<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 a woman.

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

<v Speaker 1>Come over here, het me, is that Pet Patterson you

<v Speaker 1>have legs?

<v Speaker 2>Week I was ninety nine percent positive it was just

<v Speaker 2>chessed up. Now I have been begging him for a

<v Speaker 2>job on every every platform I can, and I would

<v Speaker 2>have know the reason why he won't part me.

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the episode of nine sixty three of the

<v Speaker 1>Solo Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, May seventeenth, twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>I am the Solemn Monster, and this podcast has already

<v Speaker 1>gone longer than last night's fight on Netflix between Ronda

<v Speaker 1>Rousey and Gita Carano, with a combined twenty seven years

<v Speaker 1>out of the cage for both women, ten for Ronda,

<v Speaker 1>seventeen for Gina seven ten years out of the game.

<v Speaker 1>It only took seventeen seconds for Ronda to submit her

<v Speaker 1>with an armbar. And I don't know what people expected

<v Speaker 1>out of this from two women who have not fought

<v Speaker 1>in so long. Gina was not winning that fight regardless.

<v Speaker 1>It went exactly the way that it was always going

<v Speaker 1>to go. Like, at least if you already have Netflix,

<v Speaker 1>it was part of your existing subscription. It's not like

<v Speaker 1>it was a pay per view a costa fifty bucks

<v Speaker 1>or one hundred bucks to watch this stuff. They both

<v Speaker 1>got paid. They made their money. Ronda got two million

<v Speaker 1>dollars out of it that we know of, Gina got

<v Speaker 1>a million, and that's before bonuses and all that jazz.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, they very likely got paid a lot more

<v Speaker 1>than that. Ronda even said after at the scrum that

<v Speaker 1>she was compensated not just for her fighting services, and

<v Speaker 1>she and her husband are now going to go how

<v Speaker 1>shopping in Hawaii. They got paid. Really, they got paid

<v Speaker 1>to promote the fight more so than to actually fight.

<v Speaker 1>That thing was never getting out of the first round.

<v Speaker 1>The money they got paid was to attach their names

<v Speaker 1>to this thing so that Netflix could try to blow

<v Speaker 1>it up into something big and Jake Paul could try

<v Speaker 1>to get something started with this new promotion of his.

<v Speaker 1>And so they did their job right, minimal damage, all smiles.

<v Speaker 1>When it was over, Get in, get out, and now

<v Speaker 1>Ronda gets to go home and make more babies, and Gina,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what her plans are. She probably was

<v Speaker 1>just happy to be out doing anything at all. They

<v Speaker 1>got out of it what they wanted. Now the MVP

<v Speaker 1>Promotions turns into a viable competitor to UFC. They can say, hey,

<v Speaker 1>Ronda Rousey and Gina Carno, they helped get them there,

<v Speaker 1>and if not, who cares? They got their money. All

<v Speaker 1>I could do was laugh when it was over right,

<v Speaker 1>grand opening, grand closing. But I do love the pettiness

<v Speaker 1>of Dana White. It reminds me of WWF and WCW

<v Speaker 1>or wwenaw. He waited until last night of all nights,

<v Speaker 1>because UFC had their own show at just the right

<v Speaker 1>moment to drop the announcement that Connor mcgre is returning

<v Speaker 1>to the octagon for the first time in five years,

<v Speaker 1>just to try to steal their thunder away from them.

<v Speaker 1>But the rest of the show, I checked out bits

<v Speaker 1>and pieces. I was kind of in and out with it.

<v Speaker 1>I was, you know, preparing my notes and getting ready

<v Speaker 1>for the sound off today, and I wanted to see

<v Speaker 1>the uh, you know, the n Adaz fight. God, it's

<v Speaker 1>been I don't know how long it's been since I've

<v Speaker 1>seen a Nate Daz fight. Blood everywhere, it looked like

<v Speaker 1>something out of a fucking horror movie. And yeah again,

<v Speaker 1>you know, he's a lot slower than I remember him being.

<v Speaker 1>But I don't know if this is sustainable. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I'll leave it to the fight fans. You saw the

<v Speaker 1>entire card from top to bottom. To be the judge,

<v Speaker 1>what I saw was like, it was nothing impressive. I

<v Speaker 1>can't imagine that this is going to be able to

<v Speaker 1>be a regular thing. Maybe in every now and then thing,

<v Speaker 1>or you come up with a freak show fight or

<v Speaker 1>something like that. I don't think that this is something

<v Speaker 1>UFC needs to be terribly you know, concerned with right now.

<v Speaker 1>But for one night, I'm sure they all made a

<v Speaker 1>lot of money. If Netflix thinks that it's worth pursuing

<v Speaker 1>another event, then they'll do another event. And if they

<v Speaker 1>say no, then that may be it, you know. But

<v Speaker 1>it was all about the main event. And if you

<v Speaker 1>don't have an attraction, a big attraction like that for

<v Speaker 1>the main event, you're just not going to be able

<v Speaker 1>I think, to pull in the number of people. Then

<v Speaker 1>Netflix would probably be interested. And of course Ronda Rousey's comeback,

<v Speaker 1>Gina Carano's comeback, they were interested in being a part

<v Speaker 1>of that if you don't have that next time you know,

<v Speaker 1>is Netflix gonna want to really full time get into

<v Speaker 1>the MMA business. I guess it depends on the success

<v Speaker 1>of this show. We'll find out, but I just I

<v Speaker 1>find that hard to believe. But on a happier note,

<v Speaker 1>I went to go see the movie Obsession on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>and holy smokes, I was not expecting that. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what I was expecting that. I was not expecting that.

<v Speaker 1>It is the best movie that I have seen all year,

<v Speaker 1>outside of The Batman, which doesn't count because that didn't

<v Speaker 1>come out this year. It's just that my dumbass waited

<v Speaker 1>four years too long to watch it. But this was

<v Speaker 1>just tremendous. It's not often that I see a movie

<v Speaker 1>that bothers me the way that this one did. It's

<v Speaker 1>just unnerving all the way through. Even when I left

<v Speaker 1>the theater, I was still like thoroughly freaked out by

<v Speaker 1>what I had just seen. Definitely had some get out

<v Speaker 1>vibes from this one. When you see it, you'll know

<v Speaker 1>what I'm talking about. But that lead actress, Indian Navaretti

<v Speaker 1>is her name, She's a revelation. She was so so

<v Speaker 1>good in this one of the best performances I've ever

<v Speaker 1>seen in a horror movie, and I've never seen this

<v Speaker 1>girl in anything before this. I guess she was on

<v Speaker 1>the CW. I don't know if it's still on the

<v Speaker 1>air or not, but they had a show Superman and Lois.

<v Speaker 1>I guess she was on there, but I had never

<v Speaker 1>heard of her before, and now I'm upset. Well I mean,

<v Speaker 1>no pun intended, but I'm obsessed. There's so much I

<v Speaker 1>would love to say about this, because I know there's

<v Speaker 1>going to be a lot of discourse around some of

<v Speaker 1>the characters, but no spoilers here. If you are a

<v Speaker 1>horror fan, you should absolutely go see this movie. I

<v Speaker 1>give it the full five stars. It's a great month

<v Speaker 1>for horror. Between this Passenger is coming out this week

<v Speaker 1>and may see that. I don't know if I'll have time,

<v Speaker 1>though that one may be one to stream the back

<v Speaker 1>rooms next week. I'll definitely be seeing that one in

<v Speaker 1>the theater. Pitfall, and two more episodes of SmackDown, which

<v Speaker 1>may be the scariest of all. You know, I thought

<v Speaker 1>Pitfall was an offshoot of the video game. That's how

<v Speaker 1>fucking old I am. I'm like Pitfall for the atari

<v Speaker 1>I played this shit out of that game when I

<v Speaker 1>was a kid. But it has nothing to do with

<v Speaker 1>the game. By the way, some of you convince me

<v Speaker 1>to start a letterbox to count, so if you want

<v Speaker 1>to find me on there, I am officially now on letterbox.

<v Speaker 1>My username is the Solemn Monster. It's pretty cool. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you can list the movies that you've seen so far,

<v Speaker 1>you can rate them, you can review them, or leave

<v Speaker 1>like a diary entry. You can create a watch list

<v Speaker 1>of the movie he's coming out that you want to see.

<v Speaker 1>It's pretty cool. Anyway, I want to say thank you

<v Speaker 1>to pod status for sending me this update. This week.

<v Speaker 1>Solomonster Sounds Off is tops in the following categories on

<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts over the last thirty days. Check this out.

<v Speaker 1>Soundof was number one in sports in Venezuela, Jamaica, and Iraq,

<v Speaker 1>and number one in wrestling in Belgium, Austria, Egypt, Armenia, Denmark, Cyprus,

<v Speaker 1>and Bulgaria. Yes Bulgaria. We got a big contingent in Bulgaria.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, I love hearing shit like that. Thank you

<v Speaker 1>for supporting the podcast. Thank you for supporting with your

<v Speaker 1>PayPal donations as well. You can always do so on

<v Speaker 1>the Solomonster dot com. You'll see the link at the

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

<v Speaker 1>you a nickname and a shout out. We got a

<v Speaker 1>big role call this week. You know. The support on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube this week was tremendous as well as here and

<v Speaker 1>I want to thank you guys again for all the love.

<v Speaker 1>You make it all worth it. But I want to

<v Speaker 1>say thank you to the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton,

<v Speaker 1>who wants to give a shout out to Heather and

<v Speaker 1>her son Nicholas, and I do too. I want to

<v Speaker 1>give a shout out to them as well. Was up, Nicholas,

<v Speaker 1>I hope you have a great week. Shout out to

<v Speaker 1>Action Nick Jackson, who wanted to send belated birthday shout

<v Speaker 1>outs to Leanna Panda and his son Theodorable, with whom

<v Speaker 1>he shares a birthday. I love how you got all

<v Speaker 1>the birthdays clustered together in like a two week span.

<v Speaker 1>But happy birthday to all you guys, and happy belated

<v Speaker 1>Mother's Day. He took his son to his first wrestling

<v Speaker 1>show because TNA came to the area and they enjoyed it.

<v Speaker 1>I'm glad to hear it. Hey, you know what, next

<v Speaker 1>time it'll be a House of Glory show. Maybe right, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>you never know, but thank you for the support. It

<v Speaker 1>is much appreciated. We got Matt Scala Matt slapped my petuite,

<v Speaker 1>silly Scale. I hope Charlie and the family are doing well.

<v Speaker 1>By the way, Matt said that hearing the Mama Monster

<v Speaker 1>Mother's Day intro last week brought a smile to his

<v Speaker 1>face and he wants to shout out the entire sound

<v Speaker 1>of family and urges all of you to do something

<v Speaker 1>nice for someone today in honor of Mama Monster. I

<v Speaker 1>think that is a fine idea. Thank you, Matt, Big

<v Speaker 1>b Bryant Bessara, the Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soepp,

<v Speaker 1>Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichord, Night Stalker,

<v Speaker 1>nif Alsaphar kill Shot, Keith Hart. We got recon Russell

<v Speaker 1>Bulwear who just graduated college for social work. He is

<v Speaker 1>now enrolled elsewhere for criminal justice. He says, big props

<v Speaker 1>for keeping me informed since my middle and high school days. Well, congrats, Russell,

<v Speaker 1>that is very cool. All the best in your endeavors.

<v Speaker 1>Cue the Destroyer. I've got a good question from him. Later,

<v Speaker 1>we'll see if I even have time for the mailbag

<v Speaker 1>this week. There's so much questioned. I pulled so many

<v Speaker 1>questions for the mailbag this week. If we get to

<v Speaker 1>any of them, it'll be a miracle. But there's no

<v Speaker 1>way I'm getting to all of them. So we're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have some good content for a while. Big time Boris Vainman.

<v Speaker 1>I'm glad you enjoyed my take on the miss's adventure

<v Speaker 1>with the fire extinguish her at Backlash, although I'll bet

<v Speaker 1>you didn't enjoy it nearly as much as he did,

<v Speaker 1>but at least you'll always remember it now. The five

<v Speaker 1>star Kid Joshua Thornville, who says he quit his addiction

<v Speaker 1>last week and found that focusing on his gaming channel

<v Speaker 1>JDF Games and hanging out with friends is a good

<v Speaker 1>way to live life. It's never too late to quit,

<v Speaker 1>he says, never too late to quit, it's never too

<v Speaker 1>late to live. Those are prophetic words that I agree

<v Speaker 1>with wholeheartedly. So congrat you, josh Jared the AUSSI Assassin

<v Speaker 1>shout out to him he's been listening since twenty thirteen.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you, Jared, Thank you all. I want to also

<v Speaker 1>mention this this coming Friday, House of Glory Waging War

<v Speaker 1>is at the NYC Arena in Jamaica, Queens with some

<v Speaker 1>big matches. The Hardys will be back to defend their

<v Speaker 1>Hog Tag Team titles, but also just signed Amazing Red

<v Speaker 1>steps into the ring for the first time ever, one

<v Speaker 1>on one with the reigning aew TNT champion the Jet

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight. That's gonna be a fun one to call,

<v Speaker 1>and the HOG Women's Champion, Shatzi defends against one half

<v Speaker 1>of the AW Women's Tag Team Champions and someone that

<v Speaker 1>we have been trying to get back at Hog for

<v Speaker 1>a long time, Leana Cross. The last time that she

<v Speaker 1>was in she actually wrestled Meghan Bain, who she is

<v Speaker 1>now tagging with as the tag team champions in AAW.

<v Speaker 1>But Charles Mason is going to be an action Zilla

<v Speaker 1>Fought two and more more matches to be announced this week.

<v Speaker 1>I don't believe we are adding more seeding. I know

<v Speaker 1>the first four roles Rose are completely sold out. Stage

<v Speaker 1>seating is also sold out, but general admission is still

<v Speaker 1>available if you want to attend the event live. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 1>you can stream the event on Triller TV Plus. Hopefully

<v Speaker 1>I get to see some of you there. Let's just

<v Speaker 1>go into I'm not even gonna list out what I'm

<v Speaker 1>talking about this week. There's so many different things. Let's

<v Speaker 1>just go into it. Let's talk about the John Cena Classic,

<v Speaker 1>just very briefly. We don't have a lot of new

<v Speaker 1>information about this, but we do have some new stuff

<v Speaker 1>on the upcoming John Cena Classic comes per Wrestle Votes

<v Speaker 1>Radio on Fight Full Select. It dropped on Thursday. While

<v Speaker 1>no date or venue is currently planned for the show,

<v Speaker 1>which is I mean, that's just wild that you would

<v Speaker 1>have him go out there live on one of your

<v Speaker 1>plees and actually announce this thing and they have no date,

<v Speaker 1>they have no location, The details are still not fully

<v Speaker 1>fleshed out. It's almost like they went into this announcement

<v Speaker 1>half cocked. But even though there's no date in location,

<v Speaker 1>one source reportedly said holding the event in early December

<v Speaker 1>would make logistical sense for WWE's schedule and would also

<v Speaker 1>coincide with the one year anniversary of seeing his final

<v Speaker 1>match against Gunther on Saturday Night's main event, and the

<v Speaker 1>report also notes that a source at Netflix expressed interest

<v Speaker 1>in the event streaming on its platform. Now John Ceno

<v Speaker 1>was interviewed by CBS Sports and Shack Wrestling, and he

<v Speaker 1>had this to say about the event. In a business

<v Speaker 1>where everybody says every story's been told before, I want

<v Speaker 1>to swing for something new. Of Course, I believe in

<v Speaker 1>sports entertainment meritocracy, and I believe that WWE is an

<v Speaker 1>excellent meritocracy. Now, every statement I say, there's going to

<v Speaker 1>be multiple sides to that. People will have an opinion

<v Speaker 1>that agrees, people will have an opinion that disagrees, there

<v Speaker 1>might be apathy, and there might be some in the middle.

<v Speaker 1>So when I come up with an event that I'm like, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>I want to do what we did on Saturday Night's

<v Speaker 1>main event because I love the environment around my retirement match.

<v Speaker 1>I was a small piece of that night. The larger

<v Speaker 1>scope and in the media going into it was oh man,

<v Speaker 1>this is kind of a cool thing. Yes, the night

<v Speaker 1>could be all about John, but in essence, we're getting

<v Speaker 1>to see John do his thing. But somebody's got to

<v Speaker 1>earn the right to face John. So that's cool. You've

<v Speaker 1>got to earn the respect to do it. And at

<v Speaker 1>the same time, we're going to get to see some

<v Speaker 1>new faces go against our familiar Superstars. I was there

<v Speaker 1>in the arena. The night rocked. It was great, the

<v Speaker 1>crowd was fantastic. Sure, the retirement match had a lot

<v Speaker 1>of buzz behind it, but they were on their feet

<v Speaker 1>for all the matches. So my brain started working. I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>we should do something like this. I guess to sum

<v Speaker 1>it up in a sentence, I know I dropped a

<v Speaker 1>lot of information in Backlash. I think to sum it

<v Speaker 1>up in a sentence, it could be a version of

<v Speaker 1>WWE's All Star Game. It's a night of exhibitions, so

<v Speaker 1>we really don't have to build any long lead stories

<v Speaker 1>going into it. It is the current stars competing with

<v Speaker 1>and that means they might be paired with who knows

<v Speaker 1>the bracketology is they could be paired with. They could

<v Speaker 1>be up against the future of the company, superstars from NXT.

<v Speaker 1>This takes me back to two thousand and two when

<v Speaker 1>we had this young class in OVW. Brock was on

<v Speaker 1>a path of his own, for sure, but I was

<v Speaker 1>sitting in OVW going how am I ever going to

<v Speaker 1>get a chance? Because the roster was stacked. You had

<v Speaker 1>guys like Caine, Triple H, the Undertaker, Sean Michaels, Steve

<v Speaker 1>Austin and the Rock and it's like, man, I'm never

<v Speaker 1>gonna get a chance. I felt like that sometimes. I

<v Speaker 1>know how these NXT talents might feel. They've been down

<v Speaker 1>there for a year, two years, three years. When am

<v Speaker 1>I going to get my chance? Well for one night

<v Speaker 1>if you can come up, drop your business cards, see

<v Speaker 1>what happened, show the world what you have, and on

<v Speaker 1>top of it, if you steal the show and maybe

<v Speaker 1>you're not lucky enough to get the one, two, three

<v Speaker 1>and get your hand raised, every participant qualifies for kind

<v Speaker 1>of an all star vote, so you could be recognized

<v Speaker 1>as the night's champion. Now I've heard the perspective of

<v Speaker 1>wins and losses don't matter. That's a very valid point

<v Speaker 1>listening to feedback. We've got to figure out the fan votes.

<v Speaker 1>There's still a lot to be done. But you can

<v Speaker 1>vote for the winners. You just can also vote for everybody,

<v Speaker 1>and that's a first time. So even he admits that

<v Speaker 1>they have not fully fleshed out the fan voting aspect,

<v Speaker 1>that maybe it's imperfect. Yeah, I would say so. I

<v Speaker 1>think one way maybe to address all of the backlash

<v Speaker 1>against the idea of somebody becoming champion strictly by fan vote,

<v Speaker 1>you know, even if they lost their match, would be

<v Speaker 1>to have fan voting independent of the outcome. Like I

<v Speaker 1>understand them wanting to have the fans interact and the

<v Speaker 1>fans have their voices be heard and have fan voting,

<v Speaker 1>and that's fine, but maybe treat it like an MVP award,

<v Speaker 1>right since he's out there comparing it to the All

<v Speaker 1>Star Game, Like, let the matches decide who the winner is,

<v Speaker 1>who the champion is, and let the fans vote on

<v Speaker 1>their overall favorites, right, their favorite wrestler, their favorite match

<v Speaker 1>of the night, and maybe it ends up being the

<v Speaker 1>same person who wins the entire thing. But if not,

<v Speaker 1>you have your John Cena Classic winner. You're John seen

<v Speaker 1>a Classic Champion, and you have the person that the

<v Speaker 1>fans voted as their favorite. Because that's all it is.

<v Speaker 1>It's a popularity contest. And if it ends up being

<v Speaker 1>two different people, they could even use that potentially to

<v Speaker 1>ignite a feud between the two, right, maybe the champion

<v Speaker 1>grows jealous of the MVP for winning the fan vote

<v Speaker 1>and stealing some of their thunder away from them. I

<v Speaker 1>think there are ways to make this work, but they're

<v Speaker 1>gonna have to make some changes. We don't even know

<v Speaker 1>if there are gonna be dual champions, like one for

<v Speaker 1>the men, one for the women, because then this idea

<v Speaker 1>doesn't work. They're not doing an intergender feud coming out

<v Speaker 1>of this thing. But that's what I mean, Like, there's

<v Speaker 1>so much we still don't know, and they don't know yet.

<v Speaker 1>Sounds like one big co ed competition with men's matches

<v Speaker 1>and women's matches. There's no tournament and the overall winner

<v Speaker 1>is just gonna get voted on by the fans and

<v Speaker 1>that's it. That's what it sounds like. You know, does

<v Speaker 1>that mean main roster to lence are not eligible for

<v Speaker 1>the fan voting. We don't know. I mean that probably

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be fair, but we don't know. This is something

<v Speaker 1>that's going to be a work in progress, probably right

<v Speaker 1>up until the end of the year. Former presidential candidate

<v Speaker 1>Andrew Yang responded to Kevin Nash, who recently went on

<v Speaker 1>his click This podcast and in light of the reports

<v Speaker 1>of TKO asking WWE talents to take pay cuts, suggested

<v Speaker 1>that the wrestlers should look into joining the sag Aftra union.

<v Speaker 1>SAG is the Screen Actors Guild. This is what Nash said.

<v Speaker 1>This could be one of those times where this whole

<v Speaker 1>ten ninety nine independent contractor thing finally just you know,

<v Speaker 1>it's not bring the folders out, bring them all out.

<v Speaker 1>You can't have it both ways. You can't play endeavor

<v Speaker 1>at the top with the three hundred percent increases and

<v Speaker 1>ten ninety nine the doc workers. If they're going to

<v Speaker 1>play by those rules, let the boys play by the

<v Speaker 1>same rules. Go through the Screen Actors Guild. They'll be

<v Speaker 1>more than happy to take their cut of your money.

<v Speaker 1>It won't be fifty percent, but it'll change the ballgame.

<v Speaker 1>Take one of the programs that's written down and you

<v Speaker 1>tell me that program isn't more heavily written and more

<v Speaker 1>produced than Curb Your Enthusiasm was when all those actors

<v Speaker 1>got SAG paid. He he's not wrong about that. You know,

<v Speaker 1>the WWE shows are probably more heavily produced than scripted

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to like promos and stuff, than certain

<v Speaker 1>TV shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm. You mentioned that that

<v Speaker 1>was one of my favorite shows, and much of that

<v Speaker 1>show was ad libbed, So he's not wrong in that regard. Now,

<v Speaker 1>after he saw a cultahlic post a tweet with Nash's comments.

<v Speaker 1>Andrew Yang responded. He quote tweeted saying Nash is right.

<v Speaker 1>WWE wrestlers participate in highly rated scripted programming every week.

<v Speaker 1>They should be sag AFTRA members already. Now, if you remember,

<v Speaker 1>Yang ran for president in twenty twenty, then he dropped

<v Speaker 1>his bid and he made overtures about becoming Joe Biden's

<v Speaker 1>Secretary of Labor, and he didn't get the position. He

<v Speaker 1>was talking about it as if, yeah, well, if I've

<v Speaker 1>become the Secretary of Labor, I'm going to do this

<v Speaker 1>and I'm going to do that. And meanwhile, he didn't

<v Speaker 1>get the position, but he said if he did, or

<v Speaker 1>even if he didn't, he would have the ear of

<v Speaker 1>the person who did, and he would take the fight

<v Speaker 1>to Vince McMahon over the independent contractor classification and the

<v Speaker 1>right of the wrestlers to form a union. This was

<v Speaker 1>after Zelina Vega was fired by WWE the first time,

<v Speaker 1>remember the whole Twitch fiasco restricting talents from working for

<v Speaker 1>third parties. It was after that whole thing. So he

<v Speaker 1>talked a big talk, did Andrew Yang. And when the

<v Speaker 1>presidential bid didn't work out for him, he ran for

<v Speaker 1>mayor here in New York and that didn't end well

<v Speaker 1>for him either. He's not wrong what he calls the

<v Speaker 1>independent contractor stuff a farce, because it is. But for

<v Speaker 1>all of his bluster about not letting the issue go,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna let this gosolutely, nothing came of it.

<v Speaker 1>I guess he wasn't able to get that person's ear

<v Speaker 1>after all. But it is a valid issue, right. It

<v Speaker 1>comes down to the talent themselves. I've always said this.

<v Speaker 1>There simply are not enough of them willing to stand

<v Speaker 1>up and advocate for something like this because they're still

<v Speaker 1>being paid well and without any big names behind it,

<v Speaker 1>it would never work. Part of me feels like today

<v Speaker 1>in the TKO era, even if you had this mass

<v Speaker 1>walkout of talent, they would just replace the wrestlers with

<v Speaker 1>D list celebrities and influencers and they would just go

<v Speaker 1>on like nothing ever happened. But Nash's idea is they're

<v Speaker 1>actors and therefore they should be covered under sag aftra

<v Speaker 1>with a union like that, right, there's like a minimum

<v Speaker 1>threshold for compensation for lower level talents. It's not like

<v Speaker 1>you don't have your A list actors who get paid

<v Speaker 1>millions of dollars above and beyond what you know the

<v Speaker 1>lower level actors would get paid. In WWE, you have

<v Speaker 1>your top stars who get paid millions. And last I heard,

<v Speaker 1>the minimum salary for a main roster talent on TV

<v Speaker 1>was three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. So

<v Speaker 1>if you're on raw, whether it's Tozawa or soul Ruka

<v Speaker 1>or whoever, that would be the minimum that those people

<v Speaker 1>would be making today. Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Now,

<v Speaker 1>maybe it's different now that TKO is asking people to

<v Speaker 1>take pay cuts, but that's what it was before anyway. Now,

<v Speaker 1>Jesse Ventura, who has told the story of trying to

<v Speaker 1>get the Boys to unionize back in eighty six before

<v Speaker 1>Hogan ratted him out when he sat down with Chris

<v Speaker 1>Van Vliet, he pointed out, and I wish I could

<v Speaker 1>find the clip, but he talked about how the union

<v Speaker 1>might be leery of taking on wrestlers out of fear

<v Speaker 1>that they would be bankrupted by their medical bills. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know how that would work, but I don't

<v Speaker 1>think it would be as clean as Kevin Nash believes

<v Speaker 1>it would be. Just to hear him talking about it like,

<v Speaker 1>oh yeah, yeah, they'll take you. Yeah, I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>The reality is, if this was something the talent felt

<v Speaker 1>they needed, or if this was something the talent really wanted,

<v Speaker 1>they had plenty of opportunities over the decades to try

<v Speaker 1>to make something happen, and they never did, right, They

<v Speaker 1>had plenty of opportunities to do something about it. And

<v Speaker 1>the fact that it hasn't happened yet and we're still

<v Speaker 1>talking about this in twenty twenty six, to me, it

<v Speaker 1>just tells you everything you need to know. So it's

<v Speaker 1>a nice idea in theory, but it's just not practical

<v Speaker 1>to think that it's actually ever going to happen. Is

<v Speaker 1>it crazy that the talent, outside of the ones who

<v Speaker 1>could afford to pay for their own tour bus, are

<v Speaker 1>still on the hook for most of their own road expenses? Yes?

<v Speaker 1>Is it crazy they have to pay for their own

<v Speaker 1>health insurance the full thing. Yes. Is it crazy that

<v Speaker 1>they're considered independent contractors even though they're bound by this

<v Speaker 1>exclusive contract to one organization. They're not allowed to work

<v Speaker 1>for any other organization, And they're told when to be

<v Speaker 1>where they need to be at what time and where this,

<v Speaker 1>or do this, or do that or whatever specifics they

<v Speaker 1>tell these people. Yes, yes, there isn't much about the

<v Speaker 1>way they're treated that screams independent. You'll never convince me

<v Speaker 1>that this entire classification, this entire thing is in a

<v Speaker 1>shan It is, it's always been. WWE is running an

<v Speaker 1>increased house shows schedule this summer, after largely phasing them

<v Speaker 1>out domestically in the last few years. Ten new shows

<v Speaker 1>have been added for July and August. Brand that is

<v Speaker 1>part of the company's twenty twenty six summer tour, So

<v Speaker 1>pay attention if you live in any of these areas.

<v Speaker 1>July eleventh, summer tour at the Pan American Center in

<v Speaker 1>Las Cruces, New Mexico. July twelfth, The Pit in Albertquerque,

<v Speaker 1>New Mexico, July sixteenth, The PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania,

<v Speaker 1>July twenty fifth, The Adventist Health Arena in Stockton, California,

<v Speaker 1>July twenty sixth, The Dignity Health Arena in Bakersfield, California,

<v Speaker 1>July thirtieth, The Bank of Springfield Center in Springfield, Illinois.

<v Speaker 1>August sixth. That's a Thursday at Eagle Bank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia,

<v Speaker 1>August thirteenth the the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire,

<v Speaker 1>August twenty ninth the End Market Arena in Savannah, Georgia,

<v Speaker 1>and August thirtieth at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston,

<v Speaker 1>South Carolina. They're advertising a mix of talent from raw

<v Speaker 1>and SmackDown for these shows. Brian Alvarez is reporting that

<v Speaker 1>the idea is tickets for these shows will be more

<v Speaker 1>affordable than your typical WWE show, much more affordable. Even

<v Speaker 1>what does much more affordable look like the TKL. We'll

<v Speaker 1>find out because tickets are going on sale this Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>so we'll get a better sense of it at that point. Now.

<v Speaker 1>Sammy Zain told the Huge Pop podcast, for which former

<v Speaker 1>WWE referee Jimmy Corderis is a co host, that he

<v Speaker 1>believes wrestling on house shows is crucial for the younger talent,

<v Speaker 1>but there should be a fine line for the volume

<v Speaker 1>of those events. He said, well, even this, like anything else,

<v Speaker 1>there's polarizing views on all of it, right, but I

<v Speaker 1>can say, no matter what you think or I think,

<v Speaker 1>it's pretty clear that the best way to get good

<v Speaker 1>at anything is to do do it over and over again.

<v Speaker 1>So I think when you're starting to look at the

<v Speaker 1>stars of the future, you're looking at Trick Williams, You're

<v Speaker 1>looking at Javon Evans, bron Breaker Obafemi and guys like this.

<v Speaker 1>A lot of these guys just simply don't have a

<v Speaker 1>lot of reps under their belt, and they're doing phenomenal

<v Speaker 1>all things considered. So I just think that there's no

<v Speaker 1>disputing the idea that if they get a few more reps,

<v Speaker 1>especially live events, where really that's like the true performance.

<v Speaker 1>That's really what this business is. It's you in a ring,

<v Speaker 1>a live house, not worried about the constraints of television

<v Speaker 1>time and hitting break spots and commercials, and you know,

<v Speaker 1>it's really just the art form at kind of its

<v Speaker 1>most naked and truthful form. So I think it's in

<v Speaker 1>valuable experience for those guys. I think it's a good

<v Speaker 1>thing to see some returning. For sure. I'm not going

<v Speaker 1>to get into the business side of it. As far

<v Speaker 1>as you know, is it worth it from a profitability standpoint?

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I enjoy them, but I'll also say

<v Speaker 1>that there's two separate generations going at the same time. Here.

<v Speaker 1>You have guys like Roman or Seth or myself, or

<v Speaker 1>Punk or Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, Finn balor all these

<v Speaker 1>guys that are mainstays who are on the later side

<v Speaker 1>of our careers and have already put in twenty years.

<v Speaker 1>So doing a bunch of live events is a little

<v Speaker 1>harder on our bodies. So I kind of see the

<v Speaker 1>merit in, well, these are a lot of your top stars,

<v Speaker 1>and you want to not run them into the road

<v Speaker 1>while you have them. But I also see the merit in, well,

<v Speaker 1>these guys, the Javans and the bron Breakers and the Obas,

<v Speaker 1>they need to get there too. So I do think

<v Speaker 1>there's definitely this fine line of the volume of live events,

<v Speaker 1>because I don't know if you want to keep a

<v Speaker 1>lot of the guys that are current TV stars or

<v Speaker 1>in their later years, if you want to keep them

<v Speaker 1>healthy for the next three, four or five years the

<v Speaker 1>way it was before with like one hundred and sixty

<v Speaker 1>live events might be a little much. Understanding the different

<v Speaker 1>town to town responses and just getting a feel for

<v Speaker 1>the audience, I think that's crucial for these guys. So

<v Speaker 1>I do think having some of these live events around

<v Speaker 1>is a great thing, but the volume I think there's

<v Speaker 1>a middle ground, and he is absolutely one hundred percent right.

<v Speaker 1>I never understood the all or nothing approach, like you

<v Speaker 1>either send these guys and gals out there on the

<v Speaker 1>road for two hundred plus days a year and you

<v Speaker 1>do a million shows, or you don't do any live

<v Speaker 1>events at all, right outside of the international tours. I

<v Speaker 1>don't understand that.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>If they were money losers before, that doesn't mean that

<v Speaker 1>they didn't still have value to the talent. There could

<v Speaker 1>be value in something beyond just the economics of it.

<v Speaker 1>You know, you kind of look at them as an investment.

<v Speaker 1>It's an investment in your talent. It's an investment in

<v Speaker 1>your future. So you run fewer of them to cut

<v Speaker 1>your losses, and you prop up the other shows to

<v Speaker 1>make them feel more special. But there needs to be

<v Speaker 1>a middle ground. Sammy's Ain't is not the only one

<v Speaker 1>to advocate publicly for house shows. Cody Rhades is the

<v Speaker 1>WWE champion. I mean, he's been vocal about them, you know,

<v Speaker 1>feeling like they're important to help wrestlers get their reps

<v Speaker 1>in to create kind of like a camaraderie in the

<v Speaker 1>locker room. Randy Orton has talked about their importance when

<v Speaker 1>it comes to building chemistry with the people that you're

<v Speaker 1>working with, so that when you work together on TV

<v Speaker 1>or on a pl you know each other inside out

<v Speaker 1>already because you've already worked on the house shows. Yeah.

<v Speaker 1>I've used the example before of Maxine Duprix as someone

<v Speaker 1>who was I like how my voice went up, just

<v Speaker 1>just like it used to Duprix. But like Maxine Duprix

<v Speaker 1>is someone who she was called up to the main

<v Speaker 1>roster far too soon. She wasn't ready clearly right. Not

<v Speaker 1>if their plan was to put her in the ring.

<v Speaker 1>They were going to use her exclusively as a manager

<v Speaker 1>or of Valet, that's fine. But if they were actually

<v Speaker 1>going to have her get in the ring and wrestle,

<v Speaker 1>they called her up way too quickly. It wasn't fair

<v Speaker 1>to her. It wasn't fair to the people that you

<v Speaker 1>put her in the ring with. Some people sink, some

<v Speaker 1>people swim when you throw them into the deep end

<v Speaker 1>of the pool. But more people would swim if they

<v Speaker 1>just had a little more time to get those reps in.

<v Speaker 1>You know, you look at aw it's a different model,

<v Speaker 1>but it's not radically different. Really. If you're someone who

<v Speaker 1>shows up to TV and you rarely get used and

<v Speaker 1>you're not working independent shows. You may only work once

<v Speaker 1>a week. That's if Tony even uses you on Dynamiter Collision.

<v Speaker 1>It's the same thing in WWE right now. Maybe you'll

<v Speaker 1>work once a week twice a week and that's it

<v Speaker 1>if you're booked. But without house shows, you're not working

<v Speaker 1>in aw You can work outside events so long as

<v Speaker 1>they approve it, but not everybody wants to, right or

<v Speaker 1>they charge too much and people don't want to meet

<v Speaker 1>them at their rate, they price themselves out. But at

<v Speaker 1>least the option is there. In WWE right now, they

<v Speaker 1>could always throw you in triple A, but they're not

<v Speaker 1>going to do that with everybody, so you need to

<v Speaker 1>find that happy medium. As far as the volume of shows,

<v Speaker 1>and for the fans, if you've never been to a

<v Speaker 1>house show, then you probably just don't have any concept

<v Speaker 1>of this. It's probably like a foreign concept to you.

<v Speaker 1>But if you've ever been to a house show, you

<v Speaker 1>know how fun they can be. Right, they're generally more

<v Speaker 1>enjoyable than the TV shows because you don't have all

<v Speaker 1>the ad breaks in the dead space in between segments

<v Speaker 1>and these long boring promos because there are very few

<v Speaker 1>people in wrestling right now who I would call a

<v Speaker 1>money promo. Very few, very very few on the house shows.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe you're not expecting a title change or a major angle,

<v Speaker 1>but how much of that do we even get on

<v Speaker 1>TV these days? At least you get big matches with

<v Speaker 1>some big names. So I think finding a happy medium

<v Speaker 1>is exactly what they need to be doing. I think

<v Speaker 1>it's great for the fans, and I think it would

<v Speaker 1>be great for the talent that could use the added exposure.

<v Speaker 1>Last week I mentioned former CMLL and Triple A star

<v Speaker 1>Quatrero was found guilty of domestic violence and attempted femicide

<v Speaker 1>against his former girlfriend WWE star Stephanie Viquerre after an

<v Speaker 1>incident in March of twenty twenty three for which he

<v Speaker 1>was arrested. He tried to kill this woman basically, and

<v Speaker 1>the domestic violence charge against him was escalated to attempted femicide,

<v Speaker 1>which is a very serious charge in Mexico. For that alone,

<v Speaker 1>he could have faced up to thirty years in prison.

<v Speaker 1>Not only is he not getting thirty years, get a

<v Speaker 1>load of this shit. He was sentenced this week to

<v Speaker 1>twelve years and eight months in prison, and since he

<v Speaker 1>already served two of those years awaiting trial. That means

<v Speaker 1>he now has ten years and eight months left to

<v Speaker 1>serve and so it's not the max or anything like that,

<v Speaker 1>but still ten years in prison is nothing to sneeze at. Well,

<v Speaker 1>it turns out he won't be serving any more time

<v Speaker 1>behind bars, according to a report from Planeta Wrestling, As,

<v Speaker 1>the Mexico City Prosecutor's office has confirmed that he will

<v Speaker 1>be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest. He

<v Speaker 1>must remain under a restraining order that bans him from

<v Speaker 1>approaching the care or appearing at any wrestling events where

<v Speaker 1>she is booked, which, from the sound of it, house

<v Speaker 1>arrest doesn't mean. That doesn't mean what you think it means.

<v Speaker 1>It sounds like there will be check ins with law

<v Speaker 1>enforcement every few weeks and he may have to wear

<v Speaker 1>an ankle monitor. I'm not sure about that stuff, but

<v Speaker 1>it sounds like he won't actually be confined to his

<v Speaker 1>home for the next ten years and eight months. His

<v Speaker 1>career is over. He won't be wrestling anywhere. He'll have

<v Speaker 1>to find work doing something else. But what a kick

<v Speaker 1>in the teeth, you know, And here I thought the

<v Speaker 1>Rajah Jackson sentence last week was crazy. But on International

<v Speaker 1>Women's Day in March, Vicaire shared this message on her

<v Speaker 1>social media. She said, this Women's Day a huge hug

<v Speaker 1>to all women, especially those who like me, spoke up

<v Speaker 1>and reported despite fear and threat he is still free.

<v Speaker 1>But I am still alive and I will keep fighting

<v Speaker 1>for the truth and justice until the end. Yeah. I

<v Speaker 1>mentioned before that Lahiedra, who still works for Triple A,

<v Speaker 1>was said at the time to have appealed to the

<v Speaker 1>care not to go to the police after she was assaulted,

<v Speaker 1>basically to keep her mouth shut. And she wasn't the

<v Speaker 1>only one who put pressure on Stephanie not to say anything,

<v Speaker 1>and she decided to speak up anyway, and she advocated

<v Speaker 1>for herself instead of worrying about what other people told

<v Speaker 1>her she should do. They were fucking cowards. She was not.

<v Speaker 1>But I can't imagine that she's happy about this. She

<v Speaker 1>also may be back on RAW a lot sooner than expected,

<v Speaker 1>possibly as soon as tomorrow night, according to Mike Johnson,

<v Speaker 1>a PW insider, who says some are expecting her to

<v Speaker 1>be in Greensboro, North Carolina, tomorrow night, where RAW is

<v Speaker 1>being held, which you know doesn't mean that she'll appear

<v Speaker 1>on TV. But even if they get her back in

<v Speaker 1>the next few weeks, that's great news, especially since they

<v Speaker 1>clearly they have no one on deck to challenge Live

<v Speaker 1>Morgan for the women's world title. The title scene right

<v Speaker 1>now on Raw is completely dead. So they get Stephanie

<v Speaker 1>back a lot sooner than expected, that would be great news.

<v Speaker 1>And speaking of dead Raw and SmackDown, this week boring television.

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown more than Raw. But when I say Raw was

<v Speaker 1>better than SmackDown, it's like saying, well, the Marlins have

<v Speaker 1>a better record than the Mets. Yeah, they do, but

<v Speaker 1>they still suck and the Mets are only like two

<v Speaker 1>games behind them. We need cm punk back is what

<v Speaker 1>we need. He was, by the way, he was at

<v Speaker 1>that show last night that the Rousey Krano fight. I

<v Speaker 1>saw him, he was in the crowd, he was interviewed.

<v Speaker 1>But he has not been on WWE television since whatever

<v Speaker 1>that first Raw was coming out of WrestleMania, and it

<v Speaker 1>really hit me this week. The show has taken a

<v Speaker 1>nosedive without him there. And I don't even think he

<v Speaker 1>should be on Raw. I think he should be on

<v Speaker 1>smack now. I think SmackDown could use him right now.

<v Speaker 1>But they moved Gunther to SmackDown, and Jacob Fato has

<v Speaker 1>seemingly been moved to Raw. SmackDown's also going back to

<v Speaker 1>two hours soon, so I don't know that they're going

<v Speaker 1>to want to move Punk over there now. Plus it's

<v Speaker 1>pretty clear SmackDown is not a priority for WWE anymore.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, if you didn't already know this, I don't

<v Speaker 1>see how you can watch the television over the last

<v Speaker 1>several weeks and not realize this to be true. That

<v Speaker 1>show is clearly not a priority for them. Raw is

<v Speaker 1>there a show they don't give a shit about SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>It's a nothing show. SmackDown is getting very close to

<v Speaker 1>Rampage territory. Okay, what Rampage was to Dynamite is what

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown is becoming to Raw. And I'm embellishing, but not

<v Speaker 1>by much. But where Tony Kahan gave Collision to Punk,

<v Speaker 1>you know, for that to be his show, maybe WWE

<v Speaker 1>can do the same with him on SmackDown. I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>EO Sky against Soul Ruka on Monday I thought was

<v Speaker 1>good stuff. By the way, congrats to EO Sky. Before

<v Speaker 1>I went and started recording today's show, I saw her

<v Speaker 1>and Evil in their respective social media post. I guess

<v Speaker 1>they appeared on some sort of Japanese television show and

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what kind of show it was, but

<v Speaker 1>they broke the news that they were recently married. Because

<v Speaker 1>there's the footage and the photos of Evil and Eo

<v Speaker 1>Sky and just married and she's in her wedding dress,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm like wow. I mean, there had been about

<v Speaker 1>them being an item for many years, and there was

<v Speaker 1>some talk about whether or not they were still together,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, yeah, whatever, it's their business. But I

<v Speaker 1>guess they have officially gone public and they are now

<v Speaker 1>officially married. So congrats. Rear Ripley will be very jealous

<v Speaker 1>about this. If I were Evil, I would keep eyes

<v Speaker 1>in the back of my head. But Eo against Soul

<v Speaker 1>Ruka on Monday, that was good, Carmelo Hayes against Ricky

<v Speaker 1>Saints on Friday that was also solid. Gunther against Royce

<v Speaker 1>Keys in the main event on Friday that I enjoyed

<v Speaker 1>for the most part. But it's not enough. It's not

<v Speaker 1>enough to save these shows. The matches that we got

<v Speaker 1>on Dynamite, for example, this week, infinitely better. If we

<v Speaker 1>had one or two matches like that, maybe that would

<v Speaker 1>help offset the other shit that we have to sit through.

<v Speaker 1>But the matches themselves they can't even measure up, and

<v Speaker 1>so what we're left with are a lot of boring

<v Speaker 1>segments and way too much comedy, especially on Fridays. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>think about this unsmacked alone. We have our Truth doing

<v Speaker 1>comedy with Damian Priest, We have The Miz and Kit Wilson,

<v Speaker 1>who are basically a comedy duo. Dan Housen is still

<v Speaker 1>doing his science experiments. Chelsea Green has played up for

<v Speaker 1>comedy most of the time she was back on Friday.

<v Speaker 1>Johnny Gargano is still laying catatonic on a crate months

<v Speaker 1>of this shit with no end in sight, and then

<v Speaker 1>if it's not the gingerbread Man, it'll be something else.

<v Speaker 1>This is all on the same show. It's like their

<v Speaker 1>version of the Colgate Comedy Hour from the fifties, except

<v Speaker 1>that had Abbott and Costello sketches, which are still more

<v Speaker 1>entertaining than anything you'll see on SmackDown. But on Monday,

<v Speaker 1>the show was built around an acknowledgment ceremony with Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns and Jacob fought to an entire show devoted to

<v Speaker 1>someone acknowledging the other we're still doing this shit after

<v Speaker 1>how many years now. Thankfully it wasn't too cheesy. They

<v Speaker 1>actually just let Jacob go out there and kill a

<v Speaker 1>bunch of deals dudes, including Roman, which was great. They'll

<v Speaker 1>have their rematch in Italy since Roman is being advertised

<v Speaker 1>for that show. They haven't announced it yet, but he

<v Speaker 1>has advertised for Clash in Italy, so that's where we're

<v Speaker 1>going to get the world title rematch and a WWE

<v Speaker 1>Championship match on the same show. So unlike Backlash, it

<v Speaker 1>looks like both belts are going to be defended on

<v Speaker 1>this next pl which one opens the show, which one

<v Speaker 1>closes the show. I would say, if Gunther is going

<v Speaker 1>to beat Cody to win the WWE Championship, then they

<v Speaker 1>have to close with that. But Roman Reigns is clearly

<v Speaker 1>the top champion in this company right now. He's the

<v Speaker 1>top star. He's the main character in this company right now,

<v Speaker 1>more than Cody. If there is no title changing hands,

<v Speaker 1>then you close with Roman Reigns. The only thing they've

<v Speaker 1>announced for SmackDown so far this Friday is Tallatanga against

<v Speaker 1>Shinsky Nackamore, which I'm sure has you just absolutely giddy

<v Speaker 1>to tune in. But if that isn't enough excitement for

<v Speaker 1>there's a Saturday Night's main event coming up this Saturday

<v Speaker 1>that I will not be live for. I have other plans.

<v Speaker 1>I'll talk about it on the sound Off next Sunday.

<v Speaker 1>But let me run through the matches that we know

<v Speaker 1>of so far, because this still feels very incomplete. Penta

<v Speaker 1>defends his Intercontinental title against all ego Ethan Page, who

<v Speaker 1>was undefeated since coming to Monday Night Raw. And I said,

<v Speaker 1>you know, at the time, I said, Paige is going

<v Speaker 1>to win that ICEE title inside of six months, guaranteed.

<v Speaker 1>But this would be a hell of a lot quicker

<v Speaker 1>than I imagined. But here we are, and I think that

<v Speaker 1>there's potential in this sort of uneasy alliance between him

<v Speaker 1>and Russev continuing on for a while, maybe with Russev

<v Speaker 1>wanting Ethan to give him a title match and Ethan

<v Speaker 1>keeps finding ways to avoid it and put it off.

<v Speaker 1>You know, the dynamic between Page and Russev is basically

<v Speaker 1>Ethan Page what they were doing with Ethan Page and

<v Speaker 1>Ricky Saints in NXT. I'm gonna say Ethan Page wins

<v Speaker 1>the Intercontinental championship. Right now, this is the main event

<v Speaker 1>of the show. As things stand, this is your main

<v Speaker 1>event unless they add something tomorrow night involving Fatu and

<v Speaker 1>the USOS, maybe because I doubt very seriously, Roman Reigns

<v Speaker 1>is going to be working Saturday Night's main event, But

<v Speaker 1>as of this moment, this looks to be your main event.

<v Speaker 1>I think they put the title Uneathan Page, and you

<v Speaker 1>know what, I'm okay with that. I think Page is great.

<v Speaker 1>I don't like the idea of beating him yet. A

<v Speaker 1>Penta Ray Phoenix match for the title would have been

<v Speaker 1>a lot of fun. But Phoenix is a dead character

<v Speaker 1>on the show. He's going to be wrestling Laredo Kid,

<v Speaker 1>I think for his championship in Triple A coming up.

<v Speaker 1>He's not doing anything on the main roster. Plus, I

<v Speaker 1>think they've already announced the Luca Brothers are going to

<v Speaker 1>have a reunion for triple Mania, which is not until September,

<v Speaker 1>so Phoenix is going to be doing more there than

<v Speaker 1>he is on Raw SmackDown. So I think if you're

<v Speaker 1>doing this match, then you put the title Uneathan Page.

<v Speaker 1>Rhea Ripley will team with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Blitz

<v Speaker 1>to take on Jade car Gill, Meechen and BFAB. This

<v Speaker 1>should be a win for Jade and her crew. If

<v Speaker 1>the plan is to rematch her in Rhea for the

<v Speaker 1>championship the following weekend in Italy, which I assume it is,

<v Speaker 1>then Jade should win here and she should get the

<v Speaker 1>win by pinning Rhea Ripley. Not this bullshit where oh

<v Speaker 1>she won, but she pinned Charlotte Flair. She pinned Alexa Bliss,

<v Speaker 1>which would be a cop out. By the way, that

<v Speaker 1>promo segment with them on SmackDown. Ria wasn't there, but

<v Speaker 1>Jade came out with Meechen and BFAB. That segment was horrendous.

<v Speaker 1>Let's talk more action and coming out of Clash in Italy.

<v Speaker 1>I think it's time to start building to Jade Cargill

<v Speaker 1>against Charlotte Flair. They've teased this match enough times now

<v Speaker 1>over these months. Maybe they want to do Jade against

<v Speaker 1>Alexa first, with Jade beating Alexa, and then they do

<v Speaker 1>Jade against Charlotte at Summer Slam, because that's a big

<v Speaker 1>enough match for SummerSlam. I know I'm gonna get an

<v Speaker 1>angry email now from you know who, But this is

<v Speaker 1>what I can see them doing if the idea is

<v Speaker 1>ultimately to go with Jade and Charlotte. Soon she runs

<v Speaker 1>through Alexa first, and then we get the Jade and

<v Speaker 1>Charlotte match. The Vision logan Paul and Austin Theory defend

<v Speaker 1>their World tag team titles against the Street Profits Seth

<v Speaker 1>Rollins and montes Ford. They don't like each other, Seth

<v Speaker 1>Rollins and montes Ford had been beefing lately. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what's gonna happen on Raw Tomorrow night, but I

<v Speaker 1>do feel like Rollins is gonna end up playing a

<v Speaker 1>role in this match, sticking his nose where it doesn't belong,

<v Speaker 1>and they're gonna splinter off with a singles match soon

<v Speaker 1>between Seth Rollins and montese Ford, and I'm here for it.

<v Speaker 1>I'm here for more montes Ford singles action. But no

<v Speaker 1>way does the Vision lose those titles here. And it

<v Speaker 1>may not mean anything here, but Maxine Duprix has been

<v Speaker 1>spotted multiple times now on television with the Vision like

<v Speaker 1>in the background. She was sitting in the passenger seat

<v Speaker 1>of their suv on Monday when they were leaving the show.

<v Speaker 1>She could always get involved here if the plan is

<v Speaker 1>for her to maybe join the Vision is their new valet,

<v Speaker 1>but it's more like that Rollins gets involved. So I

<v Speaker 1>have Logan Paul and Austin Theory retaining, and Page and

<v Speaker 1>Brie Bella are going to be defending their women's tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles, provided they can get past the judgment day

<v Speaker 1>tomorrow night against Naya Jacks and Lash Legend. It was brief,

<v Speaker 1>but they did mention this in a backstage segment on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>that they would be challenging for the belts on this show.

<v Speaker 1>I don't care to see it, but I don't think

<v Speaker 1>they're taking those titles off Page and Brie until Nicki

<v Speaker 1>is ready to come back. That's the card they're missing

<v Speaker 1>one big match. Otherwise, that card looks about right for

<v Speaker 1>a Saturday Night's main event. Not quite a plee, but

<v Speaker 1>a little bit better than your standard Raw or SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>with a few title defenses on the show. John Alba

<v Speaker 1>had this scoop on Sports Illustrated this week that aw

<v Speaker 1>could be in pursuit of WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley.

<v Speaker 1>The story says that Foley has worked for nearly every

<v Speaker 1>major company in wrestling across the globe, but he has

<v Speaker 1>not yet stepped foot inside an AW ring, and as

<v Speaker 1>he is set to let his WWE Legends deal expire

<v Speaker 1>next month, sources indicate to the Takedown on SI that

<v Speaker 1>there is a chance he could be AW bound. Multiple

<v Speaker 1>sources tell the Takedown that AW has expressed real interest

<v Speaker 1>in working with Foley this year, although the capacity of

<v Speaker 1>which is not known. Was also not certain whether or

<v Speaker 1>not the organization would be interested in signing the sixty

<v Speaker 1>year old, or if it would simply be for an appearance.

<v Speaker 1>AW is currently building towards a Double or Nothing, which

<v Speaker 1>will be held in Flushing, New York, about an hour

<v Speaker 1>from where Fully grew up on Long Island. Another Long

<v Speaker 1>Island product, MJF, will be in the main event. One

<v Speaker 1>source indicated that while they did not have any direct

<v Speaker 1>knowledge of Folly coming in for the show at this time,

<v Speaker 1>they would not be surprised if there was a push

<v Speaker 1>to use him on it if a deal could get done.

<v Speaker 1>The extent of any conversation between the parties beyond initial

<v Speaker 1>inquiry is also unknown. Though not directly under WWE contract,

<v Speaker 1>the last few years, Foley has been under Legends deal.

<v Speaker 1>The Hall of Famer has been outspoken about President Donald

<v Speaker 1>Trump in the past and openly criticized WWE and TKO's

<v Speaker 1>dealings with the current administration following Trump's comments about the

<v Speaker 1>death of actor Rob Reiner. In doing so, he said

<v Speaker 1>he planned to let his Legends deal expire this June.

<v Speaker 1>WWE Legends contracts do not prevent talent from working for

<v Speaker 1>other companies directly, but they do have some restrictions on royalties, merchandising,

<v Speaker 1>likeness use, and other intellectual property related matters. If there's

<v Speaker 1>any chance of him violating his deal, I doubt he's

<v Speaker 1>going to stir up that hornet's nest a week out,

<v Speaker 1>let's say, or whatever two weeks out from it expiring.

<v Speaker 1>So either the contract allows for him to show up

<v Speaker 1>in aw if he wants, or it doesn't and he

<v Speaker 1>ain't going to be at the pay per view next weekend. Now,

<v Speaker 1>if Tony Kahn wanted to bring in Mick Foley for

<v Speaker 1>an appearance, that's cool. You know, he should absolutely not

<v Speaker 1>be in the ring doing a match. I know he's

<v Speaker 1>done some physical spots at independent shows. He just made

<v Speaker 1>a cameo in the Sandman's retirement match against The Invisible Man.

<v Speaker 1>He actually delivered a double arm DDT. He took a

<v Speaker 1>hard bump on his hip and got right back up.

<v Speaker 1>I was surprised to see that. I know he wanted

<v Speaker 1>to wrestle one last match. He wanted to do a

<v Speaker 1>death match for his sixtieth birthday. So he had set

<v Speaker 1>this weight loss goal. He was going to lose a

<v Speaker 1>bunch of weight, like one hundred pounds, and for his

<v Speaker 1>sixtieth birthday, he was going to have one last death match.

<v Speaker 1>And he thought better of it after he concussed himself.

<v Speaker 1>He was doing some light stuff in the ring. He

<v Speaker 1>wasn't even doing anything bit major or big. He didn't

<v Speaker 1>even realize he had suffered at concussion until after the fact,

<v Speaker 1>So at that point he wisely called that match off.

<v Speaker 1>But if he was part of an angle of some kind,

<v Speaker 1>then he took a bump. I mean, I'm sure he

<v Speaker 1>could do it. He probably shouldn't, but he could, or

<v Speaker 1>they could have him do something else. So the question becomes,

<v Speaker 1>what would that be. I don't see him coming in

<v Speaker 1>as a manager or anything like that, special referee for

<v Speaker 1>a match. Sure that could work him and MJF, you know,

<v Speaker 1>cutting dueling promos on each other. That could be a

<v Speaker 1>lot of fun. Could bring him in as a special

<v Speaker 1>referee for a big MJF match on pay per view.

<v Speaker 1>But the one thing that people are talking about that

<v Speaker 1>I'm not too keen on is this idea of him

<v Speaker 1>coming in as an authority figure of some kind, like

<v Speaker 1>the commissioner or the general manager, you know, of AAW.

<v Speaker 1>It's not needed. We don't need it. AW doesn't need it.

<v Speaker 1>It's been well established who the authority is on these shows.

<v Speaker 1>It's the man behind the curtain, and no on screen

<v Speaker 1>authority role is going to change that. It didn't when

<v Speaker 1>they had Christopher Daniels as an authority figure, and it's

<v Speaker 1>not going to if they have Mick Foley in the

<v Speaker 1>same role. Plus it we just feel like a retread

<v Speaker 1>of something that we already saw him do in WWE

<v Speaker 1>when he was much younger. So I would hope that's

<v Speaker 1>not what this is, but it sounds like he's going

<v Speaker 1>to do something with them. They've used legends in various

<v Speaker 1>roles throughout the years. In AW, they more often than

<v Speaker 1>not they use their legends. I would say Tony is

<v Speaker 1>very respectful of the legends that he used, none more

<v Speaker 1>so than Sting, and Sting was a different case because

<v Speaker 1>Sting was still active doing matches, but whether it was

<v Speaker 1>Staying or Ricky Steamboat has been brought in a bunch

<v Speaker 1>of times, Arn Anderson, Tully Blancher, Jake Roberts, you know

<v Speaker 1>the Rock and Roll Express. There's always room for a

<v Speaker 1>Mick Foley appearance on the show. I just don't think

<v Speaker 1>it needs to be a regular occurrence. The brackets for

<v Speaker 1>this year is men's and women's. Owen Hart Foundation tournaments

<v Speaker 1>have been announced. We found out about them on Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday, so let's take a look at them. On

<v Speaker 1>the men's side, first, we have Samoa Joe one on

<v Speaker 1>one with Will Osprey and that match will take place

<v Speaker 1>at double or Nothing next Sunday on the same side

<v Speaker 1>of the bracket meeting the winner of that match will

<v Speaker 1>be the winner of the match between Jack Perry and

<v Speaker 1>so the former national champion and the current national champion,

<v Speaker 1>Mark Davis. Now on the other side of the bracket,

<v Speaker 1>we have Bandido one on one would Swerve Strickland. That

<v Speaker 1>will also be taking place at double or Nothing, and

<v Speaker 1>the winner of that match will meet the winner of

<v Speaker 1>the match between Brody King and Claudio Casignoli. And the

<v Speaker 1>biggest surprise of this tournament. No John Moxley. The first

<v Speaker 1>thought that I had. I'm looking at this bracket, I go,

<v Speaker 1>how is Claudio in there and not John Moxley? They

<v Speaker 1>have the wrong death rider in this tournament. John Moxley

<v Speaker 1>is a former aw world champion. I mean, forget the

<v Speaker 1>stuff that I've talked about with him and Osprey maybe

<v Speaker 1>meeting in the finals, and how that would make a

<v Speaker 1>lot of sense given this story they've been telling of

<v Speaker 1>the death riders training him and trying to turn him

<v Speaker 1>into a killer. I have no idea why Claudio was

<v Speaker 1>in there and not John Moxley. That was the biggest

<v Speaker 1>like what the fuck to me? And then I look

<v Speaker 1>at the other side of the bracket and I see,

<v Speaker 1>you know, look, I like Mark Davis. I'm a Mark

<v Speaker 1>Davis fan. You've heard me talk about him before. I'm

<v Speaker 1>very happy that he has found some single success and

<v Speaker 1>he's a champion now. But why is Mark Davison there

<v Speaker 1>over any other member of the Kallus family, like, oh,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, androte Aldelo who has talked about wanting

<v Speaker 1>to go after the world title because they don't want

<v Speaker 1>him losing. That's the simple answer. But of course there

<v Speaker 1>are bigger names who belong in here, who are in it.

<v Speaker 1>This is the case every year when we go over

<v Speaker 1>these brackets. It's the same thing every year. Why would

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omegan not be in this? Why would Kevin Knight

<v Speaker 1>not be in this? The TNT champion or Speedball right,

<v Speaker 1>both of whom have been heavily featured on TV. These

<v Speaker 1>are all very valid questions. But we look at what

<v Speaker 1>we have here and what are we looking at. It

<v Speaker 1>seems pretty clear to me that we're looking at most

<v Speaker 1>likely a final at Forbidden Door next month between will

<v Speaker 1>Osprey and Swerve. Strictlan Will Ospray for sure is going

<v Speaker 1>to the finals of this tournament. Otherwise there's no point

<v Speaker 1>in telling this story that they're telling with him on.

<v Speaker 1>The question is who's going to be on the other

<v Speaker 1>side of the bracket against him? I can't see it

<v Speaker 1>being Bandido, Brody King Claudia Like, none of those matches

<v Speaker 1>are are Forbidden Door worthy. However, Swerve and Ospray have

<v Speaker 1>history at that Forbidden Door pay per view. It was

<v Speaker 1>two years ago that they met for the World Championship

<v Speaker 1>and Swerve beat Ospray, So this is a chance to

<v Speaker 1>run it back. I mean it was a great match

<v Speaker 1>two years ago, it'll be a great match now. Now

<v Speaker 1>Swerve is a heel before he wasn't Ospray and Swerve.

<v Speaker 1>There's your final for Forbidden Door with Ospray going to

<v Speaker 1>Wembley Stadium just rights itself. But then we pan over

<v Speaker 1>to the women's bracket and we have Persephone one on

<v Speaker 1>one with Hazuki Willow Nightingale, the TBS champion goes one

<v Speaker 1>on one with Alex Windsor, and that is the one

<v Speaker 1>women's tournament match that is taking place. At double or nothing.

<v Speaker 1>We have two for the men, one for the women.

<v Speaker 1>On the other side of the bracket, Athena, the Forever

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor Women's World Champion, takes on Mina sheer

<v Speaker 1>Kawa and the winner of that match will meet the

<v Speaker 1>winner of the match between Sky Blue and Serie. So

<v Speaker 1>let's take a step back here, Okay, Athena is back,

<v Speaker 1>But unlike last year, there's no Jamie Hayter, there's no

<v Speaker 1>Chris stat Lander, and there's no Mercedes Monette. If John

<v Speaker 1>Moxley not being in the men's tournament was the big surprise,

<v Speaker 1>then Mercedes not being in the women's is an even

<v Speaker 1>bigger surprise, Hazuki. I understand because Forbidden Door is a

<v Speaker 1>joint production with multiple promotions featured, including Stardom, so they

<v Speaker 1>wanted some Stardom representation in there. Same with Persephone. She's

<v Speaker 1>CMLL talent, but at least Persephone has the dual contract.

<v Speaker 1>She's also an AW talent. But Persephone is out injured,

<v Speaker 1>as is Sirie. Just last week, Sei put out an

<v Speaker 1>announcement that she was taking a month off to seek

<v Speaker 1>treatment for her neck. That Tony Kahn was asked about

<v Speaker 1>them the other day on the Supercard of Honor media call,

<v Speaker 1>and because Persephone was actually pulled from that Ring of

<v Speaker 1>Honor pay per view on Friday. She was supposed to

<v Speaker 1>be in the women's title match on that show, a

<v Speaker 1>big multi person match, and she was pulled due to injury.

<v Speaker 1>Now on TV, they're crediting it to and even Tony

<v Speaker 1>I think in kfab here was crediting it to the

<v Speaker 1>Triangle of Madness and they missed at her and they

<v Speaker 1>injured her. That's a cover reason. You know, there is

<v Speaker 1>a legitimate injury here. He said he expects them both

<v Speaker 1>to be back in the ring in time for the tournament,

<v Speaker 1>and that their matches probably will not take place until

<v Speaker 1>they get well into the month of June, to give

<v Speaker 1>them more time to heal up. If not, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>it's not as if he doesn't have a wealth of

<v Speaker 1>other women on his own roster who would benefit from

<v Speaker 1>a spot in that tournament. It's not like it's gonna

<v Speaker 1>be that hard to plug somebody else in there. But

<v Speaker 1>he is convinced that they'll be fine, and when the

<v Speaker 1>time comes, they'll be there. They'll be in the ring

<v Speaker 1>for their matches. The one thing I will say about

<v Speaker 1>the women's bracket definitely more unpredictable than the men's. If

<v Speaker 1>Athena would have dropped her title on the Ring of

<v Speaker 1>Honor show on Friday, she'd be I mean, just a

<v Speaker 1>shoeing too. She'd be my pick to win the entire thing.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it's her, which begs the question, who

<v Speaker 1>the hell is ever going to take that title away

<v Speaker 1>from Athena. She is approaching Roman reigns numbers with her

<v Speaker 1>title Reigne. She's up around like one two hundred and

<v Speaker 1>fifty days. What did Roman have? One? Thy three hundred

<v Speaker 1>and sixteen I think was the number. So Athena is

<v Speaker 1>only like a couple of months away two three months away.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if there's an intent on their part

<v Speaker 1>to pass Roman reigns or why that would even matter,

<v Speaker 1>but she's getting very close. She'd beat five other women

<v Speaker 1>in an elimination match on Friday, one of whom was

<v Speaker 1>Billy Starks, who has had chances before to win that championship,

<v Speaker 1>even when it felt like, Okay, this is the blowoff,

<v Speaker 1>this is the perfect time to do it, and they

<v Speaker 1>didn't pull the trigger. And then I saw the other

<v Speaker 1>day that Billy Starks just graduated from college and got

<v Speaker 1>her degree. It wouldn't it be something if they have

<v Speaker 1>been waiting for her to graduate from school before putting

<v Speaker 1>the title on her, like the top title. Yeah, you

<v Speaker 1>forget how young she is. She's only twenty one. But

<v Speaker 1>the pay per view on Friday ended with Athena berating

<v Speaker 1>her like I could see it. The question is is

<v Speaker 1>anybody gonna care? Is anybody gonna give a shit? Yeah?

<v Speaker 1>We criticize Triple H for dragging things out with stories

<v Speaker 1>for far too long. Look at this Athena and Billy

<v Speaker 1>starkshit Final Battle twenty twenty three. Athena beats Billy Final

<v Speaker 1>Battle twenty twenty four Athena beats Billy, it's twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>If they run this back at Final Battle again this

<v Speaker 1>year and Billy actually wins the belt. I some people

<v Speaker 1>don't care, but like, are there enough people out there

<v Speaker 1>that are even gonna give a shit? Sometimes you just

<v Speaker 1>got a cut bait. It's like, Okay, this has gone

<v Speaker 1>on for far too long. Here is the payoff even

<v Speaker 1>going to be worth it in the end. But as

<v Speaker 1>far as this tournament goes, I can't see Willow winning.

<v Speaker 1>She's already won the Owen once before. I mean, so

<v Speaker 1>did Mercedes, and if she was in this, she'd have

<v Speaker 1>been my pick. But Willo also has the TBS title.

<v Speaker 1>I just don't see it happening. I'm going with Persephone

<v Speaker 1>as my pick to win the women's tournament. They could

<v Speaker 1>use this tournament to really establish her on their roster.

<v Speaker 1>SI and Hazuki, I mean they're very good also, but

<v Speaker 1>they're not AW stars. You know, the woman who wins

<v Speaker 1>this and goes on to Wembley needs to be somebody

<v Speaker 1>under contract with AW. I think an Athena Persephone final

<v Speaker 1>would be great, and there's history there because Athena beat

<v Speaker 1>her last year in the main event. Of Final Battle,

<v Speaker 1>this would be the rematch. This week's episode is sponsored

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<v Speaker 1>dot com slash harmony. By the way, I mentioned the

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor show on Friday. In the post show scrum,

<v Speaker 1>Tony Kahn brought up something that was reported by Dave

<v Speaker 1>Meltzer in this week's Wrestling Observer newsletter regarding higher ups

<v Speaker 1>in WWE allegedly spreading the narrative internally that aw will

<v Speaker 1>not be getting a new TV deal with Paramount sky

<v Speaker 1>Dance after its deal for Warner Brothers Discovery closes. The

<v Speaker 1>belief is that that deal will go through probably in

<v Speaker 1>the third quarter of this year, but they're talking about it.

<v Speaker 1>I guess within the walls of WWE like it's a

<v Speaker 1>formality that they're not going to get picked up, and

<v Speaker 1>they're going to be off TNT, they're going to be

<v Speaker 1>off TBS, they're going to be off HBO Max. And

<v Speaker 1>they might be. But as I've said over and over,

<v Speaker 1>WWE doesn't know that. WWE doesn't know that, Tony Khan

<v Speaker 1>doesn't know that. Nobody knows that, and it's pointless to

<v Speaker 1>keep speculating before the acquisition is even approved. But Tony

<v Speaker 1>talked about this. I thought that his response was maybe

<v Speaker 1>the best response that he has ever given to a

<v Speaker 1>question like this. He said, I saw a report today

<v Speaker 1>saying that somebody in WWE is telling people within WWE

<v Speaker 1>talking about aw's next TV deal and talking about what

<v Speaker 1>we're doing. And I was surprised by that. And I'll

<v Speaker 1>say that what they said could not be further from

<v Speaker 1>the truth, and they're entitled to their opinions. I've been

<v Speaker 1>trying to be respectful to them and trying to conduct

<v Speaker 1>myself as a gentleman, and then for them to go

<v Speaker 1>on background and spread these things, I'll just turn the

<v Speaker 1>other cheek and maybe a couple of years ago I

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't have done it like that. Then later on on

<v Speaker 1>X somebody said media Train, Tony is a problem. He

<v Speaker 1>was saying that is a compliment to Tony and then said,

<v Speaker 1>though I do wish he would take a little swing,

<v Speaker 1>to which Tony responded, thank you very much. I didn't

<v Speaker 1>take any specific new media training, though I have both

<v Speaker 1>gained experience over time working and wrestling in sports, and

<v Speaker 1>I've rediscovered what it means to turn the other cheek

<v Speaker 1>because of reinvigorating my faith in Jesus in recent years.

<v Speaker 1>That he had mentioned something similar in his interview with

<v Speaker 1>Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo he may not have gotten

<v Speaker 1>media training, but you can tell he has made an

<v Speaker 1>effort to not engage with them when they try and

<v Speaker 1>get under his skin. And I'm sure that they do,

<v Speaker 1>because how can it not right? But he's done a

<v Speaker 1>much better job of measuring his responses and situations like this,

<v Speaker 1>because there's nothing to be gained by addressing something like

<v Speaker 1>this in any other way. All you're gonna do is

<v Speaker 1>give it credence. He's going to put over his relationship

<v Speaker 1>with the Ellison family, and he's gonna put over the

<v Speaker 1>current deal that they have, every opportunity that he gets

<v Speaker 1>and how great it is, whether he believes they have

<v Speaker 1>a good chance of getting renewed or not right the

<v Speaker 1>minute he gets at a pissing contest over this publicly,

<v Speaker 1>that then becomes the headline and he gives validity to

<v Speaker 1>the report. Can't do that. But you go back and

<v Speaker 1>you watch the way that he acted, for example, at

<v Speaker 1>the brawl Out scrum four years ago after Punk and

<v Speaker 1>this is after Punk got up and left with the

<v Speaker 1>muffins and everything, and Tony was sitting there taking questions

<v Speaker 1>and he was talking about WWE counter programming them, and

<v Speaker 1>he was pissed and he let it show. He had

<v Speaker 1>a terrible poker face when it came to that, and

<v Speaker 1>he said, I've got more money than Jim. This is

<v Speaker 1>what they did to Jim Crockett back in the day.

<v Speaker 1>But the only thing is I've got more money than

<v Speaker 1>Jim Crockett did, and I'm not gonna sit back and

<v Speaker 1>take this fucking shit anymore. And you know that the

<v Speaker 1>suits in Stanford were having a good laugh at his

<v Speaker 1>expense at the office the next morning because he was

<v Speaker 1>gotten to and he let it show. And to me,

<v Speaker 1>that was the low point that whole scrum. That was

<v Speaker 1>the low point for him and for the entire company.

<v Speaker 1>But compare this response to the kind of response that

<v Speaker 1>he would, you know, given back then, it's night and day.

<v Speaker 1>Now a response like that would be great for clicks

<v Speaker 1>and views. Don't get me wrong. As a content creator,

<v Speaker 1>you eat that shit up like ice cream. But as

<v Speaker 1>the president of the company, this is a much more

<v Speaker 1>mature way to handle stuff like this. So the updated

<v Speaker 1>double or nothing card for next Sunday looks like this,

<v Speaker 1>And this is by no means complete. They're going to

<v Speaker 1>add more on TV this week. I'm sure they have

<v Speaker 1>over fourteen thousand tickets sold for Louis Armstrong Stadium. That

<v Speaker 1>is a sellout one week out. When I went to

<v Speaker 1>go see what's left on the map at Ticketmaster, the

<v Speaker 1>only thing left are verified resale tickets. That's it. So

<v Speaker 1>that's good enough for the second largest domestic gate in

<v Speaker 1>company history, behind only last year's All In show in Texas.

<v Speaker 1>All In this year, by the way, at Wembley has

<v Speaker 1>around twenty four thousand tickets out, so it is not

<v Speaker 1>coming anywhere close to what they did. Even for the

<v Speaker 1>last show they did there, they did about fifty thousand fans.

<v Speaker 1>They'll be lucky to hit thirty thousand this year. And

<v Speaker 1>it's the law of diminishing returns because you know, when

<v Speaker 1>you run the building that big, this is what happens.

<v Speaker 1>You know. The first one did over seventy thousand, because

<v Speaker 1>it was a novelty, right, it was a company other

<v Speaker 1>than WWE running Wembley and running this big stadium, and

<v Speaker 1>it had more to do with that and less to

<v Speaker 1>do what the actual matches were going to be. And

<v Speaker 1>the UK was just so starved for a big show

<v Speaker 1>like that. So depending on who you believe, the number

<v Speaker 1>was somewhere between seventy and eighty thousand, right, huge crowd.

<v Speaker 1>Then they went back the following year and they did

<v Speaker 1>fifty thousand, which was a big drop off, but fifty

<v Speaker 1>thousand is still an impressive number. But they ain't gonna

<v Speaker 1>hit that again. They're not gonna come anywhere close to

<v Speaker 1>that this year. But here's the double or nothing card.

<v Speaker 1>I may as well give you my early predictions here

<v Speaker 1>as I go along. We've got three owen Hart Foundation

<v Speaker 1>Tournament matches. Samoa Joe won on one with will Osprey.

<v Speaker 1>That's going to be a win for Osprey. We have

<v Speaker 1>Willow Nightingale taking on Alex Windsor. I'm going with Willow

<v Speaker 1>for the win. Maybe we could have will against Willow.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe we kind of merged, we fused the refuse the

<v Speaker 1>two tournaments to get That'd be a hell of a

<v Speaker 1>semi final. I'll tell you that will Osprey against Willow Nightingale,

<v Speaker 1>and then in the other Owen Heart match, Swerve Strickland

<v Speaker 1>is going to beat Bandido. Now we have also Stadium

<v Speaker 1>Stampede returns, first time in years that we've had a

<v Speaker 1>Stadium Stampede match. It's going to be Chris Jericho, Bobby Lashley, Shelton, Benjamin,

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega, Jack Perry and the Young Bucks seven on

<v Speaker 1>seven against Ricochet, the Gates of Agony, Mark Davis, androde

<v Speaker 1>l Edelo and the Dogs David Finley and Clark Conners.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to assume that they end up working this

<v Speaker 1>like anarchy in the arena where they do it live

<v Speaker 1>in the building with the music playing in the background.

<v Speaker 1>That it's not going to be taped in advance like

<v Speaker 1>they did during the pandemic with the first one. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>they're calling it Stadium Stampede because they're in an actual

<v Speaker 1>stadium this year, but I think it's basically going to

<v Speaker 1>be anarchy in the arena. The whole way through. I

<v Speaker 1>mean the two the two were very similar anyway, This

<v Speaker 1>is going to be a giant clusterfuck. And I will

<v Speaker 1>say this if it is anything like the last Anarchy

<v Speaker 1>match that they did last year, that was some of

<v Speaker 1>the most fun I had all year watching pro wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>This has the potential to steal the show because I

<v Speaker 1>thought the one they did last year, if it wasn't

<v Speaker 1>the best one that they've done, it was the second

<v Speaker 1>best one. It was certainly never boring. And I'm going

<v Speaker 1>with the babyfaces. I'm going with Team Jericho for the win. Here.

<v Speaker 1>FTR defend their AW tag team titles against Adam Copeland

<v Speaker 1>and Christian Cage. It'll be an I Quit New York

<v Speaker 1>Street fight where if FTR retains Cope and Cage they

<v Speaker 1>can never again team up together as a tag team.

<v Speaker 1>This should be a tag team championship change. I think

<v Speaker 1>this is the night where Cope and Christian get their

<v Speaker 1>hands on the gold, so they are my pick to win.

<v Speaker 1>Tekla will defend her AW Women's championship against Chris Statlander, Hitkiushida,

<v Speaker 1>and Jamie Hayter in a four way. I can't imagine

<v Speaker 1>taking the belt right now. Off of Tekla. There's some

<v Speaker 1>storyline stuff going on with Statlander and Shida, and so

<v Speaker 1>we'll see if you know, things blow up between them

<v Speaker 1>here in this match. And Jamie Hayter, I just feel

<v Speaker 1>like is gonna be reserved for a tag team title

<v Speaker 1>win soon, probably at Wembley, you know, her and Alex

<v Speaker 1>windsor so Tekla retains. We have Kazuchka Okata who missed

<v Speaker 1>this week. He was originally supposed to challenge Darby Allen

<v Speaker 1>for the aw World title. He had to go back

<v Speaker 1>to Japan on some family business, hopefully nothing too serious.

<v Speaker 1>He is scheduled to defend his International Championship against Kenoski Takeshta,

<v Speaker 1>and this is the match I'm probably looking forward to

<v Speaker 1>the most out of everything on this show. We had

<v Speaker 1>a match between them as part of the Continental Classic.

<v Speaker 1>This was back at World's End. It was a very

<v Speaker 1>good match, but it was not like this big epic

<v Speaker 1>that you would yet you just know the two of

<v Speaker 1>them could go out there and have and it just

<v Speaker 1>felt like, Okay, they're saving it right. They don't want

<v Speaker 1>to just blow it up in this tournament. They want

<v Speaker 1>to save the best for last. I'm not even sure

<v Speaker 1>if this is going to be the last. This could

<v Speaker 1>end up being a three match program, but I'm still

<v Speaker 1>going with Takeshta to win the title here. I think

<v Speaker 1>this is the big finale between them most likely, and

<v Speaker 1>I think he's going to walk out the new International champion.

<v Speaker 1>And then in the main event, we have Darby Allen

<v Speaker 1>defending the AW World Championship against the former champion, MJF.

<v Speaker 1>It is title versus hair. If MJF loses this match,

<v Speaker 1>he will be shaved bald. Now. Darby Allen has been

<v Speaker 1>defending the championship NonStop since he won it. He defended

<v Speaker 1>it on Wednesday in a great match against Takeshta, then

<v Speaker 1>on Collision last night he successfully defended the title against

<v Speaker 1>Sammy Gavara. And the story they're really leaning into is

<v Speaker 1>that physically these title defenses are really taking a toll

<v Speaker 1>on him. It was just funny to me though, because

<v Speaker 1>we've seen him take so much abuse and so much

<v Speaker 1>punishment in these matches. He fell from a balcony against

<v Speaker 1>Pack last week through fucking tables, and I mean, just

<v Speaker 1>think of all the shit this guy got. Even on Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>the match with Takesha the Blue Thunderbomb, he took off

<v Speaker 1>the apron to the floor. There was like an avalanche

<v Speaker 1>German suplex that he took where Takeshta held on. He

<v Speaker 1>never broke stride. I mean, the bumps at this guy

<v Speaker 1>takes is insane. And then he's got Sammy. I think

<v Speaker 1>he had him in the scorpion deathlock last night and

<v Speaker 1>he just collapses, I guess because it's finally catching up

<v Speaker 1>to him. So he was showing the physical toll in

<v Speaker 1>the match last night that these defenses are finally, you know,

<v Speaker 1>kind of taking on him and they're wearing him down.

<v Speaker 1>But he has another title defense coming up against Speedball

<v Speaker 1>Mike Bailey on Dynamite is Wednesday. That will be his

<v Speaker 1>seventh title defense in the span of one month. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I do love though, how Speedball set on Wednesday. I've

<v Speaker 1>got the winner of Darby and Takeshta tonight. And then

<v Speaker 1>Darby just turns around and he defends against Sammy. First,

<v Speaker 1>Sammy Gavara, who had wrestled one match since he wrestled

<v Speaker 1>for US in House of Glory, and that was back

<v Speaker 1>in March, and he hadn't even appeared on AW television

<v Speaker 1>since January, and there he was last night Wrestling for

<v Speaker 1>the World Championship. You know, at this point, I'm expecting

<v Speaker 1>Darby to walk by the popcorn vendor on the concourse

<v Speaker 1>and offer him a shot at the aw World title.

<v Speaker 1>But if Speedball gets his match, here's how I see

<v Speaker 1>this playing out. He's gonna get his match on Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>He's gonna lose. I think there's a very good chance

<v Speaker 1>they add Speedball against Kevin Knight for the TNT title

<v Speaker 1>to the double or Nothing card. Neither man even has

<v Speaker 1>a match on the show right now, which is wild

<v Speaker 1>when you consider how much TV time they get. I

<v Speaker 1>think either it's a frustrated Speedball who asked for a shot,

<v Speaker 1>or Kevin Knight will just offer him one. But I

<v Speaker 1>think it's a very good chance. Still hasn't been announced yet,

<v Speaker 1>but I still think we probably will get Speedball and

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight for the TNT title at double or Nothing.

<v Speaker 1>And that's the card as it stands right now. Again,

<v Speaker 1>that card is going to evolve more as the week

<v Speaker 1>goes on. They have their pre show. I'm sure we'll

<v Speaker 1>get three or four more matches added there, but that

<v Speaker 1>is the bulk of the double or Nothing card as

<v Speaker 1>it stands. And I will be live on YouTube after

<v Speaker 1>that show. I don't go live after all the AW

<v Speaker 1>pay per views, but yeah, i have House of Glory

<v Speaker 1>on Friday, so I'm not going to be here for SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>probably not going to be here for Saturday Nights made event.

<v Speaker 1>I really don't want to miss three streams in a row,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm also really looking forward to the show, So

<v Speaker 1>hopefully you will join me when it's over on YouTube.

<v Speaker 1>That will be very early in the morning on Memorial Day.

<v Speaker 1>I've got some AW contract news Jack Perry. I mentioned him.

<v Speaker 1>He's going to be part of Stadium Stampede and he's

<v Speaker 1>also in the Owenhart Foundation Tournament, so he's involved in

<v Speaker 1>multiple things right now at the moment on AW television, however,

<v Speaker 1>David Shoemaker of The Ringer Podcast, you see him on

<v Speaker 1>a lot of these WWE documentaries. I don't know how

<v Speaker 1>some of these guys constantly get on there, but there

<v Speaker 1>they are. He's always one of them. Anyway, He's the

<v Speaker 1>only one I've seen reporting this. He just threw it

<v Speaker 1>out there casually the other day that Jack Perry is

<v Speaker 1>about to become a free agent soon, or so he's

<v Speaker 1>been told. I don't know how reliable that is. But

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't ambiguous about it at all. He wasn't really

<v Speaker 1>hedging his words. He said it with some authority in

<v Speaker 1>his voice. Now, I had heard about Anna Jay possibly

<v Speaker 1>leaving soon. She confirmed that her deal was coming due

<v Speaker 1>very soon a while back, but then a few weeks

<v Speaker 1>ago she returned to TV. So if she was leaving,

<v Speaker 1>it would be very unlike Tony Kahn to then take

<v Speaker 1>somebody who he thought might leave or is leaving soon

<v Speaker 1>and put them on television. Usually he'll just bench you.

<v Speaker 1>But she came back to TV. She was back again

<v Speaker 1>on Collision last night, so nobody knows what her status

<v Speaker 1>is right now. She may not be going anywhere. This

<v Speaker 1>is the first I'm hearing something similar about Jungle Boy though,

<v Speaker 1>and the boy would that be interesting? Him and CM

<v Speaker 1>Punk back working for the same company. Punk might ban

<v Speaker 1>him from Rawn SmackDown like he banned him from Collision.

<v Speaker 1>I can't see him being a good fit on that

<v Speaker 1>main roster right now. NX team maybe, but not the

<v Speaker 1>main roster. Meanwhile, Fightful is reporting that the belief is

<v Speaker 1>Big Bills contract with AAW is set to be expiring

<v Speaker 1>very soon, set to be at the end of this

<v Speaker 1>month or beginning of next month. Now, he has not

<v Speaker 1>shown up on AW television since February. He hasn't done

<v Speaker 1>anything since early April. That was in Ring of Honor.

<v Speaker 1>He's been tagging with Brian Keith. You know, he's a

<v Speaker 1>big guy who can work. He's got a much better

<v Speaker 1>chance with WWE than Jungle Boy would. He's not a

<v Speaker 1>young guy. He's almost forty, so he's no blue chip

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that. But I mean that's by no

<v Speaker 1>means a barrier for entry for him there. They got

<v Speaker 1>plenty of guys around his age, but not many of

<v Speaker 1>them have his size, and I think that that would

<v Speaker 1>work to his advantage because it's very clear that Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahan has nothing for him right now, and Jericho bailing

<v Speaker 1>on the Learning Tree stuff without doing a proper blowoff

<v Speaker 1>match with Big Bill really hurt him. That was selfish,

<v Speaker 1>is what that was. And Fightful is also reporting that

<v Speaker 1>Paul White's AW deal the Big Show was set to

<v Speaker 1>expire earlier this year, but sources believe he agreed to

<v Speaker 1>a new deal to remain with the company. They have

<v Speaker 1>not heard for how long, but he is believed to

<v Speaker 1>be firmly under contract they say, so that Hall of

<v Speaker 1>Fame induction is going to have to wait a little

<v Speaker 1>bit longer. You know, he's only had I went back

<v Speaker 1>and I counted them out. He's only had half a

<v Speaker 1>dozen matches since he joined the company in twenty twenty one,

<v Speaker 1>not all of which were televised, some of them were dark.

<v Speaker 1>So that's half a dozen matches over a five year period.

<v Speaker 1>And a big part of the issue is just physically.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he's washed, his body broke down on him.

<v Speaker 1>He's had multiple surgeries I think every year since he

<v Speaker 1>joined the company, and I know he wants to wrestle again.

<v Speaker 1>He even just recently in an interview, talked about wanting

<v Speaker 1>to get in there with some of these guys that

<v Speaker 1>he hasn't had a chance to work with before. I

<v Speaker 1>may imagine him and Darby what he could do with

<v Speaker 1>somebody like Darby. Darby Allen would actually be the perfect

<v Speaker 1>opponent for someone like Big Show because he would just

<v Speaker 1>bounce right off of him and just bump his ass

<v Speaker 1>off for him, and he'll take all kinds of punishment

<v Speaker 1>and make his offense look super good. So yeah, I

<v Speaker 1>could actually see that being a thing down the road

<v Speaker 1>at some point.

<v Speaker 2>You know.

<v Speaker 1>But he's also talked about wanting to play this Captain

<v Speaker 1>Insano character that they had acquired the rights to some

<v Speaker 1>time ago from you know, because he was Captain Insano

<v Speaker 1>and the water Boy a million fucking years ago with

<v Speaker 1>Adam Sandler, and I guess Tony bought the rights to

<v Speaker 1>Captain Insano and he's wanted to do the character on TV.

<v Speaker 1>So at some point we're probably gonna get Captain Insano.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, maybe as a one off I could

<v Speaker 1>see him getting in the ring and doing something, but

<v Speaker 1>not on a regular basis already there, I mean, what

<v Speaker 1>can he do again outside of something with a guy

<v Speaker 1>like Darby who will just bump all over the place

<v Speaker 1>for him, What can he possibly do physically? He just

<v Speaker 1>can't do it anymore, you know. But they have him

<v Speaker 1>on some of the pay per view pre show panels

<v Speaker 1>and he does ambassador work for them, and he's very

<v Speaker 1>good at it, and I would imagine that's exactly what

<v Speaker 1>he'll be doing going forward and probably what he what

<v Speaker 1>would be best for him to be doing in aw

<v Speaker 1>Now some other news and notes ex wrestler Eddie Mansfield,

<v Speaker 1>And when I say ex wrestler, the man has not

<v Speaker 1>wrestled since something like nineteen eighty three or nineteen eighty four.

<v Speaker 1>He has been a pariah in the wrestling industry ever

<v Speaker 1>since he went on twenty twenty and exposed the business.

<v Speaker 1>And this was back in the eighties, all right, that's

<v Speaker 1>just something he didn't do back then. Mansfield has a

<v Speaker 1>very high opinion of his play in history. He's always

<v Speaker 1>been railing against promoters mistreatment of wrestlers. He says a

<v Speaker 1>lot of the right things right. It's not that the

<v Speaker 1>things that he was saying were necessarily wrong, it's that

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't the right messenger for it. I think with him,

<v Speaker 1>it was more about getting back at the promoters that

<v Speaker 1>had wronged him, less so about him trying to kind

<v Speaker 1>of save the business. He's the one who famously said

<v Speaker 1>Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, but Lincoln forgot to free

<v Speaker 1>the pro wrestlers. Truly, one of the stupidest things that

<v Speaker 1>I've ever heard. But anyway, Mansfield was on the Monte

<v Speaker 1>and Faroh show yesterday and he revealed that his good

<v Speaker 1>friend Marty Janetti had his right foot amputated, and there

<v Speaker 1>was a photo they spliced in, so there is a

<v Speaker 1>photo of him and his right foot is missing. He's

<v Speaker 1>sitting in a wheelchair. If you have seen Jeannetti, or

<v Speaker 1>if you saw Dark Side of the Ring, the episode

<v Speaker 1>on him, first of all, that was just a wild

<v Speaker 1>fucking episode. But his his ankle was all mangled. He's

<v Speaker 1>had ankle problems going back many, many years. I have

<v Speaker 1>no idea how he was even getting around on it.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I was in pain just looking at the

<v Speaker 1>man's ankle. But Mansfield was also critical of WWE for

<v Speaker 1>not taking care of Jeannetti, saying where in the hell

<v Speaker 1>was WWE to help Marty Jeanetti. Hell, he made them

<v Speaker 1>millions of dollars and you can't help him when he's

<v Speaker 1>in the biggest need of his life, fighting for his life.

<v Speaker 1>I don't understand that his problem has always been his ankles,

<v Speaker 1>and his ankles were screwed up in a WWE wrestling ring,

<v Speaker 1>making them a lot of money. Him and Sean Michaels,

<v Speaker 1>the WWE and Shawn Michael should have stepped in and

<v Speaker 1>made sure he went to the best when it all

<v Speaker 1>started and give him the best medical attention and the

<v Speaker 1>best doctor's money could buy. And that wasn't done. I

<v Speaker 1>guarantee they would do it for Shawn Michaels, though now

<v Speaker 1>he doesn't say if Jeannetti actually reached out to WWE

<v Speaker 1>at any point asking for help. He doesn't say that,

<v Speaker 1>but I mean, you know, they didn't help Mo have

<v Speaker 1>men on a mission when he needed a kidney transplant,

<v Speaker 1>so I doubt they would have paid for Jeanetti surgery

<v Speaker 1>and good luck proving that the ankles were fucked up

<v Speaker 1>in a WWE ring, because it's not like Marty only

<v Speaker 1>worked for WWE. Look, I feel bad for Jeanetti going

<v Speaker 1>through all the pain with his ankles. I wouldn't wish

<v Speaker 1>that on anybody. But Marty's had a lot of problems

<v Speaker 1>over the years, not just with his ankles, so much

<v Speaker 1>so that the last time WWE brought him back, and

<v Speaker 1>they brought him back a bunch of times over the years,

<v Speaker 1>they gave him a lot of opportunities to clean up

<v Speaker 1>his act and to come in and to wrestle, or

<v Speaker 1>maybe there could have been other roles for him, like

<v Speaker 1>imagine Marty Jeanette if he had his head screwed on

<v Speaker 1>tight as like a trainer or something, right, I think

<v Speaker 1>there was a lot that he could have offered. But

<v Speaker 1>I think it's very telling that the last time this

<v Speaker 1>company brought him back in two thousand and six, I

<v Speaker 1>believe it was. It had to be because it was

<v Speaker 1>and Vince was doing that dumb kiss my ass club

<v Speaker 1>stuff and he tried to have Jeanetti kiss his ass

<v Speaker 1>and Jeanette started laughing on TV. I don't remember if

<v Speaker 1>that was the only reason they didn't bring him back,

<v Speaker 1>but something happened, and it resulted in them issuing a

<v Speaker 1>statement on their website, which is still up by the way,

<v Speaker 1>if you search around for it, a statement that I

<v Speaker 1>have never heard them give for anybody else. They said,

<v Speaker 1>a World Wrestling Entertainment has broken all professional ties with

<v Speaker 1>Marty Janetti. Like when have they ever said that before?

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I get maybe when they fired Hogan maybe

<v Speaker 1>it was something to that effect, but very rare that

<v Speaker 1>they would issue a statement worded quite like that. But

<v Speaker 1>that's the story of Marty's life, right, It's just been

<v Speaker 1>one fuck up after another, and now unfortunately all the

<v Speaker 1>abuse that his body has taken and his ankles have

<v Speaker 1>taken have led to this. And you know, buff Bagwell

<v Speaker 1>had some really nasty problems with his leg infections and

<v Speaker 1>such for many, many years had a lot of problems

<v Speaker 1>with his leg until he got it amputated. Last year,

<v Speaker 1>he got an above the knee amputation, and it has

<v Speaker 1>given him a new lease on life. I'm sure he's

<v Speaker 1>also pain wise right, not in as dire a condition

<v Speaker 1>as he was before. I can only hope that it

<v Speaker 1>brings Marty the same relief. You know, I don't begrudged

<v Speaker 1>Marty a lifetime of pain and misery. Hopefully this will

<v Speaker 1>help him. But we also can't pretend that Marty Jeannetti

<v Speaker 1>has been a boy scout and that he hasn't had

<v Speaker 1>opportunities over the years to you know, make money with

<v Speaker 1>ww WEE and have some sort of role working for them,

<v Speaker 1>and he screwed it up each and every single time.

<v Speaker 1>And that's at least part of why he ended up

<v Speaker 1>in the state that he's in, where you've got Eddie

<v Speaker 1>Mansfield now going on this show saying, oh, well, how

<v Speaker 1>come ww WE doesn't do more to help Jeanette. We

<v Speaker 1>don't know what WWE has or hasn't done for Jeannetti

<v Speaker 1>over the years. We know they've given him opportunities and

<v Speaker 1>he's screwed it all up. But realistically, even if he

<v Speaker 1>would have gone to the company had asked for financial help,

<v Speaker 1>they probably wouldn't have given it to him, because it's

<v Speaker 1>just not something they've done with other people when they were,

<v Speaker 1>you know, when they had some sort of medical need.

<v Speaker 1>I can't imagine it would have been any different with Jeannetti,

<v Speaker 1>even if he did ask for help. And finally the

<v Speaker 1>Hollywood Reporter had the story and everyone else has picked

<v Speaker 1>up on it since as well. That Barry Blaustein, the

<v Speaker 1>former Saturday Night Live writer and writer and director of

<v Speaker 1>the famous Beyond the Matt documentary, died on Tuesday at

<v Speaker 1>the age of seventy two. He had been diagnosed years

<v Speaker 1>ago with Parkinson's disease. I want to say it was

<v Speaker 1>around twenty seventeen maybe, but then he got hit last

<v Speaker 1>month with a stage four pancreatic cancer diagnosis, which was

<v Speaker 1>basically a death sentence for him. He was a big

<v Speaker 1>part of Eddie Murphy's career. He wrote so many of

<v Speaker 1>those legendary SNL sketches for him, like Buck We Eating

<v Speaker 1>Gumby and then later on movies like Coming to America

<v Speaker 1>and The Nutty Professor. But he was also a huge

<v Speaker 1>wrestling fan who was embarrassed to tell people that he

<v Speaker 1>was a wrestling fan until his wife threw him a

<v Speaker 1>surprise birthday party for his fortieth birthday and she and

<v Speaker 1>I don't know how she pulled this off, but she

<v Speaker 1>managed to get Dusty Rhodes to attend his birthday party.

<v Speaker 1>I would love to know how that came about. So

<v Speaker 1>that would have been around nineteen ninety four is when

<v Speaker 1>he would have been forty. And it was after that

<v Speaker 1>when he decided to pursue making a documentary about his

<v Speaker 1>love of pro wrestling, which is what Beyond the Mat was.

<v Speaker 1>It was like his love letter to wrestling, truly one

<v Speaker 1>of the best pro wrestling documentaries ever made. First it

<v Speaker 1>was Wrestling with Shadows, and then Beyond the Mat came

<v Speaker 1>out basically back to back. They pulled the curtain back

<v Speaker 1>on wrestling in a way that had never been done before.

<v Speaker 1>But the documentary focus mainly on three figures, Mick Foley,

<v Speaker 1>Harry Funk, and Jake the Snake Roberts, who always hated

<v Speaker 1>Blaustein because he hated the way that he was portrayed

<v Speaker 1>in the film. But you got to remember, Jake was

<v Speaker 1>all fucked up back then. I don't think there was

<v Speaker 1>a great way to do an honest movie and feature

<v Speaker 1>Jake the Snake in any other way, you know, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>not when you know you're being filmed and you're smoking crack,

<v Speaker 1>like come on, now, come on. But he's always claimed

<v Speaker 1>that he was lied to and he never got paid

<v Speaker 1>a dime for the movie. Blaustein refuted all of that,

<v Speaker 1>so who knows. I mean, if he was promised certain

<v Speaker 1>things and was lied to, then he would have a

<v Speaker 1>reason to be upset. But Jake wasn't exactly in the

<v Speaker 1>best frame of mind back then. He's doing much better

<v Speaker 1>these days, thankfully. Dennis Stamp was the other star of

<v Speaker 1>the movie. When he wasn't booked for Terry Funk's retirement show,

<v Speaker 1>he was very upset about this, and Funk had to

<v Speaker 1>go to his house to try to convince him to

<v Speaker 1>work the show and because it hurt his feelings, and

<v Speaker 1>that's where the famous scene comes from of Dennis Stamp

<v Speaker 1>in his backyard bouncing up and down on the trampoline.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not booked, Terry, I'm not booked. He ended up

<v Speaker 1>being booked for the show, and then you had the

<v Speaker 1>scenes from the I Quit match at the Royal Rumbuland

<v Speaker 1>ninety nine where Foley's family was watching him get his

<v Speaker 1>brains bashed in with a chair by the rock and

<v Speaker 1>Foley felt awful about that watching it back. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>he traumatized his kids. But Blaustein called that documentary his

<v Speaker 1>favorite thing that he had ever done in his entire career,

<v Speaker 1>and WCW had refused to give him backstage access. WWE

<v Speaker 1>and ECW allowed him to film, and Vince McMahon came

<v Speaker 1>to regret that decision because when Blaustein showed the film

<v Speaker 1>to Vince and Linda, they hated it and they even

<v Speaker 1>threatened to sue him to stop it from getting released.

<v Speaker 1>And it ended up being a blessing for Barry because

<v Speaker 1>he was able to market the film as the movie

<v Speaker 1>that Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see because they

<v Speaker 1>refused to promote it during their shows. But that was

<v Speaker 1>the best publicity that he could have asked for. And

<v Speaker 1>Foley remained friends with him until the day that he died.

<v Speaker 1>He even visited him not too long ago. Foley wrote

<v Speaker 1>a beautiful tribute on his Facebook page that you should

<v Speaker 1>all go read, but this is from the end of it.

<v Speaker 1>He said, of all our times together, I will treasure

<v Speaker 1>our last meeting the most. Barry had been battling Parkinson's

<v Speaker 1>disease for a decade, but I did not know that

<v Speaker 1>he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer until

<v Speaker 1>his wife, Deborah reached out to me. Barry was simply

<v Speaker 1>too weak to attend a screening of Beyond the Mat

<v Speaker 1>and follow up Q and A, and Deborah wanted to

<v Speaker 1>know if there was any way that I can make

<v Speaker 1>it out to Los Angeles the next day for the screening.

<v Speaker 1>Screening itself was very meaningful to me, watching Beyond the

<v Speaker 1>Mat on the big screen for the first time in

<v Speaker 1>twenty seven years, being part of a community of fans

<v Speaker 1>who held the film in such high regard. But it

<v Speaker 1>was our visit to Barry's house following that that was extraordinary,

<v Speaker 1>even magical. Surrounded by family and friends, Barry was positively

<v Speaker 1>beaming as we took a beautiful scroll down memory lane,

<v Speaker 1>taking turn, sharing stories and laughing and hugging and being

<v Speaker 1>positively grateful for this special time together. When I reached

<v Speaker 1>out to Barry's daughter Casey for her father's address, telling

<v Speaker 1>her I wanted to write Barry a letter. She encouraged

<v Speaker 1>me to write it quickly, as he was down to

<v Speaker 1>his final days. I wrote the letter that evening and

<v Speaker 1>I mailed it out via Next Day air the following morning.

<v Speaker 1>The letter arrived at the Bloustein home at eight am,

<v Speaker 1>just six hours after Barry had passed away. But I

<v Speaker 1>hope it serves as a reminder that I loved Barry,

<v Speaker 1>thought the world of him, and considered him one of

<v Speaker 1>my best friends. Very well said, all right, let's break

<v Speaker 1>into this monster mail bag. See how many of these

<v Speaker 1>we can mow down here For you, you could always email

<v Speaker 1>me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com. Please include

<v Speaker 1>your name of where you are from when you write

<v Speaker 1>in Dominic from Connecticut. Listen to your raw review for

<v Speaker 1>May eleventh, Great episode. I wanted to address something regarding

<v Speaker 1>the Oba Femi Open Challenge. I believe you said that

<v Speaker 1>this may go on for another six weeks, since Night

<v Speaker 1>of Champions is at the end of June. However, if

<v Speaker 1>they are indeed having a King of the Ring tournament,

<v Speaker 1>and assuming the finals will take place at Night of Champions,

<v Speaker 1>then the tournament should begin at the beginning of June.

<v Speaker 1>It could even begin the Monday night after clash in Italy. Therefore,

<v Speaker 1>assuming Oba is in the tournament, the Open Challenge should

<v Speaker 1>conclude once the tournament begins, giving us only two more

<v Speaker 1>weeks of Open challenges. This gives me a sigh of relief,

<v Speaker 1>as I think two more weeks is much more tolerable

<v Speaker 1>than six weeks. Oh, I agree, bonus, I would have

<v Speaker 1>Damian Priest answer next Monday, Omas answer the following Monday,

<v Speaker 1>and the final Open Challenge in Italy, where Seamus will

<v Speaker 1>return to answer the Open Challenge. Well, I think that

<v Speaker 1>would be fantastic. And Seamus is one of the names

<v Speaker 1>that I have been hoping might pop up. I just

<v Speaker 1>I don't have a sense of what his timeline is

<v Speaker 1>for a return, I don't have a sense of what

<v Speaker 1>his injury status is. If he is medically cleared and

<v Speaker 1>they're just kind of waiting to bring him back, I

<v Speaker 1>think that would be fantastic, even if he loses. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>what what a hell of a match that would be.

<v Speaker 1>And for Shamus, let's say if he was to be

<v Speaker 1>the last person in this Open Challenge, all he has

<v Speaker 1>to do is go in there and just give this

<v Speaker 1>guy the biggest fight of his entire main roster runs

<v Speaker 1>so far, even more than the Brock match, Like, let

<v Speaker 1>them give them five or six minutes, maybe even a

<v Speaker 1>little bit more of me. He doesn't have to go

<v Speaker 1>overly long and just let them beat the hell out

<v Speaker 1>of each other, you know. And then he beats Seamus

<v Speaker 1>and Shamus kind of gives him the stamp of approval like, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>this guy is the real deal. Welcome fella. And then

<v Speaker 1>it's perfect because you keep wondering, like, how does this

<v Speaker 1>Open Challenge end? I certainly hope it doesn't end with

<v Speaker 1>him losing, So what does the end of the Obafemi

<v Speaker 1>Open Challenge even look like? Well, if they were gonna

<v Speaker 1>put him in the King of the Ring tournament, then

<v Speaker 1>that's that's how it ends, right. He has a competitive

<v Speaker 1>match with Seamus at the very end, he wins, and

<v Speaker 1>then the King of the Ring tournament begins and he

<v Speaker 1>just kind of slides over into the tournament. So I

<v Speaker 1>like that, and you're absolutely right. Two more weeks of

<v Speaker 1>this is a hell of a lot more tolerable than six,

<v Speaker 1>because I was watching the show on Monday and thinking, boy,

<v Speaker 1>they've already run out of ideas. Two weeks in, they've

<v Speaker 1>already run out of ideas on what to do with

<v Speaker 1>this guy in this open challenge? Andrew from Las Vegas,

<v Speaker 1>would you be shocked if part of the ability to

<v Speaker 1>vote for the John Cena Classic you will have to

<v Speaker 1>be a Club WWE member. They purposely did not say

<v Speaker 1>at backlash because it would have been met with backlash.

<v Speaker 1>No pun intended this way. Throw the idea out there,

<v Speaker 1>let people talk it up, and then smash them with

<v Speaker 1>a money grab. Oh, that sounds like a very TKO

<v Speaker 1>thing to do. I would not at all be chef.

<v Speaker 1>You're asking me what I'd be shocked? No, No, I

<v Speaker 1>would not. In fact I would. What would shock me

<v Speaker 1>is if there was no Club wa WE tie in

<v Speaker 1>whatsoever with any of this? Daniel from Los Angeles. Based

<v Speaker 1>on the recent episodes of Monday Night Raw, both Rusev

<v Speaker 1>and Ethan Page are going after the Intercontinental title. They

<v Speaker 1>seem to have formed some sort of alliance, although Ethan

<v Speaker 1>appears unwilling and is intimidated by Rusev. What are your

<v Speaker 1>thoughts on dragging out this storyline with Ethan helping Rusev

<v Speaker 1>win the Intercontinental title? They seem to work well together.

<v Speaker 1>We can have Ethan mostly helping Rusev when needed and

<v Speaker 1>acting as his hype man. Russev, in turn, could then

<v Speaker 1>have a short dominant title run with everything looking up

<v Speaker 1>for him this alliance that implodes at summer slim Ethan

<v Speaker 1>Page ultimately betrays Rusev and wins the Intercontinental title for

<v Speaker 1>himself on rusev Day of all days. He could win

<v Speaker 1>the title either indirectly or in a fatal four way

<v Speaker 1>or in a one on one match against Rusev. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I mean that could work. I just think if you're

<v Speaker 1>doing Penta and Ethan Page on Saturday Night's Maine event

<v Speaker 1>next weekend, then Ethan should win and you just kind

<v Speaker 1>of do the story. Maybe, but in reverse, where Ethan

<v Speaker 1>has the title and Russev like he could try to

<v Speaker 1>maintain the alliance and keep promising him at some point

<v Speaker 1>to give him a time. I feel like there's a

<v Speaker 1>way to do it. But in reverse. I wouldn't hate

<v Speaker 1>the idea that you just pitched. I think that could

<v Speaker 1>work too. I mean, just I don't realistically see them

<v Speaker 1>putting the title on Russev. I don't think they prioritize

<v Speaker 1>him enough to have him be the one to beat Penta.

<v Speaker 1>Think of anybody's gonna beat Penta, It's gonna be ethan page.

<v Speaker 1>Doug writes in I found your comments on Persephone quite perceptive.

<v Speaker 1>A substantial side of me hopes Tony Khan gives her push,

<v Speaker 1>gives her the push here. She's already entangled with the

<v Speaker 1>triangle of madness, and it makes a lot of sense.

<v Speaker 1>Although I was disappointed by that collision match at the

<v Speaker 1>time because I was hoping Persefhanie might get the shot

<v Speaker 1>at Tekla at double or nothing. But I've heard sire

<v Speaker 1>mentioned in PWI and other places as well. I like

<v Speaker 1>persep though, and would like to say that I'm on

<v Speaker 1>the bandwagon. Last weekend I got around to viewing her

<v Speaker 1>win over Mercedes Monette and came across a recent Sean

<v Speaker 1>Ross Sap interview with her, and then learned about the

<v Speaker 1>documentary with Persephone and La Catalina. After Persephone's humorous comments

<v Speaker 1>to Sap about their feud, the documentary absolutely screams superstar.

<v Speaker 1>I don't recall Persephone getting much aw Mike time, and

<v Speaker 1>she's appeared almost stoic up to now.

<v Speaker 2>Uh.

<v Speaker 1>And I don't think much Ring. I don't watch much

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor other than a few YouTube videos. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I mean I've heard her in a few promos and

<v Speaker 1>she's not bad. It's just a matter of getting her

<v Speaker 1>more exposure and getting her more time on TV to

<v Speaker 1>cut promos and to wrestle and to just show what

<v Speaker 1>she can do. She's very, very good, and I think

<v Speaker 1>that her winning the Owenhart Tournament makes sense to me.

<v Speaker 1>She has the dual contract. She's an AW talent every

<v Speaker 1>bit as much now as she is a CMLL talent,

<v Speaker 1>and so it's OK. I think to send her to

<v Speaker 1>Wembley to challenge for the championship. You could do per

<v Speaker 1>Sephone and Techla. Now, it's not going to be as

<v Speaker 1>you know, attractive of a match as Mercedes Monet against

<v Speaker 1>Tecla that would be a bigger match to do, But

<v Speaker 1>if you're trying to cement a new star in your

<v Speaker 1>women's division, this is the way to do it. Molly

<v Speaker 1>from Toronto. There have been many men and women that

<v Speaker 1>have gone from WWE to AW but no matter what,

<v Speaker 1>we will always see them as WWE stars. Which ones

<v Speaker 1>have been there long enough though that you no longer

<v Speaker 1>see them as WWE but as an AW star. Love

<v Speaker 1>the stuff you do on TNT with JD The Best

<v Speaker 1>Tag Team podcast ever. Hell yeah, best two men show

<v Speaker 1>in the entire space. Thank you, brother. Honestly, John Moxley

<v Speaker 1>is one. Some people may think I'm crazy by saying that,

<v Speaker 1>but John Moxley I put him on that list. I

<v Speaker 1>don't feel that way about Chris Jericho and they and

<v Speaker 1>they've been there for about the same length of time.

<v Speaker 1>But Moxley just feels like an AW guy to me.

<v Speaker 1>I rarely think about Dean Ambrose. Swerved Strickland for sure,

<v Speaker 1>and he was barely on the main roster before he

<v Speaker 1>got cut. Timeless Tony Storm same thing. She was barely

<v Speaker 1>on TV before she split. She's AW through and through.

<v Speaker 1>I might throw FTR in there. I think I look

<v Speaker 1>at them more as AW talents than I did as

<v Speaker 1>WWE guys. Mays from Virginia Beach, Virginia May's the great.

<v Speaker 1>I read a transcript of an interview MVP did where

<v Speaker 1>he took another shot at Triple H, saying, you can

<v Speaker 1>go down the list and you can think of talents

<v Speaker 1>that Undertaker work with, that he elevated and got them over.

<v Speaker 1>How many people do you remember the nose, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>Triple H getting over in his career. How many people

<v Speaker 1>can you associate with him, So he's asking, who do

<v Speaker 1>you think comes to mind? As far as Helen's that

<v Speaker 1>Triple H put over and elevated, I think it's fair

<v Speaker 1>to say Seth Rollins. Yes, he was already over with

<v Speaker 1>the Shield, but under the authority he became a true

<v Speaker 1>main eventor in the company. Well, Rollins was headed there regardless,

<v Speaker 1>but sure you can throw him on there. The first one,

<v Speaker 1>and the biggest name that comes to mind, though, is Batista.

<v Speaker 1>Batista is number one. Batista's number one. Batista was obviously

<v Speaker 1>one of the people who was handpicked by Triple H

<v Speaker 1>to be part of Evolution in the first place. They

<v Speaker 1>built a very good story with him heading into WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>in two thousand and five. He put him over at WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>and then he put him over two more pay per views,

<v Speaker 1>three in a row, with their Hell and a Sell

<v Speaker 1>match being the best of the bunch, and that's it.

<v Speaker 1>That's all I can really give him credit for. I'm sorry.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he put over, He put over lots of people,

<v Speaker 1>but that's very different than like truly elevating them to

<v Speaker 1>a level above and beyond what they had been doing.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he put over Daniel Bryan, who was already

<v Speaker 1>super over, right, I guess that would be the closest one,

<v Speaker 1>because the authority story is what led to him winning

<v Speaker 1>the world title of WrestleMania, even though again that was

<v Speaker 1>never supposed to happen. But Brian was already super over.

<v Speaker 1>You know. He put over Roman Reigns, who was already

<v Speaker 1>on the ascent, and they had a terrible WrestleMania match

<v Speaker 1>that did nothing to truly elevate the guy. In fact,

<v Speaker 1>as I recall, I'm trying to remember because I was

<v Speaker 1>in the fucking building. The fans spent most of the

<v Speaker 1>match booing Roman, and I don't even agree with MVP

<v Speaker 1>giving him. Randy Orton. Mick Foley did more to truly

<v Speaker 1>elevate Randy Orton in the eyes of the fans than

<v Speaker 1>Triple H ever did in any of their matches. I

<v Speaker 1>would even say Undertaker to an extent, that was sort

<v Speaker 1>of where the healing began after what happened to Orton

<v Speaker 1>to O four after he lost the World heavyweight title.

<v Speaker 1>You know that Triple H hand picked him for evolution,

<v Speaker 1>but that doesn't mean he elevated him and got him over.

<v Speaker 1>He did with Batista, he did not do that the

<v Speaker 1>same way with Randy Orton. Randy Orton won the world

<v Speaker 1>title and then Triple Ah beat him for it, like

<v Speaker 1>a month later. They had a WrestleMania match years later

<v Speaker 1>that Triple H won and did nothing to elevate Randy Orton.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not giving him credit for that one. I think

<v Speaker 1>MVP is actually being very generous with that one. Losing

<v Speaker 1>a match to someone in and of itself does not

<v Speaker 1>constitute getting them over. Like he tapped out John. He

<v Speaker 1>tapped out to John CeNAT WrestleMania twenty two that was

<v Speaker 1>a big one, And same thing with Ben White tapped

<v Speaker 1>out to Ben Wan that triple threat wrestle Mania twenty

<v Speaker 1>So if you want to make an argument for either

<v Speaker 1>one of them, you know fine. But my point is

<v Speaker 1>it's not a long list. Now that being said, MVP

<v Speaker 1>talks a lot of shit about this man, but he

<v Speaker 1>never comes right out and says what it is that

<v Speaker 1>he did to him to make him so upset. All

<v Speaker 1>he has said in the past is that it has

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

<v Speaker 1>his personal experiences with the man. It would be nice

<v Speaker 1>to hear him explain what those are or were, Q

<v Speaker 1>the Destroyer from Chicago. People always talk about the loudest

<v Speaker 1>pops that they've ever heard, But can you think of

<v Speaker 1>the loudest heat from the crowds that you've heard over

<v Speaker 1>the years? Yes, yes I can. Elias and Kevin Owens,

<v Speaker 1>Elias making that Jeb about the SuperSonics in Seattle, Holy shit,

<v Speaker 1>the heat for that was incredible, incredible. Even they were

<v Speaker 1>looking at each other in the ring, they could hardly

<v Speaker 1>contain themselves. They were so happy. You could tell on

<v Speaker 1>the inside they're so happy at the heat that they

<v Speaker 1>were getting. John Cena walking into his money in the

<v Speaker 1>Bank match with Cmpunk in your Backyard in Chicago. Roman

<v Speaker 1>reigns on that front. I guess you could also throw

<v Speaker 1>in Sina walking into the Hammerstein against RVD at One

<v Speaker 1>Night Stand. It's like walking into the Lions. Then Roman

<v Speaker 1>reigns the night after he beat the Undertaker WrestleMania, just

<v Speaker 1>eight minutes straight of booing like we would not let

<v Speaker 1>this man speak Hollywood Rock in Toronto in two thousand

<v Speaker 1>and three. Shawn Michael's on Raw that famous promo in

<v Speaker 1>Montreal in two thousand and five, heading into his Summer

<v Speaker 1>Slim match with Hulk Hogan, especially the Bret Hart fake out.

<v Speaker 1>And you know you said the loudest heat, so maybe

<v Speaker 1>this isn't at the very top, but in terms of

<v Speaker 1>general heat, you have to have the Hogan heel turn

<v Speaker 1>on there from Bash of the Beach ninety six, with

<v Speaker 1>all the garbage that those fans flooded the ring with.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, poor gene Oakerland, he got hit in the

<v Speaker 1>face with a battery, bleeding from the bridge of his nose.

<v Speaker 1>That's he. That's he. Michael from Detroit, greeting salom Monster.

<v Speaker 1>I wanted to get your opinion on the original DX

<v Speaker 1>return that happened on the raw after vengeance in two thousand,

<v Speaker 1>which led to Triple H turning on Shawn Michaels in

<v Speaker 1>the beginning of their epic rivalry from two thousand and

<v Speaker 1>two to two thousand and four. But in an alternate universe,

<v Speaker 1>how would you have booked the reformation of DX and

<v Speaker 1>O two had they actually stayed together before the eventual split?

<v Speaker 1>And then he goes into some potential scenarios here. Look,

<v Speaker 1>I think that you could have kept them together for

<v Speaker 1>six months or or maybe a little bit longer. You

<v Speaker 1>could have had them get a run back then as

<v Speaker 1>Tag Team Champions and then ultimately built to the exact

<v Speaker 1>same thing you ended up doing. It just sort of

<v Speaker 1>pushes the I guess maybe pushes the timeline back a

<v Speaker 1>little bit. But yeah, I mean that maybe is the

<v Speaker 1>only change I would have made. I mean, the a

<v Speaker 1>DX return in O two when Shawn first came back

<v Speaker 1>to the company would have made sense. I was not

<v Speaker 1>a fan of when they brought it back in six

<v Speaker 1>and it was very it's just very goofy. I think

<v Speaker 1>the only time I try was entertained, and I truly

<v Speaker 1>laughed during that entire thing is when Vince was in

<v Speaker 1>the ring on the mic and they turned up like

<v Speaker 1>the pitch of his voice and he sounded like he

<v Speaker 1>had just inhaled a bunch of helium. I laughed at that.

<v Speaker 1>I think that might be the only time I left.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I know they did little People's courts that

<v Speaker 1>was kind of amusing, I guess years later, but I

<v Speaker 1>just wasn't a big fan of six or O nine.

<v Speaker 1>You know, when they did the DX stuff, and it

<v Speaker 1>was just it was just a marketing crab, you know,

<v Speaker 1>so they could sell a bunch of fucking glow sticks

<v Speaker 1>and you know, and now at this point, they're so

<v Speaker 1>much older and they're doing all the same juvenile shit

<v Speaker 1>they were doing in their younger days. It was just

<v Speaker 1>it was sad. I just I couldn't get into it.

<v Speaker 1>But in O too, you could have dragged it out

<v Speaker 1>for a little while, and you still could have ended

<v Speaker 1>up in the same exact place, you know, where you

<v Speaker 1>would have had Sean get a short world title run,

<v Speaker 1>and you know, they could have had some some big

<v Speaker 1>matches and everything else plays out exactly the same way,

<v Speaker 1>you know, but instead of blowing it off in one night,

<v Speaker 1>you do it maybe for a few month, maybe not

<v Speaker 1>even six months, but you do it for a few months.

<v Speaker 1>Brett from Buffalo. I've been listening to some classic sound

<v Speaker 1>offs and I just got to the raw after Hell

<v Speaker 1>and a Cell in twenty thirteen, where Daniel Brian confronted

<v Speaker 1>Sean Michaels and put him in the y slock. My

<v Speaker 1>question is this, do you think they should have had

<v Speaker 1>Brian versus Michael's match and the aftermath of that segment?

<v Speaker 1>After all, Sewn essentially unretired for the end of an

<v Speaker 1>error match or wrestle Mini at twenty eight, So would

<v Speaker 1>it have been that crazy to put Michael's back in

<v Speaker 1>the ring in an unsanctioned match or something. I think

<v Speaker 1>it would have done great business and it would have

<v Speaker 1>been an awesome match. Oh, it would have been a

<v Speaker 1>great match. He just didn't want to do it. His

<v Speaker 1>mindset back then, was I am retired. The only reason

<v Speaker 1>he came out of retirement, for example, in the Saudi match,

<v Speaker 1>was because he thought it would be a fun thing

<v Speaker 1>to do with his friends, and probably the payday, but

<v Speaker 1>that was the only reason he came out of retirement.

<v Speaker 1>And it turned into a fucking disaster. But there's no

<v Speaker 1>way that a Shawn Michael's Daniel Brian singles match in

<v Speaker 1>twenty thirteen would have been a disaster. It would have

<v Speaker 1>been great, but he was retired. That's it. So I

<v Speaker 1>mean to answer your question, yes, it would have made

<v Speaker 1>a lot of sense. I thought maybe there was a chance,

<v Speaker 1>that's what it was leading to, and you had the

<v Speaker 1>history there where you know, he helped train Brian. It

<v Speaker 1>would have been great, but the man was retired. He

<v Speaker 1>was only like two three years out of retirement at

<v Speaker 1>that point. He didn't want to come back, is he

<v Speaker 1>from thatcher Arizona Having finished the Hulk Hogan documentary. It

<v Speaker 1>made me realize one thing. My brother was a huge

<v Speaker 1>Brett Hart fan, and I see why. He's usually the

<v Speaker 1>best part of these documentaries. He says what's on his mind.

<v Speaker 1>He doesn't hold back for anybody. I love how he

<v Speaker 1>casually called Hulk Hogan a knife wielding, backstabbing piece of

<v Speaker 1>shit before he takes a shot. That was the best.

<v Speaker 1>That was the best part of the entire thing. He's

<v Speaker 1>just sitting at the bar and he lips the shot

<v Speaker 1>up and he goes, fuck, what do you say to

<v Speaker 1>fuck you? And he just I'm like, can this man

<v Speaker 1>get any cooler? Come on, man, come on. With that

<v Speaker 1>being said, do you think Netflix would ever have a

<v Speaker 1>documentary on Brett Hart's career without having WWE and their

<v Speaker 1>hands in it. I would love for Brett to actually

<v Speaker 1>talk about the final thirty days he had guaranteed on

<v Speaker 1>his contract for full creative control. That seems to be

<v Speaker 1>something that Bruce and everyone else backstage conveniently forgets to

<v Speaker 1>talk about, and that Vince McMahon wasn't worried about Brett

<v Speaker 1>leaving with the title what say, dude, You're gonna get me?

<v Speaker 1>Really going here? If you get me into the Montreal

<v Speaker 1>shit again. Like there is so much misinformation and just

<v Speaker 1>bullshit from these people whenever I hear them talking about

<v Speaker 1>this shit in a documentary about how we had to

<v Speaker 1>get the belt off of him because that was his

<v Speaker 1>last night. Was it in the Hogan? It was just recently.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe it was the Hogan documentary. Oh, no, you know

<v Speaker 1>what it was. I think it was the Shawn one

<v Speaker 1>on Peacock, Yeah, because that got me pissed off, Like

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it was Bruce or who it was,

<v Speaker 1>but it's like, oh, we had to get the belt

<v Speaker 1>off Brett because it was his last night and he

<v Speaker 1>was leaving. I'm like, fuck you, fuck you and your misinformation.

<v Speaker 1>But they have pedaled this narrative for so long that

<v Speaker 1>people now buy it as gospel that Oh my god,

<v Speaker 1>I can't believe that Brett Heart wouldn't drop the belt

<v Speaker 1>it was his last night. No, it wasn't. It ended

<v Speaker 1>up being his last night, but it wasn't going into

<v Speaker 1>it was not supposed to be his last night. And yeah,

<v Speaker 1>the creative control aspect gets glossed over it. Dude, don't

<v Speaker 1>even get me started on that. As far as Netflix

<v Speaker 1>doing a Brett documentary without WWE's cooperation, It's never gonna happen.

<v Speaker 1>It's never gonna happen because if nothing else, they wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>have access to all of his footage. You can't do

<v Speaker 1>a documentary without having access to that stuff. And I

<v Speaker 1>don't think WWE would ever get permission for it if

<v Speaker 1>they for them not to be involved. Oh yeah, sure,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure we'll be painted in a great glowing light

<v Speaker 1>by Brett. Just look at the comments he makes any

<v Speaker 1>given week about Triple H. You think they would trust

<v Speaker 1>the Brett Hard documentary without having their hands in it,

<v Speaker 1>and they have the business relationship with Netflix. The chances

<v Speaker 1>of that happening are zero. Unless WWE is involved, it

<v Speaker 1>ain't happening. H John from Tallahassee, Florida. You've mentioned that

<v Speaker 1>Hulk Hogan is the only wrestler to have two different

<v Speaker 1>runs as the top guy as a babyface and a

<v Speaker 1>heel for two different companies. But how about Brunos, Sam Well, No,

<v Speaker 1>hold on a second here, that's not exactly what I said.

<v Speaker 1>What I said was there is nobody else in the

<v Speaker 1>history of wrestling who was a top guy who led

<v Speaker 1>the boom period as a babyface in one company and

<v Speaker 1>then went to another company as a heel and led

<v Speaker 1>them in another business boom. So it wasn't just that, Oh,

<v Speaker 1>he was a babyface in one place and a heel.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure that's been done. But as far as leading

<v Speaker 1>to like a big boom period, nobody else has ever

<v Speaker 1>done that. I have said that. But he brings up

<v Speaker 1>Bruno San Martino. He goes what about Bruno? Bruno had

<v Speaker 1>two different runs as the top babyface for the same company,

<v Speaker 1>So buy or sell Hogan or Bruno's run as the

<v Speaker 1>top guy. Now, those are two completely different things that

<v Speaker 1>you've listed there. My point was, again, as I said,

<v Speaker 1>no one had ever done what Hogan did, as I

<v Speaker 1>just laid out, including Bruno. Bruno never did that. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you said it yourself. Bruno was on top, but he

<v Speaker 1>was the top babyface in the same company. That's very,

<v Speaker 1>very different. Bruno was on top for years and years

<v Speaker 1>as a regional babyface champion, long before they went national,

<v Speaker 1>and that was very impressive. And he sold out Madison

<v Speaker 1>Square Garden a bunch of times, as did Hogan, although

<v Speaker 1>Bruno probably had more sellouts than Hogan did, but what

<v Speaker 1>Hogan did was far more impressive to me, So I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna buy on Hogan, sell on Bruno. I mean it's

<v Speaker 1>not even to me, it's not even close. Blake from

<v Speaker 1>Missouri buy sell rent on The best impersonation Shawn Michael's

<v Speaker 1>impersonating Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle impersonating Shawn Michaels, or Jay

<v Speaker 1>Lethal impersonating Rick Flair. All very good, all very good.

<v Speaker 1>I think the Kurt Angle one probably entertained me the most.

<v Speaker 1>But the best impersonation is Jay Lethal impersonating Rick Flair.

<v Speaker 1>I got to buy on Jay Lethal. I will rent

<v Speaker 1>on Kurt Angle, and I will sell on Sewn Michael.

<v Speaker 1>I mean that was good too, when he was on

<v Speaker 1>the Larry King Live and mocking how old Hogan was.

<v Speaker 1>But that's got to be at the bottom. Lewis from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

<v Speaker 1>Who is the worst wrestler that you were convinced was good?

<v Speaker 1>Could be a Tom McGee situation or purely nostalgia based,

<v Speaker 1>just someone that you were convinced was awesome and then

<v Speaker 1>you realize they were hot garbage. Goldberg, It's closest thing

<v Speaker 1>I could think of, and Goldberg was great for what

<v Speaker 1>he was supposed to be in like short doses. But

<v Speaker 1>I think you know, Goldberg got so white hot at

<v Speaker 1>one point, and then you know, when he was kind

<v Speaker 1>of tasked with doing more than just quick squash matches,

<v Speaker 1>I think it became very clear that, you know, he

<v Speaker 1>wasn't necessarily all that he was cracked up to be.

<v Speaker 1>But in terms of like the most explosive wrestlers I've

<v Speaker 1>ever seen, Goldberg was great. Goldberg's probably number one on

<v Speaker 1>that list. Uh Sam from Atlanta, George, I was curious

<v Speaker 1>to know which wrestlers you found the most entertaining over

<v Speaker 1>the years. Could you name your top pick for each

<v Speaker 1>decade since you became a fan? I can. I could

<v Speaker 1>tell you that in the eighties it would be Macho

<v Speaker 1>Man Randy Savage. In the nineties most entertaining. In the nineties,

<v Speaker 1>it's got to be Stone Cold or the Rock. I'll

<v Speaker 1>go Austin. Just too many classic segments like the monster

<v Speaker 1>truck and the beer truck, and the Zamboni and the

<v Speaker 1>promos and all the high jinks with Vince is too

<v Speaker 1>many for him not to be the most entertaining. Two thousands,

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Angle, twenty tens. See now it gets harder I

<v Speaker 1>would probably go see m Punk or Kevin Owens. Punker

<v Speaker 1>Owens would be my pick. I tend to lean more

<v Speaker 1>towards Punk, but it would be one of those two.

<v Speaker 1>And the current decade is easy. The current decade MJF

<v Speaker 1>and Alex from Milwaukee will end with this a non

<v Speaker 1>wrestling question. With Mortal Kombat too out in theaters, I

<v Speaker 1>figured to ask something fun in regards to the series.

<v Speaker 1>One of the things that hooked me on the recent

<v Speaker 1>installments were the guest characters that they added to the game,

<v Speaker 1>starting with Kratos from God of War and Freddy Krueger

<v Speaker 1>in Mortal Kombat nine. In the latest game, they added

<v Speaker 1>John Cena as Peacemaker, which leads me to ask, what

<v Speaker 1>wrestlers do you think would be a great fit in

<v Speaker 1>Mortal Kombat. Jeez, in Mortal Kombat. I mean Brock Lesner

<v Speaker 1>I think would fit perfectly in Mortal Kombat. What would

<v Speaker 1>his fatality be? Though? That's the question, what would what

<v Speaker 1>would Brock's fatality be? Also, even if you haven't played

<v Speaker 1>any of them, by rent Cell on which Mortal Kombat

<v Speaker 1>game has the best character lineup? Well, I tell you

<v Speaker 1>right now, I haven't played any of them that I

<v Speaker 1>could tell you Mortal Kombat ten, would Jason, Predator, Leatherface,

<v Speaker 1>and Alien, Mortal Kombat eleven with Terminator, the Joker, Spawn,

<v Speaker 1>RoboCop and Rambo or Mortal Combat one. How do we

<v Speaker 1>go from ten to eleven to one? By the way,

<v Speaker 1>I always found that weird or Mortal Kombat one with Omnimen, Peacemaker, Homelander,

<v Speaker 1>ghost Face, the Conan and the Barbarian and t one

<v Speaker 1>that well, I mean that one. Put that one on

<v Speaker 1>the bottom. That one sucks compared to the other two.

<v Speaker 1>It's either Mortal Kombat ten or Mortal Kombat eleven. Now

<v Speaker 1>you got my boy, Jason is in there in Mortal

<v Speaker 1>Kombat ten, But I gotta go Mortal Kombat eleven. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>look at that lineup. Look at that fucking lineup. Terminator, RoboCop,

<v Speaker 1>the Joker, Rambo. I wasn't really a spawn guy, so

<v Speaker 1>I don't give a shit about Spawn, but just Terminators, RoboCop, Joker,

<v Speaker 1>and Rambo. I mean that that easily wins as far

<v Speaker 1>as I'm concerned. Anyway, Great stuff here, A lot of

<v Speaker 1>variety in the questions. Keep emailing me the Solemn Monster

<v Speaker 1>at gmail dot com. You never know when your question

<v Speaker 1>may make it on the show or even on the

<v Speaker 1>Uncrowned Wrestling Show. There'll be a brand new episode of

<v Speaker 1>that coming your way on Tuesday, and a brand new

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday Night Titans back in our normal slot over on

<v Speaker 1>JDS channel. That'll be on Tuesday night. We have the

<v Speaker 1>Raw post show tomorrow night on YouTube, Dynamite post Show,

<v Speaker 1>the final Dynamite before Double or Nothing. That'll be on Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>and I will not be here on Friday night. We

<v Speaker 1>have House of Glory. Hopefully you will be there too,

<v Speaker 1>so there will be no SmackDown live stream on Friday.

<v Speaker 1>As of right now, it's looking like I won't be

<v Speaker 1>here for the live stream for Saturday night's main event,

<v Speaker 1>so we'll just delay that until the SoundOff. We'll talk

<v Speaker 1>about it on the SoundOff because that'll be next Sunday.

<v Speaker 1>That'll be episode nine sixty four, and then live on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube next Sunday night for Double or Nothing reviews. So

<v Speaker 1>you get two podcasts and one day next week. And

<v Speaker 1>just a quick note here, I'm looking ahead at the

<v Speaker 1>calendar and I noticed that this clash in Italy pl

<v Speaker 1>is on Sunday, May thirty first, at two o'clock Eastern

<v Speaker 1>in the afternoon, right in the middle of the fucking day,

<v Speaker 1>so we can't do a SoundOff that day. The plan

<v Speaker 1>is to do it a day early, even if I

<v Speaker 1>hold it and get it up the next morning. But yeah,

<v Speaker 1>we're gonna have to do the SoundOff a little bit

<v Speaker 1>early that weekend. So that's the current plan. Not that

<v Speaker 1>there won't be one, but we're gonna have to do

<v Speaker 1>it a little early. So that's what's coming up here

<v Speaker 1>for the remainder of May. We've had a great month

<v Speaker 1>so far. I want to finish strong, so keep supporting,

<v Speaker 1>keep showing up, sharing and retweeting and all that stuff,

<v Speaker 1>and then I'll see you back here next Sunday for

<v Speaker 1>episode nine sixty four and we get to do it

<v Speaker 1>all over again. So until then, be well, stay safe,

<v Speaker 1>have yourselves a great week. I will see you on

<v Speaker 1>the streams or on letterboxed or wherever you want to follow,

<v Speaker 1>and I'll see you back here for more SoundOff next weekend.

<v Speaker 1>Until then, take care, guys. The Solemn Monster sounds off.

<v Speaker 1>I had one person tweet me too, and go raw

<v Speaker 1>has been fantastic lately. Let me ask you a question,

<v Speaker 1>is there any single show at the moment week to

<v Speaker 1>week in WWE that you can honestly sit there and

<v Speaker 1>tell me the word that you would use to describe

<v Speaker 1>it is fantastic. The standards have really really dropped over

<v Speaker 1>the years. There was nothing fantastic about this show. There

<v Speaker 1>has not been anything fantastic about most of these shows

<v Speaker 1>for quite some time now. I think you are fantastically

<v Speaker 1>ill in the brain. If that is a word that

<v Speaker 1>you would like to use. Don't give them the impression

<v Speaker 1>that the shows are fantastic when they're not. You're enabling them.

<v Speaker 1>Don't do that.

<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

<v Speaker 2>content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,

<v Speaker 2>and X The Solo Monster.

<v Speaker 1>I love you so long.