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

<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, Hearty. Is that pet patison you have legs?

<v Speaker 1>Week I was ninety nine percent positive it was just

<v Speaker 1>chessed up.

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

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

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

<v Speaker 1>Happy Easter and happy Passover to all those celebrating. This

<v Speaker 1>is episode nine to fifty eight of The Solemn Monster

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off for Easter Sunday, April fifth, twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>I am the Solemn Monster. It's hard to believe. This

<v Speaker 1>week coming up is one year since Kevin Castle passed

<v Speaker 1>away of the Downtoni and Kevin Castle Show. My thoughts

<v Speaker 1>are with DT, the Soup Boys, Mission, Joey, and Kev's

<v Speaker 1>brother jo On this week. He has definitely missed one

<v Speaker 1>of the ogs of the wrestling podcast game. And if

<v Speaker 1>you are so inclined, maybe considered donating to an animal

<v Speaker 1>rescue or maybe donating your time and fostering. I know

<v Speaker 1>keV was a big animal lover, especially cats. We are

<v Speaker 1>two weeks out from WrestleMania and I feel the need

<v Speaker 1>to rant this week. You don't mind that, do you.

<v Speaker 1>I've got a lot to get off my chest about

<v Speaker 1>what we saw on Friday night and what has been

<v Speaker 1>reported on it since then, all of the fallout from

<v Speaker 1>the Randy Orton, Pat McAfee, Cody Rhodes debacle, and I've

<v Speaker 1>got other updates for the WrestleMania card as well where

<v Speaker 1>things stand on that front. John Cena is back, Gunther

<v Speaker 1>has resurfaced. A lot to get to. Plus, I was

<v Speaker 1>away and I didn't do a Dynamite review this week,

<v Speaker 1>and naturally something kind of big happened, because of course

<v Speaker 1>it did, So you're gonna get my first run Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>thoughts today instead. There's also some controversy with Mercedes Monet

<v Speaker 1>dropping the last of her indie titles kind of and

<v Speaker 1>Willie Max comments on Twitter he's not very happy with

<v Speaker 1>Tony Kahn right now and they are probably not very

<v Speaker 1>happy with him either, So we're gonna get into all that.

<v Speaker 1>If you would like to support the show and make

<v Speaker 1>a PayPal donation, it's always appreciated. You can go to

<v Speaker 1>the solomonster dot com PayPal link. It's at the top

<v Speaker 1>of the page. Ten dollars or more, we'll get you

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

<v Speaker 1>thank you to the Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, The

<v Speaker 1>Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison so App, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,

<v Speaker 1>The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iicherd, Big Time, Boris Weinman, Night Stalker,

<v Speaker 1>nif Alsafar, Killshot, Keith Hart, Daniel Jackson, Thank you, Snap

<v Speaker 1>into It. Happy Birthday to Alex celebrating a birthday here

<v Speaker 1>on Easter Sunday. And the five Star Kid Joshua of Thornville,

<v Speaker 1>who wrote in to let everyone know that the final

<v Speaker 1>part of his GTA Vice City playthrough is up and

<v Speaker 1>going forward, every playthrough will be uploaded on Saturdays for

<v Speaker 1>his gaming channel on YouTube just search for jdf Games

<v Speaker 1>and the audio novel will be up every Sunday on

<v Speaker 1>his main channel, which is jdf VA, so that is

<v Speaker 1>where you can find him. House Glory has a pretty

<v Speaker 1>big show coming up called Culture Clash from the Pearl

<v Speaker 1>Theater at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas Thursday night,

<v Speaker 1>April sixteenth. We are less than two weeks away with

<v Speaker 1>an absolutely loaded lineup that the Hog Tag Team champions

<v Speaker 1>Matt and Jeff Hardy in action, and we should be

<v Speaker 1>about ready to announce that matchup this week, possibly as

<v Speaker 1>early as tomorrow, and that all works out, it's a

<v Speaker 1>pretty big one. Charles Mason's going to be defending his

<v Speaker 1>Hog World Championship against Michael Oku first time ever, Bandido

<v Speaker 1>takes on Amazing Red Brody King challenges Zillapot two. Shatzi

<v Speaker 1>is going to be defending her Hog Women's Championship against

<v Speaker 1>Charlie the former Dakota Kai making her Hog debut, and

<v Speaker 1>Ricky Sosa dancing his way into House of Glory he

<v Speaker 1>takes on cash Flow Ken Broadway. All that more tickets

<v Speaker 1>are on sale right now hog Wrestling dot Net. I'm

<v Speaker 1>getting ready to fly into Vegas myself next week, looking

<v Speaker 1>forward to seeing some of you there. Then we have

<v Speaker 1>a Glory at the Globe on Friday night, May first,

<v Speaker 1>at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, our La return

<v Speaker 1>with Speedball Mike Bailey. He's coming in to take on

<v Speaker 1>the Amazing Red and thunder Rosa will be in action

<v Speaker 1>as well, so a lot of great stuff coming up

<v Speaker 1>and hopefully I'll get to see some faces out west.

<v Speaker 1>Can be doing a lot of flying over these next

<v Speaker 1>few weeks. Also, I have to mention this, there is

<v Speaker 1>a new book out from Guy Evans, the author of

<v Speaker 1>the Nitro Book, which is the only resource that you

<v Speaker 1>really need if you want to the real ins and

<v Speaker 1>outs of the Nitro era in WCW. He is out

<v Speaker 1>with a new book called Beyond Nitro Untold Stories from

<v Speaker 1>the WCW Era over thirteen hours of audio narrated by

<v Speaker 1>Evans himself, and the book is informed by over one

<v Speaker 1>hundred new interviews, hundreds of internal company documents, confidential corporate materials,

<v Speaker 1>and never before seen financial records. So if you love

<v Speaker 1>stuff like this, you really want to get down and

<v Speaker 1>dirty with the ins and outs of what was going

<v Speaker 1>on behind the scenes, you were going to want to

<v Speaker 1>hear this one. And best of all, you can get

<v Speaker 1>it for free right now. When you use my audible

<v Speaker 1>link to start your free trial. Just go to audibletrial

<v Speaker 1>dot com slash solom Monster. You get one free audio

<v Speaker 1>book you can make Beyond Nitro that book, and if

<v Speaker 1>you're an Amazon Prime member, you actually get two free books.

<v Speaker 1>When you use my link, and there's plenty of other

<v Speaker 1>great wrestling books to choose from, or you can go

<v Speaker 1>for the combo if you want. You can get Nitro

<v Speaker 1>and Beyond Nitro, but you got to sign up Audibletrial

<v Speaker 1>dot com slash Solo Monster. I don't want to start

<v Speaker 1>off angry this week, so let's start with this. I

<v Speaker 1>don't watch NXT week to week anymore like I used to.

<v Speaker 1>I'll dip in here and there. But I did watch

<v Speaker 1>Stand and Deliver last night, which normally would take place

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania weekend. But this year, with the show being out

<v Speaker 1>on the West Coast, they decided it didn't really make

<v Speaker 1>a whole lot of sense to have the show start

<v Speaker 1>so early in the morning like it did last year

<v Speaker 1>the day of WrestleMania, so instead they held it two

<v Speaker 1>weeks early in the Saint Louis area, which was for

<v Speaker 1>the better and I enjoyed it. Now it is nothing

<v Speaker 1>like those old takeover shows, especially the WrestleMania weekend takeover

<v Speaker 1>shows in the bigger arenas and all the banger matches.

<v Speaker 1>It's nothing like that anymore. Yeah, I'm not up on

<v Speaker 1>all the stories, but what I saw I thought range

<v Speaker 1>from good to very good. Sean Michaels was out to

<v Speaker 1>introduce Sexy Red to No Pop, even though they were

<v Speaker 1>in her hometown, so more celebrity. He's gonna be talking

<v Speaker 1>a lot about them this week. She said nothing of

<v Speaker 1>any significance, nothing of any value, and then the two

<v Speaker 1>of them told the crowd to suck it, never forget.

<v Speaker 1>This is the same woman who sells her own line

<v Speaker 1>of lip gloss with names like Gonorrhea, Yellow Discharge, Sex

<v Speaker 1>on My Period and Booty Hole Brown. I think he

<v Speaker 1>was a famous wrestler from the nineteen seventies. We have

<v Speaker 1>Bad News Brown going into the Hall of Fame this year.

<v Speaker 1>I'm waiting for Bootyhole Brown to get his induction. He

<v Speaker 1>was a trailblazer. This is who they trot out there.

<v Speaker 1>We had j C. Jane defending the NXT Women's Championship

<v Speaker 1>against Lola Weis and Kendall Gray. I did think after

<v Speaker 1>she lost to jac at New Year's Evil. I remember

<v Speaker 1>saying that it was the right move. I defended it

<v Speaker 1>because I figured, you know, save Kendall's title win for

<v Speaker 1>Stand and Deliver, And she did challenge for the championship

<v Speaker 1>here at Stand and Deliver and Kendall Gray did not

<v Speaker 1>win the title at Stand and Deliver. Lola Weis did.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm a fan of Kendall's work. I think she's

<v Speaker 1>gonna be a big star for them. She's still only

<v Speaker 1>twenty four. Her time will come. I know Lola has

<v Speaker 1>had a few shots at the championship in the past

<v Speaker 1>and always fell short, so I guess they felt like

<v Speaker 1>this was her time. You know, she really couldn't afford

<v Speaker 1>another loss. And this is going back to even when

<v Speaker 1>rox Sane Perez was the NXT Women's champion, Lola was

<v Speaker 1>just never able to win the title. So she got

<v Speaker 1>a nice moment here. I thought they all look good

<v Speaker 1>here in this match.

<v Speaker 2>J C.

<v Speaker 1>Jane maybe a little too much because in the final

<v Speaker 1>closing minutes of the match, I lost track of how

<v Speaker 1>many times they blacked out the screen and there were

<v Speaker 1>people in the live chat going, why are there technical

<v Speaker 1>issues on this show? Because by the way, the show

<v Speaker 1>streamed on YouTube because now they're not on Peacock anymore

<v Speaker 1>with the NXT stuff, so it was very easy to

<v Speaker 1>just go to YouTube and then just watching the Stand

<v Speaker 1>and Deliver in YouTube, and they had the live chat

<v Speaker 1>on the side. Everybody's complaining of it, and it's very

<v Speaker 1>clear why they were blacking out the screen. They blacked

<v Speaker 1>it out because jac was having a wardrobe malfunction. Multiple times,

<v Speaker 1>we had more blackouts here than Cuba is having right now.

<v Speaker 1>And in one of these cases, they didn't hit the

<v Speaker 1>button fast enough and one of them slipped through. They

<v Speaker 1>slipped out and they slipped through, and I got to

<v Speaker 1>see more of j C. Jane than I ever have before.

<v Speaker 1>But she is no longer the NXT Women's Champion. It

<v Speaker 1>seems pretty clear to me that she's due for a

<v Speaker 1>call up. I'm assuming coming out of WrestleMania, we will

<v Speaker 1>be seeing j C. Jane on the main roster. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 1>I don't really know what the end game would be

<v Speaker 1>for her if they just kept her around NXT. She's

<v Speaker 1>made great improvements from being a background player in a

<v Speaker 1>small faction a few years ago. I think she's ready

<v Speaker 1>for the call up. We had Los Americanos Ryo and

<v Speaker 1>Bravo challenging the Vanity Prop Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes

<v Speaker 1>for the NXT Tag Team Championship. Good tag team match here.

<v Speaker 1>These guys are very young. I mean I know they

<v Speaker 1>were from Evolve now they're the NXT Tag Team Champions.

<v Speaker 1>They've been champions for a little bit of time. I

<v Speaker 1>thought it was a good match. I mean, look, you

<v Speaker 1>got Pete Dunn and Tyler Bait on the other side

<v Speaker 1>of the ring, so you know you're gonna get a

<v Speaker 1>good match out of it. They're doing all their especially

<v Speaker 1>Tyler Bait, you know, doing all their trademark spots. I mean, look,

<v Speaker 1>I mean they're doing the silly gimmick. It is what

<v Speaker 1>it is. I mean it's better than I guess not

<v Speaker 1>using them at all. But hopefully at some point in

<v Speaker 1>the future the mask will come off and they'll get

<v Speaker 1>some sort of pushes themselves again. But this was good,

<v Speaker 1>good tag team match, and the Vanity Project retain sol

<v Speaker 1>Ruka and Zaria. They were best friends and tag team

<v Speaker 1>partners for some time up until recently they had the split,

<v Speaker 1>and so this was their first singles match. They had

<v Speaker 1>Zaria kick out of the Soul Snatcher technically twice or

<v Speaker 1>not twice, but technically after two of them, because she

<v Speaker 1>took one on the ramp and then she got a

<v Speaker 1>proper one as she kicked out. I feel like Zaria

<v Speaker 1>never wins anything, and so she didn't win this match,

<v Speaker 1>either Soul Ruka picks up the w I'm surprised that

<v Speaker 1>Soul wasn't called up after Saturday Night's main event in December,

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi was called up. Javon Evans was called up. She'd

<v Speaker 1>beat Bailey, didn't she. I think she'd beat Bailey on

<v Speaker 1>that show. And she's the only one who really did

<v Speaker 1>not get the call up, and I have to assume

<v Speaker 1>that's going to be coming soon as well. Her and

<v Speaker 1>jac should be making their way up to the main

<v Speaker 1>roster at some point after WrestleMania. Maybe not immediately after Mania,

<v Speaker 1>but at some point in these next few months. I

<v Speaker 1>would expect to see them on either Raw or SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>Johnny Gargano has not been having a good few months.

<v Speaker 1>He lost his tag team partner. He's been sleeping on

<v Speaker 1>top of crates like a homeless person, just looking all

<v Speaker 1>disheveled and all bummed out. So Johnny Gargano was going

<v Speaker 1>to find himself. He's been in a rut. This was

<v Speaker 1>his chance to prove that he was still Johnny wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>so he challenged Miles Bourne for the Men's North American Championship.

<v Speaker 1>This was nowhere close to the classics that Gargana has

<v Speaker 1>had in NXT before. I thought it was a solid match,

<v Speaker 1>nothing terribly great. It was a way to give Bourne

<v Speaker 1>a credible win over a former NXT champion, although maybe

<v Speaker 1>it would have meant more if he wasn't laying on

<v Speaker 1>boxes for the past couple of months. But I enjoyed

<v Speaker 1>the match, you know, for what a wi I'm not

<v Speaker 1>really a big fan of that finish that Miles Bourne has,

<v Speaker 1>but you know, it served its purpose. It gave him

<v Speaker 1>a big win. Tatum Paxley against Blake Monroe for Paxley's

<v Speaker 1>Women's North American Championship that Blake entered with because she

<v Speaker 1>had stolen the belt although she was not the champion.

<v Speaker 1>I was impressed by Tatum in this match. I already

<v Speaker 1>know what Blake Monroe brings to the table. She's chilling

<v Speaker 1>out on the NXT roster until they're ready to just

<v Speaker 1>call her up. I mean, she doesn't have to be

<v Speaker 1>down there. But Tatum, I was impressed by her here

<v Speaker 1>in this match. I thought it was a good match.

<v Speaker 1>Tatum retains, Blake loses. I'm not a big fan of that,

<v Speaker 1>but I don't think she's going to be down there

<v Speaker 1>for too long. So Tatum is the one that they're

<v Speaker 1>really trying to build up into something. It looks like

<v Speaker 1>it's working. I mean, I know she's got a pretty

<v Speaker 1>solid fan following. We'll see if that carries over to

<v Speaker 1>the main roster eventually. But in the main event, it

<v Speaker 1>was Joe Hendry who won a ladder match for the

<v Speaker 1>vacant NXT Championship two months ago after Oba Femi said

<v Speaker 1>he didn't want it anymore, defending that title in a

<v Speaker 1>four way against Ricky Saints, Ethan Page and Tony DiAngelo.

<v Speaker 1>Tony DiAngelo is not doing the Don gimmick anymore. He

<v Speaker 1>came back. He was out for a while and he

<v Speaker 1>came back. Look you know what he came back as

<v Speaker 1>he came back looking like he had gone into witness

<v Speaker 1>protection and he had to change his entire look, in

<v Speaker 1>his entire identity, and he came back looking like a caveman.

<v Speaker 1>He kind of reminds me of Nick Camarado from AW

<v Speaker 1>a little bit. Actually, he looks like a more jacked

<v Speaker 1>up version of Elijah. But I like it because I

<v Speaker 1>have said for years the Don character it had a ceiling.

<v Speaker 1>It was too limiting, it was too cartoonish. And never

<v Speaker 1>would have worked on the main roster, or if it did,

<v Speaker 1>it would have worked for a period of time, but

<v Speaker 1>then he would have had a ceiling on how high

<v Speaker 1>he could go. So I think this is something that

<v Speaker 1>he needed. And he was impressive in this match. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>everybody was. They were doing the story where Ricky Saint

<v Speaker 1>and Ethan Page where they were trying to work together

<v Speaker 1>on the same page, and of course you knew that

<v Speaker 1>wasn't going to last for very long. And then the

<v Speaker 1>finishing sequence, I like that they did a spot where

<v Speaker 1>the steps had been moved over to the announced desk,

<v Speaker 1>and Page and Saints were going back and forth. They

<v Speaker 1>were fighting up there, and then here comes DeAngelo like

<v Speaker 1>running around the ring. He charges in and tack them

<v Speaker 1>both and everybody goes crashing through the announced desk. And

<v Speaker 1>then it came down to Joe Henry and Tony DiAngelo,

<v Speaker 1>and Tony d picks up the win. And so for

<v Speaker 1>all the years he's been languishing in NXT, and so

<v Speaker 1>many people have come and gone, they've made it their

<v Speaker 1>way up to the main roster, everybody except him, he

<v Speaker 1>finally wins the NXT Championship. This is a very good match,

<v Speaker 1>and it feels to me like a good time for

<v Speaker 1>Joe Hendry to make his way up to either Raw

<v Speaker 1>or SmackDown soon now that they got that NXT title

<v Speaker 1>run out of the way. I was kind of surprised

<v Speaker 1>that he went there to begin with once they signed

<v Speaker 1>him full time, because he had already kind of had

<v Speaker 1>a run there. But he landed back in NXT. He

<v Speaker 1>spent sixty days or whatever it was as the NXT

<v Speaker 1>champion had his run. You know, he dropped it to

<v Speaker 1>somebody else that they now can try to build up,

<v Speaker 1>and Joe Hendry, I think, can make his way elsewhere again.

<v Speaker 1>He's one of these names. I don't really know that

<v Speaker 1>there's much else for him to do. Look at everything

<v Speaker 1>he's done in NXT, right, he was there when he

<v Speaker 1>was the TNA champion. He was there popping out of

<v Speaker 1>refrigerators and popping out of garbage cans, and he was

<v Speaker 1>popping out of doing all this comedy stuff. And then

<v Speaker 1>he won the NXT Championshow what is left for him

<v Speaker 1>to do? Nothing? So when the show was over, I

<v Speaker 1>enjoyed it. I thought it was whatever it was, three

<v Speaker 1>hours or so well spent. Not the blowaway show that

<v Speaker 1>we are used to getting from NXT years ago over

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania Weekend. But I thought for what it was, it

<v Speaker 1>was a fine show. It certainly didn't offend me like

<v Speaker 1>other shows this week. Now, four months after retiring from

<v Speaker 1>the ring, WWE has already dragged John Cena back as

<v Speaker 1>he will host this year's WrestleMania. He posted a video

<v Speaker 1>from the set of his Netflix comedy that he's currently

<v Speaker 1>filming that is due for release in October, saying, retired

<v Speaker 1>life in the Sun. I'm kidding. Check out the backdrop.

<v Speaker 1>Sure shooting a movie for Netflix called One Attempt Remaining,

<v Speaker 1>which you can see when it comes out. I'm also

<v Speaker 1>on the road, which is ironic because there's a road

<v Speaker 1>to WrestleMania going on and Hollywood is really close to Vegas.

<v Speaker 1>Rumor around this town is WrestleMania needs a host. Well,

<v Speaker 1>I'm already on that road, so I will see you

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania. And Fightful Select reports that the decision for

<v Speaker 1>Sena to host WrestleMania was made to help boost ticket

<v Speaker 1>sales for the event, and wrestle Votes Radio reported on

<v Speaker 1>Thursday that there were no plans to use Sena at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>At the time of his match with Gunther. The plan

<v Speaker 1>was pitched to him in February and he agreed to

<v Speaker 1>do it. And they also say Sina signed a new

<v Speaker 1>long term deal with WWE that does not include him

<v Speaker 1>performing in the ring, and of course it doesn't because

<v Speaker 1>he is retired. And I take him at his word

<v Speaker 1>that we will not see John Cena in a match

<v Speaker 1>ever again. He's I know we've heard this before, but

<v Speaker 1>I really I take him at his word on that.

<v Speaker 1>I believe that we will never see him back in

<v Speaker 1>the ring, you know, ding ding Ding in an actual

<v Speaker 1>match ever again. And there are other roles that he

<v Speaker 1>can play in this company as an ambassador potentially I

<v Speaker 1>would say as a coach. But like we have seen

<v Speaker 1>him and heard stories about him dropping in, like at

<v Speaker 1>the Dungeon where Naddy and TJ are training people down

<v Speaker 1>in Florida. I think he checked out one of those

<v Speaker 1>Bailey Loadstone seminars that she's done. You know, he's like

<v Speaker 1>a wrestling savant. He's still a wrestling fan. He wants

<v Speaker 1>to be involved in some way. I think he does

<v Speaker 1>have advice that he can impart on people. I don't

<v Speaker 1>see him being like a coach on a regular basis

<v Speaker 1>or a producer or anything like that. But I think

<v Speaker 1>there's any number of roles that someone like John Cena

<v Speaker 1>can serve, depending on, you know, his availability and what

<v Speaker 1>his schedule is like, because he's still filming movies. By

<v Speaker 1>the way, that movie he did a few years ago,

<v Speaker 1>Coyote Versus Acme, that David Zaslov shelved and it looked

<v Speaker 1>like it was going to be gone forever. I mean

<v Speaker 1>supposedly he wanted it deleted and they were going to

<v Speaker 1>get some sort of tax break, you know, for never

<v Speaker 1>releasing it into theaters, and there was his whole uproar. Anyway,

<v Speaker 1>that movie is finally coming out. I think it's like

<v Speaker 1>August twenty sixth, whatever that Friday is, But later this

<v Speaker 1>summer it's actually finally coming out in theaters Coyote Versus Acme,

<v Speaker 1>and John Cena has a role in that movie. So

<v Speaker 1>Fy has a whole bunch of movies coming out this

<v Speaker 1>year that I have to see, so that'll be one

<v Speaker 1>of them. As far as Sena being involved in WrestleMania, Look,

<v Speaker 1>there was a lot made about this on social media

<v Speaker 1>this week. There were people who were mocking it. There

<v Speaker 1>were people who were upset. Oh, you couldn't wait. You

<v Speaker 1>just retired. It's only been three months, four months, you know,

<v Speaker 1>maybe next year? Why you're bringing them back this year?

<v Speaker 1>It's very clear that they are trying to squeeze more

<v Speaker 1>juice out of the orange. When it comes to John Cena,

<v Speaker 1>whatever drawing power he may have left for them in

<v Speaker 1>a non wrestling capacity, they are going to take advantage

<v Speaker 1>of that. It doesn't bother me that he's on the

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania show. Right. If they can get John Cena for WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>then why wouldn't you get John Cena for WrestleMania. I

<v Speaker 1>saw people hating on this, and I can't bring myself

<v Speaker 1>to be upset about something like this. He's the fucking host.

<v Speaker 1>He's not coming out of retirement. Although he did say

<v Speaker 1>after December thirteenth that we would never see him in

<v Speaker 1>the jorts ever again. So is he gonna show not

<v Speaker 1>just the jeorts, but like the jorts and the T

<v Speaker 1>shirt and the hat. He said he would never wear

<v Speaker 1>that again after his retirement match. So is he going

<v Speaker 1>to show up in a suit and tie like he's

<v Speaker 1>hosting the Oscars? That would be my guess. He's gonna

<v Speaker 1>take this hosting gig very seriously. We're gonna get to

<v Speaker 1>dapper John Cena Wrestlemaniam. But if the idea was agreed

<v Speaker 1>to in February, here's my thing about this. Like, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not upset about John Cena being a part of WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>that's fine, But if the idea was agreed to in February,

<v Speaker 1>I have no idea why they waited so long to

<v Speaker 1>announce this, Like if the idea was to gin up

<v Speaker 1>ticket sales, Like, do they think it's mostly locals who

<v Speaker 1>are coming to this show. People need to buy tickets,

<v Speaker 1>They need to book their flights, they need to book

<v Speaker 1>their hotel rooms. So many are already booked up as

<v Speaker 1>it is. But like, realistically, how many people who weren't

<v Speaker 1>attending WrestleMania are suddenly going to spend all of that

<v Speaker 1>money on tickets, in airfare and hotel because John Cena

<v Speaker 1>is hosting, not even wrestling, he's hosting the show. I

<v Speaker 1>think the answer is very few people. But if they

<v Speaker 1>made the move initially to try to drum up ticket sales,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know why they waited this life they really

<v Speaker 1>do think people will buy tickets and fly in and

<v Speaker 1>come to see it because John Cena is they're why

<v Speaker 1>the fuck would you wait an extra month? You know,

<v Speaker 1>month and a half. I mean, if this was the

<v Speaker 1>beginning of February, it's been two months. I have no

<v Speaker 1>idea why they waited so long. Doesn't make any sense

<v Speaker 1>to me. But I really don't think it's gonna move

<v Speaker 1>tickets one way or the other, which is why in

<v Speaker 1>the wake of the announcement they really did not move

<v Speaker 1>very many tickets. Night one has around thirty nine thousand

<v Speaker 1>tickets out. Night two is up around forty thousand, and

<v Speaker 1>that is not the paid number. That's the total number

<v Speaker 1>of tickets out, so that's paid and complimentary. That's almost

<v Speaker 1>nineteen percent behind where they were this time last year,

<v Speaker 1>so that three sixteen day promotion a few weeks ago

<v Speaker 1>helped close the gap a little bit, but they have

<v Speaker 1>slowed down a lot since then. They also did a

<v Speaker 1>no fee Friday sale with no ticket fees for WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>tickets for one day only, So they're trying everything they

<v Speaker 1>can except the one thing, the one thing that probably

<v Speaker 1>more than anything else, would help drum up ticket sales

<v Speaker 1>a little bit more, which is cutting the prices of

<v Speaker 1>the actual tickets to any significant degree. They have cut

<v Speaker 1>them down a little bit, but not a whole lot.

<v Speaker 1>Nose Bleeds were two hundred and seventy seven dollars a

<v Speaker 1>few weeks ago. They are down, but they are down

<v Speaker 1>to two hundred and twenty eight dollars not including taxes.

<v Speaker 1>Those are the cheapest seats to sit up in the

<v Speaker 1>nose Bleeds. It's still going to run you close to

<v Speaker 1>two hundred and fifty bucks per ticket. When you're desperate

<v Speaker 1>to sell tickets and they're not moving as fast as

<v Speaker 1>you would like for them to be, it can make

<v Speaker 1>you do desperate things like openly acknowledge on your television

<v Speaker 1>show that your biggest show of the year somehow, their word,

<v Speaker 1>somehow is still not sold out yet. That is what

<v Speaker 1>we saw on SmackDown on Friday night. SmackDown is the

<v Speaker 1>worst weekly wrestling show on television. This is no longer

<v Speaker 1>an isolated thing. These shows are getting progressively worse at

<v Speaker 1>a time when we are less than two weeks out

<v Speaker 1>from their biggest show of the year. Cody Roads against

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton should be a slam dunk main event for WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>They have held off on a proper program between these

<v Speaker 1>two men for years. Randy Orton hasn't done much of

<v Speaker 1>anything for the past few years. If we're being honest.

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhoads, he's had quite the adventure when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to the main event of WrestleMania. Three years ago, he

<v Speaker 1>had his first one with the Roman that was in Hollywood,

<v Speaker 1>and he lost. He lost so that they could squeeze

<v Speaker 1>another year out of Roman reigns in the Bloodline story,

<v Speaker 1>not so much to give Cody another year to marinate

<v Speaker 1>as much as that that was sort of the overarching reason.

<v Speaker 1>And that was very clear when the Rock came back

<v Speaker 1>and decided that he was finally ready to wrestle his cousin.

<v Speaker 1>So even though Cody Rhodes had won the Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>and they knew they knew by that point that Rock

<v Speaker 1>and Roman was the direction they were going to go

<v Speaker 1>in for WrestleMania. They had Cody Rhodes go out on

<v Speaker 1>television and step aside and willingly give his WrestleMania match

<v Speaker 1>to The Rock, which blew up in their faces in

<v Speaker 1>spectacular fashion. Rock realized this, he saw the reaction, and

<v Speaker 1>he did the right thing. He said, you know what,

<v Speaker 1>we need to pivot We heard that word a lot

<v Speaker 1>a couple of years ago. Pivot and pivot they did.

<v Speaker 1>We got Final Boss Rock out of the whole thing,

<v Speaker 1>and we got a Night one tag team match that

<v Speaker 1>bled directly into Night two, and then we got the

<v Speaker 1>Avengers endgame finish a WrestleMania forty It was great, one

<v Speaker 1>of the greatest WrestleMania endings of all time. That remains

<v Speaker 1>the peak of the Paul lovec creative era. He has

<v Speaker 1>not been able to match that since. It has been

<v Speaker 1>a steady decline from there. So Cody saw his WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>direction blown up and you know, medled in by outside forces.

<v Speaker 1>But they were able to paint a picture that turned

<v Speaker 1>out even better than the original, so it all worked

<v Speaker 1>out in the end. Fast forward to WrestleMania forty one.

<v Speaker 1>Again outside forces conspire to shake up Cody's story. At WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>Ari Emmanuel gets on the phone and we know this

<v Speaker 1>because the Rock has told us this already. Although some

<v Speaker 1>of the stuff that Rock says you got to take

<v Speaker 1>with a grain of salt, But this, this is the

<v Speaker 1>story that he told. Got a phone call from Ari

<v Speaker 1>Emmanuel saying, Dwayne, we need you. Tickets aren't selling fast

<v Speaker 1>enough for the elimination chamber. We need your Rock, and

<v Speaker 1>we end up with this bizarre story of Rock wanting

<v Speaker 1>Cody's soul, which then leads to Triple H getting the

<v Speaker 1>bright idea to turn John Cena heel during his retirement run.

<v Speaker 1>Years after people actually wanted to see John Cena turn heel.

<v Speaker 1>They turn him heel, and they do so without any

<v Speaker 1>sort of long term plan. They did it for a

<v Speaker 1>viral moment, and they got one. They got their viral

<v Speaker 1>moment that a lot of people were very excited about

<v Speaker 1>when it happened, and then we saw the follow up

<v Speaker 1>and reality set in that maybe this wasn't the best

<v Speaker 1>idea after all. So Rock decides, you know what, I

<v Speaker 1>don't want to have anything to do with this anymore,

<v Speaker 1>and we're left with Travis Scott taking an entire vacation

<v Speaker 1>week to make his way down to the ring in

<v Speaker 1>the middle of the WrestleMania main event, and Cody gets

<v Speaker 1>kicked in the dick. He loses in one of the

<v Speaker 1>worst Wrestlemaniam main events of all time. So you would

<v Speaker 1>think that they would be extra sensitive to avoid making

<v Speaker 1>the same mistake following year and screwing up Cody's WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>story for this year. But here we are now, for

<v Speaker 1>the third year in a row, Cody's WrestleMania direction has

<v Speaker 1>been turned upside down. It's almost like someone is trying

<v Speaker 1>to sabotage this man on purpose. I'm not saying they are,

<v Speaker 1>but boy, it sure comes off that way. In just

<v Speaker 1>the last three months, we've had reports that WWE wanted

<v Speaker 1>to do a third match between Cody Roads and Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns of WrestleMania, possibly inside Helen a Cell. But that

<v Speaker 1>fell apart. It fell apart because neither man wanted to

<v Speaker 1>lose to the other. Okay, that's my takeaway from all

<v Speaker 1>of that. I said it then and I still believe

<v Speaker 1>it now. So then it was Cody Roads and Drew McIntyre,

<v Speaker 1>possibly inside Helen a Cell at WrestleMania. Only the problem

<v Speaker 1>is they had already wrestled multiple times. It was like

<v Speaker 1>beating a dead horse at that point. I'm glad we

<v Speaker 1>didn't get that, although I'm starting to wonder, I'm sorry

<v Speaker 1>to have second guesses now as we look at what

<v Speaker 1>happened this past week. So instead, they put the title

<v Speaker 1>back on Cody on SmackDown, and they had Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>win the elimination chamber, and it's such a simple story

<v Speaker 1>to tell. The teacher against the student, the mentor and

<v Speaker 1>the mentee, Randy Orton vying for his fifteenth World championship

<v Speaker 1>after a six year drought. That's all it needed to be.

<v Speaker 1>How you position them is less important if you want

<v Speaker 1>it to be two babyfaces, or if you want Orton

<v Speaker 1>to go heal and Cody to be the babyface. Whatever.

<v Speaker 1>But the reality is the fans don't want to boo

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton. It's the same issue they had with John

<v Speaker 1>Cena last year. They did not want to boo that man,

<v Speaker 1>not in his final year. They didn't want to pay money,

<v Speaker 1>especially at these prices, to go see him one last

<v Speaker 1>time and have to boo him. And they wanted to

<v Speaker 1>see him break the record, which he did in the

<v Speaker 1>worst way imaginable. Like I look back at some of

<v Speaker 1>these layups that triple H has been fed John Cena's retirement,

<v Speaker 1>or you get to book out John cena retirement a year,

<v Speaker 1>you get to book out a story for John Cena

<v Speaker 1>breaking the record and winning number seventeen, and you think

<v Speaker 1>to yourself, man, they can't possibly screw up number seventeen,

<v Speaker 1>and yet they found a way to fuck up a

<v Speaker 1>short thing. Triple H doesn't drink okay, so instead of

<v Speaker 1>hold my beer, he said hold my poll in spring,

<v Speaker 1>and somehow he found a way to screw up what

<v Speaker 1>should have been a great story last year. It was

<v Speaker 1>a great angle a few weeks ago when Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>bloodied up Cody and left him for dead. That was great.

<v Speaker 1>That was a great, serious, intense angle. They were on

<v Speaker 1>the right track. And then Randy Orton started chatting with

<v Speaker 1>someone on the phone and we ended up with another

<v Speaker 1>mystery angle, and a long line of them that Triple

<v Speaker 1>H has done recently. He loves his mystery angles. It

<v Speaker 1>was completely unnecessary, but it got people talking. That's why

<v Speaker 1>they did it. And look, when you get people talking,

<v Speaker 1>that's a good thing. It's a good thing provided that

<v Speaker 1>you can stick the landing. WWE is not very good

<v Speaker 1>at that. You do an angle like this and you

<v Speaker 1>let it linger for a few weeks, people get their

<v Speaker 1>hopes up, Their minds begin to race with all kinds

<v Speaker 1>of names as to who could be on the other

<v Speaker 1>end of the line. Is it Cowboy Bob, is it

<v Speaker 1>Rick Flair? Is it Kevin Owens. Is it Stephanie McMahon,

<v Speaker 1>is it Shane McMahon, is it Vince McMahon, Is it

<v Speaker 1>Jim McMahon regaling Randy with tails of his great Super

<v Speaker 1>Bowl win with the Bears. I don't know why does

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton need to be talking to anyone on the phone.

<v Speaker 1>He's already admitted why he did what he did to Cody.

<v Speaker 1>Nobody told him to do it. Cody Rhoades gave him

<v Speaker 1>permission the minute he told him. I want the best

<v Speaker 1>version of Randy Orton. I want the viper. This is

<v Speaker 1>everything Randy just said in his promo on Friday, and

<v Speaker 1>it's like a switch got flipped, and so you know,

<v Speaker 1>he went He just went off on Cody. He didn't

<v Speaker 1>have anybody telling him what to do. He didn't need

<v Speaker 1>anybody else to tell him to attack Cody. He did

<v Speaker 1>that all on his own. But it turns out Pat

<v Speaker 1>McAfee was the voice on the other end of that phone.

<v Speaker 1>Pat McAfee showed up on SmackDown wearing a Randy Orton

<v Speaker 1>T shirt. He kicked Cody Rhodes in the dick, just

<v Speaker 1>like John Cena did last year, and this went over

<v Speaker 1>about as well as you would expect. People didn't know

<v Speaker 1>what to make of this. Some people were pissed off,

<v Speaker 1>some people were underwhelmed. Some people may have actually liked it, right,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, some people also like it when a dominatrix

<v Speaker 1>pours hot wax on their genitals. Everyone has their weird kinks.

<v Speaker 1>I don't judge, well, actually I do judge, but I

<v Speaker 1>do it silently without them knowing. McAfee said, Oh, a

<v Speaker 1>month ago, he was asked about returning to WWE, and

<v Speaker 1>he said he felt the business had passed him by.

<v Speaker 1>He thought the current product was shit. Randy Orton called

<v Speaker 1>him up and said the business had gone in a

<v Speaker 1>direction that he didn't like. And then McAfee brought up

<v Speaker 1>the attitude arrow the days of Stone Cold and the Rock.

<v Speaker 1>What happened to those days? Those fans had been forgotten? Today,

<v Speaker 1>he says, I have to watch two five foot five

<v Speaker 1>guys do a forty five minute Ironman match ten weeks

<v Speaker 1>straight for no rhyme or reason. When you've got Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton right there, he said, WrestleMania tickets somehow are still

<v Speaker 1>available when you have Randy Orton right there. Yes, Pat,

<v Speaker 1>the same Randy Orton being advertised for one of those

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania main events. Tickets are not selling great with Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton in the main event, great point, and he mentioned

<v Speaker 1>also that they are coming off recently their worst rated

<v Speaker 1>episode in SmackDown history, with a puppet for a champion

<v Speaker 1>representing everything that those older fans hate. And he then

<v Speaker 1>revealed that he was the one who has been on

<v Speaker 1>the phone at Randy Orton, So if there was any

<v Speaker 1>wonder well, maybe he's not the guy. I mean, sure,

<v Speaker 1>you could leave open a two percent possibility that they're

<v Speaker 1>swerving us and we come to find out it was

<v Speaker 1>somebody else. I wouldn't be surprised. They're looking at the

<v Speaker 1>reaction now and they're trying to come up with ways

<v Speaker 1>for it to be somebody else. Do I think that

<v Speaker 1>it is somebody else? Know? And they had Pat McAfee

<v Speaker 1>come straight out and say it was me. I was

<v Speaker 1>the voice on the other end of that phone telling

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton to kill everything, not just for his fifteenth

<v Speaker 1>world title, but because the business Cody is leading is

<v Speaker 1>terrible and Orton is going to save the fucking business.

<v Speaker 1>He says. They kept hammering that point home. We're here

<v Speaker 1>to save the business, save the business, which implies that

<v Speaker 1>the business is not doing as well as it used

<v Speaker 1>to be doing, which is the hell of a thing

<v Speaker 1>to admit on live TV, right, because that works so

<v Speaker 1>well when the McMahon stood in the ring back in

<v Speaker 1>twenty eighteen and they admitted that Monday Night Raw was

<v Speaker 1>a steaming pile of dogs shit I'm paraphrasing, and then

<v Speaker 1>proceeded to blame it, not on themselves, of course, but

<v Speaker 1>on Baron Corbin. It's Baron Corbin's fault that this show

<v Speaker 1>is so terrible. They turned it into a storyline how

<v Speaker 1>awful their television show was, and I don't recall there

<v Speaker 1>being much in the way of great change that followed that.

<v Speaker 1>In fact, I remember twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen being

<v Speaker 1>among the worst years in WWE history. The product was

<v Speaker 1>so bad, so to recap they had Pat McAfee go

<v Speaker 1>out on TV and talk about how much the current

<v Speaker 1>product sucks. The talent sucks, and they're too small, They're

<v Speaker 1>Champion is a corporate stooge, and their biggest event of

<v Speaker 1>the year is not sold out yet two weeks before

<v Speaker 1>the show, and this is somehow supposed to get more

<v Speaker 1>people to tune in and buy tickets to these shows.

<v Speaker 1>This was something ripped right out of a Russo era

<v Speaker 1>Monday Nitro episode from the dying days of WCW, where

<v Speaker 1>they were constantly breaking the fourth wall and they were

<v Speaker 1>using insider terms, and they were talking about scripts and

<v Speaker 1>all kinds of bullshit that nobody wanted to hear about.

<v Speaker 1>It did nothing to make the product better. And so

<v Speaker 1>now it appears that we are headed for a main

<v Speaker 1>event at WrestleMania with Pat McAfee in Randy Orton's corner,

<v Speaker 1>and quite possibly because he wasn't on the show on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>but he's sure been part of the storyline Jelly Roll

<v Speaker 1>in the corner of Cody Roads that's based off Jelly

<v Speaker 1>getting dropped last week without RKO, And it would not

<v Speaker 1>at all shock me to see a tag team match

<v Speaker 1>at some point, possibly a backlash next month with Cody

<v Speaker 1>and Jelly against Orton and McAfee. But that would mean

<v Speaker 1>that Randy Orton would have to win the WWE title

<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania, because Pat McAfee tweeted later on in the

<v Speaker 1>night that if Orton does not win at WrestleMania, he

<v Speaker 1>will never he being McAfee will never be seen or

<v Speaker 1>heard from again on wrestling television, which kind of telegraphs

<v Speaker 1>the outcome unless you honestly believe that Pat McAfee will

<v Speaker 1>never show his face again on a WWE show. I

<v Speaker 1>believe that about as much as I believe that Hangman

<v Speaker 1>Adam Page will never again challenge for the aw World title.

<v Speaker 1>And so what was a main event that had a

<v Speaker 1>rich history between the two men involved to tap into

<v Speaker 1>will now instead be overshadowed by the involvement of Pat

<v Speaker 1>McAfee and possibly Jelly Roll. This is John Cena and

<v Speaker 1>Travis Scott all over again. They never learn they are

<v Speaker 1>running the same city at the same stadium, with Cody

<v Speaker 1>Rhodes as the champion going into the show yet again

<v Speaker 1>as he was last year, going into battle with the

<v Speaker 1>Aging Gunslinger looking for one more world title as they

<v Speaker 1>did last year with John Cena. It's the same story

<v Speaker 1>and the same circumstances right down to the celebrity being involved.

<v Speaker 1>They are doing the same shit all over again, but

<v Speaker 1>this year is worse. We have Pat McAfee, we have

<v Speaker 1>Jail here, we have I show Speed on Mondays, likely

<v Speaker 1>in a match. This year we had Lil YACHTI on

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown with Trick Williams, he'll likely be in his corner

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania. And we know they've been in active discussions

<v Speaker 1>to try to get Tom Brady to appear at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>I said this the other night and I'll say it again.

<v Speaker 1>WWE has become fantasy camp for anyone with a big

<v Speaker 1>enough following for them to hitch their wagon to, and

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania has always had celebrity involvement before Okay, I'm trying

<v Speaker 1>to cut this off here before I get the inevitable. Well,

<v Speaker 1>wrestle media has always had celebrities. The first wrestle media

<v Speaker 1>had tons of celebrities. Yes, I understand that, but never

<v Speaker 1>anything on this scale where they are so deeply involved

<v Speaker 1>in the week to week that is going on on

<v Speaker 1>these shows. Nothing like this. It's all over the weekly television.

<v Speaker 1>And they think that by dressing the product up with

<v Speaker 1>all of these celebrities, it will sell more tickets because

<v Speaker 1>they can't rely on their own talent to do so,

<v Speaker 1>and it'll make the product feel hip and cool. You

<v Speaker 1>can dress the car and make it look real nice

<v Speaker 1>if you want to. You can give it a new

<v Speaker 1>paint job. You could put a big red bow on it,

<v Speaker 1>But it's what's underneath the hood that matters. If the

<v Speaker 1>engine is shot, none of that other stuff matters. All

<v Speaker 1>you're doing is masking a much bigger problem. Admitting that

<v Speaker 1>the product sucks and telling people the attitude era was better.

<v Speaker 1>We need to go back to that. That is not

<v Speaker 1>going to suddenly make the product better. And for the

<v Speaker 1>fans that agree with him when he says all of that,

<v Speaker 1>and there are a lot of fans that would agree

<v Speaker 1>with that, all that's going to do is make them

<v Speaker 1>bigger babyfaces, which is one of the reasons they're doing this.

<v Speaker 1>They think that by putting Pat McAfee with Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>it will help get Orton more heat and get Cody

<v Speaker 1>cheered at WrestleMania at least a little bit more. We

<v Speaker 1>didn't see any evidence of that on Friday, and guess what,

<v Speaker 1>we're not going to see it at WrestleMania either. But

<v Speaker 1>the reason they are even doing this in the first place,

<v Speaker 1>they have had to construct this story with McAfee in

<v Speaker 1>the first place, because apparently it it came from above,

<v Speaker 1>so says Date. Remember that it came from above, so

<v Speaker 1>says Dave Meltzer, and Mike Johnson and the fine folks

<v Speaker 1>at bodyslam dot Net. Meltzer was the first person I

<v Speaker 1>saw who even mentioned this. He tweeted during the show

<v Speaker 1>it was an Ari call, meaning Ari Emmanuel, the CEO

<v Speaker 1>of TKO Body Slam is reporting that a source indicates

<v Speaker 1>that Ari Emmanuel believes Pat McAfee is a star and

<v Speaker 1>will help elevate the program between Randy Orton and Cody

<v Speaker 1>Rhoads and get it to where it needs to be

<v Speaker 1>between his show on ESPN and the SmackDown episodes that

<v Speaker 1>are left before WrestleMania, and it says TKO or firm

<v Speaker 1>believers that mainstream names will help bring more eyes to

<v Speaker 1>the product and sell more tickets as they return to

<v Speaker 1>Las Vegas. Mike Johnson, a PW insider, says, those we

<v Speaker 1>have spoken to believe that this was an edict from

<v Speaker 1>TKO Brass to WWE Creative, not a creative idea that

<v Speaker 1>originated in writing room and was approved by Paul Levec.

<v Speaker 1>One source believed that the edict may have come from

<v Speaker 1>as far up as Aria Manual, but we have not

<v Speaker 1>yet confirmed that. The idea seems to be that including

<v Speaker 1>McAfee in this scenario gives ESPN a new promotional dimension

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania given McAfee's importance and popularity on their platform,

<v Speaker 1>giving the ESPN audience something additional leading into their first

<v Speaker 1>ever WrestleMania broadcast, and that would jive with what Fightful

<v Speaker 1>is saying, which is that this is all about corporate synergy,

<v Speaker 1>two words you never want to hear about when it

<v Speaker 1>comes to creative We're having corporate synergy now influence creative decisions.

<v Speaker 1>That's never a good thing. But Johnson says the edict

<v Speaker 1>came down three weeks ago, but they were trying very

<v Speaker 1>hard to keep it quiet. The general belief among those

<v Speaker 1>we spoke with is that it was a bone for

<v Speaker 1>ESPN since pat is a big part of their platform

<v Speaker 1>and WWE has WrestleMania on ESPN platforms. There's been rumblings

<v Speaker 1>that the alliance between the two sides has not exactly

<v Speaker 1>been the smoothest process, ESPN wanting subscriber numbers, while WWE

<v Speaker 1>hasn't seen ESPN get their streaming service available across all

<v Speaker 1>cable and satellite subscribers as has been the plan, which

<v Speaker 1>I can verify because YouTube tv still does not have it.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, he says, this looks to have been a

<v Speaker 1>move to try and strengthen the alliance. It absolutely felt

<v Speaker 1>like they halted the momentum of the showdown between Randy

<v Speaker 1>and Cody. Yes, that's because the story is no longer

<v Speaker 1>about Randy and Cody. They have now introduced other elements

<v Speaker 1>into it that were not needed. But it's true. Super

<v Speaker 1>Agent Ari Emmanuel is also Pat McAfee's agent. McAfee hired

<v Speaker 1>him earlier this year to help him land TV and

<v Speaker 1>movie roles in Hollywood. That is according to Bloomberg, and

<v Speaker 1>that Ari Emmanuel's goal is to transform the former NFL

<v Speaker 1>star into quote the next Sylvester Stallone, and to that end,

<v Speaker 1>Ari got McAfee a role on Tulsa King, which stars

<v Speaker 1>Sylvester Stallone and it airs on Paramount Plus. He filmed

<v Speaker 1>a fourth episode arc for the fourth season, which I

<v Speaker 1>believe drops later this year. So the real reason that

<v Speaker 1>this is happening, if this is to be believed, is

<v Speaker 1>that Ari Emmanuel is trying to get his client as

<v Speaker 1>much visibility as possible and he wanted WWE to find

<v Speaker 1>a way to work him into the WrestleMania build and

<v Speaker 1>also try to move more tickets. Not because it helps

<v Speaker 1>the story. The story is secondary here, but because it

<v Speaker 1>helps Pat McAfee above and beyond anything else, it helps

<v Speaker 1>his client, and then beyond that, by including a big name,

<v Speaker 1>a celebrity name involved in all this, maybe they could

<v Speaker 1>sell a few more tickets, which they have struggled with doing.

<v Speaker 1>Those are the two big factors that are driving this

<v Speaker 1>right now. Has nothing to do with Cody. It has

<v Speaker 1>nothing to do with Randy Orton. It has nothing to

<v Speaker 1>do with creating the best, most intriguing story possible between

<v Speaker 1>these two going into WrestleMania has nothing to do with that.

<v Speaker 1>And so if all of that is true, and all

<v Speaker 1>of that is the case, there is a lot of

<v Speaker 1>shared responsibility to go around here. I cannot put all

<v Speaker 1>the blame on Triple H. If he's getting orders from

<v Speaker 1>his corporate overlords, and then it's his job to carry

<v Speaker 1>out those orders. He's the head of creative, so it's

<v Speaker 1>up to him to figure out how to incorporate McAfee

<v Speaker 1>into the show, which is why he does not get

<v Speaker 1>a pass here. He still had to approve the actual

<v Speaker 1>idea or come up with the idea. I don't know that.

<v Speaker 1>Ari Emmanuel said, Hey, you know what, why don't you

<v Speaker 1>put Pat McAfee and the Cody and Randy match. It

<v Speaker 1>may have just been, hey, look, this is what we

<v Speaker 1>want to use Pat for. Find a way to get

<v Speaker 1>him on the show, and maybe WWE Creative took over

<v Speaker 1>from there and they're the ones that came up. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>well we'll try to work him into the Cody Roads

<v Speaker 1>and Randy Orton stuff. Right. We don't know the minute

<v Speaker 1>nuts and bolts here just yet, and the chicken or

<v Speaker 1>the egg which came first, We don't have all the

<v Speaker 1>details yet. But you cannot give Triple H as the

<v Speaker 1>head of Creative a pass here. He is not just

<v Speaker 1>a victim in all of this. He's not some innocent victim,

<v Speaker 1>even if this was essentially forced upon him. Let's not

<v Speaker 1>pretend that everything else on these shows has been hunky dory,

<v Speaker 1>and that is something that he has control over. When

<v Speaker 1>I sit here and I tell you that smack Down

<v Speaker 1>is the worst wrestling show on television, and I don't

<v Speaker 1>watch NXT every single week the way that I used to,

<v Speaker 1>and I hear a lot of divided opinion about NXT.

<v Speaker 1>NXT is a very polarizing show. From what I could tell,

<v Speaker 1>I have people telling me, man, you should watch it.

<v Speaker 1>It's the best show week to week. And then I

<v Speaker 1>have people on the other end of the spectrum saying, man,

<v Speaker 1>this show is fucking god awful. I don't know what's

<v Speaker 1>going on. It's moving a million miles an hour. They

<v Speaker 1>throw shit at the wall. There's a lot of divided

<v Speaker 1>opinion about the show, even if it's a bad show,

<v Speaker 1>though it's not three hours long. When you have a

<v Speaker 1>bad two hour show, a bad two hour show will

<v Speaker 1>always be better than a bad three show. So taken together,

<v Speaker 1>when you really look at what we are getting every

<v Speaker 1>Friday with SmackDown, it is indeed the worst wrestling show

<v Speaker 1>of the week. And that's not Ari Emmanuel's fault. That

<v Speaker 1>falls right at the doorstep of Paul Levec because he

<v Speaker 1>is the head of creative. So when I say that,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not just talking about one thing. Now. Raw is

<v Speaker 1>better than SmackDown on most weeks, but the WWE product

<v Speaker 1>overall has been in a rut for some time now.

<v Speaker 1>Something like this might make it feel a little more

<v Speaker 1>chaotic and unpredictable, like, oh, I didn't see that coming.

<v Speaker 1>But if you're gonna do that, it has to at

<v Speaker 1>least be good it has to at least make sense.

<v Speaker 1>It has to at least be something that's going to

<v Speaker 1>actually benefit the product. You can't just throw shit at

<v Speaker 1>the wall and see what sticks. When you're talking about

<v Speaker 1>your WrestleMania main event. You could do that on the

<v Speaker 1>undercard if you want to. You want to do that

<v Speaker 1>with fucking Dan Housen and Kit Wilson be my guest,

<v Speaker 1>But we're talking about the WrestleMania main event here. Cody

<v Speaker 1>came back out later in the show in what bodyslam

<v Speaker 1>dot Net says was an unplanned segment. He was told

<v Speaker 1>by Creative, go out to the ring and shoot from

<v Speaker 1>the hit regarding McAfee and TKO getting involved in this story,

<v Speaker 1>and PW Insider said the same thing, that there is

<v Speaker 1>a belief internally that some of Cody's comments were him

<v Speaker 1>shooting about the way that TKO inserted McAfee into the storyline.

<v Speaker 1>So Cody came out, He cut this fiery babyface promo

<v Speaker 1>that didn't really get much of a reaction, talking about

<v Speaker 1>how McAfee as the man on the phone with Randy

<v Speaker 1>Yorton would be like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash revealing

<v Speaker 1>Disco Inferno as the third man in the nWo instead

<v Speaker 1>of Hulk Hogan. And I will never not laugh at

<v Speaker 1>Cody's desire to bury Disco Inferno any chance he gets.

<v Speaker 1>It's like a life mission for him. And he ended

<v Speaker 1>it by telling McAfee and quote everyone who represents him

<v Speaker 1>inferring Ari Immanuel to kiss his ass. Know whether that

<v Speaker 1>was legitimate frustration boiling over or what they want you

<v Speaker 1>to think is legitimate frustration. Who knows? It kind of

<v Speaker 1>sounds like they saw the reaction online was so vicious,

<v Speaker 1>and they called an audible and said, hey, look, go

<v Speaker 1>out there. Let's send Cody out there to do some

<v Speaker 1>damage control and try to salvage things a little bit

<v Speaker 1>and make people who aren't happy feel a little bit

<v Speaker 1>better about things. This whole thing is turned into a

<v Speaker 1>mess now, I will admit it gives me a lot

<v Speaker 1>of content to talk about. So there is that, right,

<v Speaker 1>But I would much rather have a coherent story that

<v Speaker 1>makes sense rather than something that feels like they're in

<v Speaker 1>panic mode right now for because they were forced into

<v Speaker 1>doing something they didn't want to do. But hey, thirty

<v Speaker 1>thousand plus on my SmackDown review and counting the other night,

<v Speaker 1>Thank you very much. But this is not the way.

<v Speaker 1>Some of these shows are genuinely unwatchable.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>Look, I can't sit here and tell you that when

<v Speaker 1>we look back at this a month from now, two

<v Speaker 1>months from now, we get to WrestleMania, we get to,

<v Speaker 1>you know, just beyond WrestleMania, that they won't find a

<v Speaker 1>way to make it fun, that they won't find a

<v Speaker 1>way to make it work. I hope they can. I

<v Speaker 1>do I sincerely do. I hope they can find a

<v Speaker 1>way to do that. For example, I wouldn't mind it

<v Speaker 1>at the end of all of this they give Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton his own little legacy type group, Maybe call up

<v Speaker 1>a couple of new faces from NXT to be by

<v Speaker 1>his side, his own evolution of sorts. I could do

<v Speaker 1>without Pat McAfee as the Paul Hayman or Don Kallis

<v Speaker 1>of the group. I mean, McAfee is not needed. But

<v Speaker 1>if we end up with something like that with Orton,

<v Speaker 1>maybe they show up at WrestleMania to help him win. Right,

<v Speaker 1>that could work right now, it sure wouldn't be Ricky Saints,

<v Speaker 1>not after the shit that McAfee said about five foot

<v Speaker 1>five guys wrestling a bunch of ironman matches, but like

<v Speaker 1>Royce Keys, for example, debuting as muscle to help Orton

<v Speaker 1>win the title, Ethan Page or someone from NXT that

<v Speaker 1>we're not even thinking of who I've been impressed by,

<v Speaker 1>someone like Tavion Heights, right. I would love to see

<v Speaker 1>something like that take this shitty angle and turn it

<v Speaker 1>into something constructive instead of cutting promos on your television

<v Speaker 1>show that are destructive. It's not about going back to

<v Speaker 1>the Attitude era. There was a lot to love about

<v Speaker 1>that period of time and a lot that has not

<v Speaker 1>aged well. It's about pushing the right people. It's about

<v Speaker 1>giving us compelling stories. It's about giving us great wrestling matches.

<v Speaker 1>You can't have one without the other. Not when you

<v Speaker 1>have three hours of television every Friday night, this is

<v Speaker 1>still a wrestling show. I need action. I need action,

<v Speaker 1>and I need story with characters I can actually care

<v Speaker 1>about and invest in, not jelly roll my eyes when

<v Speaker 1>I see them on my screen. TKO inserting themselves into

<v Speaker 1>the creative that's never going to end well because their

<v Speaker 1>motivations are not the same as the creative teams. At

<v Speaker 1>the end of the day, it is about making money.

<v Speaker 1>That's the number one overarching goal of any business, but

<v Speaker 1>the creative team exists to try to construct stories that

<v Speaker 1>make sense, stories that will in the end help make

<v Speaker 1>money and help create new stars. Their goals are not

<v Speaker 1>exactly the same as TKO's. TKO's goals are more short term.

<v Speaker 1>Creative's goals should be long term and looking at the

<v Speaker 1>bigger picture. My sympathy for Triple Ah only extends so

<v Speaker 1>far because he bears a lot of the responsibility for

<v Speaker 1>what we see on television every week. But if his

<v Speaker 1>hand is being forced on this, then I'm sure he's

<v Speaker 1>just as frustrated as anybody else, especially because he's the

<v Speaker 1>one taking it on the chin on social media. And

<v Speaker 1>if he can't produce the results that TKO is looking for,

<v Speaker 1>that will not bode well for his future as the

<v Speaker 1>chief Content Officer. And judging by the way TKO does business,

<v Speaker 1>if they ever did force Triple H out of that position,

<v Speaker 1>I have no confidence whatsoever that the person they pick

<v Speaker 1>to replace him would be any better, especially if it's

<v Speaker 1>one from the outside. But they may not have to

<v Speaker 1>look to the outside. They may not have to stray

<v Speaker 1>very far from the wrestling bubble, given the big name

<v Speaker 1>who is currently sitting on their board who's watching all

<v Speaker 1>of this playout and waiting very patiently. That's a story

<v Speaker 1>far more interesting than anything that we've seen on TV.

<v Speaker 1>RAW On Monday Night was at Madison Square Garden and

<v Speaker 1>we had another Roman reigns and Sea on Punk Showdown.

<v Speaker 1>It ended with Punk power bombing Roman through the announced desk,

<v Speaker 1>as Roman did to him the week prior copy and Paste,

<v Speaker 1>but at least they kept it short. It didn't do,

<v Speaker 1>you know, They didn't do the full on, played out,

<v Speaker 1>pull apart brawl that they love to do. Roman, though,

<v Speaker 1>is not scheduled to be on the show again until

<v Speaker 1>next Monday before WrestleMania, so maybe they do a contract

<v Speaker 1>signing on that show. Punk posted a photo to his

<v Speaker 1>ig stories this week, clearly filming something in Las Vegas

<v Speaker 1>on a rooftop with the Luxor Hotel in the background

<v Speaker 1>behind him. You could see he was wearing his old

<v Speaker 1>retro jacket from his Ring of Honor days, the black

<v Speaker 1>with the white stripe, and he included the word radiate

<v Speaker 1>in the caption, which is from the lyrics to his

<v Speaker 1>old Miseria Cantare theme which he used that revolution a

<v Speaker 1>few years ago, and the jacket he wore a Wembley

<v Speaker 1>for his last AAW match with Samoa Joe, so he

<v Speaker 1>may be hinting at something for his entrance at WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>this year. Brocklesner and Oba Femei had another showdown. They

<v Speaker 1>were separated by multiple people, but included in that was

<v Speaker 1>Paul Leveck, who decided to come out and keep these

<v Speaker 1>two apart. He didn't want his big match to be

<v Speaker 1>blown to smithereens at WrestleMania, so they never touched. There

<v Speaker 1>was no physicality this week between brocket O. Brock had

<v Speaker 1>come out in full gear. He was ready to fight,

<v Speaker 1>and I thought that maybe he would get his revenge

<v Speaker 1>on Oba this week, but didn't do it and they

<v Speaker 1>got separated. And as things stand right now, it sure

<v Speaker 1>feels to me like if I had to favor one

<v Speaker 1>over the other. I mean, I'll do my predictions next week,

<v Speaker 1>but it sure feels to be like brock Lesner is

<v Speaker 1>going over at WrestleMania now. Brock was on the Barstool

<v Speaker 1>Sports Spitting Chicklets podcast last week and he said this

<v Speaker 1>about his current WWE run. I went back to work

<v Speaker 1>so I could feed my kids. You guys should see

<v Speaker 1>my grocery bill I had left the company years ago,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm grateful that I'm back for a short time here.

<v Speaker 1>So people were reading into that, what does that mean?

<v Speaker 1>Does that mean that maybe what John Cena sort of

<v Speaker 1>insinuated last year is true, that maybe he's planning on

<v Speaker 1>having a retirement match at Summer Slim. Summer Slim's in

<v Speaker 1>Minneapolis this year, certainly possible. Now, someone floated to me

<v Speaker 1>the idea that Gunther and I talk about Gunther here

<v Speaker 1>in a moment, Gunther agreeing to take care of seth

<v Speaker 1>Rollins or WrestleMania in exchange for Paul Hayman promising him

<v Speaker 1>a match with brock Lesner. I could see that they

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't even need to reveal that right away. It could

<v Speaker 1>be an IOU for later on. Yeah, if you remember

<v Speaker 1>the whole thing with Paul Hayman in the Favor and

<v Speaker 1>CM Punk, it took months for us to find out

<v Speaker 1>what that was all about. So Gunther could bank that

<v Speaker 1>as an IOU for later on as we get closer

<v Speaker 1>to SummerSlam, we could get the reveal that it was

<v Speaker 1>for a Summer Slum match, with the idea that brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner wanted to or Gunther rather wanted to retire. Brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner could absolutely see that being the idea. I'm just

<v Speaker 1>glad we got Gunther back on TV. Yes, everybody, he lives.

<v Speaker 1>Gunther attacked Seth Rollins on Raw Monday night when Rollins

<v Speaker 1>was about to curb stump Paul Hayman. He pulled him

<v Speaker 1>out of the ring. He put him in a sleeper hole.

<v Speaker 1>He pointed up with the WrestleMania sign. We don't know

<v Speaker 1>what his rationale for this is. We should be able

<v Speaker 1>to find that out on Raw Tomorrow night now. According

<v Speaker 1>to Dave Meltzer, Gunther against Rollins has been the plan

<v Speaker 1>for several weeks, as the entire storyline the past few

<v Speaker 1>weeks Rollins and Paul Hayman was always to build for

<v Speaker 1>Gunther choking Rollins out in Madison Square Garden. This does

<v Speaker 1>not have to do with bron Breaker not being cleared

<v Speaker 1>after hernia surgery. Breaker is actually cleared, but the decision

<v Speaker 1>was made not to rush into the match. The idea

<v Speaker 1>of Rolins against Breaker is very much alive, but they

<v Speaker 1>are wanting the proper TV build for it. The plan

<v Speaker 1>was for Rolins to face either Bronson Red or Logan

<v Speaker 1>Paul after Breaker was injured at Elimination Chamber with Rollins

<v Speaker 1>costing Paul the match. That appeared to be the direction,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm glad that we didn't get that. We got

<v Speaker 1>that already at WrestleMania. We didn't need to see that again.

<v Speaker 1>But we were told on the Gunther direction that it

<v Speaker 1>came either right before or right after the Chamber after

<v Speaker 1>Bronson Reid went down with the torn biceps. Now, wrestle

<v Speaker 1>votes Radio is reporting that Gunher against Seth Rollins at

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania was not a unanimous creative decision, as some wanted

<v Speaker 1>to proceed with Rollins wrapping up the Vision story, while

<v Speaker 1>others just wanted to get Gunther on the card. So

<v Speaker 1>probably a little bit of everything. It was probably a

<v Speaker 1>matter of wanting him to wrap up the Vision stuff

<v Speaker 1>and also wanting to make sure that Gunther had a

<v Speaker 1>match on the WrestleMania card, of course, because why would

<v Speaker 1>you leave him off the WrestleMania card. That doesn't make

<v Speaker 1>any sense. That's why I floated the Ilia dragonov idea

<v Speaker 1>and laid out a whole pitch for it, because at

<v Speaker 1>least you could come up with some sort of actual

<v Speaker 1>story and rationale for getting him a match of WrestleMania. Obviously,

<v Speaker 1>this is a bigger match because Rollins is a bigger

<v Speaker 1>name than Ilia Dragonov. Ilia dragonov ain't going to be

<v Speaker 1>on the WrestleMania card this year because fuck that guy.

<v Speaker 1>He'll be in the Andre Battle Royal on SmackDown the

<v Speaker 1>night before. Gunther against Seth Rollins clearly is the bigger match.

<v Speaker 1>I don't mind them doing the match. I think these

<v Speaker 1>two can go out there. They haven't had a match

<v Speaker 1>before since Gunther was really established. I think the last

<v Speaker 1>time maybe they had a match was what I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>six seven years ago, Like that doesn't even count. That

<v Speaker 1>was that was Walter. That wasn't even Gunther. This is

<v Speaker 1>the first time these two really going to be in

<v Speaker 1>the ring for all intents and purposes, and it's at WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be Set's first match back. I'm sure he's

<v Speaker 1>just glad to be back in time for WrestleMania. So

<v Speaker 1>these two are gonna go out there, and who knows,

<v Speaker 1>they may steal the show and have the match of

<v Speaker 1>the night, depending on which night that match takes place.

<v Speaker 1>I don't mind them doing the match. Frankly, I would

<v Speaker 1>rather them do this match than do Gunher against Raymisterio.

<v Speaker 1>That match didn't really do much for me if that

<v Speaker 1>was the original idea for Gunther. And again, they could

<v Speaker 1>parlay this into potentially a future match with Brock Lesner

<v Speaker 1>if they want to work the storyline that way. The

<v Speaker 1>one thing is Gunther should absolutely win this match. Now,

<v Speaker 1>you could have bron Breaker interfere. You could have bron

<v Speaker 1>Breaker cost seth Rawlins the match, which would heat up

<v Speaker 1>things again with Breaker and Rawlins, and they could go

<v Speaker 1>off and have their match of backlash or something. And

<v Speaker 1>then Gunther remains undefeated since he went on this streak

<v Speaker 1>of his right, since he beat John Cena and AJ

<v Speaker 1>Styles right, he hasn't lost the match since then, and

<v Speaker 1>I don't think he should until it means something. If

<v Speaker 1>they want it to go the other way. John Sen

<v Speaker 1>is hosting the show, AJ Styles is being inducted into

<v Speaker 1>the Hall of Fame, so they're both gonna be there

<v Speaker 1>in Las Vegas. You could have seen it in aj

<v Speaker 1>get involved somehow and they sort of get a measure

<v Speaker 1>of revenge on the guy who put them out and

<v Speaker 1>they help seth Rolins win. I don't see how that

<v Speaker 1>benefits anybody in the long run, though, what is the

<v Speaker 1>point of that. I mean, I'm not a big fan

<v Speaker 1>of the career killer gimmick at this point. I think

<v Speaker 1>it's actually pretty limiting for Gunther, and I hope they

<v Speaker 1>start to get away from it. I mean, he could

<v Speaker 1>still have a match with Brock or somebody else if

<v Speaker 1>you want him to be the guy to put him out.

<v Speaker 1>But this whole career killer thing, I'm not really a

<v Speaker 1>big fan of it. But the guy should not be

<v Speaker 1>losing until it's time for it to really matter and

<v Speaker 1>mean something. The fuck does seth Rollins need to beat

<v Speaker 1>Gunther for I know it's his first match back, but

<v Speaker 1>if this is the match that you want to do,

<v Speaker 1>Gunther should win period, end of story. Bron Breaker getting

<v Speaker 1>involved is what would make the most sense, because then

<v Speaker 1>that would give Rollins the out for losing the match

<v Speaker 1>instead of losing clean The vision logan Paul Austin theory.

<v Speaker 1>They're the new World Tag Team Champions. They beat the USOS.

<v Speaker 1>On Monday night. La Night was out there doing commentary.

<v Speaker 1>I show Speed was in the crowd and he got

<v Speaker 1>pulled into things. Brass knuckles were involved. I show Speed

<v Speaker 1>inadvertently punched La Knight in the face with the brass knucks.

<v Speaker 1>One thing led to another and the Vision beat the

<v Speaker 1>Ussos and they won the tag belts. Now, I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>last week that La Knight he had tweeted on x

<v Speaker 1>I think I mentioned this on Uncrowned last Tuesday that

<v Speaker 1>he said he was on the back end of a

<v Speaker 1>Bursa flare up, which would explain that giant tennis ball

<v Speaker 1>in his elbow last week. So based on what he

<v Speaker 1>said there, I assume he'll be medically cleared if they

<v Speaker 1>want him in a match of WrestleMania. And coming out

<v Speaker 1>of that show on Monday night, I was thinking maybe

<v Speaker 1>they were going to do La Night and I Show

<v Speaker 1>Speed one on one, but what would make more sense

<v Speaker 1>is to do with six man tag and you have

<v Speaker 1>La Night teaming with the Ussos to take on the

<v Speaker 1>Vision and I show Speed, And that is what it

<v Speaker 1>feels like we are headed towards. Now. I saw the

<v Speaker 1>angle they did on Thursday, where you know, I show Speed.

<v Speaker 1>He does these streams and they get millions of views,

<v Speaker 1>which is why they love working with him. And Speed

<v Speaker 1>is one of these guys who just gets it right.

<v Speaker 1>There's certain celebrities or influencers that they work with and

<v Speaker 1>they bring in and some of them are genuine fans,

<v Speaker 1>and they just they get it. They get how wrestling

<v Speaker 1>works and what they need to do to really sell

<v Speaker 1>a story and make people buy into it. And I

<v Speaker 1>give him a lot of credit for that. Speed is

<v Speaker 1>someone who seems to get it. And he'll always he'll

<v Speaker 1>always have my respect for taking that spear in the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble last year from bron Breaker, because as far

<v Speaker 1>as the Royal Rumble goes, that's an all time moment

<v Speaker 1>right there. But they did an angle from Speed's home

<v Speaker 1>where he was streaming, and he was doing a stream

<v Speaker 1>where the stream will not end until somebody makes me

<v Speaker 1>laugh or cry. And you know, he's packed people in

<v Speaker 1>and there's like fans that are being interviewed and all

<v Speaker 1>this stuff and nobody can make them laugh or cry.

<v Speaker 1>And then all of a sudden, La Knight walks in.

<v Speaker 1>I guess he got his address off of Google Earth

<v Speaker 1>or whatever. And he walks in and Speed of course

<v Speaker 1>looks like he's about to shit himself. What is La

<v Speaker 1>Night doing in my house? And it ended with La

<v Speaker 1>Knight grabbing Speed and he threw him into the camera

<v Speaker 1>into his whole streaming setup, so like that's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>a gift that just or meme or whatever that lives

<v Speaker 1>on forever. It was actually really well done. It was

<v Speaker 1>very funny. So I look, just with that one thing alone.

<v Speaker 1>You know what Speed won me over my whole thing

<v Speaker 1>is that I have celebrity fatigue. They have so many

<v Speaker 1>different people that they are latching onto and bringing in

<v Speaker 1>at the exact same time that I don't want to

<v Speaker 1>see any of them. I have nothing against Speed. I

<v Speaker 1>actually I'm cool with Speed being involved here. I just

<v Speaker 1>I would be able to tolerate it more if we

<v Speaker 1>didn't have Celebrity Mania this year. That's my only issue

<v Speaker 1>with it. But Speed is one of those guys who

<v Speaker 1>gets it and is actually very entertaining. Now we have

<v Speaker 1>Penta who's going to be defending his Intercontinental Championship against

<v Speaker 1>uh what is it, one, two, three, four, five, four

<v Speaker 1>or five other guys at WrestleMania. We found out it's

<v Speaker 1>going to be in a multimn ladder match. This is

<v Speaker 1>after he beat Kofi Kingston on Raw Monday Night. But

<v Speaker 1>then the announcement came it'll be Penta defending against Dragonly,

<v Speaker 1>Javon Evans, Russev and JD McDonough at WrestleMania, and there

<v Speaker 1>could be more added. The way Corey Grave sort of

<v Speaker 1>phrased it like so far made me think that maybe

<v Speaker 1>they'll add one or two more people. But you got

<v Speaker 1>five guys in there. Michael Cole, though he claimed these

<v Speaker 1>men all qualified through wins on main Event, and the

<v Speaker 1>only issue is that the matches that they had filmed

<v Speaker 1>for main Event were filmed that night and had not

<v Speaker 1>yet aired, So when they previewed Main Event later in

<v Speaker 1>the week, which aired on YouTube, was it Thursday night.

<v Speaker 1>I believe it was a little weird when we saw

<v Speaker 1>these qualifying matches were being advertised, with Dragon Lee against

<v Speaker 1>Grayson Waller and JD McDonough against Tozawa, and Javon Evans

<v Speaker 1>against Ryo Americano and Russev against Otis. It's like, gee,

<v Speaker 1>I wonder who's gonna win here in these matches? Very weird,

<v Speaker 1>very very weird. Basically, what it felt like to me

<v Speaker 1>is that they only decided, maybe the day of or

<v Speaker 1>that weekend, here's what we're gonna do for an IC

<v Speaker 1>title match at WrestleMania, and we only have so much

<v Speaker 1>time left, so we have to announce the match now,

<v Speaker 1>which they really didn't have to, Like you could have

<v Speaker 1>had Penta go out there after his match with Kofe

<v Speaker 1>and say, hey, I'm gonna put my title on the lane.

<v Speaker 1>We're gonna hang the title above the ring, and then

<v Speaker 1>just go ahead and say, hey, you know we're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have you know, qualifying matches next week. Why not do

<v Speaker 1>them on the actual fucking show. But whatever. So it

<v Speaker 1>was just very strange because they spoiled their own match

<v Speaker 1>in effect, But they did have matches with j D

<v Speaker 1>McDonough who hadn't wrestled at all this year, and Russev,

<v Speaker 1>who hadn't wrestled at all since he lost to Obafemi

<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of the month. So it was very

<v Speaker 1>weird seeing all these men qualified for this match, Like really,

<v Speaker 1>it was news to me. But there was another segment

<v Speaker 1>that we had on Raw Monday Night which involved Cody

<v Speaker 1>Roads in Stephanie McMahon. They actually opened the show from

<v Speaker 1>MSG and Stephanie was there to basically try to well

<v Speaker 1>literally smack some sense into Cody and let him know

<v Speaker 1>that Randy Orton's a killer and unless you can get

<v Speaker 1>down and dirty with Randy Yorton, he's the Viper. Believe me,

<v Speaker 1>trust me. I know he's done things to me before

<v Speaker 1>in my family, which is true, right, I mean, Randy

<v Speaker 1>Orton feuded with Triple H your husband, Randy Orton dropped

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie with an RKO, Randy Orton punted her father in

<v Speaker 1>the head. He's done a lot of bad things of

<v Speaker 1>that family. So she was trying to talk some sense

<v Speaker 1>into him, and there was a moment in the promo

<v Speaker 1>where she was talking about Dusty and Dusty knew how

<v Speaker 1>to get down and dirty, and she said, Cody, you

<v Speaker 1>are not your father. So Cody came back at her

<v Speaker 1>and said, with all due respects, Stephanie, you are not

<v Speaker 1>your father, which, by the way, if someone had said

<v Speaker 1>that to me, if I was Stephanie McMahon, I would

<v Speaker 1>take that as a compliment. But anyway, that was the line,

<v Speaker 1>and he got a reaction, He got a rise out

<v Speaker 1>of the crowd. So we got a Vince McMahon, even

<v Speaker 1>though they never named him. We got a Vince McMahon

<v Speaker 1>reference on TV in the same week that Janelle Grant's

<v Speaker 1>legal team dropped a new forty page affidavit on Wednesday

<v Speaker 1>that goes into far more detail than the lawsuit that

<v Speaker 1>she filed previously details of the alleged abuse that she

<v Speaker 1>suffered during her time with WWE, including more on her

<v Speaker 1>interactions with brock Lesner, so this is per post wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>Grant contends in the new filing that the significant arrest

<v Speaker 1>that she was under caused her to sign a non

<v Speaker 1>disclosure agreement which she had not properly reviewed. The NDA

<v Speaker 1>includes a clause directing any further disputes to go to arbitration,

<v Speaker 1>which is a mediation process that keeps disputes out of

<v Speaker 1>the public eye. Her new affidavit was filed in support

<v Speaker 1>of the argument that her case should stay in court.

<v Speaker 1>So for those asking, you know why now, why is

<v Speaker 1>this coming out now? I don't know why. Some of

<v Speaker 1>these details were omitted from the original lawsuit, but she

<v Speaker 1>is filing this now to try to show the judge

<v Speaker 1>that this case should go to trial and should not

<v Speaker 1>go to arbitration, even though that's what the NDA stipulates.

<v Speaker 1>She signed the NDA under duress. It should be invalidated

<v Speaker 1>and they should be allowed to take this to court,

<v Speaker 1>and even if the judge rules in her favor, that

<v Speaker 1>doesn't mean that it will end up going to trial.

<v Speaker 1>A lot of these things end up getting settled, very

<v Speaker 1>very good chance that if this is going to go

<v Speaker 1>to trial, this will end up getting settled first. But

<v Speaker 1>there is a hearing on June sixteenth, and the judge

<v Speaker 1>is not expected to make her ruling until sometime after that, So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's really what this all boils down to

<v Speaker 1>at this point. You know, we may have new accusations

<v Speaker 1>coming out or a new filing here and there, but

<v Speaker 1>really we're sort of in this period of just stasis

<v Speaker 1>where we're just waiting to find out is this going

<v Speaker 1>to arbitration, in which case we'll never hear about it

<v Speaker 1>again because everything goes private and dark at that point,

<v Speaker 1>or does it go to trial and then does it

<v Speaker 1>go to trial or does it get settled. We don't know,

<v Speaker 1>but it'll be a lot more public of a process

<v Speaker 1>that way, which is what she's hoping for. Until we

<v Speaker 1>get a decision on that, we're just sort of in

<v Speaker 1>waiting mode here. Nothing else really matters until the judge

<v Speaker 1>makes that decision, and now we know that will not

<v Speaker 1>happen until sometime after June sixteenth. I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>it'll happen right after June sixteenth, or if we're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have to wait another six months to find out. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. It would be nice to sort of get

<v Speaker 1>a resolution to all this, because I feel like every

<v Speaker 1>few months there's a new story and everything. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>obviously this sort of thing, it's a slow moving process.

<v Speaker 1>Justice moves slowly, so this is to be expected. But

<v Speaker 1>nothing is really good to be settled until we get

<v Speaker 1>that decision. These latest allegations, though, they were covered pretty widely,

<v Speaker 1>including by Andreas Hale on ESPN dot com, which is

<v Speaker 1>interesting given the ESPN relationship with WWE remember what they

<v Speaker 1>said when they first started working together separation of Church

<v Speaker 1>and State. Well here's an example of that. Good on

<v Speaker 1>them for covering it and not burying it. I read

<v Speaker 1>through some of the forty pages. It's all disgusting. I

<v Speaker 1>felt like I was reading the original lawsuit all over again.

<v Speaker 1>After a while, you just have to just stop reading it.

<v Speaker 1>Some of it is stuff that we've already heard, but

<v Speaker 1>there is new stuff in there too. The more disturbing

<v Speaker 1>stuff is out there if you care to read it yourself.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to get into all that, but this

<v Speaker 1>is from the ESPN story. There are messages where Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon clearly was pressuring her that the NDA had to

<v Speaker 1>be signed and taken care of before Jerry McDevitt would

<v Speaker 1>meet with the Board of directors and go through all

<v Speaker 1>the legal issues. McMahon told Grant that mcdebitt wouldn't lie

<v Speaker 1>in this case, and if they found out about her situation,

<v Speaker 1>he told Grant that he could lose the company. It

<v Speaker 1>later came out that shortly before the Grant situation, there

<v Speaker 1>was another situation involving a former female wrestler and McMahon

<v Speaker 1>that was not yet settled and mcdebitt did not tell

<v Speaker 1>the board, which eventually led to a four hundred thousand

<v Speaker 1>dollars fine by the SEC. Among the keynotes in the

<v Speaker 1>new filings is that McMahon had at least one other wrestler,

<v Speaker 1>if not more, that he encouraged her to have sex with.

<v Speaker 1>There are references to another talent with no name listed,

<v Speaker 1>but a text from Vince McMahon indicates that it is

<v Speaker 1>someone who was given a big push on the February fourteenth,

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two episode of Raw. There may be other

<v Speaker 1>talent involved, but aside from brock Lesner, Grant did not

<v Speaker 1>want to name them. She also brought up more details

<v Speaker 1>regarding Lane and that McMahon tried to push her into

<v Speaker 1>having sex with Lesner even after she signed the NDA

<v Speaker 1>and had left the company. Grant was also told that

<v Speaker 1>Nick con would be able to get her a job

<v Speaker 1>and another company with all of his connections, and also

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon had disclosed that John Laurnidis had been demoted

<v Speaker 1>from his role as head of talent relations years ago

<v Speaker 1>due to having an indiscretion which resulted in getting a

<v Speaker 1>woman under an NDA and a million dollars out of

<v Speaker 1>Vince's own pocket. Vince added that Johnny owes him for

<v Speaker 1>that and that they are or were waiting on Johnny's

<v Speaker 1>final sign off on their plan to relocate her from

<v Speaker 1>their legal department to their talent relations department. The rot

<v Speaker 1>from within runs deep. Whatever you choose to believe here,

<v Speaker 1>there were clearly things going on in that company for

<v Speaker 1>years that went unchecked. These people have no business being

<v Speaker 1>in a position of power anywhere if they can't keep

<v Speaker 1>their dicks in their pants. So here's how the WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>card is shaping up. We are now twelve matches deep

<v Speaker 1>between the two nights, with at least two more matches

<v Speaker 1>likely but not yet confirm, that being the USO's LA

<v Speaker 1>Night and Vision stuff and either a Women's US title match,

<v Speaker 1>which seems very unlikely right now, or an EO Sky

<v Speaker 1>OSCA singles match. But it looks like we're looking at

<v Speaker 1>seven matches per night. CM Punk against Roman Reigns for

<v Speaker 1>the World Heavyweight Championship, Cody Rhodes against Randy Orton for

<v Speaker 1>the WWE title, Brock Lesner against Obafemi, which I think

<v Speaker 1>they might well open Night two with. That way, it

<v Speaker 1>can air on ESPM. Remember on the Night two WrestleMania Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>that first hour six pm Eastern to seven is airing

<v Speaker 1>on the main ESPN channel. First hour on Saturday is

<v Speaker 1>airing on ESPN two. I think there's a very good

<v Speaker 1>chance they will open the show on Sunday with Oba

<v Speaker 1>and Brock. It's probably what I would do. You want

<v Speaker 1>to maximize visibility for a big match like that. Jade

<v Speaker 1>Cargil defends the ww WE Women's Championship against Rhea Ripley

<v Speaker 1>and I had been no fan of the build up

<v Speaker 1>to this match, it's been very boring. But on Friday

<v Speaker 1>we saw EO Sky show up on smackdenn as she

<v Speaker 1>came to the rescue for Ria, who was being overwhelmed

<v Speaker 1>by Meechen and BFAB and Jade, so EO came out

<v Speaker 1>to save her friend, and when they ran down the

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania card later in the show, they made a comment

<v Speaker 1>that EO is here now to basically counteract Jade's battye.

<v Speaker 1>We'll call them the Heirr Baddies, And I was like, huh, so,

<v Speaker 1>does that mean that she is officially going to be

<v Speaker 1>in Rio Ripley's corner at WrestleMania. What does that mean

<v Speaker 1>for a potential match for EO a WrestleMania. It better

<v Speaker 1>not mean that she's not going to have one. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what night her match would be. It

<v Speaker 1>might not be the same night that Ria has her match.

<v Speaker 1>You get a EO sky do both things. She could

<v Speaker 1>have a match on Night one and she could be

<v Speaker 1>in Riea's corner on Night two, and that would be

<v Speaker 1>perfectly fine. But what does that mean for a post

<v Speaker 1>match with Oscar? That match was said to be penciled

<v Speaker 1>in as of a few days ago, But pencils have erasers,

<v Speaker 1>so do those white boards in the writers room. So

<v Speaker 1>that has me a little bit worried. We have Stephanie

<v Speaker 1>Vecierr defending the Women's World Championship against liv Morgan. Unsanctioned,

<v Speaker 1>Drew McIntyre takes on Jacob Fatu. This will be only

<v Speaker 1>the second unsanctioned match in WrestleMania history, after Seth Rollins

<v Speaker 1>against Triple H. At WrestleMania thirty three. Aj Lee defends

<v Speaker 1>the Women's Intercontinental Title against Becky Lynch. They didn't do

<v Speaker 1>anything on the show this past week to further that.

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's Ain will defend the United States Championship against Trick Williams,

<v Speaker 1>who will likely have lil Yati in his corner. They

<v Speaker 1>had a match on Friday. Sammy's Ain was convinced by

<v Speaker 1>Carmelo Hayes, who came out and pled his case to

<v Speaker 1>give him a rematch for the United States Championship, a

<v Speaker 1>well deserve rematch because it was Trick who basically fucked

<v Speaker 1>over Mellow the week before. So Sammy said, fine, I'll

<v Speaker 1>put my title on the line against you, but I

<v Speaker 1>want to hear about this after this. So they had

<v Speaker 1>the main event on Friday, Trick Williams and Liliati. They

<v Speaker 1>were sitting at rings I watching the entire thing, and

<v Speaker 1>in this match, they never lifted a finger to get involved. Instead,

<v Speaker 1>Sammy took advantage of the situation when Mellow, who was

<v Speaker 1>selling a leg injury, was in the corner being tended

<v Speaker 1>to by the referee and Sammy's ain came flying in

<v Speaker 1>with the Halluba kicks. So yes, he was not ready,

<v Speaker 1>but so what he still beat him clean in the

<v Speaker 1>middle of the ring one two three. So they beat

<v Speaker 1>Carmelo Hayes two weeks in a row, once with interference

<v Speaker 1>and once without interference. And it appears that he is

<v Speaker 1>indeed going to be left off the WrestleMania card this year,

<v Speaker 1>which would be a big slap in the face after

<v Speaker 1>the last few months that he has had on that show.

<v Speaker 1>I'm hopeful they will still not give up on him

<v Speaker 1>and that this is a story that is leading to

<v Speaker 1>him being involved in that match of making it a

<v Speaker 1>triple threat. But if that's the case, if that's where

<v Speaker 1>things are headed here, they should have just added him

<v Speaker 1>this week, because now if they add him to the match,

<v Speaker 1>it makes him look like a charity case. Now it

<v Speaker 1>just looks like, Okay, well, we feel bad for the guys,

<v Speaker 1>so we'll throw him a bone here and put him

<v Speaker 1>in the match. I don't known. To me, it won't

<v Speaker 1>make as much sense as it would have made if

<v Speaker 1>the announcement would have come this week that in fact,

<v Speaker 1>he was screwed over and he deserves to be a

<v Speaker 1>part of that match. But they may want to, you know,

<v Speaker 1>drag it out a little bit longer because they still

<v Speaker 1>have two weeks of television to kill and so we'll

<v Speaker 1>kind of build up the story. And maybe the idea

<v Speaker 1>is that we'll build up in the eyes of the

<v Speaker 1>fans this groundswell of support for Carmelo Hayes that hey,

<v Speaker 1>we want this guy on the WrestleMania card. Right. It's

<v Speaker 1>not quite Daniel Bryan from twenty fourteen, but maybe that's

<v Speaker 1>the idea here, and that's fine, look as long as

<v Speaker 1>he ends up on the card. But to me, even

<v Speaker 1>if he gets added, at this point, they kind of

<v Speaker 1>took the piss out of it a little bit. Today.

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<v Speaker 1>We have a ladder match for the Intercontinental title pented

<v Speaker 1>defense against JD McDonough, Dragon Lee, Javon Evans and russev

<v Speaker 1>Naya Jackson. Lash Legend will defend the women's tag team

<v Speaker 1>titles against Alexibilists and Charlotte Flair Bailey and Lyra Valkyria

<v Speaker 1>and possibly, I say possibly, the Bella Twins because Nikki

<v Speaker 1>Bella is still recovering from her ankle injury that she

<v Speaker 1>suffered the week before. Where she suffered it looked like

<v Speaker 1>a bad sprain. They showed a replay of where it

<v Speaker 1>happened in that match and it looked pretty gnarly. So

<v Speaker 1>she'll probably be okay for WrestleMania. I mean, there's no

<v Speaker 1>guarantee of it, but the Bellas are still scheduled to

<v Speaker 1>be a part of that match. And of course now

<v Speaker 1>we know Seth Rollins will be wrestling Gunther and Finn

<v Speaker 1>Balor will be taking on Dominic Mysterio, and then possibly

<v Speaker 1>we might get La Knight and the USOS against the

<v Speaker 1>Vision and I Show Speed, and then I'm hoping we

<v Speaker 1>get Eo Sky against Osca. Now shout out to Bryson.

<v Speaker 1>He had a good point. He was wondering if maybe

<v Speaker 1>they have shifted EO over to the Rhya and Jade

<v Speaker 1>stuff in case Nikki Bella is not cleared in time

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleMania, and if the Bella Twins are not well,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Breez not going to be doing anything if

<v Speaker 1>her sister is hurt. So if the Bella Twins have

<v Speaker 1>to get bounced out of that women's tag team title match,

<v Speaker 1>maybe their backup plan is to slot the Kabuki Warriors

<v Speaker 1>in there, and that's why they're doing things in the

<v Speaker 1>way that they're doing. That's a good point. I could

<v Speaker 1>see that being the logic there. I mean, my whole

<v Speaker 1>thing with the Brocklesnar Open Challenge stuff from a month

<v Speaker 1>ago is that the whole reason they even did a

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesnar Open Challenge was because they weren't sure about

<v Speaker 1>what bron breaker status was gonna be for WrestleMania. And

<v Speaker 1>then a week or two later, whenever they finally made

<v Speaker 1>the decision Okay, we're gonna go with Gunther and Seth.

<v Speaker 1>Once they made that call, the Open Challenge sort of disappeared.

<v Speaker 1>So maybe that's what they're doing as sort of a

<v Speaker 1>backstop in case the Bellows are not ready. But anyway,

<v Speaker 1>it's not looking good for Julia to get a title

<v Speaker 1>defense on that show. I don't really see if they

<v Speaker 1>do EO and Osca is their own match. I don't

<v Speaker 1>really see where they're going to have room to add

<v Speaker 1>another one if they want to do seven and seven,

<v Speaker 1>So that may be left for the SmackDown before. Tiffany

<v Speaker 1>Stratton may not even be on the WrestleMania card this year,

<v Speaker 1>which would be pretty wild given that last year she

<v Speaker 1>was in a championship match again and beat Charlotte Flair,

<v Speaker 1>and to go from that to not even being on

<v Speaker 1>the WrestleMania card when she's not injured would be pretty crazy.

<v Speaker 1>But next week, next week I will be doing my

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania predictions. We'll see what if anything gets added or

<v Speaker 1>confirmed this week or changed, and then we'll do all

<v Speaker 1>of our big predictions for the show next week. But naturally,

<v Speaker 1>I was not here for Dynamite this week, and this

<v Speaker 1>was the week that Chris Jericho came back to TV.

<v Speaker 1>I figured we were getting at least one big return

<v Speaker 1>on this show in Winnipeg. It was either going to

<v Speaker 1>be Jericho or Mercedes Monet or both. Mercedes lost another

<v Speaker 1>championship the night before in Winnipeg, she lost her Winnipeg

<v Speaker 1>Pro Wrestling Women's title to Jody Threat after holding the

<v Speaker 1>title for one hundred and sixty four days, which meant

<v Speaker 1>that she was down to just two belts technically one

<v Speaker 1>belt since the Owen Heart Belt is not actually defended.

<v Speaker 1>Outside of that, she had the a PAC Women's Championship

<v Speaker 1>that she had beaten nor Phoenix Diana for at the

<v Speaker 1>House of Glory show back in November. I called that

<v Speaker 1>match and we sold quite a few tickets off of

<v Speaker 1>that match. It was the only one that she had

<v Speaker 1>left and now she doesn't have that anymore either. In

<v Speaker 1>her latest Monet magazine that she sends out to her fans,

<v Speaker 1>she announced that she has vacated the APAC Women's Championship

<v Speaker 1>and here's why. She wrote the following While I was

<v Speaker 1>in London, I had to make a tough call. I

<v Speaker 1>sent the Malaysia Championship back my team and I really

<v Speaker 1>tried to make things work. We put the effort in,

<v Speaker 1>had the conversations and explored every option. But at the

<v Speaker 1>end of the day they told us that they didn't

<v Speaker 1>have the budget to fly me out and were not

<v Speaker 1>open to working with other promotions for me. That just

<v Speaker 1>didn't align with the vision. So I made the decision

<v Speaker 1>to vacate the title. And look, this business isn't always easy.

<v Speaker 1>Not every partnership works out the way you hope. But

<v Speaker 1>I've learned to stand firm in my worth, my time,

<v Speaker 1>and what I bring to the table. Every title I

<v Speaker 1>hold means something. Every move I make has purpose. So

<v Speaker 1>even though it wasn't easy, it was necessary because growth

<v Speaker 1>sometimes means letting go. Trust me, I'm always moving forward.

<v Speaker 1>So her World tour came to an end with a

<v Speaker 1>whimper and a FedEx to Malaysia. I don't think that's

<v Speaker 1>the way most people envision that happening, but that's the

<v Speaker 1>way it worked out.

<v Speaker 2>Wow.

<v Speaker 1>So this has caused a minor controversy. Evidently Winnipeg Pro

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling did some vague posting online about APAC Wrestling. This

<v Speaker 1>all caused Shaucott to respond, we had him on that

<v Speaker 1>same House of Glory show. I think he flew over

<v Speaker 1>with nor Diana. He's the one who runs APAC Wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>He is considered the godfather of Malaysian pro wrestling. He

<v Speaker 1>took to social media this morning to push back on

<v Speaker 1>some of what Mercedes had to say and others have

<v Speaker 1>had to say. He said, I woke up on three

<v Speaker 1>hours of sleep to a flood of texts, tags, and questions.

<v Speaker 1>So let me say this clearly. I have nothing but

<v Speaker 1>respect for Mercedes Monette. She is a global star in

<v Speaker 1>high demand, and I understand that her schedule and travel

<v Speaker 1>limitations are real. I do not blame her for the situation,

<v Speaker 1>and I appreciate the opportunity that we had to work together,

<v Speaker 1>but the public narrative being pushed does not fully reflect

<v Speaker 1>what actually happened. We did try. We did explore working

<v Speaker 1>with other promotions, because that was what was asked of us.

<v Speaker 1>I personally reached out, followed up, and tried to make

<v Speaker 1>multiple scenarios work. I also need to correct this clearly.

<v Speaker 1>I did not ask for other promotions to fly my

<v Speaker 1>wrestler in for US. I have the text and email

<v Speaker 1>receipts to back that up, and I am prepared to

<v Speaker 1>stand on that truth if necessary. I have chosen not

<v Speaker 1>to post private communications lightly because I still believe in

<v Speaker 1>handling business professionally, but I will protect my name when needed.

<v Speaker 1>For more context. I was even willing to go beyond

<v Speaker 1>our limits. On my side, I openly said that I

<v Speaker 1>would take on extra work and secure sponsors to try

<v Speaker 1>to bring Mercedes to Malaysia. That ultimately was not workable,

<v Speaker 1>which I understand, so we were pushed to explore solutions

<v Speaker 1>abroad instead. I would have genuinely loved to have made

<v Speaker 1>something work with Eric in Poland and hal and France.

<v Speaker 1>Both were respectful, professional and tried to find real solutions.

<v Speaker 1>I appreciate both of them for that, but when we

<v Speaker 1>looked at the full picture, it simply did not make

<v Speaker 1>business sense financially for us. I also want to address

<v Speaker 1>Winnipeg Pro Wrestling. Our interaction action was minimal. I reached out,

<v Speaker 1>was initially ignored, and only received a single response declining

<v Speaker 1>based on budget and their story direction, which I respected.

<v Speaker 1>That was the extent of it, so the public version

<v Speaker 1>being pushed does not reflect my actual communication with them. Again,

<v Speaker 1>I have receipts for that. I am not here to

<v Speaker 1>tear anyone down or create more drama to Mercedes, I

<v Speaker 1>sincerely apologize for any public discomfort this has caused. I

<v Speaker 1>still have respect for you and I understand that you

<v Speaker 1>are likely speaking from what was communicated to you woke

<v Speaker 1>up to a flood of tags. So here's the truth.

<v Speaker 1>We tried, We reached out to other promotions. We did

<v Speaker 1>not ask anyone to fly our talent in. I have receipts.

<v Speaker 1>I even tried to make Malaysia work and result nor

<v Speaker 1>Phoenix Diana did not get closure, just truth. And then

<v Speaker 1>in the comments somebody asked him, since she dropped her

<v Speaker 1>title at a House of Glory show, why not fly

<v Speaker 1>her back out to win it back at a House

<v Speaker 1>of Glory show, and Shaucott responded, thank you for asking.

<v Speaker 1>We would have loved to have worked with Brian. Talking

<v Speaker 1>about Brian, Excel and Hog again, they were great to us,

<v Speaker 1>but for something like this to happen, it needs alignment

<v Speaker 1>on timing, availability, and business logistics on all sides. Unfortunately

<v Speaker 1>it just did not line up this time. I will

<v Speaker 1>say they were all very nice and easy to work

<v Speaker 1>with back in November. As he said, it just sounds

<v Speaker 1>more like a matter of logistics than anything else. I

<v Speaker 1>think this has all much ado about nothing. Personally. It's

<v Speaker 1>a small promotion. They don't have a lot of funds,

<v Speaker 1>and even if funds weren't not the issue in flying

<v Speaker 1>Diana back over here. My guess, and this is just

<v Speaker 1>my opinion here, My guess is that Mercedes is clearly

<v Speaker 1>on her way back to AW Television very soon to

<v Speaker 1>pick up with whatever her story is going to be,

<v Speaker 1>and that story only works if she has lost all

<v Speaker 1>of her titles, and so in the limited amount of

<v Speaker 1>time that's left to make a match like that happen,

<v Speaker 1>there just wasn't an opportunity to do so in a

<v Speaker 1>timely fashion. That's my thought, that's my read on this.

<v Speaker 1>You know, we got lucky where the stars just aligned

<v Speaker 1>perfectly to get the match done in Hog and it

<v Speaker 1>sucks that Diana never got her win back, which I

<v Speaker 1>imagine would have been the end goal here, but it

<v Speaker 1>just didn't work out. You know, Mercedes clearly has no

<v Speaker 1>issue losing her belts back to all of these people.

<v Speaker 1>She had thirteen titles at one point, she dropped them

<v Speaker 1>all flat on her back. It just sucks that it

<v Speaker 1>ended in such an anti climactic way. But what this

<v Speaker 1>means is that she should be on her way back

<v Speaker 1>to AW Television imminently and with Tony Storm gone for

<v Speaker 1>the foreseeable future, which was not the plan. But this

<v Speaker 1>is the cards that have been dealt to them. I

<v Speaker 1>think she's the one to take that title from Tecla

<v Speaker 1>this summer, which would mean that she would win the

<v Speaker 1>Owen for the second straight year though, and so that

<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure of. Do they have her win the

<v Speaker 1>Owen for you know, the second straight year, or she

<v Speaker 1>could win the Casino Gauntlet and she could win the

<v Speaker 1>title at a later date because the new rule that

<v Speaker 1>you have to give at least one week's notice if

<v Speaker 1>you want to cash that briefcase in. That's the rule

<v Speaker 1>they established with MJF. I assume it applies to the

<v Speaker 1>ladies as well. So I mean there's multiple pathways for

<v Speaker 1>her to get to the World Championship. But given that

<v Speaker 1>she challenged for it twice, she lost twice. This is

<v Speaker 1>the crash out. She's lost all of her other belts,

<v Speaker 1>She's hit rock bottom. The story that makes sense is

<v Speaker 1>for her to build herself back up and eventually win

<v Speaker 1>the world title. Whether it happens at Wembley or not,

<v Speaker 1>I guess in the big picture, it doesn't really matter.

<v Speaker 1>I would just assume though, that that's the place where

<v Speaker 1>they would want to do it. And if that's the case,

<v Speaker 1>she would have to win the owen, so anyway, she

<v Speaker 1>wasn't on Dynamite this week, but Chris Jericho was now.

<v Speaker 1>Dave Meltzer said leading up to the show that he

<v Speaker 1>was told by someone in WWE not to expect Jericho

<v Speaker 1>back there anytime soon. If ever ever is a long time.

<v Speaker 1>I do think he'll be back there at some point,

<v Speaker 1>at least for one last WrestleMania match in the inevitable

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame induction. This is also on the heels

<v Speaker 1>of him filing to trademark the term Cornerstone back on

<v Speaker 1>March twenty fifth, The Cornerstone Chris Jericho. Some people thought

<v Speaker 1>that meant that he was coming back to aaw because

<v Speaker 1>WWE would not allow him to trademark his own names,

<v Speaker 1>they would be the ones doing that, especially if it

<v Speaker 1>was going to be a gimmick he was going to

<v Speaker 1>play on their television show. True, normally they would be

<v Speaker 1>the ones to file the trademark applications, but being under

<v Speaker 1>contract to WWE does not mean you cannot file trademark

<v Speaker 1>applications for other names that you may want to use,

<v Speaker 1>so that doesn't really mean anything. But the show opened

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday with Tony Shavanni in the ring, getting ready

<v Speaker 1>to introduce the two men who were fighting for the

<v Speaker 1>World Championship at Dynasty next Sunday with their big contracts signing.

<v Speaker 1>But he was interrupted by this giant fireworks display out

<v Speaker 1>of nowhere, and then he started talking again, only to

<v Speaker 1>be interrupted by Judas and a returning Chris Jericho. So

<v Speaker 1>we know who the pyro was for. It's good to

<v Speaker 1>hear Judas again. I was hoping if he went back

<v Speaker 1>to WWE, they would allow him to use that as

<v Speaker 1>his theme. He came out in this purple jacket. He

<v Speaker 1>looked to be in great shape compared to the last

<v Speaker 1>time we saw him. I mean, a year off. I'll

<v Speaker 1>do that to you. He got cheered in Winnipeg, which

<v Speaker 1>is where he grew up. You know, he would have

<v Speaker 1>been cheered regardless because he'd been away for so long,

<v Speaker 1>but you would expect him to get like this monster

<v Speaker 1>reaction back home. I wouldn't call it monster. He got

<v Speaker 1>a very good reaction, but he milked it for far

<v Speaker 1>too long, to the point where the crowd got quiet

<v Speaker 1>and it just came off as awkward after a while,

<v Speaker 1>like he was expecting it to be louder and more

<v Speaker 1>sustained than it was like this, This was not Hogan

<v Speaker 1>in God We're Worthy. Was it Montreal that SmackDown after

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania eighteen? God, I think I want to say it

<v Speaker 1>was Montreal. I could be wrong. It was somewhere in Canada, though,

<v Speaker 1>And they had like that five minute standing over a

<v Speaker 1>like this was not that okay. It was almost like

<v Speaker 1>he was maybe expecting something kind of tantamount to that,

<v Speaker 1>so it was a little awkward. They sang his song,

<v Speaker 1>but the longer he stayed out there, you know, pandering

<v Speaker 1>to the crowd, actively trying to get them to cheer more,

<v Speaker 1>it didn't come off great. And after a few minutes

<v Speaker 1>of this and taking it all in, he simply shouted Winnipeg, aw,

<v Speaker 1>I'm home, and then he hugged his dad and a

<v Speaker 1>few other people in the front row at ringside, and

<v Speaker 1>he left total baby face return, not even a hint

<v Speaker 1>of what he's doing next, or what direction they planned

<v Speaker 1>to take with him, or even the next time we're

<v Speaker 1>going to see him. I hope it's not often. I

<v Speaker 1>said this to someone on Twitter, even before he came

<v Speaker 1>back with another reinvention. He could get a few months

<v Speaker 1>of goodwill out of the audience until they get sick

<v Speaker 1>of him again. And they will get sick of him again,

<v Speaker 1>so there'll be that initial honeymoon phase and then the

<v Speaker 1>reality will set in, like, oh okay, Jericho's back. Like

<v Speaker 1>the Learning Tree stuff was awful and they never even

<v Speaker 1>gave it a proper ending. I mean, he should have

<v Speaker 1>put over Big Bill in a match. What a fucking

<v Speaker 1>waste that was. Instead, Big Bill is relegated to Ring

<v Speaker 1>of Honor with barely any appearances on Collision, let alone Dynamite.

<v Speaker 1>And by the end, you know, Jericho had go away

<v Speaker 1>heat with me. He had go away heat with a

<v Speaker 1>lot of people. Taking time off was the best thing

<v Speaker 1>that he could have done for the product and for

<v Speaker 1>himself if he was ever going to come back, and

<v Speaker 1>per PW Insider, it sounds like he's back for a

<v Speaker 1>long time. Mike Johnson is reporting that the general belief

<v Speaker 1>backstage was that Jericho came to terms with aw on

<v Speaker 1>a brand new deal. So this is not a case

<v Speaker 1>of Jericho only coming back because Tony Kahn tacked time

<v Speaker 1>onto his existing deal, which he may have. He actually

<v Speaker 1>signed a brand new contract to keep him there. For

<v Speaker 1>what I have to assume is going to be at

<v Speaker 1>least a few years. Johnson says Jericho was not backstage

<v Speaker 1>at all before the show. They wanted to keep his

<v Speaker 1>return hush hush. Jericho posted a video on his Instagram

<v Speaker 1>sitting in a car waiting to go into the building

<v Speaker 1>ten minutes before the show, and after he was going

<v Speaker 1>around introducing himself to all the talent that he didn't know,

<v Speaker 1>because they've introduced a lot of new faces in the

<v Speaker 1>year that he's been gone. He was scouting fresh Meat.

<v Speaker 1>First it was the Inner Circle, then it was the

<v Speaker 1>Jericho Appreciation Society, then it was the Learning Tree. He's

<v Speaker 1>scouting for his next group. Here's the key to this

<v Speaker 1>working out, The key to Jericho's longevity, okay, going forward

<v Speaker 1>at fifty five years old, is to use him sporadically.

<v Speaker 1>No one is clamoring for Chris Jericho to be on

<v Speaker 1>weekly television doing the same redundant shit, or wrestling weekly

<v Speaker 1>on Dynamite. Okay, nobody wants to see that. I don't

<v Speaker 1>believe that anybody wants to see that. And that's the

<v Speaker 1>worst thing that you could do with Chris Jericho right now. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if he's going to reinvent himself again

<v Speaker 1>what that might look like. We didn't really see that

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday. Whether he does, he does, and Jericho should

<v Speaker 1>not be on the show every single week, and they

<v Speaker 1>should be selective with who they have him working with.

<v Speaker 1>Make it mean something, you know, to the extent that

<v Speaker 1>there's value left in him putting people over, right, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>not that he needs to lose to everyone. He shouldn't

<v Speaker 1>just go loose to everyone, because then it doesn't mean anything.

<v Speaker 1>But pick those names that you think could really benefit

<v Speaker 1>from it. And also pick bigger names that he hasn't

<v Speaker 1>worked with before or he hasn't worked with, you know ever,

<v Speaker 1>not just an aaw because he's pretty much worked with

<v Speaker 1>them all by now. Kenny Omega, right, he worked with him,

<v Speaker 1>but that was in New Japan, Will Osprey, MJF. Darby Allen,

<v Speaker 1>he worked with him too already, although that was very

<v Speaker 1>early on. I think that was on one of the

<v Speaker 1>first episodes of Dynamite that they ever did. They had

<v Speaker 1>a world title match. And so that's the problem, right,

<v Speaker 1>it feels like he's worked with all of these names,

<v Speaker 1>he's done everything that there is to do there. Find

<v Speaker 1>the ones that he hasn't really had a program him

<v Speaker 1>with find those newer names that maybe they can benefit from,

<v Speaker 1>you know, working with Chris Jericho if you use him

<v Speaker 1>in the right way, But we don't need to see

<v Speaker 1>him on television every week. They've outgrown him. AW has

<v Speaker 1>outgrown Chris Jericho. He was such an important piece of

<v Speaker 1>the of the puzzle for them when the company was

<v Speaker 1>first launched. He gave them credibility. He helped land them

<v Speaker 1>a TV deal. The first AW world champion, right, he

<v Speaker 1>was the right choice for that spot. But it's been

<v Speaker 1>seven years. They put the Ring of Honor world title

<v Speaker 1>on him because they wanted to get a Ring of

<v Speaker 1>Honor television deal didn't work. You gotta be more selective

<v Speaker 1>in what you do with him, not unlike Sting. Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahan knew how to use Sting the right way. It

<v Speaker 1>remains to be seen if he could do the same

<v Speaker 1>thing with Chris Jericho. I also feel like Jericho has

<v Speaker 1>enough saying influence over what he does that Tony Kah

<v Speaker 1>kind of kind of like he does with John Moxley,

<v Speaker 1>is just going to let him do what he wants

<v Speaker 1>and is probably going to show him a lot of

<v Speaker 1>deference out of respect. So I would hope Jericho is

<v Speaker 1>probably thinking along the same lines, like I got to

<v Speaker 1>be selective in what I do. But I'll tell you what, though,

<v Speaker 1>if Jericho manipulated the situation into a better deal with

<v Speaker 1>AAW and never really had any great interest in leaving

<v Speaker 1>and going back to WWE, he's a savvy guy. He's

<v Speaker 1>a savvy guy. I don't know how close that ever

<v Speaker 1>actually came to happening. He's been under contract with AW

<v Speaker 1>this entire time, so how much direct communication he would

<v Speaker 1>have even had with WWE, I have no idea, but

<v Speaker 1>it's entirely possible he never really wanted to go back,

<v Speaker 1>and he just used this to get himself a better

<v Speaker 1>deal to stay right where he is. I think about it,

<v Speaker 1>Why would he leave, especially if WWE really only wants

<v Speaker 1>him for a retirement run, right, I mean, the guy

<v Speaker 1>got himself in great shape. He has no interest in

<v Speaker 1>retiring anytime soon. Like his goals don't align with WWE's goals.

<v Speaker 1>If that's they're really, If that's really they're only intention

<v Speaker 1>in bringing him back is to have a retirement tour

<v Speaker 1>and then maybe next year or something put him in

<v Speaker 1>the Hall of Fame. Clearly he's not ready for that.

<v Speaker 1>Why would he leave when he can pick up and

<v Speaker 1>go wherever he wants, whenever he wants to tour with

<v Speaker 1>Fozzi or go make a movie, or go sail the

<v Speaker 1>high seas on the Jericho Cruz. Like he has all

<v Speaker 1>of these outside endeavors that was always going to be

<v Speaker 1>tough to navigate if he put pen to paper and

<v Speaker 1>went back to WWE. In AW, you know, he's making bank,

<v Speaker 1>it's not hurting for money, making more money than he'll

<v Speaker 1>ever need. I'm sure he has a level of creative

<v Speaker 1>freedom a lot of other people don't have. Right, we

<v Speaker 1>don't even know if he has EVP power in the

<v Speaker 1>company or any of the benefits that go with that.

<v Speaker 1>He probably does, and he has the freedom to do

<v Speaker 1>all of those other things. I could see why he

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't want to leave, But the challenge is how do

<v Speaker 1>you keep him fresh? You know, WWE has changed a

<v Speaker 1>lot since he left, tons of new faces there for

<v Speaker 1>him to work with. If you went back in AAW,

<v Speaker 1>there's some of that, but there's not as much because

<v Speaker 1>he's been there for six years, seven years. You know

<v Speaker 1>who he can work with in AAW that I don't

<v Speaker 1>believe he's ever worked with before, Swerve Strickland, especially if

<v Speaker 1>Jericho Stay's babyface and Swerve is a heel now could

<v Speaker 1>see him working with Swerve, Kyle Fletcher, Ricochet, Tomaso Champa right.

<v Speaker 1>These were all names that he's never worked with before,

<v Speaker 1>or at least not in a real program. I like

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite on Wednesday more than I did the show from

<v Speaker 1>the week before. It wasn't one of their best shows,

<v Speaker 1>and there was a lot of talking at the beginning

<v Speaker 1>of it, way more than we usually get on these shows.

<v Speaker 1>But I thought they kept things moving well enough. We

<v Speaker 1>had the contract signing for the aw World title Magic

<v Speaker 1>Dynasty with Kenny Omega and MJF. Fastest contract signing ever

<v Speaker 1>as far as them signing the actual contract rway, they

<v Speaker 1>could have ended it right there, but then they cut

<v Speaker 1>promos on each other, with Omega bringing up the fact

<v Speaker 1>that MJF calls himself the devil, so he might have

<v Speaker 1>to go with the God of pro wrestling Moniker, who

<v Speaker 1>strikes the Devil down. This is all stuff that we

<v Speaker 1>heard Omega say previously, but that's how they're billing the match,

<v Speaker 1>the God against the Devil, and MJF talked about some

<v Speaker 1>dirty little secret about Kenny that people don't know about.

<v Speaker 1>What keeps Kenny up at night is that after nearly

<v Speaker 1>dying from diverticulitis and coming back, his doctor told him

<v Speaker 1>that at any moment, at any moment, his diverticulitis is

<v Speaker 1>to the point where his intestines can explode at any moment.

<v Speaker 1>It's like a ticking time bomb, a race against time

<v Speaker 1>to cement his legacy, which is why he is so

<v Speaker 1>adamant about going after the world title. And he called

<v Speaker 1>Omega a false idol who would be better off dead,

<v Speaker 1>at which point Omega flipped the table over. MJF was

<v Speaker 1>trying to goad him into hitting him because if he does,

<v Speaker 1>Omega doesn't get his match for the world title. Right,

<v Speaker 1>there could be no physicality here on the show, and

<v Speaker 1>so if Omega would have struck him, then that would

<v Speaker 1>have been the end for Omega. So that brought out

<v Speaker 1>Speedball Mike Bailey in defense of Kenny Omega and without Kenny,

<v Speaker 1>he says, there is no AW and if there is

<v Speaker 1>no AW, then there is no MJF, which I have

<v Speaker 1>to say is one hundred percent true. I have no

<v Speaker 1>doubt that MJF would have landed in WWE if there

<v Speaker 1>was no AW and the MJF that we see on

<v Speaker 1>TV today never would have been allowed on WWE television.

<v Speaker 1>He wouldn't even be called MJF. God only knows what

<v Speaker 1>name he would have been given. So yes, were it

<v Speaker 1>not for AW rising up when it did, we would

<v Speaker 1>not have the MJF that we see today on TV

<v Speaker 1>right now. But Speedball wanted a match with MJF, and

<v Speaker 1>Kenny admitted that his intestines are not what they used

<v Speaker 1>to be after having twenty four inches of it removed,

<v Speaker 1>but he would rather be without his intestines than be

<v Speaker 1>without his ball like MJF and Tony Kahan made it

<v Speaker 1>official after that that MJF would be wrestling Speedball in

<v Speaker 1>the main event. So Omega state out there for the

<v Speaker 1>opening match, which saw him teaming with Brody King and

<v Speaker 1>Jack Perry to take on Ricochet in the Gates of Agony,

<v Speaker 1>and this was fine. Omega pinn Ricochet to win it,

<v Speaker 1>as he should. He's the one challenging for the world

<v Speaker 1>title in seven days. If they're setting up Ricochet though

<v Speaker 1>to challenge Jack Perry for the national title, a dynasty

<v Speaker 1>I would have had Bishop Cohn or tot Leona eat

<v Speaker 1>the pin and protect him a little bit, but they

<v Speaker 1>did the finish in a way where Perry is the

<v Speaker 1>one who stopped Ricochet from using the National title as

<v Speaker 1>a weapon, So it feeds into their own stuff at

<v Speaker 1>least Will Ospray. He tried to kill John Moxley backstage

<v Speaker 1>and had to be pulled off of him. That led

<v Speaker 1>into Ospray one on one with the bastard Pack. This

<v Speaker 1>was nowhere close to their all out match from twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty four, but they weren't trying to go all out here.

<v Speaker 1>This was to set the table for the bigger match,

<v Speaker 1>which is Osprey and moxleya dynasty. But Ospray is out

<v Speaker 1>there with tape all over his neck and he gets

<v Speaker 1>jumped on the ramp during his entrance and Pack drops

<v Speaker 1>him on the ramp with a brainbuster. So the doctor

<v Speaker 1>comes over to tell Osprey, you don't need to do this.

<v Speaker 1>This isn't a good idea, This match shouldn't happen, and

<v Speaker 1>Osprey then disregards the doctor. He tells the referee to

<v Speaker 1>ring the bell, and the referee obeys the talent and

<v Speaker 1>not the doctor. They have established that Tony Kahan is

<v Speaker 1>in their ear every single week. He's in the back

<v Speaker 1>watching everything that goes on. Even after the contract signing, right,

<v Speaker 1>he was very quick to make the main event tonight

<v Speaker 1>between MJF and Speedball, but his own doctor thinks that

<v Speaker 1>will Ospray should not be wrestling, and Tony Khan is silent.

<v Speaker 1>So to recap, the company's two biggest babyfaces were established

<v Speaker 1>on this show as being physically compromised. It's putting it

<v Speaker 1>lightly to the point where Kenny Omega's stomach could explode

<v Speaker 1>at any moment and he could die, and will Ospray's

<v Speaker 1>neck may be broken in a moment's notice. And even still,

<v Speaker 1>they had a match, and will Ospray, bad neck and all.

<v Speaker 1>He pinned Pack. The Pack dominated most of the match,

<v Speaker 1>but he got rolled up and pinned at the end

<v Speaker 1>of it. He threw everything at this man, bad neck

<v Speaker 1>and all, and he still couldn't get the job done.

<v Speaker 1>And then after the match was over, the Death Riders

<v Speaker 1>laid out Osprey. They placed a chair around his neck.

<v Speaker 1>Claudio was about to stomp him into another broken neck.

<v Speaker 1>This is apparently not enough for security to come out.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they run out for everything else, but not

<v Speaker 1>for this. Nobody does the man has no friends. His

<v Speaker 1>fiance is backstage, and even she doesn't come out to

<v Speaker 1>try to stop this. Of all the people to stop at,

<v Speaker 1>Joan Moxley stops it. He says, look at the situation

<v Speaker 1>you've gotten yourself into. Will next time use your head

<v Speaker 1>or you'll lose it. I mentioned Alex Windsor. I guess

<v Speaker 1>she was too busy getting ready for her match, which

<v Speaker 1>was up next. It was a trios match with Minishrakawa

<v Speaker 1>and the Brawling Birds taking on Tecla and the Sisters

<v Speaker 1>of Sin. In the men's trios match from earlier, they

<v Speaker 1>did a triple suplex spot, so then here in the

<v Speaker 1>ladies match, they ran the exact same spot back on

<v Speaker 1>the same show, only this time it looked comically bad

<v Speaker 1>like it was. It was so bad half the heels

<v Speaker 1>went over for it, the other half just sort of

<v Speaker 1>fell down. But Jamie Hater won it for the Babyfaces.

<v Speaker 1>I thought Mina would get a rematch with Tecla after

<v Speaker 1>the way their last match ended, but it's actually Jamie

<v Speaker 1>Hayter who's getting a shot at Dynasty at the world title.

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen came out and again he said he wanted

<v Speaker 1>the world title. He called out MJF, and instead he

<v Speaker 1>got the Don Callus family, who MJF paid off to

<v Speaker 1>take care of his Darby problem. He would have called

<v Speaker 1>the dogs to take care of his Darby problem, but

<v Speaker 1>there are a bunch of fucking losers, so what's the point.

<v Speaker 1>So Callous tells Darby that if he can beat it

<v Speaker 1>handpicked member of his family, a dynasty, he'll get a

<v Speaker 1>world championship match. I don't know. I guess he was

<v Speaker 1>able to use his power and influence to make that happen.

<v Speaker 1>And he said that member that you're going to be

<v Speaker 1>wrestling is Andrade l Edelo, and that news catches Andrade

<v Speaker 1>off guard could tell from his reaction he wasn't too

<v Speaker 1>hot on the idea to begin with of the family

<v Speaker 1>accepting money from MJF to do his dirty work for him,

<v Speaker 1>and now he finds out that he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>the one to do it. So the slow march to

<v Speaker 1>the inevitable babyface turn for Andrade continues, hopefully not as

<v Speaker 1>agonizingly slow as this march towards Okada against Takeshta has

<v Speaker 1>been fucking grief. So Callus sends the family after Darby,

<v Speaker 1>Brodie King and Jack Perry. They make the save, both

<v Speaker 1>of whom have history with Darby, so there was some

<v Speaker 1>hesitation there from both sides. Then Kenny Omega comes back

<v Speaker 1>out because he's going to be doing commentary for the

<v Speaker 1>main event, and he and Darby exchange a nod of

<v Speaker 1>respect on his way to the ring. So if Darby

<v Speaker 1>beats Andrade, and I have every expectation that he will,

<v Speaker 1>and Darby is probably getting his world title match at

<v Speaker 1>double or nothing next month. It could be Darby Allen

<v Speaker 1>against MJF. But it also could be Darby Allen against

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega, which I think kind of gives away the

<v Speaker 1>outcome of the match at Dynasty, doesn't it Like the

<v Speaker 1>match is MJF against Darby Allen, not Kenny Omega against

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen. Ergo, MJF is not losing to Kenny Omega

<v Speaker 1>at Dynasty. He is retaining. I'm gonna I'm gonna weave

<v Speaker 1>my predictions in here as I go along. These are

<v Speaker 1>my informal Dynasty predictions for next Sunday, MJF against Speedball

<v Speaker 1>in the main event. I thought it was good stuff

<v Speaker 1>and as clean of a win for MJF as you're

<v Speaker 1>gonna find, which was good, right. Omega got the win

<v Speaker 1>in the trios match earlier, MJF came right back at

<v Speaker 1>and got a win. To close the show, Bailey tried

<v Speaker 1>the Moonsalt double knees on the apron, which worked for

<v Speaker 1>him earlier, but the second time around he crashed and burned,

<v Speaker 1>and then MJF dropped him on his head with a

<v Speaker 1>tombstone on the apron and then the heats back inside

<v Speaker 1>for the win, and Omega chased MJF off when the

<v Speaker 1>match was over. And pretty flat ending, i would say

<v Speaker 1>for the show, but we got some good matches. More importantly,

<v Speaker 1>we had MJF, Kenny, Omega, and will Ospray all wrestling

<v Speaker 1>on the show, so that's a win right there. Pack

<v Speaker 1>and Osprey they had the match of the night if

<v Speaker 1>I had a pick, and we had the Jericho return,

<v Speaker 1>which at least made it newsworthy even though he didn't

<v Speaker 1>do anything. So we're a week out from Dynasty with

<v Speaker 1>six matches now official. Marina Shaffir is taking on Alex

<v Speaker 1>Windsor on the Zero Hour pre show, and I'm going

<v Speaker 1>with Alex Windsor for the win. I mean, the word

<v Speaker 1>win is literally in the woman's name and I can't

<v Speaker 1>see Jamie Hater taking the world title from Tecla. If anything,

<v Speaker 1>I think that's something you say for Wembley. But I

<v Speaker 1>can see Hater and Windsor winning the tag team titles

<v Speaker 1>at Wembley. So Tekla is going to retain against Jamie Hayter.

<v Speaker 1>I think Darby Allen beats Andrade to get the next

<v Speaker 1>shot of the world title. At Double or Nothing. Cope

<v Speaker 1>and Christian they're challenging FTR for the tag team titles,

<v Speaker 1>and I think they are going to win the title.

<v Speaker 1>I had to think about that one because FTR already

<v Speaker 1>lost the first match, you know, so I mean, do

<v Speaker 1>they just get beat again? It seems like the table

<v Speaker 1>is set for it. You know they're there in Vancouver.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Cope and Christian are going to be super over.

<v Speaker 1>They're coming back for revenge after I mean, FTR spiked

<v Speaker 1>the man's wife on her head. He should be able

<v Speaker 1>to get revenge on this show. But I had to

<v Speaker 1>think about it because I do they retain here and

<v Speaker 1>then save the title win for Double or Nothing? I

<v Speaker 1>think the urge to have them win the belt in

<v Speaker 1>Canada is too great. I think they get them here,

<v Speaker 1>so I think We're gonna have new tag team champions.

<v Speaker 1>I'm also predicting that John Moxley is going to beat

<v Speaker 1>Will Ospray. Now that we know the Continental title is

<v Speaker 1>on the line. Wasn't sure that. I was kind of

<v Speaker 1>hoping it wouldn't be, and then we found out that

<v Speaker 1>it is. But I will say at least they came

<v Speaker 1>up with a good way to explain the title being

<v Speaker 1>on the line, because on collision, after Moxley beat Anthony Bowens,

<v Speaker 1>Osprey ran down. He laid out Moxley with a hidden blade,

<v Speaker 1>and then he grabbed the belt and he told Moxley,

<v Speaker 1>I want all the Death Riders banned from ringside for

<v Speaker 1>their Dynasty match, and that's one of the rules of

<v Speaker 1>these Continental title matches. So his rationale for wanting the

<v Speaker 1>title on the line actually makes perfect sense. But with

<v Speaker 1>the title on the line, I think Moxley retains, and

<v Speaker 1>actually that works because then here's what I would do.

<v Speaker 1>I would have Moxley retain and then I would run

<v Speaker 1>it back in the finals of the owen Hart Tournament

<v Speaker 1>and Will Osprey beats John Moxley there to punch his

<v Speaker 1>ticket to the main event of all in I like

<v Speaker 1>that the only thing is the All In Show this

<v Speaker 1>year is a month later, and so I don't know

<v Speaker 1>exactly when they're gonna kick off the like what week

<v Speaker 1>they're gonna kick off the OEN, but it probably won't

<v Speaker 1>be until after Double or Nothing. So it would be

<v Speaker 1>a case where they probably would have to get away

<v Speaker 1>from this for a little bit and then come back

<v Speaker 1>to it if they wanted to do that. But I

<v Speaker 1>I like the idea that Moxley who won the Continental

<v Speaker 1>Classic and went all the way to the end. There

<v Speaker 1>you get people thinking he might be able to do

<v Speaker 1>the same thing in the o INN. But then it's

<v Speaker 1>will Osprey who finally gets that win and gets his

<v Speaker 1>revenge once and for all, and that's what you know

<v Speaker 1>sends him to the main event of Wembley Stadium, you know,

<v Speaker 1>beating the man that broke his neck. So I like

<v Speaker 1>that idea, and I think MJF retains over Kenny Omega.

<v Speaker 1>I think he's gonna walk into double or Nothing against

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen as the world champion. I think that's the

<v Speaker 1>right move to make. I would not be taking the

<v Speaker 1>title off MJF just yet. So that's six matches I

<v Speaker 1>believe for I won two three. I think that's six

<v Speaker 1>with a week to go. That means we're gonna get

<v Speaker 1>a flurry of matches added this week. Ricochet challenging Jack

<v Speaker 1>Perry for the national title that could be won. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>Ocatta defending the international title again against Kevin Knight. If not,

<v Speaker 1>then I guess Kevin Knight will be defending the trio's

<v Speaker 1>titles with Speedball and Mystico on that show. I have

<v Speaker 1>a question, where is Swerve Strickland unless they really are

<v Speaker 1>going to do something with him in Jericho and so

<v Speaker 1>we're waiting to find out what Jericho is gonna do.

<v Speaker 1>But where the hell is Swerve? Like he disappeared off

<v Speaker 1>the face of the earth since losing to Kenny Omega.

<v Speaker 1>Is he gonna get involved in the finish of the

<v Speaker 1>main event or is he going to be involved with Jericho?

<v Speaker 1>What about Chris Jericho? Will he have a role on

<v Speaker 1>that Dynasty show? Will he have a match on that show?

<v Speaker 1>Jericho is going to address his return as part of

<v Speaker 1>this week's Dynamite. This is the go home show for Dynasty.

<v Speaker 1>He will be there live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So

<v Speaker 1>perhaps we'll find out this way if I mean he's

<v Speaker 1>gonna have a match on the show. We have to

<v Speaker 1>know by Wednesday. I will back live on Wednesday on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube for the review. So I will be back for

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite this week. Dynasty, I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

<v Speaker 1>I just I can't stand how long and how late

<v Speaker 1>these fucking shows go, and then I end up going

<v Speaker 1>to bed at three in the morning. I mean, if

<v Speaker 1>I just watched it went to bed, it would be

<v Speaker 1>a big deal. That's kind of what I'm planning on doing,

<v Speaker 1>But just the lateness of the shows and then by

<v Speaker 1>the time I'm done with the stream and the editing

<v Speaker 1>and everything else that has to be done, It's three

<v Speaker 1>point thirty in the morning, and it just completely fucks

<v Speaker 1>me up come Monday, you know, when I'm trying to

<v Speaker 1>get ready for Uncrowned the next day. So I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>I'm leaning towards not doing one, but we'll see. Also,

<v Speaker 1>I want to mention on Collision. Isaiah Cassidy cut a

<v Speaker 1>promo by himself backstage saying that he keeps hearing about change,

<v Speaker 1>Well it's time for change, and how John Moxley took

<v Speaker 1>out Mark Quinn last week and now he's hurt and

<v Speaker 1>he has no idea when his partner is going to

<v Speaker 1>be back. I can tell you that is a shoot. Unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>Quinn is injured and it sounds like he ain't going

<v Speaker 1>to be back for some time. And that really sucks

<v Speaker 1>because Private Party had just come back after like a

<v Speaker 1>year off and then this happens. So I feel bad

<v Speaker 1>for Quinn, and I feel bad for Isaiah Cassidy too,

<v Speaker 1>because now he's on his own and I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if Tony Khan is going to come up with something

<v Speaker 1>for him to do in the interim or if he

<v Speaker 1>just sort of going to float around aimlessly, you know,

<v Speaker 1>waiting for his partner to come back. But the timing

<v Speaker 1>is just terrible on that. Willie Mack is not very

<v Speaker 1>happy with Tony Khan right now. He posted the following

<v Speaker 1>tweet on Tuesday Night, when your boy is about to

<v Speaker 1>become a homeless superhero because the booker doesn't think he's

<v Speaker 1>worth the money hashtag where the best Wrestle? And he

<v Speaker 1>followed with this, It's like for two years straight, I

<v Speaker 1>would call every week and ask if you got anything

<v Speaker 1>for me? You signed right? You still getting paid? Right?

<v Speaker 1>I want to wrestle. I gotta be honest with you

<v Speaker 1>up until a few months ago. I didn't even realize

<v Speaker 1>he was still signed with them because you never see

<v Speaker 1>him on TV. But the man has worked with JCW,

<v Speaker 1>Lunacy and Russo more than he has for aw Or

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor this year. I mean hell, he's worked

<v Speaker 1>for House of Glory this year more than he has

<v Speaker 1>for aaw Or Ring of Honor. Now, despite what he

<v Speaker 1>said there, I didn't take him literally like he's about

<v Speaker 1>to become homeless or anything. And he also made it

<v Speaker 1>sound like AW is getting rid of him, but that

<v Speaker 1>is not the case. He posted a reply saying that

<v Speaker 1>he is still there, and when a fan suggested that

<v Speaker 1>he was only on a per appearance deal with them

<v Speaker 1>and not a full time AW contract, Willie said that

<v Speaker 1>that person was wrong. Mike Johnson, a PW insider, later

<v Speaker 1>said this, We are told that max existing AW deal

<v Speaker 1>expired and he was offered a new deal but opted

<v Speaker 1>not to sign it some time ago. Now there's a

<v Speaker 1>lot of confusion here and conflicting reports going on. The

<v Speaker 1>core issue is that Willy Mack wants to wrestle. He

<v Speaker 1>wrestles Indy's. He's been wrestling mostly for the Juggalos, but

<v Speaker 1>he has been under a deal with AW now for

<v Speaker 1>a few years. Like I don't know when he actually signed,

<v Speaker 1>but he's worked a grand total of ten matches for

<v Speaker 1>AW in the three years that he has been working there.

<v Speaker 1>That's nothing. Ten Now, that number is a little bit

<v Speaker 1>higher in Ring of Honors since Tony Kahm bought the company,

<v Speaker 1>he's worked twenty eight matches for them. But that's dating

<v Speaker 1>back to twenty twenty three. That's still not a large number.

<v Speaker 1>And I don't know what he was being paid. But

<v Speaker 1>if he was paid decently and still had the ability

<v Speaker 1>to book his own shots, that's not a bad deal

<v Speaker 1>to have unless you're Willie Mack and you want to work.

<v Speaker 1>You just want to work. You just want to wrestle.

<v Speaker 1>And I can understand his frustration if he was calling

<v Speaker 1>every single week asking, Hey, do you have anything for me?

<v Speaker 1>Do you have anything for me? Like he said, he

<v Speaker 1>was signed, he was getting paid, but he wants to wrestle.

<v Speaker 1>Wrestlers want to wrestle. They want to work for the

<v Speaker 1>money that they are being paid. Because the more visibility

<v Speaker 1>you have, the more you get your name out there

<v Speaker 1>and you can make even more money. You up your stock.

<v Speaker 1>He hasn't wrestled for them at all this year so far.

<v Speaker 1>And this is the problem with Tony's signing so many people,

<v Speaker 1>there's just not enough room for everyone. Deanna Parrazzo just

<v Speaker 1>talked about this. Not that long ago. She won the

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor Women's Pure Championship, the first champion. She

<v Speaker 1>hadn't even defended the title, and then all of a

<v Speaker 1>sudden she had her first defense in Ring of Honor.

<v Speaker 1>But she had to speak up about it publicly because

<v Speaker 1>she won this fucking belt and they're still not doing

<v Speaker 1>anything with her, They're not using her. She'd like to

<v Speaker 1>actually defend that belt. So Willie Mack is hardly the

<v Speaker 1>only person that has voiced their issues with this sort

<v Speaker 1>of thing. But they have so many people under contract.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, we keep hearing stories every week about new people.

<v Speaker 1>They're all elite. This person's all the lead, that woman's

<v Speaker 1>all elite, this guy's all elite, and so there's only

<v Speaker 1>so many spots. It's like in baseball, you know, you've

<v Speaker 1>got the forty man roster. That's it. Like it's a

<v Speaker 1>twenty six man active roster for most of the season,

<v Speaker 1>but forty if you can't injured players and a few others,

<v Speaker 1>and that's what you're basically limited to for much of

<v Speaker 1>the season. In AW it's just this endless roster of

<v Speaker 1>talent that they keep adding to. And yes they can

<v Speaker 1>work outside shots, some of them can, but even then

<v Speaker 1>things have to be cleared through AW first. There's a process.

<v Speaker 1>It's not like you have total control over your bookings,

<v Speaker 1>but it's just this endless supply of people that they

<v Speaker 1>sign the rosters two bloated. Inevitably, people end up on

<v Speaker 1>the bench for months on end, years in some cases,

<v Speaker 1>until one day somebody says, hey, whatever happened to so

<v Speaker 1>and so? Like I'll never forget when Rob van dam

<v Speaker 1>I forgot where he made the comment. He goes, people

<v Speaker 1>would stop me in the street and go, hey, RVD,

<v Speaker 1>whatever happened to you? You wrestling anymore? He was working

<v Speaker 1>in TNA, He was on television working for TNA, and

<v Speaker 1>he had people coming up to him saying that, because

<v Speaker 1>obviously the visibility between WWE and TNA is night and day.

<v Speaker 1>In AW, some of these people just aren't even they're

<v Speaker 1>not even on television anywhere, or they're not working for

<v Speaker 1>whatever reason, they're not even working independence and so they're

<v Speaker 1>just sort of rotting away. I mean, yeah, they're getting

<v Speaker 1>a paycheck. But you know, wrestlers want to wrestle. It's

<v Speaker 1>not a hard concept. Mike Johnson reported that his deal

<v Speaker 1>was expiring, aw offered him a new one and he

<v Speaker 1>turned it down. Now, for his part, Willie Mack tweeted out,

<v Speaker 1>what deal did I turn down? With a gift that

<v Speaker 1>said wrong? So he's saying that he didn't turn down

<v Speaker 1>any new deal. Hopefully that's true, because if he did

<v Speaker 1>get an offer and he turned it down, you can't

<v Speaker 1>then turn around and claim that you're going to be

<v Speaker 1>homeless because the company doesn't think you're worth the money.

<v Speaker 1>If they offered you money and you're not happy with

<v Speaker 1>their offer, you have the right to turn it down

<v Speaker 1>and go work somewhere else. I mean, they're not obligated

<v Speaker 1>to resign you at the dollar amount that you think

<v Speaker 1>you're worth. If you think they're low balling you, or

<v Speaker 1>they don't see the value in what you bring to

<v Speaker 1>the table, then fucking leave and go get that bag

<v Speaker 1>somewhere else. You know, he did the same thing in

<v Speaker 1>TNA a few years ago his deal expired. He claimed

<v Speaker 1>they made him an offer and he declined it, and

<v Speaker 1>he opted to hit the independen scene instead. Fightful select

<v Speaker 1>says that Mac is still under contract and that he

<v Speaker 1>originally signed a Tier zero deal Tiers zero talent deal,

<v Speaker 1>but was later upgraded to a full time salary deal.

<v Speaker 1>Sometime in the last two years. However, he was recently

<v Speaker 1>moved back to Tier zero. So if he did turn

<v Speaker 1>down a new contract offer, which again he claims he

<v Speaker 1>never did, but if he did, that might explain why

<v Speaker 1>he was then moved back to Tier zero Tiers zero.

<v Speaker 1>If you don't know, Cody Rhoades explain this about five

<v Speaker 1>or six years ago. Maybe it works differently now, but

<v Speaker 1>back then, if you were an extra and they brought

<v Speaker 1>you in, you were considered Tier zero. Tony Cohn would

<v Speaker 1>essentially give you a signing bonus and aw would have

<v Speaker 1>first DIBs on you. If you wanted to go work

<v Speaker 1>somewhere else, they would have a say in that, but

<v Speaker 1>they would guarantee you a certain number of dates. This

<v Speaker 1>was back in the early days of like COVID, when

<v Speaker 1>a lot of the independent wrestlers they had nowhere to work.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't have any place to go or make money

<v Speaker 1>because nobody was running shows, and so Tony Khan would

<v Speaker 1>sign them to a tier zero deal and at least

<v Speaker 1>it would be something like It's all very confusing as

<v Speaker 1>far as what his actual status is and whether he

<v Speaker 1>was offered a deal. Was he not offered a deal?

<v Speaker 1>I have a question, why are they offering him a

<v Speaker 1>deal at all if they clearly have no plans to

<v Speaker 1>use him. I mean, it sounds to me more than

<v Speaker 1>anything like he just wants to work and they're not

<v Speaker 1>giving him any work. And that is a problem with

<v Speaker 1>AW right now. That is a very valid frustration. Lady

<v Speaker 1>Frost saw her AW deal expire. She posted the other day,

<v Speaker 1>as of today, I am a free agent. I want

<v Speaker 1>to thank Tony Kahn for being an incredibly kind and

<v Speaker 1>passionate boss. I had some of the most incredible moments

<v Speaker 1>with AW, and I am so grateful for the years

<v Speaker 1>that I spent there. For now, I'm on the hunt

<v Speaker 1>onto the next. Well, the hunt didn't last very long,

<v Speaker 1>because within a matter of hours, she had already landed

<v Speaker 1>a new deal with MLW. She told Sean ross Sap

<v Speaker 1>of Fightful, I was only a free agent for a

<v Speaker 1>matter of hours, we can say, which feels pretty good. Honestly,

<v Speaker 1>they called right away and it was the phone call

<v Speaker 1>that I think I needed to hear. They have been

<v Speaker 1>following me for a long time. I showed up to

<v Speaker 1>a taping about six years ago. I wasn't even an extra,

<v Speaker 1>just to get my name out there. They remembered me

<v Speaker 1>and they have been following my journey. I posted I think,

<v Speaker 1>which created a good amount of interest, a promo package

<v Speaker 1>and at vignette, and they said, we love your work.

<v Speaker 1>I said, that's the direction I want to go. This

<v Speaker 1>is kind of where I see my career going. They

<v Speaker 1>wanted to be on board with letting me be creative

<v Speaker 1>and who I want to be as an artist and

<v Speaker 1>a pro wrestler. So I loved the call and I

<v Speaker 1>thought it was a really great fit for right now.

<v Speaker 1>So that's where I landed. Good for her, Good for her,

<v Speaker 1>Danny Lunai, I will mention this real quick. She requested

<v Speaker 1>and received her release from TNA Wrestling. This was days

<v Speaker 1>after she challenged for the TNA Knockouts Championship at Sacrifice.

<v Speaker 1>She is now officially gone from the promotion. Per Shawn

<v Speaker 1>Ross Sapp of fight Ful and Corey Brennan, it was

<v Speaker 1>noted that Luna requested her release from TNA and she

<v Speaker 1>was granted that request and she became a free agent

<v Speaker 1>last weekend, so there was no bad blood between the

<v Speaker 1>two signs. It was an amicable split. She debuted for

<v Speaker 1>the promotion back in twenty twenty three, later signed a

<v Speaker 1>contract in December of that year. She had teamed up

<v Speaker 1>with Jody Threat, had two reigns as a TNA Knockouts

<v Speaker 1>World Tag Team Champion, and shortly after news of her

<v Speaker 1>departure it became public, will Osprey dropped a little post

<v Speaker 1>on social media just saying Danny Luna, so that may

<v Speaker 1>give an indication of where her landing spot may be.

<v Speaker 1>Another person for Tony Kahn to sign. Let's get into

<v Speaker 1>your mail bag questions here and then wrap this bad

<v Speaker 1>boy up. You could email me the Solo Monster at

<v Speaker 1>gmail dot com. Please include your name and where you

<v Speaker 1>are from when you write in, like our friend Molly

<v Speaker 1>from Toronto. It's been a few years now the WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>has been two nights. Which previous WrestleMania would you have

<v Speaker 1>recommended to be two nights and which matches would you

<v Speaker 1>have picked to be the Night one and Night two

<v Speaker 1>main events. It's a good question seeing is how thirty

<v Speaker 1>five was the last WrestleMania that I actually attended, and

<v Speaker 1>would have been my last for a while even if

<v Speaker 1>COVID hadn't shut things down the following year, just because

<v Speaker 1>of how fucking long these shows had gotten. The Night

<v Speaker 1>one main event for wrestle Mania thirty five should have

<v Speaker 1>been Daniel Bryant against Kofi Kingston, and the Night two

<v Speaker 1>main event should have been Charlotte Becky and Ronda. I

<v Speaker 1>think the emotion of that match Kofe, Many and everything,

<v Speaker 1>and then again just being in the building and seeing

<v Speaker 1>what the reaction was, I don't think anybody would have

<v Speaker 1>been disappointed by them closing out Night one with Brian

<v Speaker 1>and KOFE. Wrestle Mania thirty four Kurt Angle and Ronda

<v Speaker 1>Rousey against Triple H and Stephanie. I think headline's Night

<v Speaker 1>one and then Brock and Roman on Night two, which

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't have changed anything about how awful it was. I

<v Speaker 1>would say wrestle Mania thirty you headline Night one with

<v Speaker 1>Undertaker and Brock Lesner with the shock finish, like there

<v Speaker 1>was nothing else outside of the main event that could

<v Speaker 1>follow it without completely just taking the crowd out of things,

<v Speaker 1>and then you headline with the triple threat for the title.

<v Speaker 1>I would say the same with WrestleMania eighteen. I think

<v Speaker 1>he got a headline Night one with Rock and Hollywood Hogan.

<v Speaker 1>You know, it really only applies to more recent manias

<v Speaker 1>because some of those early WrestleManias didn't have enough matches

<v Speaker 1>to support a second night, or if they did, you know,

<v Speaker 1>some of them did. Some of them had like fourteen

<v Speaker 1>to fifteen matches. The problem is a lot of the

<v Speaker 1>matches underneath were not main event worthy. They just were

<v Speaker 1>not very good. So the idea of dividing it into

<v Speaker 1>two nights and having a bunch of crappy matches on

<v Speaker 1>night one is not really appealing. Jonathan from Charlotte, North Carolina.

<v Speaker 1>I think Jeff Cobb is the most underutilized wrestler on

<v Speaker 1>the WWE roster. He could be having wars for the

<v Speaker 1>United States title or having battles against guys like Gunther

<v Speaker 1>or Bronson Reid. Instead, he's an underling for Solo Socoa,

<v Speaker 1>who's good in his own right, but neither really need

<v Speaker 1>each other. Is there a more underutilized guy in WWE

<v Speaker 1>right now that you can think of who could be

<v Speaker 1>doing so much more at least with Tyler Bait and

<v Speaker 1>Pete Dunn, and they're in a program and have matches

<v Speaker 1>almost every week. El Grande Americano is also way more

<v Speaker 1>over in Mexico than Solo Socoa is anywhere. Oof. It's

<v Speaker 1>a sick burn there. Brother. I can name you someone

<v Speaker 1>on that very same show that Jeff Cobb works on.

<v Speaker 1>His name is Ray Phoenix. I don't blame you for

<v Speaker 1>forgetting that he exists. Ray Phoenix was more over than

<v Speaker 1>Jeff Cobb was when he was actually allowed to go

<v Speaker 1>out there and do his thing. And I'll throw Johnny

<v Speaker 1>Gargano on there too. Even if you think Johnny Gargano

<v Speaker 1>has a ceiling, you mean to tell me that he's

<v Speaker 1>being utilized to his maximum potential right now? Dak from

<v Speaker 1>Saint Paul, Minnesota. Do you think Sting gets overlooked when

<v Speaker 1>talking about all time greats in wrestling? I feel like

<v Speaker 1>I don't hear his name mentioned as much as others

<v Speaker 1>who have had big impacts on the business. Also, I

<v Speaker 1>think we all agree Sting should have won his match

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania against Triple Ah, But putting that aside, do

<v Speaker 1>you think it would have been considered a better ending

<v Speaker 1>if the nWo came out and screwed Sting over rather

<v Speaker 1>than helped him against DX. Oh yeah, I mean it

<v Speaker 1>would have made more sense. And then what you could

<v Speaker 1>have done when the match was over, at least try

<v Speaker 1>to give Sting a good moment there, have him like

<v Speaker 1>go old school baseball bat and all and fend off

<v Speaker 1>the nWo and then do a Stinger splash on Hogan

<v Speaker 1>in the corner and put Hogan in the scorpion deathlock.

<v Speaker 1>Would Hogan have gone for it? I don't know, but

<v Speaker 1>that yes, that would have been the better way to

<v Speaker 1>end things instead of just going all nostalgia for the

<v Speaker 1>sake of nostalgia, at least try to make him make sense.

<v Speaker 1>Why the fuck would the nWo come out and help Sting?

<v Speaker 1>Does he get overlooked when talking about the all time grades?

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he doesn't get talked about as much as

<v Speaker 1>some of the other ones do because he didn't have

<v Speaker 1>the kind of business impact that they did. He didn't

<v Speaker 1>have the business impact that Hulk Hogan had. He didn't

<v Speaker 1>have the business impact that Steve Austin had, even though

<v Speaker 1>he had a lot more longevity than he did. So

<v Speaker 1>I assume you're talking about like these mount Rushmore conversations

<v Speaker 1>and stuff. Yeah, I don't hear his name included on

<v Speaker 1>that a lot. He was a big name. He was

<v Speaker 1>the franchise player for WCW, and he was kind of

<v Speaker 1>that for TNA for many years. And I think he

<v Speaker 1>had a good run in aw for how Tony Kahan

<v Speaker 1>utilized him, and he had a great sendoff, best retirement

<v Speaker 1>that you could ask for. But when it comes to

<v Speaker 1>like those top three or five names you know in

<v Speaker 1>wrestling history, those big, big names, he's just beneath them.

<v Speaker 1>So that's why you don't hear him in those conversations

<v Speaker 1>a lot. I do think he probably does get overlooked

<v Speaker 1>by some people, but there's a reason for that. Lucas

<v Speaker 1>from New Berlin, Wisconsin. I love always learning about these

<v Speaker 1>new cities I didn't know existed. WWE put out a

<v Speaker 1>video of stars recapping some of their Wrestlemanium matches, and

<v Speaker 1>Bubba Ray Dudley said that Edge spearing Jeff Hardy from

<v Speaker 1>the top of the ladder is the second biggest WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>moment of all time, only behind Hogan slamming Andre I

<v Speaker 1>see the argument, and I won't say he's wrong because

<v Speaker 1>it's an opinion, and WWE has included that moment in

<v Speaker 1>so many highlights packages over the years, But I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>It was an amazing moment. But for me, I think

<v Speaker 1>stone Cold bleeding in the Sharpshooter should be number two

<v Speaker 1>behind Hogan Andre. I might even put Savage and Elizabeth

<v Speaker 1>reuniting ahead of the WrestleMania X seven Spot. How does

<v Speaker 1>the X seven spot rank for you? And what other

<v Speaker 1>moments come to mind when you think about WrestleMania. Lastly,

<v Speaker 1>my daughter loves Hardy the Horse, and I will be

<v Speaker 1>gifting another copy to my niece for her birthday. That's awesome.

<v Speaker 1>I love hearing that. It's a great gift for any

<v Speaker 1>child of reading age, or if they're young enough, if

<v Speaker 1>you want to read them a story. It's a great pickup.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, it's Bubba Ray. He was in the match,

<v Speaker 1>so of course he's going to be a little bit biased.

<v Speaker 1>I don't agree Hogan Andre at number one is the

<v Speaker 1>correct choice. It's the only choice. Austin bleeding in the

<v Speaker 1>Sharpshooter and the double turn with Brett, I mean that's

<v Speaker 1>up there for sure, so is Brock beating the streak.

<v Speaker 1>That is the single most shocking moment in the history

<v Speaker 1>of WrestleMania. For that reason alone, I feel like that

<v Speaker 1>has to be number two. I feel like Hogan Andre

<v Speaker 1>number one, Brock beating the streak number two awful though

<v Speaker 1>it may have been. I mean, you don't get very

<v Speaker 1>many moments like that where the crowd is just it's

<v Speaker 1>just they're in this stun state of paralysis as they

<v Speaker 1>process what they just witnessed. They witnessed history and they

<v Speaker 1>weren't expecting it. It caught them off guard. Sent me

<v Speaker 1>because I'm in the crowd laughing about it. But after

<v Speaker 1>those three and again Austin and Brett and all that stuff.

<v Speaker 1>You want that at number two, that's fine. You want

<v Speaker 1>that at number three, that's fine. After those three, I

<v Speaker 1>think we can quibble about the order, whether it's Hogan

<v Speaker 1>hulking up against Rock at WrestleMania eighteen, and then Jim

<v Speaker 1>Ross's call of like off the leg drop, Oh you

<v Speaker 1>beat Andre the Giant with that move, one of the

<v Speaker 1>all time great calls. That's for me anyway, that's way

<v Speaker 1>up there. That's like top five WrestleMania moment. Those were

<v Speaker 1>all above the spear off the ladder, Rollin's cashing in

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania thirty one, Cody finishing his story at forty.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, there's just been so many big moments of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>I don't I honestly, the Spear off the ladder, I

<v Speaker 1>don't even think it's top five. Savage and Elizabeth reuniting

<v Speaker 1>is another one on my list for sure. I just

<v Speaker 1>think it was done so well and there's so much

<v Speaker 1>history behind it. And Warrior beating Hogan after Hogan missed

<v Speaker 1>the leg drop. I mean, I think you needed to

<v Speaker 1>be a fan during that time period to really understand

<v Speaker 1>what a big fucking deal that was. That's on my

<v Speaker 1>list for sure. I'm not gonna say that's above the

<v Speaker 1>Spear necessarily. Again, we can quibble about the order after

<v Speaker 1>the time, but you asked me for some other moments,

<v Speaker 1>that one would be on my list. Devin from New Jersey.

<v Speaker 1>If the Golden Era ended when Hogan left in ninety three,

<v Speaker 1>did the New Generation era end when Brett left in

<v Speaker 1>ninety seven? Take your pick. The New Generation era either

<v Speaker 1>ended when Madison Square Garden turned on Sean Michaels at

<v Speaker 1>Survivor Series and Sid won the WWF title, or it

<v Speaker 1>ended on the raw before WRESTLEMANI at thirteen when Brett

<v Speaker 1>Hart went on his profanity lace tirade after losing to

<v Speaker 1>Sid in the cage. That was the true start of

<v Speaker 1>the Attitude era and Dominic from Philly. I wanted you

<v Speaker 1>to check this video out of indie wrestler BoJack. What

<v Speaker 1>promotion would be a good fit for him, WWE, aw ORTNA,

<v Speaker 1>and I am familiar with BoJack. I did look at

<v Speaker 1>the video you send me. I am familiar with him,

<v Speaker 1>and he's very impressive. I think that, I mean, look,

<v Speaker 1>what would be a good fit for him? I think

<v Speaker 1>he would fit in well in any of those three, honestly,

<v Speaker 1>and maybe maybe a short run for a couple of

<v Speaker 1>years in TNA, and then he'd have a direct, a

<v Speaker 1>direct pipeline to WWE. I could see WWE wanting to

<v Speaker 1>scoop him up and you know, put him in NXT I.

<v Speaker 1>I can't really say one stands out over the other.

<v Speaker 1>I think he would fit in in any of those promotions.

<v Speaker 1>When you have talent and you're very good, you will

<v Speaker 1>fit in anywhere. It shouldn't It shouldn't really matter what

<v Speaker 1>the initials are. If you have talent, that talent should

<v Speaker 1>be able to rise to the top. I think, you know,

<v Speaker 1>with his size, doing the stuff that he's doing, probably

<v Speaker 1>would favor WWE over AW. But it's not like he

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't have the ability to do well in AW anyway.

<v Speaker 1>Keep sending in those questions the Solo Monster at gmail

<v Speaker 1>dot com. I love hearing from you guys. You could

<v Speaker 1>also include questions, by the way, because I don't always

<v Speaker 1>have time here on the main show for him. Just

<v Speaker 1>make it clear that you're sending it in for Uncrowned.

<v Speaker 1>I do try to take some questions for the Uncrowned

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Show. There'll be a brand new episode dropping this Tuesday.

<v Speaker 1>And don't forget there is a new dedicated podcast feed

<v Speaker 1>specifically for the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. You could still listen

<v Speaker 1>to it on the aerial hell Wani Show channel, but

<v Speaker 1>there is a new dedicated feed that you can go

<v Speaker 1>subscribe to. There's a lot of stuff I didn't get

<v Speaker 1>to here. There will definitely be some first run stories

<v Speaker 1>on Uncrowned on Tuesday that I did not have time

<v Speaker 1>for here today, but go check that out. The other

<v Speaker 1>thing I wanted to mention also, so we're coming up

<v Speaker 1>upon WrestleMania things are going to get very hectic over

<v Speaker 1>these next couple of weeks, and I got a couple

<v Speaker 1>of big trips planned as well, Vegas for House of Glory.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not staying for Mania. I'll be here for that.

<v Speaker 1>Two weeks later, I'm flying out to LA for the

<v Speaker 1>House of Glory show. So that's all coming up. But

<v Speaker 1>next weekend on the SoundOff, we'll do WrestleMania predictions on

<v Speaker 1>that show. Two weeks from now there will be no

<v Speaker 1>SoundOff that is Wrestlemany a weekend. I don't see the

<v Speaker 1>point in doing one. It's gonna be it's just gonna

<v Speaker 1>be a lot for me. Like I'm gonna be live

<v Speaker 1>Saturday nights. I mean, I probably won't even be going

<v Speaker 1>to bed until four am. At least. I'll get the

<v Speaker 1>audio out the next day and try to get try

<v Speaker 1>to get some rest before night too, and then we'll

<v Speaker 1>do it all over again that Sunday night. I can't

<v Speaker 1>do a show in between that. I just I'll throw

<v Speaker 1>myself off the roof. So I can't do it. I

<v Speaker 1>can't do it. And also now that I'm doing Uncrowned,

<v Speaker 1>it makes it a little bit better because if there

<v Speaker 1>are stories that break that week, and I don't do

<v Speaker 1>a SoundOff that Sunday. I can just I can cover

<v Speaker 1>it on Uncrowned. So it's all good. So next week

<v Speaker 1>we'll be here. That'll be episode nine fifine nine sixty

<v Speaker 1>will be two weeks after that, so just be aware

<v Speaker 1>of that. I also this week. This is completely off topic,

<v Speaker 1>but I did see the trailers they drop basically back

<v Speaker 1>to back in the same week, trailers for the new

<v Speaker 1>Masters of the Universe movie and for the Backrooms. I

<v Speaker 1>had completely forgotten that they were making a back rooms movie.

<v Speaker 1>If you're not familiar with the backroom's lore, if you

<v Speaker 1>want to go down that rabbit hole, you could look

<v Speaker 1>up a bunch of the back rooms videos that people

<v Speaker 1>have put together on YouTube, the Cane Pixels series, to me,

<v Speaker 1>that's the one right there. Multiple people have done their

<v Speaker 1>take on the back Rooms, but to me, Cane's is

<v Speaker 1>the best. And he's a young guy. He's only twenty

<v Speaker 1>years old. A twenty four said hey, we want you

<v Speaker 1>to direct a movie about the back Rooms, and now

<v Speaker 1>it's coming out. I think May twenty ninth, I believe

<v Speaker 1>is the release date. So I saw the trailer. I'm pumped.

<v Speaker 1>I'm ready for it. I'm very much looking forward to

<v Speaker 1>that one. I saw the Masters of the Universe trailer.

<v Speaker 1>We got to hear Skeletor's voice for the first time.

<v Speaker 1>Jared Letto not a big fan of his, but he's

<v Speaker 1>playing Skeletor thankfully. I think they're trying to minimize Jared

<v Speaker 1>Letto as much as possible, even though he is in

<v Speaker 1>the movie, like you don't see him because he's fucking

<v Speaker 1>Skeletor and his voice. Basically, Skeletor has a British voice

<v Speaker 1>in the movie, which I guess is supposed to be

<v Speaker 1>very evil, the evil Brits. I think he looks cool.

<v Speaker 1>I think he sounds he sounds okay. I'm looking forward

<v Speaker 1>to that movie. They're coming out, I think within like

<v Speaker 1>a week of each other. So I think The Back

<v Speaker 1>Rooms is May twenty ninth, and I think June fifth

<v Speaker 1>is when the Masters of the Universe movie is coming out.

<v Speaker 1>But anyway, there's a whole bunch of movies coming out

<v Speaker 1>this year that I'm really looking forward to. I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>Coyote Versus Acme, there's finally getting released at the end

<v Speaker 1>of August. The Mortal Kombat movie is coming out next month.

<v Speaker 1>Street Fighter. I think in October, I believe right October

<v Speaker 1>sixteenth maybe is the release date for that one. The

<v Speaker 1>end of Oak Street, which is that new bad Robot

<v Speaker 1>JJ Abrams movie is coming out of May, not May August.

<v Speaker 1>Why else am I missing you? I know Toy Story

<v Speaker 1>five is coming out. I feel like there's another one

<v Speaker 1>that I'm missing. But a lot of good shit coming out,

<v Speaker 1>A lot of good shit coming out. I'm looking forward

<v Speaker 1>to it. Anyway. On that note, be well, stay safe,

<v Speaker 1>have your sales. A great week again for those celebrating

<v Speaker 1>Happy Easter and happy Passover. Back next week next Sunday

<v Speaker 1>for episode nine fifty nine as we get that much

<v Speaker 1>closer to WrestleMania. I hope you'll keep it here for

<v Speaker 1>all the WrestleMania coverage you need. I'll be live on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube for all the streams this week coming up, including

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday Night Titans with JD on Tuesday Night. I hope

<v Speaker 1>you'll join us then and join me back here next

<v Speaker 1>Sunday for more sound up. Until then, take care, guys.

<v Speaker 2>The solemn Monster sounds off dog shit. That is what

<v Speaker 2>SmackDown has become. This is a horrendous television show. I

<v Speaker 2>know they have the Real Housewives of Orange County and

<v Speaker 2>the Real Housewives of Trenton, New Jersey, the Real Housewives

<v Speaker 2>of Oh Bagosh, Wisconsin, or whatever the fuck.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure every single one of those shows are light

<v Speaker 1>years ahead of Friday Night SmackDown. This is the worst

<v Speaker 1>show on television. You gotta stick dynamite in this show,

<v Speaker 1>and I don't mean aw dynamite, actual dynamites, and blow

<v Speaker 1>the whole fucking thing up and start all over again.

<v Speaker 1>This show sucks.

<v Speaker 2>The Solo Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,

<v Speaker 2>and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus

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<v Speaker 2>and x The Solo Monster Dom Shit