<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. Mind a woman.

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

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

<v Speaker 1>The weekend I was ninety nine percent positive it was

<v Speaker 1>just chessed up. Now I have been begging him for

<v Speaker 1>a job on every every platform I can, and I

<v Speaker 1>want to know the reason why you won't park. What

<v Speaker 1>was up? Guys? This is episode nine to sixty five

<v Speaker 1>of The Solemn Monster Sounds Up for Saturday, May thirtieth,

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six. I am the Solemn Monster a day early,

<v Speaker 1>but not a dollar short. See. I had to go

<v Speaker 1>early this weekend because tomorrow WWE decided to do a

<v Speaker 1>pl right smack dab in the middle of my Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>So you're getting an early sound off here this weekend.

<v Speaker 1>I also apologize if I sound a little bit different.

<v Speaker 1>I am under the weather. I thought I was kicking

<v Speaker 1>this thing yesterday and then I woke up this morning.

<v Speaker 1>I somehow feel worse. So it shouldn't impact anything. But

<v Speaker 1>if you notice anything, that would probably be the reason

<v Speaker 1>why we're going to talk about Clash in Italy. We

<v Speaker 1>actually got a whole bunch of news and notes, but

<v Speaker 1>we will go through the Clash in Italy card with

<v Speaker 1>some predictions. There are also some injuries that could potentially

<v Speaker 1>affect the card tomorrow, so we'll talk about that and

<v Speaker 1>a whole lot more. Got a bunch of mailbag questions

<v Speaker 1>and I'll save it for the end. I have some

<v Speaker 1>non spoiler thoughts for you on the back Rooms movie,

<v Speaker 1>which I did see this week, so we'll get into

<v Speaker 1>all that. If you would like to support the podcast,

<v Speaker 1>you may do so by dropping a PayPal donation. If

<v Speaker 1>you would like to on theslo monster dot com. The

<v Speaker 1>PayPal link is at the top of the page. Ten

<v Speaker 1>dollars or more, we'll get you a nickname and a

<v Speaker 1>shout out like these fine folks, the Portland Pop Star

<v Speaker 1>being one of them, Paul Hamilton, Big b Bryant, Bessera,

<v Speaker 1>the Diamond, Dallas a Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep, Still Dancing Away,

<v Speaker 1>Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Chicago Slayer, Willie Aichord, Pandaman,

<v Speaker 1>Paul Savage and Q the Destroyer and any donos that

<v Speaker 1>come in after this drops. I'm sure there'll be some

<v Speaker 1>since the show ended up going up a day early.

<v Speaker 1>I got you on the next episode, so you don't

<v Speaker 1>have to worry about that. I do have to mention

<v Speaker 1>this though. We made a big announcement this week with

<v Speaker 1>House of Glory for the first time ever, Boom boom.

<v Speaker 1>Ricky Sosa coming to Hog to take on the Amazing

<v Speaker 1>Red and that will be at our Inferno event Friday night,

<v Speaker 1>June nineteenth at Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago. We also

<v Speaker 1>have Shatzi putting her Hog Women's championship on the line

<v Speaker 1>on that show against Steph Delander. It's been a lot

<v Speaker 1>of bad blood there between those two over the last

<v Speaker 1>month or so. Rich Swan will be in action. Mustafa

<v Speaker 1>Ali makes his return. He will be in action. He's

<v Speaker 1>a Chicago native. Limited tickets are left at Hog Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>dot Net and JD and I will be in Chicago

<v Speaker 1>to call the action live on Triiller TV Plus, so

<v Speaker 1>hopefully you guys will join us, if not in person,

<v Speaker 1>hopefully on Triller. It's gonna be a hell of a show.

<v Speaker 1>Now as I am recording this tonight, there is a

<v Speaker 1>big event down in Mexico. It is Mask versus Mask

<v Speaker 1>on the Triple A Notche de Loos Grandees event, and

<v Speaker 1>this is the big match between Elgrande Americano Kaiser. There's

<v Speaker 1>like a national hero down there and El Grande Americano Gable.

<v Speaker 1>And I think I said this last week. Anything other

<v Speaker 1>than a Kaiser win tonight, would I would be stunned,

<v Speaker 1>so I would the Undertaker. The Undertaker would have to

<v Speaker 1>submit himself for a psych evaluation if this went any

<v Speaker 1>other way, Like if I'm Ludwig Kaiser, I'm wearing that

<v Speaker 1>mask for the rest of my career, as long as

<v Speaker 1>I can maintain the popularity that I have right now.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, they were throwing parades for this guy this week,

<v Speaker 1>and he's out. He was out there making out with

<v Speaker 1>his girlfriend and everyone's going nuts. They're throwing shoes at

<v Speaker 1>Chad Gable. They hate this guy so much. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>if if you're Kaiser, this is it right here. You know,

<v Speaker 1>why would you want to do anything else for the

<v Speaker 1>rest of your career. This should be a Kaiser win.

<v Speaker 1>Gable gets unmasked and Kaiser goes on to win the

<v Speaker 1>Triple A Mega title from Dirty Dom at Triple Mania

<v Speaker 1>in September. It's just what makes the most sense now.

<v Speaker 1>Also on the card tonight, Ray Phoenix, remember him. He

<v Speaker 1>challenges Laredo Kid for the Triple A Cruiserweight Championship. I'm

<v Speaker 1>going Ray Phoenix in that one. I think he's going

<v Speaker 1>to pick up that title. The war Raiders, I was

<v Speaker 1>wondering where they've been. They're going to be challenging Pagano

<v Speaker 1>and Psycho Clown for the Triple A tag team titles.

<v Speaker 1>I think that'll be a retention for Pegano and Psycho

<v Speaker 1>Clown and Elijdel Vikingo challenges El eh De Doctor Wagner

<v Speaker 1>Junior for Wagner's Triple A Latin American Championship. I think

<v Speaker 1>we get a title change there over to Vikingo. They're

<v Speaker 1>also taping for next week. It's gonna be Bailey, Lolavice

<v Speaker 1>and La Catalina taking on Lady Flammer, Maravilla and Lahiedra

<v Speaker 1>and that'll be airing, I guess, on the Triple A

<v Speaker 1>Show next weekend. I also have a legal update on

<v Speaker 1>El Grande Americano Kaiser after his arrest on a misdemeanor

<v Speaker 1>battery charge in Florida. Turns out the men listed in

<v Speaker 1>court documents as the one who paid the bond to

<v Speaker 1>secure his release from jail was Gunther. See now that's

<v Speaker 1>a rider die right there when you paid, When you

<v Speaker 1>pay to bail your buddy out from behind bars, that's

<v Speaker 1>a real one. A pre trial conference has been scheduled

<v Speaker 1>for July sixteenth. I believe he'll need to appear in

<v Speaker 1>person for that, and at that point, you know, it'll

<v Speaker 1>either be determined whether this goes to trial or some

<v Speaker 1>sort of plea agreement is reached. Would be my guests

<v Speaker 1>is that this gets pled out. Fight Ful Select had

<v Speaker 1>a report now this week saying that sources within WWE

<v Speaker 1>say that Kaiser has no heat over the arrest and

<v Speaker 1>sources within the company believed that this all will end

<v Speaker 1>up being dismissed based on the information that they have received. Also,

<v Speaker 1>the recent story about Kaiser defending himself and his girlfriend

<v Speaker 1>from ice, comments that were allegedly made by the neighbor

<v Speaker 1>were planted within WWE after the Ice story became public,

<v Speaker 1>and unfamiliar Number reached out to several members of the

<v Speaker 1>wrestling media with the story as opposed to Kaiser doing

<v Speaker 1>it himself or his girlfriend or a member of WWE's

<v Speaker 1>team and regarding the talents response. Some found the defense

<v Speaker 1>narrative surrounding the incident unbelievable and felt that Kaiser should

<v Speaker 1>have simply removed himself from the situation. And this is

<v Speaker 1>why I didn't run with that, you know, Raj Geary

<v Speaker 1>story last week that he post because it sounded to

<v Speaker 1>me like something that someone may have made up as

<v Speaker 1>a defense for Kaiser, you know, it was something that

<v Speaker 1>was planted to try to make the other guy look

<v Speaker 1>bad and kind of justify what Kaiser did. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think it's based on any credible information, you know. And

<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying Raj pulled that out of his ass.

<v Speaker 1>I'm saying whoever gave it to him, I don't buy it,

<v Speaker 1>you know, in the absence of anything to back it up,

<v Speaker 1>I just don't buy it. You know that the man

<v Speaker 1>the neighbor allegedly threatened to call ice on Kaiser's girlfriend.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he should not have put his hands on

<v Speaker 1>the guy to begin with, even if he was being

<v Speaker 1>a dick. And I don't necessarily believe that the guy

<v Speaker 1>was like, please mind your manners, But you know, did

<v Speaker 1>he say what people are alleging that he said probably not,

<v Speaker 1>but even if he was being a dick, you know,

<v Speaker 1>you don't put your hands on the guy. And he's

<v Speaker 1>lucky that this will all likely go away very soon.

<v Speaker 1>But you can't be putting your hands on people, let

<v Speaker 1>alone with cameras around that probably don't have any audio,

<v Speaker 1>just video, so I doubt they could even hear what

<v Speaker 1>was being said. All the cop sees Kaiser hunching and

<v Speaker 1>shoving the guy, you know, and if it was anyone

<v Speaker 1>else not getting the kind of push that he is

<v Speaker 1>getting right now, I don't know that the company would

<v Speaker 1>be as forgiving. And then you're potentially out of a

<v Speaker 1>job or a push, right You got to be smarter

<v Speaker 1>about these things. We have more legal news, this time

<v Speaker 1>concerning a former WWE Intercontinental Champion arrested for DWI in

<v Speaker 1>a McDonald's drive through incident, where the first the McDonald's

<v Speaker 1>incident since Ken Petera in the eighties. Joe Hennig, the

<v Speaker 1>former Curtis Axel, son of the late WWE Hall of

<v Speaker 1>Famer Mister Perfect Kurt Hennig, is facing multiple charges related

<v Speaker 1>to an incident at a McDonald's drive thru in Minnesota.

<v Speaker 1>Records show that Hennig was arrested in Anoka County on

<v Speaker 1>May seventeenth on charges of DWI, refusing to submit to

<v Speaker 1>chemical tests, and failing to stop for an accident. The

<v Speaker 1>Watch Minnesota. I guess that's out of says a newspaper

<v Speaker 1>or a web site, But the Watch MN reports that

<v Speaker 1>charges also include obstructing the legal process, having an open

<v Speaker 1>bottle of alcohol in his car, and disorderly conduct. And

<v Speaker 1>he spent two days behind bars before he was released

<v Speaker 1>on May nineteen, So it wasn't like he was placed

<v Speaker 1>behind bars and then a few hours later he got

<v Speaker 1>bailed out. He was basically locked up for a good

<v Speaker 1>forty eight hours, according to an arrest report obtained by

<v Speaker 1>the Watch MN. Police were dispatched to a McDonald's in

<v Speaker 1>Saint Francis shortly before nine pm due to a property

<v Speaker 1>damage crash where a vehicle backed into another. In the

<v Speaker 1>drive through, police found Hennig slowly navigating the parking lot

<v Speaker 1>and claimed that he reeked of alcohol, had bloodshot and

<v Speaker 1>watery eyes, so do I today, and was slurring his speech.

<v Speaker 1>An open bottle of vodka was found in the vehicle.

<v Speaker 1>Police say the forty six year old had to be

<v Speaker 1>physically removed from his vehicle, was swearing at them, and

<v Speaker 1>uttered a slur. When instructed to step out of the vehicle,

<v Speaker 1>Hennie reportedly refused. Officers subsequently opened the door, reached inside

<v Speaker 1>to turn off the engine, and placed the keys on

<v Speaker 1>the passenger seat. After continued defiance, officers physically removed Hennig

<v Speaker 1>from the truck, escorted him to the ground and handcuffed him,

<v Speaker 1>and while seated in the squad car, and officer read

<v Speaker 1>him the Minnesota breath test advisory. Hennig allegedly refused chemical

<v Speaker 1>testing and responded with profanities including I don't give a

<v Speaker 1>shit and fuck you, u F and then I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what this word is and I'm not going to

<v Speaker 1>say it. He's also said to have sworn at the

<v Speaker 1>McDonald's staff and the female driver that he backed into.

<v Speaker 1>During the investigation, a McDonald's employee reported that Hennig had

<v Speaker 1>been mumbling in the drive through before pulling forward, swearing

<v Speaker 1>its staff, and backing into another vehicle. He then allegedly

<v Speaker 1>opened his door and yelled at the female driver, calling

<v Speaker 1>her a bitch and a I guess that's pussy. An

<v Speaker 1>inventory search of his vehicle prior to towing yielded a

<v Speaker 1>seven hundred and fifty milli liter open bottle of Phillips

<v Speaker 1>vodka on the front passenger side floorboard. The most serious

<v Speaker 1>of the charges Hennig is facing. The two related to

<v Speaker 1>DWI slash DUI, are classified as gross misdemeanors, which are

<v Speaker 1>serious misdemeanors that do not rise to the level of

<v Speaker 1>a felony. Hennig is a former Intercontinental champion and tag

<v Speaker 1>team champion. He was released by WWE in twenty twenty

<v Speaker 1>as part of the pandemic related cuts that they made.

<v Speaker 1>He did come back two years later, though he had

<v Speaker 1>a brief stint as a part time producer which only

<v Speaker 1>lasted three months. Now, he has claimed in other interviews

<v Speaker 1>that it was a part time gig and it ended

<v Speaker 1>when Vince McMahon and Johnny Ace got wrapped up in

<v Speaker 1>the hush money scandal. I don't know why that would

<v Speaker 1>impact him, but he claims that's why he was let go.

<v Speaker 1>They told him they couldn't afford to have him around,

<v Speaker 1>just hang back, and then they never called him back,

<v Speaker 1>which sounds kind of sus to me, but it sounds

<v Speaker 1>to be like they just, you know, didn't want him

<v Speaker 1>for the job anymore. But they paired him up. You know,

<v Speaker 1>when you think about the push that he got, and god,

<v Speaker 1>this is going back probably twenty thirteen. They paired him

<v Speaker 1>up with Paul Hayman Once upon a time, right, that's

<v Speaker 1>when he won the intercontinental title that his father once held.

<v Speaker 1>But his father's shadow had just loomed very large, and

<v Speaker 1>he never retained the level of success that they had

<v Speaker 1>hope that he would. You know, he's one of the failures,

<v Speaker 1>as Paul Hayman guys go. And then later they had

<v Speaker 1>him doing comedy work as part of the B Team faction.

<v Speaker 1>I mean first it was the Mistourage and then it

<v Speaker 1>was the B Team, and then he was unemployed. And

<v Speaker 1>in the last six years he's only worked one match

<v Speaker 1>on an independent show. Last year in Minnesota, he was

<v Speaker 1>tagging with Von Wagner. I was wondering whatever happened to

<v Speaker 1>Von Wagner, remember him the son of a Bow of

<v Speaker 1>the Beverly Brothers. And that's the only match he's had

<v Speaker 1>in the last six years since WWE let him go.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what he's been doing with his time

<v Speaker 1>since then. It's just very sad. It's sad to see

<v Speaker 1>him like this. You look at the mugshot, he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>look well, just drunk off his ass, cussing people out.

<v Speaker 1>I do feel bad for him, but I feel worse

<v Speaker 1>for the people he put in harm's way by getting

<v Speaker 1>behind the wheel intoxicated. Thankfully nobody was heard. I've covered

<v Speaker 1>a lot of these stories, I feel like, on the

<v Speaker 1>sound off over the years, over these many many years,

<v Speaker 1>and it always pisses me off. Right, It's just a

<v Speaker 1>very selfish thing to do, and I think the laws

<v Speaker 1>are way too lax when it comes to driving under

<v Speaker 1>the influence. Right, It's one thing if it's a first defense,

<v Speaker 1>which it may be for him. I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>he's gotten into trouble for this before, but we have

<v Speaker 1>seen far too many stories of wrestlers getting popped for

<v Speaker 1>this sort of thing multiple times, three, four or five,

<v Speaker 1>six times and being allowed back behind the wheel without

<v Speaker 1>any sort of ignition interlock device, or without getting their

<v Speaker 1>license revoked at least for a period of time. Right,

<v Speaker 1>Or you have people whose license gets suspend that and

<v Speaker 1>then they fucking drive anyway. It's it's infuriating and even

<v Speaker 1>worse when you hear about these these like non wrestling

<v Speaker 1>stories of drunk drivers who get behind the wheel and

<v Speaker 1>get in an accident and then innocent people die but

<v Speaker 1>the driver survives. Like how many times have we heard that?

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look at the Tammy Sitch case. She actually

<v Speaker 1>killed somebody, and it's just infuriating. And hopefully he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>become one of those people where we read about him

<v Speaker 1>getting arrested three or four times and you know, putting

<v Speaker 1>other people's lives in danger. Hopefully he can get the

<v Speaker 1>help he needs. So that's something like this doesn't happen again.

<v Speaker 1>And I see some people on social media cracking jokes

<v Speaker 1>about this online. Oh he's still in the Royal rumble though,

<v Speaker 1>like that sort of thing. I don't find any of

<v Speaker 1>this to be funny. WWE is holding its Clash in

<v Speaker 1>Italy event tomorrow in Turin with a two pm Eastern

<v Speaker 1>start time, which is why you're listening to the sound

<v Speaker 1>off now and you're not listening to it on Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>or maybe you are listening to it on Sunday, but

<v Speaker 1>I'm recording this on Saturday because this event is in

<v Speaker 1>the middle of the day tomorrow and the first hour

<v Speaker 1>is airing on ESPN, And so you look at the

<v Speaker 1>card and it's not a huge card. It is a

<v Speaker 1>stronger card than Backlash was. I can't say that now

<v Speaker 1>that we're here looking at what they did on the

<v Speaker 1>go home shows this week, especially SmackDown last night, like

<v Speaker 1>just mostly a nothing show. We did get a couple

<v Speaker 1>of good wrestling matches, at least none of which, by

<v Speaker 1>the way, tied into anything going on on the Clash

<v Speaker 1>in Italy card. Carmelo Hayesen Ricky Saints, they had a

<v Speaker 1>good match, Sammy's Ana Mac card Dona they had a

<v Speaker 1>solid match, and none of these people are even on

<v Speaker 1>the card tomorrow. So it's like, okay, as far as

<v Speaker 1>go home shows go Cody and Gunther they had a

<v Speaker 1>pretty good closing segment last night. But I can't say

<v Speaker 1>any of the television this week got me any more

<v Speaker 1>excited for this event. But we know that opening the

<v Speaker 1>show at the top of the hour on ESPN will

<v Speaker 1>be Cody Rhodes defending the WWE Championship against Gunther, and

<v Speaker 1>I said they had pretty good back and forth on

<v Speaker 1>the mic yesterday. They were talking about, you know, Gunther

<v Speaker 1>says all these things that you do, you know you

<v Speaker 1>do it because you're you're a mark for yourself, and

<v Speaker 1>you love the attention, and you love doing all of

<v Speaker 1>these things. And Cody threw it back at him and said, oh, well,

<v Speaker 1>you know, is that such a bad thing. You mean

<v Speaker 1>to tell me that you don't care about doing all

<v Speaker 1>of the publicity and you don't care about all the

<v Speaker 1>attention that comes with being the champion, all the responsibilities.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, you're a liar if you say that none

<v Speaker 1>of that matters to you. And Gunther's point was, what

<v Speaker 1>matters to me is the wrestling. What matters to me

<v Speaker 1>is what happens on the mat here in this ring.

<v Speaker 1>I am the best wrestler in the world, and to you,

<v Speaker 1>it's about all this other stuff. And that was kind

<v Speaker 1>of the gist of it, basically, And so here we are.

<v Speaker 1>Gunther has been undefeated since losing the World Heavyweight Championship

<v Speaker 1>at Summer Slim last year to see mpunk. We know

<v Speaker 1>what he did with Goldberg last summer on Saturday Nights

<v Speaker 1>Made Event. We know what he did with John Cena

<v Speaker 1>on Saturday Night's Made Event. We know what he did

<v Speaker 1>with aj Styles at the Royal Rumble, And ever since

<v Speaker 1>then he hasn't really done a whole hell of a lot.

<v Speaker 1>In fact, he disappeared there for about a month, and

<v Speaker 1>so now he's heading into this show. They've just moved

<v Speaker 1>him over to SmackDown. This is his first big match

<v Speaker 1>as a member of the SmackDown roster. He's in the

<v Speaker 1>well the SmackDown main event anyway, challenging for the top

<v Speaker 1>championship on the brand, and I just think it's insane

<v Speaker 1>to send him in there and take a loss. Now,

<v Speaker 1>you could do the finish in a way where nobody

<v Speaker 1>wins and you get to run it back again, which

<v Speaker 1>I think would be pretty fucking lame. I mentioned this

<v Speaker 1>on the SmackDown review last night. Could there be some

<v Speaker 1>sort of interference from a Sammy's ain or a Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre who comes back since he just finished wrapping up

<v Speaker 1>filming for the Highlander movie, Randy Orton, where the hell

<v Speaker 1>has he been? Maybe Randy Orton shows up and doles

<v Speaker 1>out a couple of rkos. It's certainly possible, and then Cody.

<v Speaker 1>By the way, you know, if Cody does lose the

<v Speaker 1>championship here, he's got a side quest with Sammy Zay

<v Speaker 1>if that's the direction they want to go in, or

<v Speaker 1>Randy if he comes back It's not like he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>have people to work with until he chases for the

<v Speaker 1>title again. I think they're gonna give ESPN their first

<v Speaker 1>WWE title change. I think Gunther goes over. I think

<v Speaker 1>Gunther should go over. I think he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>the new WWE champion, and I think he needs to

<v Speaker 1>win this more than Cody does. He's brand new to SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown needs that big top heel. He can be that guy.

<v Speaker 1>He can fill that void. And also the one match

<v Speaker 1>these two have had previous link. Granted it was a

<v Speaker 1>couple of years ago, but Cody beat him. Cody already

<v Speaker 1>has a win over this guy. I just don't see

<v Speaker 1>the point in moving Gunther over to SmackDown immediately vaulting

<v Speaker 1>him into a championship match like this, only for him

<v Speaker 1>to lose, because where do you go from there? All

<v Speaker 1>the work, by the way, all the work that they've

<v Speaker 1>done to build up gun there, and then he takes

<v Speaker 1>a loss to fucking Cody Rhodes. I wouldn't be doing that.

<v Speaker 1>I think Gunph's gonna win this. We have Ria Ripley

<v Speaker 1>the WWE Women's Championship against Jade Cargill. This is a

<v Speaker 1>rematch from WrestleMania. They've done everything right in terms of

<v Speaker 1>like Saturday Night's main event, for example, Jade's team wins,

<v Speaker 1>Jade gets the win over Ria Ripley. Jade got to

<v Speaker 1>win over Alexa Bliss on SmackDown last night. They're trying to,

<v Speaker 1>you know, feed her some wins because she's gonna lose.

<v Speaker 1>She's not winning the championship back. Ria Ripley is gonna

<v Speaker 1>go over here. And the only question is do we

<v Speaker 1>then advance to Ria and Charlotte for SummerSlam? Is the

<v Speaker 1>big Summer Slam match on the SmackDown side or are

<v Speaker 1>we looking at Jade and Charlotte as a Summer Slam

<v Speaker 1>match Now, they could do it before SummerSlam. Doesn't mean

<v Speaker 1>they have to do it on that show. It would

<v Speaker 1>be a big enough match. They could do that on

<v Speaker 1>the undercard. Doesn't have to be for the title. That's

<v Speaker 1>the only thing. I'm not sure. I kind of feel like,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I feel like Ria and Charlotte is

<v Speaker 1>probably the direction for SummerSlam, but you know, it may

<v Speaker 1>also depend on who wins Queen of the Ring. You know.

<v Speaker 1>J C. Jane on SmackDown last night said that she

<v Speaker 1>was throwing her name in the hat to be in

<v Speaker 1>the Queen of the Ring tournament. I kind of tossed

<v Speaker 1>her name out there a week ago. Maybe it was

<v Speaker 1>on TNT as a potential Queen of the Ring winner.

<v Speaker 1>I could see that, you know, I could see that.

<v Speaker 1>But then again, it may also be a raw star

<v Speaker 1>who wins Queen of the Ring and they can set

<v Speaker 1>up the championship match for Summer Slams some other way.

<v Speaker 1>Either way, in any event, Rhea Ripley's going to go

<v Speaker 1>over here. Now we have Brocklesner and we have Oba Femi.

<v Speaker 1>We saw brock Lesner come back a couple of weeks ago,

<v Speaker 1>shock the world by coming back when he did. I

<v Speaker 1>don't even know that brock coming back was necessarily a

<v Speaker 1>shocker to a lot of people, so much as him

<v Speaker 1>coming back as quickly as he did. That was probably

<v Speaker 1>the most shocking part about it. And so already we're

<v Speaker 1>a month We're a month removed from WrestleMania and the

<v Speaker 1>supposed retirement to brock Lesner. He's already back. Now you

<v Speaker 1>look at this and go, okay, I could see where

<v Speaker 1>this is going. They're going to get a trilogy out

<v Speaker 1>of it. So of course broadcasts, and then the rubber

<v Speaker 1>match can be in Minnesota at SummerSlam. Bullshit, Brock does

<v Speaker 1>not need to win. I think this is a tired narrative.

<v Speaker 1>It's the typical WWE formula that you would expect. It's

<v Speaker 1>time to break the formula. I think beating Oba Femi,

<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, well, it has to happen to get

<v Speaker 1>to a third match. No it doesn't. It really doesn't.

<v Speaker 1>And I talked about this on the un Crime Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>Show on Tuesday. The story actually is quite simple. Brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner and his pre tape promo on Monday night because

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't there in person, but he said that he

<v Speaker 1>thought he was done after he lost to obat WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>when he took his gloves off and he took his

<v Speaker 1>boots off in the middle of the ring, and his

<v Speaker 1>mind he was finished. But then he realized I can't

<v Speaker 1>go out like that. I can't. So he's back for revenge.

<v Speaker 1>He's back to show Oba Femi that when you mess

<v Speaker 1>with the Beast, there are consequences for that. And then

<v Speaker 1>Oba confronted Paul Hayman on Monday and basically said when

<v Speaker 1>he wrestled Brock Lesner at WRESTLEMANI he was wrestling to

<v Speaker 1>beat him, but now he's wrestling to kill him, which

<v Speaker 1>was a cold line that was the big money line

<v Speaker 1>of the promo. Well, now he needs to go in

<v Speaker 1>there and back it up. Now, what this match should

<v Speaker 1>be is more competitive and a little bit longer than

<v Speaker 1>the WrestleMania match was maybe even twice as long. Right,

<v Speaker 1>the WrestleMania match was what four minutes? So let this

<v Speaker 1>go eight minutes, get some near falls out of it.

<v Speaker 1>It's more competitive. But in the end brock Lesner falls

<v Speaker 1>again to Oba Femi because Oba does not have to lose.

<v Speaker 1>This narrative that he has to lose is bullshit. It's

<v Speaker 1>a flawed narrative. He doesn't have to lose, and the

<v Speaker 1>story then becomes brock Lesner cannot figure this guy out.

<v Speaker 1>And I, by the way, when I mentioned this, I

<v Speaker 1>had some people go, well, yeah, brock can't figure him out,

<v Speaker 1>but I guess Ricky Saints can in NXT. What happened

<v Speaker 1>in NXT doesn't matter here. I don't know why people

<v Speaker 1>don't realize this. This is how WWE treats it. What happens

<v Speaker 1>in NXT. He doesn't mean dog shit. When it comes

<v Speaker 1>to stuff like this on the main rock, it may

<v Speaker 1>as well have just been a fucking dream. They could

<v Speaker 1>have had Obafemi lose to fucking Andre Chase. It wouldn't matter.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't want to hear the NXT bullshit because

<v Speaker 1>what happens in NXT clearly doesn't matter when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to the main roster. Fact is brock Lesner can't figure

<v Speaker 1>this guy out. You know, whatever it is, you always

<v Speaker 1>have that one guy. He's like, you're kryptonite, and that's

<v Speaker 1>what Obafemi is to brock Lesner. He cannot figure this

<v Speaker 1>guy out, and the same logic applies where he cannot

<v Speaker 1>allow himself to go out this way. So the logical

<v Speaker 1>progression of this is that we do end up getting

<v Speaker 1>a third match, but this time brock Lesner puts his

<v Speaker 1>career on the line for real. Right. He never articulated

<v Speaker 1>that coming out of WrestleMania, leaving the boots in the

<v Speaker 1>ring was kind of a telltale sign, like, okay, the

<v Speaker 1>implication here is that he's retiring. And then on television

<v Speaker 1>we even had Adam Pierce talking to Paul Hayman, like,

<v Speaker 1>what what's going on here? I filed retirement paperwork for Brock. Right,

<v Speaker 1>so it's a little hollow because he retired, but then

<v Speaker 1>he came back, So why should we believe it it's

<v Speaker 1>all bullshit. Well, he would have to put it in writing.

<v Speaker 1>We'd have to make it official this time, like this

<v Speaker 1>is for real. If I can't beat you, then I

<v Speaker 1>shouldn't be doing this anymore. And Brock gets that sendoff

<v Speaker 1>if in fact that is the plan. He gets that

<v Speaker 1>sendoff in Minneapolis and Oba beats him again for a

<v Speaker 1>third time. You want to get this guy over and

<v Speaker 1>show that this guy is the next big thing, and

<v Speaker 1>this guy is a beast, right the way that Brock

<v Speaker 1>was always a beast. He shouldn't be fucking losing. So

<v Speaker 1>I would say the ultimate way for Brock to put

<v Speaker 1>this guy over is to never beat him. And if

<v Speaker 1>you're gonna do three matches, he goes, oh for three.

<v Speaker 1>That's how you really cement Obafemi as the real fucking deal.

<v Speaker 1>This wasn't a fluke. Like the only guy in history

<v Speaker 1>to hand brocklesnar three straight losses. That's how this should

<v Speaker 1>play out. Oba Femi wins at clash in Italy. We

<v Speaker 1>got Becky Lynch defending the Women's Intercontinental Championship against Soul Ruka.

<v Speaker 1>Now we're getting into the final two matches here on

<v Speaker 1>this card, and this is where things are the lifty

<v Speaker 1>now when it comes to these matches, because sol Ruka

<v Speaker 1>may be injured. Now, sol Ruka is either in Italy

<v Speaker 1>or she's en route to Italy, she'll be there. Supposedly

<v Speaker 1>there was talk of a leg injury on that botched

<v Speaker 1>finish to their match at Saturday Night's main event, where

<v Speaker 1>she was going for the Soul Snatcher and Becky pulled

<v Speaker 1>the referee in the way, and supposedly there was a

<v Speaker 1>legitimate injury. Becky's been tweeting up a storm about how

<v Speaker 1>Soul's not medically cleared, so they may be turning it

<v Speaker 1>into a storyline now, but there could be a legitimate injury.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't know if that may affect things. If

<v Speaker 1>they're gonna wrestle, but it's going to be a short match,

<v Speaker 1>if the match is gonna have to change, we don't know.

<v Speaker 1>Far as we know. The match is still on now.

<v Speaker 1>I think it's too soon to put the title on

<v Speaker 1>sol Ruka. There's no reason to rush it onto her.

<v Speaker 1>But Soul Ruka is coming into this she has yet

<v Speaker 1>to pick up a pinfall win since coming to the

<v Speaker 1>main roster. Becky Lynch has not been shy about bringing

<v Speaker 1>that fact up on TV, calling her a loser you

<v Speaker 1>can't hack it. The only win she has so far

<v Speaker 1>is by disqualification in that bullshit match on Saturday Nights

<v Speaker 1>Made Event. I'm not even counting that honestly. She kind

<v Speaker 1>of has to win the title now, because what a

<v Speaker 1>fucking loser she's gonna look like if they go in there.

<v Speaker 1>After everything Becky has been taunting her with and saying,

<v Speaker 1>and then she loses again, They've put themselves in a

<v Speaker 1>position now where she almost has to win. So I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna say Soul Ruca wins. I'm gonna say she wins

<v Speaker 1>the Intercontinental title, and they'll continue to feud. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I could see them bringing this all the way to

<v Speaker 1>Summer Slam, but instead of doing the big payoff at SummerSlam,

<v Speaker 1>they just keep going with it. You know, Becky tries

<v Speaker 1>to get the belt back, she fails. I guess that's

<v Speaker 1>the road maybe that they're gonna take. But I just

<v Speaker 1>kind of feel everything they've done up until this point,

<v Speaker 1>Soul she needs this win badly. And then we have

<v Speaker 1>the main event for the World Heavyweight Championship, Roman reigns

<v Speaker 1>against Jacob Fatu. They have their second contract signing this month,

<v Speaker 1>this past Monday, this time for Tribal Combat, with a

<v Speaker 1>new stipulation added where if Roman wins, fa Tou has

<v Speaker 1>to serve him. Serve him what. I don't know. If

<v Speaker 1>it was Vince McMahon, I would say a subpoena. Fatu

<v Speaker 1>agreed to this, but he said when I win, Roman

<v Speaker 1>will have to acknowledge me. Fatu is coming into this

<v Speaker 1>match with an injury though, and this is the wild

<v Speaker 1>card here. He was spotted limping after his street fight

<v Speaker 1>with Solo Socoa in Liverpool because they're on their European tour.

<v Speaker 1>They had a match on Thursday night. He got hurt

<v Speaker 1>and the hope was that he was just selling. Since then,

<v Speaker 1>Mike Johnson, a PW insider, chimed in to confirm that

<v Speaker 1>there was an injury. Corey Hayes, who is with False

<v Speaker 1>Finish now used to be with Bodyslam dot Net. He

<v Speaker 1>says that it is believed to be a back injury

<v Speaker 1>of some kind and the on WWE's end is that

<v Speaker 1>he'll be good to go come tomorrow, but they are

<v Speaker 1>at least planning for potential pivots if he is unable

<v Speaker 1>to get cleared now Jacob FA too, it's going to

<v Speaker 1>take a hell of an injury, I think to keep

<v Speaker 1>him out of this match, like debilitating where he can't

<v Speaker 1>even walk. I cannot imagine that Jacob FA two is

<v Speaker 1>not going to walk into this match. If it's like

<v Speaker 1>a mild kind of back injury or something, he'll be there.

<v Speaker 1>I think he'll be there, and I think the match

<v Speaker 1>will happen, But there's at least the possibility that plans

<v Speaker 1>may have to change, and that sucks, and I hope

<v Speaker 1>that doesn't happen either way. I don't think that Jacob

<v Speaker 1>is walking out with the World Heavyweight Championship because I

<v Speaker 1>don't see them changing both belts on this show. I

<v Speaker 1>think if one belt is changing, it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>Cody's belt. I don't think they want to take that

<v Speaker 1>title of Roman, not until SummerSlam. Roman's their guy. Roman

<v Speaker 1>is their top champion right now, even more so than

<v Speaker 1>Cody Roads. Roman is that guy. He's had the belt

<v Speaker 1>for a month. I just cannot see them taking that

<v Speaker 1>championship off of him right now, now, I really don't

<v Speaker 1>want to see fat two drop two in a row

<v Speaker 1>to Roman, because then what he has to serve Roman. Oh,

<v Speaker 1>that that sounds really exciting. So I think him losing

<v Speaker 1>to Roman, it'll hurt him. It'll sting him a little bit.

<v Speaker 1>It's not a killer, but it's not an ideal situation,

<v Speaker 1>given that he already lost the backlash right he got

<v Speaker 1>pinned in the middle of the ring. And I also

<v Speaker 1>think that if you really want to freshen things up

<v Speaker 1>a little bit, you want to shake things up a

<v Speaker 1>little bit, but keep the bloodline stuff going, which they

<v Speaker 1>clearly want to do because it's their bread and butter. Here.

<v Speaker 1>Things are going to be a lot fresher if you

<v Speaker 1>have Jacob Fatu in the driver's seat, and if you

<v Speaker 1>force Roman reigns, even if just for a few months,

<v Speaker 1>to be second fiddle. It's not a position that we're

<v Speaker 1>used to seeing him in. It would be kind of

<v Speaker 1>unique if Jacob Fatu is the one walking around as

<v Speaker 1>the tribal chief calling the shots and Roman is just,

<v Speaker 1>you know, kind of carrying out the plays just like

<v Speaker 1>Jimmy and Jay do. At least, then it would add

<v Speaker 1>a like a different dimension to the bloodl stuff. So

<v Speaker 1>I would like to see FONT two leave with the championship.

<v Speaker 1>But again, these are predictions and not hopes, and I

<v Speaker 1>am predicting a Roman Reigns win. If the match even happens,

<v Speaker 1>I think it will. Again. I think it would take

<v Speaker 1>a really horrible injury to keep Jacob out of what

<v Speaker 1>is going to be the biggest match of his entire life.

<v Speaker 1>You're gonna have to kill this man, I think to

<v Speaker 1>keep him out of this match. Either that or WWE

<v Speaker 1>medical will I guess, But that's the cards for Clash

<v Speaker 1>in Italy. I will be live tomorrow night, not immediately

<v Speaker 1>after the show. It's gonna go from two what two

<v Speaker 1>to five five point thirty Eastern. I'll be live around

<v Speaker 1>eight eight pm, pretty much the time I went live

<v Speaker 1>for SmackDown last night and the time I'll be going

<v Speaker 1>live for Raw because Raw airs at two pm Eastern

<v Speaker 1>on Netflix this Monday, So eight o'clock Eastern on YouTube.

<v Speaker 1>Set your notification bells if need be. I got you

<v Speaker 1>covered with the full Clash in Italy recap. One person

<v Speaker 1>who will not be at Clash in Italy will be

<v Speaker 1>Logan Paul, who tore his triceps in his Saturday Nights

<v Speaker 1>main event match. It was him and Austin Theory against

<v Speaker 1>the Street Profits last weekend, and it was on a

<v Speaker 1>dive near the very end of the match when Dawkins

<v Speaker 1>did a flip dive out onto Logan was out too

<v Speaker 1>far obviously tried to catch him, and just the way

<v Speaker 1>that he went down and his arm hit the floor,

<v Speaker 1>he tore his tricep and so he's already had surgery

<v Speaker 1>and bron Breaker is now going to assume his spot

<v Speaker 1>is one half of the World Tag Team Champions with

<v Speaker 1>Austin Theory. They're employing the freebird rule for the vision

<v Speaker 1>and the doctors have given Logan a six month recovery window.

<v Speaker 1>He is hoping to make it back a hell of

<v Speaker 1>a lot sooner than that. This is what he posted

<v Speaker 1>on ig the other day. Tore my tricep, got surgery

<v Speaker 1>while wide awake, told the doc I want to feel

<v Speaker 1>at all still the Tag Team Champ Just FYII. They're

<v Speaker 1>telling me six month recovery, but I don't believe them.

<v Speaker 1>I'll be back in a couple of weeks with some

<v Speaker 1>at Drink Prime Shake good news. I can still rip

<v Speaker 1>packs because at Rip it about to launch. Keep that

<v Speaker 1>title warm for me theory. Then he goes he tagged

<v Speaker 1>Bronson read and goes let's hang out. Telling the doctor

<v Speaker 1>that you want to be wide awake when they cut

<v Speaker 1>your arm open is just fucking diabolical. That is, if

<v Speaker 1>he is telling the truth, he will not be back

<v Speaker 1>in two weeks. It's nice to have goals. At least

<v Speaker 1>he got to plug all of his shit in his

<v Speaker 1>message the idea. Look, I floated an idea on t

<v Speaker 1>T the other day. Grayson Waller has disappeared from television

<v Speaker 1>because the New Day left and now he's got nothing right.

<v Speaker 1>He used to be partners with Austin Theory. Austin Theory

<v Speaker 1>got split away from him. Now he's with the Vision.

<v Speaker 1>So they put him with a New Day and now

<v Speaker 1>the New Day is gone and Grayson Waller is going

<v Speaker 1>to be next on that cut list unless they come

<v Speaker 1>up with something for him to do. Now is part

<v Speaker 1>of the Vision, and there's a history there with him

<v Speaker 1>and Waller. Waller's a talented guy. I'm just saying, if

<v Speaker 1>you are looking to add somebody new to the Vision,

<v Speaker 1>you could do a hell of a lot. Worse, there

<v Speaker 1>could be an opportunity there to do something with Grace

<v Speaker 1>and Waller and try to resuscitate this guy's career. Honestly,

<v Speaker 1>Ethan Page would be a great fit for the Vision,

<v Speaker 1>but he's doing well on his own right now. I

<v Speaker 1>don't think he needs it. But if we were like

<v Speaker 1>making a list of people who would fit perfectly into

<v Speaker 1>the Vision right now, and with Paul Hayman and all

<v Speaker 1>these guys, Ethan Page would be at the top of

<v Speaker 1>my list. I just don't think he needs it now.

<v Speaker 1>Pert Post Wrestling, there was another big story this week.

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon and Nick Cohn have been sanctioned in the

<v Speaker 1>ongoing WWE shareholder lawsuits. Again this is from Post Wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon and his fellow defendants have been dealt a

<v Speaker 1>blow and the ongoing shareholder lawsuit related to Endeavor's acquisition

<v Speaker 1>of WWE. A group of shareholders is suing mcmah and

<v Speaker 1>then WWE board members Nick con Paul Aveck, Michelle Wilson,

<v Speaker 1>and George Barrios, alleging that McMahon steered the company's twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty three sales slash merger process to Endeavor so that

<v Speaker 1>he would end up in a favorable position under the

<v Speaker 1>new regime. The claim is that McMahon, with promises from

<v Speaker 1>Endeavor CEO Aria Manuel, was influenced to go in this

<v Speaker 1>direction instead of considering other bids that would have been

<v Speaker 1>more financially beneficial to the company and its shareholders. The

<v Speaker 1>trial is scheduled to begin on June eighth, which is

<v Speaker 1>coming up pretty quick. Ahead of that, the judge has

<v Speaker 1>ruled that McMahon and Cohn acted recklessly by using the

<v Speaker 1>messaging apps signal and changing their settings so that messages

<v Speaker 1>would automatically delete after a short period of time, so

<v Speaker 1>basically they destroyed evidence. As a result of that, the

<v Speaker 1>court will treat five damaging facts as presumptively true when

<v Speaker 1>the case goes to trial next month, meaning the burden

<v Speaker 1>of proof has now shifted and the defense will be

<v Speaker 1>tasked which showing the following is not true. Number one,

<v Speaker 1>a manual's promise to provide Vince with a continued role

<v Speaker 1>at any post merger company after a transaction influenced Vince's

<v Speaker 1>decision making with respect to the merger. Number two a

<v Speaker 1>manual's offer of indemnification and other legal support related to

<v Speaker 1>pending federal investigations of Vince's alleged misconduct influenced Vince's decision

<v Speaker 1>making with respect to the merger. Number three, Vince decided

<v Speaker 1>to pursue a transaction with Endeavor in twenty twenty two,

<v Speaker 1>before the company initiated the strategic review process. Number four

<v Speaker 1>con communicated with a manual between August and December of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two to facilitate a transaction between WWE and Endeavor.

<v Speaker 1>And Number five, Vince and Kahn worked with Rain, a

<v Speaker 1>banking firm to steer the process toward a deal with

<v Speaker 1>Endeavor and away from other potential bidders. So now the burden,

<v Speaker 1>where as the burden of proof normally would be on

<v Speaker 1>the plaintiffs, now it's on the defendants. Bloomberg also reported

<v Speaker 1>on this. I'll read from their article here McMahon. WWE's

<v Speaker 1>leaders were instructed twice by their own assistant general counsel

<v Speaker 1>to preserve all documents and electronically stored information, including texts

<v Speaker 1>and other instant messages, in June of twenty twenty two,

<v Speaker 1>after the misconduct allegations became public, and in January of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty three, after the WWE began contacting potential bidders.

<v Speaker 1>Such holds are routine and WWE's leadership had a duty

<v Speaker 1>to preserve evidence related to Vince's return and at potential

<v Speaker 1>sale because they could reasonably have expected litigation to be filed.

<v Speaker 1>This is what the judge said, but the wrestling promoter,

<v Speaker 1>Kahn and others disregarded those instructions amid sale discussions. Con

<v Speaker 1>messaged McMahon Langis. McMahon responded, what in the blue hell

<v Speaker 1>is Langis? Loll Con replied, read it backwards. The record

<v Speaker 1>reveals extensive back channeling. According to the judge, in most

<v Speaker 1>civil lawsuits, the party making the accusations has to prove

<v Speaker 1>its claims. The burden is now on the defendants to

<v Speaker 1>disprove these five facts. And again, those are the facts

<v Speaker 1>that I just read to you, But it says the

<v Speaker 1>defendants now must disprove these claims by clear and convincing evidence,

<v Speaker 1>a higher standard than by a preponderance of the evidence.

<v Speaker 1>Had Laster the judge not ordered these sanctions. The ruling

<v Speaker 1>does not determine whether McMahon, con or the other defendants

<v Speaker 1>will be found liable. Laster will ultimately make that decision

<v Speaker 1>at some point after the trial scheduled to take place

<v Speaker 1>from June eighth to June twelfth, and this shareholder's suit

<v Speaker 1>will include testimony from McMahon, con Levec a Manuel, TKO's

<v Speaker 1>Mark Shapiro, and others. Per Brandon Thurston of Post Wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>If the plaintiffs prevail at trial or win a settlement,

<v Speaker 1>I expect an indication of it in TKO's public financial report,

<v Speaker 1>especially if it's a big payout, which I can't see

<v Speaker 1>the plaintive settling for less, given the legal fees that

<v Speaker 1>have been sunk into this, I think there's an unlikely

<v Speaker 1>chance that insurance doesn't cover Nick Cohn because of the sanction.

<v Speaker 1>Vince's most uncertain because he was the controlling shareholder allegedly

<v Speaker 1>extracting benefits for himself. The other shareholders could not benefit

<v Speaker 1>from that, being his personal survival in WWE. And speaking

<v Speaker 1>of Brandon Thurston, you want to see what real journalism

<v Speaker 1>looks like. Thurston is that guy. He has challenged in

<v Speaker 1>the past to unseal confidential information in this lawsuit and

<v Speaker 1>won those challenges in court, thousands of pages unsealed, and

<v Speaker 1>then recently WWE asked to withhold some material, including a

<v Speaker 1>voicemail sent to Vince McMahon by Ari Emmanuel Thurston opposed

<v Speaker 1>that request, and the judge in the case just sided

<v Speaker 1>with him and denied WWE's motion to redact or withhold

<v Speaker 1>those materials and says. Regarding the audio file, the defendant

<v Speaker 1>stated that releasing a manual's audio message was unnecessary because

<v Speaker 1>the substantive content of the voice notes is already on

<v Speaker 1>the record, as the text of the voicemail has been disclosed. Now,

<v Speaker 1>if you don't remember, I know I've mentioned this before,

<v Speaker 1>but in the voicemail our Emmanuel sent to Vince mcmahony said,

<v Speaker 1>I spoke to my lawyer from Latham. Just fyi. Everybody

<v Speaker 1>at the DOJ is former Latham lawyers, so on that

<v Speaker 1>side will be helpful. SEC of course is SEC, but

<v Speaker 1>that's just the penalty as it relates to everything else. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>we can indemnify you, and we will if it's a criminal.

<v Speaker 1>If it's criminal, of course you can't stop criminal. But

<v Speaker 1>this is not criminal. Call me when you get a chance.

<v Speaker 1>So the judge struck this down as insufficient to maintain confidentiality.

<v Speaker 1>WWE also argued that the file sharing service didn't support

<v Speaker 1>audio files, and while the judge acknowledged that as fact,

<v Speaker 1>he said that it wasn't an impediment to sharing the file,

<v Speaker 1>which can be submitted in electronic form. See this is

<v Speaker 1>what a journalist does. Nobody else in the wrestling space

<v Speaker 1>is doing what Branded is doing right now, and I

<v Speaker 1>hope he keeps at it. As for the trial, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. Look, I don't know if it matters that

<v Speaker 1>the WWE stock has gone up exponentially since the sale

<v Speaker 1>to Endeavor because the shareholders are asking for damages here.

<v Speaker 1>If the stock has gone way up and the shareholders

<v Speaker 1>have made money and they're benefiting from it, how can

<v Speaker 1>they argue that they've suffered damages? Right? That may not

<v Speaker 1>matter so much as the sale process was rigged from

<v Speaker 1>the word go. So who's to say what the stock

<v Speaker 1>price would be right now? Right if it was a

<v Speaker 1>more open and fair process. That's really the argument here.

<v Speaker 1>Does it come down to that or does the judge

<v Speaker 1>because I don't believe this is a jury trial. It's

<v Speaker 1>the presiding judge who will hear all of the arguments

<v Speaker 1>and then render a verdict. Here, I believe that's how

<v Speaker 1>this is going to work. Does he just look at

<v Speaker 1>the process by which they came to be acquired or

<v Speaker 1>the outcome of that sale and say you weren't really

<v Speaker 1>damaged in the end, so therefore you have no case.

<v Speaker 1>Because it sure looks like they have a case here,

<v Speaker 1>and a lot of these decisions are not going WWE's

<v Speaker 1>way in Vince mcman's way. Now, should the judge side

<v Speaker 1>with the shareholders. It doesn't mean the sale is voided.

<v Speaker 1>It's not going to be reverse. TKO is still going

<v Speaker 1>to own WWE regardless of what happens here, and no

<v Speaker 1>one is going to jail. This is not a criminal case,

<v Speaker 1>but they could be on the hook for many millions

<v Speaker 1>of dollars in damages, most or all of which would

<v Speaker 1>likely be covered by insurance. But that may not be

<v Speaker 1>the case with Vince himself. But he's got plenty of money.

<v Speaker 1>I think he'll be okay. We had this story this

<v Speaker 1>week from Front Office Sports, where the head of WWE's

<v Speaker 1>digital department said it shocks him every week how well

<v Speaker 1>the Vault channel does. WWE is very happy with the

<v Speaker 1>success of its Vault channel on YouTube. The Vault has

<v Speaker 1>become a big hit, with hardcore fans uploading rare and

<v Speaker 1>sometimes never before seen footage from the company's video library.

<v Speaker 1>The channel launched in twenty twenty four and now has

<v Speaker 1>over four million subscribers. Front Office Sports published a story

<v Speaker 1>on Friday looking at WWE's YouTube strategy and in the article,

<v Speaker 1>they're ahead of digital media. Steve Brayband said it shocks

<v Speaker 1>him every week how well some content on the Vault performs.

<v Speaker 1>The success of that came with no new resources needed,

<v Speaker 1>said Brayband. We tapped into a few people that were

<v Speaker 1>passionate about our archive, saw the engagement on our main channel,

<v Speaker 1>and just moved our whole vault to this page. We're

<v Speaker 1>about to hit the four million sub mark, and it

<v Speaker 1>shocks me every week how some content does and per

<v Speaker 1>Front Office Sports, as of mid May, the Vault page

<v Speaker 1>had over one hundred thirty three million hours viewed over

<v Speaker 1>the previous year, representing a one hundred thirty one percent

<v Speaker 1>year over year growth. That's a lot of growth, That's

<v Speaker 1>what she said. Look, I missed the WWE network every day.

<v Speaker 1>I missed that fucking network. We didn't know how good

<v Speaker 1>we had it at the time. Yeah, everybody would make

<v Speaker 1>fun of the nine ninety nine. Boy, they went hard

<v Speaker 1>into that nine ninety nine campaign, But think about it,

<v Speaker 1>For nine dollars and ninety nine cents a month, we

<v Speaker 1>had access to WrestleMania and all of the live pay

<v Speaker 1>per views and the archives which were incomplete, but they

<v Speaker 1>were yeah, they were being updated at least, but we

<v Speaker 1>had the old stuff. They had original programming, the Edging

<v Speaker 1>Christians Show that totally reeks of awesomeness, and they had

<v Speaker 1>Camp WWE and they had story Time, which was my favorite.

<v Speaker 1>So we had original content on there as well, Table

<v Speaker 1>for three, you know that kind of stuff. It was

<v Speaker 1>just this, this whole like schmorgasbord of content at a

<v Speaker 1>reasonable price, all in one place. And that's the key.

<v Speaker 1>It was all centralized in one place. You didn't have

<v Speaker 1>to go to Peacock and then to Hulu and then

<v Speaker 1>to Netflix and then here and then there. It was

<v Speaker 1>all in one place. And we're never going to have

<v Speaker 1>it that good again. And even the vault on YouTube

<v Speaker 1>cannot replicate the organization of the network. So if you

<v Speaker 1>want to go watch episodes of Raw or SmackDown or

<v Speaker 1>WCW Saturday Night, you would go and they were all

<v Speaker 1>or mostly archived there. Right, That's the thing that YouTube

<v Speaker 1>and the way they're doing it now cannot replicate. So

<v Speaker 1>this is not better than what the network was, but

<v Speaker 1>I love the Vault channel on YouTube because it's the

<v Speaker 1>closest thing that we're going to get and it's free now.

<v Speaker 1>One day they may turn it into a membership or

<v Speaker 1>a subscription model, and I'll pay for it because I

<v Speaker 1>watch it every single day. I check out the new

<v Speaker 1>videos that they post. I have my own playlist that

<v Speaker 1>I've created. I'm still going through all the videos that

<v Speaker 1>I've kind of tabbed as a favorite. Full shows, rare

<v Speaker 1>matches that I haven't seen before, compilations. They do a

<v Speaker 1>lot of compilations. They have these marathons every week or

<v Speaker 1>a watch party. It's a different subject matter. Right now

<v Speaker 1>it's like all eighties. Next week it might be the

<v Speaker 1>Attitude era. Then it might be something comp letely different.

<v Speaker 1>I love the Vault. I love it, and I frequent it,

<v Speaker 1>you know, every single day. And the key to the

<v Speaker 1>Vault and this is this is where like their YouTube strategy,

<v Speaker 1>I could see why they're sort of leaning so heavily

<v Speaker 1>into it. When they had the WWE network, they never

<v Speaker 1>bothered to advertise or market the network itself outside of

<v Speaker 1>the pay per views and maybe some of the original

<v Speaker 1>content that they created. So for all of the classic

<v Speaker 1>stuff and all of the stuff the libraries that they

<v Speaker 1>would purchase mid South and this and that. They never

<v Speaker 1>said a fucking word about it. And I can never

<v Speaker 1>understand why was it really going to eat into your

<v Speaker 1>weekly shows that much coming out of a commercial break,

<v Speaker 1>to take thirty seconds or sixty seconds coming out of

<v Speaker 1>a break to show, you know, highlight a particular match,

<v Speaker 1>or you know, throw up some footage from like a

<v Speaker 1>big show that happened on this week or on this

<v Speaker 1>day thirty years ago, just a little piece of it

<v Speaker 1>and then put a plug forward at the end. If

<v Speaker 1>you want to see the full thing, you could jump

<v Speaker 1>on the WWE network. It's just nine to ninety nine.

<v Speaker 1>They weren't even doing that. They just threw stuff up there,

<v Speaker 1>and they knew the hardcores who wanted to chase it

<v Speaker 1>down would nowhere to get it. And then of course

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't getting good viewership. Clearly it wasn't getting good viewership.

<v Speaker 1>But one of the reasons why is because they never

<v Speaker 1>bothered to mention what was even there. Right, it was

<v Speaker 1>never going to get the kind of views that like

<v Speaker 1>the current stuff would get, but they never bothered to

<v Speaker 1>promote it. And that was one of the things whereas

<v Speaker 1>now they could take a match, and they do this

<v Speaker 1>quite often. They could take a match and you don't

<v Speaker 1>even have to go back thirty or forty years. You

<v Speaker 1>could take a fucking Roman Reins match from twenty fifteen, okay,

<v Speaker 1>when he was still the big dog, just a random match,

<v Speaker 1>and you could put that up on the vault, and

<v Speaker 1>because Roman's face is on the thumbnail, or Roman Reigns

<v Speaker 1>is in the title of the video, it'll probably rack

<v Speaker 1>up fucking half a million views, maybe a million, and

<v Speaker 1>every single time somebody clicks on that video, they're making money.

<v Speaker 1>They're making ad money. All this money, they're probably making

<v Speaker 1>an ad revenue from the constant views, right, tens of thousands,

<v Speaker 1>hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views on some

<v Speaker 1>of these videos. You couldn't do that shit with the network.

<v Speaker 1>The network you uploaded it. It was there and that's it.

<v Speaker 1>People are already paying one subscription fee. You're getting your

<v Speaker 1>guaranteed money from these people, and that's it. You don't

<v Speaker 1>make anything else on it. So that's why they love

<v Speaker 1>They got to be loving this YouTube strategy because they

<v Speaker 1>could just make money on individual segments and matches constantly,

<v Speaker 1>every single day, they're making ad dollars from this from

<v Speaker 1>Google ad Sense. But it's not shocking to me that

<v Speaker 1>the Vault channel is doing so well because the current

<v Speaker 1>product sucks, so of course people are going to be

<v Speaker 1>seeking out the old content. The old shit is light

<v Speaker 1>years better than the new shit, so that doesn't surprise me.

<v Speaker 1>It's the first thing that people do when they get

<v Speaker 1>disenfranchised with the product, or they think the current product

<v Speaker 1>is boring, right, but they're still a wrestling fan. What

<v Speaker 1>do they do? They go watch the old stuff when

<v Speaker 1>it used to be good. This shouldn't shock anybody. Do

<v Speaker 1>you see some of these fucking television shows now? Do

<v Speaker 1>you watch SmackDown every single week? You know how many

<v Speaker 1>people would have far more joy spending two or three

<v Speaker 1>hours of their Friday night going back and watching a

<v Speaker 1>fucking pay per view from twenty years ago. That's the

<v Speaker 1>beauty of the Vault again. I like the marathons and

<v Speaker 1>the watch parties they do. I like the weekly Sunday

<v Speaker 1>Morning Coliseum video drop. We need more full episodes of

<v Speaker 1>TV shows, though. The odd Superstars episode from nineteen ninety three,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's nice and all, but there's no consistency

<v Speaker 1>to it. We need those old Challenge episodes, those old

<v Speaker 1>Superstars episodes, even with the blurred out logo. Because they

<v Speaker 1>refuse to pay Albert Patterson, who owns the trademark to

<v Speaker 1>Superstars of Wrestling, they could still post the episodes like

<v Speaker 1>the Raw Vault on Netflix is garbage, Okay garbage. It

<v Speaker 1>is so incomplete. I don't even know why they bother

<v Speaker 1>and I wish they could just start posting those on

<v Speaker 1>the vault. I assume they can't because they have the

<v Speaker 1>deal with Netflix, but I wish they would. It'd be

<v Speaker 1>a lot better on there. But those are the big

<v Speaker 1>things that are missing right now. This week's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>now at wis dot com slash Harmony. That's wis dot

<v Speaker 1>com slash harmony. The Toronto Sun announced on Tuesday that

<v Speaker 1>AW is set to debut a new pay per view

<v Speaker 1>in Montreal this July, and the Montreal event marks the

<v Speaker 1>first ever Redemption pay per view and the second AW

<v Speaker 1>pay per view to take place in Canada this year,

<v Speaker 1>following Vancouver's Dynasty event. Awill debut a new pay per

<v Speaker 1>view called Redemption on Sunday, July twenty six at the

<v Speaker 1>Bell Center in Montreal, and Tony Kahn said Montreal is

<v Speaker 1>one of the greatest wrestling cities in the world, said,

<v Speaker 1>there's such a rich history of professional wrestling. This will

<v Speaker 1>be a special event. It is the first ever AW

<v Speaker 1>redemption and it's also the first ever AW pay per

<v Speaker 1>view in Montreal. And according to Kahn, Canadian fans may

<v Speaker 1>also be treated to an appearance by aw's most recent signing,

<v Speaker 1>the legendary Mick Foley, fully made his AW debut as

<v Speaker 1>a co host with Toronto's Renee Piquette during the Double

<v Speaker 1>or Nothing Buy In. Tony said that there's a good

<v Speaker 1>chance Mick could come. He's doing a lot of the

<v Speaker 1>AW events and I'm sure he's going to want to

<v Speaker 1>be there. I can't say one hundred percent for certain,

<v Speaker 1>but I think there's a high likelihood that Mick will

<v Speaker 1>be attending and hosting the event in Montreal. And on

<v Speaker 1>that note, now, this is not necessarily a shock because

<v Speaker 1>we've heard murmurs of there being a July pay per view. Added,

<v Speaker 1>they had taken out a trademark or file the trademark

<v Speaker 1>application for that redemption name. So the fact that they're

<v Speaker 1>doing another pay per view, which I want to say

<v Speaker 1>now makes ten out of the twelve month or maybe

<v Speaker 1>ten events, ten pay per views. I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>it's ten months out of the year, but they're increasing

<v Speaker 1>their pay per view schedule. That's not a shock. However,

<v Speaker 1>if you watch that Dynamite show on Wednesday night and

<v Speaker 1>the opening segment they took us backstage at double or Nothing,

<v Speaker 1>there was a meeting in the trainer's room. This was

<v Speaker 1>the second time now we've had a segment like this

<v Speaker 1>air on Dynamite where Kenny Omega and Will Osprey were

<v Speaker 1>in the trainer's room, I think, sitting next to each other.

<v Speaker 1>They were licking their wounds after their respective matches, and

<v Speaker 1>they're having this conversation and you cannot come away from

<v Speaker 1>that segment thinking anything other than they are building to

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega against Will Osprey at Wembley Stadium in August.

<v Speaker 1>I mean they're talking about, you know, Osprey's talking about

<v Speaker 1>being in the Owen and going after the championship, and

<v Speaker 1>Kenny is questioning why you would go with the death Riders,

<v Speaker 1>you know, can you trust them? You should have come

<v Speaker 1>to me, And Osprey's talking about, well, you're not here,

<v Speaker 1>why aren't you here? You talk about how you're feeling

<v Speaker 1>the best you've felt in years, and Kenny's trying to

<v Speaker 1>explain to him that, you know, the body doesn't recover

<v Speaker 1>as quickly and I'm not exactly the same guy I

<v Speaker 1>used to be. Neither or you just you know, just

<v Speaker 1>keep your eyes, you know, peel for these death riders.

<v Speaker 1>Basically he doesn't trust them. And then they end the segment.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Osprey's encouraging him, don't forget about going after

<v Speaker 1>that world title. You shall still should go after that

<v Speaker 1>world title. You can't watch that segment and think anything

<v Speaker 1>other than oh shit, they're doing Omega Ospray in London,

<v Speaker 1>and now we find out about this pay per view

<v Speaker 1>in Montreal, which happens to be called Redemption G. I

<v Speaker 1>wonder what main event they're building too on that show.

<v Speaker 1>It certainly seems prime for a rematch between MJF and

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega. Kenny lost to him a Dynasty in Vancouver.

<v Speaker 1>If they have Kenny in the main event on another

<v Speaker 1>Canadian pay per view this year, he ain't losing. He's

<v Speaker 1>not losing. If they do that match, we will have

<v Speaker 1>a new aw world champion, I do believe, and then

<v Speaker 1>we will get Kenny Omega defending against Will Osprey in August.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure that's the right move to use Omega

<v Speaker 1>as a transitional champion for one month just to get

<v Speaker 1>the belt onto Osprey when you have MJF who's the

<v Speaker 1>biggest heel in the company. But I can understand Tony wanting,

<v Speaker 1>you know, being infatuated with the idea of doing Omega

<v Speaker 1>Osprey because that's still a mega match to do in

<v Speaker 1>the main event. I get that, but you would effectively

<v Speaker 1>be using Kenny as a transitional champion for four weeks

<v Speaker 1>or even worse. You do the match at Wembley and

<v Speaker 1>you have Osprey fail to win the championship, and given

<v Speaker 1>the way that they've been building him up for this

<v Speaker 1>moment and this whole death Rider's story, boy, that would suck.

<v Speaker 1>If after all of this, Adie wins the O and

<v Speaker 1>he goes in there and fucking loses, you know, in

<v Speaker 1>his home country, that would be terrible. But I just

<v Speaker 1>feel like, if that is the plan here, if they're

<v Speaker 1>gonna go with Omega and Osprey, they should have just

<v Speaker 1>had Omega win the belt at Dynasty and give him

<v Speaker 1>a few months with it at least as champion before

<v Speaker 1>dropping it in Wembley, Right, But then it begs the

<v Speaker 1>question of what do you do with MJF at Wembley

<v Speaker 1>if he does drop the belt the month before Darby Allen,

<v Speaker 1>he's got a match waiting with Kevin Knight. That seems

<v Speaker 1>pretty clear whenever Darby comes back. I suppose they could

<v Speaker 1>have Hangman Adam Page return at Redemption, maybe factor into

<v Speaker 1>the finish. Then this is assuming they do Omega and MJF.

<v Speaker 1>You could have the return of the Hangman on that

<v Speaker 1>show and he ends up costing MJF in some way,

<v Speaker 1>and then they could run back, you know, Hangman and

<v Speaker 1>MJF at all in without any championship at stake. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if that's something people would want to see again,

<v Speaker 1>but you could always do that. But that seems to

<v Speaker 1>me now like this is the direction we're leaning in

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to that Wembley Stadium show. Also on

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite on Wednesday, MJF got himself a pair of new challengers,

<v Speaker 1>as did Cope and Christian, who are the new tag

<v Speaker 1>team champions. They did an angle with the dogs. David

<v Speaker 1>Finley and Clark Connors attack them. They seem to write

<v Speaker 1>Christian off television. They just want the fucking belts and

<v Speaker 1>it looks like Christian's now gonna be off TV for

<v Speaker 1>a while. They didn't injury angle with him. I can't

<v Speaker 1>really say that does a whole lot for me, given

<v Speaker 1>the way the dogs have been booked so far with MJF.

<v Speaker 1>We had Mark Briscoe come out. Now, Mark brisco does

<v Speaker 1>have a pay per view win over MJF last year

<v Speaker 1>at All Out. I believe they had their tables and

<v Speaker 1>tax match, so I kind of understand them wanting to

<v Speaker 1>circle back to that is maybe a television title match

<v Speaker 1>at some point whatever, I mean, that's fine. They also

<v Speaker 1>set up Rushe, though, who's going to be challenging MJF

<v Speaker 1>on Dynamite this coming Wednesday for the AW World Championship. Rush,

<v Speaker 1>I guess has racked up some wins on TV, including

<v Speaker 1>in a four way random four way match, a superstation

<v Speaker 1>four way match that they had on Dynamite this week.

<v Speaker 1>And again, like, I like Ruche and Rushe as a

<v Speaker 1>hell of a wrestler and all that, but you know, again,

<v Speaker 1>these aren't necessarily title defenses that excite me terribly. The

<v Speaker 1>idea of MJF defending the belt on television, it doesn't

<v Speaker 1>bother me. He's not going to be doing it literally

<v Speaker 1>every single week until he loses it the way Darby

<v Speaker 1>Allen did, and it makes the shows a little more

<v Speaker 1>exciting when you know that you've got MJF on there,

<v Speaker 1>first of all, wrestling number one and number two defending

<v Speaker 1>the world championship. But the key is to just find

<v Speaker 1>credible challengers and hopefully they can do that more than

<v Speaker 1>they did with Darby. But I also look back at

<v Speaker 1>the run that Darby had and yeah, I mean you

<v Speaker 1>could say, like a Sammy Gavarro, what the fuck is

<v Speaker 1>he doing in there wrestling for the world title. But

<v Speaker 1>every single match that Darby had in that run was

<v Speaker 1>a hell of a match. He ended up having what

<v Speaker 1>was pretty entertaining title run for what it was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to be. I think the key with MJF is just

<v Speaker 1>finding credible challengers that they can build up, you know,

<v Speaker 1>instead of just doing it every week. Androti is another one,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, and I keep harping on that. I've

<v Speaker 1>been harping on this for six months now or almost

<v Speaker 1>six months. Where if they were to go back to

<v Speaker 1>Arena Mexico for Grand Slam, you do a match there

<v Speaker 1>between MJF and Androte for the championship. Now. I believe

<v Speaker 1>the Spanish language commentators on Dynamite may have indicated or

<v Speaker 1>let the cat out of the bag on Wednesday that

<v Speaker 1>they are doing another Grand Slam Mexico, which I presume

<v Speaker 1>would be from Arina, Mexico, and I think they said

<v Speaker 1>it was in August. So if MJF is going to

<v Speaker 1>drop the belt, let's say, in July to Kenny Omega,

<v Speaker 1>then we end up not getting MJF and Androtte. I

<v Speaker 1>still feel like that's the place though, for Androtti to

<v Speaker 1>get that eventual world title match. He's talking about it

<v Speaker 1>almost every week, so you know he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>challenging for it soon enough. I don't know if it'll

<v Speaker 1>be August, but so yeah, I mean again, MJF defending

<v Speaker 1>the title. I'm okay with it. Some people aren't, but look,

<v Speaker 1>it makes the shows at least a little more exciting.

<v Speaker 1>If he wasn't defending the championship, then they'd be bitching about, hey,

<v Speaker 1>how come we can't have exciting matches on the show.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's like you can't win sometimes. Kevin Knight

<v Speaker 1>had a promo at the beginning of Dynamite, wasn't anything

<v Speaker 1>blow away I thought it was fine as kind of

<v Speaker 1>his first official heel promo. I think it's something he's

<v Speaker 1>going to grow into. Like you could see, he's a

<v Speaker 1>better promo is a heel than he is as a babyface.

<v Speaker 1>We did get an explanation as to why he did

<v Speaker 1>what he did to Darby Allen a double or nothing.

<v Speaker 1>It's because he told him don't let the jet down.

<v Speaker 1>I love he talks about himself and the third person,

<v Speaker 1>like he's the rock, don't let the jet down. And

<v Speaker 1>what did you do? You let the jet down, You

<v Speaker 1>let all these fans down, You let the jet down,

<v Speaker 1>and you lost the belt to MJF. And then Speedball

<v Speaker 1>comes out. Obviously he's very unhappy with what Kevin Knight did.

<v Speaker 1>Knight ends up laying him out. They're going to be

<v Speaker 1>wrestling very soon, which was the obvious direction. Let him

<v Speaker 1>work with Speedball. Once all of this is done, Darby

<v Speaker 1>will come back and then you can do the Darby

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight match and that could be redemption. Maybe it's

<v Speaker 1>not Wembley, maybe that's the redemption match. But in the

<v Speaker 1>owen Hart tournaments, we had Mark Davis getting a win

<v Speaker 1>over Jack Perry and Brody King getting a win over

<v Speaker 1>Claudio Castignolie. We did not have any women's matches, although

<v Speaker 1>this Wednesday, Alex Windsor is wrestling the wild card since

<v Speaker 1>Willow Nightingale is out, we'll find out who the wildcard

<v Speaker 1>entry is on Dynamite. Kyle Fletcher made his big return

<v Speaker 1>to Double or Nothing, and as it turns out, he

<v Speaker 1>did not require surgery for his injury. He was wrestling

<v Speaker 1>on Collision on the March twenty eighth episode of Collision.

<v Speaker 1>He tore his meniscus and I believe he suffered a

<v Speaker 1>fracture in his ankle and the top of his tibia.

<v Speaker 1>And usually with the fractures, I guess they sort of

<v Speaker 1>let them heal on their own. But doctors said there

<v Speaker 1>was like a ninety percent chance he was going to

<v Speaker 1>need surgery for that meniscus tear. As it turned out,

<v Speaker 1>he fell into that ten percent that didn't and they said,

<v Speaker 1>guess what, you don't need surgery. This is what Fletcher

<v Speaker 1>announced in his new vlaw. He posed like a forty

<v Speaker 1>minute vlog to his YouTube channel, and so he was

<v Speaker 1>very excited now obviously that he didn't need surgery and

<v Speaker 1>he was just going to be able to kind of

<v Speaker 1>rest and recuperate on his own, and so that's why

<v Speaker 1>he was able to show up a Double or Nothing

<v Speaker 1>a hell of a lot sooner than I and a

<v Speaker 1>lot of other people expected. May fifteenth was the day

<v Speaker 1>that he was officially cleared to start working out in

<v Speaker 1>the ring again, and shortly thereafter his physical therapist cleared

<v Speaker 1>him to wrestle and so on Collision, which aired immediately

<v Speaker 1>after Dynamite this week. In that third hour, he called

<v Speaker 1>out Takashta. Takashta came out, said he wants Fletcher, so

<v Speaker 1>we're gonna be getting that match very soon for the

<v Speaker 1>International Championship. Now. Last week I gave a health update

<v Speaker 1>on good old Jr. Jim Ross, who is being tested

<v Speaker 1>for possible Alzheimer's disease or dementia, but aw brought him

<v Speaker 1>to New York for Double or Nothing. He only called

<v Speaker 1>one match, which was the Continental title match between John

<v Speaker 1>Moxley and Kyle O'Reilly, where he referred to O'Reilly as

<v Speaker 1>kid several times and seemed to forget his name, and

<v Speaker 1>also declared that we had a new champion at the

<v Speaker 1>end of the match, even though we did not in

<v Speaker 1>fact have a new champion. Moxley retained ex caliber. I

<v Speaker 1>thought did a good job of covering for him on that.

<v Speaker 1>Not the best night for Jim Ross and apparently not

<v Speaker 1>a great weekend for him either, based on what he

<v Speaker 1>told Conrad on his Grilling Jr. Podcast. Turns out he

<v Speaker 1>fell again. You've heard me talk about this before. Jim

<v Speaker 1>Ross has fallen a bunch of times, especially at home

<v Speaker 1>with nobody around and he lays there for hours. He's

<v Speaker 1>fallen a lot, like five or six times that we

<v Speaker 1>know of in the last few years, and this time

<v Speaker 1>it forced him to miss his flight before he ended

<v Speaker 1>up getting rebooked. This is what he said. It was

<v Speaker 1>not a good travel weekend for me. I was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to be picked up Saturday morning at like six o'clock.

<v Speaker 1>I'll have a chat with my travel guy regarding that matter.

<v Speaker 1>Why would you fly me out at six in the

<v Speaker 1>morning for a Sunday night show. It makes no sense.

<v Speaker 1>You know, I'm not seventeen anymore. So anyway, we had

<v Speaker 1>the alarm set, my driver was going to pick me up,

<v Speaker 1>and all of a sudden I fell. I hadn't had

<v Speaker 1>a fall in weeks, so I fell. I'm sorry, like

<v Speaker 1>I just as I'm reading this, I have Darby Allen's

<v Speaker 1>theme song playing in my head, he says. So I

<v Speaker 1>fell and busted my ass away from my phone. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know how how you do it. There's got to

<v Speaker 1>be a way too, I guess just put it in

<v Speaker 1>my pocket. Hell, I don't know. If I had my

<v Speaker 1>phone with me, I could have gotten a little bit

<v Speaker 1>of help. As a result of that, I missed my flight,

<v Speaker 1>and he admitted that air travel for him right now

<v Speaker 1>is the worst that it's been in all the years

<v Speaker 1>that he's been flying. But he got into New York

<v Speaker 1>City on Friday, he had a beer with ex Caliber,

<v Speaker 1>and when he got back to his hotel room, he

<v Speaker 1>had a problem with his back. He said, I got

<v Speaker 1>into my room on Saturday night. I think it was

<v Speaker 1>I laid on the bed, put my ass on the

<v Speaker 1>edge of the bed and just relaxed. Well, little did

<v Speaker 1>I know my back was going to go out on me.

<v Speaker 1>So now I'm in the hotel with my backout and

<v Speaker 1>I can't function. So it was just a horrible experience. Now,

<v Speaker 1>he said, he wishes he got to call more than

<v Speaker 1>just the one match. Had he known beforehand that he

<v Speaker 1>was only going to be doing the one match. He

<v Speaker 1>would have talked to Tony Kahn about it again, when

<v Speaker 1>you're out there calling O'Reilly kid. At thirty nine years

<v Speaker 1>with twenty plus years in the business, one match was

<v Speaker 1>probably enough. And he also said he needs to find

<v Speaker 1>a doctor to help with the weakness that he experienced

<v Speaker 1>in his legs. When asked how he's feeling now, he said, sore.

<v Speaker 1>It's like taking a big hit in the football game.

<v Speaker 1>I'm just sore as hell. But you know, I asked

<v Speaker 1>to go back to work. I can't blame anybody but myself.

<v Speaker 1>I've got to find a doctor. I got a neurologist

<v Speaker 1>now he's talking to me about risk areas for dementia

<v Speaker 1>and all that bullshit. I have the worst luck sometimes, golly,

<v Speaker 1>but just real sore. I got to find the right

<v Speaker 1>doctor that can get me back rolling because my legs

<v Speaker 1>are really weak. And on Saturday morning, one of my

<v Speaker 1>legs just went out from under me. It went like

<v Speaker 1>a piece of spaghetti. So anyhow, flying back. I could

<v Speaker 1>have stayed home. Maybe I should have, but I like

<v Speaker 1>working and I love pro wrestling. And he also noted

<v Speaker 1>that he doesn't have much time left on his aw

<v Speaker 1>contract he had signed a one year extension. Last August,

<v Speaker 1>he said, I don't have a lot more time left

<v Speaker 1>on my contract. I talked to Barry Bloom, my agent.

<v Speaker 1>He was in New York and we chatted about my status.

<v Speaker 1>I'm just going to let it play out. If Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahn wants to keep me, he will. If he doesn't,

<v Speaker 1>then he won't. Jr. Is the greatest to ever do it,

<v Speaker 1>and I like the idea of bringing him in for

<v Speaker 1>a big match here and there. You know, he has

<v Speaker 1>his good days, he has his bad days. Sunday was

<v Speaker 1>not his best day. The issue to me isn't so

<v Speaker 1>much can he still call a wrestling match. He can,

<v Speaker 1>But if he's having all of these issues traveling and

<v Speaker 1>it's kicking his ass the way that it is and

<v Speaker 1>he's constantly falling, he really should not be traveling anymore. Now.

<v Speaker 1>I understand he wants to work. He probably doesn't have to,

<v Speaker 1>you know, if he saved his money, but it probably

<v Speaker 1>makes him feel alive. You know, when he gets him

<v Speaker 1>out of the house, he doesn't have his wife anymore.

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't be surprised if he's lonely and bored and

<v Speaker 1>he wants to get out like he said he still

<v Speaker 1>loves pro wrestling. I understand all of that, but traveling

<v Speaker 1>is a young man's game, and when you're having all

<v Speaker 1>of these health issues, it doesn't you know, it doesn't

<v Speaker 1>seem like the best idea for him to be making

<v Speaker 1>these trips, not by himself anyway, even at home. It

<v Speaker 1>sounds like he needs a home aid. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if that's something that he's considered and he's resistant to it,

<v Speaker 1>like there's no shame in it. But this is not

<v Speaker 1>the first time that he's fallen and didn't have his

<v Speaker 1>phone and he just laid there for hours. That's what

<v Speaker 1>did Scott Holland. He fell at home and was apparently

<v Speaker 1>laying there for days, unable to get to a phone

<v Speaker 1>before DDP finally found them because his friends were concerned.

<v Speaker 1>They told DDP, you go over and check on him,

<v Speaker 1>and they found him on the fucking floor. You know, Jr.

<v Speaker 1>Is seventy four years old and may possibly have dementia.

<v Speaker 1>You know, God forbid. He probably needs someone who can

<v Speaker 1>be there to help look after him. You know, you

<v Speaker 1>get married and you want to grow old together, right

<v Speaker 1>in sickness and in health, and the man lost his wife.

<v Speaker 1>Anytime you lose your significant other, especially if you're someone

<v Speaker 1>who is very dependent on them or reliant on them.

<v Speaker 1>That's a tough thing to go through, especially the older

<v Speaker 1>you get. I just don't want to log on one

<v Speaker 1>day and read the Jar fell again and hit his

<v Speaker 1>head and was laying there for days before someone found him.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure Tony Khan is going to renew him again

<v Speaker 1>for another year. I'd be stunned if he doesn't. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>he keeps re signing Jake Roberts and he does nothing

<v Speaker 1>with him. There's no reason to believe, for all the

<v Speaker 1>respect that Tony has for this man, that he would

<v Speaker 1>not offer Jar another contract and would probably be happy

<v Speaker 1>to just pay him to stay home. But if Jr.

<v Speaker 1>Wants to work and he wants to get out, then

<v Speaker 1>the man's going to do what the man's going to do.

<v Speaker 1>I just, you know, based on everything he himself is saying,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's a great idea. Some other news

<v Speaker 1>and notes, there were actually two massive stories this week

<v Speaker 1>with respect to the ownership of pro wrestling companies, and

<v Speaker 1>we'll start with New Japan because New Japan for Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>announced on Wednesday our largest shareholder, Bushy Road, has concluded

<v Speaker 1>a share transfer agreement with TV Asahi and cyber Agent

<v Speaker 1>regarding Bushy Road shares in our company. As TV Asahi

<v Speaker 1>is already a shareholder of our company, this share transfer

<v Speaker 1>constitutes an additional acquisitionive shares for them. Our company will

<v Speaker 1>become a consolidated subsidiary of TV Asahi once the necessary

<v Speaker 1>procedures have been completed. Currently, we have no plans to

<v Speaker 1>make any changes to our various business operations, including the

<v Speaker 1>events that we organize, as a result of this share transfer.

<v Speaker 1>We would like to express our gratitude to Bushy Road,

<v Speaker 1>which has supported our business for many years as our

<v Speaker 1>largest shareholder, and we look forward to working together with

<v Speaker 1>TV Asahi and cyber Agent to further expand our business.

<v Speaker 1>TV Asahi is the reason that you don't see any

<v Speaker 1>new japan clips on social media anymore. There used to

<v Speaker 1>be gifts and little clips. I mean, they are lentless

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to copyright enforcement and striking YouTube channels

<v Speaker 1>to the point where it scares people off from even

<v Speaker 1>covering their content. It's one of the reasons I honestly

<v Speaker 1>don't cover it much at all anymore, you know, But

<v Speaker 1>for any big stories or big shows like Wressell Kingdom

<v Speaker 1>because it's just not worth it, and either they don't

<v Speaker 1>realize how many people that they have turned off to

<v Speaker 1>their product because of it, or they don't care. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I think it's more of a cultural thing in Japan

<v Speaker 1>where they don't really believe in the idea of fair

<v Speaker 1>use the way we do here in the US. And

<v Speaker 1>to be fair, I don't think it's only TV Asahi

<v Speaker 1>that does this, but all it's done is help kill

<v Speaker 1>a ton of exposure for their product where hardly anyone

<v Speaker 1>seems to be talking about it anymore. And now TV

<v Speaker 1>Asahi doesn't just own a small piece of the company,

<v Speaker 1>they own nearly half the damn thing, forty six point

<v Speaker 1>three percent each between TV Asahi and cyber Agent, which

<v Speaker 1>is the parent company of the Abema streaming service which

<v Speaker 1>streams WWE content in Japan, although that content is moving

<v Speaker 1>to Netflix later this year. Cyber Agent also happens to

<v Speaker 1>own pro Wrestling Noah, DDT Pro and Tokyo Joshi Pro.

<v Speaker 1>See that's what you call a monopoly on Japanese wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>That's not good. That is not a good thing. By

<v Speaker 1>the way, can we talk about how nefarious that name

<v Speaker 1>sounds cyber agent. It's like something out of a fucking anime.

<v Speaker 1>Bushy Road did not own one hundred percent of the stock.

<v Speaker 1>They owned seventy percent, but they still only netted what

<v Speaker 1>would be the equivalent of thirty two million dollars in

<v Speaker 1>the sale, which is super low considering the company was

<v Speaker 1>evaluated six years ago as being worth somewhere in the

<v Speaker 1>range of one hundred and twenty to one hundred and

<v Speaker 1>sixty million dollars, although that was pre COVID, when their

<v Speaker 1>business was a lot stronger than it is today. They

<v Speaker 1>never really fully recovered from the pandemic. Twenty nineteen was

<v Speaker 1>the year they sold out Madison Square Garden with a

<v Speaker 1>ring of honor. I mean that we're talking like the

<v Speaker 1>peak of New Japan, and there are still people who

<v Speaker 1>don't think a first time ever aw show at Madison

<v Speaker 1>Square Garden would sell out. Those people are out of

<v Speaker 1>their fucking minds. New Japan says this will be a

<v Speaker 1>good move for them given tv ASA He's strong broadcasting

<v Speaker 1>and video based and cyber agents excellent digital media operations.

<v Speaker 1>Tv ASA he is a part owner in New Japan

<v Speaker 1>World and controls New Japan's video library. Nothing has been

<v Speaker 1>said yet about how this may or may not impact

<v Speaker 1>the future of NJPW World. Will it continue to exist independently.

<v Speaker 1>Do they migrate all of their content over to the

<v Speaker 1>Avemma service. We don't know. Bushy Road does still own Stardom,

<v Speaker 1>So New Japan and Stardom were under the same umbrella

<v Speaker 1>and they work together. Now they are no longer under

<v Speaker 1>the same corporate umbrella, although the president of Stardom tweeted

<v Speaker 1>that the two promotions will continue to work together. New

<v Speaker 1>Japan did grow a lot under she Roads ownership, I

<v Speaker 1>mean it goes back to twenty twelve, but the company

<v Speaker 1>has really stagnated in recent years with the losses of

<v Speaker 1>so many big names, either because they felt they can

<v Speaker 1>make more money overseas by going to WWE or AW

<v Speaker 1>or because some of them have just retired, as Hiroshi

<v Speaker 1>Tanahashi did this year, and that was a big blow.

<v Speaker 1>Tanahashi being out of the ring was not a death blow,

<v Speaker 1>but it was a major blow to them earlier this year.

<v Speaker 1>Even though his retirement did big business a change in ownership,

<v Speaker 1>it may not inherently be a bad thing, but I

<v Speaker 1>think whenever you have one company, as is the case

<v Speaker 1>with this cyber agent owning or having large ownership stakes,

<v Speaker 1>because I'm not sure if they own like all those

<v Speaker 1>promotions I just mentioned, I don't know offhand if they

<v Speaker 1>own one hundred percent of them, or if that they

<v Speaker 1>just have controlling stakes in them when you own them,

<v Speaker 1>or you have these large ownership stakes in so many

<v Speaker 1>different companies. That's a dangerous place to be. Now. One

<v Speaker 1>positive mean greater collaboration between all of the different companies

<v Speaker 1>like New Japan and Pro Wrestling, Noah and DDT, like

<v Speaker 1>one promotion sending talents to the others on excursion, like yeah,

<v Speaker 1>things of that nature. But the bad to me outweighs

<v Speaker 1>the good in a situation like that. That's just how

<v Speaker 1>I see it. Consolidating so much power in one industry,

<v Speaker 1>so much power and influence under one roof, is never

<v Speaker 1>a good thing. All the talk about cyber agent that

<v Speaker 1>I see online having a working relationship with WWEE and

<v Speaker 1>how is this going to affect New Japan's partnership with AEW,

<v Speaker 1>I don't see that being much of an issue. Again,

<v Speaker 1>WWE content is shifting away from a BEMA. They're going

<v Speaker 1>to Netflix later this year. At that point, I don't

<v Speaker 1>think that there's any relationship between Cyber Agent and WWE,

<v Speaker 1>it probably goes away at that point. And also, you

<v Speaker 1>know whatever working relationship WWE has with Pro Wrestling Noah,

<v Speaker 1>which is owned by Cyber Agent, Like, they've allowed Shinsky

<v Speaker 1>Nakamora to work matches in Noah, They've had talents go

<v Speaker 1>back and forth on Excursion, They've sent NXT guys over there,

<v Speaker 1>They've had Noah talents come work in NXT, right, Josh Briggs,

<v Speaker 1>So we've seen this already. Meanwhile, New Japan in Pro

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Noah have maintained a working relationship throughout all of this,

<v Speaker 1>and the fact that New Japan works with AAW has

<v Speaker 1>never been an issue, So I doubt anything changes with

<v Speaker 1>regard to AAW and New Japan working together. Plus we

<v Speaker 1>have Forbidden Door coming up next month. They did announce

<v Speaker 1>this week that AW content is leaving New Japan World

<v Speaker 1>at the end of its current contract on August thirty first.

<v Speaker 1>A lot of people have read into that or are

<v Speaker 1>going to read into that it has something to do

<v Speaker 1>with the sale. I think the timing of this announcement

<v Speaker 1>is just a coincidence that content is shifting over to

<v Speaker 1>the new MYAW service that they just launched a couple

<v Speaker 1>of months ago, which I'm sure was going to happen anyway.

<v Speaker 1>It's the closest thing to their version of the WWE Network,

<v Speaker 1>so of course they're going to one their content exclusive

<v Speaker 1>to their service. It just so happened that the contract

<v Speaker 1>for it ends in August, so of course they're not

<v Speaker 1>going to renew. You don't need to read anything more

<v Speaker 1>into it than that. But that wasn't the only surprise.

<v Speaker 1>Two ex WWE stars are the new owners of the

<v Speaker 1>biggest independent promotion in the UK. This comes per The

<v Speaker 1>Daily Star. Former WWE stars Big Damo. Actually he wasn't

<v Speaker 1>Big Demo there, he was Killian Dane and Nicky Cross

<v Speaker 1>have bought Progress Wrestling. Damo, who wrestled under the ring

<v Speaker 1>name Killian Dane, made his Progress debut in twenty fifteen

<v Speaker 1>and was their first ever triple Crown champion, having won

<v Speaker 1>the Tag Team, Atlas and World titles. Meanwhile, Nicky is

<v Speaker 1>a former Raw Women's Champion after beating Charlotte Flair for

<v Speaker 1>the title. She was also a two time tag team

<v Speaker 1>champion and eleven time twenty four to seven champion. They

<v Speaker 1>take over from co owners Lee mccatteer and Martin Best. Martin,

<v Speaker 1>who took over in twenty twenty two and will help

<v Speaker 1>out with the short transition period, said, I'm personally very

<v Speaker 1>excited and look forward to seeing Damo and Nikki take

<v Speaker 1>Progress to even greater heights. The future of Progress looks

<v Speaker 1>the brightest that it has ever been. When I became

<v Speaker 1>involved in early twenty twenty two, this was very much

<v Speaker 1>a recovery mission. The business had not delivered any shows

<v Speaker 1>for nearly two years due to the pandemic, and morale

<v Speaker 1>was very low throughout the business and the wrestling world generally.

<v Speaker 1>Seventy shows later, a good number across the globe, including

<v Speaker 1>the world's first ever Women's World Championship match in Dubai,

<v Speaker 1>and an invigorating roster including an A List Hollywood Star

<v Speaker 1>is one of our champions. Oh boy, I would say

<v Speaker 1>Progress is fully restored as the number one independent wrestling

<v Speaker 1>promotion in the UK. You know what, as I read

<v Speaker 1>that quote, the fact that he's even cha championing that

<v Speaker 1>as like a big deal. Well, we have an A

<v Speaker 1>List Hollywood Star is one of our champions. Maybe it's

<v Speaker 1>for the best that they sold to somebody else said,

<v Speaker 1>This opportunity was one that we couldn't turn down. Progress

<v Speaker 1>is one of the biggest independent wrestling companies on Earth,

<v Speaker 1>with a rich history and phenomenal fans. We both started

<v Speaker 1>in the UK and Ireland and fully believed this is

<v Speaker 1>the host of the greatest talent pool on Earth and

<v Speaker 1>Progress is well positioned to showcase this generation and the

<v Speaker 1>next generation. We are also very excited to be the

<v Speaker 1>new co owners of DeFi Wrestling, home to the most

<v Speaker 1>feverish fan base in the Pacific Northwest. NICKI and I

<v Speaker 1>have an affinity with Seattle and I always had an

<v Speaker 1>incredible experience wrestling on the DeFi shows in front of

<v Speaker 1>the defiantce Is that what they call their audience, the Defiance. Yes.

<v Speaker 1>As part of this transaction, they now have an ownership

<v Speaker 1>stake in DeFi. They do not own the entire promotion,

<v Speaker 1>they're part owners now. It's been a tough go of

<v Speaker 1>it on the UK indie scene, coming out of the

<v Speaker 1>pandemic and the speaking out stuff and WWE rating so

<v Speaker 1>much talent. I'm not privy to how the scene is

<v Speaker 1>over there now. I think it's better than it was.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it's fully back to the way

<v Speaker 1>it used to be and I don't think progress has

<v Speaker 1>been the powerhouse that it used to be. Maybe these

<v Speaker 1>two can help restore that feeling, you know, as wrestlers themselves,

<v Speaker 1>they're obviously very familiar with the scene, They're very well respected,

<v Speaker 1>so I wish them all the success in the world.

<v Speaker 1>I hope they knock it out of the park. All Right,

<v Speaker 1>we got a bunch of mail bed questions, so let's

<v Speaker 1>dive into it. If you would like to drop a

<v Speaker 1>question or a comment, you could email me the Solemn

<v Speaker 1>Answer at gmail dot com. Please include your name of

<v Speaker 1>where you are from when you write in. Joseph from

<v Speaker 1>Lynn Brook, New York. I watched a Wrestling with Regret

<v Speaker 1>video in which one of the topics was WWE's struggle

<v Speaker 1>to get Roman Reigns to replace John Cena as the

<v Speaker 1>company's top babyface throughout the twenty tens. It got me

<v Speaker 1>thinking about the break that Roman took from late March

<v Speaker 1>of twenty twenty to SummerSlam of twenty twenty. That break

<v Speaker 1>gave WWE the opportunity to reset his character and begin

<v Speaker 1>the tribal and bloodline stories once he returned. What do

<v Speaker 1>you think would have happened if Roman Reigns did go

<v Speaker 1>through with his match against Goldberg at WrestleMania at thirty

<v Speaker 1>six and won the Universal Championship. Do you think his

<v Speaker 1>transformation into the tribal chief still would have happened? And

<v Speaker 1>do you think WWE would have been able to successfully

<v Speaker 1>turn crowd reactions towards Rains around. Obviously, it's one of

<v Speaker 1>those what if questions. I can't tell you with one

<v Speaker 1>hundred percent certainty because nobody knows what I think. One

<v Speaker 1>of the biggest issues was Vince McMahon's reluctance to turn

<v Speaker 1>Roman reigns heel, and clearly he wanted to go Heal,

<v Speaker 1>and as I recall, I think Roman even he may

<v Speaker 1>have talked about this at one point, but he was

<v Speaker 1>ready to walk away if they weren't going to let

<v Speaker 1>him come back and do what he wanted to do

<v Speaker 1>and go Heal and align with Hayman and everything. The

<v Speaker 1>way it went down, he was going to retire. He

<v Speaker 1>was going to walk away, So who knows for how

<v Speaker 1>long he had this idea in his head, and maybe

<v Speaker 1>Vince was resistant to it. I think had they turned

<v Speaker 1>to Heal a little bit earlier, it would have worked

<v Speaker 1>out a hell of a lot better for him. And

<v Speaker 1>I think he would have. Whether it was the tribal

<v Speaker 1>chief character or not, I don't know, but I think

<v Speaker 1>that would have He would have been fine, And I

<v Speaker 1>think it would have you know, they would have embraced

<v Speaker 1>the reactions in more of a constructive way where it

<v Speaker 1>just stop fighting against the tide. These people want to

<v Speaker 1>boo this man, this is your fault. You pushed him

<v Speaker 1>too hard, too fast. Now you have him in a

<v Speaker 1>role he's miscast as this babyface. Just embrace the hate,

<v Speaker 1>lean into it, and I think it would have worked

<v Speaker 1>out okay for him in the end. So I think

<v Speaker 1>him being a babyface for so long when people were

<v Speaker 1>resistant to him being a baby face, had a lot

<v Speaker 1>to do with it. The tribal chief character. Would we

<v Speaker 1>have the tribal chief character if he had gone heel

<v Speaker 1>a little bit earlier, That's the question. Depends how early

<v Speaker 1>you would have turned him heel, And like I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>twenty sixteen or twenty seventeen, then probably not. And where

<v Speaker 1>we are today is the bloodline of thing? Who the

<v Speaker 1>fuck knows. I floated a bloodline idea back in two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and I think it was twenty fifteen. It's funny

<v Speaker 1>not every year, but sometimes I'm fit. You have Facebook,

<v Speaker 1>Sometimes you'll log in and it'll tell you, like, ten

<v Speaker 1>years ago, on this day, you posted this, and it

<v Speaker 1>comes up sometime. I posted a photo on my Facebook page,

<v Speaker 1>but I know I talked about it on the SOUNDO off.

<v Speaker 1>Where got it? Maybe it was coming out of WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>thirty two, I don't remember, but it was this image

<v Speaker 1>of Roman backstage with the USOS, and I'm like, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if I called it the bloodline, but like

<v Speaker 1>the idea for what the bloodline would become. Dude, I

<v Speaker 1>was pitching that shit years before they did it, So

<v Speaker 1>if they would have done it back then, I don't

<v Speaker 1>know if it would have achieved the same level of

<v Speaker 1>success that it did doing it when they did in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty. I still think it could have worked. I

<v Speaker 1>just I can't sit here and tell you that it

<v Speaker 1>would have been as successful. I think everything worked out

<v Speaker 1>the way it was supposed to. But the idea of

<v Speaker 1>doing like a family bloodline type faction with Roman and

<v Speaker 1>the Ussos and then maybe finding somebody else to throw

<v Speaker 1>in there absolutely could have worked. But only his heels.

<v Speaker 1>They would have had to have been heels Christian from

<v Speaker 1>Fort Worth, Texas. I recall you saying on multiple occasions

<v Speaker 1>that Eosky and Gunther were the top two wrestlers in

<v Speaker 1>WWE in twenty twenty five, and honestly, I fully agree,

<v Speaker 1>But now in twenty twenty six, I think Penta may

<v Speaker 1>have overtaken both of them. That guy has had kick

<v Speaker 1>ass TV matches this year with Javon Evans and Dragon Lee,

<v Speaker 1>and then you add in the WrestleMania A ladder match.

<v Speaker 1>It feels like every time Penta wrestles, he brings a

<v Speaker 1>different energy and pace than almost anyone else in the company.

<v Speaker 1>Right now, who do you think is the current inn

<v Speaker 1>ring king and Queen of WWE. You're not wrong. You're

<v Speaker 1>not wrong about Penta. The only other one I would

<v Speaker 1>consider on the WWE side right now is Cmpunk, And

<v Speaker 1>I never thought I would be sitting here saying that,

<v Speaker 1>But for CM Punk, you know, he's had a bunch

<v Speaker 1>of really good matches, and he had some title defenses

<v Speaker 1>on TV that were very good, And so for me,

<v Speaker 1>so far, it's Punk or Penta, I think on the

<v Speaker 1>men's side. On the women's side in WWE, you know,

<v Speaker 1>no one has really stood out to me. This year,

<v Speaker 1>but it would probably still be EO. She's had some

<v Speaker 1>really good ones this year with Oscar and soul Ruka,

<v Speaker 1>so I would probably just revert back to her, just

<v Speaker 1>because nobody else has really broken out and stood out

<v Speaker 1>to me so far. Doug from Santa Barbara, California, longtime listener.

<v Speaker 1>I couldn't tell you for how long. I just celebrated

<v Speaker 1>a ten year wedding anniversary, and I know I've been

<v Speaker 1>listening since before then. I love it. Happy anniversary, by

<v Speaker 1>the way, My question is in regards to the XWF,

<v Speaker 1>can you give a brief overview of what this was.

<v Speaker 1>I came across some clips and had never heard about

<v Speaker 1>this promotion. From my understanding, this is after WCW folded

<v Speaker 1>and there was an attempt to create a new promotion.

<v Speaker 1>The YouTube clip show top guys like Hogan and Piper

<v Speaker 1>to unknowns like a young aj Styles. It also appears

<v Speaker 1>these tapings were held at Universal where TNA would later

<v Speaker 1>be taped. Any correlation there so the XWF was born

<v Speaker 1>out of the idea that Hulk Hogan would be involved

<v Speaker 1>and it would basically be built around him and they

<v Speaker 1>would tape at Universal Studios, but they struggled to get

<v Speaker 1>a TV deal and that ultimately is what killed him.

<v Speaker 1>I think Kevin Harrington was involved, you know, he was.

<v Speaker 1>He's like one of the CEO entrepreneur types. He was

<v Speaker 1>pumping money into it. He's been a guest shark at

<v Speaker 1>times on Shark Tank if that name sounds familiar. They

<v Speaker 1>did get some big names. They had Hogan obviously, although

<v Speaker 1>he was never actually signed, but they had Hogan because

<v Speaker 1>like Brian Knobs and Jimmy Hart were involved in this.

<v Speaker 1>Of course, you know Hogan's friends with them, Roddy Piper,

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Hennig, the Road Warriors, Sable mean Jean Jerry Lawler.

<v Speaker 1>This was right before WWE brought him back, and I

<v Speaker 1>mean right before, like a few days later. I think

<v Speaker 1>they called him and they brought him back, but they

<v Speaker 1>made Piper the commissioner. I think Sable was like the

<v Speaker 1>CEO or something. Hogan worked a match against Hennig at

<v Speaker 1>one of the tapings and Hennig was gone. Not long

<v Speaker 1>after that, when WWE brought him back for the Royal

<v Speaker 1>rumbland O two, Hennig was going to be one of

<v Speaker 1>their featured guys, so that was a blow. They tried

<v Speaker 1>a house show tour. It did not do well. They

<v Speaker 1>just couldn't get a TV deal, like nobody was interested,

<v Speaker 1>so they just it just sort of petered out, not

<v Speaker 1>until after all of the investors, of course, lost a

<v Speaker 1>bunch of money trying to launch this thing, right with

<v Speaker 1>Hogan thinking Hogan would be the lead attraction, and maybe

<v Speaker 1>with Hogan as the lead attraction, it would have had

<v Speaker 1>a shot. I think it would have had a shot.

<v Speaker 1>But he wasn't committed to it. He never signed an

<v Speaker 1>actual contract with them, so it was never gonna work.

<v Speaker 1>It was just a money pit. Yeah, and I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>Hennig ended up going back to WWE in January of too.

<v Speaker 1>Hogan went back like two months later. He was not

<v Speaker 1>even two months. A month later he was back in

<v Speaker 1>WWE also, But yeah, it was a money pit. TNA

<v Speaker 1>starting up around the same time, had nothing to do

<v Speaker 1>with anything, right, same with Ring of Honor, which also

<v Speaker 1>started around that time, so there is no correlation there.

<v Speaker 1>TNA didn't even start taping a universal until like two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and four, so there's no connection between the two.

<v Speaker 1>Adrian from Melbourne, Australia a few weeks ago on TNT

<v Speaker 1>somebody asked the question of what makes a great promo,

<v Speaker 1>and you replied with saying authenticity. Given that Oba Femei's

<v Speaker 1>Nigerian accent is not his actual accent, do you think

<v Speaker 1>that that will hinder his ability to stay a main

<v Speaker 1>event act for years to come, at least in the

<v Speaker 1>sense of selling a match with his mouth. Also, on

<v Speaker 1>the sound off last week, you mentioned being a big

<v Speaker 1>star in the wrestling industry does not necessarily need to

<v Speaker 1>be validated by having ever worked for WWE. Can you

<v Speaker 1>give a few of your biggest examples of this. Who

<v Speaker 1>are your top three wrestling stars that did not make

<v Speaker 1>their name in WWE. Well, first of all, on Oba

<v Speaker 1>Oba does have a Nigerian accent. He lived there until

<v Speaker 1>he was nineteen. He just exaggerates it for TV, so

<v Speaker 1>it's not like he isn't authentically Nigerian. Does he speak

<v Speaker 1>that way when he's having like a conversation behind the

<v Speaker 1>scenes with somebody not exactly Again, he kind of amps

<v Speaker 1>it up and embellishes it a little bit, but he

<v Speaker 1>is Nigerian, and I honestly I wouldn't be shocked if

<v Speaker 1>he tones it down a little bit as time goes on.

<v Speaker 1>But no, I don't see it negatively affecting him or

<v Speaker 1>people looking at him as not being authentic or main

<v Speaker 1>event worthy or anything like that. So No, to answer

<v Speaker 1>your question, no, he's gonna be fine. On your second question.

<v Speaker 1>As far as becoming big stars outside of WWE, Sting

<v Speaker 1>is still the big one. I mean, he did eventually

<v Speaker 1>go there, but he was already a made man by

<v Speaker 1>that point. If you want me to give you a

<v Speaker 1>top three, I mean, look, of course I can go

<v Speaker 1>into big names out of Japan and big names out

<v Speaker 1>of Mexico and you know Santo, and I mean we

<v Speaker 1>can ricky dozen without going into those names. If I

<v Speaker 1>had a top three in no particular order, Sting would

<v Speaker 1>be on there obviously. Kenny Omega, kazuchko O, Kada Omega

<v Speaker 1>and Okada are the two that are still active as

<v Speaker 1>we speak that. Like, come on, dude, Like, how do

<v Speaker 1>you not think of those guys? You could throw Muda

<v Speaker 1>in there, throw the Great Muda in there too, right,

<v Speaker 1>there's lots of them. Alfonso from the Philippines. Would Batista,

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton, and John Cena be top guys that brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner stayed in two thousand and four and never left.

<v Speaker 1>What would all of their roles be from four to

<v Speaker 1>the present day, and would Eddie Guerrero become WWE champion,

<v Speaker 1>would the JBL gimmick be launched. Well, it's a lot

<v Speaker 1>of what ifs Alfonso let me step in my time

<v Speaker 1>machine and find out their paths would have been a

<v Speaker 1>little bit different. But yeah, I think every single one

<v Speaker 1>of them would have still gone on to become big

<v Speaker 1>stars and world champions. I don't really think it changes that.

<v Speaker 1>I do think like Sina, for example, he would not

<v Speaker 1>have gotten the big push when he did. I think

<v Speaker 1>it would have been delayed. But with the roster split,

<v Speaker 1>you would have had Brock on one side and you

<v Speaker 1>would have had somebody on the other side. It was

<v Speaker 1>either Sena or Battista, So I think in the end,

<v Speaker 1>and Orton, of course, I mean Orton was the chosen

<v Speaker 1>one from day one. Give me a break. It's like

<v Speaker 1>the rock, you know, when Patterson kind of I think

<v Speaker 1>Patterson was the one who recruited him or Jim Ross

<v Speaker 1>brought him in, I think, but they were all very like.

<v Speaker 1>I think it was Patterson who made the comment evince

<v Speaker 1>like this this is gonna be the guy, this is

<v Speaker 1>gonna be your world champion. This is gonna be your

<v Speaker 1>top star. And this is when he was Rocky my

<v Speaker 1>Via in ninety six. So he was tabbed from day one,

<v Speaker 1>just like Orton was tabbed from day one because of

<v Speaker 1>his pedigree, because of the way he looked the pretty boy.

<v Speaker 1>So yeah, they were all gonna end up being big stars.

<v Speaker 1>Would Eddie become WWE champion if Brock wasn't leaving? So

<v Speaker 1>that's an interesting one because I don't know when Brock

<v Speaker 1>informed them that he was gonna be leaving. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know how far in advance of WrestleMania he's like, like

<v Speaker 1>when he lost the belt to Eddie. I I'm pretty

<v Speaker 1>sure they already knew he was leaving, but I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know exactly when he informed them that he

<v Speaker 1>was that he was going to be leaving. If that

<v Speaker 1>directly led to Eddie beating him for the belt, it

<v Speaker 1>probably did. So if that doesn't happen, in no way

<v Speaker 1>out does Eddie Guerrero have become champion? I say yes,

<v Speaker 1>I think at some point he would have had the chance,

<v Speaker 1>especially when you had two world titles. I'm pretty sure

<v Speaker 1>Eddie would have gotten the chance at some point. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>unless they you know, maybe him dying the following year

<v Speaker 1>would have That's the only thing I mean maybe, Uh

<v Speaker 1>so hard to say. It's so hard to say. I

<v Speaker 1>think he would have. I'm gonna say yes. Now, would

<v Speaker 1>the JBL gimmick have been launched. That's also an interesting one.

<v Speaker 1>That was so so sudden. There was no real build

<v Speaker 1>to it. There was no tease of anything. He just

<v Speaker 1>showed up one week with this completely different gimmick. He

<v Speaker 1>was in a fucking suit. He was like somebody off

<v Speaker 1>Wall Street. And before this he was the brawling Texan,

<v Speaker 1>you know, he was like the big the big Joq

<v Speaker 1>who went around just beating people up. And then it

<v Speaker 1>was like a one to eighty. He showed up on television,

<v Speaker 1>he had his book, his best selling book, and the

<v Speaker 1>cowboy hat, and it was like, what the fuck is this?

<v Speaker 1>Because they needed heels. They were desperate for heels, so

<v Speaker 1>brock leaving was one of the reasons, maybe the biggest

<v Speaker 1>reason why we ended up with JBL. Would we have

<v Speaker 1>gotten JBL anyway, I'm gonna say yes, I think we

<v Speaker 1>would have. I think they would have wanted to push

<v Speaker 1>him as a singles heel on that show, and I

<v Speaker 1>think they would have leaned into, you know, because he

<v Speaker 1>did do a book, and I think they would have

<v Speaker 1>leaned into that and would have given him a makeover regardless.

<v Speaker 1>But would it have happened when it did? Know? And

<v Speaker 1>I would think that maybe they would have done a

<v Speaker 1>better job of building up to it if they didn't

<v Speaker 1>feel so desperate, like shit, we need to do something now.

<v Speaker 1>Richie from Long Island, New York. I was rewatching your

<v Speaker 1>top nine WWE promo videos that you did back in

<v Speaker 1>January of twenty nineteen. Since then, would there be any

<v Speaker 1>WWE promos that you would add to the list that

<v Speaker 1>happened from twenty nineteen to the present day? Just one,

<v Speaker 1>I think, just one, the cmpunk one that he did

<v Speaker 1>this year heading into WrestleMania where he just torched everybody.

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns and Pat McAfee and the Rock and ari

<v Speaker 1>Emanuel that promo because I said, I thought it was

<v Speaker 1>more of a pipe bomb than the og pipe bomb was,

<v Speaker 1>even though that one has a lot obviously, that one's

<v Speaker 1>a lot more impactful and more memorable. The only other

<v Speaker 1>one that I might throw in there, and it's tough

<v Speaker 1>because it's a three way promo as opposed to just

<v Speaker 1>one guy going out there and going off, which is

<v Speaker 1>what my list was all about. But if there was one,

<v Speaker 1>maybe the one with Punk and Rollins and Drew McIntyre

<v Speaker 1>two years ago heading into WrestleMania forty, because that was great.

<v Speaker 1>But I don't know that I would count that one,

<v Speaker 1>you know, any more than I would the best of

<v Speaker 1>the Sammy's Ain Bloodline segments. I don't really see those

<v Speaker 1>as just straight promos. But if you want to check

<v Speaker 1>out my original list, I've got all the segments pulled

<v Speaker 1>from the sound off in a playlist on the YouTube channel.

<v Speaker 1>Just go under the playlist tab and look for top

<v Speaker 1>nine WWE promos and you can go through all of

<v Speaker 1>them there. Jacob from McAllen, Texas. One question that comes

<v Speaker 1>up while rewatching WWE in two thousand and two is

<v Speaker 1>one Hogan regained the belt and WWE were basically playing

<v Speaker 1>the classics, so for example, Flair versus Hogan on Raw.

<v Speaker 1>My question is that since early two thousand and two

<v Speaker 1>the Big Boss Man was brought back, why wasn't he

<v Speaker 1>put into a program with Hogan since both of them

<v Speaker 1>had chemistry since the late eighties. Do you think this

<v Speaker 1>was a missed opportunity. No, because dude, it was two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and two. Like you're talking about a feud from

<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty nine. You know that was also Fat boss Man.

<v Speaker 1>Fat boss men and skinny boss Men are two very different,

<v Speaker 1>two very different people. It's like fat Gunther and current

<v Speaker 1>Gunther that sort of thing. But now, I mean, dude,

<v Speaker 1>like in O two, if you were going to use

<v Speaker 1>the old guys like this, use the old guys with

<v Speaker 1>some of your newer guys. And I know they weren't

<v Speaker 1>like you said they had Hogan versus Flair. We had

<v Speaker 1>Hogan versus Undertaker, so they weren't exclusively using Hogan to

<v Speaker 1>get over the new guys. Although he did tap out

<v Speaker 1>to Kurt Angle and then he lost to Brockleisner. That's

<v Speaker 1>how Hogan should have been used, honestly, Like, let him

<v Speaker 1>work with some of the bigger stars that are on

<v Speaker 1>the ascent in the company. What's by doing Hogan against

<v Speaker 1>boss Man other than to pop the old fans. I

<v Speaker 1>mean you could have done it, I guess as a

<v Speaker 1>raw match, But is that really going to appeal to

<v Speaker 1>anybody in two thousand and two? I don't think so.

<v Speaker 1>Archie from Sydney Big fan of your work. I listened

<v Speaker 1>to every show you put out, probably for the last

<v Speaker 1>thirteen years. Wow. Thank you. I finally listened to the

<v Speaker 1>entire Death of WCW book on Audible. Have you listened

<v Speaker 1>to it or read it? Any thoughts on it? I

<v Speaker 1>found it quite insightful, especially when everything started going downhill

<v Speaker 1>in ninety eight. What would be your recommendation for a

<v Speaker 1>great wrestling book to read? I did read it. I

<v Speaker 1>bought the book itself many years ago. I read it.

<v Speaker 1>I loved it. It's informative, but it's also funny. Sometimes sad,

<v Speaker 1>but still funny, and also frustrating because you just sort

<v Speaker 1>of read all of these dumbshit decisions that were made

<v Speaker 1>and you're like, man, this company did not need to die.

<v Speaker 1>It did not need to die when it did. As

<v Speaker 1>far as other wrestling books, look, it's a chance for

<v Speaker 1>me to give a good plug too. Audible dot com

<v Speaker 1>slash Solo Monster. You can actually get it for free.

<v Speaker 1>There's tons of great wrestling books on there, and if

<v Speaker 1>you want to download one of them for free, just

<v Speaker 1>use my link if you if you haven't already, I

<v Speaker 1>don't think you can use it more than once. But dude,

<v Speaker 1>there's a ton of great wrestling books on there. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Daniel Bryan's book from many years ago, Brett Hart's entire book,

<v Speaker 1>which I think he narrates at things like an encyclopedia,

<v Speaker 1>probably still the best wrestling book that's up there. You

<v Speaker 1>mentioned the Death of WCW. They if you want the

<v Speaker 1>definitive like nitro book, Guy Evans is the author. If

<v Speaker 1>you just type in Nitro, his book is on there,

<v Speaker 1>it will come up. Definitely download that, like if if

<v Speaker 1>you want to get into the minutia of w CW

<v Speaker 1>business and then what led to the downfall, you know,

<v Speaker 1>from the night so basically the rise and fall of

<v Speaker 1>the Nitro. He talks to a lot of the people

<v Speaker 1>that were that were there on the front lines and

<v Speaker 1>not just Bischoff, like people at Turner, and there's there's receipts,

<v Speaker 1>and there's dollar amounts, and there's memos like it's very

<v Speaker 1>very detailed and very very informative. So again it's called Nitro.

<v Speaker 1>That would be my recommendation. So good stuff. Keep emailing

<v Speaker 1>me the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. I mentioned

<v Speaker 1>the back rooms earlier, So I went to the movies

<v Speaker 1>this week because I was I was actually feeling a

<v Speaker 1>little bit better on Thursday, and now I feel like

<v Speaker 1>I've I've taken like five steps back today. But I

<v Speaker 1>went to the movies on Thursday to see it. It

<v Speaker 1>was like a Thursday four o'clock showing and the theater

<v Speaker 1>was packed. And it's awesome to see the success that

<v Speaker 1>Obsession and the back Rooms are having this month. Like

<v Speaker 1>Obsession just passed one hundred million dollars at the box

<v Speaker 1>office on a budget of seven hundred and fifty thousand,

<v Speaker 1>And like, you don't watch the movie thinking, oh, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>this movie looks like it was a on a sub

<v Speaker 1>million dollar budget. It doesn't. It looks like I mean,

<v Speaker 1>it looks like any other movie. But they managed to

<v Speaker 1>make it for under a million dollars and now it's

<v Speaker 1>already made over one hundred million. I mean, that's just insane.

<v Speaker 1>Back Rooms was made on a ten million dollar budget

<v Speaker 1>and just did thirty eight million dollars on its opening

<v Speaker 1>night alone. We'll see what it does at the end

<v Speaker 1>of this weekend. There's talk that maybe it could do

<v Speaker 1>like eighty million or something. But it was the fourth

<v Speaker 1>biggest opening day all time for a horror movie.

<v Speaker 2>And these are movies made by YouTubers they cut their

<v Speaker 2>teeth on YouTube, Curry Barker, Caine Parsons like it's unbelievable,

<v Speaker 2>And look at the numbers they're putting up against Hollywood

<v Speaker 2>big budget films, Like, you know, these executives are looking

<v Speaker 2>at the money that they're spending.

<v Speaker 1>On some of these, like a list Hollywood films that

<v Speaker 1>they spend literally like one hundred and fifty million dollar

<v Speaker 1>budget and a fucking green screen, and they're looking at

<v Speaker 1>how much money these are generating, and they're asking themselves

<v Speaker 1>like what the fuck are we doing wrong? It just

<v Speaker 1>feels like there's this new movement now that's taking hold,

<v Speaker 1>and now you have proof of concept where these movies

<v Speaker 1>are actually making money and make in turning a profit.

<v Speaker 1>I was a fan of the Cane Pixels that Caane

<v Speaker 1>Parsons on YouTube. Hiss channel is Cane Pixels. I was

<v Speaker 1>a fan of the Cane Pixels backroom series on YouTube.

<v Speaker 1>As far as I'm concerned, that is the back rooms.

<v Speaker 1>I know other people have their own videos and their

<v Speaker 1>own version of what the back rooms is. His are

<v Speaker 1>the best, though, And he's a young guy. He's twenty

<v Speaker 1>years old and a twenty four basically said, here you go,

<v Speaker 1>here's ten million dollars bring it to the big screen,

<v Speaker 1>and he did a good job. It's not as good

<v Speaker 1>as Obsession. Obsession is a better movie. I feel like

<v Speaker 1>Obsession has ruined all movies for me this year, basically

<v Speaker 1>horror movies at least, I don't know. We still have

<v Speaker 1>Resident Evil later this year in Clayface. We'll see how

<v Speaker 1>those turn out. But the visuals in this movie are tremendous.

<v Speaker 1>If you find liminal spaces scary, then you'll find it scary.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't find it as scary as it is unsettling,

<v Speaker 1>and there were a couple of things I wasn't a

<v Speaker 1>fan of. I don't want to give away any spoilers though,

<v Speaker 1>so I won't get into it. But the tone, the tone,

<v Speaker 1>to me, it reminded me a lot of Channel Zero.

<v Speaker 1>Channel Zero was a really good horror anthology series that

<v Speaker 1>aired on the Sci Fi network I don't know, maybe

<v Speaker 1>a decade ago, where each season had its own story

<v Speaker 1>and each season had its own set of characters. So

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't an anthology series like Black Mirror, like where

<v Speaker 1>every episode is independent of each other. Here, each season

<v Speaker 1>was independent of each other, and I was pissed when

<v Speaker 1>it got canceled, but they got four seasons out of it.

<v Speaker 1>This gave me Channel zero vibes, which is a good thing.

<v Speaker 1>So if you like the back rooms, you'll enjoy this.

<v Speaker 1>If you have no idea what the back rooms are,

<v Speaker 1>but you like horror, I still think you'll enjoy it.

<v Speaker 1>It's not heavy on the gore or anything, but it

<v Speaker 1>doesn't have to be because it fox with your head.

<v Speaker 1>But also don't forget. Like I'm on letterbox now, every

<v Speaker 1>time I see a new movie, I make sure I

<v Speaker 1>mark it down. I put a little review in there.

<v Speaker 1>The solo Monster. That's my handle on there on letterbox.

<v Speaker 1>But anyway, thank you guys for indulging me here for

<v Speaker 1>these ninety minutes or how how long have I gone here?

<v Speaker 1>How long have I gone here? Oh? Now we' forty

<v Speaker 1>Not bad, not bad for a guy whose head feels

<v Speaker 1>like it's about to explode. I will be back with

<v Speaker 1>you tomorrow, though I will be doing a live review

<v Speaker 1>probably eight pm Eastern for Clash in Italy, which airs

<v Speaker 1>at two pm. And then on Monday we'll be back

<v Speaker 1>with the Raw Post Show. In a brand new episode

<v Speaker 1>of The Uncrowned Wrestling Show, on Tuesday Tuesday Night Titans.

<v Speaker 1>We should be doing all of our usual streams and

<v Speaker 1>shows this upcoming week right into next weekend, which will

<v Speaker 1>be episode nine to sixty six of the Solo Monsters

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I appreciate all the support this week, both

<v Speaker 1>on PayPal and YouTube. Keep it coming, be well, stay safe,

<v Speaker 1>have yourself. Is a great rest of your weekend. If

<v Speaker 1>you are watching the Triple A show tonight, Mask Versus Mask,

<v Speaker 1>I'll be tuned in, enjoy it, and I'll see you

<v Speaker 1>back here for Clash in Italy, and then next Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>back in our normal time slot for episode nine sixty

<v Speaker 1>six of the Sound Off. Until then, take care, guys.

<v Speaker 1>The solemn Monster Sounds Off. Dog shit. That is what

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown has become. This is a horrendous television show. I

<v Speaker 1>know they have the Real Housewives of Orange County and

<v Speaker 1>the Real Housewives of Trenton, New Jersey, the Real Housewives

<v Speaker 1>of Osh Bagosh Wisconsin, or whatever the fuck. I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>every single one of those shows are light years ahead

<v Speaker 1>of Friday Night's SmackDown. This is the worst show on television.

<v Speaker 1>You can gotta stick dynamite in this show, and I

<v Speaker 1>don't mean aw dynamite actual dynamites and blow the whole

<v Speaker 1>fucking thing up and start all over again. This shows sucks.

<v Speaker 1>The Solo Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,

<v Speaker 1>and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus

<v Speaker 1>content for subscribers, and follow the Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,

<v Speaker 1>and x The Solo Monster Dom shit