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

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

<v Speaker 1>want your soul.

<v Speaker 2>Woman, you got grown ass wrestlers in the back going

<v Speaker 2>on Twitter.

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

<v Speaker 2>The week I was ninety nine percent positive it was

<v Speaker 2>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 would have know

<v Speaker 1>the reason why you won't part me. Welcome to episode

<v Speaker 1>nine fifty five of the Solemn Monster Sounds Off for Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>March fifteenth, twenty twenty six. The IDEs of March are

<v Speaker 1>upon us. You know, there are times where I see

<v Speaker 1>something in wrestling that shocks me, and it takes a

<v Speaker 1>lot to shock me. This week was one of those weeks.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure many of you saw the video from the

<v Speaker 1>OBW show on Thursday night. They were streaming their weekly

<v Speaker 1>Rise series and during the main event, one wrestler came

<v Speaker 1>off the top rope with a phenomenal forearm to the

<v Speaker 1>heel whose name is Tony Evans, and Evans pulled the

<v Speaker 1>referee in the way. He pulled referee Dallas Edwards into

<v Speaker 1>the line of fire. That was the planned spot, and

<v Speaker 1>he took the shot, but in doing so, Edwards smacked

<v Speaker 1>the back of his head very hard on the mat

<v Speaker 1>and he immediately started going into convulsions. You could see

<v Speaker 1>his body seizing up, and the wrestler who nailed him

<v Speaker 1>was right there looking down at him, practically on top

<v Speaker 1>of him, and could clearly see, you know, something wasn't right.

<v Speaker 1>Uh didn't think to say anything, and they just continued

<v Speaker 1>to wrestle around his body as he laid their twitching.

<v Speaker 1>And that was bad enough, But then Evans he grabs

<v Speaker 1>Edwards by his pants while his body is stiffened up

<v Speaker 1>and he is convulsing on the mat, and he rolls

<v Speaker 1>him out of the way, been using his foot to

<v Speaker 1>push him aside so that he could hit a shitty

<v Speaker 1>backfist to one of the other wrestlers. All right, got

<v Speaker 1>to get their shit in. It's the most disgusting thing

<v Speaker 1>I've seen in a wrestling ring since the Rajah Jackson

<v Speaker 1>incident last year. There's no pleading ignorance on this. If

<v Speaker 1>I could tell just watching the video, there's no way

<v Speaker 1>the men in the ring didn't know something was wrong

<v Speaker 1>and to continue wrestling around the guy. You know what.

<v Speaker 1>It reminded me of Paul Orndorf at Fall Brawl in

<v Speaker 1>two thousand, in the dying days of WCW. Orndorf, he

<v Speaker 1>was part of a tag match. I know raymis Stereo

<v Speaker 1>was in there, Sean O'Hare, I don't remember who else

<v Speaker 1>was in it. But Orndorf gave somebody a pile driver.

<v Speaker 1>But when he did, the back of his own head

<v Speaker 1>smacked the mat. You know, when he came down, and

<v Speaker 1>he was laying there motionless for a long time while

<v Speaker 1>all the idiots in the ring kept wrestling around his body.

<v Speaker 1>At least take it outside and let the fucking doctors

<v Speaker 1>check on the guy. Nope, show must go on. This

<v Speaker 1>was worse because Evans physically rolled him out of the

<v Speaker 1>way and booted him away just so he could do

<v Speaker 1>his next spot. It's inexcusable. Inexcusable, And finally they stopped

<v Speaker 1>the match, and they cut to the announcers and they

<v Speaker 1>signed them off the air. Now. OVW released a statement

<v Speaker 1>the very next day, saying, last night during Rise, referee

<v Speaker 1>Dallas Edwards, a member of our OVW family, experienced the

<v Speaker 1>medical emergency. During the broadcast. OVW takes the health and

<v Speaker 1>well being of all of our performers extremely seriously, and

<v Speaker 1>as a company, we are all distraught to see an

<v Speaker 1>injury to one of our own. Dallas is alert and

<v Speaker 1>doing much better. We ask everyone to keep him in

<v Speaker 1>your thoughts and prayers and respect his and his family's

<v Speaker 1>privacy at this time. We will provide an update as

<v Speaker 1>soon as one is available, but in the meantime, we

<v Speaker 1>wish Dallas a speedy recovery and we can't wait until

<v Speaker 1>he is back with our OVW family very soon. You know,

<v Speaker 1>saying that you take the health and well being of

<v Speaker 1>your performers extremely seriously and actually demonstrating that are two

<v Speaker 1>different things. Now. Sean Ross sapp shared a statement from

<v Speaker 1>Edward's girlfriend, saying, please keep Dallas in your thoughts as

<v Speaker 1>your day begins. I am not going to provide much

<v Speaker 1>more information at this time except to the parties who

<v Speaker 1>already know. But last night resulted in a brain injury

<v Speaker 1>that is being monitored and we will continue to will

<v Speaker 1>continue to be monitored by doctors here. Seeing all the

<v Speaker 1>support you guys have already given is amazing and I

<v Speaker 1>didn't want to leave everyone without some kind of update.

<v Speaker 1>So then Dallas himself. Later on posted an update and

<v Speaker 1>this was a couple of days ago, to his Facebook page, saying,

<v Speaker 1>hey guys, I know everyone seems to know about the

<v Speaker 1>scary incident last night in OVW. I have been evaluated

<v Speaker 1>by a hospital and I have a concussion as well

<v Speaker 1>as a subdural hematoma a brain bleed. With that being said,

<v Speaker 1>I have made the decision to take some needed time

<v Speaker 1>away to get my life and help back in good spirits.

<v Speaker 1>I appreciate all of the support everyone has been offering,

<v Speaker 1>but as far as money goes, I'm grateful to be

<v Speaker 1>in a position that I can manage an accident like

<v Speaker 1>this In lieu of donations, I instead implore all of

<v Speaker 1>my fellow workers to get some sort of training in

<v Speaker 1>assisting another's life. Being in that position before, it's very

<v Speaker 1>important to be educated in all scenarios relating to injury

<v Speaker 1>or illness in the ring, especially when we're performing. I

<v Speaker 1>am not mad at anyone or anything other than the

<v Speaker 1>situation as a whole, and that I've been sitting for

<v Speaker 1>about twenty four hours straight in a hospital. As far

<v Speaker 1>as updates go, I am getting a CT scan in

<v Speaker 1>the morning, and if that goes well, I will be home.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you to everyone who has reached out or stop by.

<v Speaker 1>It means more than any of you know. There was

<v Speaker 1>an update yesterday from PW Insider. My understanding is he's

<v Speaker 1>still in the hospital. That may be different by the

<v Speaker 1>time you listen to this. I hope it is. As

<v Speaker 1>far as I know, he's still there. His mother wasn't

<v Speaker 1>as nice about it. The story made the news on

<v Speaker 1>their local Fox affiliate, and they interviewed Tammy Edwards, Dallas's mom,

<v Speaker 1>who said, I'm not upset about the bump. Dallas knows

<v Speaker 1>how to fall. He has trained to be a wrestler.

<v Speaker 1>What I'm concerned about is the lack of preparation OVW

<v Speaker 1>had when a medical emergency like this happened. Nobody stopped

<v Speaker 1>the match. They are wrestling over the top of my

<v Speaker 1>child as he seeses. How do you treat another human

<v Speaker 1>being like that? And watching the video, she says she

<v Speaker 1>felt that no one cared about her son and said

<v Speaker 1>no one from OVW contacted her to let her know

<v Speaker 1>that he was being taken to a hospital. She learned

<v Speaker 1>about that from a family friend who was sitting in

<v Speaker 1>the crowd. And Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Craig Greenberg has an

<v Speaker 1>ownership stake in OVW, but his press secretary, when contacted,

<v Speaker 1>issued a statement to the station noting Mayor Greenberg is

<v Speaker 1>no longer involved in the operations of OVW. We are,

<v Speaker 1>of course sorry to hear about this injury. Let's distance

<v Speaker 1>ourselves as much as possible here from this situation. Didn't

<v Speaker 1>have anything to do with me, but we wish him well.

<v Speaker 1>Here's hoping he makes a full recovery. You know, I

<v Speaker 1>saw one Ring of Honor wrestler say every wrestler who

<v Speaker 1>didn't help him and just stood there watching should burn

<v Speaker 1>their boots or go back to day one training. I

<v Speaker 1>don't think one needs to be properly trained to understand

<v Speaker 1>that when you see something like that happening, you know

<v Speaker 1>it's okay to stop play fighting for five seconds and

<v Speaker 1>make sure the person isn't just selling. If he was,

<v Speaker 1>I think he would know enough not to play dead

<v Speaker 1>in the middle of the ring, and he would roll

<v Speaker 1>away so they can continue the match. That right, there

<v Speaker 1>should have been a dead giveaway that something was wrong here.

<v Speaker 1>It takes two seconds to check, and if it's clear

<v Speaker 1>that something is wrong, either help the person or throw

<v Speaker 1>up a hand sign to let someone with actual medical

<v Speaker 1>training intervene. It's not that hard because at that point point,

<v Speaker 1>no one gives a fuck about your stupid match. This

<v Speaker 1>isn't about wrestling training, It's about common fucking sense. Al Snow,

<v Speaker 1>who co owns OVW. He was silent about this other

<v Speaker 1>than a waffle house joke that he tweeted the next morning,

<v Speaker 1>and he was getting dragged all over social media, and

<v Speaker 1>rightfully so. He finally posted a statement on Saturday that

<v Speaker 1>reads as follows. Professional wrestling has always carried an inherent

<v Speaker 1>risk of injury for everyone who steps into the ring.

<v Speaker 1>On March twelfth, during a live OVW television event, Dallas

<v Speaker 1>was involved in a planned moment of physical contact with

<v Speaker 1>a wrestler that resulted in him suffering a head injury. Traditionally,

<v Speaker 1>when an en ring injury occurs, the referee is the

<v Speaker 1>central point of communication, assessment, and decision making. In this

<v Speaker 1>unprecedented situation, the person who would normally make that assessment

<v Speaker 1>was the one who needed assistance. That unforeseen breakdown in

<v Speaker 1>commun munication contributed to a delay in stopping the match

<v Speaker 1>and concluding the show. We are relieved to hear the

<v Speaker 1>Dallas is recovering and receiving the medical care he needs.

<v Speaker 1>Our thoughts are with him, and we're hoping for his

<v Speaker 1>continued improvement. At OVW, the health and safety of our

<v Speaker 1>performers and officials has always been our top priority. We

<v Speaker 1>are proud of the standards that we've maintained over the years,

<v Speaker 1>but we also recognize that there is always room to

<v Speaker 1>strengthen and improve. With that in mind, we are reviewing

<v Speaker 1>our existing procedures and updating several of our in ring

<v Speaker 1>and ringside protocols to ensure that we continue to meet

<v Speaker 1>the highest expectations for performer safety. These updates include enhanced

<v Speaker 1>communication systems, additional referee training, and expanded ringside response measures

<v Speaker 1>to help ensure that a situation like this is identified

<v Speaker 1>and addressed as quickly as possible. We appreciate the concern

<v Speaker 1>and passion from our fans, and we understand the importance

<v Speaker 1>of transparency during moments like this. We will continue to

<v Speaker 1>share updates when appropriate and ask everyone to keep Dallas

<v Speaker 1>in you or thoughts as he continues his recovery. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>additional referee training after an incident where a referee was incapacitated.

<v Speaker 1>That'll be good for the future if someone other than

<v Speaker 1>the referee gets hurt and needs help. But that doesn't

<v Speaker 1>really apply to this particular situation. But good. They should

<v Speaker 1>definitely be working on whatever protocols they had or did

<v Speaker 1>not have in place. You want to talk about training,

<v Speaker 1>start with the wrestlers in that match. Dallas is not

<v Speaker 1>the only one that should be getting a brain scan.

<v Speaker 1>Aw has a pay per view. Tonight we got to

<v Speaker 1>talk about Randy Orton made Cody Roads bleed on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>bleed his own blood as a superstar. Billy Graham once said,

<v Speaker 1>there's just something about Cody Roads bleeding before WrestleMania. This

<v Speaker 1>is the third year in a row. First it was

<v Speaker 1>the Rock Outside by his Bus, John Cena, last year

<v Speaker 1>at the Elimination Chamber, and now Randy Orton. I've got

<v Speaker 1>other updates for you on WrestleMania plans and also, while

<v Speaker 1>you are no longer seeing letter grades on those ESPN

<v Speaker 1>pl E reviews in the Least Surprising Story of the Week.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you for all of your support, not just on YouTube,

<v Speaker 1>but on the PayPal end of things as well. I

<v Speaker 1>want to shout out our PayPal producers for this week.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, you can always drop a dono if you

<v Speaker 1>wish on the Solomonster dot com. I want to say

<v Speaker 1>thank you to Big b Bryant, Visa, The Diamond, Dallas

<v Speaker 1>Dance Machine, Harrison Soapp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The Portland

<v Speaker 1>pop Star, Paul Hamilton, Iowan, Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfear, Big Time,

<v Speaker 1>Boris Weinman, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Aichord, Night Stalker, n

<v Speaker 1>f Alsafar, No Mercy, Nick Horrorchak, Tough Guy, Tim jen Zephyr,

<v Speaker 1>Good to have you back, Brother kill Shot, Keith Hart

<v Speaker 1>and DJ password Re also want to give a shout

<v Speaker 1>out to Nate the Great from Wrestle Attic Radio's Brace

<v Speaker 1>for Impact podcast. Nate, thank you for the support. It

<v Speaker 1>is much appreciated. He's also got an interview up right

<v Speaker 1>now with the former librarian who used to wear blue pants,

<v Speaker 1>leave A Bates, talking about wrestling, improv, comedy, and squid games.

<v Speaker 1>So check it out Brace for Impact Podcast. Hey, this Saturday,

<v Speaker 1>March twenty, first House of Glory is back at the

<v Speaker 1>Big Event Expo in Brentwood, New York. For Quas back

<v Speaker 1>on Strong Island Hog World Champion Charles Mason. He'll be

<v Speaker 1>in action. We've also got for the first time ever,

<v Speaker 1>Amazing Red against Sammy Gavara and the Acclaimed are going

<v Speaker 1>to be taking on main event Midas Black and Jay Lyon.

<v Speaker 1>Indy Hartwell returns to take on Dianna Pirazzo, and Shatzi

<v Speaker 1>steps into the ring with Mina Shirakawa for the first time.

<v Speaker 1>I was very happy they found Schatzi's brother. She had

<v Speaker 1>posted the other day that her brother Dino went missing

<v Speaker 1>after a car accident, but he has been found and

<v Speaker 1>was taken to the hospital, and that is great news.

<v Speaker 1>You can grab tickets for the show at hog Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>dot Net. I will be there walking around the convention,

<v Speaker 1>probably probably towards the end. I know it runs from

<v Speaker 1>ten am to four pm. I'll probably be there between

<v Speaker 1>three and four. You know, the Hog Show doesn't start

<v Speaker 1>until eight pm, so hopefully I will see you there

<v Speaker 1>as well as in Las Vegas on April sixteenth. In

<v Speaker 1>Los Angeles on May first, there is an aw pay

<v Speaker 1>per view tonight. But first we had the usual pre

<v Speaker 1>show media call with Tony Kahn on Thursday, and he

<v Speaker 1>didn't really say a whole lot that we haven't heard before.

<v Speaker 1>No news broken here he was asked by Dave Meltzer

<v Speaker 1>about the possibility of Paramount's deal to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery,

<v Speaker 1>forcing AW to eventually have to find a new home,

<v Speaker 1>and Tony gave really the only answer he can give

<v Speaker 1>right now, the only smart answer, which is to praise

<v Speaker 1>the move as something that will be huge for AW.

<v Speaker 1>He said, there are tons of sports that exist on

<v Speaker 1>those platforms. He's referring to TNT, TVs, HBO, Max. I

<v Speaker 1>would love to be on the same channel as UFC.

<v Speaker 1>I have a great relationship with Dana White and Hunter

<v Speaker 1>Campbell while their sister promotion is also in pro wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>and it's of a competitive nature there. I think on

<v Speaker 1>my behalf, I would love to be on the same

<v Speaker 1>channel as UFC. I see a lot of positive utility

<v Speaker 1>for that. So this stems from Mark Shapiro of TKO

<v Speaker 1>talking about UFC possibly airing shows on TNT, which is

<v Speaker 1>something David Ellison also mentioned recently. If that happens, it

<v Speaker 1>would be on Saturday nights because that's when UFC shows

<v Speaker 1>are typically held. Saturday night, of course, is also the

<v Speaker 1>night that AW collisionaires, and we're not sure how those

<v Speaker 1>two things might coexist with one another. I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what else anyone expects him to say. He

<v Speaker 1>has to have concerns, but it does him no good

<v Speaker 1>to voice them publicly. We can do that. I can

<v Speaker 1>do that because I'm not close to the situation. He's

<v Speaker 1>kind of close to the situation. It would not behoove

<v Speaker 1>him to be saying anything other than what he said publicly.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he's putting a happy face on things and

<v Speaker 1>hoping for the best because no one really knows for

<v Speaker 1>sure what's going to happen until the deal goes through,

<v Speaker 1>including Tony Kahan and possibly David Ellison. This is all

<v Speaker 1>still very fluid. There's a lot of moving parts here.

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite on Wednesday had some good wrestling matches, as it

<v Speaker 1>usually does, but not much else. They tried something different

<v Speaker 1>at the end of the show with a press conference

<v Speaker 1>with MJF and Hangman Page that really didn't work. They

<v Speaker 1>did it backstage. I mean you could hear fans in

<v Speaker 1>the building after a while chanting, boring, you know, as

<v Speaker 1>it was happening. Eventually they brawled out to the ring.

<v Speaker 1>But this is something they need to chalk up to

<v Speaker 1>lesson learned. You know, we tried it, it didn't work.

<v Speaker 1>Let's not do this again. I can appreciate them taking

<v Speaker 1>a different approach from the usual contract signing segment that

<v Speaker 1>we always get. You know, we got one of those

<v Speaker 1>on Friday night on SmackDown. But this is not something

<v Speaker 1>they should be doing again. Kyle Fletcher and Speedball Mike Bailey,

<v Speaker 1>they had another banger like their first match in December.

<v Speaker 1>It's in the running already for TV Match of the Year,

<v Speaker 1>just with a shittier finish with Okata getting involved with

<v Speaker 1>the screwdriver and Mark Davis running out to hand Fletcher

<v Speaker 1>the belt to whack Bailey in the head with and

<v Speaker 1>I thought the match with Persephone and Willow Nightingale was fun.

<v Speaker 1>Persephonie is the real deal. You know. She's under one

<v Speaker 1>of those dual contracts with CMLL and AW, so hopefully

<v Speaker 1>we get to see more of her on TV because

<v Speaker 1>she could have herself a breakout year. There's a lot

<v Speaker 1>of newer faces that Tony has under contract that can

<v Speaker 1>really strengthen the women's division this year that much more.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Tekla is the world champion right now. She's

<v Speaker 1>very good, she's very unique. Lena Cross. If you've never

<v Speaker 1>seen her work. She's really good, even someone like Zeta Steele.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Zada was under a WWEID deal previously, and

<v Speaker 1>then you know, to Tony say, I believe she's under

<v Speaker 1>contract officially now to AW And Zada could be a

<v Speaker 1>big star. She's got charisma that you can't teach. It's

<v Speaker 1>just the way that she carries herself, you know. And

<v Speaker 1>she's still young, yas, she's only twenty two. But she

<v Speaker 1>could absolutely be a major player down the road. But

<v Speaker 1>AW Revolution airs tonight from the Crypto dot Com Arena

<v Speaker 1>in Los Angeles for the second year in a row,

<v Speaker 1>running opposite the Academy Awards, also in LA I think

<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of overlap between the two audiences. I

<v Speaker 1>think there's a lot of sickos asking themselves, Man, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what to do. I don't know, should I

<v Speaker 1>go to the Oscars tonight or should I go to Revolution.

<v Speaker 1>I think we know where they're going. Tony Kahn says

<v Speaker 1>the show will be a sellout, if it's not already

<v Speaker 1>by the time you listen to this of their selling

<v Speaker 1>out their allotment of tickets, you know, nearly twelve thousand seats.

<v Speaker 1>He also claims it will be a million dollar gate.

<v Speaker 1>So this show is already a big success for them.

<v Speaker 1>You know, some of the best matches in AW history

<v Speaker 1>have taken place on this show. Kenny Omega and Hangman

<v Speaker 1>Page against the Young Bucks in twenty twenty, I would

<v Speaker 1>say that was the truly the second greatest match up

<v Speaker 1>to that point in AW history, behind the Cody and

<v Speaker 1>Dustin Rhodes match from the First Double or Nothing the

<v Speaker 1>year before that tag match for many many years and

<v Speaker 1>even even to this day. I mean, it's still great,

<v Speaker 1>but it really just stood the test of time when

<v Speaker 1>I look back at like the top five matches, top

<v Speaker 1>five greatest matches in AW history. So that was on

<v Speaker 1>the first Revolution. You had CM Punk and MJF and

<v Speaker 1>their dog Collar match in twenty twenty two. That was

<v Speaker 1>at Revolution, MJF and Brian Danielson in twenty twenty three,

<v Speaker 1>the greatest Iron Man match that I've ever seen, Sting's

<v Speaker 1>retirement right, that whole Revolution show was really built around Greensboro,

<v Speaker 1>right the end of staying probably the best retirement I've

<v Speaker 1>ever seen for a pro wrestler. Tony Storm and Mariah

<v Speaker 1>May last year in their Hollywood ending, right, some big

<v Speaker 1>footsteps to follow in tonight, and it starts on the

<v Speaker 1>zero hour with Boom and Doom. We now know what

<v Speaker 1>Big Boom aj is going to be doing. He's going

<v Speaker 1>to be tagging again with Q T. Marshall as he

<v Speaker 1>did last time. They call themselves Boom and Doom as

<v Speaker 1>opposed to Doom and Gloom, which is what I felt

<v Speaker 1>watching SmackDown the other night. We'll get to that, but

<v Speaker 1>Boom and Doom is going to be wrestling the Infantry,

<v Speaker 1>Sean Dean and Carly Bravo. This will be a win

<v Speaker 1>for Boom and Doom, just to make the fans happy.

<v Speaker 1>On the pre show, we also have the aw National

<v Speaker 1>Champion Ricochet defending his title in a Blackjack Battle Royal

<v Speaker 1>twenty one man Blackjack Battle Royal, and we know Jack

<v Speaker 1>Perry is in Tamaso, Champa is in RuSHA I believe

<v Speaker 1>is in there, and then a bunch of other names

<v Speaker 1>they announced. They didn't announce all twenty one, but they

<v Speaker 1>kind of ran through a list on Collision last night.

<v Speaker 1>Of the other names, none of the other names are

<v Speaker 1>even worth mentioning as far as potential winners, even Champa.

<v Speaker 1>I don't see Champa winning, but he is one of

<v Speaker 1>the bigger names. I would say in this match, it

<v Speaker 1>really is Ricochet or Jack Perry, and I just don't

<v Speaker 1>see Ricochet losing the belt yet, so I'm going with

<v Speaker 1>him and Willow Nightingale is going to be pulling double

<v Speaker 1>duty as will Lena Cross. But on the pre show

<v Speaker 1>they're going to be wrestling each other for Willow's TBS championship,

<v Speaker 1>so they're pulling double duty. I don't see a title

<v Speaker 1>change here. I think Willow is holding on to one

<v Speaker 1>of her titles. This is the one that she's going

<v Speaker 1>to hold on to. But then on the main card,

<v Speaker 1>Willow and Harley Cameron are putting their aw Women's Tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles on the line against Meghan Bain and Lena Cross,

<v Speaker 1>and this is where we get the title change. We're

<v Speaker 1>going to have new women's Tag Teams champions, as I

<v Speaker 1>believe we would have a few weeks ago had Penelope

<v Speaker 1>four not gotten hurt, and now it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>Megan Bain and lean A Cross. That is my prediction.

<v Speaker 1>We have Darby, Allen, Roderick Strong and Orange Cassidy against

<v Speaker 1>David Finley, Clark Conners and Gabe Kid. The dogs who've

<v Speaker 1>got a win over the two of them, Orange Cassidy

<v Speaker 1>and Darby Allen on Wednesday. They should be getting another

<v Speaker 1>win here. I'm going with the dogs for the win.

<v Speaker 1>You know. One thing that surprised me was David Finley

<v Speaker 1>just debuted a couple of weeks ago, and he showed

<v Speaker 1>up on Dynamite as a surprise, and he attacked the

<v Speaker 1>baby Faces and he aligned with his old right, his

<v Speaker 1>old running buddies. So this week he was in a match,

<v Speaker 1>no promo on television from Finley after debuting the week before.

<v Speaker 1>They just threw him right into a squash on Collision

<v Speaker 1>and then another match on Dynamite on Wednesday. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know why you would not have him, you know, get

<v Speaker 1>some promo time on TV after he just debuted, to

<v Speaker 1>at least articulate why are you here? Why are you here?

<v Speaker 1>What's your mission here? Nothing? He gave his promo to

<v Speaker 1>Wrestle Zone. I guess I'll mention those comments later. I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to talk briefly about NXT. I guess that was

<v Speaker 1>his promo. He gave it to wrestle Zone. We have

<v Speaker 1>timeless Tony Storm taking on Marina Shaffir. Everyone banned from

<v Speaker 1>ringside that includes the Conglomeration, the Death Riders, anybody. This

<v Speaker 1>will be a win for Tony Storm. We have in

<v Speaker 1>the match that I'm probably looking forward to the most

<v Speaker 1>on this show, Andrede l Edelo takes on the Ring

<v Speaker 1>of Honor World Champion Bandido. That's not a title match.

<v Speaker 1>It's going to be a great match, and that really

<v Speaker 1>is the only purpose on the card for this match.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's not like they were doing a whole

<v Speaker 1>hell of a lot in the lead up to it.

<v Speaker 1>It's just ding ding, and you put these two guys

<v Speaker 1>in the ring together. Andrades talked about how he met Bandido.

<v Speaker 1>I think Andrade said he was I don't know, thirteen

<v Speaker 1>or fourteen, just starting out and wrestling. They start them young,

<v Speaker 1>don't they. How old was Raymisterio when he started. He

<v Speaker 1>might have been younger than that, but he said that

<v Speaker 1>he met Bandido back then. Bandido had to be maybe

<v Speaker 1>seven or eight years old. So there's a history there

<v Speaker 1>to the extent that Bandido looked up to Andrade. And

<v Speaker 1>that's about it. Here we are now, we're gonna get

<v Speaker 1>a great match out of it. That's fine with me.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going with Andrade for the win. Swerve. Strickland is

<v Speaker 1>going to go one on one with brody King. There

<v Speaker 1>should be a win for Swerve. You would have to

<v Speaker 1>imagine whoever wins this match coming out of it is

<v Speaker 1>going to be in line for a world title match.

<v Speaker 1>Brody King had his shot, he failed. Swerve is the

<v Speaker 1>one who is being positioned at some point, possibly as

<v Speaker 1>soon as Dynasty, but maybe not. Maybe he'll wrestle Kenny

<v Speaker 1>again first. I don't know, but he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>next in line for a shot at that world title,

<v Speaker 1>so he can't be losing. Here we have the Don

<v Speaker 1>Kallis family, Kazuchka Okata, Kyle Fletcher, and Mark Davis defending

<v Speaker 1>their aw Trios titles against Mystico and Jet Speed because

<v Speaker 1>why not doesn't change the outcome, though, I think the

<v Speaker 1>Kallus family keeps those titles. The Women's Champion Women's World

<v Speaker 1>Champion Tekla defends against the former champion, Chris Statlander, best

<v Speaker 1>two out of three falls. I do think that it

<v Speaker 1>would have been nice for Statlander to have a lengthier run.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it is the right time that'll put

<v Speaker 1>the belt back on her. I think short changing Tecla

<v Speaker 1>and her run just to put the belt back on

<v Speaker 1>Statlander would be a mistake, especially Tekla's had one title

<v Speaker 1>defense so far against thunder Rosa. Tecla will win probably

<v Speaker 1>two falls to one. FTR defend the AW World Tag

<v Speaker 1>Team titles against the Young Bucks. We've seen this song

<v Speaker 1>and dance before. It's been a while, but we know

<v Speaker 1>what they can do in the ring, right There's no

<v Speaker 1>doubt they're going to go out there and have a

<v Speaker 1>very good match. I think we get a title change here.

<v Speaker 1>I think the Bucks win the belts back. I think

<v Speaker 1>Adam Copeland and Christian Cage I think they're going to

<v Speaker 1>pop their faces up tonight at some point, either at

<v Speaker 1>the end of the match, after the match. I think

<v Speaker 1>we see them tonight. John Moxley defends the Continental Championship

<v Speaker 1>in a rematch against Kenoski Takeshna, but this time no

<v Speaker 1>time limit. I mean it could go all night today

<v Speaker 1>AW pay per views, who are probably will I think

<v Speaker 1>Takesha should win the title. I mean there are two

<v Speaker 1>different ways they can go here. Takesha wins the title

<v Speaker 1>and you build a champion against champion with him and Okada,

<v Speaker 1>or Takeshta loses and because he loses it ultimately leads

<v Speaker 1>to him being booted out of the don Kallis family

<v Speaker 1>for him to then challenge Okada at some point to

<v Speaker 1>take his title away from him. It's one of two ways, right,

<v Speaker 1>we all know what the endgame is here with Takeshta

<v Speaker 1>and Okado. Kata does not missed an opportunity to rag

<v Speaker 1>on to Keshia. We've got titles. You know who doesn't Takeshta. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>they're still they're still doing that thing. I would rather

<v Speaker 1>see Takeshta win here. I'm gonna say he does. He

<v Speaker 1>might not, but i'm gonna say he does. And in

<v Speaker 1>the main event, MJF puts the AEW World Championship on

<v Speaker 1>the line in a Texas death match against Hangman Adam Page,

<v Speaker 1>a match that he is very familiar with. Adam Pages,

<v Speaker 1>MJF not so much. Hangman has two wins last year

<v Speaker 1>over the reigning champion. He's actually coming into the match

<v Speaker 1>the champion is as the underdog. He will be leaving

<v Speaker 1>though with that elusive win, because I think to beat

<v Speaker 1>MJF here would be a mistake. I would not be

<v Speaker 1>doing that. I hope they don't do that. Things looks

<v Speaker 1>things seem to be on the up right. They're on

<v Speaker 1>the upswing for them right now with MJF as the champion,

<v Speaker 1>and lord knows, he's got plenty of challengers lined up

<v Speaker 1>that you could put him in the ring with between

<v Speaker 1>now and the end of the year. So but the

<v Speaker 1>stipulation also is that if Hangman doesn't win the title,

<v Speaker 1>he can never again challenge for the AW World title.

<v Speaker 1>And I don't know that anybody honestly believes that they

<v Speaker 1>would stick to that stipulation even if he doesn't win.

<v Speaker 1>This is not the Cody Rhodes era, you know. And

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned the other night the Casino Gauntlet it all in,

<v Speaker 1>which guarantees you a shot at the world championship. There

<v Speaker 1>are ways around this, and I think Swerve Strickland is

<v Speaker 1>going to be involved. I think Swerve Strickland is going

<v Speaker 1>to be the reason that Hangman Page is no longer

<v Speaker 1>allowed to compete for the championship at least for a while,

<v Speaker 1>and MJF will pick up the win. I am going

<v Speaker 1>to be live tonight after the pay per view is over.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not always live after the AW shows anymore. But

<v Speaker 1>this one's on a Sunday and not a Saturday, and

<v Speaker 1>it's a pretty big show, so I will be live

<v Speaker 1>on YouTube. It's probably going to be a late night,

<v Speaker 1>but hopefully you guys can join me for the post show.

<v Speaker 1>As soon as Revolution is over. Will Osprey looks to

<v Speaker 1>be headed back to the rings sooner than later. Fightful

<v Speaker 1>Select reported this week that Osprey has been working out

<v Speaker 1>in the ring ahead of aw shows and they are

<v Speaker 1>optimistic that he could be back in the rings sometime

<v Speaker 1>this spring, which would mean that he would be back

<v Speaker 1>in time to take part in the owen Hart Tournament

<v Speaker 1>if they wanted to go that route with him winning

<v Speaker 1>and then challenging for the world title of Wembley Stadium.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that they are planning for that. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>they may want to wait until next year, you know,

<v Speaker 1>and take more time to really build up to that moment.

<v Speaker 1>But he would at least be back in time if

<v Speaker 1>they wanted him to be in it. That's what it

<v Speaker 1>sounds like to me. But that wasn't the only story

<v Speaker 1>involving Osprey this week. He was dragged on social media

<v Speaker 1>for working with a star who was previously accused of

<v Speaker 1>grooming a sixteen year old female wrestler during the Speaking

<v Speaker 1>Out movement six years ago, first Hangman and Marty and

<v Speaker 1>now this. This came after Osprey took to Twitter on

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday to praise several people who helped make the Wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Queendom eight show in the UK such a big success.

<v Speaker 1>It was the biggest all women show ever in the UK.

<v Speaker 1>There was just a series, like a whole thread of

<v Speaker 1>different posts and images from the show, and there was

<v Speaker 1>one in particular of him posing backstage with a couple

<v Speaker 1>of people. But the show was put on by Pro

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Eve, for which Osprey has been helping out as

<v Speaker 1>a producer for some time now. Osprey posted a photo

<v Speaker 1>backstage of himself with promoter Dan Reid and Paul Robinson,

<v Speaker 1>saying the biggest shout out to my producers Michael Oku,

<v Speaker 1>Nina Samuels and Paul Robinson. I can never forget how

<v Speaker 1>much work you've put into making every match feel special.

<v Speaker 1>Robinson was accused previously of grooming a sixteen year old girl,

<v Speaker 1>accusations that he has denied. He doesn't deny knowing her

<v Speaker 1>or hanging out with her as she described, but he

<v Speaker 1>denies ever providing her with alcohol or grooming or praying

<v Speaker 1>on her in any way, and he apologized to her

<v Speaker 1>if the actions that he took in any way caused harm,

<v Speaker 1>as that was never his intention from his statement in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty one, and if you want to read more

<v Speaker 1>about her accounts of things, you can find it online. Basically,

<v Speaker 1>she accused him of kissing her when she would have

<v Speaker 1>been sixteen, he would have been twenty five. He's worked

<v Speaker 1>maybe fifty matches in the years since. I mean a

<v Speaker 1>lot of his bookings dried up after that. Osprey has

<v Speaker 1>been friends with him and defended him for years. He

<v Speaker 1>even tweeted in twenty twenty two that Progress did a

<v Speaker 1>full investigation and found no evidence of wrongdoing, proven innocence,

<v Speaker 1>he said, just threw you under the bus to save

<v Speaker 1>face with fans who don't go to the shows anyway.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, that's why people were so upset. Yeah, that's

<v Speaker 1>speaking out movement decimated the UK scene there for a while.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, there just seemed to be an inordinate number

<v Speaker 1>of UK workers who were accused of a lot of

<v Speaker 1>sleazy shit. And yes, it's only one accusation against the man,

<v Speaker 1>but you know, when there were so many of them

<v Speaker 1>against so many different wrestlers, Like, how do you even

<v Speaker 1>begin to sort through the ball and figure out you

<v Speaker 1>know what's legit and what's not. Maybe don't go around

<v Speaker 1>kissing sixteen year olds? Is it really that hard not

<v Speaker 1>to be a fucking creep? Since last week's podcast, Mercedes

<v Speaker 1>Monette has shed even more titles. Last week I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>her loss of the CMLL Women's World Title to Persephone

<v Speaker 1>at Arena Mexico, but then after that she dropped her

<v Speaker 1>best YEA Women's Championship in Italy, and yesterday she lost

<v Speaker 1>her EWA Women's Championship to Mila Smitt at an event

<v Speaker 1>in France, which makes three title losses in a row

<v Speaker 1>this month alone, and we're only midway through the month.

<v Speaker 1>That's on top of her losing her ROH Women's TV

<v Speaker 1>title to Red Velvet, her Rev Pro British Women's title

<v Speaker 1>to Alex Windsor, and her TBS title to Willow Nightingale

<v Speaker 1>all in the month of December, so she is down

<v Speaker 1>to five titles now, not counting her Owenhart Foundation belt. Now.

<v Speaker 1>Rev Pro has announced that she will be defending both

<v Speaker 1>her Body Slam Women's Championship and her Discovery Wrestling Women's

<v Speaker 1>title when she takes on Alexis Falcon at their High

<v Speaker 1>stakes event this coming Saturday. Body Slam is a promotion

<v Speaker 1>out of Denmark. Discovery is a promotion out of Scotland.

<v Speaker 1>It looks like we're getting a two for one special

<v Speaker 1>here this Saturday where she's going to unload both those

<v Speaker 1>belts at the same time without having to go to

<v Speaker 1>either place. I think besides the Rev pro date, she

<v Speaker 1>also has upcoming title defenses in France, Poland and Canada.

<v Speaker 1>Soon this woman will be beltless and she's going to

<v Speaker 1>realize how much easier it is for her to travel

<v Speaker 1>through airport security. Although the way things are going, I

<v Speaker 1>don't think it's going to be easy for anyone to

<v Speaker 1>travel through airport security belts or no belts and Swerve.

<v Speaker 1>Strickland has named his own personal Mount Rushmore of aw

<v Speaker 1>He's stopped by radio station one oh seven point seven

<v Speaker 1>The Bone to promote tonight's Revolution pay per view and

<v Speaker 1>he was asked to name his Rushmore and he said

<v Speaker 1>to him, the important element of being Mount rushmore worthy

<v Speaker 1>is the influence that you've had. So with that in mind,

<v Speaker 1>this is what he said. I feel like Mount Rushmore

<v Speaker 1>comes up when it's the guys that really we wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>be here without these guys. That's how I always put

<v Speaker 1>the mount Rushmore. If I had to go with that,

<v Speaker 1>I would say John Moxley, Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, and

<v Speaker 1>I would say, man, honestly, I would put Sting up

<v Speaker 1>there too, because that was like, we needed that. All

<v Speaker 1>those guys are veterans, but we needed that true legend.

<v Speaker 1>He was our legend. I felt like Sting also helped

<v Speaker 1>get them through the COVID era too. Like I wasn't

<v Speaker 1>over there at the time, but Sting really held it

<v Speaker 1>down and he made such a big difference that I

<v Speaker 1>don't think people talk about it enough. When I finally

<v Speaker 1>came over and got there, you felt the difference. I

<v Speaker 1>was like, Okay, yeah, this matters. This means so much.

<v Speaker 1>That's a solid list to solid list, and I agree

<v Speaker 1>with most of it. Sting would not be on mind

<v Speaker 1>just because I think there are others that have done more.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Sting worked. Now. I get what he's saying

<v Speaker 1>about him just being that big veteran presence. But Sting

<v Speaker 1>wore twenty eight matches for them in three years, mostly tags.

<v Speaker 1>You know, for a young company to get a big

<v Speaker 1>name like that, it was it was a big deal.

<v Speaker 1>And it definitely helped elevate Darby Allen to a level

<v Speaker 1>that he was not happy for. But my aw Matt

<v Speaker 1>Rushmore would be John Moxley, Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, and MJF.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Swerve put Sting on his list. I tried

<v Speaker 1>to get Hangman on there on mine, but I just

<v Speaker 1>I had to put MJF on there over him. You know,

<v Speaker 1>it's hard because you you could make the argument for

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhoades, you can make the argument for the Young

<v Speaker 1>Bucks obviously, they've been an important part of that company

<v Speaker 1>from day one. You could argue CM Punk should be

<v Speaker 1>on there. He helped get them their first million dollar gate.

<v Speaker 1>I think him working with MJF was huge for MJF. Right.

<v Speaker 1>It was his first really Marquis feud more so and

<v Speaker 1>then his feud with Cody because Punk was a bigger

<v Speaker 1>star in his heyday than Cody was at that point

<v Speaker 1>in time, and Punk coming back to wrestling with such

<v Speaker 1>a big deal. For all the good that he did

<v Speaker 1>that company, there was a lot of bad Jericho. He

<v Speaker 1>had some bad stuff late in his run. But I

<v Speaker 1>don't think you can do him Mount Rushmore for that

<v Speaker 1>company without having Chris Jericho on there more than any

<v Speaker 1>other big name that Tony Khan has signed, even CM Punk.

<v Speaker 1>Chris Jericho was instrumental in getting that thing off the

<v Speaker 1>ground and helping them get a TV deal because he

<v Speaker 1>was a known commodity. He was a proven commodity elsewhere

<v Speaker 1>on TV. The whole genesis of AW stem from his

<v Speaker 1>match with Kenny Omega in New Japan. Tony made him

<v Speaker 1>the first AW World Champion for a reason. John Moxley

<v Speaker 1>a huge signing for them, and for years he was

<v Speaker 1>really their iron man. He was their MVP. Especially when

<v Speaker 1>shit went sideways. Mox was the one that Tony would

<v Speaker 1>call upon or he would put the belt on to

<v Speaker 1>steer the shit out of choppy waters. And then Kenny Omega.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I think that speaks for itself. I think

<v Speaker 1>that's your Matt Rushmore. We are five weeks out from WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>It's all about the two main events, Roman Reigns and

<v Speaker 1>Sea Iumpunk. They have been carrying things with their segments

<v Speaker 1>so far and now Cody Roads and Randy Orton. They

<v Speaker 1>kicked it up another notch on Friday with a big

<v Speaker 1>angle that saw Orton violently attack Cody and bloody him up.

<v Speaker 1>And before I get to all that, if you remember,

<v Speaker 1>I have been reporting on this band that WWE imposed

<v Speaker 1>on all watch parties in Las Vegas within a fifty

<v Speaker 1>mile radius of Allegiant Stadium for WrestleMania. This was in

<v Speaker 1>an effort to drive ticket sales to the actual show,

<v Speaker 1>which had been lagging behind last year's show, and a

<v Speaker 1>lot of fans and locals local officials they were not

<v Speaker 1>happy about this. They paid a lot of money to

<v Speaker 1>bring the show back and this was cutting off one

<v Speaker 1>of their revenue streams. Well, they no longer need to

<v Speaker 1>worry about that because WrestleMania will no longer be blacked

<v Speaker 1>out at watch parties. The party is on. Stadium Swim

<v Speaker 1>at the Circa in downtown Las Vegas confirmed the news

<v Speaker 1>on Friday after posting about their watch parties, and other

<v Speaker 1>user replied mentioning WWE's blackout, to which someone who works

<v Speaker 1>for Stadium Swim, whoever was the admin or whatever, replied,

<v Speaker 1>not anymore. It has been lifted. Fitful says. We are

<v Speaker 1>told that over the last number of weeks there were

<v Speaker 1>several casinos, hotels in general tourist areas that had expressed

<v Speaker 1>frustration over the band as had a number of officials

<v Speaker 1>in the city. One that spoke to us on the

<v Speaker 1>condition of anonymity said that when the Las Vegas Convention

<v Speaker 1>of Visitors, Authority Board Board of Directors committed to a

<v Speaker 1>site fee for WrestleMania, it was to generate economic impact

<v Speaker 1>for the entire city, as opposed to just WWE and

<v Speaker 1>Allegiant Stadium. See, their greed consumed them and they got

<v Speaker 1>backlash for it, so they reversed course. It was a stupid,

<v Speaker 1>short sighted move to begin with. It's good to hear

<v Speaker 1>they came to their senses as far as Rown' SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>this week. Let's go back to raw for a second.

<v Speaker 1>That opening segment, it just still lives rent free in

<v Speaker 1>my mind. Seth Rollins, of course, has been running around

<v Speaker 1>as the mass man. We've known this since Elimination Chamber.

<v Speaker 1>He hasn't said a word, but he is still coming

<v Speaker 1>out and unmasking, and he's got a bunch of other

<v Speaker 1>masked buddies of his. And they had this opening segment

<v Speaker 1>where Adam Pierce was in the ring and he wanted

<v Speaker 1>Rollins to come out for a conversation, and not only

<v Speaker 1>did he get Seth Rollins he got the entire Putty

<v Speaker 1>patrol from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. That or a

<v Speaker 1>collection of ninja's, I mean, take your pick. They come out.

<v Speaker 1>They're doing a dance in the ring and jumping back

<v Speaker 1>and forth to try to confuse Adam Pierce before Rollins

<v Speaker 1>reveals himself to be one of the mass men, and

<v Speaker 1>even Adam Pearce is looking at this and going, well,

<v Speaker 1>that was completely unnecessary, but good to see you, Seth.

<v Speaker 1>Now evidently this masked man nonsense. It's all just a

<v Speaker 1>cover for him not being medically cleared. Jet I still

<v Speaker 1>don't see why any of this stuff is necessary. I

<v Speaker 1>mean they did it again, like when he went to

<v Speaker 1>go leave, because the vision had come out, what's left

<v Speaker 1>of the vision, the remnants of the Vision came out

<v Speaker 1>to confront Seth Rawlins, which is really just Logan Paul

<v Speaker 1>and Austin theory. Even Paul Hayman has been taken out,

<v Speaker 1>and so Rollins puts the mask back on, and all

<v Speaker 1>of the Putty people they go back and forth, back

<v Speaker 1>and forth, back and forth to confuse the vision so

<v Speaker 1>they don't know which one is Seth. And then they

<v Speaker 1>disappear off into the Night. It all just came off

<v Speaker 1>as far too silly for an angle that is supposed

<v Speaker 1>to be taken seriously. Like if Dan Housen was a

<v Speaker 1>part of this, I would say, then you know, it

<v Speaker 1>kind of fits, but that's not what this is meant

<v Speaker 1>to be. Sean ross sapp I noticed, He said several

<v Speaker 1>people in WWE reached out to him after watching that

<v Speaker 1>weird opening segment, sending him power Rangers, putty patrol stuff,

<v Speaker 1>mocking it. Even people in the company are mocking this.

<v Speaker 1>Don't do this now. Wressel Votes revealed during a recent

<v Speaker 1>Q and A that La Knight's place on the Wrestle

<v Speaker 1>media card could depend entirely on whether bron Breaker is

<v Speaker 1>clear to wrestle in time for the event. They said,

<v Speaker 1>it really starts with Seth Rollins and who his opponent

<v Speaker 1>is going to be. WWE's waiting on bron Breaker, then

<v Speaker 1>you get Braun and Seth. If Braun is able to

<v Speaker 1>come back, and you get brock Lesner against La Knight

<v Speaker 1>and the Vision against the USSOS. We are waiting on

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner because of broun Breaker. This open challenge would

<v Speaker 1>be opened until they got word on whether Braun is

<v Speaker 1>ready or not they can bring out Seth or La Knight,

<v Speaker 1>but La Knight might be in trouble creatively. If it's

<v Speaker 1>Brock against Seth and the Vision against the USOS, the

<v Speaker 1>odd man out, unfortunately will be Laight if bron Breaker

<v Speaker 1>can't go. First of all, I hate that we're still

<v Speaker 1>talking about the possibility of Brock Lesnar against La Knight

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania. I really hope that doesn't happen. Second of all,

<v Speaker 1>I said this exact thing a few weeks ago when

<v Speaker 1>the Open Challenge deal first started. I said, I wonder

<v Speaker 1>if they're doing this because they want to give bron

<v Speaker 1>Breaker more time to rehab and see if he will

<v Speaker 1>be cleared in time for WrestleMania. They don't want to

<v Speaker 1>settle things as far as who Brock's opponent is going

<v Speaker 1>to be, and if he's not, then they would have

<v Speaker 1>Seth Rollins be the man to answer the Open Challenge

<v Speaker 1>after what he did to Paul Hayman. And it sounds

<v Speaker 1>like I was onto something here, unlike whoever scripted out

<v Speaker 1>that opening segment on Monday, who was simply on something.

<v Speaker 1>I was onto something. I was not on something. If

<v Speaker 1>they have to, I think they could do seth rollins

<v Speaker 1>in LA Night as tag team partners coming together to

<v Speaker 1>take on Logan, Paul and Austin theory. And if that

<v Speaker 1>means the Ussos don't have a match, then that's fine

<v Speaker 1>because they'll be on the show. I mean, if they're

<v Speaker 1>gonna be involved in the Roman reigns and CM punk stuff,

<v Speaker 1>you can involve them in some way in the finish.

<v Speaker 1>You know, I'm not even saying they have to like

<v Speaker 1>run in and do something, but like they're part of

<v Speaker 1>that story now, right. They would still be on the show,

<v Speaker 1>they just wouldn't actively be wrestling. And it's not ideal

<v Speaker 1>because you know they're the tag team champions. But in

<v Speaker 1>that situation, if the if the Ussos are the odd

<v Speaker 1>men out as far as a match of WrestleMania, I'm

<v Speaker 1>okay with that because you now have tied them into

<v Speaker 1>the Roman and CM Punk stuff, which I'll get to

<v Speaker 1>in a second. But LA and I had to go

<v Speaker 1>back to him. He appeared recently on The Coach's Corner.

<v Speaker 1>This is and that's not a Jonathan Coachman show. It's

<v Speaker 1>just it's a show called The Coach's Corner, and he

<v Speaker 1>was asked about his status heading into WrestleMania. He genuinely

<v Speaker 1>has no idea what he's doing. He said, don't worry

<v Speaker 1>about the details because I don't have any I know

<v Speaker 1>about as much as you know. People find that hard

<v Speaker 1>to believe, but honestly, that's just wrestling. When I came

<v Speaker 1>up andres a lot of the time I would go

<v Speaker 1>to a show and I hadn't even met my opponent before.

<v Speaker 1>I would meet them two or three hours before showtime,

<v Speaker 1>and that's when we would start figuring everything out. So

<v Speaker 1>with that being the case, I don't know much right now.

<v Speaker 1>I would like to know more, but I don't. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I think the bigger issue I have isn't even so

<v Speaker 1>much La Night. My issue is what the hell is

<v Speaker 1>Gunther doing at WrestleMania. Not only was he not on

<v Speaker 1>the show last Monday, he wasn't even mentioned. This was

<v Speaker 1>coming off the match with Dragon Lee the week before

<v Speaker 1>and the whole angle where he ripped the mask off.

<v Speaker 1>I would say raymus Stereo still seems like his most

<v Speaker 1>likely opponent, but there was nothing done on that show

<v Speaker 1>on Monday to even hint at anything, you know, for

<v Speaker 1>a guy as important as he is, the man to

<v Speaker 1>retire John Cena and aj styles back to back. It's

<v Speaker 1>it's weird that he just doesn't seem to be much

<v Speaker 1>of a priority heading into this show. That's just wild

<v Speaker 1>to me now. As with SmackDown, it was the closing

<v Speaker 1>segment on Raw that was the strongest thing on the show,

<v Speaker 1>with Cim Punk and the ussos who confronted Punk over

<v Speaker 1>the comment he made to Roman the week before when

<v Speaker 1>he told Roman Reigns he was going to bury him

<v Speaker 1>next to his father so he wouldn't be alone anymore,

<v Speaker 1>and they wanted Punk to apologize, and Punk wouldn't do it,

<v Speaker 1>which was kind of a dick thing to do, but

<v Speaker 1>he did point out the hypocrisy that Roman Reigns called

<v Speaker 1>Dusty Rhodes irrelevant years ago and he never apologized for that,

<v Speaker 1>but I have to apologize for this. He said, Roman

<v Speaker 1>should be the one out here asking for the apology,

<v Speaker 1>not his young boys, and that earned him a right

<v Speaker 1>hand from Jimmy Usso. It was nice to see the

<v Speaker 1>usso's in a more serious role for a change. It

<v Speaker 1>brought me back to the peak days of the Bloodline

<v Speaker 1>and it made me think that we could be headed

<v Speaker 1>for something of an og Bloodline reunion. By the time

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania is over. And I'm not a fan of this

<v Speaker 1>because the original was fine. It lasted long enough, we

<v Speaker 1>don't need a sequel. But I do like how they

<v Speaker 1>were able to work the usso's in there in Roman's absence.

<v Speaker 1>Now Roman is back on the show tomorrow night. He's

<v Speaker 1>got to come back at Punk with something good after

<v Speaker 1>the way Punk shut him down with that line the

<v Speaker 1>last time they were in the ring together. And honestly,

<v Speaker 1>it should be more than just words. You know, a

<v Speaker 1>line like that, you gotta be throwing fists. I'm sorry.

<v Speaker 1>It's not enough for him to just come back and

<v Speaker 1>insult Punk's dead dog Like. He's got to come back

<v Speaker 1>and be like, oh, you want to bring up my father,

<v Speaker 1>you want to bring up my family. Yeah. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>saying that he needs to go out there and bloody

<v Speaker 1>up Punk the way that Randy Orton did Cody Rhodes,

<v Speaker 1>but yo, what he probably should he probably should try.

<v Speaker 1>We'll see. Roman is not the only one back on

<v Speaker 1>the show tomorrow night. Brock Lesner is back as well,

<v Speaker 1>this time without Paul Hayman, and there was a report

<v Speaker 1>from EBU and the Boys over itself made this has

<v Speaker 1>not been reported or verified by anyone else, but they

<v Speaker 1>say that brock Lesner and Paul Hayman have told WWE

<v Speaker 1>Creative they have comm communicated to the powers that be

<v Speaker 1>that Brocklesner should not be losing another match before his

<v Speaker 1>eventual retirement, with no word on when that retirement might be.

<v Speaker 1>Just because they're running Summerslim in Minnesota this year does

<v Speaker 1>not mean that brock Lesner is definitely retiring at SummerSlam.

<v Speaker 1>That was something that John Cena said last year that

<v Speaker 1>he and he didn't mentioned Summerslim, but he mentioned that

<v Speaker 1>he thought Brock might be riding off into the sunset

<v Speaker 1>in Minnesota, but that's never been confirmed. That was that

<v Speaker 1>was an offhand common by Sena. It was very kind

<v Speaker 1>of like thrown out there, and nothing was ever mentioned

<v Speaker 1>about that. Again, I don't know. I mean, where there's

<v Speaker 1>money to be made, brock Lesner will be there to

<v Speaker 1>make it. I don't see him dipping out just yet.

<v Speaker 1>But they claim that Triple H would like to book

<v Speaker 1>Brock against Gunther and Brock against Obafemi at some point,

<v Speaker 1>but if they do happen that, you know they would

<v Speaker 1>want Brock to lose both. So this has created a

<v Speaker 1>dilemma now for WWE. Now let's take this report of

<v Speaker 1>face value, all right, and say it's true Brocklesner does

<v Speaker 1>not run WWE. If Brocklesner is not willing to do

<v Speaker 1>business for the five matches he might have this year, right,

<v Speaker 1>say they want him to lose one or two of them,

<v Speaker 1>then you can show him the door. If he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>want to do that. He's not as important to them

<v Speaker 1>as he used to be. I'm not saying he isn't

<v Speaker 1>important or he can't be important, but this is not

<v Speaker 1>the Brocklesnar of twenty twelve anymore. Okay, this is not

<v Speaker 1>the Brocklesnar even of twenty twenty two anymore, unless he

<v Speaker 1>has creative control written into his contract, in which case

<v Speaker 1>they get exactly what they deserve. Right, unless he does,

<v Speaker 1>he is in no position to dictate that. Like enough enough.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying brock should lose all of his matches

<v Speaker 1>because of all he does is lose, then it just

<v Speaker 1>gets predictable. But there are people that he should be

<v Speaker 1>losing to to help build them. He does not need

<v Speaker 1>to be built. I remember when John's it was talking

<v Speaker 1>about losing to Brock at Wressel Palooza, and he said

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't about me, it was about building Brock right,

<v Speaker 1>building Brock, Like, I get the idea of what he's

<v Speaker 1>saying from the perspective of I'm out the door. So

<v Speaker 1>if you have a big match for Brock that you

<v Speaker 1>want to build to, then Brock should win. Brock should

<v Speaker 1>beat me. But just hearing those words like it's about

<v Speaker 1>building Brock like in twenty twenty six, it just sounds

<v Speaker 1>so ridiculously absurd. Now, if brock Lesner is really dipping

<v Speaker 1>after Summer Slam like he's done, that's it, Then go

<v Speaker 1>ahead and do brock Lesnar against Seth Rollins or do

<v Speaker 1>Brocklesnar against La Knight a wrestle media because we know

<v Speaker 1>Knight is not winning, okay, so that'll be an easy

<v Speaker 1>night at the office for Brocklesner. And then have him

<v Speaker 1>put Oba Femi over at SummerSlam, and don't do the

<v Speaker 1>match with Gunther because Gunther should not be losing to

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner either, neither Opa Femi should not be losing

<v Speaker 1>to Brocklesner, and others should not be losing to Brockleisner.

<v Speaker 1>You got to pick one or the other in that situation.

<v Speaker 1>If Brock really is done in August, then you got

<v Speaker 1>to pick one or the other. And I don't really

<v Speaker 1>see how it benefits Gunther more than it would benefit

<v Speaker 1>Oba if Oba beat him. Oba is the play here,

<v Speaker 1>not Gunther. Like, if you're forced to choose between the two,

<v Speaker 1>it's Oba. But that's only if he's really retiring this summer. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 1>Brock and Oba, that should be the match for WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they may do the match of WrestleMania and

<v Speaker 1>have Brock win and then run it back at Summer

<v Speaker 1>Slim with Oba getting his win back. I could see

<v Speaker 1>that too, you know, one last long program for Brock

<v Speaker 1>before he splits. Fine, if that's what they're gonna do,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, so long as Oba is the guy,

<v Speaker 1>because there really is nobody else on that roster right

<v Speaker 1>now who I think should be getting that spot other

<v Speaker 1>than him. Finn Balor is out of the Judgment Day.

<v Speaker 1>He got kicked out in a segment on Raw Monday

<v Speaker 1>Night where he had some unpleasant things to say, some

<v Speaker 1>hard truths to Doll to Dominic Mysterio, who did not

<v Speaker 1>take kindly to it, And when all was said and done,

<v Speaker 1>all of them were putting the boots to Finn Baller,

<v Speaker 1>So he is officially gone from the judgment day. The

<v Speaker 1>babyface turn now has begun. You know, he joined that

<v Speaker 1>group four years ago. It's hard to believe it's been

<v Speaker 1>that long, but his ten years over, it has been

<v Speaker 1>a long time coming, you know, Dominic mysterio. He spoke

<v Speaker 1>with my boy Brad Gilmour on the Collection podcast about

<v Speaker 1>his mindset going into his bout last night at the

<v Speaker 1>Triple A Rey de Reyes show with Vikingo where dom

<v Speaker 1>retained his title last night, he didn't come out of

<v Speaker 1>the match unscathed. He did post a photo online of

<v Speaker 1>a nasty gash, a bloody gash on top of his

<v Speaker 1>head that he needed some I don't know, stitches or

<v Speaker 1>staples to close. But he did win. He is still

<v Speaker 1>the Triple A Mega Champion. But he also talked about

<v Speaker 1>wanting to give back his Intercontinental title of WrestleMania. This

<v Speaker 1>is what he told Brad. He said, I want my

<v Speaker 1>IC Championship back. I don't care what I have to do.

<v Speaker 1>I know pent is an ugly so I'm willing to

<v Speaker 1>put my hair up on the line against his mask

<v Speaker 1>and that championship if he's willing to do so, you know, hell,

<v Speaker 1>I'll even put up my mustache whatever it takes to

<v Speaker 1>get my title back, because at the end of the day,

<v Speaker 1>I beat this dude probably seven or eight times already.

<v Speaker 1>He got lucky on his last one because of Finn

<v Speaker 1>Balor's dumbass. But anyways, I would like to walk in

<v Speaker 1>as a double champion or walk out as a double

<v Speaker 1>champion at WrestleMania, you know, very interesting. I always envision

<v Speaker 1>him putting his hair and mustache and everything on the

<v Speaker 1>line in a mask match against Ray Mysterio, not against Penta.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I guess it could work against Penta. I

<v Speaker 1>still feel like that's a stipulation that should be held

<v Speaker 1>off for an eventual match again with him and his dad. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>maybe with him putting the Triple A Mega title on

<v Speaker 1>the line. Maybe he just threw this out there and

<v Speaker 1>it's not going to come up on TV. Part of

<v Speaker 1>me thinks, why would he say this If this was

<v Speaker 1>not the direction they were going in. It would be

<v Speaker 1>a big stipulation, you know, if they wanted to do

<v Speaker 1>a match with him in Penta. But to me, the

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania matches is him and Balor. It's not him in Penta,

<v Speaker 1>But maybe we're looking at this wrong. Maybe they are

<v Speaker 1>setting up for Penta to defend the title again against

<v Speaker 1>Dom at WrestleMania, and I don't know. I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>just don't know how Balor would fit into any of that,

<v Speaker 1>because that's a big stipulation. Bailey, she won the Women's

<v Speaker 1>Gauntlet match on Monday to earn herself an Intercontinental title

<v Speaker 1>match tomorrow night against AJ Lee, where I fully expect

<v Speaker 1>Becky Lynch to crash the party. It does still feel

<v Speaker 1>like the direction is going to be a rematch of

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania with Becky in aj Bailey, by the way, was

<v Speaker 1>the surprise opponent for Lady Flammer last night or I

<v Speaker 1>guess just Flammer now on the Triple A show for

<v Speaker 1>the Reyna de Rena de Raina's title. Easy for me

<v Speaker 1>to say. Flammer has held that championship for almost nine

<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty days, got her own Athena run, going

<v Speaker 1>on the Infinity run here with this championship. So Bailey

<v Speaker 1>was the big surprise and the fans there were shocked

<v Speaker 1>and happy to see her. Bailey was not successful. She

<v Speaker 1>won't be successful tomorrow night either. But if I had

<v Speaker 1>a beverage in my hand. When he said this, I

<v Speaker 1>would have done one of those TV Spit takes JBL

<v Speaker 1>on commentary from whatever remote studio he works out of,

<v Speaker 1>because clearly Corey Graves and JBL and Raymisterio they're working remotely.

<v Speaker 1>You don't even see them at ringside anymore. But JBL

<v Speaker 1>on commentary when Bailey came out and Bailey is in

<v Speaker 1>the ring with Flammer, he compared this to if show

<v Speaker 1>Hey Otani ever played against Nolan Ryan. I look, I

<v Speaker 1>like Bailey and all, but she's no show Hey Otani

<v Speaker 1>and JBL is no John Madden. When it comes to

<v Speaker 1>the analogies, Holy shit, I couldn't believe my ears. Also,

<v Speaker 1>what are they doing with EO Sky is another question

<v Speaker 1>I had coming out of Raw Monday night. I still

<v Speaker 1>am hoping for a match with Oscar. There was no

<v Speaker 1>hint of anything during that Gallmut match. You know, EO

<v Speaker 1>eliminated Raquel Rodriguez and then Raquel attacked her and Lawn

<v Speaker 1>darted her into the ring post outside. So you would

<v Speaker 1>be watching that show and thinking that they're building to

<v Speaker 1>a match between EO and Raquel, and maybe they are

<v Speaker 1>for TV, But the match for WrestleMania. I'm still holding

<v Speaker 1>out hope is going to end up being EO Sky

<v Speaker 1>in Osca. They could throw Kyrie in there, make it

<v Speaker 1>a triple threat. I don't think Kyrie necessarily has to

<v Speaker 1>wrestle I think she could just be a ringside because

<v Speaker 1>there's a story to tell there with her. By the

<v Speaker 1>time WrestleMania is over, Kyrie should be the one who

<v Speaker 1>finally stands up to Osca and you know, has enough

<v Speaker 1>of her shit, And I think it would be a

<v Speaker 1>big moment, like imagine her like. It kind of reminds

<v Speaker 1>me of that moment of WrestleMania when Linda stood up

<v Speaker 1>out of the wheelchair and kick Vince in the nuts,

<v Speaker 1>or Daniel Bryan when he broke free of the Wyatt family,

<v Speaker 1>Like you would hope with all the months they've invested

<v Speaker 1>in showing us that Oscar is mistreating this poor woman

<v Speaker 1>and verbally, if not physically, abusing her, that when the

<v Speaker 1>moment finally comes that she stands up to her. I'll

<v Speaker 1>even throw another one out there, Teddy Biassi and Virgil.

<v Speaker 1>I mean they were together for years and Virgil was

<v Speaker 1>mistreated until finally he couldn't take it anymore. And and

<v Speaker 1>he waffled him right upside the head with a million

<v Speaker 1>dollar belt and it was this great reaction. Now, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not saying that they have done as good of a

<v Speaker 1>job of telling a story here with these two, but

<v Speaker 1>I think in terms of these fans feeling some level

<v Speaker 1>of sympathy for Kyrie, it's the same basic idea, is

<v Speaker 1>what I'm getting at. And I think could you would

<v Speaker 1>hope get a big reaction when ultimately she stands up

<v Speaker 1>to this woman. But I don't think she needs to

<v Speaker 1>be in the match itself. I think she could be

<v Speaker 1>at ringside, be a factor in the match. And you

<v Speaker 1>do EO and Oscar because you're selfishly it's a match

<v Speaker 1>I've been waiting for for a long time for them

<v Speaker 1>to do wres and he is the perfect chance for

<v Speaker 1>them to do it. Nothing else I want to see

<v Speaker 1>EO doing on that show except that then we had SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>which is the new worst show of the year so far.

<v Speaker 1>Can't blame Road Doug for this one. I thought that

<v Speaker 1>show was fucking terrible. Outside of the last half hour

<v Speaker 1>or so Jacob Fatu and Shrick Williams, they were having

<v Speaker 1>a good one before Drew McIntyre got involved after losing

<v Speaker 1>the WWE Championship to Cody Rhoades the week before. At

<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the show, Drew McIntyre quit not the

<v Speaker 1>first time that he's quit. He quit two years ago

<v Speaker 1>in the middle of his feud with cmpunk. He is

<v Speaker 1>the nineteen ninety seven Brett Hart of twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>He quit and he unquit all in the same night.

<v Speaker 1>He can go back to Raw January twentieth, nineteen ninety seven.

<v Speaker 1>If you want to see what I'm talking about, I

<v Speaker 1>would tell you to go back and watch it on

<v Speaker 1>the Raw Vault, but Netflix still hasn't fucking uploaded it.

<v Speaker 1>So now McIntyre in FA two. They will be wrestling

<v Speaker 1>this Friday, which I'm sure is going to lead to

<v Speaker 1>a stipulation rematch of WrestleMania, because I'm not expecting a

<v Speaker 1>clean winner this week. You know, Drew was in a

<v Speaker 1>Sin City street fight with Damian Priest last year. Now

<v Speaker 1>he gets to have one with Jacob Fadu this year

<v Speaker 1>or something similar now. Earlier in the week, Mike Johnson,

<v Speaker 1>a PW insider, reported that the original plan discussed was

<v Speaker 1>for Cody Rhoades to wrestle Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania inside

<v Speaker 1>Hell in a cell, playing off the injuries that they

<v Speaker 1>have both suffered. In the cell, Cody worked one with

<v Speaker 1>a completely torn peck. McIntyre got his head split open

<v Speaker 1>in the match with cm Punk. He needed sixteen staples

<v Speaker 1>to shut the wound. You know, had they gone that route,

<v Speaker 1>the reaction would have been exactly the same. You would

<v Speaker 1>have had people very upset about Cody predictably winning the

<v Speaker 1>belt back of WrestleMania. I don't care how you dress

<v Speaker 1>it up. You could put them in a cell, You

<v Speaker 1>could put them in any kind of an enclosure that

<v Speaker 1>you want to. You could have them wrestle on the

<v Speaker 1>edge of a fucking cliff. You can have them wrestle

<v Speaker 1>in the middle of the dead Sea. You can have

<v Speaker 1>them wrestle on the top of fucking Mount Everest with

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen as the special referee. I don't care. We

<v Speaker 1>do not want to see another singles match between Cody

<v Speaker 1>Rhoads and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania. We have had it

<v Speaker 1>enough times and regardless of the stipulation, that is not

<v Speaker 1>a match that I think most people cared to see.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm glad they got away from it. I mean, look,

<v Speaker 1>I feel bad for Drew that he was this close

<v Speaker 1>from walking into Mania as the champion and getting that

<v Speaker 1>night one main event, but you know what, shit happens,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm glad that they took the belt off of

<v Speaker 1>him now instead of waiting to do it at WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>and running it back for a fifth time. Now. The

<v Speaker 1>MFTs and the Wyatt Six. Don't even get me started

<v Speaker 1>on this. I had enough of a meltdown over this

<v Speaker 1>on Friday the second time. Now that Howdy has won

<v Speaker 1>a match and gotten the lantern back, only for the

<v Speaker 1>MFTs to steal it back. It has been months of this.

<v Speaker 1>If this was an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, okay,

<v Speaker 1>he would win it back at WrestleMania. The MFTs would

<v Speaker 1>split because I think this is all just a vehicle

<v Speaker 1>for Tomatonga to split away from Solo Socoa anyway, and

<v Speaker 1>Howdy would stand tall with the lantern, and then he

<v Speaker 1>would trip and fall, and he would drop the lantern

<v Speaker 1>and the fucking thing would shatter into a million pieces.

<v Speaker 1>That's how it would end. And then they would play

<v Speaker 1>the Curb Your Enthusiasm music and cut to the credits.

<v Speaker 1>Jelly Roll is back, Oh Joy. He was on mis TV.

<v Speaker 1>This was after Miz got cursed again in the back

<v Speaker 1>by Dan House and I was doing quite a bit

<v Speaker 1>of cursing while I was watching this show myself. Kit

<v Speaker 1>Wilson interrupted the segment. He called Jelly toxic. It is

<v Speaker 1>actually have you read the ingre and Jelly it is toxic.

<v Speaker 1>This all led to Jelly Roll throwing a punch that

<v Speaker 1>was meant for Kit, who ducked. He hit the miss

<v Speaker 1>by accident instead because he was cursed. You see, of

<v Speaker 1>course bad things are going to happen to the Miz.

<v Speaker 1>When it was over, it felt like we were getting

<v Speaker 1>miss against Jelly Roll at WrestleMania. Now, Kit Wilson is

<v Speaker 1>going to be on SmackDown this Friday to call out

<v Speaker 1>Jelly Roll, and according to a report from bodyslam dot Net,

<v Speaker 1>we got some news here. WWE officials have at least

<v Speaker 1>discussed the idea of Royce Keys teaming up with Jelly

<v Speaker 1>Roll for a tag team match of WrestleMania. Sources noted

<v Speaker 1>that the storyline would revolve around the hardships that both

<v Speaker 1>men have faced in their lives, using that shared background

<v Speaker 1>as the foundation for the partnership, and it says though,

<v Speaker 1>well the pairing has been talked about internally, it is

<v Speaker 1>still just a discussion and not a confirmed plan. So

<v Speaker 1>rolls Royce Miz and Kit Wilson at WrestleMania. You know what,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, it wouldn't be the worst spot for

<v Speaker 1>Royce Keys to be in on the WrestleMania card, paired

<v Speaker 1>up with a celebrity like Jelly Roll. If that's how

<v Speaker 1>they plan to introduce him to the main roster, I

<v Speaker 1>kind of like it. It would be the highest profile

<v Speaker 1>spot he's ever been in in his life. I like

<v Speaker 1>the idea I talked about on TNT better, which is

<v Speaker 1>I would love to if you do Finn Balor and

<v Speaker 1>Dominic Mysterio WrestleMania, you have Royce Key's debut at the

<v Speaker 1>end of the match is Dom's new heavy and he

<v Speaker 1>joins the judgment day. I think that would benefit him also, right.

<v Speaker 1>I like that. I like debuting him in that spot.

<v Speaker 1>But the way they've been playing up though Stephanie McMahon

<v Speaker 1>podcast clips of him talking about his upbringing and crying

<v Speaker 1>about his family and his brother, They're not bringing that

<v Speaker 1>man in as a heel. Like I'm sorry, He's clearly

<v Speaker 1>gonna be positioned as a babyface. I figured Jelly roll

<v Speaker 1>against Miz with Dan Housen in Jelly's corner, Wilson and

<v Speaker 1>Missus corner. But this works too, you know, at least

<v Speaker 1>it would get him on the card. I was not

<v Speaker 1>expecting Royce Keys to even be under consideration for a

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania spot. He hasn't even debuted on TV yet. He

<v Speaker 1>had a cameo with the Royal Rumble that was it.

<v Speaker 1>If it gets him on the WrestleMania card, good for him.

<v Speaker 1>And then we had the contracts signing with Cody Rhodes

<v Speaker 1>and Randy Orton for their WWE Championship match of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>Cody said that in two thousand and seven, his very

<v Speaker 1>first match in WWEE came against Randy Orton. Then, of

<v Speaker 1>course we know of all the history with them together

<v Speaker 1>in legacy, and after Cody left the company, Randy posted

<v Speaker 1>a tweet calling Cody a future world champion, which he did.

<v Speaker 1>He did it in twenty eleven, that was years before

<v Speaker 1>Cody left the company, but still, and he said he's

<v Speaker 1>always been proud to be Randy's boy. And he signed

<v Speaker 1>the contract right It was all very chummy until it

<v Speaker 1>came time for Randy to sign the contract and just

<v Speaker 1>Cody doesn't understand and he needs this, kept saying I

<v Speaker 1>need this, I need that. It's like Stone Cold telling

<v Speaker 1>the Rock in two thousand and one. I need this Rock, right,

<v Speaker 1>I need this more than anything you can ever imagine.

<v Speaker 1>And then we all know what happened to WrestleMania x seven.

<v Speaker 1>Orton said, this was supposed to be easy. It was

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be him and Drew and Cody cut him off,

<v Speaker 1>and he tried to reassure him and not realizing in

<v Speaker 1>hindsight why he was so conflicted and what he was

<v Speaker 1>really talking about, which is going back to a very

<v Speaker 1>dangerous place that we haven't seen Randy Orton go to

<v Speaker 1>in a very long time. And Cody said, I'll always

<v Speaker 1>love you. So Randy signed the contract and once he

<v Speaker 1>put pen to paper, it's like a switch got flipped

<v Speaker 1>and the two of them shook hands and Randy rammed

<v Speaker 1>him face first down onto the desk and then kicked

<v Speaker 1>him square in his little nightmares and nick All this

<v Speaker 1>came out because now he's beating him all over the

<v Speaker 1>ringside area, and nick All, this comes over, Randy shoves

<v Speaker 1>him down. Cody came up busted wide open when Randy

<v Speaker 1>hit him in the head with the steel steps, and

<v Speaker 1>Orton leaned the ring steps up against the announced desk

<v Speaker 1>and he plays. Now Cody's laying on the desk. He

<v Speaker 1>places Cody's head in the crevice of the steps, and

<v Speaker 1>Jelly Roll comes over and he got shoved to the ground,

<v Speaker 1>and Randy's looking down at himself and his hands and

<v Speaker 1>Cody's blood all over him, like the voices took over.

<v Speaker 1>What have I done? And he leaves, but only for

<v Speaker 1>a little bit, because then he comes back. He grabs

<v Speaker 1>a chair, he climbs up on top of the desk

<v Speaker 1>and he caves Cody's head in with the chair, and

<v Speaker 1>we got this great visual of him standing on top

<v Speaker 1>of the desk with a chair in his hand and

<v Speaker 1>the WRESTLEMANI A signed in the background. Actually we got

<v Speaker 1>two great visuals because then he got in the ring.

<v Speaker 1>He sat down in a chair and he had Cody's

<v Speaker 1>title in his lap, and in the background they had

<v Speaker 1>like they cut to like a side camera and behind

<v Speaker 1>him you could see all the officials tending to Cody.

<v Speaker 1>A bloody Cody Roads on the announced desk. It was

<v Speaker 1>a very strong angle to give Punk and Roman a

<v Speaker 1>run for their money on the raw side, because their

<v Speaker 1>match has really been carrying the build so far for

<v Speaker 1>this WrestleMania. And we've only had a couple of segments

<v Speaker 1>between Punk and Roman, but so far that's been the

<v Speaker 1>strongest build for anything on the show. And it's like

<v Speaker 1>Cody and Randy said, hold my beer. I do still wonder,

<v Speaker 1>though this was my concern in the immediate aftermath of

<v Speaker 1>this one. I talked about it on Friday night. I

<v Speaker 1>still wonder if it would not have been better to

<v Speaker 1>hold off on this until the actual WrestleMania match. Last year,

<v Speaker 1>they did the John Cena turn at the Elimination Chamber,

<v Speaker 1>and we had weeks of Sena playing the you people

<v Speaker 1>card right trying to get over as a heel in

<v Speaker 1>front of crowds international crowds that really didn't want to

<v Speaker 1>boo the man, and he got them to here and there,

<v Speaker 1>but they really didn't want to boo John Cena, and

<v Speaker 1>I fear that it's going to be more of the

<v Speaker 1>same here. I would certainly hope he doesn't play the

<v Speaker 1>you people card like Sena did. I mean, how fucking

<v Speaker 1>lazy would that be? But I also feel like it

<v Speaker 1>would have made the match more unpredicted, right with people

<v Speaker 1>not knowing who, if anyone was going to turn heel

<v Speaker 1>right when the match was over. Now they've turned Randy,

<v Speaker 1>and I understand why it should make the build more interesting.

<v Speaker 1>I do think that there were ways to make it

<v Speaker 1>more interesting even if Randy didn't turn yet. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you could find other ways to build tension between the

<v Speaker 1>two of them. But yeah, they felt like the turn

<v Speaker 1>was needed. Now can you even call it a heel turn?

<v Speaker 1>Like I've talked about all the times over the last

<v Speaker 1>few years that Randy Yorton has stared at Cody's belt,

<v Speaker 1>you know, it's like he's been lying in wait for

<v Speaker 1>this very moment the entire time, and once he signed

<v Speaker 1>the contract, it gave him permission to strike, Right. That's

<v Speaker 1>the story. The story is Randy Yorton feeling like he

<v Speaker 1>has to go back to the old version of himself

<v Speaker 1>and do whatever it takes to win number fifteen. It's

<v Speaker 1>the story they should have told with John Cena last

<v Speaker 1>year willing to do whatever it takes to win number seventeen.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't really tell it that way. It was more

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to win the title and ruin wrestling for

<v Speaker 1>all of you. This is about Randy Orton trying to

<v Speaker 1>win number fifteen because it's been six years since number

<v Speaker 1>fourteen and the signs were always there. He's been on

<v Speaker 1>his best behavior, but he's fallen off the wagon. Let's say,

<v Speaker 1>you know, Drew was going to be his victim, but

<v Speaker 1>Cody just had to go and win the belt back.

<v Speaker 1>And then when Randy was trying to explain this to him,

<v Speaker 1>Cody cut him off. He wouldn't even let him finish.

<v Speaker 1>He just wanted him to know I'll always love you,

<v Speaker 1>and it was like that gave him permission to do

<v Speaker 1>what needed to be done. He had to kill his

<v Speaker 1>friend to get what he wants. You know. It's why

<v Speaker 1>I still think they can eventually reveal that it was

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton who attacked Jacob Fatu when they eventually get

<v Speaker 1>around to an Orton fat Too feud. I'm not giving

<v Speaker 1>up hope on that. I am not buying the idea

<v Speaker 1>that it was Drew McIntyre. They've got to come back

<v Speaker 1>around to it being somebody else. Could be Sammy's ain.

<v Speaker 1>I still tend to think it was Randy Orton. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not giving up on this idea. Some people think I'm crazy, like,

<v Speaker 1>give it up it was Drew. I don't think so.

<v Speaker 1>But you had fans who were cheering for Randy Orton.

<v Speaker 1>At the end of the segment. They literally went off

<v Speaker 1>the air with people chanting Randy, Randy. They were chanting

<v Speaker 1>the man's name. This is to be expected. You do

<v Speaker 1>have a segment of the audience. I say a segment

<v Speaker 1>of the audience because there were a lot of little

<v Speaker 1>kids crying in that crowd on Friday too, which is

<v Speaker 1>one of the reasons why they're not turning Cody. And

<v Speaker 1>they didn't turn Cody because Cody is still their top babyface.

<v Speaker 1>Doesn't matter what anybody says, doesn't matter how tired you

<v Speaker 1>are of seeing Cody Roads in this spot. I know

<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of Cody Roads fatigue. I feel a

<v Speaker 1>little bit of it myself. But I'm also smart enough

<v Speaker 1>to look at the big picture and say, if you

<v Speaker 1>turn Cody Rhoads, there is nobody else to step up

<v Speaker 1>in the immediate aftermath of that and take that spot.

<v Speaker 1>You need to build someone who can clearly like, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>that's the guy. He's gonna take the baton when Cody

<v Speaker 1>is done, or if Cody, if they turn Cody heel,

<v Speaker 1>we need a new top babyface on SmackDown or really

<v Speaker 1>the company overall. And look at all the things that

<v Speaker 1>Cody is doing. He's got his own podcast, He's doing

<v Speaker 1>all this shit. Like, if they turn him heel, it

<v Speaker 1>would be fucking weird. I'm not even sure it would

<v Speaker 1>really work. So long as he's doing all of this

<v Speaker 1>other stuff. It would be like, oh, I'm just pretending

<v Speaker 1>to be a heel. Like again, people don't think of

<v Speaker 1>these things. But that's why they didn't turn Cody, because

<v Speaker 1>I know some people were upset about that too. Oh man,

<v Speaker 1>they turned Randy. That means they're not gonna turn Cody.

<v Speaker 1>They were never gonna turn Cody, not yet. I agree

<v Speaker 1>that would have been That would have been an incredible moment.

<v Speaker 1>Let's say it WrestleMania. If Cody is the one to

<v Speaker 1>go heel. I still don't think that's what's gonna happen here.

<v Speaker 1>But here's the thing about them turning Randy orton heel

<v Speaker 1>now and not a WrestleMania. I think they turned Randy

<v Speaker 1>orton heel now because Cody wins it WrestleMania, because otherwise

<v Speaker 1>they're just running back the same angle that they in

<v Speaker 1>the same finish they did last with Cody and Cina,

<v Speaker 1>where Cody let his guard down and seeing it took

<v Speaker 1>advantage and he beat him for the belt. And if

<v Speaker 1>they do that again, where's the originality in that? I

<v Speaker 1>think the chances of Cody Rhodes retaining that championship or

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania just went way up on Friday Night. This week's

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<v Speaker 1>In the least surprising story of the week, Brandon Thurston

<v Speaker 1>and John Pollock had a story this week on the

<v Speaker 1>on the Post Wrestling website alleging that ESPN dropped WWE

<v Speaker 1>letter from its pl reviews on their website after pushback

<v Speaker 1>from WWE. This according to multiple sources, here's the story.

<v Speaker 1>ESPN put a stop to letter grades and its editorial

<v Speaker 1>reviews of WWE premium live events after WWE's objections. According

<v Speaker 1>to multiple sources familiar with the matter, letter grades rating

<v Speaker 1>a pro wrestling show may seem inconsequential. Whether a content provider,

<v Speaker 1>though like WWE, can influence the editorial practices of a

<v Speaker 1>major broadcast partner like ESPN is a more significant issue.

<v Speaker 1>WWE's involvement in the removal of the letter grades was

<v Speaker 1>first reported by The Wrestling Observer newsletter last week, citing

<v Speaker 1>someone on the WWE side had gotten the letter grades killed.

<v Speaker 1>An ESPN spokesperson declined to provide comments for this report. However,

<v Speaker 1>one source with knowledge of ESPN's approach maintained that the

<v Speaker 1>decision to discontinue letter grades was ESPN's alone, and that

<v Speaker 1>WWE did not request the change. Press to explain the

<v Speaker 1>reasoning for the removal of grades and whether WWE took

<v Speaker 1>issue with the reviews, the source declined to respond further.

<v Speaker 1>WWE did not return inquiries from Post, including a request

<v Speaker 1>to respond to whether the company expressed discomfort with any

<v Speaker 1>aspect of the pl reviews that included lettergrades on ESPN

<v Speaker 1>dot com. The reviews were written by ESPN Combat Sports

<v Speaker 1>reporter Andreas Hale, covering the same premium live events whose

<v Speaker 1>broadcast rights ESPN recently acquired in a five year, one

<v Speaker 1>point six billion dollar media deal, bringing WWE's biggest events

<v Speaker 1>to streaming platform ESPN Unlimited. The first pl as part

<v Speaker 1>of that deal, Wrestled Palooza on September twentieth, received a

<v Speaker 1>C grade in Hale's review. Hale went on to review

<v Speaker 1>the following month's Crown Jewel in October, giving it an

<v Speaker 1>overall B grade. Since then, Hale has published post event

<v Speaker 1>reviews of wweples, but without letter grades applied to the

<v Speaker 1>event overall or the matches in divisi vially, as he

<v Speaker 1>had done before. It's worth noting that Hale's reviews of

<v Speaker 1>UFC events also used letter grades and have continued to

<v Speaker 1>as recently as this past weekend's UFC three twenty six event.

<v Speaker 1>That's a key point right there. The article says his

<v Speaker 1>UFC reviews have consistently used letter grades, including while ESPN

<v Speaker 1>held UFC broadcast rights, and well before August of twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty five, when it was announced that UFC would leave

<v Speaker 1>ESPN in favor of Paramount. ESPN's decision contrasts with promises

<v Speaker 1>made by executives at the beginning of its new relationship

<v Speaker 1>with WWE. On a media call on September seventeenth, just

<v Speaker 1>before the three hundred and twenty five million dollars per

<v Speaker 1>year deal went into effect, ESPN executives were asked if

<v Speaker 1>ESPN's reporters would still have full independence in how they

<v Speaker 1>covered WWE. Senior Vice president of ESPN Plus John Lasker

<v Speaker 1>was very clear, I think the answer to that is

<v Speaker 1>an emphatic yes. The other executive on the call, then

<v Speaker 1>Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions, Matt Kenny, who moved

<v Speaker 1>to CBS Sports in October, agreed, saying unequivocal yes that

<v Speaker 1>separation of church and state. However, in their roles, Lasker

<v Speaker 1>and Kenny were not necessarily overseeing ESPN's journalistic work. Post

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling contacted ESPN's editorial leadership for comment, but they did

<v Speaker 1>not provide statements. Hale authored a piece with original comments

<v Speaker 1>from seth Rollins, which ran on September eighteenth, two days

<v Speaker 1>before wrestled Palooza. The event. Hale gave a mixed review to.

<v Speaker 1>Since then, ESPN's digital reporters, who previously had frequent access

<v Speaker 1>to WWE talent, have not had one new story with

<v Speaker 1>original comments from WWE talent. An ESPN spokesperson did not

<v Speaker 1>respond to a question about whether ESPN reporters on the

<v Speaker 1>editorial side have recently had difficulty getting access to talent.

<v Speaker 1>The source with knowledge of ESPN's approach contended that there

<v Speaker 1>have been no issues with access, pointing to WWE talent

<v Speaker 1>appearing on ESPN's televised broadcast. However, the source did not

<v Speaker 1>provide and we could not find any example of recent

<v Speaker 1>access granted to ESPN's digital editorial staff for original reporting

<v Speaker 1>or interviews since September. WWE's influence over ESPN's coverage of

<v Speaker 1>its ples follows the company's move this past summer to

<v Speaker 1>discontinue its post pl press conferences, ending a multi year

<v Speaker 1>practice that gave media direct access to talent and rare

<v Speaker 1>access to Chief Content Officer Paul Levec. Yes, the same

<v Speaker 1>Paul Levec who chose to give Jackie Redmond an interview

<v Speaker 1>backstage at Gorilla After Elimination Chamber in Chicago rather than

<v Speaker 1>go out in front of the fans as he has

<v Speaker 1>done in the past for those post show panels. Now

<v Speaker 1>he hides himself away. You know, Andreas Hale, he gave

<v Speaker 1>that Wrestle Poluszash show a C grade. He was spot

<v Speaker 1>on with that. There are some people who think he

<v Speaker 1>was being generous with that C grade. I remember thinking,

<v Speaker 1>I think it's actually fair. Maybe I would have gone

<v Speaker 1>C plus, but I thought he was bang on with that.

<v Speaker 1>But it became trending news after that. Oh my god.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, the guy who writes for ESPN gave it

<v Speaker 1>a C like and clearly WWE didn't like that, so

<v Speaker 1>they applied pressure to make sure it didn't happen again.

<v Speaker 1>There's no other conclusion really to be drawn here. It

<v Speaker 1>was ultimately ESPN's call to make, but they made it

<v Speaker 1>because they didn't want to anger WWE. If it was

<v Speaker 1>an ESPN issue, or if it was a TKO issue,

<v Speaker 1>they wouldn't be giving grades for UFC shows. It's pathetic,

<v Speaker 1>it really is. It's not a coincidence that they haven't

<v Speaker 1>been given access to WWE talent for any website stuff

<v Speaker 1>since then, right, that's not a coincidence. And if WWE

<v Speaker 1>wasn't behind it, and they really don't there's one very

<v Speaker 1>simple fix to all this. You pick up the phone

<v Speaker 1>and you tell ESPN to allow them to bring back

<v Speaker 1>the letter grades. That's all they have to do, right,

<v Speaker 1>separation of church and state. That's what ESPN said before

<v Speaker 1>the deal started. Prove it. That's how you do it.

<v Speaker 1>You don't listen to people like JBL, who said the

<v Speaker 1>writers should have gotten creative and found a way to

<v Speaker 1>give the show an A grade, even if he didn't

<v Speaker 1>actually believe it deserved an A because this was their

<v Speaker 1>ESPN debut and they shouldn't be criticizing the show. This

<v Speaker 1>is what the man said. And you know that there

<v Speaker 1>are people in WWE who feel the same way, right,

<v Speaker 1>you know it. He said this while filling in for

<v Speaker 1>Bruce Pritchard on Prichard's podcast. Okay, the same Bruce Pritchard

<v Speaker 1>who works on the WWE creative team. And you're gonna

<v Speaker 1>tell me there aren't people there who don't follow the

<v Speaker 1>same group think that JBL does. All he did was

<v Speaker 1>say the quiet part out loud. Instead of posting fake

<v Speaker 1>grades for a shitty show, why not use it as

<v Speaker 1>motivation to make the shows better? Right, You're never gonna

<v Speaker 1>be able to please everyone all the time. But that

<v Speaker 1>was an objectively poor debut for their first ESPN show,

<v Speaker 1>and most of their ESPN shows since then have not

<v Speaker 1>been much better. Lying about them and pretending they're great

<v Speaker 1>is not going to make them any better. WWE is

<v Speaker 1>well within its rights to withhold talent from interviews with

<v Speaker 1>ESPN dot com if that's what they want to do.

<v Speaker 1>If they want to be petty about it, then they

<v Speaker 1>have the right to be petty about it. But then

<v Speaker 1>people deserve to know what's going on here. They deserve

<v Speaker 1>to be put on blast for it. But again, if

<v Speaker 1>they have nothing to do with any of this, and

<v Speaker 1>this was ESPN making a judgment call right so as

<v Speaker 1>not to piss off their new partner, one phone call

<v Speaker 1>from Nick con or one phone call from Paul Levec

<v Speaker 1>is all it takes to reverse this. I won't hold

<v Speaker 1>my breath on that. My lungs aren't that strong. And

<v Speaker 1>with NXT content leaving Peacock shortly three days, you got

<v Speaker 1>three days left. That's what it showed me this morning

<v Speaker 1>when I checked the NXT Stand and Deliver show in

<v Speaker 1>Saint Louis on April fourth is going to be airing

<v Speaker 1>on WWE's YouTube channel, worldwide, and there has been no

<v Speaker 1>news as to whether the plees airing on YouTube are

<v Speaker 1>going to become a regular thing or if this is

<v Speaker 1>just sort of a temporary measure until WWE reaches a

<v Speaker 1>new deal to find a home for the rights somewhere else.

<v Speaker 1>They still have a presence on Peacock because they have

<v Speaker 1>a separate deal for Saturday Night's main event, which is

<v Speaker 1>not on NBC anymore. So it's not like WWE is

<v Speaker 1>completely divorcing itself from Peacock. But there has been no

<v Speaker 1>clarity on where the NXT content is going. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>this is my biggest gripe about all this bullshit. They're

<v Speaker 1>terrible when it comes to communication. I mean, even if

<v Speaker 1>you don't know yet, you can put some sort of

<v Speaker 1>statement out. They've issued nothing. It's just Oh, if you're

<v Speaker 1>a fan of the content, or if you watch the

<v Speaker 1>shows on there and you happen to be on there,

<v Speaker 1>you will see that it says six days left, three

<v Speaker 1>days left, and when the countdown is over, all that

<v Speaker 1>content just it kind of disappears into the ether and

<v Speaker 1>now we just have to wait and see where it's

<v Speaker 1>all going to land. But for the time being, at

<v Speaker 1>least stand and Deliver is going to be I presume free.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't say anything about it being, you know, like

<v Speaker 1>a premium thing on YouTube. You'll be able to watch

<v Speaker 1>it live and free on YouTube, so a lot of

<v Speaker 1>people will have access to it. But there's still a

<v Speaker 1>lot of questions about the future of this NXT content.

<v Speaker 1>They are horrendous when it comes to communication about this stuff.

<v Speaker 1>But on this week's episode of NXT, they had an

<v Speaker 1>angle where Charlie Dempsey had agreed to team with Tavian Heights.

<v Speaker 1>He turned on Tavian Heights during this match after seeing

<v Speaker 1>his father William Regal walk out during the match with

<v Speaker 1>Fit Finley right next to him, and he dragged Tavian

<v Speaker 1>out of the ring. He gave him a German souplex

<v Speaker 1>on the floor, allowing the Birthright faction to score the win,

<v Speaker 1>and then Dempsey got in the ring. He posed with

<v Speaker 1>the rest of Birthright, so he is now officially their

<v Speaker 1>newest member, and Birthright has not only Charlie Dempsey, but

<v Speaker 1>Lexus King, Stax, Lorenzo, Arianna Grace, and Uriah Conners, who

<v Speaker 1>was the younger brother of David Finley. They had been

<v Speaker 1>attempting to recruit Dempsey for several weeks. Back at the

<v Speaker 1>Vengeance Day show, Dempsey had rejected their offer and agreed

<v Speaker 1>to team with tav On for Tuesday's show, and then

<v Speaker 1>we see how that all ended up. So this is

<v Speaker 1>clearly where David Finley would have landed had he signed

<v Speaker 1>that deal with WWE to start out in NXT, they

<v Speaker 1>would have had him leading the Birthright that. He did

<v Speaker 1>an interview with Russell Zone and he explained why his

<v Speaker 1>decision to join AW over WWE was an easy one

<v Speaker 1>despite having family there. I was blown away by how

<v Speaker 1>many people on social media have read this and shared

<v Speaker 1>some of these quotes out as if it were a shoot.

<v Speaker 1>See what when you realize or you think that k

<v Speaker 1>fabe is dead and you realize it is for the

<v Speaker 1>most part, but it's not totally dead. There's still people

<v Speaker 1>who still cling to it. They still cling. It's actually

<v Speaker 1>very nice to see. But this is what he said.

<v Speaker 1>Let's see, I was in New Japan for eleven years,

<v Speaker 1>and every single year there were rumblings that I was

<v Speaker 1>going to leave. Every single year, they kept growing louder

<v Speaker 1>and louder. Finally I got over doing a fourteen hour

<v Speaker 1>flight four times a month and decided I wanted to

<v Speaker 1>leave Japan behind. Obviously, I've got family ties in another company,

<v Speaker 1>and I sat and thought about it. I was like, well,

<v Speaker 1>you know, I've never made a dime with my brother,

<v Speaker 1>I've never made a dime with my father, and I've

<v Speaker 1>made fat stacks of cash with these boys over here,

<v Speaker 1>So the choice was easy. And he also said, my

<v Speaker 1>dad's greatest accomplishment is the fact that I came out

<v Speaker 1>of his nutsack. That is the greatest thing he has

<v Speaker 1>ever accomplished. And then Finley posted something. I didn't write

<v Speaker 1>down what it was, but he posted something on social

<v Speaker 1>media in response to what David said. There were people

<v Speaker 1>who took this very seriously and thought that there was

<v Speaker 1>some shooting going on here. But anyway, now we know

<v Speaker 1>where Finley would have landed. He ended up going to

<v Speaker 1>AW instead. I guess time will tell. We'll see what

<v Speaker 1>happens with the other members of the Birthright and how

<v Speaker 1>quickly they make their way to the main roster relative

<v Speaker 1>to how quickly David Finley ascends up the card in AW.

<v Speaker 1>But he made the decision that he felt was best

<v Speaker 1>for him in terms of the money that was being

<v Speaker 1>offered to him in the schedule and clearly he's happy.

<v Speaker 1>He's happy being back with Gabe Kid and Clark Conners.

<v Speaker 1>We'll see what Tony Kahan does with him in the

<v Speaker 1>months ahead. Let's get into your mailbag questions here. You

<v Speaker 1>could always email me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot

<v Speaker 1>com speaking of fat stacks of cash. We got a

<v Speaker 1>fat ass mail bag here. We got to get into him.

<v Speaker 1>There's no way I'm getting through all of this, but

<v Speaker 1>let's get through some of it. Adam from Birmingham. I

<v Speaker 1>was listening to TNT this past Tuesday and heard you

<v Speaker 1>talking about recycling members in the Judgment Day and I

<v Speaker 1>was curious to your thoughts on this. Instead of recycling

<v Speaker 1>members randomly, once a year, the group has a judgment

<v Speaker 1>day where the group. Oh, I see what you're saying.

<v Speaker 1>The Judgment Day has a judgment day where the group

<v Speaker 1>gets together and they decide one member to be kicked

<v Speaker 1>out of the group and replaced by someone else. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know how they would do a so called voting system,

<v Speaker 1>but could something like this work and then you get

<v Speaker 1>a constant cycle of members in and out of the group.

<v Speaker 1>It's a clever idea. I wouldn't do it. I just

<v Speaker 1>think it should be dictated by storyline reasoning if somebody

<v Speaker 1>is going to leave or quit or get kicked out.

<v Speaker 1>I don't like the idea. It's like having these gimmick

<v Speaker 1>pls where, oh, it's that time of year, so we

<v Speaker 1>have to do helen a sl we have to do TLC,

<v Speaker 1>we have to do this, we have to do that.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think you want to force yourself into a

<v Speaker 1>situation like that, because if you end up with a

<v Speaker 1>judgment day that all the members are clicking and everything's working,

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't want to kind of handcuff myself to wear, oh,

<v Speaker 1>we got to kick somebody out even though things are

<v Speaker 1>going great. I don't like that. I definitely think that

<v Speaker 1>they dragged this whole Finn Balor Dominic mysterio thing out

<v Speaker 1>for too long. But they've been slowly telling a story

<v Speaker 1>with them and it finally combusted on Monday, right and

<v Speaker 1>Balor got kicked out. I wouldn't restrict that to the

<v Speaker 1>time of year that it is. Sam from Lancaster, UK

<v Speaker 1>finding WrestleMania Roles for odd People Out was the title

<v Speaker 1>of his message here, and he lists a few different people.

<v Speaker 1>La Knight says, I think we should find out that

<v Speaker 1>while Knight was joy writing Paul Hayman around in that

<v Speaker 1>ambulance last week, Haymond was informing him that he's a

<v Speaker 1>glorified jobber. For the reason that he's a glorified jobber

<v Speaker 1>is because he can't beat the Visions, so he should

<v Speaker 1>join them. This prompts Night to attack Rolins, making a

<v Speaker 1>Rollins against Night Match at WrestleMania, also keeping Brock free

<v Speaker 1>to clash with Oba. Look, I get the old phrase,

<v Speaker 1>if you can't beat him, join them. I have very

<v Speaker 1>little interest in seeing La Knight if you're going to

<v Speaker 1>turn him heel. First of all, he's still super over

<v Speaker 1>his babyface, but he is a great heel. I don't

<v Speaker 1>want him in the vision. I mean, I just I

<v Speaker 1>don't want him in the vision. Eo Sky He says,

<v Speaker 1>I would have Jade Cargill turn up on Raw and

<v Speaker 1>batter EO to try to get it. Rhea. I actually

<v Speaker 1>mentioned that on my SmackDown review on Friday. I was wondering,

<v Speaker 1>like they got five weeks laught, what the hell can

<v Speaker 1>they do to really heat things up between Jade and Rhea.

<v Speaker 1>I said, one of the only things I could think

<v Speaker 1>of to really try to put some heat on. This

<v Speaker 1>would be to have Jade do something dastardly to EO Sky,

<v Speaker 1>you know, as a way to get it Ria. I

<v Speaker 1>just don't want that to I don't want them to

<v Speaker 1>take EO out, potentially take her out of a WrestleMania match,

<v Speaker 1>just to benefit Jade. Cargill. That's not what I want

<v Speaker 1>to see. But he says, a furious Rhea can start

<v Speaker 1>the next SmackDown, hold the show hostage, and demand that

<v Speaker 1>she doesn't wait until WrestleMania. She wants her title shot now.

<v Speaker 1>Jade agrees, but that means the WrestleMania match is off

<v Speaker 1>the table, and if she loses, she's at the back

<v Speaker 1>of the queue. In the match, EO returns for vengeance,

<v Speaker 1>getting Rea disqualified. This can then lead to a triple threat.

<v Speaker 1>I like working EO into a championship match. To me,

<v Speaker 1>it would be too much of a copy of what

<v Speaker 1>they did last year. You know, we had Ria, EO,

<v Speaker 1>and Bianca. I don't think they should be going down

<v Speaker 1>that road again. And then Penta, He says, I would

<v Speaker 1>have him inject some life into this flat El Grande

<v Speaker 1>Americano bullshit, half him faced. The pair of them at

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania in a triple threat for the IC title. So

<v Speaker 1>you just recommended two triple threats. Interesting. He says that

<v Speaker 1>the two losers must unmask Penta. Obviously wins. Chad unmasks Kaiser,

<v Speaker 1>though doesn't keep his word, but Adam Pierce says he

<v Speaker 1>must do it on a subsequent Raw. But when he

<v Speaker 1>unmasks it is someone ridiculous like Omas So, so Kaiser

<v Speaker 1>can keep the gimmick in yet, like we wouldn't notice. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I think we would know right away before the mask

<v Speaker 1>even comes off. Brother, I think there's a there's a

<v Speaker 1>a problem with that plan. Sam, I don't think that works.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want Penta associated with any of the Americano

<v Speaker 1>bullshit anymore. Like I'm done. I'm done. We had it

<v Speaker 1>again on Monday. I am so done. I am as

<v Speaker 1>done with that as I am with the with the

<v Speaker 1>Wyats and the MFTs. Get him the fuck away from

<v Speaker 1>the Americano stuff. I certainly don't want this dragged out

<v Speaker 1>until WrestleMania. They're doing Americano one, by the way, against

<v Speaker 1>Americano two tomorrow night on RAW. I'm not expecting this

<v Speaker 1>to be over tomorrow night. I I still think we

<v Speaker 1>get a mask match between them at Mania, and that's

<v Speaker 1>fine as long as Chad Gable unmasks and moves on

<v Speaker 1>to something else. I don't want Penta associated with any

<v Speaker 1>of this. Jason from the Bronx, You've talked a lot

<v Speaker 1>lately about how weak the build for WrestleMania feels this year,

<v Speaker 1>and honestly, I agree. It just doesn't feel like the

<v Speaker 1>biggest show of the year the way it used to.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think the problem is just this year's booking

<v Speaker 1>or is this a bigger issue with how WWE structures

<v Speaker 1>the road to WrestleMania Now it almost feels like the

<v Speaker 1>show relies more on the brand name of WrestleMania and

<v Speaker 1>then I'm building truly hot stories coming out of the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble? Have they conditioned fans to expect that WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>will always be big no matter what? So the urgency

<v Speaker 1>in storytelling just isn't there anymore. I think part of

<v Speaker 1>it is that the urgency in storytelling isn't there because

<v Speaker 1>there's more time between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania now

<v Speaker 1>than ever before. Yeah, this is the second straight year

<v Speaker 1>where we have a late April WrestleMania that was never

<v Speaker 1>the case before. Like I want to say, up until

<v Speaker 1>the last few years, the latest I can remember there

<v Speaker 1>being a WrestleMania might have been the one. God I'm

<v Speaker 1>trying to think the one in ninety two was on

<v Speaker 1>April fifth. Maybe there was a WrestleMania that was as

<v Speaker 1>late as April eighth, like April seventh or eighth, And

<v Speaker 1>I don't think I think that was the latest we

<v Speaker 1>ever had a WrestleMania up until the last couple of years,

<v Speaker 1>you know, So that makes a difference. Also, they have

<v Speaker 1>more television time to fill, right, including three hours of SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>So you've got more TV time to fill. And but

<v Speaker 1>this is where the creative aspect comes in. More TV

<v Speaker 1>time to fill at a time when their television is

<v Speaker 1>as terrible and boring as it's been in years. Like

<v Speaker 1>that's a bad combination. Okay, so it's both mostly creative,

<v Speaker 1>but it's both because even with ten or eleven weeks

<v Speaker 1>in between the two shows, if you have the right

<v Speaker 1>players in the right roles telling the right stories, the

<v Speaker 1>roads to WrestleMania can be as exciting as you want

<v Speaker 1>to make it. They just haven't done a great job

<v Speaker 1>of doing that right and then injuries are a part

<v Speaker 1>of it too. Injuries wreaked havoc on what their original

<v Speaker 1>plans were for WrestleMania this year. This wrestle Menia car

<v Speaker 1>would have looked very different were it not for injuries.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, we could have ended up with Cody Roads

<v Speaker 1>against CM Punk in another timeline, and that would have

<v Speaker 1>been great. Roman Reigns against CM Punk and Cody Roads

<v Speaker 1>against Randy Orton that those are not bad backups, But yeah,

<v Speaker 1>you still have thirteen or fourteen other matches to promote.

<v Speaker 1>So it's great that the Punk and Roman stuff has

<v Speaker 1>been interesting. And now Cody and Cody and Randy, right,

<v Speaker 1>they're heating things up over there. That's two matches on

<v Speaker 1>a card that may have as many as fifteen or

<v Speaker 1>sixteen matches, right, you just you got to do a

<v Speaker 1>better job. I'm sorry, Joe from Pittsburgh, PA. One of

<v Speaker 1>my favorite Hell in a Cell matches to go back

<v Speaker 1>and rewatch is the one from Armaged in two thousand,

<v Speaker 1>which featured Kurda defending against the Rock Stone Cold, Rakishi,

<v Speaker 1>Undertaker and Triple H. This match had an insane lineup

<v Speaker 1>and is a lot of fun to watch, which makes

<v Speaker 1>me wonder why we have never seen it return. Is

<v Speaker 1>there a reason for this that has been mentioned over

<v Speaker 1>the years. No, I mean there's been no reason given.

<v Speaker 1>It's just it's kind of a clusterfuck, you know, to

<v Speaker 1>take six guys and just throw them inside hell in

<v Speaker 1>a cell, and you know, at that point in time,

<v Speaker 1>there was a reason to do it. I think you

<v Speaker 1>had a combination of all six of those guys that

<v Speaker 1>hated each other and were feuding with each other in

<v Speaker 1>some form or fashion, and it just made sense to

<v Speaker 1>put them all in there. I think they also wanted

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Angle to like, you know, escape by the skin

<v Speaker 1>of his teeth, like people thinking, oh, he's definitely gonna lose,

<v Speaker 1>because Kurt was still new as far as like the

<v Speaker 1>world title scene. He had only won his first world

<v Speaker 1>title like two months before this, So I think that

<v Speaker 1>was part of it. Also, they wanted you to believe

<v Speaker 1>there was going to be a title change, and Kurt

<v Speaker 1>found a way to hang on and look at the story.

<v Speaker 1>If the story is there and the story makes sense

<v Speaker 1>for it, you can do it, you know. I mean

<v Speaker 1>I wasn't a fan of doing anything like that on

<v Speaker 1>the WrestleMania card this year, but I will say, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the way they were building things up in that World

<v Speaker 1>title picture on SmackDown, you could have done on like

<v Speaker 1>another plee. If the timing was right, you could have

<v Speaker 1>done like Drew McIntyre putting the title on the line

<v Speaker 1>against Cody and Randy and Sammy and Jacob and you know,

<v Speaker 1>have a big five or six way Helen a Cell

<v Speaker 1>match like this. The story has to make sense for it.

<v Speaker 1>You know, ideally you would not be putting six guys

<v Speaker 1>in a hell and a Cell match. Jonathan from Charlotte,

<v Speaker 1>North Carolina on the Tales from the Attitude Era podcast.

<v Speaker 1>Former WWF head writer Tommy Blotcha said that he pitched

<v Speaker 1>in the bill for King of the Ring two thousand

<v Speaker 1>for Caine to turn heel and win the WWF Championship

<v Speaker 1>in the six man tag team match. He didn't really

<v Speaker 1>say how that could play out, but I I guess

<v Speaker 1>the idea would be either Vince Shane or Triple H

<v Speaker 1>pins Rock or Undertaker after a Caine betrayal, and then

<v Speaker 1>Vince decides to hand the belt over to him. If

<v Speaker 1>that had happened, how do you see the rest of

<v Speaker 1>two thousand playing out? Could Caine have been the top

<v Speaker 1>heel in WWE in the summer of two thousand, and

<v Speaker 1>would it have worked. I know you were talking about

<v Speaker 1>giving Kine a huge run post post his two thousand

<v Speaker 1>return in one of your recent episodes, and you explain

<v Speaker 1>why you felt it would not have worked. But as

<v Speaker 1>a heel destroying people kind of like how he was

<v Speaker 1>in the months after his unmasking, you know, three, maybe

<v Speaker 1>that could have been something. Yeah, I mean, look, Cain

<v Speaker 1>was awesome when he came back in two thousand. He

<v Speaker 1>was a fucking unit. This guy, this guy was a

<v Speaker 1>monster and was super over. And I remember the King

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring match you're talking about. It had that

<v Speaker 1>dumb stipulation where the title the world title could change hands.

<v Speaker 1>It was a six man tag team match, and the

<v Speaker 1>world title could change hand. I mean they bounced that

<v Speaker 1>belt back and forth between Rock and Triple A each

<v Speaker 1>like three or four times that spring and summer, right

<v Speaker 1>because I mean Triple H lost it to Rock and backlash,

<v Speaker 1>Triple H won it back in the Iron Man Match

<v Speaker 1>a Judgment Day, and then Rock didn't Rock Pin Vince

<v Speaker 1>in that tag match at King of the Ring and

<v Speaker 1>he won the belt back at King of the Ring.

<v Speaker 1>It was all. It was all very dumb, the idea

<v Speaker 1>that you know, Vince would hand the belt to Kane, like,

<v Speaker 1>I fucking hate that, Like don't. I don't think it works,

<v Speaker 1>And so no, I would not have wanted to see that. Now,

<v Speaker 1>if there was a way, a logical way, a good

<v Speaker 1>way to get the belt on, that's not a good way.

<v Speaker 1>If there was a good way to get the belt

<v Speaker 1>on Kane in two thousand, could he have had a

<v Speaker 1>successful run? Sure, I'm not saying he couldn't have had

<v Speaker 1>a successful run of a few months like during the

<v Speaker 1>summertime as the champion, but he, like he would not

<v Speaker 1>have been able to have I think an extended run

<v Speaker 1>like over the years we've seen people like Triple H

<v Speaker 1>and John seeing to have like nine a year or longer,

<v Speaker 1>like a long run as the champion. I don't see

<v Speaker 1>that working with Caine. I just feel like, you know,

<v Speaker 1>at that time, and he wasn't really out there cutting

<v Speaker 1>promos or anything, and the mask he still had not

<v Speaker 1>been unmasked yet. There was only so much you were

<v Speaker 1>going to be able to do with it, I think

<v Speaker 1>before it just got kind of dull. So for a

<v Speaker 1>short period of time, absolutely, and it would have been

<v Speaker 1>nice to have him, you know, as the champion for

<v Speaker 1>more than twenty four hours, you know, like he was

<v Speaker 1>in ninety eight. I think you could have gotten a

<v Speaker 1>few months out of it, but that's it. There still

<v Speaker 1>was only so much you could do with that character

<v Speaker 1>if you were not going to take the mask off

<v Speaker 1>of him. So that's that's really what I'm referring to.

<v Speaker 1>Vince from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Before I was a wrestling fan,

<v Speaker 1>the first wrestler I heard of was Sergeant Slaughter. After

<v Speaker 1>I became a wrestling fan, I watched many of his

<v Speaker 1>old matches, including the boot Camp match against the Iron Chic.

<v Speaker 1>I noticed the many instances he was the most over

<v Speaker 1>guy on the card, and I wondered why he didn't

<v Speaker 1>become a bigger deal. Then I read in Brett Hart's

<v Speaker 1>book that Slaughter was canned because of his Gi Joe figure,

<v Speaker 1>and if it were not for his firing, Slaughter would

<v Speaker 1>have been the one to deep thrown the Iron Chic

<v Speaker 1>for the WWF Championship. If that's true, would it have

<v Speaker 1>been Slaughter teaming with Mister t to face Roddy Piper

<v Speaker 1>and Paul Orndorf to headline the first WrestleMania, So I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna say no on that. In fact, I'm gonna say

<v Speaker 1>hell no, absolutely not. First of all, Hogan beat the

<v Speaker 1>Shek in January of eighty four to win the belt.

<v Speaker 1>Slaughter was still wrestling for Vince through the end of

<v Speaker 1>eighty four, almost eighty five. So no, the plan was

<v Speaker 1>always to put the belt on Hogan. There was no

<v Speaker 1>chance of Slaughter tagging with mister even if there was

<v Speaker 1>an idea at one point in time in like eighty three,

<v Speaker 1>let's say, okay, before Hogan came back to WWF, if

<v Speaker 1>there was even an idea in inkling that at some

<v Speaker 1>point we might put the belt on Sergeant Slaughter, they

<v Speaker 1>had not thought that far in advance to even think

<v Speaker 1>of a Mister T tag team match of WrestleMania. By

<v Speaker 1>that point, Hogan was already back, and Hogan was their guy.

<v Speaker 1>Hogan was Vince's guy. That was always the plan. The

<v Speaker 1>plan was always from the moment they brought him back

<v Speaker 1>to the company at the end of eighty three. Remember

<v Speaker 1>I think it was Backland brought him out as a

<v Speaker 1>surprise or a surprise partner or something. It was like

<v Speaker 1>December of eighty three. Oh my, God Hogan's back, there

<v Speaker 1>was no chance of Sergeant Slaughter tagging with mister t

<v Speaker 1>in the main event of WrestleMania. Slaughter himself has told

<v Speaker 1>a lot of tall tales over the years, almost as

<v Speaker 1>many as Hogan. Okay. He's also said that it was

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be him against Hogan in the first WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>main event. That's a lie. On the Vince McMahon DVD,

<v Speaker 1>he claimed he was fired after no showing event because

<v Speaker 1>Vince had refused to give him six weeks of vacation,

<v Speaker 1>But in another breath, he says he left over a

<v Speaker 1>dispute regarding his signing on to be G I Joe

<v Speaker 1>for their toy line. That I believe I believe that

<v Speaker 1>to be the real story. He thought Vince McMahon would

<v Speaker 1>be happy about it. Hey, Vince, guess what I'm gonna

<v Speaker 1>be g I Joe, And instead Vince told him we

<v Speaker 1>just signed our own toy deal with LJN. It's going

<v Speaker 1>to be a conflict. You can't do that right, You

<v Speaker 1>can't be Gi Joe that And I'm sure Vince also

<v Speaker 1>wanted his cut, Like if Slaughter came to him and said, hey,

<v Speaker 1>I went and made this deal for myself. You can

<v Speaker 1>imagine in Vince McMahon's head, it's like, and I'm not

<v Speaker 1>gonna get a cut, Like we can't have that pal, right.

<v Speaker 1>If I'm not getting a piece of the pie here,

<v Speaker 1>then you can't be g I Joe. So Slaughter chose

<v Speaker 1>GI Joe overstaying. He had a decision to make do

<v Speaker 1>I do I go back and say, okay, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>doing this, or do I stand my ground and you know,

<v Speaker 1>give up my career working for Vince. That's the real

<v Speaker 1>reason and he left. But yes, Slaughter's had some trouble

<v Speaker 1>with the truth over the years, especially the stolen valor stuff.

<v Speaker 1>You know, if you're not aware of that, He did

<v Speaker 1>interviews over the years claiming to have served in the

<v Speaker 1>Marine Corps a drill instructor and claiming to have served

<v Speaker 1>in Vietnam. That was a lie, like he never served anywhere.

<v Speaker 1>In fact, I think he had a bunch of draft

<v Speaker 1>deferments for Vietnam. But like the big one is when

<v Speaker 1>he went on Jim Norton's show years ago and he

<v Speaker 1>was asked about his military service and he was regaling

<v Speaker 1>him and Sam Roberts with all these stories that were

<v Speaker 1>just complete horseshit, and then later on when WWE got

<v Speaker 1>called out for it, they claimed, well, you know, he

<v Speaker 1>was speaking in character, which again horseshit because in that

<v Speaker 1>same interview there were parts where he was referring to

<v Speaker 1>the character as opposed to his real self, Like, you

<v Speaker 1>don't do that in an interview where you're supposedly in character.

<v Speaker 1>It's just a bad look. It's a very bad look

<v Speaker 1>for Prince from Philadelphia. I wanted to ask about something

<v Speaker 1>that's been bothering me with WWE for a while. Why

<v Speaker 1>do the title reigns feel so predictable now? For example,

<v Speaker 1>the idea of doing Finn Balor against Cmpunk before WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>when everyone knows the big match with Roman is the

<v Speaker 1>direction anyway, it kind of kills the suspense because fans

<v Speaker 1>already assumed the champion is not losing before WrestleMania. Back

<v Speaker 1>in the nineties and even during the Attitude era, you

<v Speaker 1>really didn't know when Vince might change the belt. The

<v Speaker 1>belt moved around a lot between guys like Austin Rock,

<v Speaker 1>Triple H, Undertaker, and others. It made the weekly shows

<v Speaker 1>feel more unpredictable. Has WWE become too formulaic? With when

<v Speaker 1>and where titles change hands. Well, I'll answer that one.

<v Speaker 1>He's got a few questions here. I'll answer that one. First.

<v Speaker 1>The answer is yes. Next question, what's elimination chamber happening

<v Speaker 1>right before Mania? Should they maybe avoid putting the main

<v Speaker 1>title on the line there since fans assume it won't

<v Speaker 1>change anyway, Yes, unless you have one of the chamber matches,

<v Speaker 1>which they've done before. Also, if you want to put

<v Speaker 1>the championship on the line in a chamber match, I

<v Speaker 1>think that's fine. Otherwise it's it's pretty pointless. And finally,

<v Speaker 1>what are some of the most shocking title changes in

<v Speaker 1>WWE history? Well, the first one that comes to mind is,

<v Speaker 1>like the earliest one would be Ivan call Off, Ivan

<v Speaker 1>call Off ending Bruno San Martino's eight year title run.

<v Speaker 1>The stories of you could hear a pin drop. It

<v Speaker 1>got so like deafeningly quiet. People were just in shock.

<v Speaker 1>So that's got to be one. I would say Andre

<v Speaker 1>ending Hogan's four year run in eighty eight. That was

<v Speaker 1>pretty shocking, especially for a young fan who didn't know

<v Speaker 1>anything from anything. It's like, you figure Hogan's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>the champion forever and then oh my god, Andre gives

<v Speaker 1>him a fucking hip toss and clearly gets his shoulder

<v Speaker 1>up and the rev recounts three. Anyway, Yeah, that was

<v Speaker 1>pretty shocking. Brett Hart beating Rick Flair in nineteen ninety two.

<v Speaker 1>I mean it wasn't even televised. I'm sure that was

<v Speaker 1>a shock to the people in Saskatoon that night, right.

<v Speaker 1>I know it was to me when I heard about

<v Speaker 1>the title change on Superstars that weekend, right, I read

<v Speaker 1>about it in the magazine. That's how I found out.

<v Speaker 1>I think you got to have gender of mahal on

<v Speaker 1>there from twenty seventeen. I don't think anybody was predicting that.

<v Speaker 1>And I mean the Montreal screwjob, right, the way that

<v Speaker 1>all went down, that was pretty shocking, to say the least. Honestly.

<v Speaker 1>You know what, I'll throw one more in there. I

<v Speaker 1>will throw in Mankind at SummerSlam in nineteen ninety nine.

<v Speaker 1>I think that one shocked me more than his first

<v Speaker 1>title win did on Roll Well. I mean it definitely

<v Speaker 1>did because his first title change was on a taped raw,

<v Speaker 1>So I knew about the title change, you know, six

<v Speaker 1>days in advance. Actually, they spoiled it on their own

<v Speaker 1>fucking website. So I can't really say that that one

<v Speaker 1>was shocking. But when Mankind won the belt in ninety nine,

<v Speaker 1>I did not expect that. I expected either Austin was

<v Speaker 1>going to retain because jesse Ventur, right the governor, was

<v Speaker 1>the special referee, or more likely Triple H was going

<v Speaker 1>to win. Mankind was in there, and I'm like, all right,

<v Speaker 1>well he's in there. Even my brain back then is

<v Speaker 1>watching this going Okay, he's in there to take the

<v Speaker 1>loss probably, and he wins, and I'm like what it

<v Speaker 1>was very weird, Like I remember watching it live and

<v Speaker 1>I was like, hmm, and he pinned Austin too, very

<v Speaker 1>very weird. But then you read later on that Austin

<v Speaker 1>didn't want to lose to Triple H. She didn't feel

<v Speaker 1>he was ready yet and or whatever. There's a lot

<v Speaker 1>of there's a lot of yeah things that have been

<v Speaker 1>said about why they did that finish the way they did.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they didn't want jesse Ventur, as the governor

<v Speaker 1>of the state, to have to count the three for

<v Speaker 1>a heel, but they wanted to change the title. So

<v Speaker 1>they decided, Okay, we'll get the belt off Austin this way,

<v Speaker 1>and then we'll just do the title change with the

<v Speaker 1>Triple H on Raw the next night. The truth is

<v Speaker 1>probably somewhere in the middle.

<v Speaker 2>On that.

<v Speaker 1>Tim from Texas, What are some of your favorite wrestling

<v Speaker 1>feuds where the bad guy one in the end? Ooh,

<v Speaker 1>it's a good one. Did Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho

<v Speaker 1>count from two thousand and eight? Everything Jericho said about

<v Speaker 1>him was true, So I question who the real heel

<v Speaker 1>was in that feud, but I would go with that

<v Speaker 1>where the bad guy won in the end. Triple H

<v Speaker 1>and Mick Foley, I just talked about them from ninety

<v Speaker 1>nine into two thousand. Triple H never did get that

<v Speaker 1>big win over him, you know, but that Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>street fight or Triple H never got that win. Foley

<v Speaker 1>never got that big win over him. But that Royal

<v Speaker 1>Rumble street fight that made Triple H right. It gave

<v Speaker 1>him a credibility that he didn't have before that, and

<v Speaker 1>their Hell and a Cell match just cemented it. But

<v Speaker 1>Fully did that for a lot of guys, you know.

<v Speaker 1>I could say Rock and Folly their feud and did

<v Speaker 1>the same way with Rock winning fully and Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>in two thousand and four, Folly in Edge in two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and six. You know what, I'll throw Rock and

<v Speaker 1>Austin in there too, because Rock was a heel when

<v Speaker 1>he beat Austin in their last match, even though Austin

<v Speaker 1>beat him every other time they ever wrestled. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Rock was the one who got the last laugh, So

<v Speaker 1>I think we could throw that one in there too.

<v Speaker 1>Robots from Derby, England buy or sell on the better

<v Speaker 1>rivalry storylines and matches in WWE Hulk Hogan against the

<v Speaker 1>Macho Man Randy Savage, Mega Powers or Triple h against

<v Speaker 1>the Rock in the Attitude era. The Mega Power storyline

<v Speaker 1>is better than any story Rock and Triple h I've

<v Speaker 1>ever been a part of. Rock and Triple h had

<v Speaker 1>are matches than Hogan and Savage. Did. Hogan and Savage

<v Speaker 1>have the edge? So I'm gonna buy on them, and

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to sell on Rock and Triple Edge. Daniel

<v Speaker 1>from Spring, Texas do you think the Hell in a

<v Speaker 1>Cell match between Undertaker and Mankind would have been memorable

<v Speaker 1>if they started the match in the ring rather than

<v Speaker 1>on top of the cell? Do you think that match

<v Speaker 1>would still be talked about to this day? And by

<v Speaker 1>the way, the kids are loving the Hardy the Horse book.

<v Speaker 1>I am very happy that they are enjoying the Adventure

<v Speaker 1>of Hardy the Horse, available right now, by the way

<v Speaker 1>on Amazon dot com. But now I'm very happy they're

<v Speaker 1>enjoying the book. Would the match have been as memorable?

<v Speaker 1>So are you saying that if they never left the

<v Speaker 1>cell and went on top of the cage? No, the

<v Speaker 1>answer is no. Fully knew that. That's the entire reason

<v Speaker 1>why he started the match on top of the cage,

<v Speaker 1>because he was trying to figure out, how are we

<v Speaker 1>going to top what Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker did

<v Speaker 1>the year before. He goes, well, the only way to

<v Speaker 1>do it is to go on top of the and

<v Speaker 1>we'll start there and we'll we'll have you throw my

<v Speaker 1>ass off. Without that, the match is not as memorable

<v Speaker 1>as it ended up being. I think that's safe to

<v Speaker 1>say they had to do it that way. There was

<v Speaker 1>nothing that they were ever going to be able to

<v Speaker 1>do within the confines of the cell, even with the thumbtacks,

<v Speaker 1>that was going to make that match nearly as memorable. Right,

<v Speaker 1>That's sort of the pro and the con of it.

<v Speaker 1>It's like, you hate to see Foley putting himself through

<v Speaker 1>that kind of abuse and taking that kind of risk.

<v Speaker 1>I would rather he didn't do that, but he did,

<v Speaker 1>and it just made for this incredible spectacle that still

<v Speaker 1>talked about and remembered to this day thirty years later.

<v Speaker 1>Aaron from Boston. We are coming up on one year

<v Speaker 1>since WWE acquired Triple A. This along with the partnership

<v Speaker 1>with TNA, made me wonder if we could see a

<v Speaker 1>similar situation to when Vince bought the territories. WWE already

<v Speaker 1>owns Triple A. They have a partnership with TNA that

<v Speaker 1>could lead to a potential acquisition down the road. AW

<v Speaker 1>is partnered with CMLL in New Japan and already owns

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor. Can you see a scenario where many

<v Speaker 1>of these other promotions are absorbed into the Big two,

<v Speaker 1>leading to the consolidation of promotions. No, CMLL is not

<v Speaker 1>going to be absorbed into AW. New Japan is not

<v Speaker 1>going to be absorbed into AW. TNA is not going

<v Speaker 1>to be absorbed into WWE. Even if they were to

<v Speaker 1>buy them. I feel like they would continue to run

<v Speaker 1>it as a separate entity, basically as like a feeder

<v Speaker 1>system to them, which they kind of already are for

<v Speaker 1>being honest. I mean, if they want somebody from TNA

<v Speaker 1>and t and those TNA talents get win, that WWE

<v Speaker 1>may have an interest in them. We know where they're going,

<v Speaker 1>like nine times out of ten, we know where they're

<v Speaker 1>where they're gonna end up going. Look at Jordan Grace,

<v Speaker 1>look at Joe Hendry, Leon Slater will likely end up

<v Speaker 1>on that same list. I mean, it's just it's inevitable.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't see them being absorbed so much as

<v Speaker 1>here's the bigger issue. Okay, And I think somebody where

<v Speaker 1>did I see this? It might have been some thread

<v Speaker 1>somebody shared with me on Reddit. They were asking me

<v Speaker 1>about PWG recently, which kind of came out of nowhere.

<v Speaker 1>I haven't heard anything about PWG in the longest time,

<v Speaker 1>and they were asking me about it, and somebody had

<v Speaker 1>made a comment that like PWG if they wanted to

<v Speaker 1>do like the Battle of Los Angeles or something right, like,

<v Speaker 1>they can't do it now because look at all of

<v Speaker 1>the talent that has been signed up between WWE and

<v Speaker 1>especially aw Right, because there's a lot of aw talents

<v Speaker 1>that you could see in like a modern day Bola.

<v Speaker 1>How the hell would that even work. Most of these

<v Speaker 1>people are now under contract to Tony Kahn and a

<v Speaker 1>lot of these PEO people, Like, it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>very difficult for people to lose and certain match finishes,

<v Speaker 1>that's going to be a problem. Like it's no wonder

<v Speaker 1>they can't do it, because it would be impossible. It

<v Speaker 1>would be a logistical nightmare to even attempt to do

<v Speaker 1>something like that. So when you have a situation like

<v Speaker 1>this where you have so many people that are being

<v Speaker 1>signed up, especially by one promotion in particular, that will

<v Speaker 1>have an effect on certain things like that. But I

<v Speaker 1>don't think we're in any sort of imminent danger of

<v Speaker 1>seeing anything like we saw on Territory Days. Joseph from Silsby, Texas.

<v Speaker 1>What are some of the Undertaker's most underrated Wrestlemanium matches?

<v Speaker 1>His WrestleMania seventeen match with Triple H for sure. I

<v Speaker 1>see a lot of people always mentioning the end of

<v Speaker 1>an error match at twenty eight, But their first match

<v Speaker 1>at seventeen was great and I think it deserves more

<v Speaker 1>love than it gets. His match with Diesel their WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>twelve that's underrated. I would even say his match with

<v Speaker 1>Rick Flair WrestleMania eighteen. It may not be the masterpiece

<v Speaker 1>that twenty five was with Shawn Michaels, but that ended

<v Speaker 1>up being one of Flair's better matches from that run

<v Speaker 1>and the Spinebusters spot with arn Anderson doing that quick

<v Speaker 1>run in that was just tremendous jesse from Dallas, Texas.

<v Speaker 1>Do you think in hindsight WrestleMania forty was the pinnacle

<v Speaker 1>of the Triple H era so far? It seems that

<v Speaker 1>since that show they've never really matched the hyper quality

<v Speaker 1>of that period. Since that night in Philly and buy

<v Speaker 1>or sell toxicity by system of a down or vulgar

<v Speaker 1>display of power by Pantera by on toxicity, Don't tell

<v Speaker 1>Kit Wilson I said that, and yes, Cody finishing history

<v Speaker 1>and the rematch was the pinnacle of the Triple H

<v Speaker 1>creative era so far bar none. They have not had

<v Speaker 1>a story or an ending as big since then. But

<v Speaker 1>that was also building from the moment Cody came back

<v Speaker 1>to the company and he cut that promo on that

<v Speaker 1>raw after WrestleMania. You know, Rock going heel is the

<v Speaker 1>final Boss and his inclusion that just made it that

<v Speaker 1>much more hype. Nothing has come close since then. Casey

<v Speaker 1>from Philly. A non wrestling question for you, what are

<v Speaker 1>your top three favorite movie directors of all time? M

<v Speaker 1>You know that's a loaded question because there are so many.

<v Speaker 1>I'll say this, I think Christopher Nolan may end up

<v Speaker 1>there when all is said and done. You know, he's

<v Speaker 1>still pretty young, but he put together an amazing body

<v Speaker 1>of work. Right the Dark Knights inception. I haven't seen

<v Speaker 1>them yet, but I know the Prestige and Oppenheimer. They

<v Speaker 1>won all kinds of awards, so he may get there.

<v Speaker 1>Dark Knight is my favorite movie ever, so it's kind

<v Speaker 1>of weird for me not to have him on my list.

<v Speaker 1>But if I had to narrow it down to three,

<v Speaker 1>you've heard me talk about my love of John Carpenter films.

<v Speaker 1>If I'm making a list of my personal top three,

<v Speaker 1>Carpenter is my number one, and you can put these

<v Speaker 1>in whatever order you want. I'm not ranking them, but

<v Speaker 1>for me, it's John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese

<v Speaker 1>and David from Sacramento, California. I'm a little delayed on this,

<v Speaker 1>but these are the highlights of the recent one hundred

<v Speaker 1>and sixty nine Men twenty twenty six sound off rumble

<v Speaker 1>and he thanks everyone for voting. So basically with the

<v Speaker 1>Be the Booker stuff that we do on the streams,

<v Speaker 1>sometimes we'll have a poll up that he puts together.

<v Speaker 1>He'll go through some of the matches that were booked

<v Speaker 1>and everything. Anyway, this is a fun thing that he does.

<v Speaker 1>This is the based on the voting that you guys did.

<v Speaker 1>This is the card as it looks like. And these

<v Speaker 1>are these are actual matches that were booked in our

<v Speaker 1>Be the Booker segment. But the final two are the

<v Speaker 1>Fiend Bray Wyatt and Stone Cold Steve Austin. And this

<v Speaker 1>is the one hundred and sixty nine man rumble that

<v Speaker 1>they the final two Austin and the Fiend. The final

<v Speaker 1>four includes Kurt Angle and Razor Ramone. Face off moments

<v Speaker 1>include Jim Cornett against Kenny Omega, Yoko Zuna and the

<v Speaker 1>Rock against Roman Reigns and the USOS. And he says

<v Speaker 1>John Cena hits a high fly flow and Hiroshi Tanahashi

<v Speaker 1>hits an STF and al Bundy eliminates Moose. Okay, sure

<v Speaker 1>al Bundy eliminates Moose. I do like that and most

<v Speaker 1>eliminations I like this. Brett the hitman Heart. That's a

<v Speaker 1>good note to end on there, David, thank you. If

<v Speaker 1>you have questions for the mailbag, you could email me

<v Speaker 1>the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com. Don't forget this Tuesday,

<v Speaker 1>episode number six of The Uncrowned Wrestling Show on the

<v Speaker 1>Ariel hell Wani Show feed wherever you get your podcasts from,

<v Speaker 1>each and every single Tuesday. We're already up to episode

<v Speaker 1>six this week. And don't forget we have some YouTube

<v Speaker 1>shorts now that are popping up on the YouTube channel

<v Speaker 1>for those of you that like the shorts content. Thanks

<v Speaker 1>to Jack for all of his help with that, and

<v Speaker 1>you can follow me on YouTube solo moster sounds off

<v Speaker 1>of the official channel. We are getting very close to

<v Speaker 1>ninety one thousand subscribers on there. We're only we're less

<v Speaker 1>than two hundred away, so help get me to ninety

<v Speaker 1>one k I'm going to be all over the YouTube

<v Speaker 1>channel this week. Tomorrow night we got the Raw post show,

<v Speaker 1>Big Raw Tomorrow Night three, sixteen day in San Antonio.

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns is back, brock Lesnar is back, aj Lee

<v Speaker 1>is wrestling on the show. It's a big night. And

<v Speaker 1>then of course Tuesday is the Uncrowned Show. As I mentioned,

<v Speaker 1>that'll be dropping on Ariels Feed. Tuesday night will be

<v Speaker 1>a brand new episode of Tuesday Night Titans over on

<v Speaker 1>JD's channel. Wednesday night is the Post Revolution Dynamite, so

<v Speaker 1>we will have the Post Revolution Dynamite post show, and

<v Speaker 1>then Friday night is SmackDown and then don't forget Saturday Brentwood,

<v Speaker 1>New York House of Glory SuperClash. I will be there

<v Speaker 1>eight pm. Tickets still available Hog Wrestling dot Net. Hope

<v Speaker 1>to see some of you. There got a lot of

<v Speaker 1>big names too lined up. I actually think I could

<v Speaker 1>have sworn that I saw Strikeforce on the lineup for

<v Speaker 1>the big event doing a signing. I think they got

<v Speaker 1>Rick Martel and Tito Santana together for that, so I

<v Speaker 1>have to go check out. I haven't looked at the

<v Speaker 1>updated lineup yet of talent they have. The convention runs

<v Speaker 1>from ten am to four pm. That's a separate ticket

<v Speaker 1>if you want to buy that. The Hog Show begins

<v Speaker 1>at eight pm. But it's always fun because there's just

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of people there and I will be there

<v Speaker 1>as well. Be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great

<v Speaker 1>rest of your week. I will be back with you

<v Speaker 1>next Sunday for episode nine fifty six of the Sound

<v Speaker 1>of Until then, take care, guys, I'll see you tonight

<v Speaker 1>for the Revolution review.

<v Speaker 2>The Solemn Monster sounds off.

<v Speaker 1>And you know, the matches going along here in the matches,

<v Speaker 1>fine and some fans in the crowd attempted to start

<v Speaker 1>a this is Awesome hit, which of course is one

<v Speaker 1>of the most overused and abused chance at all of wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>They chanted when we are seeing something awesome. They chanted

<v Speaker 1>when something is not awesome. They chanted during the commercial break,

<v Speaker 1>so they chanted as they're coming into the building. They

<v Speaker 1>chanted as they're leaving the building. They chanted as they

<v Speaker 1>just went, you know, fifteen seconds with their girlfriend in bed.

<v Speaker 1>They chant at all different times. It means nothing at

<v Speaker 1>this point.

<v Speaker 2>Well, Solo Monsters Sounds off, bringing you the good, the bad,

<v Speaker 2>and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus

<v Speaker 2>content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,

<v Speaker 2>and Ax The Solo Monster.

<v Speaker 1>I Love you so Young,