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

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

<v Speaker 1>want your soulier a woman.

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

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

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

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

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

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

<v Speaker 1>This is episode nine to seventy two of the Solemn

<v Speaker 1>Monster Sounds Off for this Sunday, July nineteenth, twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>I saw the Odyssey this week, not in the way

<v Speaker 1>that Christopher Nolan intended for it to be. Seed. See,

<v Speaker 1>there's only twenty five theaters in the entire country that

<v Speaker 1>have the ability to show it in IMAX seventy millimeter,

<v Speaker 1>which is what he shot this on. Uh, you've got

<v Speaker 1>three o'clock in the morning showings at theaters all across

<v Speaker 1>the country selling out. There is not a seat to

<v Speaker 1>be had. Meanwhile, you could walk into any eight pm

<v Speaker 1>showing of the new Moana movie and you can have

<v Speaker 1>your pick of where you want to sit. It's so empty,

<v Speaker 1>but it's crazy, twenty five theaters across the entire country.

<v Speaker 1>So I saw it in Limax, which was fine. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure it's not the same experience. I see photos from

<v Speaker 1>some of these theaters that have the seventy millimeter screens,

<v Speaker 1>and you know it just it looks so different, it

<v Speaker 1>looks so much better. But what are you gonna do?

<v Speaker 1>So I went to go see it really, really good.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Nolan, he earned a lot of points with

<v Speaker 1>me because The Dark Knight is my favorite film. And

<v Speaker 1>somebody pointed this out last night that the eighteen year anniversary.

<v Speaker 1>I guess yesterday, since The Dark Knight was released. It's

<v Speaker 1>still my favorite movie of all time. And I haven't

<v Speaker 1>seen all of his movies, but like this one was

<v Speaker 1>getting a lot of hype and it's Nolan. I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>all right, let me go see it. So you can

<v Speaker 1>imagine my surprise when the movie begins. And if you

<v Speaker 1>know what the Odyssey is about, right, it's a period piece.

<v Speaker 1>And the movie begins and the first person that I

<v Speaker 1>see is Travis Scott and yes, I had fiend, fiend,

<v Speaker 1>fiend in my head as I'm sitting here watching this movie.

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, what the hell is he doing on my screen?

<v Speaker 1>That was quite the surprise, But it's really good.

<v Speaker 2>You know.

<v Speaker 1>I wasn't judging it against the source material or anything

<v Speaker 1>like that, because I mean, my god, I haven't read

<v Speaker 1>any of that stuff since since school, so I wasn't

<v Speaker 1>judging it against that. I was just judging it based

<v Speaker 1>on whether or not I thought it was a good

<v Speaker 1>movie or not. I will say you the horror fan

<v Speaker 1>in me, I definitely would like to see Nolan do

<v Speaker 1>a horror film at some point. There is a cyclops

<v Speaker 1>monster scene in this movie, and there's a witch scene.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to give anything away from them, but

<v Speaker 1>I was certainly smiling as the horror fan of me

<v Speaker 1>was tickled by some of the stuff that they had

<v Speaker 1>there in those scenes. Very loud, some of these, some

<v Speaker 1>of these, I don't know if it was an IMAX

<v Speaker 1>thing or just a Nolan thing, but some of these scenes,

<v Speaker 1>my god, it was so loud and the seat and

<v Speaker 1>the theater were vibrating. I wasn't even in the four

<v Speaker 1>D X showing. Oh my god, I can't even imagine

<v Speaker 1>what a four DX showing of this movie would be like.

<v Speaker 1>With all the boats on the seas and everything in

<v Speaker 1>the storms rocking back and forth. I wouldn't be able

<v Speaker 1>to get out of bed the next day. But anyway,

<v Speaker 1>so go see it for yourself. You can judge for yourself.

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was really good. Ignore all the noise

<v Speaker 1>on social media. Social media is not a real place.

<v Speaker 1>X is not a real place. Look, it's a long movie.

<v Speaker 1>There are people who may watch the movie and be

<v Speaker 1>bored by it, and that's a perfectly valid criticism. I

<v Speaker 1>was a little skeptical myself. It's almost three hours long.

<v Speaker 1>Is it going to move at a brisk pace? Is

<v Speaker 1>it going to move it to snails pace? I was

<v Speaker 1>never bored. The movie actually kind of breeze by fairly

<v Speaker 1>quickly for me. So I give it a thumbs up.

<v Speaker 1>Go judge for yourself or don't. I don't care, but

<v Speaker 1>just don't base your decision to go or not based

<v Speaker 1>on some dumb shit chatter on social media. We got

<v Speaker 1>a lot to get into. We got a lot of

<v Speaker 1>little news and notes. We have fallout from Saturday night

<v Speaker 1>to main event last night, either that or the NBA

<v Speaker 1>on TNT. I wasn't sure what I was watching there

<v Speaker 1>at the end. There for a little bit, but we'll

<v Speaker 1>talk about that. We'll talk about aw Dynamite, which apparently

<v Speaker 1>was a very polarizing show this week. I did not

<v Speaker 1>get to do my live review on Wednesday, so you're

<v Speaker 1>going to get it here today. And the finale, not

<v Speaker 1>of the season, but the three episode arc in Dark

<v Speaker 1>Side of the Ring Jeff jareded in the Battle for

<v Speaker 1>TNA Wrestling Part three. We'll get into all that. If

<v Speaker 1>you want to support the podcast, I appreciate it each

<v Speaker 1>and every single week, you may do so. Go to

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

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

<v Speaker 1>get you a nickname and a shout out. I want

<v Speaker 1>to say thank you to Rachel from the Badger State.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you, Rachel, as well as the Portland pop star

<v Speaker 1>Paul Hamilton Always rocking It, Big b Bryant, Visera, the Diamond,

<v Speaker 1>Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's sew Up, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,

<v Speaker 1>The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eicherd, Big Time, Boris Weinman, Fast Blast,

<v Speaker 1>Tim Banks, Q, The Destroyer, Knight Stalker, nif Al Safar, Killshot,

<v Speaker 1>Keith Hart, we got recon Russell Bulware, who says that

<v Speaker 1>he wishes WWE would do a college stadium tour. Probably

<v Speaker 1>impractical because of being state owned. I'm certain that holding

<v Speaker 1>a monthly event would turn a great number. I can

<v Speaker 1>imagine eighty thousand plus at Jordan Hare Stadium, an Alabama boy,

<v Speaker 1>I see, thank you, Russell. There is no way they

<v Speaker 1>would do eighty thousand fans there. I just dude, they're

<v Speaker 1>struggling to put They're struggling to put thirty thousand in

<v Speaker 1>US Bank Stadium for two nights of SummerSlam. Do you

<v Speaker 1>think they're gonna put eighty thousand fans in Jordan Hare Stadium,

<v Speaker 1>let alone put up numbers like that in different college

<v Speaker 1>stadiums every month. You know, college football is a different

<v Speaker 1>beast man. College football is a religion down South. They

<v Speaker 1>can put eighty thousand people in the stadium. WWE ain't

<v Speaker 1>putting eight thousand people in that stadium. But happy birthday, brother,

<v Speaker 1>Russell just turned twenty eight. I hope it's a great

<v Speaker 1>twenty eight. Here's to twenty eight more and another twenty

<v Speaker 1>eight after that. The five star kid Joshua Forornville could

<v Speaker 1>check out his JDF retro Games channel on YouTube now

<v Speaker 1>with the tagline reject modern gaming, return to retrogaming. Well

<v Speaker 1>you say that now until GTA six drops, But he

<v Speaker 1>says it's because modern gaming is too expensive nowadays a

<v Speaker 1>lot of things are too expensive these days compared to

<v Speaker 1>years ago. Gaming is certainly one of them. But go

<v Speaker 1>check out the new channel JDF retro games content every Saturday.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you, Joshua. And last, but certainly not least, jubilant,

<v Speaker 1>Jessica from Glendale, Arizona writes in wanting to wish her

<v Speaker 1>husband Tony a very happy birthday. She says he's a

<v Speaker 1>wonderful human being and she's proud of him for all

<v Speaker 1>he's done to change his career, going from tech to teaching.

<v Speaker 1>How about that? So, yes, I want to wish Tony

<v Speaker 1>a very happy birthday as well. I hope it's a

<v Speaker 1>great one. WWE announced dates for fourteen upcoming shows, and

<v Speaker 1>one of those shows is Another World's Collide between WWE

<v Speaker 1>and Triple A. This is the second one that they've done,

<v Speaker 1>their first one since September when Dominic Mysterio won the

<v Speaker 1>Triple A Mega Championship from l e Hodel Vikingo, who

<v Speaker 1>was out by the way with a torn acl So

<v Speaker 1>that's that's going to be at least a good probably

<v Speaker 1>eight or nine months before we see him back. They

<v Speaker 1>just vacated the Triple A Latin American title if they're

<v Speaker 1>going to be holding a tournament for it to crown

<v Speaker 1>a new champion. But what's notable about this is the

<v Speaker 1>date and the location of This World's Collide show Saturday,

<v Speaker 1>September twenty sixth, in Chicago, Illinois at the All State Arena.

<v Speaker 1>They just ran the All State Arena last week and

<v Speaker 1>they're already going back. Why are they going back so quickly,

<v Speaker 1>you might ask, Well, that just so happens to be

<v Speaker 1>the same day that AEW is running its all out

<v Speaker 1>pay per view from the Now Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois,

<v Speaker 1>which is just outside Chicago. This is coming off them

<v Speaker 1>scheduling an NXT Great American Bash show last month to

<v Speaker 1>run head to head with Forbidden Door, and the announcement

<v Speaker 1>of an NXT heat Wave show the same day as

<v Speaker 1>aw All in London next month. But they're not competition, everybody,

<v Speaker 1>remember that, they're definitely not competition. So fans in Chicago

<v Speaker 1>they're going to have to decide which show to attend

<v Speaker 1>right now, all out of scheduled for a seven pm

<v Speaker 1>Eastern start time. I'm not sure offhand about World's Collide.

<v Speaker 1>It's going to be in that same range. And I

<v Speaker 1>will be in Chicago that Friday because House of Glory

<v Speaker 1>is running a show in Chicago on September twenty fifth,

<v Speaker 1>so that is going to be a very busy weekend

<v Speaker 1>of wrestling. We'll see if Tony bumps up the start time.

<v Speaker 1>They've already got forty one hundred tickets out for that show.

<v Speaker 1>I hope not keep it right where it is. Stand

<v Speaker 1>your ground, especially since I won't be home in time

<v Speaker 1>to watch it live. If he does move it up

<v Speaker 1>earlier in the day, let me be flying home that day,

<v Speaker 1>So that's gonna be a gigantic pain in my ass.

<v Speaker 1>So stand your ground, Tony, keep it exactly where it is.

<v Speaker 1>And by the way, don't be surprised to see some

<v Speaker 1>big names including oh, I don't know, maybe a certain

<v Speaker 1>CM Punk wrestling on that World's Collide show. They're definitely

<v Speaker 1>getting one or two big names on there. Punk is

<v Speaker 1>the juiciest one that they could put head to head

<v Speaker 1>with them. WWE also announced last night that while WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>forty three will be held in Riodd, Saudi Arabia. Next year,

<v Speaker 1>they will still have something going on stateside because they

<v Speaker 1>will be hosting not one, but two events from the

<v Speaker 1>Theater at Madison Square Garden immediately after each night of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>They're going to be hosting WrestleMania watch parties on both nights,

<v Speaker 1>I believe, at the theater. But then when each night

<v Speaker 1>is over, and we don't yet know which show will

<v Speaker 1>take place on which night, but there will be a

<v Speaker 1>triple A show on one night called Eternal Glory and

<v Speaker 1>on the other night NXT Stand and Deliver twenty twenty seven.

<v Speaker 1>So they're trying to make sure that certain someone doesn't

<v Speaker 1>think about scheduling any events of their own on either

<v Speaker 1>of those nights after WrestleMania, and look, Tony Khan could

<v Speaker 1>do it. He could schedule something for either night. Since

<v Speaker 1>the shows are airing earlier than usual here in the States.

<v Speaker 1>You figure what a one pm start time probably for

<v Speaker 1>each night of WrestleMania. By five o'clock, maybe five point thirty,

<v Speaker 1>they're probably wrapping up. If you wanted to do an

<v Speaker 1>eight pm pay per view either night, he could do it.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think he needs to run that same weekend.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he could run a major event the weekend before.

<v Speaker 1>He could run a major event the weekend after, and

<v Speaker 1>again get all these indies and conventions to come in

<v Speaker 1>and congregate around the big aw event this year. But

<v Speaker 1>then WWE would probably just counter program those shows too.

<v Speaker 1>But if you don't think that this isn't at least

<v Speaker 1>part of the calculus here, I mean, how much more

<v Speaker 1>evidence do you need? Right? Have you not been paying attention?

<v Speaker 1>I will say it's fun as hell, petty as it is,

<v Speaker 1>and I mean the wrestle media weekend stuff, whatever their

<v Speaker 1>actual motives are here, that's their weekend. They could do

<v Speaker 1>whatever they want. But like again, the world's collide stuff,

<v Speaker 1>Like how many more examples of this do we need?

<v Speaker 1>And honestly, like, if you're Tony Kahan, you just stand

<v Speaker 1>your ground, just you know, full steam ahead, straight ahead,

<v Speaker 1>do your thing, and just ignore all the noise because

<v Speaker 1>the best thing you can do is no sell it.

<v Speaker 1>There's really not much else he can do. Just try

<v Speaker 1>to put on the best possible show he can and

<v Speaker 1>you know, you know, his audience is loyal enough they'll

<v Speaker 1>stick with him on that, but beyond that, there's not

<v Speaker 1>a whole there's not a whole hell of a lot

<v Speaker 1>he could do about it. But it's becoming more and

<v Speaker 1>more frequent that we hear these types of stories ron SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>This week Adam Pierce. The big news coming out of

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown was Adam Pearce filling in for Nick All this.

<v Speaker 1>We'll get to him in a little bit. Announce that

<v Speaker 1>rear Ripley, the WWE Women's Champion, is out of Summer

<v Speaker 1>Slam as she will not be medically cleared from her

<v Speaker 1>partially torn meniscus, and so as such, an interim Women's

<v Speaker 1>champion will be crowned in a five way ladder match

<v Speaker 1>at SummerSlam. Jade car Gill has already qualified. She beat

<v Speaker 1>Nya Jacks. I can't even call it a match. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know what the fuck it was. But she qualified

<v Speaker 1>over Nya on Friday, so she's in, which means, by

<v Speaker 1>the way, that the likely singles match, it wasn't announced yet,

<v Speaker 1>but the likely singles match between Charlotte and Jade, they're

<v Speaker 1>now absorbing that into this ladder match. So Charlotte hasn't

<v Speaker 1>qualified yet, but she will. They're giving Nya a second

<v Speaker 1>chance because Charlotte interfered in the match. Very unfair. So

<v Speaker 1>Nya and now will wrestle Charlotte on SmackDown this upcoming week.

<v Speaker 1>And gee, I wonder what will happen there other person

<v Speaker 1>who's officially qualified as Tiffany Stratton. So those are the

<v Speaker 1>two names, two of the five that we know of

<v Speaker 1>so far. This will be the first interim champion NWWE

<v Speaker 1>since JD McDonough in NXT and twenty twenty when he

<v Speaker 1>was the Cruiserweight Champion. He was not able during COVID

<v Speaker 1>to travel to the United States, so they held a

<v Speaker 1>tournament to crown an interim champion that was eventually won

<v Speaker 1>by Santos Escobar. I hate it. I hate it the

<v Speaker 1>interim stuff, not the ladder match. The ladder match is fine,

<v Speaker 1>but I think the interim label is completely unnecessary. There's

<v Speaker 1>no need for it, literally no need for it. They're

<v Speaker 1>justifying it by saying, unlike say, when Seth Rollins got

<v Speaker 1>hurt last year and he was stripped immediately stripped of

<v Speaker 1>the World Heavyweight Championship, they're saying that, well, Ria is

<v Speaker 1>very close to returning. They just don't have an exact date.

<v Speaker 1>Yet right, So, I mean it could be the week

<v Speaker 1>after SummerSlam, it could be a month from now. We

<v Speaker 1>don't know. But she's close, so what who cares? What

<v Speaker 1>they need to do is reinstate the old thirty day rule.

<v Speaker 1>If you're unable to defend the title at least once

<v Speaker 1>within a period of thirty days or due to injury,

<v Speaker 1>the title should be vacated and held up for a

<v Speaker 1>new champion to be crowned until such time that the

<v Speaker 1>former champion can return, and then they can challenge to

<v Speaker 1>get their belt back. I don't give a shit that

<v Speaker 1>UFC does this. I don't give a shit that Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahan has done it in aw and he's done it

<v Speaker 1>with Ring of Honor. I don't care. It is stupid, stupid.

<v Speaker 1>The ladder match, though, is a great attraction for Summer Slam,

<v Speaker 1>although bouncing j C. Jane right out of the qualifying

<v Speaker 1>rounds is a very curious choice. I don't agree with that.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you got five spots open, you're trying to

<v Speaker 1>get new people over. She should have gotten one of

<v Speaker 1>those spots. Not saying that she had to win the

<v Speaker 1>ladder match, although she could have, but I'm not saying

<v Speaker 1>she had to win it, but to not even be

<v Speaker 1>in it, I think is ridiculous. So that's the update now,

<v Speaker 1>because for weeks we had nothing said about Rhea Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>and at least now we have some sort of update.

<v Speaker 1>They had him say something, because what are we two

<v Speaker 1>weeks away from SummerSlam. They had to make some kind

<v Speaker 1>of decision. If they're going to have qualifying matches, they

<v Speaker 1>have to start now and they're gonna be continuing over

<v Speaker 1>the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, on Raw, we had

<v Speaker 1>the contract signing for SummerSlam where the Roman reigns and

<v Speaker 1>Seth Rawlins, which I thought was a really good closing

<v Speaker 1>segment infinitely better than that boring segment with Rawlins the

<v Speaker 1>week before when Roman wasn't there. We'll talk more about

<v Speaker 1>Roman and Seth here in a little bit when I

<v Speaker 1>talk about Saturday Night's main event. The other thing on

<v Speaker 1>the show, we had Oba Feme come out. Brock Lesner

<v Speaker 1>and Paul Hayman were there. Brock, I mean, did virtually nothing.

<v Speaker 1>He just showed up and he left. That's what he does.

<v Speaker 1>Oba comes out and Oba gets on the mic and

<v Speaker 1>he's looking at Paul Hayman and he says to Hayman,

<v Speaker 1>you and I both know because Hayman and his promo

<v Speaker 1>before Oba strutted out to the ring, had mentioned that,

<v Speaker 1>you know, Oba rule away his World Championship match at SummerSlam,

<v Speaker 1>which again it seems like that is in fact what

<v Speaker 1>happened here. There was no delaying of the title shot.

<v Speaker 1>He threw it away to get brock Lesnar at SummerSlam,

<v Speaker 1>and so Ober responded and said, you and I both

<v Speaker 1>know that had I taken that chance, had I taken

<v Speaker 1>that opportunity to compete for a world championship at Summer Slim,

<v Speaker 1>your client would have cost me.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know why we're getting this weeks later, but

<v Speaker 1>put that on the side. I'm listening to him, and

<v Speaker 1>again through the lens of k Fabe, I'm listening to

<v Speaker 1>him talk about this. This big intimidating guy comes down

<v Speaker 1>to the ring. Right, he beat brock Lesner in four

<v Speaker 1>minutes at WrestleMania. He fears no man. Right, he's the ruler,

<v Speaker 1>he's the king. He comes out there and he's like, well,

<v Speaker 1>you know I had to throw away my championship match

<v Speaker 1>because you and I both know that brock Lesnar would

<v Speaker 1>have interfered in the match and tried to cost me

<v Speaker 1>the title. Well, it doesn't really help that. One of

<v Speaker 1>the reasons that you think that brock Lesnar would have

<v Speaker 1>gotten involved in your shit is because you went on

<v Speaker 1>television for weeks after clash in Italy where you lost.

<v Speaker 1>By the way Brock beat you, he got his revenge.

<v Speaker 1>You went out on television week after week calling him names.

<v Speaker 1>You called the man a bitch. Now you're worried that, well,

<v Speaker 1>you know, he probably would have interfered in my business,

<v Speaker 1>and so I had no choice. I decided to get

<v Speaker 1>ahead of the situation and be proactive and throw away

<v Speaker 1>my guaranteed championship match when he has nobody to blame

<v Speaker 1>but himself for feeling that way. Meanwhile, brock Lesner never

<v Speaker 1>showed up during any of his King of the Ring matches,

<v Speaker 1>but in his mind, well, he was gonna wait until

<v Speaker 1>summerslim in Minneapolis, and he was gonna cost me the championship.

<v Speaker 1>Is he that afraid of brock Lesner that even if

<v Speaker 1>Brock tried to interfere, he doesn't think he could fend

<v Speaker 1>him off. Like, just everything about what he was saying,

<v Speaker 1>as far as an explanation for why you would ditch

<v Speaker 1>a guaranteed world title match that you earned by winning tournament.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't wash like it's such a poor explanation that

<v Speaker 1>they would have been better off not saying anything at all.

<v Speaker 1>I really, I mean, I just think it didn't do

<v Speaker 1>him any favors here. I'm not gonna kill Oba. It's

<v Speaker 1>a forgotten line in a promo. The next time he

<v Speaker 1>struts out to the ring as he did in Madison

<v Speaker 1>Square Garden last night on the pre show, everyone is

<v Speaker 1>gonna just do the strut and they'll get to chant

<v Speaker 1>for Oba. So to them it doesn't matter. They don't

<v Speaker 1>give a shit. But I just thought that was a

<v Speaker 1>very dumb explanation. We had a Gauntlet match. It's to

<v Speaker 1>crown a number one contender for Penta's Intercontinental title. The

<v Speaker 1>winner would get a championship match at SummerSlam, and they

<v Speaker 1>had one job coming into the Gauntlet. All they had

<v Speaker 1>to do was send Chad Gable to Minneapolis, and that's

<v Speaker 1>exactly what they did. And it will be Chad Gable

<v Speaker 1>facing Penta at SummerSlam until he throws away his guarantee

<v Speaker 1>championship match out of fear that Russev might interfere in

<v Speaker 1>his match. I'm waiting for that story to develop on TV.

<v Speaker 1>Even though Chad Gable got the win here in this Gauntlet,

<v Speaker 1>Javon Evans is the one who got the shine. He

<v Speaker 1>entered third, he outlasted Dominic Mysterio, Dragon Him and Dragon

<v Speaker 1>Lee had a hell of a sprint and then he

<v Speaker 1>was doing okay against Russev, but in the end he

<v Speaker 1>fell to Rusev. Gable then entered, he beat Russev. Then

<v Speaker 1>he beat Eat the Page back to back and got

<v Speaker 1>the shot. So, like I said, they had one job.

<v Speaker 1>They did exactly what they needed to do, and it

<v Speaker 1>sets up what should be an awesome match now for SummerSlam,

<v Speaker 1>and there should be a title change. He's been chasing

<v Speaker 1>this championship off and on now for at least three years, right,

<v Speaker 1>maybe more. When did they do the Gunther matches two

<v Speaker 1>years ago? Three years ago? I'd lost track at this point.

<v Speaker 1>He was just baby faced Chad Gable back then. He's

<v Speaker 1>gone through quite the transformation since then. It's time. I

<v Speaker 1>love Penta, It's time and if there was ever a

<v Speaker 1>place to do it, I mean again, the timing coming

<v Speaker 1>off of the match he had in Triple A and

<v Speaker 1>being where they're going to be in Minnesota for SummerSlam.

<v Speaker 1>To me, there could be no other outcome. We also

<v Speaker 1>got a teaser video for the return of the former

<v Speaker 1>Colin Cassidy Big Cast, the former Big Bill from AAW

<v Speaker 1>who let his contract expire, left the company to go

<v Speaker 1>back to WWE. We got our first vignette. We saw

<v Speaker 1>his silhouettes, we saw glimpses of his face. They had

<v Speaker 1>some old clips spliced in of fan signs in the crowd,

<v Speaker 1>soft and all the stuff with him and Endze, although

<v Speaker 1>Enzo was never shown, and so that got some people

<v Speaker 1>talking thinking that maybe Enzo is not coming in, or

<v Speaker 1>maybe Enzo's going to be doing something separate. I mean, look,

<v Speaker 1>there was talk about Enzo doing or being brought back

<v Speaker 1>to do stuff in NXT. It would be very strange

<v Speaker 1>to bring back, you know, Big Casts and Enzo after

<v Speaker 1>all these years, but not together in some way. That

<v Speaker 1>would be very very strange. I mean, I'll believe that

<v Speaker 1>when I see it. I suppose it's possible they could

<v Speaker 1>keep them separated. I would just find that very hard

<v Speaker 1>to believe. I think it's going to be very hard

<v Speaker 1>for them to resist a reunion like a tag team

<v Speaker 1>reunion for a few months. But look, I mean, if

<v Speaker 1>the idea here is that Bill's going to come in

<v Speaker 1>as a single, I'm all for it. You know you've

<v Speaker 1>heard me talk about this ad nauseum now for weeks.

<v Speaker 1>You're putting a ceiling, You're putting a cap on what

<v Speaker 1>this guy could do. If all you're going to do

<v Speaker 1>is bring him in as part of a tag team

<v Speaker 1>because you have no real tag team division, bringing him

<v Speaker 1>in as a single and maybe having Enzo with him

<v Speaker 1>as a manager or a mouthpiece, I think that's a

<v Speaker 1>much better idea. But if they're going to bring these

<v Speaker 1>guys in as a tag team, you need more tag

<v Speaker 1>teams to really heat up the division. I saw a

<v Speaker 1>story this week that Center and Saint, the team of

<v Speaker 1>Travis Williams and Judas Icarus, they requested and received their

<v Speaker 1>release from TNA this week. They had been with the

<v Speaker 1>company since twenty twenty four. They had all of four

<v Speaker 1>matches for them this year, so you could add them

<v Speaker 1>to the list of names who wanted out of their cage.

<v Speaker 1>If WWE was serious about rebuilding its tag team division,

<v Speaker 1>and it doesn't appear that they really are considering some

<v Speaker 1>of the teams they've let go, although I'm sure that

<v Speaker 1>had more to do with what they were being paid

<v Speaker 1>than anything else. But if they're serious about wanting to

<v Speaker 1>rebuild this tag team division, they wouldn't just be bringing

<v Speaker 1>back Enzo more in big casts. They would be bringing

<v Speaker 1>in a young team like Center and Saint. I'd be

<v Speaker 1>all over that. I'd snatch them right up, and I

<v Speaker 1>would look for more teams to do the same. Saturday

<v Speaker 1>Night's Main Event took place last night in Madison Square Guard.

<v Speaker 1>I would call it the weakest card of any Saturday

<v Speaker 1>Nights Main event that they've done since they brought the

<v Speaker 1>show back a couple of years ago. But the last

<v Speaker 1>one wasn't that strong either, and the one before that

<v Speaker 1>had three matches, so I can't even really say that.

<v Speaker 1>But for the first time in nineteen years, Madison Square

<v Speaker 1>Garden played host to a Saturday Night's Main event. Time

<v Speaker 1>was way back in two thousand and seven, three months

<v Speaker 1>before I gave birth to the sound off A beautiful

<v Speaker 1>bouncing baby boy who's all grown up. Now you know

<v Speaker 1>he's a sophomore in college. Now did you know that

<v Speaker 1>he is? Let's see that card? Back in seven, I

<v Speaker 1>jotted this Down had Batista and Cain against Finley and

<v Speaker 1>the Great Collie. Not a great start, John Cena against

<v Speaker 1>Carlito a little bit better, Cmpunk and the Boogeyman against

<v Speaker 1>John Morrison and Big Daddy v Oh my God and

<v Speaker 1>Evander Holyfield and Matt Hardy ended in a no contest

<v Speaker 1>in a boxing match. Boy, WWE has not been kind

<v Speaker 1>to MSG when it comes to these shows, have they

<v Speaker 1>not at all? As someone in the live chat said

<v Speaker 1>last night, it was a show of all time. That's

<v Speaker 1>the best way to describe it. If you missed it,

<v Speaker 1>you missed nothing of any real consequence outside of the

<v Speaker 1>tag team match with Punk and Cody, which at least

<v Speaker 1>had implications for SummerSlam and a Nick Alldos return to

<v Speaker 1>cost Gunther a championship opportunity. And Sammy Zay as well,

<v Speaker 1>who really got a raw deal last night. But I

<v Speaker 1>said coming into this this was going to be a

<v Speaker 1>one match show. That's what I said on Friday night

<v Speaker 1>during the SmackDown review. This is going to be a

<v Speaker 1>one match show, and that one match delivered. I thought

<v Speaker 1>that was a really good tag team match. Fatal Influence.

<v Speaker 1>Allen Henley and Laney reed they are the new women's

<v Speaker 1>Tag team champions. They picked up the win over Page

<v Speaker 1>and Bribella. There was a terrible spot there at the end.

<v Speaker 1>It was the finish of the match where Jessica Carr

<v Speaker 1>was the referee and there was a spot where jac

<v Speaker 1>Jane interfered to reverse a roll up. Supposedly she didn't

<v Speaker 1>see it, the referee didn't see it. Bullshit. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>she was right possible that she didn't see it, so

<v Speaker 1>it just came off very poorly, and I think Page

<v Speaker 1>actually went on social media and she said, Becky was right.

<v Speaker 1>This referee is terrible. Jessica Carr. Man, what is what

<v Speaker 1>is going on with Jessica Carr? This was the obvious

<v Speaker 1>ending here, I mean, could go no other way. Fatal influence,

<v Speaker 1>especially after j C Jane got beat on SmackDown last night,

<v Speaker 1>couldn't even qualify for the latter match at Summers. Lembia

<v Speaker 1>had to throw these women a bone, give them something,

<v Speaker 1>so now they're the women's tag team champions. That was

<v Speaker 1>the obvious outcome. Dan Housen and j D McDonough they

<v Speaker 1>had a no disqualification match and this was all the

<v Speaker 1>hijinks that you would expect from a Dan Housen match,

<v Speaker 1>especially once they made it no DQ. But on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>the night before, Dan Housen said that he had some

<v Speaker 1>backup and it was going to come in the form

<v Speaker 1>of a cat, and he showed a stuffed animal, a

<v Speaker 1>stuffed animal, cat in a cage. And so I heard that,

<v Speaker 1>and of course, I mean, I know enough about the

<v Speaker 1>Knicks to know, oh cats, because I was expecting that

<v Speaker 1>there were going to be so New York Knicks players

<v Speaker 1>involved here. And once it became clear that Jalen Brunton

<v Speaker 1>was going to be doing something with Roman Reigns, this

<v Speaker 1>was a below his pay grade here, I was like, well, okay,

<v Speaker 1>they'll have some other player or players come out to

<v Speaker 1>help Dan Housen. As soon as he started talking about cat,

<v Speaker 1>I got people in the fucking, fucking chat on Friday. Oh, Ernest,

<v Speaker 1>the cat miller going to come back? Is the cat

<v Speaker 1>Stacy Carter are going to show. I'm like, what, people

<v Speaker 1>are out of your mind? It's cats, It's Karl Anthony Towns.

<v Speaker 1>And so they had the cloning machine and at one

<v Speaker 1>point during the match, Dan Housen's not doing too well

<v Speaker 1>and he goes down the aisle to the cloning machine.

<v Speaker 1>He's got the little cage with the stuffed animal in

<v Speaker 1>and he throws it in there, and then who pops

<v Speaker 1>out of the cloning machine. Carl Anthony Towns, who plays

<v Speaker 1>for the New York Knicks. You're reigning NBA World champions.

<v Speaker 1>This man is a giant legit seven feet tall, and

<v Speaker 1>they shot this in such a way that made him

<v Speaker 1>look even bigger. As he walked down to the ring,

<v Speaker 1>he stepped over the top rope like fucking on and

<v Speaker 1>he gave JD mcdonnagh this incredible chokeslot, which was all McDonough.

<v Speaker 1>You know, Towns didn't have to do a whole hell

<v Speaker 1>of a lot. He did his part, but this was

<v Speaker 1>JD McDonough going up and man, he got folded up

<v Speaker 1>on this choke slam. He choke slamb Dom through a

<v Speaker 1>slim gym table in the ring and he helped Dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen pick up the win. This was the crowd pleasing

<v Speaker 1>comedy match of the night with the Knicks cameo that

<v Speaker 1>popped the live crowd. This is the only city where

<v Speaker 1>this would have worked, by the way, in terms of that, So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, this was it was fine. It was fine.

<v Speaker 1>It was what it was supposed to be. Then we

<v Speaker 1>had Lyra Valkyria and Bailey. I was very surprised they

<v Speaker 1>added this match to this show. This felt like something

<v Speaker 1>they would throw out there on Raw next week or something.

<v Speaker 1>So they gave them some shine on. What would you

<v Speaker 1>even call this, I mean, a Saturday Nights may have

<v Speaker 1>been even considered a PL I guess it would be No.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's on a streaming service that you gotta

<v Speaker 1>pay for. Almost all of their programming now it was

<v Speaker 1>on a screaming service you have to pay for except

<v Speaker 1>that XT I guess SmackDown. Well the smack now you

<v Speaker 1>still got to pay for cable if you want USA Network.

<v Speaker 1>CW is on over the AIRTV at this point, that's

<v Speaker 1>the only thing you could get from WWE without paying

<v Speaker 1>for it. Whatever I mean, Saturday Night's main event, it's

<v Speaker 1>a lesser pl So they gave them some shine on

<v Speaker 1>there Madison Square Garden. This was a big stage for them,

<v Speaker 1>and in the opening it had to be the opening

<v Speaker 1>minute of the match, maybe ninety seconds, Bailey inadvertently blasted

<v Speaker 1>Lyra right in the face, right in the nose, with

<v Speaker 1>an elbow that opened her up. Because Lyra was crouched

<v Speaker 1>down on her knees on the floor outside kind of

<v Speaker 1>covering up. And when Bailey went to pick her up

<v Speaker 1>and she got up, you could see the blood splatter,

<v Speaker 1>little drops and some not so little drops of blood

<v Speaker 1>all over the mats outside, and yeah, the referee tried

<v Speaker 1>to clean her up and check her out, and it

<v Speaker 1>kind of paused the action there a couple of time

<v Speaker 1>times during the match. There were some hurky jerky spots

<v Speaker 1>there for a little bit, I think while Lyra was

<v Speaker 1>trying to kind of get her bearings about her. But

<v Speaker 1>as a match, I thought it was pretty damn solid

<v Speaker 1>what they were able to put together. And Lyra beat

<v Speaker 1>her clean. She beat her clean with a bulldog choke.

<v Speaker 1>She's been watching some Moxley And the referee called for

<v Speaker 1>the stoppage and Lyra Valcarria picks up the win, which

<v Speaker 1>was very important because Lyra is the one who just

<v Speaker 1>turned heel, so you got to get her over as

<v Speaker 1>a heel. There's no reason for Bailey to win this match.

<v Speaker 1>And then when the match was over, she reapplied the

<v Speaker 1>choke and then she removed the top part of the

<v Speaker 1>ring steps outside so he had only the flat part

<v Speaker 1>of it and she dropped her on it with the

<v Speaker 1>night Wing, and this has a lot of people speculating,

<v Speaker 1>I think prematurely about Bailey's demise and WWE, and is

<v Speaker 1>that her last match? Is she on her way out?

<v Speaker 1>I happened to think if the stories are accurate about

<v Speaker 1>her contract coming up for expiration this year, we don't

<v Speaker 1>have a date. We don't know when. Yeah, her contract

<v Speaker 1>may I run through the end of the year for

<v Speaker 1>all we know. So in the absence of that, it's

<v Speaker 1>it's impossible to know, you know, whether or not she's

<v Speaker 1>at the end of her run here or what's going

<v Speaker 1>on contractually. My belief personally is that if that is

<v Speaker 1>true and her contract is up, sometime in the next

<v Speaker 1>several months, she will be gone from WWE and she

<v Speaker 1>will go to AW. That was the one name I

<v Speaker 1>singled out at the beginning of the year when I

<v Speaker 1>did my predictions. It just feels to me like, unless

<v Speaker 1>she's just married to this idea of staying in WWE

<v Speaker 1>because it's been her home for so long, and she

<v Speaker 1>likes the people that she works with, and she wants

<v Speaker 1>to help elevate, you know, newer talents, and then maybe

<v Speaker 1>she wants to transition into some sort of coaching role,

<v Speaker 1>which I could absolutely see her doing. I mean, she

<v Speaker 1>has these these all women's loadstone seminars that she's doing.

<v Speaker 1>She's really given a lot back, you know, to women's

<v Speaker 1>wrestling in that regarding and can be a very valuable

<v Speaker 1>asset to WWE or AW or anywhere. Frankly that she

<v Speaker 1>wants to go work, But in AW I think it

<v Speaker 1>would give her a new lease on life. Obviously, you

<v Speaker 1>have the Mercedes factor. Is Mercedes in her ear telling her, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>the water is pretty good over here, come on over

<v Speaker 1>to this side. Plus, then they could work together. But

<v Speaker 1>look at all the other women that she would be

<v Speaker 1>able to work with.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>I know she's very friendly with Chris Statlander. That would

<v Speaker 1>be potentially a great match. All these new faces that

<v Speaker 1>Bailey would be able to get in the ring with

<v Speaker 1>and work with. I think it would be good. Sometimes

<v Speaker 1>it's good. Like a baseball player, just a change of scenery.

<v Speaker 1>Playing for a different team sometimes can make all the

<v Speaker 1>difference in the world, unless it's the Mets, then you

<v Speaker 1>play worse. But I still feel that way. I still

<v Speaker 1>feel like Bailey is very likely going to be gone,

<v Speaker 1>and it's just a matter of when. I didn't get

<v Speaker 1>the sense that this is going to be the last

<v Speaker 1>time we ever see her. It's probably the first of

<v Speaker 1>a series of matches that these two were going to have.

<v Speaker 1>But if it was to be the last time that

<v Speaker 1>we saw her, look at what she did here. Other

<v Speaker 1>than you know, possibly breaking this woman's nose and busting

<v Speaker 1>her open, she went in there and she put her over.

<v Speaker 1>She put her over in a major way, and that's

<v Speaker 1>big for Lyra. I wasn't totally sold on Lyra as

<v Speaker 1>a heel. I still think the jury is out, but

<v Speaker 1>what I've seen from her so far it looks promising.

<v Speaker 1>I think that she probably can pull it off. Wwe

<v Speaker 1>is going to have to really get behind her and

<v Speaker 1>just again consistently feature her on the show and give

<v Speaker 1>her stuff to work with. But I like what I'm

<v Speaker 1>seeing so far. It's certainly a lot more interesting than

<v Speaker 1>whatever the hell she was doing or just not doing

<v Speaker 1>on television over the last several months. We had CM

<v Speaker 1>Punk and Cody Rhoades. The real main event of this

<v Speaker 1>show taking on Gunther and Sammy Zaine with a stipulation

<v Speaker 1>that we found out about on Friday, which is first

<v Speaker 1>of all, Gunther was not suspended or fired after beating

<v Speaker 1>up the general manager of the show. We were told

<v Speaker 1>that that was by the request of Nick Aldis himself,

<v Speaker 1>who did not want to screw up the main event

<v Speaker 1>that he had made for this show. If Gunther and

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's Ain could win, they would be added to the

<v Speaker 1>main event at Summerslim for the WWE Championship to make

<v Speaker 1>it a fatal four way. Now, the Gunther and the

<v Speaker 1>all this stuff to me made it pretty clear that,

<v Speaker 1>you know, his team wasn't winning this match. I did

<v Speaker 1>like the idea of them matting the stipulation because all

<v Speaker 1>of a sudden, now there's something on the line. This

<v Speaker 1>isn't just a tag team match. It's a tag team

<v Speaker 1>match that has implications for the main event of Summer Slim.

<v Speaker 1>So I like that. And there were a lot of

<v Speaker 1>people who, you know, didn't think of the Nick all

<v Speaker 1>this factor, and they thought, man, we're gonna get a

<v Speaker 1>fatal four way, right, It only makes sense. All four

<v Speaker 1>of these men have been feuding in different ways, and

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's Ain, My god, what's he going to do at Summerslim.

<v Speaker 1>He has to be in that match. So you had

<v Speaker 1>a lot of people probably buying on the near falls

<v Speaker 1>and believing that it was going to be a four way,

<v Speaker 1>and they were probably shocked, you know, when Punk and

<v Speaker 1>Cody went over. I wasn't, but I thought the match

<v Speaker 1>was really really good. I mean, and they got out

<v Speaker 1>of the gate right away. They picked up where they

<v Speaker 1>left off on Friday, that big brawl to close out

<v Speaker 1>the show. It was NonStop and never really slowed down.

<v Speaker 1>The crowd was hot for it, and I just thought

<v Speaker 1>it was a really well worked tag team match, some

<v Speaker 1>great near falls down the stretch, and in the end,

<v Speaker 1>Nick All this makes a surprise appearance and he clobbers

<v Speaker 1>Gunther in the head with the WWE Championship because there

<v Speaker 1>was a REF bump. Boy, I guess it's a good

<v Speaker 1>thing that there was a ref bump in this match.

<v Speaker 1>Did Nick All this really need to wait though for

<v Speaker 1>a REF bump? He's the GM. He could just order

<v Speaker 1>Charles Robinson, don't you dare call for the bell. I'll

<v Speaker 1>fire you. This is now a no disqualification match. What's

<v Speaker 1>the point of having power if you're not going to

<v Speaker 1>abuse it? I mean, come on. But thankfully for him,

<v Speaker 1>there was a ref bump. Ref didn't see it he

<v Speaker 1>walloped Gunther in the head. He staggered backwards right into

<v Speaker 1>a GTS and Gunther got pinned. Gunther got pinned by

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhodes, which continues a recurring theme, by the way,

<v Speaker 1>which is that Gunther cannot beat Cody Rhoads. He could

<v Speaker 1>not beat Cody Rhods at Crown Jewel two years ago.

<v Speaker 1>He could not beat Cody Rhods at Clash in Italy.

<v Speaker 1>He could not beat Cody Rhodes back on SmackDown on

<v Speaker 1>the nineteenth, not once, but twice because they restarted the match,

<v Speaker 1>if you remember, and then they wrestled in the main

<v Speaker 1>event on Friday on SmackDown, and again he could not

<v Speaker 1>beat Cody Rhodes. Here in the tag team match, he

<v Speaker 1>gets pinned by Cody Rhodes. There's something about this guy,

<v Speaker 1>the Gunther, he just cannot do it. There's something about

<v Speaker 1>Cody that Gunther just cannot figure out. And now he's

<v Speaker 1>not even going to get his shot at Summerslim because

<v Speaker 1>Nick All this fucked him over. But he didn't just

<v Speaker 1>fuck over Gunther, he fucked over Sammy's and sammy'se now

<v Speaker 1>is going to blow a gasket as well. He should

<v Speaker 1>because he has a legitimate gripe now, through no fault

<v Speaker 1>of his own, his boss, a WWE a fish, fucked

<v Speaker 1>him over in this match and took away from him,

<v Speaker 1>stole from him a potential championship match at Summer Slam.

<v Speaker 1>What are you going to do about that? What are

<v Speaker 1>you going to do to remedy that Sammy didn't do

<v Speaker 1>anything wrong? You're gonna make it a triple threat match

<v Speaker 1>at Summer Slam. Now, I don't necessarily get that sense.

<v Speaker 1>I think they're pretty solid on this being a one

<v Speaker 1>on one match. At the very least, you have to

<v Speaker 1>guarantee Sammy the rematch that he never got, give him

<v Speaker 1>the first shot coming out of Summer Slam. Whoever the

<v Speaker 1>champion is Punk Cody, doesn't matter who SmackDown August seventh.

<v Speaker 1>It figures that absolutely they would do it on August seventh,

<v Speaker 1>because I'm going to be at a House of Glory show.

<v Speaker 1>It's only right if you're gonna have a WWE Championship

<v Speaker 1>match on SmackDown, it has to be on a night

<v Speaker 1>where I am unavailable. So I guarantee you August seventh,

<v Speaker 1>there'd be a WWE Championship match between Sammy's eight and

<v Speaker 1>whoever the champion is, but it's only fair And as

<v Speaker 1>far as Cody and Punk O, there were some miscommunication

<v Speaker 1>during the match. There was a disaster kick at one

<v Speaker 1>point that Cody dropped Punk with but they won the

<v Speaker 1>match and everything was very you know, everything was cool

<v Speaker 1>between them. When it was over and Cody handed Punk

<v Speaker 1>the WWE title. Punk went to go sling the belt

<v Speaker 1>over his shoulder and the strap smacked Cody in the eye. Thankfully,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't the part of the strap that has that

<v Speaker 1>gold tip. That thing will wreck you. You gotta be real

<v Speaker 1>careful with that. So he got smacked in the eye.

<v Speaker 1>Punk seemed oblivious to this. Cody was not happy about it,

<v Speaker 1>and Punk left and then Cody followed, and then they

<v Speaker 1>shot an angle after the show that aired that ran

<v Speaker 1>on their social media and on YouTube, where Punk was

<v Speaker 1>being interviewed in the back by Jackie Redmand. Cody comes

<v Speaker 1>over in a huff and he is not happy and

<v Speaker 1>he just wants him to know, or wants to know

<v Speaker 1>that that wasn't on purpose. Tell me that wasn't on purpose,

<v Speaker 1>and Punk had no idea what he was talking about.

<v Speaker 1>Cody's looking at the camera. Get that camera out of here,

<v Speaker 1>he's getting all hot. Trick Williams, of all people, randomly

<v Speaker 1>steps in. Trick had wrestled the Larrato Kid on the

<v Speaker 1>pre show in a non title match. Trick randomly steps

<v Speaker 1>in to usher Cody away and try to help break

<v Speaker 1>things up. Do I think that's gonna be indicative of anything?

<v Speaker 1>Not really. I mean, I guess they could just do

<v Speaker 1>Cody against Trick and a random match on SmackDown. I

<v Speaker 1>don't think it's necessarily a sign of anything involving Trick Williams.

<v Speaker 1>But that's how that segment came to a close. You

<v Speaker 1>had to know that coming out of this show, things

<v Speaker 1>were gonna have to start to get really heated between

<v Speaker 1>these two, because it's only a couple of weeks that

<v Speaker 1>we got left. But it's fucking boring if the entire

<v Speaker 1>story is, Oh, you're my friend, I respect you, friend.

<v Speaker 1>Oh that's great. I respect you too, friend. I think

<v Speaker 1>the will ospray and the Kenny Omega stuff. I respect you. Brev.

<v Speaker 1>You're my inspiration, Brev. I love you, Brev. Gag me right.

<v Speaker 1>At some point that has to change. Something has to

<v Speaker 1>happen to heat things up between these two. So they

<v Speaker 1>manufactured something here with the belt strap hitting him in

<v Speaker 1>the I mean, there's any number of ways they could

<v Speaker 1>have gone about doing this, but this is exactly what

<v Speaker 1>I figured. Something bad was gonna come out of this show.

<v Speaker 1>Now we can get the face to face and really

<v Speaker 1>get things heated between them. Now the insults are gonna fly, right,

<v Speaker 1>the burns are gonna start flying between these two on

<v Speaker 1>the mic starting on SmackDown this week. This is where

<v Speaker 1>they start to heat things up between the two of them.

<v Speaker 1>And then they closed the show, not with the main

<v Speaker 1>event match, but they closed the show with twenty minutes

<v Speaker 1>maybe more than that of or A farming with Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns and Jalen Brunson, the captain of your NBA World

<v Speaker 1>Champion New York Knicks. He got a full entrance. The

<v Speaker 1>camera followed him from the locker room all the way

<v Speaker 1>through the back and then he meets Roman at Gorilla

<v Speaker 1>and the two of them make their way to the

<v Speaker 1>ring together. This was Brunson's first time setting foot inside

<v Speaker 1>Madison Square Garden since the Knicks became NBA World Champions,

<v Speaker 1>which they didn't do at MSG. They won on the road,

<v Speaker 1>so first time at MSG since then, and they got

<v Speaker 1>Pyro coming out, they got Pyro. Once they hit the ring,

<v Speaker 1>they got Pyro again. At the end of the show.

<v Speaker 1>They got so much pie they blew the Pyro budget

<v Speaker 1>just on these two guys alone. And Roman gifted him

<v Speaker 1>a replica World Heavyweight Championship belt with a blue strap

<v Speaker 1>blue an r injured the Knicks, Colors and the Mets.

<v Speaker 1>There will be no gifting of any championship belts to

<v Speaker 1>any New York met anytime soon. Gorgeous belt, though, and

<v Speaker 1>and you can buy it if you want to right now.

<v Speaker 1>It'll only set you back seven hundred bucks on WWE

<v Speaker 1>shop dot com. They don't ship out until December. He

<v Speaker 1>gives him this belt. They're posing, and then we hear

<v Speaker 1>Seth Rawlins music, only we don't get seth Rollins. Outcomes

<v Speaker 1>Tyrese Halliburton of the Indiana Pacers, good friends with Jalen Brunson,

<v Speaker 1>but enemies on the court. Didn't work out too well

<v Speaker 1>the last time, you know, the Nixon Pacers were together.

<v Speaker 1>It was a decoy though, because Rollins and Bush's reins

<v Speaker 1>in the ring totally played up as a heel. You

<v Speaker 1>would think you're watching all of this and you would

<v Speaker 1>think that this is setting up some sort of tag

<v Speaker 1>team match, like it's Bash at the Beach ninety seven

<v Speaker 1>or ninety eight all over again, and not a big

<v Speaker 1>singles match for SummerSlam. But believe me, there will be

<v Speaker 1>no tag team match. Jalen Brunson was out there with

<v Speaker 1>his wrist in a cast because he literally just had

<v Speaker 1>wrist surgery in the last few weeks. Haliburton meanwhile, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know where he is in his recovery, if he's

<v Speaker 1>one hundred percent or not, but he blew out his achilles.

<v Speaker 1>He ruptured his achilles in Game seven of the NBA

<v Speaker 1>Finals last year and missed the entire season. So they

<v Speaker 1>they've dealt with their share of injuries, believe me, the NBA,

<v Speaker 1>and there was spect the teams are not going to

<v Speaker 1>allow them to wrestle any matches anytime soon. But you know,

<v Speaker 1>Brunson steps in the way. Is Rollins was gonna stomp

<v Speaker 1>Roman on a chair, and Roman ends up taking out

<v Speaker 1>Seth with a superman punched Seth. Rollins was forced into

<v Speaker 1>the role here total heal. And this all ends with

<v Speaker 1>Roman holding up the Larry O'Brien Trophy, the NBA Championship Trophy,

<v Speaker 1>and he and Jalen Brunson Poe's in the middle of

<v Speaker 1>the ring to close out the show. Nineteen years ago

<v Speaker 1>we got holy Field against Matt Hardy. Nineteen years later,

<v Speaker 1>we get Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Halliburton. Celebrities have always

<v Speaker 1>been involved. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This was

<v Speaker 1>for the live audience more than anything else. This was

<v Speaker 1>a segment built for New York City. I cannot imagine

<v Speaker 1>that there were many people who were not Knicks fans

<v Speaker 1>or NBA fans who gave a shit about any of this.

<v Speaker 1>And it was just very weird, Like if you just

<v Speaker 1>paid attention to the Roman and Seth stuff, very weird

<v Speaker 1>watching them book Seth rollins like a heel on this

<v Speaker 1>show when he plays babyface every other week. But it's

<v Speaker 1>all about the moment. It becomes a lot easier to

<v Speaker 1>understand stuff like this and why is this in the

<v Speaker 1>main event? And first of all, if you were going

<v Speaker 1>to do this segment on the show, it had to

<v Speaker 1>close out the show. I mean, you're sending Jalen Brunson

<v Speaker 1>out there, you got Roman out there. This can't be

<v Speaker 1>anything but the main event of this show. But it's

<v Speaker 1>all about the moment. It isn't even about the story

<v Speaker 1>with them. Oh, well, Seth's going to be a heel

<v Speaker 1>if we do it this way, Well, who gives a show?

<v Speaker 1>Because we got Roman Reigns and Jalen Brunton posing in

<v Speaker 1>the ring together, it's going to be all over the

<v Speaker 1>place the next day. It's all about the moment. You know.

<v Speaker 1>That was very evident watching that closing segment last night.

<v Speaker 1>WWE Hall of Famer Aj Styles, who on his phenomenally

<v Speaker 1>retro podcast said he thinks WWE should make their nosebleed

<v Speaker 1>tickets dirt cheat for SummerSlam so that they could sell

<v Speaker 1>more of them, And WWE just went and lowered the

<v Speaker 1>prices of some of those tickets to as low as

<v Speaker 1>twenty five bucks. Thanks Uncle Allan. It's true, though, if

<v Speaker 1>you've been holding out waiting for prices to drop, some

<v Speaker 1>of them have twenty five bucks in some cases, which

<v Speaker 1>probably is not really twenty five bucks. I imagine that

<v Speaker 1>does not include tax In fact, there's no way, there's

<v Speaker 1>no way that includes taxes and fees. It's probably forty something.

<v Speaker 1>But they finally lowered the ticket prices, So jump on

<v Speaker 1>that now if you want to go this is your chance.

<v Speaker 1>Everyone's been bitching about ticket prices and rightfully so, so

<v Speaker 1>when they drop, got to take advantage of it. But

<v Speaker 1>that's not why I'm bringing him up. On his podcast

<v Speaker 1>this past week, aj Styles said that he was very

<v Speaker 1>much open to the idea of WWE acquiring a promotion

<v Speaker 1>in Japan similar to what they did in Mexico with

<v Speaker 1>Triple A. He said, give me something over in Japan,

<v Speaker 1>oh man, I would love ww to find a way

<v Speaker 1>to be in Japan, kind of like the way Triple

<v Speaker 1>A is. We're not changing what they're doing. We're not

<v Speaker 1>trying to change of the culture. We're just putting our

<v Speaker 1>spin on it. And he pointed out, you know that

<v Speaker 1>many times Japanese wrestlers would be sent to Mexico in

<v Speaker 1>various places on excursion, and WWE could do something very similar.

<v Speaker 1>He says, I believe that with the help of WWE,

<v Speaker 1>we would be able to revive Japanese wrestling to where

<v Speaker 1>it was. I would love to see it backwards the

<v Speaker 1>Tokyo Dome. I'm talking about, not like a WrestleMania over there.

<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying it's the company selling out the Tokyo

<v Speaker 1>Dome like it did in the early nineties. Yeah, well,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure it'll work out as well for Japan as

<v Speaker 1>it did for the UK when WWE invaded that scene.

<v Speaker 1>They still haven't fully recovered from that. I hate this

<v Speaker 1>idea of WWE buying up more promotions in other parts

<v Speaker 1>of the world, and I can't believe, frankly, that he's

<v Speaker 1>even giving voice to this. I get what he's saying

<v Speaker 1>in terms of wanting to help revive the Japanese scene,

<v Speaker 1>which hasn't fully recovered from COVID, or at least new

<v Speaker 1>japan business hasn't. And I understand that. You know, WWE

<v Speaker 1>has done a lot of good things for Triple A

<v Speaker 1>on the production end and on the collaboration end of things.

<v Speaker 1>For all of the good the WWE may have done

<v Speaker 1>so far with Triple A, the idea of them going

<v Speaker 1>around and doing this in other parts of the world

<v Speaker 1>and just continuing to acquire and snatch up various promotions

<v Speaker 1>and sort of plant their flag in different parts of

<v Speaker 1>the world. When you think about it in terms of

<v Speaker 1>what is WWE getting out of it. They don't make

<v Speaker 1>these moves unless it really benefits them, and they're not

<v Speaker 1>doing it because, oh well, this scene is doing, you know,

<v Speaker 1>a little, a little poorly in this part of the world.

<v Speaker 1>Their business is a little soft over in Japan right now,

<v Speaker 1>So why don't we go over there and help these

<v Speaker 1>people out. They don't give a shit, give me a

<v Speaker 1>fucking break. They don't care if they see some benefit

<v Speaker 1>in it for themselves, or they see an opening where

<v Speaker 1>they can take over and they can invade and they

<v Speaker 1>can come in and it blows up into this old

<v Speaker 1>big thing. That's what they're interested in. That's essentially what

<v Speaker 1>aj Styles is saying here, or even if that's not

<v Speaker 1>really his intention. Oh man, I can't. I would love

<v Speaker 1>to see WWE acquire a company in Japan, and oh

<v Speaker 1>my god, they would make things so much better over there,

<v Speaker 1>and they would make right rising tides lift all ships.

<v Speaker 1>And yeah, not in this case. Not. In this case,

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't the idea of WWE sending some of their

<v Speaker 1>talents over to Japan on excursion, Like, Okay, they acquire

<v Speaker 1>this company and so now they have talents that they

<v Speaker 1>can send over to Japan. But here's the thing about that,

<v Speaker 1>Like that sounds like a great idea in theory. I

<v Speaker 1>love the idea of sending wrestlers, especially once you maybe

<v Speaker 1>aren't really actively being used at the moment, or if

<v Speaker 1>you have talents that are still fairly new at this

<v Speaker 1>WWE does virtually no domestic house shows anymore, like very

<v Speaker 1>very few, and they call people up from NXT who

<v Speaker 1>in some cases aren't really prepared to necessarily be called

<v Speaker 1>up from NXT, but they have some need for them

<v Speaker 1>and they call them up, and now they're barely even

<v Speaker 1>wrestling because they don't have house shows anymore. Maybe they'll

<v Speaker 1>get a main event match or something that's basically where

<v Speaker 1>Jordan Grace is these days, but outside of that, they're

<v Speaker 1>not really working. The idea of sending them over to

<v Speaker 1>Japan or Mexico or someplace like that, it's appealing if

<v Speaker 1>WWE is not involved in any of that. It should

<v Speaker 1>be something completely different, a totally different style, a totally

<v Speaker 1>different way of wrestling and doing things. What he's talking

<v Speaker 1>about essentially is no WWE will acquire one of these

<v Speaker 1>companies and you know they're going to put their stamp

<v Speaker 1>on it. There's going to be a certain style stylistic

<v Speaker 1>changes right to some of the matches. You watch these

<v Speaker 1>tripa A shows, they very much feel like a WWE show.

<v Speaker 1>That's exactly the opposite of what I would be interested,

<v Speaker 1>and that's exactly the opposite of what I think would

<v Speaker 1>benefit some of these people, just based on what he's

<v Speaker 1>describing here. But I don't think he doesn't see it

<v Speaker 1>that way. You know, AJ's talking about longing for the

<v Speaker 1>days of sold out Tokyo Dome shows and you know,

<v Speaker 1>the early nineties glory period of Japanese wrestling. And I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure he's not the only one, right, there's a lot

<v Speaker 1>of people who probably long for those days too, But no,

<v Speaker 1>WWE acquiring a company is not going to bring them

<v Speaker 1>back to the glory days. If they wanted to throw

<v Speaker 1>a lifeline to one of them and work together in

<v Speaker 1>a collaborative way, that's one thing he's talking about. Something

<v Speaker 1>completely different. He's talking about colonization, planting their flag and

<v Speaker 1>colonizing in different parts of the world. That's the last

<v Speaker 1>fucking thing that we need. You want true alternatives that

<v Speaker 1>have no ties to WWE, completely independent of WWE. This

<v Speaker 1>is the exact thing you should be rooting against, not four.

<v Speaker 1>And I think it's fucking terrible that AJ Styles is

<v Speaker 1>giving voice to this idea. I just love how he's

<v Speaker 1>talking about well, look what we're doing with Triple A

<v Speaker 1>right now, Like, we're not trying to change the culture,

<v Speaker 1>We're just putting our own spin on it. What does

<v Speaker 1>that even mean? What does he think that means? Those

<v Speaker 1>ideas they fly in the face of each other. And

<v Speaker 1>I pointed this out the other day on on Crowned.

<v Speaker 1>They said, if you look at the list of champions,

<v Speaker 1>like the champions roll call in Triple A right now,

<v Speaker 1>I think more than half at least half, if not

<v Speaker 1>more than half the champions there are main roster WWE talents.

<v Speaker 1>Dom has been walking around with the Mega title for

<v Speaker 1>almost a year. The person he's going to probably lose

<v Speaker 1>it to at Triple Media is actually another WWE guy,

<v Speaker 1>but at least with him, like the fans in Mexico

<v Speaker 1>have really taken him in as one of their own.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he's a huge babyface, so it makes total

<v Speaker 1>sense for them to do that. But it is still

<v Speaker 1>Ludwig Kaiser under the mask. I mean, let's just be honest,

<v Speaker 1>that's what we're talking about here. The war Raiders who

<v Speaker 1>had a hell of a match with Phraxium on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>on Friday night, they won the Triple A Tag team

<v Speaker 1>titles and they're walking around with the Triple A belts

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown? Is this the spin that Aja is taught

<v Speaker 1>talking about? You want to see a repeat of this

<v Speaker 1>in Japan. I'm sure that's going to be great. That's

<v Speaker 1>going to turn out great for the scene over there.

<v Speaker 1>This would be a terrible idea. The last thing we

<v Speaker 1>need to see is WWE going into full acquisition mode

<v Speaker 1>and going into Japan or anywhere else and acquiring more companies.

<v Speaker 1>And on Monday, WWE announced that the fortieth annual Survivor

<v Speaker 1>Series is coming to dyke In Park in Houston, Texas,

<v Speaker 1>home of the Houston Astros. That's going to be on

<v Speaker 1>the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The last time they ran a

<v Speaker 1>pl at that stadium was the Royal Rumble in twenty twenty,

<v Speaker 1>with that great moment when Drew McIntyre booted brock lesnar

<v Speaker 1>right out of the Rumble. The place exploded. You know,

<v Speaker 1>that ended up being more of a WrestleMania moment for

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre than his actual WrestleMania moment was. But this is

<v Speaker 1>going to be the second year in a row that

<v Speaker 1>Survivor Series is held at a major league stadium after

<v Speaker 1>running at Petco Park in San Diego last year. This

<v Speaker 1>comes after a report from Mike Johnson, a PW insider

<v Speaker 1>earlier in the world, that said sources in Major League

<v Speaker 1>Baseball have passed on that WWE has looked into the

<v Speaker 1>potential of running a major event in Milwaukee at American

<v Speaker 1>Family Field. That would be the baseball stadium that houses

<v Speaker 1>the Milwaukee Brewers. Our source state's WWE was looking at

<v Speaker 1>the fall of twenty twenty six or the fall of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty seven, which could indicate that the stadium could

<v Speaker 1>eventually house a Survivor Series event. So I guess that

<v Speaker 1>means that next year's show maybe coming to the Cream

<v Speaker 1>City instead. What a nickname, by the way, to be

<v Speaker 1>called the Cream City. Oh man, hey, honey, I'm I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to Milwaukee for my bachelor party. The boys want

<v Speaker 1>to take me to Cream City? Yeah? See how well

<v Speaker 1>that goes over well. In the announcement, they did make

<v Speaker 1>it very clear that Wargames is coming back, so they

<v Speaker 1>are sticking with the Wargames concept yet again for Survivor Series.

<v Speaker 1>What was this now four years in a row something

<v Speaker 1>like that. I was as big an advocate as anybody

<v Speaker 1>for years and years and years on this podcast for

<v Speaker 1>WWE bringing wargames to the main roster, long before TRIPLEH

<v Speaker 1>did it with NXT. I just love the concept of it,

<v Speaker 1>the visual of it, especially when there was a top

<v Speaker 1>on the cage. You're just trapped inside and it's mass chaos,

<v Speaker 1>and you know, you go really old school with wargames.

<v Speaker 1>You got guys fucking bleeding all over the place. It

<v Speaker 1>felt like a real war, right the Horsemen against you know,

<v Speaker 1>Staying in the Road Warriors, or go down the list

<v Speaker 1>of great war games matches over the years, things Squadron

<v Speaker 1>against the Dangerous Alliance, and there were some great ones

<v Speaker 1>in NXT too. It wasn't just all the old school ones.

<v Speaker 1>So wargames, when done right, is a great concept. The

<v Speaker 1>problem is that they have run wargames into the ground

<v Speaker 1>where there's a lot of people myself included, who were

<v Speaker 1>just exhausted seeing the same thing over and over again

<v Speaker 1>with the Bloodline or with e O Sky going to

<v Speaker 1>the top of the cage and doing her her garbage.

<v Speaker 1>Can dive like Oscar the Grouch and jumping off the

<v Speaker 1>top of the cage, because that's just what we do.

<v Speaker 1>Now we've turned you know, wargames into kind of a joke,

<v Speaker 1>but you know, and like bloodline fatigue sets in after

<v Speaker 1>a while. You see the same faces over and over

<v Speaker 1>and over again, and it's just not that interesting, And

<v Speaker 1>I just I really wish they would take a break

<v Speaker 1>from it and have a return to some sort of

<v Speaker 1>even if it's not exactly the traditional Survivor series elimination match,

<v Speaker 1>some sort of elimination concept I think would be kind

<v Speaker 1>of interesting. But they're gonna do wargames, and if they're

<v Speaker 1>gonna do it, I certainly hope it's not just you know,

<v Speaker 1>bloodline reducts again, and hopefully they can come up with

<v Speaker 1>a match with teams where it actually feels like, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>these men really don't like each other. There's there's been

<v Speaker 1>this war brewing between these two sides for a while now,

<v Speaker 1>and this feels like this needs to be settled in

<v Speaker 1>a wargames match. I don't have a lot of faith

<v Speaker 1>that that's what's going to happen, but just give me

<v Speaker 1>a good reason for doing it, and preferably give me

<v Speaker 1>at least some some new faces in there instead of

<v Speaker 1>just running back the bloodline with the bloodline civil war

<v Speaker 1>stuff or whatever it is. That I'm sure they're going

<v Speaker 1>to end up doing. In November, I mentioned Ludwig Kaiser

<v Speaker 1>a little while ago. We have an update on his case.

<v Speaker 1>There was a pre trial hearing for him aka El

<v Speaker 1>Grande Americano. His attorney filed a motion after that hearing

<v Speaker 1>on Thursday to continue the proceedings or delay them until

<v Speaker 1>August twenty seventh. His attorney also filed a waiver for

<v Speaker 1>a speedy trial, meaning that he has given up his

<v Speaker 1>rights to be tried within a certain period of time.

<v Speaker 1>And this all stems from the incident between Kaiser and

<v Speaker 1>his alleged victim, this guy Richard Reap, back on April

<v Speaker 1>twenty third in Orlando in their apartment complex. Both of

<v Speaker 1>them lived there. According to Reap, Kaiser and a female

<v Speaker 1>or aggressively kissing while the three of them were on

<v Speaker 1>an elevator, and Reap says he told the couple to

<v Speaker 1>please have some manners. I'm sure he said it exactly

<v Speaker 1>that way, and that led to Kaiser attacking him. So

<v Speaker 1>the court is expecting a trial to take place in September,

<v Speaker 1>although if there's a plea deal between now and then,

<v Speaker 1>or if the charges end up being dismissed, then there

<v Speaker 1>will be no trial now this year. This rite up

<v Speaker 1>comes from f furw online dot com. Kaiser's side of

<v Speaker 1>the story regarding the incident was revealed this week in

<v Speaker 1>advance of that pre trial conference that I just mentioned.

<v Speaker 1>It was revealed in a defense motion that was filed

<v Speaker 1>attempting to get the case dismissed, and the motion cites

<v Speaker 1>Florida's stand your ground law that allows someone to use

<v Speaker 1>non deadly force in a situation where they reasonably believe

<v Speaker 1>it to be necessary to protect themselves or another against

<v Speaker 1>imminent use of unlawful force. Kaiser's version of events says

<v Speaker 1>that he and his girlfriend, Andrea Bazarte were hugging in

<v Speaker 1>the elevator, which led to Reep swearing at them while

<v Speaker 1>telling them to have some respect. When Kaiser asked Reep

<v Speaker 1>what he said, Reap allegedly told him to have some

<v Speaker 1>respect before I call ice on that bitch. A confrontation ensued,

<v Speaker 1>but Kaiser says he did not threaten or touch Reap

<v Speaker 1>until Reap aggressively raised his hands and got close to him.

<v Speaker 1>Kaiser says he then pushed Reap away, but Reap twice

<v Speaker 1>came back in a threatening manner. Kaiser says he pushed

<v Speaker 1>Reap but did not retaliate when Reaped threw a soft

<v Speaker 1>drink bottle at him, and the confrontation ended at that point.

<v Speaker 1>In late June, Kaiser's defense was granted access to surveillance

<v Speaker 1>footage of the incident, which should show which version of

<v Speaker 1>events is closer to being accurate now. The original arrest

<v Speaker 1>affidavit says the police officer reviewed the footage and saw

<v Speaker 1>Reap being punched and pushed. Police also observed a large,

<v Speaker 1>fresh scratch on Reep's head in person. Kaiser has been

<v Speaker 1>allowed to travel freely while the case plays out. After

<v Speaker 1>the legal side has resolved Kaiser, Kaiser rather is potentially

<v Speaker 1>facing a civil suit, as Reep has obtained an attorney

<v Speaker 1>who focuses on civil litigation and personal injury. I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>he's gonna want to get paid and look in this

<v Speaker 1>situation again. If Kaiser was in the wrong here, we've

<v Speaker 1>now heard his version of events. If his version of

<v Speaker 1>events is accurate, then it will come out. If his

<v Speaker 1>version of events is not so accurate, and he put

<v Speaker 1>his hands on this guy when he really had no

<v Speaker 1>business doing so, then there's going to be a price

<v Speaker 1>to be paid for that. You can't be doing that.

<v Speaker 1>You can't be putting your hands on people when there's

<v Speaker 1>no reason to do so. So at the very least,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure this guy's gonna end up getting paid. How much,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but if nothing else, I'm sure he's

<v Speaker 1>going to get a nice payday out of this. Although

<v Speaker 1>I guess we'll see. We'll see what the surveillance footage shows.

<v Speaker 1>If there's surveillance footage, it should be pretty cut and dry,

<v Speaker 1>although there wouldn't be audio on there, so I guess

<v Speaker 1>we might not have a way of knowing whether or

<v Speaker 1>not this person said what Kaiser claims he said. Now,

<v Speaker 1>with all my computer issues I was dealing with in

<v Speaker 1>the middle of this week, I was not able to

<v Speaker 1>go live for the Dynamite stream on Wednesday, but lucky you,

<v Speaker 1>you get my thoughts here instead, and I got a

<v Speaker 1>lot of them. First of all, they scored a big

<v Speaker 1>audience last week for their Beach Break episode, their biggest

<v Speaker 1>in at least two years, and they topped that for

<v Speaker 1>this week's show, so people obviously liked what they saw.

<v Speaker 1>This was a poor follow up to that, but also

<v Speaker 1>not as bad as some people made it out. To be.

<v Speaker 1>I mean to hear some people talk about it, this

<v Speaker 1>was the worst dynamite of the year. This was the

<v Speaker 1>worst dynamite the years. To me, it was not as

<v Speaker 1>good as Beach Break, but it wasn't terrible either. It

<v Speaker 1>was a pretty middle of the road show. But at

<v Speaker 1>least when it was over, we actually had a redemption card.

<v Speaker 1>I was more offended by that. We had basically nothing

<v Speaker 1>announce for redemption and it's good that we have a

<v Speaker 1>card now because we are we're a week out. We

<v Speaker 1>are now a week out from today. Coming into this episode.

<v Speaker 1>On Wednesday, they had one match announced. That was it.

<v Speaker 1>Now we have was it seven? I think we have

<v Speaker 1>seven or eight eight matches announced. There was no MJF

<v Speaker 1>on this show on Wednesday, so it looks like he's

<v Speaker 1>clearly not even going to be on the redemption card.

<v Speaker 1>More mind boggling to me, though not even so much

<v Speaker 1>as a mention of the fact that Hangman Adam Page,

<v Speaker 1>a two time aw World champion, making his return to

<v Speaker 1>Collision last Saturday, and they showed highlights from Collision on

<v Speaker 1>this episode. Of other things that happened, Hikarushida beating Harley Cameron,

<v Speaker 1>Mark Davis beating Speedball Mike Bailey. They never even mentioned

<v Speaker 1>Hangman being back after four months away. Even his return

<v Speaker 1>itself last Saturday was never promoted on Dynamite. It came

<v Speaker 1>in a tweet from Tony Kahn a day or two

<v Speaker 1>before the show. Now, they mentioned him on Collision last night,

<v Speaker 1>but to not even mention something big like that on

<v Speaker 1>this show on Wednesday or show highlights that is, it's inexcusable.

<v Speaker 1>I have no words for that. Actually, no, I do

<v Speaker 1>have stupid, dumb, idiotic, those are some of the words

<v Speaker 1>that come to mind.

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>They opened the show with John Moxley giving will Ospray

<v Speaker 1>a pep talk, but the key line here was telling

<v Speaker 1>him there will come a time where you have to

<v Speaker 1>make a difficult decision, and when that time comes, do

<v Speaker 1>not hesitate to pull the trigger, no matter who the

<v Speaker 1>target is. So in other words, now that could have

<v Speaker 1>a double meaning, right, that could have to do with

<v Speaker 1>the match with Omega all In. I know you're friends

<v Speaker 1>with him and you respect him, but again, you may

<v Speaker 1>have to pull the trigger. And if you want to

<v Speaker 1>win the world title, you're gonna have to make a

<v Speaker 1>decision or there's going to come a time where John

<v Speaker 1>Moxley turns against him, and Osprey is gonna have to

<v Speaker 1>fuck him up, and that's going to be the end

<v Speaker 1>of him and the Death Riders. I mean, I think

<v Speaker 1>we all know it's coming, we just don't know when. Right.

<v Speaker 1>Does it happen at all? In? Does it happen at Redemption?

<v Speaker 1>Because there's a new tag team match that's been announced

<v Speaker 1>they're going to be wrestling the Young Bucks. Does it

<v Speaker 1>happen at all? In? Does it happen after all?

<v Speaker 2>In?

<v Speaker 1>I'll say after And I think Moxley is gonna end

<v Speaker 1>up being Osprey's first challenger for the title. Adam Copeland

<v Speaker 1>and Christian Cage they defended their aw tag team titles

<v Speaker 1>against Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuda, and we have new

<v Speaker 1>tag team shit now, I'm just fucking with you. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>give me a fucking break. No, they had them beat

<v Speaker 1>the Death Riders CE team to set up a title

<v Speaker 1>match for Redemption with the Death Writers B team in

<v Speaker 1>Claudio Castignoluan Pack because they want to save that Young

<v Speaker 1>Bucks match, probably for Wembley, So this gives them a

<v Speaker 1>team to beat in the meantime, Andrede liedelo he got

<v Speaker 1>the predictable win over Jake Doyle to claim his shot

<v Speaker 1>at Mark Davis in the national title at Redemption, So

<v Speaker 1>that was our second match made official for that show.

<v Speaker 1>Before the match in the back with Renee, Androde said

<v Speaker 1>that he's making it his mission to beat every member

<v Speaker 1>of the Don Kallis family and take every title from

<v Speaker 1>them before eventually winning the AW World Championship, which means

<v Speaker 1>that Androte will not be winning the AW World Title

<v Speaker 1>for another two and a half years given the rate

<v Speaker 1>of new members that we have with the Kallis family.

<v Speaker 1>He's already knocked off Brian Cage and Jake Doyle, so

<v Speaker 1>only eighteen more to go. Then we had the Kenny

<v Speaker 1>Omega World Championship celebration coming off of his big win

<v Speaker 1>at Beach breakover MJF. This included the Young Bucks coming

<v Speaker 1>out to take the Beije MJF belt from him. Am

<v Speaker 1>I the only one who thinks it's kind of ridiculous.

<v Speaker 1>You listen to the announcers and they're shitting all over

<v Speaker 1>the Beije belt or calling it ugly or whatever they

<v Speaker 1>said about it. I actually think it's a pretty damn

<v Speaker 1>good looking belt. There ain't nothing wrong with the belt.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you could shit on MJF if you want to.

<v Speaker 1>But them talking about the belt, you would think, like man,

<v Speaker 1>nobody wants to touch that thing. Even when he had

<v Speaker 1>the American title and they kind of got rid of

<v Speaker 1>the International title for a while. It was a good

<v Speaker 1>looking belt. There's nothing wrong with the physical belt, but

<v Speaker 1>the bucks were there and they presented him instead with

<v Speaker 1>the traditional black AW World Championship, which, outside of the

<v Speaker 1>IWGP belt, this is still the second most gorgeous belt

<v Speaker 1>in all of pro wrestling right now is the AW

<v Speaker 1>World title. They definitely got it right with that belt. Now.

<v Speaker 1>I heard Dave Meltzer say that he thought that this

<v Speaker 1>was the best US promo of Kenny Omega's career. If

<v Speaker 1>that is the case, what a sad commentary on the

<v Speaker 1>man's promo ability. If this is his best US promo

<v Speaker 1>of his career. I thought he was fine, but this

<v Speaker 1>was hardly anything memorable from him on the microphone. He's

<v Speaker 1>not a great promo to begin with. He's really not

<v Speaker 1>that great. But it's been so long, he says, I

<v Speaker 1>can't even quote the actual number of days since I

<v Speaker 1>last held this champ and ship. But he credits his

<v Speaker 1>friends and family and the fans, because without them he

<v Speaker 1>would have given up on himself a long time ago.

<v Speaker 1>But here we are less than fifty days until Wembley Stadium.

<v Speaker 1>As much as I would like to say that I'm ready,

<v Speaker 1>I've got work to do. And in fifty days you're

<v Speaker 1>going to see the best version of Kenny Omega in AW.

<v Speaker 1>So will Ospray interrupts and he asked the bucks if

<v Speaker 1>he and Kenny could have the ring to themselves, and

<v Speaker 1>Osprey says, it was very important that Omega believed in himself, Brov.

<v Speaker 1>And he was here to see Omega wrestle twenty five

<v Speaker 1>minutes in that heat last week, never giving up on himself, Brev.

<v Speaker 1>Osprey thought Omega was done after taking a belt shot Brev,

<v Speaker 1>but then he kicked out. It won, Brov. He says,

<v Speaker 1>the cleaner is back, the best bout machine is back, Brov.

<v Speaker 1>But for ten years Omega has been his hero and

<v Speaker 1>his inspiration, and he can only say thank you, Brov,

<v Speaker 1>every time he steps in the ring with him. Thank you.

<v Speaker 1>When Osprey thinks of AAW he thinks of Kenny Omega.

<v Speaker 1>It's All's ever wanted was to be a fraction of

<v Speaker 1>what Omega is. But he's not satisfied as being second.

<v Speaker 1>Every week they'll be out here showing everybody why they're

<v Speaker 1>in the position they're in in a Wembley Stadium main

<v Speaker 1>event aw world title. Let's show them that this is

<v Speaker 1>where the best wrestle. And this is all finding good

<v Speaker 1>for now, but this is going to get very old

<v Speaker 1>if we're still getting these types of promos three weeks

<v Speaker 1>from now. So if they're going to do Babyface against Babyface,

<v Speaker 1>I hope that they have a good plan to make

<v Speaker 1>things more interesting going into it other than simply it's

<v Speaker 1>where the best wrestle. Later in the show, by the way,

<v Speaker 1>in the back, John Moxley told Kenny Omega some people

<v Speaker 1>are who they are and can't pretend to be anything

<v Speaker 1>else even if they try. If Moxley is going to

<v Speaker 1>plant ideas in Osprey's head about while Omega is trying

<v Speaker 1>to convince Osprey that the Death Riders are not his friends,

<v Speaker 1>that could be the catalyst for some tension between the

<v Speaker 1>two of them. That would be probably the best direction

<v Speaker 1>they could take. I think that could turn out to

<v Speaker 1>be pretty interesting. But the interruptions were not done yet,

<v Speaker 1>because here comes the TNT Champion, the Jet Kevin Knight,

<v Speaker 1>who tells Osprey he's got things to talk about champion

<v Speaker 1>to champion, and Omega said Osprey can stay, and so

<v Speaker 1>he hung back in the corner and Knight said, I'm

<v Speaker 1>still owed to title shot courtesy of Maxwell. Jacob Fraudman

<v Speaker 1>says Omega is a god, but what's a god to

<v Speaker 1>a non believer? And he issued a challenge for redemption

<v Speaker 1>to a World Championship match, to which the crowd began

<v Speaker 1>chanting No. They're like, I get he's a heel, but

<v Speaker 1>that's just hilarious to me, Like I would have been

<v Speaker 1>chanting the same thing, but for a very different reason,

<v Speaker 1>as in, No, there has to be a better match

<v Speaker 1>that you could come up with for the main event

<v Speaker 1>of this brand new pay per view that you're doing.

<v Speaker 1>Omega said, Night is trying to hold him accountable for

<v Speaker 1>a promise that MJF made. And I noticed something here

<v Speaker 1>as he was talking in supposedly the best US promo

<v Speaker 1>of his career, I noticed something that was kind of peculiar,

<v Speaker 1>which is that Kenny Omega cannot say the name Maxwell.

<v Speaker 1>Did you notice this? I thought he just flubbed his

<v Speaker 1>name the first time he said it, like he misspoke,

<v Speaker 1>but then he kept saying it the same way over

<v Speaker 1>and over, like another three or four times. Instead of

<v Speaker 1>saying Maxwell. It sounded like he kept calling him maxib

<v Speaker 1>or like maxib very strange. I mean, at that point,

<v Speaker 1>just call him Max because you're gonna try to hold

<v Speaker 1>me to his word. We're not gonna do that. But

<v Speaker 1>maybe I'll give you a shot just because I'm a

<v Speaker 1>nice guy. Maybe because the first time I laid eyes

<v Speaker 1>on you, I saw something special, someone who looked the part,

<v Speaker 1>someone who was faster than everybody else and jumped higher,

<v Speaker 1>someone who was hungry. But that's where it ended, because

<v Speaker 1>Knight went and aligned himself with Don Kallas, and Omegas

<v Speaker 1>said he'd be a hypocrite if he told everyone that

<v Speaker 1>he never believed in what Don Kallas was selling, because

<v Speaker 1>the last time he was world champion was thanks to

<v Speaker 1>Don Kallas. He was during the coronavirus outbreak when no

<v Speaker 1>one was able to show up to celebrate. But he

<v Speaker 1>realized even if they could show up, they would not

<v Speaker 1>have He didn't deserve for them to and he told Knight,

<v Speaker 1>you don't need Don kallus. You could do this on

<v Speaker 1>your own. And Omegas said, call MJF what you want.

<v Speaker 1>But he wasn't a fraud. He defended his title when

<v Speaker 1>he said he would. The only fraud that Omega sees

<v Speaker 1>is Kevin Knight. Deep down inside. The shit that Knight

<v Speaker 1>is spewing is not coming from the heart. Call him crazy,

<v Speaker 1>but he thinks there's a lot of good left in

<v Speaker 1>this man's heart. And you don't need a guy like

<v Speaker 1>Don Kallas to beat Kenny Omega. But if it's going

<v Speaker 1>to be US at Redemption, he wants the Jet Kevin Knight.

<v Speaker 1>He doesn't want Don Kallas's bitch. You want to be Jet.

<v Speaker 1>Two belts, do it on your own. And Knight said, well,

<v Speaker 1>one thing that you're wrong about. There's no goodness left

<v Speaker 1>in my heart, only greatness, and he smashed Kenny in

<v Speaker 1>the head with the microphone. Osprey flew in for the

<v Speaker 1>hidden Blade, but Knight ducked it and he bailed up

<v Speaker 1>the ramp. But then Darby Allen flew out and he

<v Speaker 1>attacked Kevin Knight on the ramp. Because those two are

<v Speaker 1>actually feuding right now, Brian Cage, he attacked Darby from behind.

<v Speaker 1>Here comes Rocky Romero and Trent Burretta who get laid

<v Speaker 1>out by Omega and Osprey. Here come more members of

<v Speaker 1>the Callous Crew, but the Death Riders come out. They

<v Speaker 1>join Omega and Osprey in the ring to keep them

<v Speaker 1>in bay. Another episode of Dynamite, another week where I'm

<v Speaker 1>not sure if I'm supposed to be cheering for the

<v Speaker 1>Death Riders or booing the death Riders. You have them

<v Speaker 1>in the opening match against Cop and Christian playing heels.

<v Speaker 1>Same with Claudio and Pac, but here they're treated like babyfaces.

<v Speaker 1>This segment was too long. It was like a WWE

<v Speaker 1>opening promo segment long when it really didn't need to be.

<v Speaker 1>But it's its purpose, which was to give us our

<v Speaker 1>main event for Montreal on twenty sixth and so, for

<v Speaker 1>the third time in less than a year, we have

<v Speaker 1>the TNT champion challenging for and losing to the aw

<v Speaker 1>World Champion. And look, there's no shame in losing to

<v Speaker 1>the champ, right, that's why they're the world champion. But

<v Speaker 1>they don't need to be making a habit out of

<v Speaker 1>it now. They did this with Kyle Fletcher. It all

<v Speaker 1>out last year he was the TNT champion, right, he

<v Speaker 1>wrestled Hangman in the main event for the world title.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't even hate it when they did it with

<v Speaker 1>Kyle last year. I thought they were telling people by

<v Speaker 1>positioning him in the main event, we see main event

<v Speaker 1>potential in this man, right, go out there and sell yourself,

<v Speaker 1>sell yourself to the fans that you belong in this spot.

<v Speaker 1>That's essentially what they're doing here, and I mean there's

<v Speaker 1>nothing inherently wrong with that, but it really does feel

<v Speaker 1>like a throwaway main event, as in, they threw away

<v Speaker 1>what should have been the main event in favor of

<v Speaker 1>doing a lesser match. I still have not been given

<v Speaker 1>a good reason as to why that match was on

<v Speaker 1>television and not save for redemption. I don't give a

<v Speaker 1>shit if the idea came from MJF himself. He's not

<v Speaker 1>a dumb man, right. He knew that it would pop

<v Speaker 1>a big rating and he could take credit for it,

<v Speaker 1>and it worked. But like in terms of star power,

<v Speaker 1>this is an objectively weaker main event on a show

<v Speaker 1>that was added very late to the schedule and could

<v Speaker 1>use a really strong drawing main event in ring. I

<v Speaker 1>know it's going to be strong. I mean, maybe it

<v Speaker 1>might even end up being match of the night. But

<v Speaker 1>you can say that about every aw pay per view.

<v Speaker 1>I mean by that logic, just put Kenny Omega against

<v Speaker 1>Hetchesero in the main event, right or Commander? Are we

<v Speaker 1>looking Here's what I'm wondering now. I'm looking at this

<v Speaker 1>and it's no longer Kenny going for the championship trying

<v Speaker 1>to get his redemption and get that win back over

<v Speaker 1>MJF from Dynasty. They killed that story last week. He

<v Speaker 1>got his redemption on Beach Break. Are we looking not

<v Speaker 1>at Kenny Omega's redemption now but Kevin Knights? Because there

<v Speaker 1>were so many mentions in this promo back stage in

<v Speaker 1>other segments, like when the Speedball confronted Kevin Knight, where

<v Speaker 1>they were all talking about like the real Kevin Knight

<v Speaker 1>right and ditching Callous and ditching the Don Kallis family,

<v Speaker 1>and you still have good in your hearts and I

<v Speaker 1>know it's still buried deep down inside you. Is this

<v Speaker 1>what we're building to here? It would seem a little

<v Speaker 1>quick to break him away from the Callous family, seeing

<v Speaker 1>is how he just joined them, But with Omega talking

<v Speaker 1>about all this stuff and again Speedball confronting him, and

<v Speaker 1>I'll be here waiting when the old you know, Kevin

<v Speaker 1>Knight shows up again. Maybe they've pivoted to a Kevin

<v Speaker 1>Knight redemption arc. I don't know. I mean, can you

<v Speaker 1>really have a redemption after only two months? Usually you'd

<v Speaker 1>expect it to go a little bit longer than that.

<v Speaker 1>He just joined. Is that what we're looking at though?

<v Speaker 1>That's what it feels like to me. Also, how many

<v Speaker 1>times must we have champions challenging other champions in this company?

<v Speaker 1>This is what happens when everyone has a belt, you

<v Speaker 1>end up with endless champion against champion matches. They've announced

<v Speaker 1>Kyle Fletcher will be defending the International title at Redemption

<v Speaker 1>against Bandido. Because Bandido had the gall to interrupt his

<v Speaker 1>backstage promo when he was in the middle of speaking.

<v Speaker 1>That's how this match came about. That's only a step

<v Speaker 1>below Chris Jericho spelling coffee on Caine in the back,

<v Speaker 1>leading to a feud between them. Bandido, the Ring of

<v Speaker 1>Honor World champion, who already lost last month to John

<v Speaker 1>Moxley when he challenged for the continental title, is now

<v Speaker 1>going to lose again to Kyle Fletcher. Kevin Knight is

<v Speaker 1>going to be defending his TNT Championship on TBS next

<v Speaker 1>week against Darby Allen. They're doing that match on TV

<v Speaker 1>next week, and so now that we know he won't

<v Speaker 1>be defending it at Redemption, did you know that the

<v Speaker 1>TNT Championship has not been defended on a single pay

<v Speaker 1>per view since Full Gear last year. I'm not counting

<v Speaker 1>Dynasty this year because the title was vacant, there was

<v Speaker 1>no champion to defend, and they was Kevin Knight actually,

<v Speaker 1>who won the title in a gauntlet match. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>counting that. Not a single defense of that title since

<v Speaker 1>November on a pay per view for what had been

<v Speaker 1>considered the second biggest men's title in the entire company.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, maybe it isn't anymore. I think John Moxley's

<v Speaker 1>got the Continental title, so that's probably the de facto

<v Speaker 1>number two men's belt in the company. But for what's

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be their second biggest title, that's fucking awful.

<v Speaker 1>That is an awful statistic. I mentioned Kyle Fletcher hell

<v Speaker 1>of a title defense against Commander. Commander has been missing

<v Speaker 1>for months due to visa issues that only recently got resolved.

<v Speaker 1>I had a lot of fun with this match, so

<v Speaker 1>did the crowd. When it was over, Fletcher went to

<v Speaker 1>go rip his mask off when Kenoski takeshter Ren. He

<v Speaker 1>attacked Fletcher and I said, oh, he's stuck around. I

<v Speaker 1>thought he would be back in Japan by now. Takeshta

<v Speaker 1>picked up the international title when Okada ran in and

<v Speaker 1>laid him out with a rain maker. Okata and Fletcher

<v Speaker 1>they pick up the title at the same time and

<v Speaker 1>staring each other down until Brodido hits the ring and

<v Speaker 1>takes them both out, and it ends with Bendido holding

<v Speaker 1>up the international titles. So we're totally getting a three

<v Speaker 1>way in London with Takeshta, Fletcher, and Okada. Once Takesha

<v Speaker 1>comes back. Chris Jericho he issued a challenge to Tamaso

<v Speaker 1>Champa for a rematch at Redemption. After Champa threw sand

<v Speaker 1>in his eyes to win their first match at Beach Break,

<v Speaker 1>I said, Shampa, you bring the pain I'll bring the

<v Speaker 1>pain maker. And Jericho turned and we saw the pain

<v Speaker 1>maker makeup on his which is I mean, I say

<v Speaker 1>the pain maker makeup? My god, It's just it's a

<v Speaker 1>couple of black streaks under his eyes that's basically the makeup,

<v Speaker 1>or maybe like by the corners of his mouth. I

<v Speaker 1>think it's the most pathetic makeup job like, there are

<v Speaker 1>guys that will really work really hard on the makeup

<v Speaker 1>on their face, like stain Wood every single week, and

<v Speaker 1>he would just be walking out there in a bomber

<v Speaker 1>jacket even when he wasn't wrestling. Hey, he's putting all

<v Speaker 1>the makeup on and everything right, or Dustin Rhodes. This

<v Speaker 1>guy takes a little bit of black makeup here and there. Oh,

<v Speaker 1>I'm the pain maker, and so he's got the makeup

<v Speaker 1>on his face and he puts that silly, stupid, fucking

<v Speaker 1>clockwork orange hat on and then he makes a funny face.

<v Speaker 1>He looked completely ridiculous. It felt like this was meant

<v Speaker 1>to be a parody. I can't take him seriously at

<v Speaker 1>this point with that shit on, I just can't. He

<v Speaker 1>looks so ridiculous making that face, and they just lingered

<v Speaker 1>on him for an uncomfortable amount of time. Darby Allen

<v Speaker 1>he barely survived Brian Cage, but it followed the same

<v Speaker 1>formula that every Darby match does. He takes a lot

<v Speaker 1>of really stupid bumps, an insane amount of punishment, but

<v Speaker 1>then just win end anyway, and Brian Cage continues to

<v Speaker 1>be the resident jobber of the Don kallis family. But

<v Speaker 1>at least he looks good doing it right. Dude's as

<v Speaker 1>big as I've ever seen him. Darby is challenging Night

<v Speaker 1>this Wednesday for the TNT title. You could have made

<v Speaker 1>things interesting. Here's one way you could have made things

<v Speaker 1>interesting by making it non title and saving that for Wembley.

<v Speaker 1>But instead make it a number one contenders match where

<v Speaker 1>the winner gets the shot at Kenny Omega redemption. At

<v Speaker 1>least that would have created some intrigue as to the outcome.

<v Speaker 1>Because you make that match non title, I think you

<v Speaker 1>get a lot of people convinced that Darby's going over,

<v Speaker 1>and then when Kevin Knight wins, it kind of takes

<v Speaker 1>him off guard a little bit. But at least he

<v Speaker 1>you know, he earns his way in because Kenny Kenny

<v Speaker 1>was right. He's like, look, MJF made you a promise.

<v Speaker 1>I don't give a shit what MJF promised you. You

<v Speaker 1>want a shot at the championship, you gotta fight for you.

<v Speaker 1>You have an issue with one Darby Allen lately, so

<v Speaker 1>why don't the two way you fight for it? How

<v Speaker 1>can they couldn't set it up that way? I mean

<v Speaker 1>Darby literally came out at the end of that segment anyway,

<v Speaker 1>and he attacked Kevin Knight. I think that would have

<v Speaker 1>been a better way to go about doing it. They

<v Speaker 1>saved the ladies for last, clearly because they were in Boston,

<v Speaker 1>and of course they were gonna have Mercedes Monett wrestling

<v Speaker 1>in the main event in Boston. It was Mercedes, Megan

<v Speaker 1>Bain and Leana Cross against Willow Nightingale hi On and

<v Speaker 1>Maya World. Now I didn't watch this live, but apparently

<v Speaker 1>this started six or seven minutes into the overrun? Do

<v Speaker 1>I have that right? And they still took an ad

<v Speaker 1>break in the overrun. I thought the match was fine.

<v Speaker 1>My only issue was no Tecla on this show. Willow

<v Speaker 1>is challenging Tekla for the title at Redemption. Her team

<v Speaker 1>lost to Mercedes and her team, who got the pin

<v Speaker 1>on hi On to win it, and that's how they

<v Speaker 1>went off the air. There was stuff to like, there

<v Speaker 1>was stuff to dislike. Definitely a step down from Beach Break,

<v Speaker 1>but we actually had I have a card now for Redemption,

<v Speaker 1>which looks like one that doesn't need to be happening.

<v Speaker 1>This really didn't need to be a pay per view.

<v Speaker 1>They only have fifty five hundred tickets out, maybe a

<v Speaker 1>little more than that by now for a show that's

<v Speaker 1>a week away. I know they usually do pretty good

<v Speaker 1>walk up sales, but unless they have a massive swing

<v Speaker 1>this week, that is not good. For a pay per review,

<v Speaker 1>that is not a good number. Compare that with all

<v Speaker 1>in coming off Omega beating MJF to win the world title.

<v Speaker 1>They moved over four thousand tickets alone this past week

<v Speaker 1>to bring the total for Wembley still with six weeks

<v Speaker 1>left to go up over thirty one thousand tickets sold.

<v Speaker 1>That's a lot better. And I said this on TNT

<v Speaker 1>the other night. JD thinks that they're going to clear

<v Speaker 1>fifty thousand for the Wembley show. I think he's nuts.

<v Speaker 1>I don't see that at all, But I do think

<v Speaker 1>they'll end up around forty thousand or so. I would

<v Speaker 1>say probably a little bit over forty K's where I

<v Speaker 1>think they'll end up. They did seventy something thousand for

<v Speaker 1>the first one, they did fifty thousand plus for the

<v Speaker 1>second one, forty thousand for this one after they just

<v Speaker 1>added four thousand tickets. That sounds reasonable to me. Here's

<v Speaker 1>what Redemption looks like so far with my predictions, I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure they'll be adding more. This week, we have the

<v Speaker 1>Painmaker Chris Jericho against Tamaso Champa. Champa won the first one.

<v Speaker 1>Jericho's going to win this one, and I think a

<v Speaker 1>power drill is going to come into play here somehow,

<v Speaker 1>especially now that this match after collision last night, as

<v Speaker 1>per Tamaso Champa, has been made no holds barred. This

<v Speaker 1>will be a Jericho win. Just added after collision last night,

<v Speaker 1>Hikarushita will defend her TBS Championship against Maya World after

<v Speaker 1>Maya came to the aid of Queen am Nada, who

<v Speaker 1>wrestled Shiita last night. I think Maya could be built

<v Speaker 1>up to win the TBS title at some point. I'd

<v Speaker 1>rather that than the Ring of Honor Women's World title,

<v Speaker 1>but it shouldn't happen here. Shida just won the belt.

<v Speaker 1>Doesn't feel like the right time to just take it

<v Speaker 1>off of her, and I wasn't even anamored with putting

<v Speaker 1>the belt unsheed it to begin with, but you did it,

<v Speaker 1>and so now it just feels like this is not

<v Speaker 1>the right time to do a title change. So this

<v Speaker 1>should be a Sheeta win. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage

<v Speaker 1>defend their AW tag team titles against Claudio Castig Nooleum Pack.

<v Speaker 1>This will be a win for C and C. Kyle

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher defends the AW International title against Bandido. That'll be

<v Speaker 1>a retention for Fletcher. Mark Davis defends the AW National

<v Speaker 1>title against Andrade Ledelo and I'm sorry to say this

<v Speaker 1>is where the reign of Mark Davis comes to an

<v Speaker 1>end ANDROTI will win the national championship. I wonder if

<v Speaker 1>they just go back to Davis and Doyle as a

<v Speaker 1>tag team. Also just added John Moxley will team up

<v Speaker 1>with will Ospray to take on the Young Bucks. This

<v Speaker 1>is what all these Moxley and Osprey team ups and

<v Speaker 1>squashes on TV have been leading to. I believe their

<v Speaker 1>first loss, and how does Moxley respond to that? This

<v Speaker 1>is going to be the first crack in the armor

<v Speaker 1>between Osprey and the Death Riders. And if the Bucks

<v Speaker 1>are being built up for a tag team title match,

<v Speaker 1>they shouldn't be losing this anyway. So I'm going with

<v Speaker 1>the Bucks for the win. I would think that that's

<v Speaker 1>the Wembley match right, first time ever the Bucks against

<v Speaker 1>C and C. But where might the New Day fit

<v Speaker 1>into all of this. They're free agents very soon, possibly

<v Speaker 1>as soon as next week. And that's another match that's

<v Speaker 1>been bandied about for years, right, the big dream match

<v Speaker 1>the Young Bucks and the New Day never seem like

<v Speaker 1>it had any real shot of happening. But it's gonna happen, Oh,

<v Speaker 1>mark my words, it's gonna happen. Just a matter of when.

<v Speaker 1>Teklo will defend the AW Women's World Championship against Willow Nightingale.

<v Speaker 1>I really don't mind if either woman walks away with

<v Speaker 1>the title here to defend against Mercedes, but I think

<v Speaker 1>it's gonna be Willow. I think they're gonna go the

<v Speaker 1>babyface against Heel Route. I think it's gonna be weird

<v Speaker 1>if they do Tecla and Mercedes as the big women's

<v Speaker 1>match on that show. It is a match that we

<v Speaker 1>haven't seen though, I'd be pretty keen on seeing it.

<v Speaker 1>But I think it's going to be Willow winning the

<v Speaker 1>championship here. She won that Gauntlet, made her big return

<v Speaker 1>her team lost this past week on Dynamite. I think

<v Speaker 1>she wins the belt and Kenny Omega defends the AW

<v Speaker 1>World Championship against the Jets. The TNT champion Kevin Knight.

<v Speaker 1>They've sold thirty one thousand tickets in counting for that

<v Speaker 1>Wembley show, and a good chunk of those late sales.

<v Speaker 1>Or because Kenny Omega has been announced to wrestle will

<v Speaker 1>Ospray in the main event, Kevin Knight will not be

<v Speaker 1>jetting to the main event at Wembley Stadium. And we'll

<v Speaker 1>see if this turns out to be a redemption arc

<v Speaker 1>for him, do they flip him right back to being Babyface?

<v Speaker 1>I mean, if it is there's speed running through a

<v Speaker 1>redemption arc for Kevin Knight, I'm not quite sure that

<v Speaker 1>would make a lot of sense, But that was the

<v Speaker 1>feeling I got coming out of that Dynamite show. On Wednesday.

<v Speaker 1>One more awn kind of aw note, Tony Kahan popped

<v Speaker 1>up as a surprise. There was a twenty four hour

<v Speaker 1>charity stream of the In the Weeds podcast hosted by

<v Speaker 1>Jeremy Lambert of Fight Full. They were raising money for

<v Speaker 1>the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Tony popped up.

<v Speaker 1>It was a twenty four hour stream. This was towards

<v Speaker 1>the end of it and Tony com popped up and

<v Speaker 1>he took part in nearly an hour long conversation. He

<v Speaker 1>was playing games. He was answering fan questions and during

<v Speaker 1>the course of that conversation he talked about aw Rampage

<v Speaker 1>and where the name came from. He said the name

<v Speaker 1>of the show was inspired by a wrestling simulator that

<v Speaker 1>he used to play. He said, I grew up playing

<v Speaker 1>rampage wrestling, hence the name Rampage. This tracks. That actually

<v Speaker 1>makes a lot of sense to me. I'm not surprised

<v Speaker 1>by that at all, but that's very cool. I think

<v Speaker 1>for the president of the company to just pop in

<v Speaker 1>like that for an hour, like it's nothing on a

<v Speaker 1>charity stream, that was very cool. I didn't see the

<v Speaker 1>entire conversation. I was wht bits and pieces of it

<v Speaker 1>the other day. So very cool stuff. Now we can

<v Speaker 1>get into the grand finale. Last week, Dark Side of

<v Speaker 1>the Ring Season seven kicked off with back to back

<v Speaker 1>episodes on Jeff Jarrett and The Battle for TNA Wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>This week was the finale, and so you know, Weis

<v Speaker 1>has released all three episodes in full on their YouTube channel.

<v Speaker 1>I hope they do that for every episode. I'm guessing

<v Speaker 1>they're only doing it because this was a trilogy, so

<v Speaker 1>they have all three of them up. If they do

<v Speaker 1>it every week. That would be amazing, but this may

<v Speaker 1>be the only time they do that. I like the

<v Speaker 1>first two episodes well enough, even though it was a

<v Speaker 1>little too rosy when it came to Jeff Jarrett, especially

<v Speaker 1>when he was the champion hogging up the main events

<v Speaker 1>scene in TNA for years and years. If that was

<v Speaker 1>anybody else, they would have been buried for it, and

<v Speaker 1>he deserves criticism for that and missing the boat on

<v Speaker 1>people like Monty Brown when they had the chance to

<v Speaker 1>belt the guy up. But the third episode was just

<v Speaker 1>a gold mine when it comes to the worst of TNA.

<v Speaker 1>The Dixie Talent meeting, moving impact head to head with Raw,

<v Speaker 1>the Jeff Hardy incident of Victory Road, Dixie clinging to

<v Speaker 1>Hogan's leg on TV when he decided to leave the company.

<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, where do we even begin with this?

<v Speaker 1>How about where we left things with episode two? Jarrett

<v Speaker 1>had been removed from Power after the controversy over him

<v Speaker 1>and Karen Angle getting together and Dixie. In the minds

<v Speaker 1>of Jeff and Karen, Dixie saw this as an opportunity

<v Speaker 1>to make a power play and move Jarrett out of

<v Speaker 1>the way, and then they also had talked about the

<v Speaker 1>arrival of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, which really I

<v Speaker 1>think there's a dividing line for TNA where you have

<v Speaker 1>the Jarrett era, where TNA had its own distinct feel

<v Speaker 1>for the most part, and then the Hogan and Bischoff era,

<v Speaker 1>where it no longer felt like TNA anymore, especially after

<v Speaker 1>they got rid of the six sided ring, which is

<v Speaker 1>one of the things that separated TNA from every other

<v Speaker 1>US promotion at that time. That was one of the

<v Speaker 1>first things they did when they came in. Now, me personally,

<v Speaker 1>I never cared for the six sides, and I know

<v Speaker 1>guys have said that it killed their bodies to bump

<v Speaker 1>in that ring. It was just it has to do

<v Speaker 1>with the cables and stuff underneath. It's just stiffer. It

<v Speaker 1>didn't have as much give as the traditional four sided

<v Speaker 1>wrestling ring, So in the long run, it was good

<v Speaker 1>that they switched away from it. Now had Hogan and

<v Speaker 1>bischofs cited wrestler's safety is the reason for the change,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think people would have been as mad about it,

<v Speaker 1>But they were total heels when they made the announcement.

<v Speaker 1>They sounded like assholes when they announced it. You wanted it.

<v Speaker 1>You got it, and now it's gone. The playpen is gone.

<v Speaker 1>Deal with it, right, Just a couple of real assholes

<v Speaker 1>about it. And let's be honest, it had nothing to

<v Speaker 1>do with wrestler safety.

<v Speaker 2>To them.

<v Speaker 1>It had more to do with Hogan probably not wanting

<v Speaker 1>to bump in that ring because he knew at some

<v Speaker 1>point he was going to be wrestling. Give me a break.

<v Speaker 1>Can you imagine Hulk Hogan with his back in the

<v Speaker 1>shape it was in bumping in a six sided ring.

<v Speaker 1>He would have been in a full body cast. But

<v Speaker 1>it was the idea of these guys coming in and

<v Speaker 1>changing things and moving away from what made TNA what

<v Speaker 1>it was, you know, to go back to something that

<v Speaker 1>Jared said at the end of the last episode when

<v Speaker 1>he said he thought Hogan coming in as a brand

<v Speaker 1>ambassador would be a great thing for TNA. If it

<v Speaker 1>just kind of was kept to that, he's full of shit.

<v Speaker 1>If he honestly believed that Hogan was just coming in

<v Speaker 1>to be a spokesman for them and nothing more. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>maybe he tried to convince himself of that, but deep down,

<v Speaker 1>there's no way that Jeff Jarrett believed that they covered

<v Speaker 1>the infamous Dixie Carter talent meeting that aired on the

<v Speaker 1>November fifth, two thousand and nine episode of TNA Impact,

<v Speaker 1>which is still to this day one of the most

<v Speaker 1>embarrassing things that I've ever seen on a wrestling show.

<v Speaker 1>And think of all the ground that covers, even just

<v Speaker 1>in TNA alone, at least most of the shit that

<v Speaker 1>we see on TV as a work, it's just bad television.

<v Speaker 1>It's bad creative. This was a shoot. This was a

<v Speaker 1>real talent meeting that she thought was a good idea

<v Speaker 1>to call in the first place. And then she thought,

<v Speaker 1>you know what would make this even better, Well air

<v Speaker 1>it on TV for all the world to see how

<v Speaker 1>delusional I really am. If you've listened to this podcast

<v Speaker 1>for longer than a decade, and I know many of

<v Speaker 1>you have, you remember I used to call her delusional Dixie.

<v Speaker 1>I give you Exhibit B. I say exhibit B because

<v Speaker 1>exhibit A was her bringing in hul Cogan thinking he

<v Speaker 1>would give a shit about anything other than hul Cogan.

<v Speaker 1>She was completely delusional, delusional Dixie. She calls this talent

<v Speaker 1>meeting thinking that she's going to rally the troops behind her.

<v Speaker 1>All she did was alienate most of the roster and

<v Speaker 1>show how out of touch she really was. She gathered

<v Speaker 1>them all together in the stands in the Impact Zone

<v Speaker 1>before that night's show, so they're all sitting in the crowd.

<v Speaker 1>The wrestlers are like fans. It's like a teacher gathering

<v Speaker 1>her class of children to let them and she said,

<v Speaker 1>like ever since I took over as the TNA president,

<v Speaker 1>a lot of people have told me how to run

<v Speaker 1>a wrestling company, and it's time for a change. She said.

<v Speaker 1>Nobody liked change or drastic moves, and while she respects

<v Speaker 1>those who had differing opinions of decisions that she was making,

<v Speaker 1>she expected them to support her one hundred percent. When

<v Speaker 1>you question things in this company, you question me, and

<v Speaker 1>I cannot allow that to happen. Yes, dissent will not

<v Speaker 1>be tolerated. Is a great rallying message. She said that

<v Speaker 1>she had made the choice to put her finances and

<v Speaker 1>her passion behind all of the wrestlers, and it was

<v Speaker 1>time for them to do the same. She said they

<v Speaker 1>had a choice to make. They could support her in

<v Speaker 1>the direction that TNA was going, or they could choose

<v Speaker 1>not to, in which case they would need to find

<v Speaker 1>a new place to work. Basically, She got a lot

<v Speaker 1>of shit from people for bringing Hogan in, and those

<v Speaker 1>people either need to deal with it or leave and

<v Speaker 1>look fair enough. She's the president of the company. She

<v Speaker 1>made a decision that she felt was in the best

<v Speaker 1>interest of her company and that would take it to

<v Speaker 1>new heights, right the rocket fuel for TNA. But her

<v Speaker 1>tone here and deciding to air this on television was

<v Speaker 1>a horrendously bad decision, one that did more harm than

<v Speaker 1>good because all it did was kill the morale of

<v Speaker 1>the locker room. And it tells them like, if we

<v Speaker 1>have genuine criticisms or concerns about where TNA is headed,

<v Speaker 1>she didn't give a shit. Keep it to yourself. Sound familiar.

<v Speaker 1>There are people running wrestling companies right now in twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty six who also don't like dissent, and they don't

<v Speaker 1>like it when people criticize them. David Sahati, who worked

<v Speaker 1>in production for TNA at the time, said, this is

<v Speaker 1>where Dixie lost control of the locker room. All the

<v Speaker 1>wrestlers lost respect for her after this. Velvet Sky just

<v Speaker 1>last year on social media, I guess somebody posted the clip,

<v Speaker 1>maybe it was on the app anniversary or something, and

<v Speaker 1>she quote tweeted it, and she said the consensus of

<v Speaker 1>the locker room and staff during this meeting was not

<v Speaker 1>one single person gave a shit what she was saying,

<v Speaker 1>and we actually had to take time out of production

<v Speaker 1>day for this nonsense from her, and it had to

<v Speaker 1>be filmed so that she could have her my way

<v Speaker 1>or the Highway ego stroked. Even more, she was not

<v Speaker 1>well received by most because of the way she treated

<v Speaker 1>people who could do nothing for her and the way

<v Speaker 1>that she would talk down to people vile that would

<v Speaker 1>have been nice to hear from Dixie. You know what

<v Speaker 1>her thought process was on this, But again she was

<v Speaker 1>asked to be on she never responded to any of

<v Speaker 1>those requests to sit down for an interview, and so

<v Speaker 1>she didn't appear on any of these episodes. What's funny

<v Speaker 1>is that she told the wrestlers, if you don't support

<v Speaker 1>me or my vision, you need to find another place

<v Speaker 1>to work, and supposedly Homicide and low Key and maybe

<v Speaker 1>others did just that. They asked for their release and

<v Speaker 1>they were turned down, so she immediately back down from

<v Speaker 1>what she had said. It kind of reminds me of

<v Speaker 1>a very similar meeting that Eric Bischoff once held backstage

<v Speaker 1>at a WCW show, only he had enough sense not

<v Speaker 1>to film it and put it on TV and Eric

<v Speaker 1>on Nitro that night. To be fair, some of those

<v Speaker 1>guys were out of control back then. They were saying

<v Speaker 1>all kinds of things publicly, and he probably did have

<v Speaker 1>to sit them down and talk to them. Raven was

<v Speaker 1>one of those people. He had gone on a radio

<v Speaker 1>show to complain about his position on the card and creative,

<v Speaker 1>so he got singled out in the meeting with a

<v Speaker 1>few other people. I think Conan was one, Raymisterio was another,

<v Speaker 1>and Bischoff said, anyone who doesn't want to be here

<v Speaker 1>and you want their release, you can have it. And

<v Speaker 1>Raven took them up on the offer, and he ended

<v Speaker 1>up going back to ECW because there was a period

<v Speaker 1>where they said, okay, you can't work for WWF until

<v Speaker 1>your contract is up, and so he went to go

<v Speaker 1>work for ECW. Interesting how Eric only went after mid

<v Speaker 1>card talent in that meeting and single down mid card talent.

<v Speaker 1>I don't recall him single out any of the higher

<v Speaker 1>paid guys, who I'm sure were all on their best

<v Speaker 1>behavior like choir boys, and there were no issues with

<v Speaker 1>any of them. Not wanting to do jobs or anything else.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure they were perfect little angels. So anyway, the

<v Speaker 1>Hogan era has begun. Hogan brings in all of his friends,

<v Speaker 1>right down to the Nasty Boys, who contributed absolutely nothing

<v Speaker 1>to TNA. It was obvious why they were there. It

<v Speaker 1>was an easy paycheck. Russo says that he was told

<v Speaker 1>that Bischoff was only in to oversee creative for Hogan

<v Speaker 1>because there were a lot of issues going back to

<v Speaker 1>Bash at the Beach two thousand with Russo and Hogan Eric.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't like each other, so Russo and Eric they

<v Speaker 1>had to have a clearing of the minds so that

<v Speaker 1>they at least knew they could work together. But again,

<v Speaker 1>Eric was only supposed to be overseeing creative for Hogan,

<v Speaker 1>but Russo says that Eric's play was to get control

<v Speaker 1>over everything, to which Bischof says things thing evolved into

<v Speaker 1>him ending up leading creative. You gotta be really full

<v Speaker 1>of shit to get me to take Vince Russo's side

<v Speaker 1>of things here where Russo comes off as the sensible

<v Speaker 1>one and the sympathetic one, but Bischoff managed to pull

<v Speaker 1>that off in this episode and then came as I

<v Speaker 1>called it at that time when I covered it in

<v Speaker 1>real time, not the Monday Night War, but the Monday

<v Speaker 1>Night skirmish. Oh my goodness, I had quite the time

<v Speaker 1>covering this on the sound of Like. It's like a

<v Speaker 1>slow motion car crash, right, It's moving slowly, you could

<v Speaker 1>see it coming. It's like the iceberg, the ship hitting

<v Speaker 1>the iceberg, and there's just nothing you can do. Brace

<v Speaker 1>for Impact, that's all you can do. This was an

<v Speaker 1>Eric Bischoff idea to move TNA Impact Monday nights head

<v Speaker 1>to head to compete with WWE. He said that it

<v Speaker 1>was more about creating brand awareness. He was aware of

<v Speaker 1>the fact that it probably wasn't going to work, but

<v Speaker 1>it was more about creating brand awareness. No, it was

<v Speaker 1>more about trying to recreate the one great period of

<v Speaker 1>success that he enjoyed as a wrestling executive, which was

<v Speaker 1>those eighty three weeks that Nitro beat Raw in the ratings.

<v Speaker 1>He parlayed that into thirty years of other things, all

<v Speaker 1>built on the back of those eighty three weeks and

<v Speaker 1>good for him. But here he thought, well, maybe we

<v Speaker 1>could recreate that magic again. That's really what was going

<v Speaker 1>on here. Impact, which aired on Thursdays back then was

<v Speaker 1>moved to Monday nights, and they kicked off with a

<v Speaker 1>live three hour special on Spike TV opposite Monday Night Raw.

<v Speaker 1>Dixie Carter had just signed Hogan and Bischoff. This was

<v Speaker 1>going to be their debut that night. Kevin Kay, who

<v Speaker 1>was the president of Spike TV at the time, said

<v Speaker 1>the plan would be to air quarterly specials on Mondays

<v Speaker 1>throughout the year and if the ratings for this show

<v Speaker 1>were strong, they can move Impact to Mondays permanently. Not

<v Speaker 1>only did the show feature the debuts of Hogan and Bischoff,

<v Speaker 1>Rick Flair made his debut that night, Scott Hall returned,

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Nash returned, Sean Waltman Sting, Jeff Hardy all made

<v Speaker 1>their return. They had debuts for Valvenus, Orlando Jordan, and

<v Speaker 1>the Nasty Boys. WWE countered with the return of Brett

<v Speaker 1>the Hitman Heart for the first time in twelve years

<v Speaker 1>since the Montreal screw Job, and TNA made sure at

<v Speaker 1>a time Hogan's entrance ride at nine PM when Brett

<v Speaker 1>was walking out on Raw. Of course I stuck with Brett,

<v Speaker 1>but I admit, I mean, look, I had my finger

<v Speaker 1>on the remote like it was nineteen ninety eight all

<v Speaker 1>over again. Raw had over five and a half million

<v Speaker 1>viewers that night to TNA's two point two million, their

<v Speaker 1>biggest ever audience up to that point, and in the

<v Speaker 1>sixteen years since they never came close to that number again,

<v Speaker 1>and they never will. It's impossible. Television is just different

<v Speaker 1>now than it was back then. Actually, they peaked with

<v Speaker 1>over three million viewers for Hogan's entrance, so that was

<v Speaker 1>all Spike needed to see to move the show full

<v Speaker 1>time now again. The plan was, we'll do quarterly things

<v Speaker 1>and if they do well, maybe we'll do a permanent move.

<v Speaker 1>They saw the numbers that this debut show put up

<v Speaker 1>and they got stars in their eyes, and so they

<v Speaker 1>just moved the show full time to Monday night starting

<v Speaker 1>in March, and it was an absolute fucking disaster. Like

<v Speaker 1>Leeroy Jenkins, but in TV form, they stormed the castle,

<v Speaker 1>they got slaughtered, and by May they moved the show

<v Speaker 1>back to Thursdays. Now. I will admit part of me,

<v Speaker 1>as a fan, thought it was cool to have that

<v Speaker 1>head to head competition again. It was It's one of

<v Speaker 1>those things where like, ah, you know what, try it.

<v Speaker 1>If it doesn't work, you go back to doing what

<v Speaker 1>you were doing before. But as a fan, I think

<v Speaker 1>I was more starved for something fun than anything else.

<v Speaker 1>But I also had the benefit of not having to

<v Speaker 1>worry about the financial implications and the business implications of

<v Speaker 1>what they were doing. Them having to tuck their tail

<v Speaker 1>and move back to their old slot so soon after

<v Speaker 1>was really embarrassing, And so Bischoff is like, well, you know,

<v Speaker 1>we did it to create more brand awareness. Well you did,

<v Speaker 1>but in the worst possible way. You created an awareness

<v Speaker 1>of how sad the brand was because it just showed

<v Speaker 1>you retreating in defeat, and their house show numbers went down,

<v Speaker 1>their television ratings went down, and they were forced into retreat.

<v Speaker 1>It was just a really embarrassing situation. They just didn't

<v Speaker 1>have the money to compete with Vince McMahon. Dilo Brown

<v Speaker 1>said it best in the episode. He said they were

<v Speaker 1>the fly on the ass of a rhino. Now, Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett claims that Hogan took TNA from a profitable company

<v Speaker 1>making money to a financial death spiral in the span

<v Speaker 1>of twelve months. I would love to see the documentation

<v Speaker 1>to prove that. I mean, it's easy to say that

<v Speaker 1>that they were profitable and they were making money, and

<v Speaker 1>now they weren't. It's not crazy to think, with all

<v Speaker 1>of their expenditures that that's what happened. But I don't

<v Speaker 1>know that this has ever actually been verified that you know,

<v Speaker 1>TNA was making money and turning a profit, and if so,

<v Speaker 1>how much that profit was and how much they swung

<v Speaker 1>in the opposite direction after the first twelve months of

<v Speaker 1>the Hogan era. I don't think it's ever been verified.

<v Speaker 1>After that, Jarrett was asked to step back in the

<v Speaker 1>ring because remember Dixie had basically shunned him to the side.

<v Speaker 1>They come to him with this idea, I want to

<v Speaker 1>get you back in the ring to do an angle

<v Speaker 1>with Kurt Angle, an angle with Angle, playing off their

<v Speaker 1>real life issues over the whole Karen thing. This was

<v Speaker 1>a Vince Russeau idea. Dixie signed off on it and

<v Speaker 1>Jeff was shocked. You know, he's like she signed off

<v Speaker 1>on it. She said, okay, he's like yep. And it

<v Speaker 1>was easy for Jeff and Karen to play the heels

<v Speaker 1>with Kurt being the babyface because the fans thought that

<v Speaker 1>Kurt was cheated on. He was the victim in all this.

<v Speaker 1>He was the sympathetic one in this story, even though

<v Speaker 1>that's not really how it went down, but they played

<v Speaker 1>it that way for TV. As Karen so eloquently put

<v Speaker 1>it in the episode, it was a fucking storyline. And

<v Speaker 1>as I said last week, the two of them actually

<v Speaker 1>had some really good matches together after that. They covered

<v Speaker 1>the Victory Road incident in twenty eleven with Jeff Hardy,

<v Speaker 1>which maybe, as I think back to all of the

<v Speaker 1>different just examples of LOLTNA over the years, I think

<v Speaker 1>this is the single lowest point in TNA history. This

<v Speaker 1>was like the very worst of TNA. Jeff is in

<v Speaker 1>a much better place these days. I'm happy to see it.

<v Speaker 1>Jeff will tell you though he was a fucking mess

<v Speaker 1>back then, and Bischoff says they knew that Jeff was

<v Speaker 1>on drugs, but for the most part, he had it

<v Speaker 1>under control, is what he said. That was his response here.

<v Speaker 1>Jeff Hardy and Sting were scheduled to meet in the

<v Speaker 1>main event on the pay per view no disqualification for

<v Speaker 1>Sting's title. Bischoff is one of the people, as was

<v Speaker 1>dil Brown, who was the agent for the match, who

<v Speaker 1>agreed to let Jeff go to the ring that night.

<v Speaker 1>Even though they all agreed Jeff was not in a

<v Speaker 1>good place. He was not in a good state. Bischoff

<v Speaker 1>actually said that he agreed to let Jeff go to

<v Speaker 1>the ring with the hope that he would just walk

<v Speaker 1>it off. I don't know if he said this, if

<v Speaker 1>he admitted to this thinking that it would give us

<v Speaker 1>some sort of insight into his thought process and it

<v Speaker 1>would make him look better. It definitely does not make

<v Speaker 1>him look better. What kind of fucking answer is that, Oh,

<v Speaker 1>we know the man is on drugs and this is

<v Speaker 1>a bad night. Clearly he's not in his right frame

<v Speaker 1>of mind, and nobody can find where he is. By

<v Speaker 1>the way, he's supposed to go out to the ring,

<v Speaker 1>they're playing his music. The fact that no one thought

<v Speaker 1>to intervene right then and there and come up with

<v Speaker 1>a plan B is deplorable, spineless. Even Jeff walks out

<v Speaker 1>to the ring after a long delay. He finally walks out,

<v Speaker 1>almost falls over a couple of times, and is behaving

<v Speaker 1>very erratically. Bischoff calls an audible finally, a little too late,

<v Speaker 1>goes out to the ring to very covertly communicate to

<v Speaker 1>Jeff that he needs to, in so many words, get

<v Speaker 1>the fuck out of the ring right now. And go

<v Speaker 1>to the back. Then he goes over to Sting and

<v Speaker 1>he tells Sting, look, hit him with your finish pin

<v Speaker 1>him and get this over with as quickly as possible.

<v Speaker 1>And if you watch it, when Sting takes him down

<v Speaker 1>with the scorpion death drop and he hooks the leg,

<v Speaker 1>Jeff tried to kick out, Sting had to hold him

<v Speaker 1>down and he got the three count. Everybody is shocked.

<v Speaker 1>The fans are shocked. Mike Tinay and Taz on commentary,

<v Speaker 1>they don't know what to make of this. This is

<v Speaker 1>their pay per view main event and it was over

<v Speaker 1>inside of ninety seconds. Dilo says that there were a

<v Speaker 1>million right choices and one wrong one, and they made

<v Speaker 1>the wrong one. Yeah, I would say, to say the least.

<v Speaker 1>Jeff says that Jeff Hardy, the drug addict, died that night.

<v Speaker 1>He was a wake up call for him. Matt said

<v Speaker 1>that Jeff stopped taking pills that night. I mean that

<v Speaker 1>may be true. But then came the alcohol addiction, which

<v Speaker 1>is a whole other story, one that Jeff Jarrett would

<v Speaker 1>soon find out about himself, because they transitioned from this

<v Speaker 1>into Jarrett's own addiction issues that followed many years later,

<v Speaker 1>but before they get to that, we have the end

<v Speaker 1>of Hulk Hogan in t and a less than four

<v Speaker 1>years later, it is time to leave. We have bled

<v Speaker 1>this place dry. It is time to go back to

<v Speaker 1>our home planet, our home planets of Titan, and take

<v Speaker 1>the wwe paycheck. Our time here and our work here

<v Speaker 1>is done. But it wasn't enough for Hogan to just

<v Speaker 1>disappear now. Bischoff said that Hulk wanted to go out,

<v Speaker 1>at least in a story on TV, which is what

<v Speaker 1>led to the infamous segment on Impact where Hogan tells

<v Speaker 1>Dixie Carter, who was offering him a new contract to

<v Speaker 1>stay in storyline, Oh, that sounds like a great idea

<v Speaker 1>great offer for someone else. I quit. And as Hogan

<v Speaker 1>is leaving, Dixie, the president of the company, is literally

<v Speaker 1>down on her knees, latching onto Hogan's leg as he's

<v Speaker 1>walking with her, latching onto his leg like a child

<v Speaker 1>as he tries to leave, and she's begging him to stay.

<v Speaker 1>And you wonder why Hogan always insisted on having creative

<v Speaker 1>control in his contracts. This is why this woman gave

<v Speaker 1>him everything he wanted. She was naive enough to believe

<v Speaker 1>in him and his desire right, as Hogan one said,

<v Speaker 1>to make TNA the number one wrestling company in the world,

<v Speaker 1>which he knew was never going to happen, but she

<v Speaker 1>believed in it. She bought into the hype because she

<v Speaker 1>didn't know any better, and as Russo said in the episode,

<v Speaker 1>for all the money that they paid him, it was

<v Speaker 1>his choice or Bischoff, probably Bischoff who came up with

<v Speaker 1>the idea to have him leave the way he did

<v Speaker 1>and humiliate this woman national television. She so badly wanted

<v Speaker 1>to be a character on the show that she thought

<v Speaker 1>it was a great idea. But if Hogan had creative

<v Speaker 1>control and this is what he wants to do, there

<v Speaker 1>probably wasn't much that she could do about it, because

<v Speaker 1>she was stupid enough to let him have it in

<v Speaker 1>the first place. Jarrett says that he never would have

<v Speaker 1>allowed something like that to happen if he was the

<v Speaker 1>one who was still in power. He says, it says

<v Speaker 1>everything about Dixie's knowledge of the business that she would

<v Speaker 1>lower herself to that and allow something like that to happen. Now,

<v Speaker 1>they did get into Jeff leaving TNA starting up Global

<v Speaker 1>Force Wrestling. Global Force Wrestling for those who don't know.

<v Speaker 1>They did a tour of around twenty dates at various

<v Speaker 1>minor league baseball stadiums across the country. The photo they

<v Speaker 1>chose to use here in the episode, they showed the

<v Speaker 1>six sided ring in virtually empty stadium. No mention of

<v Speaker 1>Global Force Gold. They conveniently left that out. So the

<v Speaker 1>deal with Global Force really Global Force Wrestling itself. When

<v Speaker 1>it was formed, the idea was that it would be

<v Speaker 1>this global alliance of different promotions all coming together and

<v Speaker 1>working together Kumbaya and Jarrett. He announced various partnerships with

<v Speaker 1>New Japan and TRIPLEA. He even helped get Wrestle Kingdom

<v Speaker 1>in twenty fifteen on a pay per view in the

<v Speaker 1>United States, So that was the idea behind it. They

<v Speaker 1>taped a bunch of TV episodes. They were going to

<v Speaker 1>use it as pilots to shop around to different TV networks.

<v Speaker 1>Those episodes never saw the light of day. I think

<v Speaker 1>it was called the Amped like GFW Amped I think

<v Speaker 1>was the name of the show. Never saw the light

<v Speaker 1>of day. There was litigation years later between Jarrett and

<v Speaker 1>Anthem over who owned the rights to the footage, and

<v Speaker 1>then we come to find out that Anthem said they

<v Speaker 1>deleted all the master tapes, so they don't exist anymore anyway.

<v Speaker 1>All of that got settled in twenty twenty one. But

<v Speaker 1>while GFW was still a thing, if you went to

<v Speaker 1>the website, you may have gotten a pop up ad

<v Speaker 1>for something called Global Force Gold and a video that

<v Speaker 1>you would click on, and it's a video of Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett asking you to watch another video to find out

<v Speaker 1>how you can join Team Jarrett. And that other video

<v Speaker 1>was an ad for something called Carrot Bars Carrott with

<v Speaker 1>a K, which was a German company that they dealt

<v Speaker 1>in precious metals, including gold bullion. Carrot Bars was said

<v Speaker 1>to be a Ponzi scheme where they got people to

<v Speaker 1>invest in gold. Really, all they were doing was selling

<v Speaker 1>very very small amounts of it at a super high price,

<v Speaker 1>and then they would try to get you to recruit

<v Speaker 1>new people as a way for you to earn money.

<v Speaker 1>It's almost like an affiliate program, I guess of sorts,

<v Speaker 1>But like the idea of like buying gold at all,

<v Speaker 1>like the fact that they even got Jarrett to go

<v Speaker 1>on camera to shill this did not speak well to

<v Speaker 1>their financial situation at the time. This was not something

<v Speaker 1>that Jarrett was doing on his own like, oh, like

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett has his podcast now right, podcasts have sponsors. He

<v Speaker 1>has sponsors, I have sponsors, right. That's kind of become

<v Speaker 1>the standard thing. You wouldn't even think twice if Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett went on his podcast or his YouTube channel and

<v Speaker 1>they had him shilling for a company and promoting something,

<v Speaker 1>because we see that all the time. This was on

<v Speaker 1>the Global Force Wrestling website. This was not just Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett personally. This greeted you on the way would be

<v Speaker 1>like going to WWE dot com and fucking Nick Kahn

<v Speaker 1>is sitting there in his loft, his suite at the

<v Speaker 1>new WWE headquarters, and he's got this great, great idea

<v Speaker 1>for you to get in on this gold, bullion in

<v Speaker 1>silver and all these precious metals, and all you have

<v Speaker 1>to do is click a link and watch the video,

<v Speaker 1>or click the affiliate link and sign up. Like you

<v Speaker 1>would say, go fuck yourself. This was on the website.

<v Speaker 1>When you have Double J trying to sell you gold

<v Speaker 1>bars on the internet, it says a lot about their

<v Speaker 1>situation at the time. Apparently it's lost media now I

<v Speaker 1>look for it. I can't find this video for anything.

<v Speaker 1>I know it exists because I saw it, but it's

<v Speaker 1>considered lost media now can't find it anywhere. Maybe one

<v Speaker 1>day somebody will post it up again somewhere. But that

<v Speaker 1>was Global Force Gold but wait. TNA then gets sold

<v Speaker 1>to Anthem because Dixie's father got tired of losing all

<v Speaker 1>of his fucking money. So they changed the name of

<v Speaker 1>the company from TNA to Impact Wrestling, and they floated

<v Speaker 1>the idea by Jared of a merger with Global Force.

<v Speaker 1>I just remember it causing a shit ton of confusion

<v Speaker 1>when this happened. I couldn't figure out the branding, like

<v Speaker 1>what was Impact and what was Global Force? And then

<v Speaker 1>they had all these titles and there were Global Force

<v Speaker 1>tight like. It was very confusing, But Jeff really thought

<v Speaker 1>that he could make things work again, which is why

<v Speaker 1>he agreed to do it, even though his wife was

<v Speaker 1>very skeptical. Why are you getting back in business with

<v Speaker 1>these people? You know? He had escaped the asylum, so

<v Speaker 1>to speak, but then he got lured back in with

<v Speaker 1>visions of grandeur. As it turned out there was no money.

<v Speaker 1>He says he was fed a bunch of bullshit, and

<v Speaker 1>this is where his issues with alcohol began. He would

<v Speaker 1>show up he would be loaded at work and everybody

<v Speaker 1>would see it. He was drinking morning, noon, and night

<v Speaker 1>until one day, Jeff says he was at a pool

<v Speaker 1>party and he looks down and he sees a beer gut,

<v Speaker 1>and he said, not on my watch, I'm never gonna

<v Speaker 1>have a beer gut. And that was the day that

<v Speaker 1>he switched from beer to vodka because I don't want

<v Speaker 1>to have a beer gut, and I've never heard of

<v Speaker 1>a vodka gut, so we'll just switch to vodka instead.

<v Speaker 1>That's the healthy choice. Vodka is the devil, by the way, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>the one thing I would have on occasion when I

<v Speaker 1>would be out, like with friends, if I wasn't having

<v Speaker 1>like a jack and coke, Oh yeah, give me a screwdriver,

<v Speaker 1>give me a vodka whatever. If I had one, I

<v Speaker 1>was fucked up for the night. I said, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>doing this. This is ruining the whole night. This man

<v Speaker 1>switched to vodka and was drinking it like it was

<v Speaker 1>a soft drink. And then came Triplemania in twenty seventeen,

<v Speaker 1>where he was just drinking in the locker room NonStop.

<v Speaker 1>He flew in the day before, was drinking, woke up

<v Speaker 1>the next morning drinking, got to the building drinking, and

<v Speaker 1>they include footage from what I believe, I want to

<v Speaker 1>say it was a Vampiro documentary, so they had footage

<v Speaker 1>of him backstage that night and he's just gone, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>the man is sloshed. And what he did was very

<v Speaker 1>much like the Jeff Hardy thing, where people could tell

<v Speaker 1>that he was slashed, and they still allowed him to

<v Speaker 1>go out there anyway, only this time he started tossing

<v Speaker 1>tortillas out to the fans in Mexico. So after all this,

<v Speaker 1>Anthem was embarrassed. They wanted him to go to rehab.

<v Speaker 1>He did outpatient treatment four hours a day for six weeks,

<v Speaker 1>and he kept on drinking and until one night Karen

<v Speaker 1>confronted him about it and said, what are you going

<v Speaker 1>to do here? And he got serious about getting the

<v Speaker 1>treatment that he needed. She called WWA because through their

<v Speaker 1>wellness program, they offer rehab to talents that need it.

<v Speaker 1>And you know, look, it may have been, in his

<v Speaker 1>own words, a pr stunt by Vince McMahon, but it

<v Speaker 1>has honestly been one of the best things that company

<v Speaker 1>has ever done, is making those services available to talents

<v Speaker 1>who need it at no cost to them. Even years

<v Speaker 1>after they're gone from the company. Who knows how many

<v Speaker 1>lives that they've saved with that. So Jeff said, you know,

<v Speaker 1>he never really grieved Owen's death. He never really grieved

<v Speaker 1>the death of his first wife. He just sort of

<v Speaker 1>buried it deep down. And he finally confronted that and

<v Speaker 1>had to do so. He reconciled with his father, who

<v Speaker 1>he hadn't spoken to for over a decade, and then

<v Speaker 1>in twenty eighteen, he gets the call to be inducted

<v Speaker 1>into the WWE Hall of Fame, so he gets the

<v Speaker 1>nice full circle moment for his career. They didn't talk

<v Speaker 1>about WWE hiring him the following year as a producer

<v Speaker 1>and then later on promoting him to their senior vice

<v Speaker 1>president of Live Events before he was repla by road Dog.

<v Speaker 1>There's something poetic and funny to me about the roadie

<v Speaker 1>taking Jeff Jarrett's job, but that's literally what happened. And

<v Speaker 1>then he lands in aw which is where he still

<v Speaker 1>works to this day, and they got Tony Khan to

<v Speaker 1>come on to talk about Jeff. I'm curious if he

<v Speaker 1>pops up in any other episodes this season, if they

<v Speaker 1>filmed anything else with Tony or if he just agreed

<v Speaker 1>to sit down just to talk about Jeff Jarrett. And again,

<v Speaker 1>his footage in this was very, very limited at the

<v Speaker 1>very end of the episode, but they closed out talking

<v Speaker 1>about how Jeff changed the business, and Vince Russo said

<v Speaker 1>that if Jeff had never lost control of TNA, God

<v Speaker 1>knows where they would be right now. I can tell

<v Speaker 1>you where that TNA would be right now. TNA would

<v Speaker 1>either be dead or exactly where it is right now.

<v Speaker 1>The idea that Jeff Jarrett would have been the one

<v Speaker 1>to lead TNA to the Promised Land, or you know,

<v Speaker 1>lead them to heights that no one else has been

<v Speaker 1>able to bring them to after nearly a quarter of

<v Speaker 1>a century in business is laughable to me. And I'm

<v Speaker 1>not trying to throw shade on Double j. It's just

<v Speaker 1>the truth. Like the glaze was very very strong here

<v Speaker 1>in these episodes for him. That would be my one

<v Speaker 1>big critique about these episodes. But I don't think the

<v Speaker 1>company would be much better off than it is right

<v Speaker 1>now had Jarrett stayed in power. The only thing that

<v Speaker 1>has sustained them for all these years is the money

<v Speaker 1>that was poured into it, first by Bob Carter and

<v Speaker 1>then later on and to this day by Anthem Sports.

<v Speaker 1>That's what keeps them afloat and creatively or otherwise. I

<v Speaker 1>really don't see, you know, Jeff Jarrett being in power

<v Speaker 1>over these twenty plus years, and man TNA is so

<v Speaker 1>much higher than they are now. I really don't think

<v Speaker 1>it would have made any difference. But the wrestling business

<v Speaker 1>is for sure better off for having, you know, him,

<v Speaker 1>having founded TNA in the first place, and the opportunities

<v Speaker 1>that it gave talents like aj Styles, Samoa, Joe Abyss,

<v Speaker 1>Bobby Rude, City Machine. I mean, you can go down

<v Speaker 1>the list to ply their craft and get opportunities on

<v Speaker 1>larger platforms somewhere else. I mean, Abyss had his chance

<v Speaker 1>to go to WWE in two thousand and six, but

<v Speaker 1>he got cold feet. He opted to stay. It also

<v Speaker 1>cost us, by the way, an earlier Sting run. The

<v Speaker 1>existence of TNA cost us Sting coming in earlier than

<v Speaker 1>he did to WWE because Dixie kept feeding him these

<v Speaker 1>one year extensions to stay. But it also gave us

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Angle in TNA, which Kurt says was even better

<v Speaker 1>than his WWE run. It was definitely longer, but they

<v Speaker 1>were able to do all of these things because they

<v Speaker 1>were able to get national TV, which is not an

<v Speaker 1>easy thing to do. So these episodes were heavily focused

<v Speaker 1>on Jeff because he was the main subject, more so

<v Speaker 1>than TNA was. They did have an idea to do

<v Speaker 1>six episodes covering TNA. I guess that got turned down.

<v Speaker 1>Whatever reason, it didn't happen, so it morphed into into

<v Speaker 1>this instead. So at least they found a different way,

<v Speaker 1>kind of a back doorway, to cover enough of the

<v Speaker 1>company to where it ended up being more entertaining than

<v Speaker 1>it would have been if it was just a double

<v Speaker 1>j story and nothing more. The main characters were Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett and Dixie Carter, and we only got to hear

<v Speaker 1>from one of those main characters, which did hurt things.

<v Speaker 1>We got plenty of LOLTNA moments covered here. They did

<v Speaker 1>leave out a bunch because I mean, it's just impossible

<v Speaker 1>to cover it all in just three episodes. The Jenna

<v Speaker 1>Morasca Charmel debacle, the Claire Lynch storyline with aj Styles,

<v Speaker 1>August First Warning, with the debut of Tito Ortiz Samoa

<v Speaker 1>Joe being kidnapped by ninjas and returning with a penis

<v Speaker 1>tattoo on his face, Dixie Carter costing TNA it's TV

<v Speaker 1>deal with Destination America. This absolutely should have been mentioned.

<v Speaker 1>She cost this company a TV deal because she accidentally

<v Speaker 1>copied the president of the network on an angry email

<v Speaker 1>bashing them and calling them dummies. And I think like

<v Speaker 1>a week later they got canceled of, Like this really happened,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, I mean, it's just a never ending

<v Speaker 1>parade of shit over the years. And yet, as Scott

<v Speaker 1>Steiner says in one of the episodes, TNA should have

<v Speaker 1>died a million deaths, but they're still here. And that

<v Speaker 1>really is the story of TNA that despite it all

<v Speaker 1>the odds being against them time and time again. So

<v Speaker 1>many wrestling companies they fold, you know, for one reason

<v Speaker 1>or another, and yet TNA lives on despite all of

<v Speaker 1>their snaffoos and all their brain dead business decisions. This

<v Speaker 1>is the company that will not die. It will outlive

<v Speaker 1>us all or at least until WWE gets bored and

<v Speaker 1>eventually decides to buy them out for the tape library.

<v Speaker 1>That just feels inevitable. This week, coming up, it's the

<v Speaker 1>story of Samoa Joe against Necro Butcher from IWA Mid

<v Speaker 1>South in two thousand and five, so a very different

<v Speaker 1>for this next episode coming up, but it should be

<v Speaker 1>interesting to see. Let me go through a couple of

<v Speaker 1>questions here. I mean, I have a whole mail bag

<v Speaker 1>here of like fifteen of them, but we're gonna save

<v Speaker 1>most of that for next week. There's two here I

<v Speaker 1>want to get into. You could email me the Solomaster

<v Speaker 1>at gmail dot com. Please include your name of where

<v Speaker 1>you are from when you write in. Daniel from Spring,

<v Speaker 1>Texas says, I was watching Raw and during the Hell

<v Speaker 1>and a Sale vignette where they were showing how serious

<v Speaker 1>it is. Did you notice in all the clips they

<v Speaker 1>did not show one of Mick Foley, like he was

<v Speaker 1>completely snubbed of the history involved in that match. What

<v Speaker 1>was your take on that and did you even notice it?

<v Speaker 1>I did not notice it, but it doesn't surprise me.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, they're a very petty company, so it doesn't

<v Speaker 1>surprise me in the least. Michael and san Diego says,

<v Speaker 1>I've been watching Dark Side of the Ring and have

<v Speaker 1>been loving the show and your reviews. One thing that

<v Speaker 1>wasn't covered in the dock that always left me puzzled

<v Speaker 1>was the departure from Spike. The whole Russo axed emailing

<v Speaker 1>Mike Johnson and not Mike Tenay was hilarious. Yeah, that's

<v Speaker 1>another one. I forgot to mention. What confused me is

<v Speaker 1>why Spike cared about Russo. Was there anything in particular

<v Speaker 1>that he did or wrote that offended them. Did they

<v Speaker 1>really cancel Impact because Dixie lied to them about Russo

<v Speaker 1>working for TNA? Or was it a simple money issue

<v Speaker 1>over broadcast rights. So this has been talked about and

<v Speaker 1>debated a lot over the years. There was an incident

<v Speaker 1>where an email went out to the wrong Mike. It

<v Speaker 1>was very embarrassing. It was very on brand for TNA

<v Speaker 1>at that time. And Dixie did bring back russeou I

<v Speaker 1>think as a consultant at one point, and didn't want

<v Speaker 1>anybody to know about it, which really says a lot

<v Speaker 1>like you're going to bring this guy back, but let's

<v Speaker 1>not tell anybody. It's like TNA bringing in Tessa Blancher

<v Speaker 1>back to the company and smuggling her in like contraband

<v Speaker 1>in the dark of night and not wanting to tell

<v Speaker 1>anybody out of fear of what the reaction would be.

<v Speaker 1>If you have to go under like a covert operation

<v Speaker 1>to do something, maybe you shouldn't be doing it, just

<v Speaker 1>the thought. So all of that did happen. Was Russo

<v Speaker 1>the one responsible for Spike canceling TNA impact According to

<v Speaker 1>the president of Spike TV at that time, the answer

<v Speaker 1>is no. And this was written about in the Beyond

<v Speaker 1>Nitro book. Guy Evans did that great book on nitro.

<v Speaker 1>He did another one called Beyond Nitro and gets into

<v Speaker 1>TNA stuff in there, and funny enough, he had just

<v Speaker 1>recently posted an excerpt about this very thing. So it

<v Speaker 1>was kind of fortuitous here that I got this question.

<v Speaker 1>But I'll read to you just from part of the

<v Speaker 1>excerpt here from the book, which is about the Russo

<v Speaker 1>stuff and his secret involvement in TNA and the idea

<v Speaker 1>that that was a last straw in the relationship between

<v Speaker 1>TNA and Spike TV. Kevin Ka, who used to be

<v Speaker 1>the president of Spike TV, said that at the end

<v Speaker 1>of the day, the decision came down to rats and money.

<v Speaker 1>He said it had reached a point where the ratings

<v Speaker 1>were just not improving, and after being in business for

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of years, the license fee well nowhere near

<v Speaker 1>WWE or UFC was very cost prohibitive. At some point

<v Speaker 1>we ran the math, and it was like, the ratings

<v Speaker 1>don't match the price. We also still didn't have any

<v Speaker 1>kind of robust advertising revenue. The salespeople didn't really feel

<v Speaker 1>like they could break the wall down about wrestling. So

<v Speaker 1>the deal was up and we were like sorry, Unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>we had a good run. Dixie tried to come back

<v Speaker 1>with a plan to reduce the budget, but my sense

<v Speaker 1>was that reducing the budget wasn't the problem it was,

<v Speaker 1>or rather, it wasn't like it was all that much

<v Speaker 1>money anyway. It was a good amount of money, but

<v Speaker 1>cutting the budget wasn't going to increase the ratings. It

<v Speaker 1>was probably going to do the opposite. So we just

<v Speaker 1>made the decision to let it go. And reporting by

<v Speaker 1>Mike Johnson, a PW insider, later revealed that as part

<v Speaker 1>of the negotiations, TNA had so elicited a rights fee

<v Speaker 1>of twenty six million dollars, whereas Spike, in what represented

<v Speaker 1>quite the difference, countered with an offer between fourteen and

<v Speaker 1>sixteen million, and Kevin Kay says that sounds about right.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to estimate that twenty six million would have

<v Speaker 1>been almost double the rights fee that we were paying

<v Speaker 1>them at the time. Somewhere in that ballpark and that

<v Speaker 1>was never going to happen. If we were going to

<v Speaker 1>renew it, it probably would have been at the same price,

<v Speaker 1>no more or even less. My decision, and our decision

<v Speaker 1>is a company, was like, the ratings are not going up.

<v Speaker 1>Cutting money is not going to help, so it's time

<v Speaker 1>to move on. And I had heard that as well.

<v Speaker 1>That you know. Dixie was adamant that this is this

<v Speaker 1>is how much we want, and Spike was, Nope, this

<v Speaker 1>is how much we think this is worth. This is

<v Speaker 1>how much we're willing to pay. And think about that, like,

<v Speaker 1>they still would have been getting in the tens of

<v Speaker 1>millions of dollars and that wasn't enough for Dixie. Dixie thought,

<v Speaker 1>oh we could get more. She overplayed her hand and

<v Speaker 1>in the end it cost them a TV deal, not

<v Speaker 1>the only TV deal that Dixie cost this company, as

<v Speaker 1>I just got done talking about an errant email cost

<v Speaker 1>them a second TV deal later on. This woman didn't

<v Speaker 1>have a fucking clue what she was doing. Did not

<v Speaker 1>have a clue anyway. Hopefully that clears things up on

<v Speaker 1>that front again. I'll get more into your questions next week.

<v Speaker 1>We got a bunch of them. Hopefully we'll get a

<v Speaker 1>bunch more. Keep emailing me. You could also follow me

<v Speaker 1>on x at Solemn Monster, subscribe on YouTube. Got live

<v Speaker 1>streams going on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays every single week.

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday will be a brand new installment of The Uncrowned

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Show, which you could sub to on the Ariel

<v Speaker 1>Helwani Show feed where you get your podcast from. Tuesday

<v Speaker 1>night will be a brand new episode of Tuesday Night

<v Speaker 1>Titans that'll be live over on JD's channel, and next

<v Speaker 1>Sunday will be episode nine to seventy three of the sound.

<v Speaker 1>Next Sunday is also aw Redemption. Probably will be going

<v Speaker 1>live after Redemption as well. I like the fact that

<v Speaker 1>they bumped up the start time by an hour. I

<v Speaker 1>think that's gonna be very helpful. So there's gonna be

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of shows coming up. I hope you guys

<v Speaker 1>will be there with me. I hope you guys will

<v Speaker 1>keep supporting and as long as you're around, I'll keep

<v Speaker 1>doing what I do. So until then, be well, stay safe,

<v Speaker 1>have yourselves a great rest of your weekend and a

<v Speaker 1>great week. I will see you on the streams and

<v Speaker 1>then back here next Sunday for episode nine seventy three

<v Speaker 1>of the Sound Off. Until then, take care, guys. The

<v Speaker 1>Solemn Monster Sounds Off. Pin Ballad is no more. How

<v Speaker 1>about that Finn Balor actually wins a match. I'm pleasantly surprised. Granted,

<v Speaker 1>of course, you know it was against the MFT so

<v Speaker 1>I said before. You know, pin Balor is gone, but

<v Speaker 1>I didn't say pin Balor was gone forever. He'll be back,

<v Speaker 1>pinn Balor. From what I understand, I got some breaking

<v Speaker 1>news here. This isn't even news that Meltzer had or

<v Speaker 1>Sap or anybody else or wrestle votes or wrestle votes

<v Speaker 1>or anyone. I hear from my and my sources. Pin

<v Speaker 1>bow is actually away on vacation. Irony has gone back

<v Speaker 1>to go you know, visit the family. Uh, he'll be back.

<v Speaker 1>Oht believe me, he'll be back, and it won't be

<v Speaker 1>very long before he's back.

<v Speaker 2>The Solo Monster Sounds Off bringing you the good, the bad,

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<v Speaker 1>I love you so long.