better in AW right now. It just in terms of

<v Speaker 1>I think what he brings to the table. The bigger

<v Speaker 1>question though, is that roster is so fucking big, and

<v Speaker 1>he's been signing Tony has so many people. Where is

<v Speaker 1>he really going to end up being slotted? That's really

<v Speaker 1>the question. If it comes down to you know, money

<v Speaker 1>and being home, his schedule in AW is not going

<v Speaker 1>to be what it would be in WWE. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know about NXT, but if he was on the main

<v Speaker 1>roster in WWE, he'd be traveling more. So, you know

<v Speaker 1>what what it boils down to as far as like

<v Speaker 1>what's most important to him, I'm sure he weighed all

<v Speaker 1>of this, just as Josh Alexander and all these other

<v Speaker 1>people that have signed recently, and they made the decision

<v Speaker 1>to go with AW they had their reasons for doing so.

<v Speaker 1>I just don't see him really breaking out as any

<v Speaker 1>sort of, you know, major player at the top of

<v Speaker 1>the card anytime soon, because it's just so full. And

<v Speaker 1>maybe that's maybe that's fine. Maybe you know, him and

<v Speaker 1>Gabe Kid and Clark Conners can just build themselves up

<v Speaker 1>in the middle of the card and a year from

<v Speaker 1>now or a year and a half from now, we're

<v Speaker 1>looking at at Finley in a different position, you know,

<v Speaker 1>we're looking at him in a higher spot up on

<v Speaker 1>the card. But right now, you know, he'll probably just

<v Speaker 1>be doing stuff with the dogs on Collision and the

<v Speaker 1>occasional dynamite appearance, and you'll have this, You'll have people

<v Speaker 1>bitching about, oh my god, I can't believe that, you know,

<v Speaker 1>David Finley he's stuck in the middle of the card.

<v Speaker 1>What is Tony Kahan doing. I'm sure David Finley wait

<v Speaker 1>all of that before he made his decision. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he's still a solid addition to that roster, but they

<v Speaker 1>have a lot of people who are solid and more

<v Speaker 1>than solid. Did they need him, No, they did not

<v Speaker 1>need him. But he's still a fine addition to that roster.

<v Speaker 1>Penelope Ford, unfortunately, the latest update on her is not

<v Speaker 1>so positive. If you remember a couple of weeks ago

<v Speaker 1>on Dynamite, there was a match for the women's tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles. It was Megan Bain and Penelope Ford against

<v Speaker 1>Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron. He was a rematch from

<v Speaker 1>Grand Slam Australia and I thought, okay, well we're probably

<v Speaker 1>going to get a title match or a title chant.

<v Speaker 1>Well we are getting a title match, you fucking idiot,

<v Speaker 1>We're going to get a title change. I talk to

<v Speaker 1>myself sometimes when I make a mistake, I call myself

<v Speaker 1>a fucking idiot. See that's accountability right there. I take

<v Speaker 1>myself to task. But no, they had a title match

<v Speaker 1>and I thought, well, we're gonna get a title change,

<v Speaker 1>and we didn't because Penelope forward in doing a moon

<v Speaker 1>salt off the top rope to the floor, landed on

<v Speaker 1>her feet and she ended up hurting her ankle, and

<v Speaker 1>it looked bad because she was on the ground and

<v Speaker 1>she was crying like she knew something was wrong. And

<v Speaker 1>then there was an update later on from Brian Alvarez

<v Speaker 1>that said she only suffered an ankle's sprain and so

<v Speaker 1>she shouldn't be out for too long. She'll be back soon.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if Alvarez just got bad information or

<v Speaker 1>if things they thought it was looking good and upon

<v Speaker 1>further investigation it turned out, well, it's not so good,

<v Speaker 1>because Tony Kahn said it looks like, unfortunately, Penelope will

<v Speaker 1>be out with an injury, maybe for weeks, but possibly

<v Speaker 1>even up to months. This was in a pre show

<v Speaker 1>stream on his x account before collision last night, so

<v Speaker 1>this came right from the horse's mouth. This came right

<v Speaker 1>from Tony himself. So anyway, best wishes to Penelope before.

<v Speaker 1>She has just been completely snake bitten when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to injuries, and hopefully it's not as serious as they

<v Speaker 1>think it looks and she won't be out for months

<v Speaker 1>and months. But in the meantime they basically slotted Lena

<v Speaker 1>Cross in her spot with Megan Bain and a note

<v Speaker 1>on a former TBS champion in Mercedes Monett, who is

<v Speaker 1>now down to I believe seven active belts. Seven belts.

<v Speaker 1>Monette the now former CMLL Women's champion and she lost

<v Speaker 1>the title to Persephone in Arena Mexico on Friday night.

<v Speaker 1>So the downfall continues and the match headline CMLL's all

<v Speaker 1>Women's show La Notche de la Amazonas, and the locker

<v Speaker 1>room emptied out to celebrate in the ring with Persephone

<v Speaker 1>when the match was over. They really treated this like

<v Speaker 1>a big deal. And Mercedes had won that championship at

<v Speaker 1>Grand Slam Mexico in June of last year. Since then,

<v Speaker 1>she defended the title three times and this was her

<v Speaker 1>first match since losing the TBS title. The Willow Nightingale

<v Speaker 1>on the New Year's Eve episode of Dynamite. That all

<v Speaker 1>women's show on Friday night doubled the SmackDown show in attendance,

<v Speaker 1>and that is without Mystico on the card. Unless he

<v Speaker 1>was working under a wig. I don't believe he was

<v Speaker 1>on that show. And yes I know it is not

<v Speaker 1>apples to apples. I mean the cheapest ticket to the

<v Speaker 1>CMLL show is probably about the same as what a

<v Speaker 1>Burger Deluxe would cost it a diner here in New York.

<v Speaker 1>Those SmackDown tickets were just a hell of a lot higher.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure still impressive though, sixteen thousand people in the

<v Speaker 1>building to see Mercedes loser Championship. Let's talk about revolution.

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes is not on this show, but we already have

<v Speaker 1>a lot of matches that are official. I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>run through the card here quickly and do some prediction,

<v Speaker 1>and this will evolve over the week. Because this card

<v Speaker 1>is clearly incomplete. We still have dynamite left to go.

<v Speaker 1>On Wednesday, I'll actually start from the top this time.

<v Speaker 1>I usually go from the bottom and work my way

<v Speaker 1>up to the top. We'll start with the main event.

<v Speaker 1>MJF is defending the AW World Championship against Hangman Adam

<v Speaker 1>Page in a Texas death match, where if Hangman loses,

<v Speaker 1>he can never again challenge for the AW World title.

<v Speaker 1>I don't see Hangman never again challenging for the AW

<v Speaker 1>World title, but I also don't see him winning the championship. Here.

<v Speaker 1>They're gonna have to find a little wormhole to get

<v Speaker 1>out of this at some point because I think MJF

<v Speaker 1>is keeping his belt. I think he should keep his belt.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm gonna say that Swerve Strickland is going to

<v Speaker 1>play a role in MJF winning this match and Hangman losing.

<v Speaker 1>How it all happens, at what moment it all goes down,

<v Speaker 1>Does anybody else get involved? I don't know, but I

<v Speaker 1>think Swerve is going to play a role in this.

<v Speaker 1>I think he's trying to clear the deck as far

<v Speaker 1>as all competition for that champion, and if he can

<v Speaker 1>do something that would then cause Hangman to never again

<v Speaker 1>be able to challenge for it, then that's what he'll do.

<v Speaker 1>You know why, Because he's a heel And if you

<v Speaker 1>don't think he's a heel yet, I think he'll solidify

<v Speaker 1>that at Revolution. So I'm going with MJF. Now FTR

<v Speaker 1>is going to put the aw Tag team titles on

<v Speaker 1>the line against the Young Bucks. I know we're still

<v Speaker 1>waiting to find out what's going on with Copeland and Christian,

<v Speaker 1>and I got to be honest with you, at this point,

<v Speaker 1>I don't care. I really I don't care. I've lost

<v Speaker 1>all interest in this. They'll come back at some point,

<v Speaker 1>they'll go after FTR at this point, I don't even

<v Speaker 1>think it has to be for the titles. I think

<v Speaker 1>we're getting the title change here, and I think the

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks are going to I don't even know how

<v Speaker 1>many times they've been the champions. Is this going to

<v Speaker 1>be reign number three, four, five, maybe four, I don't

<v Speaker 1>even know. I'm not sure, but I think they're gonna

<v Speaker 1>win those titles from FTR, and maybe it's with assist

<v Speaker 1>from Coping Christian. Maybe they'll make a surprise return and

<v Speaker 1>cost FTR the titles, and then when they go after

<v Speaker 1>FTR doesn't have to be for the belts. If Tony

<v Speaker 1>kan ever wants to put the belts on them, then

<v Speaker 1>you could do the Young Bucks against Cop and Christian.

<v Speaker 1>But I think we get a title change. John Moxley,

<v Speaker 1>speaking of title changes, will put his Continental Championship on

<v Speaker 1>the line against Kenoski Takeshta, no time limits this time.

<v Speaker 1>I think Takeshta is going to win that title. I

<v Speaker 1>think all roads lead to Champion against Champion title for

<v Speaker 1>title unification between Takeshta and Okada, probably at all In

<v Speaker 1>at Wembley Stadium in August. That's where I think this

<v Speaker 1>is headed Andrede l Eedelo goes one on one with Bandido.

<v Speaker 1>This is the match I'm looking forward to on this show.

<v Speaker 1>That's going to be great, and Andrede is gonna win.

<v Speaker 1>Swerve Strickland goes one on one with Brody King. That's

<v Speaker 1>gonna be another great one. I'm going with Swerve. Doesn't

<v Speaker 1>make any sense to beat Swerve right now. Tekla puts

<v Speaker 1>her Women's World Championship on the line against the former

<v Speaker 1>champion for stat Lander two out of three falls match.

<v Speaker 1>Tecla just won the title. She seems to be doing

<v Speaker 1>well with it so far, even though she's only had

<v Speaker 1>that one defense against thunder Rosa. But I think it's

<v Speaker 1>too soon. It's too soon to take the belt off

<v Speaker 1>of her, so Tekla retains. We have Kazuchka Okata, Kyle Fletcher,

<v Speaker 1>and Mark Davis, the new Trios Champions, putting their belts

<v Speaker 1>on the line against Kevin Knight, Mike Bailey and Mystico

<v Speaker 1>Why why not. Fletcher is going to be defending his

<v Speaker 1>TNT title by the Way against Speedball on Dynamite this Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>and if it is anything like their first match and

<v Speaker 1>the Continental Classic back in December, that's gonna be special.

<v Speaker 1>I'm looking more forward to that than I am this match.

<v Speaker 1>But I see the don Kallis family retaining as they

<v Speaker 1>just won those titles. Timeless Tony Storm no titles on

<v Speaker 1>the line here, but she goes one on one with

<v Speaker 1>Marina Shaffir. Everyone is banned from ringside, the Conglomeration, the

<v Speaker 1>Death Riders, they're all gone. It's just gonna be one

<v Speaker 1>on one and it will be a win for Timeless

<v Speaker 1>Tony Storm. Orange Cassidy had mentioned that him and Darby

<v Speaker 1>were going to go after the Dogs. I guess they

<v Speaker 1>are now in some former fashion on this show, but

<v Speaker 1>then they went and announced that him and Darby are

<v Speaker 1>going to be wrestling David Finley and gave Kid this Wednesday.

<v Speaker 1>So I presume whatever the actual Revolution match is going

<v Speaker 1>to be, we'll find out after that, so I can't

<v Speaker 1>really comment on it beyond that, although if they do

<v Speaker 1>a match, I would think the Dogs should get a

<v Speaker 1>win given the David Finley just debuted for them. I

<v Speaker 1>could see Willow Nightingale being added in a TBS title match,

<v Speaker 1>maybe with Megan Bain. That's not official yet. Tamaso Champa

<v Speaker 1>has said that he wants to get Sylvie back from

<v Speaker 1>Kyle Fletcher, who turned the TNT title into pinky but

<v Speaker 1>then on collision after a loss to Daniel Garcia, which

<v Speaker 1>would be enough to send anyone off the deep end.

<v Speaker 1>He turned heel on Mark Briscoe, who inadvertently provided a

<v Speaker 1>distraction during the match. He turned heel on him the

<v Speaker 1>same way he did to Johnny Gargano in NXT, by

<v Speaker 1>sending him into the video wall. He was a poor

<v Speaker 1>man's copy of a much better angle. But I am

<v Speaker 1>happy to see Shampa embracing his dark side again. He

<v Speaker 1>calls himself the psycho killer. Let's see it, Let's see it.

<v Speaker 1>But I'll tell you what. If Champa's aw Run was

<v Speaker 1>a person, it would be on speed. Okay, this man's

<v Speaker 1>only been on TV for them for barely six weeks.

<v Speaker 1>In those six weeks, he has already won the TNT Championship,

<v Speaker 1>he lost the TNT Championship, and he now turned heel.

<v Speaker 1>They are speed running through everything and I'm not sure why,

<v Speaker 1>but Ricochet is gonna defend his national title. Not against

<v Speaker 1>Jack Perry, at least not one on one, which is

<v Speaker 1>what they've been setting up on TV now for weeks.

<v Speaker 1>He's gonna defend his national title in a twenty one

<v Speaker 1>man Blackjack Battle Royal that's gonna be on the zero

<v Speaker 1>hour pre show. Now, the participants have not yet been announced,

<v Speaker 1>so it's hard to make a prediction. Although I will

<v Speaker 1>say that Ricochet sneaks out with the title. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think he's gonna lose it. Now if that stipulation sounds

<v Speaker 1>familiar at double or Nothing. In twenty twenty three, Orange

<v Speaker 1>Cassidy defended his international title in one of these Blackjack

<v Speaker 1>Battle Royals, which at least made sense because it was

<v Speaker 1>double or nothing with the Vegas theme. I mean, what

<v Speaker 1>the hell does Blackjack Battle Royal have to do with revolution? Nothing?

<v Speaker 1>It has nothing to do with revolution. But that was

<v Speaker 1>the last time they did one of these, and this

<v Speaker 1>is during the period where Orange Cassidy was doing the

<v Speaker 1>gimmick where his body was just beat to all hell

<v Speaker 1>from all the title defenses, and he still won. He

<v Speaker 1>outlasted twenty other men. The big difference is that was

<v Speaker 1>on the main card. This is not even worthy of

<v Speaker 1>the main card. Tony is relegating it to the pre show.

<v Speaker 1>I wonder if that tarnishes Ricochet's legacy two, especially if

<v Speaker 1>Big Boom Aj of the Costco Guys joins him, unsaid

<v Speaker 1>pre show hell, Big Boom Aj may end up in

<v Speaker 1>the Battle Royal competing for Ricochet's title. AJ posted a

<v Speaker 1>video to his ig account last week answering a fan

<v Speaker 1>question from X about Hey, why are we going to

<v Speaker 1>see you back in the ring again? And Big Boom

<v Speaker 1>Aj said that he would be in the ring at

<v Speaker 1>Revolution next Sunday. He did not say what he would

<v Speaker 1>be doing. He did not say if he would be wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>although back in the ring I presume means he'll be wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>but there's no mention of him or tease of anything

<v Speaker 1>to my knowledge on AW television or Ring of Honor television.

<v Speaker 1>He may well end up in that match. That's the

<v Speaker 1>Revolution card as it stands. Again. I expect more to

<v Speaker 1>be added this week, but they are at the Crypto

<v Speaker 1>dot Com Arena in La next Sunday. Last I had

<v Speaker 1>read they had about ten thousand tickets sold. AW traditionally

<v Speaker 1>does very well when it comes to walk up, so

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I think eleven is likely. I wonder

<v Speaker 1>if twelve is possible, but that's where I would expect

<v Speaker 1>that attendance to probably land that somewhere in that eleven

<v Speaker 1>to twelve thousand range. Let's get to your questions. If

<v Speaker 1>you have questions for the mailbag, you can email me

<v Speaker 1>the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your

<v Speaker 1>name of where you are from when you write in.

<v Speaker 1>Luis from Garabo, Puerto Rico. He's been listening since twenty fourteen.

<v Speaker 1>I heard your analysis last week about how the draft

<v Speaker 1>is basically dead, and I agree with you. The way

<v Speaker 1>WWE currently does it just feels like random talent shuffling

<v Speaker 1>instead of something meaningful. But I had an idea that

<v Speaker 1>might make it work again. What if the draft was

<v Speaker 1>limited only to NXT talent. It could function more like

<v Speaker 1>a real sports draft where the main roster brands are

<v Speaker 1>drafting rookies quote unquote. You could do one round for

<v Speaker 1>the men and one round for the women. This year

<v Speaker 1>would have been the perfect example. The clear number one

<v Speaker 1>overall pick would probably have been Obafemi. Instead of doing

<v Speaker 1>a random lottery, you could determine draft order with matches, so,

<v Speaker 1>for example, a match on TV to decide who gets

<v Speaker 1>the first pick, or even better, do it on a

<v Speaker 1>ple similar to Crown Jewel where champions face each other

<v Speaker 1>for bragging rights, but instead the prize is draft positioning.

<v Speaker 1>For example, world champion versus World Champion for the number

<v Speaker 1>one pick, I see versus us for the number three pick.

<v Speaker 1>He says during the draft program. You could even have

<v Speaker 1>trade talks between brands. I think something like this would

<v Speaker 1>make the draft feel more like a real one and

<v Speaker 1>less like simply moving wrestlers around. It's not a bad idea.

<v Speaker 1>I'm still not a fan of doing a draft show,

<v Speaker 1>but as far as your idea, that would make a

<v Speaker 1>lot more sense, as far as how NXT is integrated

<v Speaker 1>into it. And again, you could always have trade talks

<v Speaker 1>between the gms to move other people around on the

<v Speaker 1>main roster if you want to move someone from Raw

<v Speaker 1>to SmackDown or from SmackDown to Raw. So I like it.

<v Speaker 1>I like it. I also feel like you've given this

<v Speaker 1>far more thought than they ever have when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to the draft. Jackson from Morton, Illinois. I was wondering

<v Speaker 1>what your thoughts would be on Ilya Dragonov being the

<v Speaker 1>one to answer brock Lesner's WrestleMania Open challenge. Well, I

<v Speaker 1>would love for Oba to be the guy go in

<v Speaker 1>and win. I have two reservations about that. One is

<v Speaker 1>that I'm worried that Brock would not want to lose,

<v Speaker 1>and two, I feel like Brock and the other big

<v Speaker 1>guys don't live up to the hype. Meanwhile, I go

<v Speaker 1>back to Brock against aj or Daniel Brian. Those were

<v Speaker 1>very enjoyable matches. Ilia can make k fabe sense after

<v Speaker 1>being eliminated in the Royal Rumble by Brock and wanting

<v Speaker 1>revenge or to prove who he is. Going back to

<v Speaker 1>the backstage interaction with Carmelo Hayes last week. It might

<v Speaker 1>not be Gunther against Ilia empty arena good, but Ilia

<v Speaker 1>can go out there and give us a good Brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesnar match and can look better in defeat than Oba

<v Speaker 1>or Royce Keys. I would love to see how Ilia

<v Speaker 1>Dragonov would fare in an actual competitive match with brock Lesner.

<v Speaker 1>I think that could be a lot of fun. You know,

<v Speaker 1>is Brock going to absorb all of the chops and

<v Speaker 1>all of the stiff offense that we usually see in

<v Speaker 1>an Ilia Dragonov match? Probably not do. I think brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner is going to want to go in there, sit

<v Speaker 1>up to a point where he's all bruised up and

<v Speaker 1>black and blue. When he's done wrestling this guy. No,

<v Speaker 1>I think he's going to want to go in there

<v Speaker 1>and throw him around and Ilia Dragon of will take

<v Speaker 1>some great sup plex bumps and he'll sell it like

<v Speaker 1>he's you know, dying in there, and yeah, he'll do

<v Speaker 1>what he does. I don't know that Brock is going

<v Speaker 1>to give you the kind of Ilia dragonoff match that

<v Speaker 1>you're expecting, but I think if he was, he was

<v Speaker 1>willing to kind of, you know, play by his rules

<v Speaker 1>and go in there and have the kind of match

<v Speaker 1>that I think, you know, Ilia would probably be dying

<v Speaker 1>to have with him. I think it would be a

<v Speaker 1>lot of fun. I just don't know that Brock is

<v Speaker 1>motivated to do that, and I fear that when it's over,

<v Speaker 1>it's just going to do more harm than good for Ilia.

<v Speaker 1>But if I knew the stars could align, that's one

<v Speaker 1>of those matches I would love to see. There was

<v Speaker 1>like a top five of who I would care to

<v Speaker 1>see Brock Lesnar wrestling Illi would be one of those five.

<v Speaker 1>But you know, I also think back to wrestle Mania

<v Speaker 1>at thirty two, where you know, Dean Ambrose and he

<v Speaker 1>had all these great ideas for what he wanted to

<v Speaker 1>do in there with with Brock. Now, granted that was

<v Speaker 1>involving weapons and all kinds of crazy shit. Didn't you

<v Speaker 1>want to use a chainsaw or something? There's something ridiculous

<v Speaker 1>like that. And I could understand Brock being like, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>we're not doing that, but you know, he had all

<v Speaker 1>these ideas for what that match was going to look like,

<v Speaker 1>and when it came game day, it's like, yeah, no,

<v Speaker 1>we're not doing that. We're going to do things my way. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>that's kind of what I fear what happened with Ilia

<v Speaker 1>Christoph from Belgium. Through the years, I've always wondered why

<v Speaker 1>Michael Hayes has been a key figure in WWE for

<v Speaker 1>almost thirty years. Every time he's brought up by former talent,

<v Speaker 1>it's mentioned that he was a short sighted, condescending individual

<v Speaker 1>who never had any real ideas. This became more apparent

<v Speaker 1>with his recent Chelsea Green comments. With Vince being big

<v Speaker 1>on loyalty. You understood why he was there decades ago,

<v Speaker 1>but why is this man in WWE creative in twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty six. Well, I don't know offhand who all of

<v Speaker 1>these names are that you say have done interview. Who's

<v Speaker 1>bashing him for being all of these things? In terms

<v Speaker 1>of creative. He's supposedly a very good finish guy, and

<v Speaker 1>he's very good at producing matches. I can't speak to

<v Speaker 1>his creative brain, but I've seen wrestlers give him credit

<v Speaker 1>for these things. I watched the interview by the way

<v Speaker 1>that Undertaker did with him on his six Feet under podcast.

<v Speaker 1>I needed something to watch on the flight to Chicago

<v Speaker 1>the other day, so I loaded that up. I watched

<v Speaker 1>the entire thing. By the way, it was just one

<v Speaker 1>on one Undertaker of Michael Hayes. There was no co host.

<v Speaker 1>For those of you who I know are adamantly against

<v Speaker 1>the new format of the Undertaker's podcast. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if she was, if she had a prior engagement or

<v Speaker 1>a doctor's appointment, or why she wasn't there. Michelle McColl

<v Speaker 1>was not on that show, so if you care to

<v Speaker 1>go check it out, it's Undertaker of Michael Hayes. But

<v Speaker 1>I did watch it and he mentioned Hayes did that.

<v Speaker 1>Triple H once told him then this would have been

<v Speaker 1>in the last probably a couple of years. But he said,

<v Speaker 1>Triple H told him, Vince had Pat Patterson. I want

<v Speaker 1>you to be my Pat Patterson. You're my Pat Patterson.

<v Speaker 1>That's how he sees Michael Hayes. So you're wondering why

<v Speaker 1>is he still there? Why don't they get rid of him?

<v Speaker 1>Because in Triple H's eyes, Michael Hayes is his pat patterson,

<v Speaker 1>he's his right hand man, he's his sergeant at arms.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know who Bruce would be to him if

<v Speaker 1>Hayes is his pat patterson. But he told him, you're

<v Speaker 1>my pat and I want you to make Bobby Rud

<v Speaker 1>my Michael Hayes. So that's the spot that Hayes has

<v Speaker 1>been grooming Bobby Rud for, just to show you how

<v Speaker 1>well regarded Bobby Rud is behind the scenes. That's sort

<v Speaker 1>of the pecking order when it comes to the hierarchy there.

<v Speaker 1>But he's viewed more positively, I think by people than negatively.

<v Speaker 1>And he's not going anywhere because Triple H relies on him. Now,

<v Speaker 1>if Triple H ever goes, and I think Hayes goes

<v Speaker 1>and Bruce goes, and you just clean house, and maybe

<v Speaker 1>they should do that anyway, quite frankly, but as long

<v Speaker 1>as Triple H is there, he's going to want certain

<v Speaker 1>people around him that he's comfortable with. And these are

<v Speaker 1>people that were around when he was a performer and

<v Speaker 1>in the early days when he started sitting in on

<v Speaker 1>like production meetings and creative meetings, like Bruce was there,

<v Speaker 1>Michael Hayes was there. You know, it was like some

<v Speaker 1>people have their comfort food. I think that's kind of

<v Speaker 1>what it's like for Triple H. You know, he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>just want to surround himself by all of these strange

<v Speaker 1>people that he can't necessarily trust. I think there's a

<v Speaker 1>trust factor there and that's important to him. And as

<v Speaker 1>long as he's in the position that he's in, people

<v Speaker 1>like Bruce and Michael Hayes, they're not going nowhere. Daniel

<v Speaker 1>from Los Angeles thoughts on having Logan, Paul, and Austin

<v Speaker 1>theory becoming tag team champions. They beat the USSOS on

<v Speaker 1>Raw on the road to wrestle Mania, to then defend

<v Speaker 1>them against the team of Seth Rollins and La Knight.

<v Speaker 1>They could drag this out by having Knight reluctantly team

<v Speaker 1>with Seth. They argue about their past matches, but eventually

<v Speaker 1>agree to put an end to the Vision once and

<v Speaker 1>for all. Yeah, I think based on what we saw

<v Speaker 1>Monday night, I thought they were building to the USOS

<v Speaker 1>defending against the Vision at WrestleMania and then they have

<v Speaker 1>some separate plan for Seth rollins. But again, if they're

<v Speaker 1>relying on bron Breaker to be back in time and

<v Speaker 1>he's not, Seth is going to have to have a

<v Speaker 1>match on that card. And if it's not Brock for

<v Speaker 1>what Seth did to Paul Hayman, then, and I think

<v Speaker 1>I said this a few weeks ago, you do a

<v Speaker 1>tag match, right, and we're not talking Bad Bunny anymore

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that, but you could do Seth and

<v Speaker 1>La Knight because La Knight's another one who doesn't have

<v Speaker 1>any sort of real apparent match at WrestleMania unless he

<v Speaker 1>does end up facing Brock. He's sort of a man

<v Speaker 1>without an island. And he god, what did he do?

<v Speaker 1>He didn't interview this past week. I don't remember who

<v Speaker 1>it was with. And he even admitted, he goes, you know,

<v Speaker 1>we're on the road to WrestleMania. I don't even know

<v Speaker 1>what I'm doing. He goes, you know, do I wish

<v Speaker 1>that I had some sense of like where I was

<v Speaker 1>going and stuff? Sure, but like you know, creative is

<v Speaker 1>always changing, and I just sort of rolled with the punches.

<v Speaker 1>But he has no fucking idea what he's doing. You

<v Speaker 1>think La Knight knows what he's doing in WrestleMania. He's

<v Speaker 1>just like everybody else. He has no fucking clue, So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that wouldn't be a terrible idea, But then

<v Speaker 1>what do you do with the USOS. They're not leaving

<v Speaker 1>the Ussos off the WrestleMania card. I still think the

<v Speaker 1>match is going to be the USSOS against Logan and

<v Speaker 1>Austin theory in WrestleMania we got Jakwan from the Bronx.

<v Speaker 1>I've recently been going back and watching episodes of ron

<v Speaker 1>Nitro from around this time thirty years ago. And even

<v Speaker 1>though there has been a ton of warranted criticism towards

<v Speaker 1>the current product of WWE and AAW, looking at what

<v Speaker 1>WWF and WCW were producing in February of nineteen ninety

<v Speaker 1>six was far worse overall in my opinion, How do

<v Speaker 1>you feel about the quality of the two major promotions

<v Speaker 1>at that time comparing to now thirty years later? And

<v Speaker 1>do you see AAW ANDWWE turning things around like WCW

<v Speaker 1>did with the nWo and the WWF with the Attitude era.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the two situations are not even comparable, just

<v Speaker 1>because these two companies right now are on rock solid

<v Speaker 1>ground even with all the questions around aw's media rights future.

<v Speaker 1>Like these companies are generating it from media rights alone,

<v Speaker 1>so much money, so much more money than WWF and

<v Speaker 1>WCW WAR back then. It's insane. So it really isn't

<v Speaker 1>a good apples to apples comparison as far as the

<v Speaker 1>quality of the product at the time compared to now.

<v Speaker 1>I wasn't really paying too much attention in early ninety

<v Speaker 1>six to WCW. They just weren't doing a whole lot

<v Speaker 1>to you know, excite me enough to want to really

<v Speaker 1>watch week to week what they were doing. I was

<v Speaker 1>aware of what was going on. But the nWo stuff

<v Speaker 1>came along at just the right time because there just

<v Speaker 1>wasn't a whole lot going on in WWF. They were

<v Speaker 1>building two Shawn Michaels as the guy, and they were

<v Speaker 1>coming out of ninety five, which was, to say the least,

<v Speaker 1>you know, not a great year for the company, you know,

<v Speaker 1>certainly not business wise, but even creatively, right, we got

<v Speaker 1>some gems in ninety five as far as like some

<v Speaker 1>great matches out of that year, but gimmick, why story

<v Speaker 1>wise It was pretty fucking bad in ninety five, and

<v Speaker 1>that bled over into the beginning of ninety six. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I was a big fan. Nonetheless, wasn't the most exciting

<v Speaker 1>period of the company. No, it wasn't. But you know,

<v Speaker 1>they were building the Shawn Michaels winning the championship. Gold

<v Speaker 1>Dust had just debuted, and that was generating a lot

<v Speaker 1>of uh, it was generating a lot, I want to

<v Speaker 1>say interest, It was generating a lot of controversy. Let's

<v Speaker 1>just say Vader had just come into WWF. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>there were some things that I liked that was going on,

<v Speaker 1>but yeah, it is not going to rank as one

<v Speaker 1>of the best times in the history of that company

<v Speaker 1>as compared to now. There's there's more to like now

<v Speaker 1>than there was at the beginning of ninety six, if

<v Speaker 1>I had to choose. We really were just on the

<v Speaker 1>cusp of getting into the really good quality stuff later

<v Speaker 1>that year from both companies. Julius from The Bronx many

<v Speaker 1>years ago on the podcast around twenty seventeen, maybe someone

<v Speaker 1>asked you who's better AJ Styles or Shawn Michaels, and

<v Speaker 1>you said, we'd have to wait until AJ was done

<v Speaker 1>to fully answer that. So now that he's done, who

<v Speaker 1>do you think is better overall? AJ Styles or Shawn Michaels. Boy,

<v Speaker 1>you had that one in your back pocket, didn't you.

<v Speaker 1>You had that calendar reminder just waiting to pop off. Well,

<v Speaker 1>I'm actually going to give you a pretty easy answer.

<v Speaker 1>Shawn Michaels, especially pre back injury, Shawn Michaels. I still

<v Speaker 1>give hbkd edge as great as AJ Styles was, and

<v Speaker 1>he might have been doing more spectacular moves than Shawn

<v Speaker 1>Michaels was doing. Like I never saw Sewan Michaels do

<v Speaker 1>a fucking cork screw anything. You know, I never saw

<v Speaker 1>Sean Michaels do a spiral tap. But it wasn't just

<v Speaker 1>about that. It was just you you would I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>maybe you just had to like live through that period

<v Speaker 1>and be a fan at that time. But like that

<v Speaker 1>version of Sean Michaels, whatever was going on behind the

<v Speaker 1>scenes and whatever he was doing, man like, there was

<v Speaker 1>just he was untouchable. He was untouchable, and the matches

<v Speaker 1>he was having and just the ease with which he

<v Speaker 1>would do the things that he did. And there's a

<v Speaker 1>reason why, you know, some people look at him maybe

<v Speaker 1>he is the greatest entering wrestler of all time. There

<v Speaker 1>are some people who would say that. Some people might

<v Speaker 1>say that about AJ, but I can't. I can't rank

<v Speaker 1>AJ above Sean. For me, it's still Shawn number one

<v Speaker 1>over AJ. Steve from Virginia. What is the best Saturday

<v Speaker 1>Nights Made event for each decade that it has been airing.

<v Speaker 1>It's an oddly specific question. Well, the current run of shows.

<v Speaker 1>The most recent one I thought was the strongest one

<v Speaker 1>since they rebooted the show, so that would be the

<v Speaker 1>one for this decade. For the two thousands, I don't

<v Speaker 1>have one. I was not a fan of that reboot.

<v Speaker 1>I have no favorite from that run. I have barely

<v Speaker 1>any memories from that run other than I know fucking

<v Speaker 1>Collie was in a match on one of them. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I hated that that ruh. I guess Sean Michaels and

<v Speaker 1>Shane McMahon. I guess maybe on that first one they

<v Speaker 1>did in two thousand and six, that match I think

<v Speaker 1>was kind of good, But yeah, I fucking hated that run. Now,

<v Speaker 1>from the nineties, it would either be the February ninety

<v Speaker 1>two to one, which was the first one on Fox

<v Speaker 1>where Sid bailed on Hogan during their tag match with

<v Speaker 1>Rick Flair and the Undertaker, and then Macho Man b

<v Speaker 1>Jake the Snake in the main event, and then Undertaker

<v Speaker 1>turned Babyface backstage when he saved Elizabeth, So that technically

<v Speaker 1>didn't happen on the show. I think they went off

<v Speaker 1>the air that night and we didn't see that angle

<v Speaker 1>until the syndicated shows. But I would go at that

<v Speaker 1>one or the Wild Kingdom episode from July of nineteen ninety. Actually,

<v Speaker 1>that one probably gets my vote. That one had an

<v Speaker 1>excellent match between Mister Perfect and Tito Santana for the

<v Speaker 1>Intercontinental title. It had an Ultimate Warrior Rick Rude WWF

<v Speaker 1>title match which ended up leading into their cage match

<v Speaker 1>at SummerSlam, and it had a demolition match with the Rockers.

<v Speaker 1>Funny enough, after what I talked about earlier with their

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame induction coming demolition and the Rockers on

<v Speaker 1>that show. Now, if that's not vintage Saturday Night's main event,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what is. But the eighties, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>the eighties had a bunch of good ones. I'll stay

<v Speaker 1>away from the main event specials. Those aired on Friday nights.

<v Speaker 1>Usually they technically don't count as Saturday Night's main event,

<v Speaker 1>but I mean, if I could pick them, I would

<v Speaker 1>do the main event special from eighty nine, you know,

<v Speaker 1>where Hogan and Savage had their falling out the Megapowers explode.

<v Speaker 1>That's one of my favorite WWE shows of all time.

<v Speaker 1>Like that would absolutely be my number one if I

<v Speaker 1>could pick that. But if not that one, I would

<v Speaker 1>go with the nineteen eighty nine episode where Hulk Hogan

<v Speaker 1>and the Big Boss Men had their steel cage match.

<v Speaker 1>There was a good match on there. I watched that

<v Speaker 1>not that long ago. I think on the Vault maybe

<v Speaker 1>there was a good match on there too with Demolition

<v Speaker 1>and the Brainbusters, So I'd go with that one. But

<v Speaker 1>good shit, I'm gonna cut the mailbag off. There had

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of other questions. I'm gonna save those. Can

<v Speaker 1>give everything away in one week. We'll save those for

<v Speaker 1>next week. But keep emailing me the Sola Master at

<v Speaker 1>gmail dot com. You never know when your question may

<v Speaker 1>be answered on here or on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show,

<v Speaker 1>so I want to include your questions on that show

<v Speaker 1>as well. Episode number five, I think we're up to

<v Speaker 1>number five already, is coming up this Tuesday again. You

<v Speaker 1>can find that show on the Aeriel hell Wani show

<v Speaker 1>feed wherever you get your podcast from. We will be

<v Speaker 1>talking a lot more on the Tuesday show about the

<v Speaker 1>fallout from this Cody Rhoads title win. We'll see what

<v Speaker 1>happen happens on Raw Monday Night. There's some other news

<v Speaker 1>items I didn't get to here. We'll cover all that

<v Speaker 1>on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show on Tuesday. It's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>a busy week. I will be live after Raw Monday

<v Speaker 1>night on YouTube for the Raw post show. Of course.

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday night is Tuesday Night Titans with myself and JD.

<v Speaker 1>Wednesday is the Dynamite Post Show, and I am back

<v Speaker 1>for Friday this week on SmackDown for the SmackDown Review.

<v Speaker 1>I'll be here, so you got a full week. Next

<v Speaker 1>weekend is episode nine to fifty five of the SoundOff,

<v Speaker 1>but it's also Revolution Weekend. AW has its Revolution pay

<v Speaker 1>per view next Sunday. I will probably be going live

<v Speaker 1>for that one. I don't always go live for the

<v Speaker 1>AW shows anymore because they're just they end too fucking late,

<v Speaker 1>and typically especially if they're on a Saturday, as sometimes

<v Speaker 1>they are, it just bleeds over too late into me

<v Speaker 1>having to do the podcast the next day, so it

<v Speaker 1>just makes more sense for me to wait until the

<v Speaker 1>sound off and review it on there. In this case,

<v Speaker 1>it's a Sunday show, so I'm probably gonna be live.

<v Speaker 1>I'll let you guys know. That'll be a guess bonus

<v Speaker 1>podcast for you next weekend. We got a lot of

<v Speaker 1>stuff coming up. I hope you will join me in

<v Speaker 1>support for all of it. Without you, there is no

<v Speaker 1>me without you, there is no sound off. I appreciate

<v Speaker 1>all your support. Again, a great meeting some of you,

<v Speaker 1>some of you for the first time at the House

<v Speaker 1>of Glory show in Chicago. I'm really looking forward to

<v Speaker 1>the Long Island show and then being in Las Vegas

<v Speaker 1>for Culture Clash. We got some big announcements coming up

<v Speaker 1>beyond Brody King against Zillafa two and anytime I can

<v Speaker 1>venture out and get to meet some of you guys,

<v Speaker 1>because it's just hard to, you know, get to these

<v Speaker 1>bigger shows, you know, and I got to be back

<v Speaker 1>here at home base to cover it, and I don't

<v Speaker 1>get to go to those too much anymore. So this

<v Speaker 1>sort of forces me. I'm not going to be out

<v Speaker 1>there for wrestle Mania but I'll still be out there

<v Speaker 1>and everyone's descending on Vegas, so it'll be nice to

<v Speaker 1>get to see some of you out there. Be well,

<v Speaker 1>stay safe. Be sure to check out all of the

<v Speaker 1>sponsor links and the description of this week's episode. A

<v Speaker 1>lot of offers for you, and every time you use

<v Speaker 1>one of those links or codes, it really does help

<v Speaker 1>out the podcast, and be sure to check those out.

<v Speaker 1>I'll see you guys back here next week. Take care.

<v Speaker 1>The solomn Monster sounds off people like wins and losses

<v Speaker 1>don't matter anymore, and to that, I say, fuck off.

<v Speaker 1>You don't know what you're talking about. To get people over,

<v Speaker 1>they need to win matches. This goes to this argument,

<v Speaker 1>and I will argue until I'm bluing the fucking face

<v Speaker 1>with people. Wins and losses, I agree, are not the

<v Speaker 1>end all be all. It's not the only thing. But

<v Speaker 1>to suggest wins and losses don't matter means you don't

<v Speaker 1>know anything about wrestling. And I was very happy, by

<v Speaker 1>the way, when the Miz did that interview with Chris

<v Speaker 1>van Vliet, I think it was he said the exact

<v Speaker 1>same thing. I agree with the Miz. Okay, we're the

<v Speaker 1>mis agrees with me however you want to look at it.

<v Speaker 1>Wins and losses absolutely matter. The solom Monster sounds off

<v Speaker 1>bringing you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check

<v Speaker 1>out the weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and

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<v Speaker 1>solomn Monster I love you so yo