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

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

<v Speaker 1>want your soul.

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

<v Speaker 2>on Twitter.

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

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

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

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

<v Speaker 2>have know the reason why.

<v Speaker 1>You won't part me. This is episode nine seventy three

<v Speaker 1>of The Solemn Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, July twenty sixth,

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six. I am the Solemn Monster. It is

<v Speaker 1>Redemption Sunday. AW has a brand new pay per view

<v Speaker 1>tonight in Montreal, the final one before all in London.

<v Speaker 1>I'll talk about that, the end of the Vince McMahon

<v Speaker 1>sex trafficking lawsuits. WWE Radio just became a thing again,

<v Speaker 1>became a big story this week. I got a lot

<v Speaker 1>to say about that, SummerSlam predictions for next weekend, and

<v Speaker 1>my Dark Side of the Ring review on Samoa Joe

<v Speaker 1>against necro Butcher from two thousand and five. But before

<v Speaker 1>I get into all that, last week, I covered the

<v Speaker 1>finale of the Jeff Jarrett TNA trilogy of episodes on

<v Speaker 1>Dark Side of the Ring, and as part of that,

<v Speaker 1>since they didn't mention it when they were talking about

<v Speaker 1>the Global Force Wrestling stuff, good old Global Farce, I

<v Speaker 1>told you about a little something called Global Force Gold,

<v Speaker 1>which was an affiliate scheme that Jarrett had taken part

<v Speaker 1>in and greeted you when you first went on the

<v Speaker 1>Global Force Wrestling website. At the time, the fact that

<v Speaker 1>he was even doing it didn't speak well to their

<v Speaker 1>finances back then. But I mentioned that you can't find

<v Speaker 1>the video anymore. It's basically been scrubbed from the Internet.

<v Speaker 1>I've tried searching for it. I couldn't find it. But

<v Speaker 1>you know, the beautiful thing about doing this show for

<v Speaker 1>so long is that sometimes you reduce things that you

<v Speaker 1>don't even remember because there's just so much of it

<v Speaker 1>over a period of nineteen years. It was brought to

<v Speaker 1>my attention after last week's episode dropped, and I'm so

<v Speaker 1>pissed at myself for not realizing this that ten years ago,

<v Speaker 1>April tenth, twenty sixteen, on soundof episode four thirty five,

<v Speaker 1>I put together a very special intro for that episode.

<v Speaker 1>Now I don't have the original video. The video is

<v Speaker 1>lost media. But I do have the audio of the

<v Speaker 1>Jeff Jarrett Global Force Gold video that greeted people on

<v Speaker 1>the website at that time. This would now be considered

<v Speaker 1>lost media. I am in possession of lost media. I

<v Speaker 1>may be the only person in the world still in

<v Speaker 1>possession of this crap. So when you would visit the

<v Speaker 1>website it was Globalforcegold dot info. It took you to

<v Speaker 1>the video in question, and there was even a giant

<v Speaker 1>banner for it on the site that said join Team

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett now and earn your weight in twenty four Carrot Gold.

<v Speaker 1>Nothing shady about this at all. Let me play the audio.

<v Speaker 1>I wish I would have remembered this. I would have

<v Speaker 1>included it in the review last week, but better late

<v Speaker 1>than ever. It's a sound off exclusive. Here's Double Jay

<v Speaker 1>trying to convince you to buy into some Global Force Gold.

<v Speaker 2>Hey, this is Jeff Jarrett and welcome to Globalforce goold

<v Speaker 2>dot com.

<v Speaker 1>Wait a minute, I thought this was a wrestling promotion.

<v Speaker 2>Right now, I'd like to congratulate you for taking about

<v Speaker 2>twenty minutes out of your day to day to watch

<v Speaker 2>this special video. Wait, why do I want you to

<v Speaker 2>watch the video? It's real simple. I want you to

<v Speaker 2>learn more about what me, my family, my friends, and

<v Speaker 2>my fans are all doing to be a part of

<v Speaker 2>this special opportunity called Team Jared.

<v Speaker 1>Oh how exciting. What do you have to do to

<v Speaker 1>watch the video? Real simple?

<v Speaker 2>Just still out the information below, click submit, sit back

<v Speaker 2>and watch the video.

<v Speaker 1>Is this thing from porn hub or something?

<v Speaker 2>What's the next step after that? Even more simple? You

<v Speaker 2>wait on a call from a member of Team Jared

<v Speaker 2>for you guys to discuss next steps. And also we

<v Speaker 2>got to get some information. Oh great, like your mailing address?

<v Speaker 1>How about I give you my social Security number two?

<v Speaker 2>And how you want me to personalize the eight to

<v Speaker 2>ten autograph? Fuck about your autograph as don't waste any

<v Speaker 2>more time. Sit back, enjoy, learn about gold and watch

<v Speaker 2>the video.

<v Speaker 1>Now this guy wants me to sign up for some scam.

<v Speaker 1>I'm still waiting for the boom that he promised us.

<v Speaker 1>Where's the kaboo?

<v Speaker 2>There was supposed to be an earth shuttering kaboo.

<v Speaker 1>Ah yes, yes that is a blast from the pat

<v Speaker 1>I loved how he calls it Globalforcegold dot com when

<v Speaker 1>the website was actually globalforcegold dot info. So you have

<v Speaker 1>to first sign up and you give them your personal information,

<v Speaker 1>only to then watch another seven minute video. And I

<v Speaker 1>did just that for all of you, only I wasn't

<v Speaker 1>giving them my fucking info. I filled out the form

<v Speaker 1>with Dixie Carter's name, and what that took you to

<v Speaker 1>was another video with some random dude talking about turning

<v Speaker 1>your spending habits into savings habits so you can get

<v Speaker 1>paid in cash and gold. I mean you get cash

<v Speaker 1>and gold. I mean, who wouldn't want to sign up

<v Speaker 1>for this? Then he talks about what the experts have

<v Speaker 1>to say about it, and it lists Robert Kiyosaki among

<v Speaker 1>the so called experts. He wrote a very popular financial

<v Speaker 1>literacy book back in the nineties called Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

<v Speaker 1>The man is a known grifter, but he's also been

<v Speaker 1>predicting a stock market crash for two decades now, right,

<v Speaker 1>So from a guy who's big on gold, who would

<v Speaker 1>a thunk it? Right? Kiyosaki is huge on gold. He's

<v Speaker 1>been predicting a crash now for decades. Anyway. The idea

<v Speaker 1>was that you give your information to them to essentially

<v Speaker 1>become an affiliate and then you get a free eight

<v Speaker 1>ye ten personalized autograph from Jeff Jarrett himself. But he

<v Speaker 1>was always talking about this wrestling boom that was coming.

<v Speaker 1>They were going to lead the boom, and then years

<v Speaker 1>went by with no boom. Global Force Wrestling went cub boom.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe that's the boom he was talking about. One more thing.

<v Speaker 1>This came up on the stream the other night. I

<v Speaker 1>was going through super chats and someone mentioned the possibility

<v Speaker 1>of WWE one day doing a stadium show at City

<v Speaker 1>Field the New York Mets. They may as well, since

<v Speaker 1>the Mets don't use it for anything good. But it

<v Speaker 1>reminded me that I went to a wrestling show at

<v Speaker 1>Cityfield many years ago that was hosted independently, and I

<v Speaker 1>know I talked about it on the sound off, So

<v Speaker 1>I tracked down the episode just so I could re

<v Speaker 1>listen to it and see if it jogs my memory,

<v Speaker 1>and it did. It was the Legends of Wrestling show

<v Speaker 1>back in twenty fifteen. Brian Knobbs was actually one of

<v Speaker 1>the people who promoted it, and it started out, you know,

<v Speaker 1>with him promoting the show, I think, at Tropicana Field

<v Speaker 1>in Tampa during a Tampa Bay Rays game. That went

<v Speaker 1>over well, and so years later the Marlins invited him

<v Speaker 1>to host the Legends of Wrestling Night at their stadium,

<v Speaker 1>and they ended up doing one at City Field. Not

<v Speaker 1>a great show, but for the novelty of being able

<v Speaker 1>to see a wrestling show there, it was kind of cool.

<v Speaker 1>They had Matt Striker and Ashley Massaro as the announced

<v Speaker 1>team and piped in their commentary over the PA system,

<v Speaker 1>which I remember thinking I wish they didn't. Okay, it

<v Speaker 1>was not good. Striker announced the attendance show as eight thousand,

<v Speaker 1>and on the podcast, I said, if I had double vision,

<v Speaker 1>there still would not have been eight thousand people in

<v Speaker 1>that stadium. There were nowhere close to eight thousand people.

<v Speaker 1>But I had forgotten that John Cena's dad had managed

<v Speaker 1>one of the tag teams on the show from the

<v Speaker 1>New England area, so mister Seno was there. Greg the

<v Speaker 1>Hammer Valentine was in the corner of the baby Faces

<v Speaker 1>in that match. They had Greg Valentine outside on one

<v Speaker 1>side of the ring and he had John Cena Senior

<v Speaker 1>on the other side of the ring outside. Rick Flair

<v Speaker 1>was there straight from the bar on the concourse. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure he brought out mister Anderson and Mike Knox representing

<v Speaker 1>the Aces and Eights against the Nasty Boys, which was

<v Speaker 1>fucking horrendous, but Demolition made the same at the finish,

<v Speaker 1>so at least there was something good to come out

<v Speaker 1>of it. And they had Rob Van Dam against Scott

<v Speaker 1>Steiner in the main event, who debuted his new gigantic

<v Speaker 1>chess tattoo on this show. I mean, that thing is assive.

<v Speaker 1>And this part I had forgotten about this part. This

<v Speaker 1>is the best part. RVD brought out Brett Hart before

<v Speaker 1>the match, and Brett said a few words and then

<v Speaker 1>he bailed before the match even started. But then when

<v Speaker 1>the match ended, RVD he was being double teamed. Bill

<v Speaker 1>Goldberg ran out to make the safe. No wonder Brett

<v Speaker 1>bailed early. Now it all makes sense. He knew Goldberg

<v Speaker 1>was coming out. His life was flashing before his eyes.

<v Speaker 1>He's like, I gotta get the hell out of here,

<v Speaker 1>never again. There had to be some real money behind

<v Speaker 1>that thing, because they had a lot of big names

<v Speaker 1>on that show. I mean, Goldberg doesn't come cheap. Got

<v Speaker 1>Goldberg and Brett and Flair. I can't imagine they made

<v Speaker 1>money off of it anyway, So We were talking about

<v Speaker 1>that the other night and I hadn't remembered all the details,

<v Speaker 1>but this brought back a flood of memories from that show.

<v Speaker 1>If you want to make a PayPal donation and support

<v Speaker 1>the podcast, you may do so by going to the

<v Speaker 1>soolomn monster dot com and you'll the link at the

<v Speaker 1>top of the page. I want to say thank you

<v Speaker 1>to our PayPal producers for this week, including the Portland

<v Speaker 1>pop Star, Paul Hamilton, Big b Bryant, Besara, The Diamond,

<v Speaker 1>Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, Big Time,

<v Speaker 1>Boris Vainman, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Aikor, Killshot, Keith Hart,

<v Speaker 1>and Cue the Destroyer, who turns twenty nine today. Happy Birthday,

<v Speaker 1>brother sound Off. Sunday birthdays are the best birthdays. See

<v Speaker 1>my birthday is on a Tuesday this year, No Sunday

<v Speaker 1>for me. And a very happy thirty ninth birthday to

<v Speaker 1>Jacob from Minneapolis, the home of SummerSlam this year. He

<v Speaker 1>says the podcasts are always on in the background, that

<v Speaker 1>his favorite segment has always been My Dark Side of

<v Speaker 1>the Ring reviews, So I know what Jacob is going

<v Speaker 1>to be looking forward to here this week, says rarely

<v Speaker 1>do I feel like I need to watch the show itself. Well, Jacob,

<v Speaker 1>I appreciate you listening for all these years, and I

<v Speaker 1>hope you had a great birthday and also a very

<v Speaker 1>special happy birthday. Shout out to one Noah the Mark,

<v Speaker 1>good friend of the podcast, good friend to yours truly,

<v Speaker 1>we've been on many WrestleMania trips together over the years.

<v Speaker 1>I want to wish him a very happy birthday today.

<v Speaker 1>He's also responsible for many of the outros that you hear,

<v Speaker 1>and you hear his voice every single stream when we

<v Speaker 1>hit the goal for be the Booker, and you hear

<v Speaker 1>you know it is now time and that's his voice.

<v Speaker 1>So I want to wish him a very happy birthday. Brother.

<v Speaker 1>I appreciate your friendship. I appreciate all the work you

<v Speaker 1>do and for being a fan also of what I do,

<v Speaker 1>and I hope you have a great day. We're less

<v Speaker 1>than two weeks out from the biggest House of Glory

<v Speaker 1>event of the summer. In one of our biggest shows

<v Speaker 1>of the year, High Intensity, which is coming up on

<v Speaker 1>Friday night, August seventh, seven pm Eastern start time. We're

<v Speaker 1>back in New York at the NYC Arena back at Home,

<v Speaker 1>and we got a lot of cool things announced for

<v Speaker 1>the show. Charles Mason going to be putting his hog

<v Speaker 1>World Championship on the line against the Mad King Eddie Kingston,

<v Speaker 1>who I know is winding down his independence dates this year.

<v Speaker 1>This could very well be the last time you get

<v Speaker 1>to see him in an Hog ring. The blackhart Leo

<v Speaker 1>Rush is going to be challenging Darren Richardson for the

<v Speaker 1>Cruiserweight Championship. Shatzi is going to be in action defending

<v Speaker 1>her title against Shana Basler. Ricky Sosis on the show.

<v Speaker 1>The Hardys Zillapot two will be in the house that

<v Speaker 1>were Crown Jewel Champion, lots of rumors swirling around him.

<v Speaker 1>He'll be there and a lot of other really cool shit.

<v Speaker 1>So hopefully we will get to see you guys there.

<v Speaker 1>If you do pop into the building, do say hello.

<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be tough though if you haven't gotten your

<v Speaker 1>tickets already, because we're all sold out in terms of seating,

<v Speaker 1>but general admission is still open, so you can go

<v Speaker 1>to hog Wrestling dot Net for that. But the big

<v Speaker 1>thing about this show is that if you can't be

<v Speaker 1>there live for the first time, we are streaming the

<v Speaker 1>event live and free and in full on our YouTube channel.

<v Speaker 1>So you go to Hog Wrestling is the handle on YouTube,

<v Speaker 1>and you'll be able to stream the entire event live.

<v Speaker 1>No more Triller TV, so hopefully you will be able

<v Speaker 1>to tune in one way or the other. But the

<v Speaker 1>other thing I wanted to mention that's kind of tied

<v Speaker 1>into Hog kind of because this man really cut his

<v Speaker 1>teeth in House of Glory and in my opinion, the

<v Speaker 1>greatest House of Glory World champion that we've ever had,

<v Speaker 1>and that is Mike Santana, the former TNA World Champion.

<v Speaker 1>Santana made his official NXT debut this past week. I

<v Speaker 1>know they didn't mention his name on TV, which is

<v Speaker 1>very concerning, and I haven't gotten confirmation one way or

<v Speaker 1>the other about whether or not he's going to be

<v Speaker 1>keeping his real name or not. I hope, So you know,

<v Speaker 1>Joe Hendry is still Joe Henry. Jordan Grace, wherever she

<v Speaker 1>may be, is still Jordan Grace. I think, I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>We haven't seen her in months. So I'm hoping Mike

<v Speaker 1>Santana can keep his name because if he has to

<v Speaker 1>change it. I mean, that's just ridiculous. But anyway, he

<v Speaker 1>popped up at the PC on Tuesday night and he's

<v Speaker 1>gonna kill it. I mean, again, the guy's work, ethic,

<v Speaker 1>everything that he has been through over the years to

<v Speaker 1>get to this point. I've talked about his story before,

<v Speaker 1>and it's very cool to see him getting this opportunity.

<v Speaker 1>I think NX, and I've said this previously, I think

<v Speaker 1>NXT is the place for him to start because he'll

<v Speaker 1>have the chance to, you know, work towards that NXT

<v Speaker 1>Championship and maybe become the face of the brand. You know,

<v Speaker 1>there's plenty of time for him to make his way

<v Speaker 1>to Raw or SmackDown wherever they may have a need

<v Speaker 1>for him. I kind of don't want him there right now,

<v Speaker 1>just given the state of those shows at the moment

<v Speaker 1>and my frustrations with some of the other people that

<v Speaker 1>are on those shows. So I think NXT is the

<v Speaker 1>best place for him to be right now before he

<v Speaker 1>ever makes it to the main roster. And I think

<v Speaker 1>he's going to do very well and he's going to

<v Speaker 1>be a major asset to that brand and that show,

<v Speaker 1>and I could not be happier to see him on

<v Speaker 1>TV doing his things, so congrats to him. Let's start

<v Speaker 1>with AW because they got a pay per view tonight,

<v Speaker 1>and we'll start there. Redemption is tonight. Actually we'll start

<v Speaker 1>here first, because this was news this week that actually

<v Speaker 1>does have relevance and significance where AW is concerned now.

<v Speaker 1>Redemption is tonight, airing on HBO Max, as they will

<v Speaker 1>be for the rest of the year and probably all

<v Speaker 1>of next year. Despite all the predictions of doom and

<v Speaker 1>gloom from many on social media, rumors that Paramount Skydance

<v Speaker 1>is going to buy up Warner Brothers Discovery and give

<v Speaker 1>AW the boot on day one, right to hear these

<v Speaker 1>people tell it, the Paramount deal is going to be

<v Speaker 1>the death knell for this company. I'm sure those people

<v Speaker 1>are punching air right now because there may not even

<v Speaker 1>be a deal if this drags on for as long

<v Speaker 1>as it looks like it might. Paramount announced on Friday

<v Speaker 1>that it has agreed to pause its acquisition of Warner

<v Speaker 1>Brothers Discovery until an antitrust trial first takes place or

<v Speaker 1>until June one, twenty twenty seven, which ever comes first.

<v Speaker 1>Bought the Writers Guild of America and twelve different state

<v Speaker 1>attorney generals have filed federal lawsuits challenging the merger, alleging

<v Speaker 1>that it will lead to less competition in the film

<v Speaker 1>and TV industries and fewer jobs in the entertainment world.

<v Speaker 1>The move comes after a freeze imposed by a federal

<v Speaker 1>judge earlier this week that was later extended. Paramount is

<v Speaker 1>putting a happy face on it, calling this a significant win,

<v Speaker 1>saying that they look forward to proving their case at trial,

<v Speaker 1>and in the meantime, they will begin paying a ticking

<v Speaker 1>fee starting at the end of September that they previously

<v Speaker 1>agreed to were the transaction not to have been completed

<v Speaker 1>by then. Because the Ellisons, you know, David and Larry Ellison,

<v Speaker 1>they sold investors on how fast they would be able

<v Speaker 1>to get a deal done. They got friends in high places.

<v Speaker 1>This thing looks like it was just going to sail

<v Speaker 1>on through, likely before even the midterm elections later this year.

<v Speaker 1>That will not happen, and so they will be forced

<v Speaker 1>to pay an extra twenty five cents per share for

<v Speaker 1>each quarter that goes by every three months. Pay that

<v Speaker 1>to Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders. So if this thing gets

<v Speaker 1>delayed to let's say next June, they would be on

<v Speaker 1>the hook for an extra one point seven billion dollars

<v Speaker 1>on top of the one hundred ten billion they already

<v Speaker 1>agreed to pay. So they're gonna be bleeding about seven

<v Speaker 1>million dollars per day every day after September thirtieth that

<v Speaker 1>this deal doesn't get done, as if they weren't carrying

<v Speaker 1>enough debt as it is now. They only pay that

<v Speaker 1>money if the deal ultimately closes, which is an important

<v Speaker 1>point that, yeah, I think is being missed in some

<v Speaker 1>of these stories. The deal doesn't get done, they don't

<v Speaker 1>pay the one point seven billion or whatever it ends

<v Speaker 1>up being, but they would have to pay a seven

<v Speaker 1>billion dollar termination fee to Warner Brothers Discovery. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I got to say this was a stroke of genius

<v Speaker 1>by David Zaslov. Either the deal goes through and the

<v Speaker 1>shareholders get that extra money, or the deal doesn't go

<v Speaker 1>through and they collect seven billion dollars for nothing, for

<v Speaker 1>doing nothing. Right now, it comes down to how much

<v Speaker 1>more money they're willing to lose. You know, Paramount has

<v Speaker 1>a lot of foreign money, including some of that sweet

<v Speaker 1>Saudi money, funding this deal. If any of them decide

<v Speaker 1>to pull out, they can't get this deal done. There's

<v Speaker 1>just there's so many moving parts here. Unless they start

<v Speaker 1>spinning off assets to make the deal more palatable, and

<v Speaker 1>I don't think that they want to do that, right.

<v Speaker 1>They don't want to spin off the movie studio, they

<v Speaker 1>don't want to spin off CNN. Unless that happens, I'm

<v Speaker 1>thinking this deal may actually fall through. You know, Paramount

<v Speaker 1>is looking for a November trial date. They're gambling that

<v Speaker 1>it makes more sense to skip this preliminary injunction hearing

<v Speaker 1>that was slaterd for August third, just go right to

<v Speaker 1>a jury trial as soon as possible. And you got

<v Speaker 1>the Attorney General of California who wants that trial in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty seven, you know, based on he says all

<v Speaker 1>the discovery that first needs to take place, November would

<v Speaker 1>be too soon. So Paramount wants to go to court

<v Speaker 1>sooner because if they lose in court, like the faster

<v Speaker 1>that happens, the faster they could appeal the decision, possibly

<v Speaker 1>all the way up to the Supreme Court. And if

<v Speaker 1>that happens, I mean, let's be honest, the deal's gonna

<v Speaker 1>get done. But that only delays things further if they

<v Speaker 1>appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. Right, we're

<v Speaker 1>a long ways from something like that happening. But the

<v Speaker 1>longer this drags out, I just don't see how it

<v Speaker 1>makes any financial sense for Paramount. I don't see how

<v Speaker 1>it makes any financial sense right now for Paramount to

<v Speaker 1>make this deal, let alone if it drags on into

<v Speaker 1>next year. But wouldn't it be something if this all

<v Speaker 1>falls apart and Netflix was there waiting to swoop in

<v Speaker 1>and snatch it up like they originally planned, and with

<v Speaker 1>seven billion kicked in by Paramount to boot that seven

<v Speaker 1>billion dollars gets paid to Warner Brothers Discovery, and then

<v Speaker 1>Netflix acquires Warner Brothers Discovery, and that's seven billion. That

<v Speaker 1>would be amazing. Still don't like it because we're still

<v Speaker 1>talking about one big company acquiring and swallowing up another

<v Speaker 1>big company. And as far as AW is concerned, we

<v Speaker 1>don't again know the full impact of what even like

<v Speaker 1>a Netflix acquisition would be. It may be worse, you know,

<v Speaker 1>may be worse for them than the Paramount situation would be.

<v Speaker 1>But so long as they have their current deal, they're

<v Speaker 1>not going anywhere. So any rumors of their demise have

<v Speaker 1>been greatly exaggerated. Now AAW Redemption is tonight from the

<v Speaker 1>Bell Center in Montreal, which will hardly be full. They

<v Speaker 1>did just pass thirty three thousand for All in London,

<v Speaker 1>which is still five weeks away, so my prediction of

<v Speaker 1>a little over forty thousand for that show is looking

<v Speaker 1>pretty good right now. The buy in starts at six

<v Speaker 1>pm Eastern, main card at seven pm. Thank god, Tony

<v Speaker 1>Kahn bumped the start time up by an hour, he claims,

<v Speaker 1>because he wanted to experiment with things. You know, it's

<v Speaker 1>funny how it comes after all of the complaints on

<v Speaker 1>social media over how long Forbidden Door went that showed

<v Speaker 1>in end until almost one in the morning Eastern time.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't send the main event out to the ring

<v Speaker 1>until after midnight, and then they went another thirty five minutes.

<v Speaker 1>All of a sudden, redemption starts at seven Eastern instead

<v Speaker 1>of eight. You know, he can say whatever he wants.

<v Speaker 1>There's your answer as to why it's happening. I'm grateful

<v Speaker 1>for the move. Hopefully he keeps it this way going forward.

<v Speaker 1>You know, for All in that won't be an issue

<v Speaker 1>because of the time zone difference. That's going to be

<v Speaker 1>an early start time over here regardless for tonight, though

<v Speaker 1>seven to eleven PM. I think that would be fine.

<v Speaker 1>I know he is contractually obligated to go at least

<v Speaker 1>three hours and forty five minutes for these pay per views.

<v Speaker 1>He's said that before, so four hours for a non

<v Speaker 1>major show like this, I think works fine. Here are

<v Speaker 1>my predictions and my predicted match order too, or the

<v Speaker 1>order that I would go with. On the Buy ind

<v Speaker 1>they're doing a celebration of eighty years of the Rougeau

<v Speaker 1>wrestling dynasty. Since they are in Montreal, the Rougeou brothers,

<v Speaker 1>Jacques and Raymond will be their in ring. It's too

<v Speaker 1>bad they can't walk out to all American boys. We

<v Speaker 1>don't like heavy metal. We don't like rock and roll.

<v Speaker 1>All we like to listen to is Barry Manilow. See

<v Speaker 1>that they don't make entrance music like that anymore. They

<v Speaker 1>really don't. Also on the Buy in the Conglomeration, Orange Cassidy,

<v Speaker 1>Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly will defend their aw trio's

<v Speaker 1>titles against the Lethal Twins. That's after they shot an

<v Speaker 1>angle to set up the match on Collision last night.

<v Speaker 1>This will be a win for the Conglomeration, and then

<v Speaker 1>on the main card, will Ospray and John Moxley. I

<v Speaker 1>would open the show with this taking on the Young Bucks.

<v Speaker 1>And in this situation here, it's pretty clear that the

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks are on a path towards Copin Christian at Wembley.

<v Speaker 1>And so if they're going to be challenging for the

<v Speaker 1>tag team titles and you're trying to ratchet up the

<v Speaker 1>drama between Moxley and Ospray and Omega right heading into London,

<v Speaker 1>this should be the first loss for will Ospray and

<v Speaker 1>John Moxley, and I think that's what this is going

<v Speaker 1>to be. To me, it's a lot more interesting to

<v Speaker 1>see what is Moxley's reaction going to be to losing

<v Speaker 1>than it is to just have them go in there

<v Speaker 1>and win. So I'm picking the Young Bucks. Here. We

<v Speaker 1>have a six way international title eliminator ladder match. That's

<v Speaker 1>a lot of words. Jack Perry, Speedball, Mike Bailey, the Beast,

<v Speaker 1>Mortoas who finally got his work visa clearance, Commander Nick Wayne,

<v Speaker 1>and El Clone who beat Leo Rush on collision to qualify,

<v Speaker 1>which is too bad. I would have liked to have

<v Speaker 1>seen Leo in there in this situation here. You know, Speedballs,

<v Speaker 1>the hometown guy hometown meaning he's in Canada. Doesn't matter

<v Speaker 1>where you are. If you're from Canada, they're going to

<v Speaker 1>greet you like a hero. And I think this seems

<v Speaker 1>pretty well set up. I think for a Speedball win.

<v Speaker 1>So I'll go with Mike Bailey to secure the number

<v Speaker 1>one contender spot. We have Hikaru Shida defending her newly

<v Speaker 1>won TBS Championship against Maya World. Way too soon for

<v Speaker 1>them to switch the belt onto somebody else. She'd have

<v Speaker 1>just won the belt at the beginning of the month

<v Speaker 1>and that big survival of the fittest match. Maya being

<v Speaker 1>in this situation is good for Maya. You'll give her

<v Speaker 1>more matches like this on these pay per views, but

<v Speaker 1>I don't think she wins here. Mark Davis is going

<v Speaker 1>to defend his aw National title against Andrade l Idalo.

<v Speaker 1>This is one those matches that you look at this card.

<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of great matches on this card. This

<v Speaker 1>could be the sleeper match of the show like this

<v Speaker 1>has that level of potential. I am looking forward to

<v Speaker 1>this match. I like the fact that Mark Davis has

<v Speaker 1>been getting this singles run. I hope it continues. But

<v Speaker 1>this national title run it's over tonight. It comes to

<v Speaker 1>an end, and I got Andrada winning the championship. We've

<v Speaker 1>got the Painmaker, Oh boy quaking in my boots. Chris

<v Speaker 1>Jericho is going to go one on one with Tamaso

<v Speaker 1>Champa in a no disqualification match. This should be a

<v Speaker 1>Champa win. I don't think it will be. I think

<v Speaker 1>Jericho gets the win after Champa cheated to win their

<v Speaker 1>first match. We have Adam Copeland and Christian Cage defending

<v Speaker 1>the aw tag team titles against the Death Riders Claudio Casignoli,

<v Speaker 1>m Pac and copelanding Christian. There's zero chance that they

<v Speaker 1>go into London without those tag team titles, so they

<v Speaker 1>will pick up the win here. Plus they've been getting

<v Speaker 1>their asses kicked on TV, so they're gonna get the win.

<v Speaker 1>Yle Fletcher defends his International Championship against Bandido, the Ring

<v Speaker 1>of Honor World champion, and Fletcher has said that all

<v Speaker 1>members of the Kallis family, he doesn't need them. Their

<v Speaker 1>banned from ringside. They've set it up in such a

<v Speaker 1>way to lead you to believe that Bendido might actually

<v Speaker 1>have a fighting chance. And Bandido was always fun to watch.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you know, anytime he's in the ring. It's

<v Speaker 1>going to be a great match, and just like his

<v Speaker 1>match with John Moxley for the Continental title, he will

<v Speaker 1>be on the losing end of it, which is kind

<v Speaker 1>of why I don't like him being put in this

<v Speaker 1>situation again. But here we are, Kyle Fletcher will retain.

<v Speaker 1>We have Tecla defending the AW Women's World Championship against

<v Speaker 1>Willow Nightingale. This is the match, the one match if

<v Speaker 1>I had to pick one on the entire show that

<v Speaker 1>is the most difficult to predict, and I'm still sticking

<v Speaker 1>in my prediction here, which is that Willow wins the championship.

<v Speaker 1>I think the play is to do Willow defending against

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes Monet at all in. Techla has done a great job.

<v Speaker 1>I enjoy Tecla. I would not mind one day seeing

<v Speaker 1>a match between Techlan Mercedes Mone. I just happened to

<v Speaker 1>think it's not gonna happen in London this year. Willow

<v Speaker 1>is gonna win the champions just the way they brought

<v Speaker 1>her back and actually got the TBS title off for her.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm still very suspect about whether or not that

<v Speaker 1>injury was as legitimate as they made it out to

<v Speaker 1>be when they stripped her of the TBS Championship all

<v Speaker 1>to get her in this position, just to do what

<v Speaker 1>to beat her doesn't make sense. I got Willow winning

<v Speaker 1>the belt. Then we have the dogs, Clark Connors and

<v Speaker 1>David Finley taking on Jay White and Juice Robinson. This

<v Speaker 1>will be a double chain match. Now, Switchblade had his

<v Speaker 1>first singles match in fifteen months in a win over

<v Speaker 1>Clark Connors on Dynamite. Not a great match, not a

<v Speaker 1>great match, It just sort of it was actually kind

<v Speaker 1>of a slog to get through. But I am happy

<v Speaker 1>to see Jay White back. It seems to me like

<v Speaker 1>they may be setting up a match with him and

<v Speaker 1>Finley is a singles it could be a TV match

<v Speaker 1>between now in London. It could be you know, the

<v Speaker 1>match in London. They're doing this tag team match here.

<v Speaker 1>Juice Robinson is the one who issued the challenge again

<v Speaker 1>to what he called a double chain match. He did

<v Speaker 1>not call it a dog collar match, so I'm assuming

<v Speaker 1>they'll be bound by the wrist and not the necks.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going with the dogs. I think if they're building

<v Speaker 1>to a j White David Finley match, that's a match

<v Speaker 1>that Jay White wins to get there. I think you

<v Speaker 1>got to give the dogs something. You gotta throw the

<v Speaker 1>dogs a bone. That was a layup. How can I

<v Speaker 1>not take that one? The dogs are gonna get the

<v Speaker 1>win here. And then in the main event, we have

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega defending the AW World Championship against the TNT champion,

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight. Not the only instance on this show of

<v Speaker 1>one champion wrestling another champion. Now Night beat Darby Allen

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday to retain the TNT title, and at the

<v Speaker 1>end of the show, we had tensions boiling over between

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega and will Ospray and John Moxley, who were

<v Speaker 1>all part of a tag team match Trio's match against

<v Speaker 1>the Don Kallis family, So they're telling that story. According

<v Speaker 1>to Fightful Select, MJF was the driving creative force behind

<v Speaker 1>the idea of Kenny Omega defending the world championship on

<v Speaker 1>the show against the TNT champion, and the report noted

<v Speaker 1>that MJF had long wanted whoever held the TNT title

<v Speaker 1>to challenge Omega after beating him for the world title. However,

<v Speaker 1>the idea was not tied to Kevin Knight. Specifically, mjf's

<v Speaker 1>vision centered on the TNT champion filling that role regardless

<v Speaker 1>of who was holding the belt at that time, Kevin

<v Speaker 1>Knight or otherwise, the main event of this show should

<v Speaker 1>have been Kenny Omega against MJF, with Kenny Omega winning

<v Speaker 1>the world championship. Unless and this was always the caveat

<v Speaker 1>that I kept in there, unless he was hurt or

<v Speaker 1>he had a movie role to film that was going

<v Speaker 1>to make him unavailable for this show, then there's nothing

<v Speaker 1>you can do. And on the Redemption media call this

<v Speaker 1>week on third, it looks like we got our answer

<v Speaker 1>from Tony Kahan as to why MJF is not only

<v Speaker 1>not in the main event, but not even on this show.

<v Speaker 1>This is what he had to say when asked about

<v Speaker 1>MJF not being on the Redemption card said, MJF was

<v Speaker 1>in a very hard hitting match with Kenny Omega, was

<v Speaker 1>in some very hard hitting matches and has been an

<v Speaker 1>incredible fighting champion in twenty twenty six, doing something rather

<v Speaker 1>very different than his previous time as champion. Mjf's been

<v Speaker 1>out on TV, on pay per view, even on house shows,

<v Speaker 1>fighting in Big Bat Well, I mean they don't do

<v Speaker 1>house shows. He means, he means indie shows. I assume

<v Speaker 1>at MJF is not a nice guy. He's not a

<v Speaker 1>nice person, but he's a great wrestler and we love

<v Speaker 1>having him as part of AAW when he's healthy and

<v Speaker 1>fit to compete. He's definitely been through a lot of

<v Speaker 1>big matches. In the case of an MJF, that's somebody

<v Speaker 1>that I hope is wrestling for decades and decades at

<v Speaker 1>a very top level. He's a very young man, and

<v Speaker 1>he's had some major injuries this year that he's been

<v Speaker 1>fighting through to his credit, and I think it speaks

<v Speaker 1>highly of m and I would not be the person

<v Speaker 1>out here praising and saying all of these nice things

<v Speaker 1>if it wasn't true. So in Mjf's case, I absolutely

<v Speaker 1>think he's been one of the great things about AAW

<v Speaker 1>and I'm looking forward to his return when he is back,

<v Speaker 1>which will be very soon. I'm sure. I'm grateful that

<v Speaker 1>the injuries he sustained are nothing that would keep him

<v Speaker 1>out really really long term, because, as you know, there

<v Speaker 1>are other times in the sport contrary to this, where

<v Speaker 1>people have injuries and they can alter careers sometimes. So

<v Speaker 1>I'm glad he's going to be okay, because he's a

<v Speaker 1>very important wrestler in aw whereas we have had other

<v Speaker 1>great stars that have had injuries that have kept them

<v Speaker 1>out in some cases years or indefinitely. This is nothing bad,

<v Speaker 1>he says, And that's the key, says, this is nothing bad.

<v Speaker 1>So it's the leg. I mean, maybe it's an accumulation

<v Speaker 1>of different injuries, but it's the leg because you know,

<v Speaker 1>after his match with Rusche last month he hyper extended

<v Speaker 1>his knee. He had that leg wrapped up right on

<v Speaker 1>through the match with Kenny at Beach Break, So it's

<v Speaker 1>got to be the leg if it's injury related. And

<v Speaker 1>I guess the idea was take the title off me

<v Speaker 1>now so that I can rest up and hopefully be

<v Speaker 1>good to go in time for Wembley. And if that's

<v Speaker 1>the case and that's what this was, then fair play, right,

<v Speaker 1>and then that makes sense. It's the only way to

<v Speaker 1>make sense of them changing the main event for this show.

<v Speaker 1>But at least now we have a sense why. On

<v Speaker 1>that same media called, Tony was asked about Swerve Stricklands

<v Speaker 1>status says, we have not seen or heard from him

<v Speaker 1>since his lost to will Osprey Forbidden Door at the

<v Speaker 1>end of last month. Swerve was at Comic Con at

<v Speaker 1>San Diego over the weekend. As part of the contingent

<v Speaker 1>that was sent by aw Tony said Swerve is in

<v Speaker 1>very good standing with the company and that he'll be

<v Speaker 1>happy to answer more questions about Swerve after redemption, which

<v Speaker 1>sure makes it sound like he's returning on the pay

<v Speaker 1>per view tonight, and he doesn't want to give anything

<v Speaker 1>away what he would be doing, I don't know. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. You know, it would be interesting. It would

<v Speaker 1>be interesting given that Hangman just came back on Collision

<v Speaker 1>a few weeks ago, although if you watched Dynamite you

<v Speaker 1>would never know. But given that he's clearly on his

<v Speaker 1>way back, if they wanted to do something with him

<v Speaker 1>and Swerve. I don't mean his opponents, I mean as

<v Speaker 1>like partners or allies on the same side. I feel

<v Speaker 1>like we kind of had that already where they were

<v Speaker 1>sort of allied, allied allied. What the hell did I

<v Speaker 1>say it that way? For allied? The hell's wrong with me? Allied?

<v Speaker 1>They were allied. I'm just saying, like them as tag

<v Speaker 1>team partners for a while when you got some of

<v Speaker 1>these teams coming in that are likely coming in, and

<v Speaker 1>the tag team division is really heating up. You got

<v Speaker 1>some great teams for them to work with. It could

<v Speaker 1>be something different. Look, Hangman said, I can't go for

<v Speaker 1>the World Championship, but I could challenge for other titles.

<v Speaker 1>He never said that, you know, the tag team titles

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be one of them. He just has to find

<v Speaker 1>a partner. Sammy Gavara, he got people talking. We'll talk

<v Speaker 1>about him one of the former pillars of AAW. Unfortunately

<v Speaker 1>that pillar was it was knocked down like the Trojan

<v Speaker 1>horse in the Odyssey long time ago. But he got

<v Speaker 1>people talking last week when he tweeted out new bio

<v Speaker 1>and fans noticed that there was no mention of AW

<v Speaker 1>in his bio. I'm not sure there was a mention

<v Speaker 1>of AAW in his bio to begin with, but people

<v Speaker 1>made a big fuss about this. Brian Alvarez then reported,

<v Speaker 1>nobody in AW seems to know what's up with Sammy

<v Speaker 1>Gavara right now. Multiple sources told me that ty Mellow

<v Speaker 1>his wife, requested a release last year, but it was denied.

<v Speaker 1>On the redemption media call, Tony was asked about the

<v Speaker 1>two of them, and he had this to say with Sammy,

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was unusual that people said there was

<v Speaker 1>a change in his status because nothing had changed. Sammy

<v Speaker 1>has done well. He's wrestling in Ring of Honor more often.

<v Speaker 1>He's done good things in AAW and his one half

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions. He's

<v Speaker 1>appeared in AW with LFI. It wasn't Sammy's fault. Best

<v Speaker 1>Mortos's visa had been jammed up for a very long

<v Speaker 1>time because I really like Sammy and BESTOS. I went

<v Speaker 1>to CMLL and told them they're great champions. They've done

<v Speaker 1>very well for me, and I think they'd be great

<v Speaker 1>for CMLL. They got booked in Arena Mexico defending the championships,

<v Speaker 1>made a few defenses, and then lost the belts to

<v Speaker 1>Mascaroderata and Mystico. As I understand it, when Sammy changed

<v Speaker 1>his bio, I don't think he ever had aw and

<v Speaker 1>it in the first place, so it wasn't a negative change.

<v Speaker 1>I got a nice message from Sammy saying he wasn't

<v Speaker 1>trying to do anything bad and that he loves AAW

<v Speaker 1>and I believe that Sammy has been a good wrestler

<v Speaker 1>for us in AW and ROH. He's a great talent

<v Speaker 1>and a very good person. I don't think he meant

<v Speaker 1>anything by it, and it seemed like people jumped on

<v Speaker 1>him for something he didn't even do, just messing around

<v Speaker 1>with a Twitter bio. It's amazing how people jump to

<v Speaker 1>conclusions and, in my opinion, unfairly target him. That brings

<v Speaker 1>me to Anaj and ty Mellow, both as individuals and

<v Speaker 1>as a team. They've been great together and individually, they've

<v Speaker 1>both been here for many years. Their statuses, however, are

<v Speaker 1>very different. I saw a lot being reported about both

<v Speaker 1>of them that was very inaccurate. Anna is in very

<v Speaker 1>good standing with us. She is out injured right now,

<v Speaker 1>which is true by the way she talked about this

<v Speaker 1>on one of her live streams. It's a shoulder injury.

<v Speaker 1>She's waiting to get opinions from different doctors on what

<v Speaker 1>the diagnosis is and how to approach it, how serious

<v Speaker 1>it may be. She's had shoulder issues before. I want

<v Speaker 1>to say this is the second or third shoulder issue

<v Speaker 1>that she's had, So anyway, that's why she's out right now,

<v Speaker 1>and so she's going for an MRI. Anna, he says,

<v Speaker 1>has a lot of time left on her contract and

<v Speaker 1>actually has extended with aaw in her case, a lot

<v Speaker 1>of the reporting is completely false. I have a lot

<v Speaker 1>of work, so I don't spend my time mythbusting, but

<v Speaker 1>these rumors get carried away. Anna extended her deal and

<v Speaker 1>is staying in AAW, which is contrary to what much

<v Speaker 1>of the wrestling media reported and speaks to the general

<v Speaker 1>accuracy of these types of reports. As for ty I

<v Speaker 1>also saw a lot of inaccurate statements. To be honest,

<v Speaker 1>there was smoke to the fire, but people were reporting

<v Speaker 1>the fire in the wrong place. Tye told me she

<v Speaker 1>wanted to step away from wrestling. She said, I love

<v Speaker 1>AAW and I love the people here, but I want

<v Speaker 1>to step away from AAW and wrestling. That wasn't in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five. That was weeks ago at Collision, after

<v Speaker 1>she wrestled against Divine Dominion, she came to me after

<v Speaker 1>the match and asked for her release. I was taken aback,

<v Speaker 1>but we had a very nice talk. This contradicts reports

<v Speaker 1>Alvarez that this happened last year or has been an

<v Speaker 1>ongoing issue. I heard from Tye this week and she

<v Speaker 1>mentioned that she wasn't leaking those reports and that they

<v Speaker 1>really bothered her. We've always had a great relationship. She

<v Speaker 1>asked about stepping away recently. It hasn't been a long

<v Speaker 1>standing situation. Since that talk, I haven't booked her and

<v Speaker 1>I am going to grant Tie that release, which is

<v Speaker 1>nice to hear. Now someone wants to step away, and

<v Speaker 1>he's going to give them the release that they asked for.

<v Speaker 1>But Alvarez is sticking to his reporting. With Tony going

<v Speaker 1>public with this, it would make her look real bad

<v Speaker 1>if she got her release and then she popped up

<v Speaker 1>in WWE or somewhere else. But I mean, it's not

<v Speaker 1>hard to believe. You know, she and Sammy, they have

<v Speaker 1>a young child at home. I'm sure she hates being

<v Speaker 1>on the road away from her daughter. I think she's

<v Speaker 1>three or turning three soon. She posts about her all

<v Speaker 1>the time on her ig. You could tell she's a

<v Speaker 1>great mom. So it could just be as simple as that.

<v Speaker 1>You know, her priorities change, she doesn't want to wrestle anymore,

<v Speaker 1>and she wants to step away, and in that case,

<v Speaker 1>there's no reason not to give her her release. Tony

<v Speaker 1>was also a guest on the Battleground podcast. He's a

<v Speaker 1>regular guest on there, and while promoting Redemption, he was

<v Speaker 1>asked about the ring of Honor Hall of Fame, which

<v Speaker 1>was first established during the Sinclair Broadcasting era of the company.

<v Speaker 1>This was before Tony acquired it. Since he did so,

<v Speaker 1>there have been no new inductions, only that first class

<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty two, which included Brian Danielson, Samoa, Joe Cmpunk,

<v Speaker 1>and former owner Carrie Silgan. He was their legacy inductee.

<v Speaker 1>Tony said, nobody's ever asked me about that, or if

<v Speaker 1>they have, it's been a really long time and I

<v Speaker 1>can't remember. Oh really, is that so? Because I tweeted

<v Speaker 1>him directly about this last month, somebody on the podcast

<v Speaker 1>asked about the Ring of Honor Hall of Fame in

<v Speaker 1>the mailbag segment, so I figured I didn't have an answer,

<v Speaker 1>so I figured, you know what, I'm going to go

<v Speaker 1>straight to the source himself. Since he's fairly active on

<v Speaker 1>social media. I figured he wouldn't answer, but I tagged

<v Speaker 1>him and I asked the question. I said, Hey, Tony,

<v Speaker 1>and I asked him the question. Of course he didn't respond,

<v Speaker 1>but I find it very hard to believe he didn't

<v Speaker 1>see it, especially since a bunch of people hijacked the

<v Speaker 1>tweet and ended up engaging with it. So he's lying

<v Speaker 1>when he says that he just didn't want to answer

<v Speaker 1>the question. Kudos to this guy at least for putting

<v Speaker 1>him on the spot to where he had no choice

<v Speaker 1>but to answer the question and not lie about it.

<v Speaker 1>He said, I really think that's a tremendous thought. I

<v Speaker 1>have not added to the Ring of Honor Hall of Fame.

<v Speaker 1>It was a fantastic inaugural class that the previous administration

<v Speaker 1>had inducted, so that was something that had already been

<v Speaker 1>set up when I bought the company. I think they

<v Speaker 1>picked a fantastic class, and I do think there were

<v Speaker 1>people that would be fantastic additions to the Ring of

<v Speaker 1>Honor Hall of Fame, And it is definitely something to

<v Speaker 1>think about, and I am interested in He's clearly not

<v Speaker 1>interested in it, because if he was, he wouldn't have

<v Speaker 1>let four years go by without a single induction. So

<v Speaker 1>when I saw that quote and he was like, oh,

<v Speaker 1>nobody's ever asked me about that before, I just had

<v Speaker 1>a nice laugh about it. I think Nigel McGinnis, especially

<v Speaker 1>since he works for them, I mean, that's a shoe in.

<v Speaker 1>That's a logical induction choice. Homicide Christopher Daniels, Jay lethal

<v Speaker 1>Roderick Strong. I mean, there's lots of good options, but

<v Speaker 1>the most notable names are already in which are Punk

<v Speaker 1>Brian and Joe Right and the Briscos and Janelle Grant

<v Speaker 1>filed her sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Lauriniitis

<v Speaker 1>and WWE in twenty twenty four. It dropped like an

<v Speaker 1>atomic bomb and it led directly to the end of

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon in WWE, which ended up ushering in this

<v Speaker 1>new era for the company. Now. I was in Tampa

<v Speaker 1>for the Royal Rumble when the news dropped. I remember

<v Speaker 1>it like it was yesterday, and I did a breaking

<v Speaker 1>news stream from the airbnb we were staying at, you know,

<v Speaker 1>just the thing I wanted to do on my trip,

<v Speaker 1>talk about Vince McMahon's deviant sexual fetishes. But that lawsuit

<v Speaker 1>has dragged on for years now, with a decision pending

<v Speaker 1>as to whether or not the case would go to trial.

<v Speaker 1>Not a criminal trial, this was a civil suit. Would

<v Speaker 1>it go to trial or if it would go to

<v Speaker 1>private arbitration, which is what Vincent WWE had wanted. Right.

<v Speaker 1>Laurentidis was dropped as a defendant a long time ago.

<v Speaker 1>He agreed to flip on Vince and provide evidence for

<v Speaker 1>the Janelle grand side. It hinged on that right she

<v Speaker 1>wanted a trial out in the open. He argued that

<v Speaker 1>the non disclosure agreement that she signed stipulated that any

<v Speaker 1>disputes that were to arise would be dealt with via arbitration.

<v Speaker 1>Her side argued that she signed that NDA under duress

<v Speaker 1>and therefore it should be deemed null and void. But

<v Speaker 1>then the WWE shareholder lawsuit that was supposed to go

<v Speaker 1>to trial was canceled at the last minute, and the

<v Speaker 1>two sides were said to have entered into a settlement

<v Speaker 1>agreement as these things usually do, right, which we've heard

<v Speaker 1>nothing about since, by the way, I don't even know

<v Speaker 1>what the status of that is. And that likely played

<v Speaker 1>a role in what came next, because right after that,

<v Speaker 1>Janelle Grant joined with Vince McMahon and WWE and filing

<v Speaker 1>a joint motion requesting to continue their litigation in private arbitration,

<v Speaker 1>which is exactly what Vince wanted all along, a complete

<v Speaker 1>one eighty from what she had been asking for now.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe her lawyers thought that the shareholder's trial would open

<v Speaker 1>things up to new evidence that they could use in

<v Speaker 1>their case, you know, and once it got canceled they

<v Speaker 1>no longer felt they had the evidence they might need.

<v Speaker 1>Or she just saw the writing on the wall and

<v Speaker 1>didn't want to prolong this any further and incur even

<v Speaker 1>more legal costs, right such as they may be. But

<v Speaker 1>in any event, she changed her mind and on Monday,

<v Speaker 1>her attorney filed a joint status report in court stating

<v Speaker 1>that her client, along with Vince McMahon and WWE, have

<v Speaker 1>agreed in writing to go to arbitration over their dispute.

<v Speaker 1>Then on Friday, she filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal

<v Speaker 1>with prejudice, meaning that it will be permanently closed and

<v Speaker 1>cannot be revisited. Now this all comes in the same

<v Speaker 1>week that Vince McMahon tweeted out his retirement message four

<v Speaker 1>years ago, where he said, at seventy seven, time for

<v Speaker 1>me to retire. Thank you WWE Universe, then now forever together.

<v Speaker 1>It's also the one year anniversary that he nearly killed

<v Speaker 1>a woman driving over one hundred miles an hour on

<v Speaker 1>the Merritt Parkway. That retirement, by the way, turned out

<v Speaker 1>to be bullshit, and he forced his way back onto

<v Speaker 1>the board, not only that, but he played a key

<v Speaker 1>role in engineering the sale of the company to Endeavor.

<v Speaker 1>So when we look back at the most significant events

<v Speaker 1>to happen in wrestling history, we think of, you know,

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon going national and stomping out the territories. We

<v Speaker 1>think of and with that the rise of Hull Comania

<v Speaker 1>and rock and wrestling, right that was all part of

<v Speaker 1>that same time period. We think of, you know, the

<v Speaker 1>Monday Night War. We think of the Montreal Screwjob and

<v Speaker 1>all that that led to. We think of the deaths

<v Speaker 1>of people like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benois and the

<v Speaker 1>changes that you know, led to the wellness program being

<v Speaker 1>what it is today. And we think of, you know,

<v Speaker 1>all of these different things, the formation of all elite wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, we could go down the list and we

<v Speaker 1>think of key figures in wrestling history Vince McMahon, obviously,

<v Speaker 1>Ted Turner, hulkg and Antone OOKI, right, we think of

<v Speaker 1>these names. As crazy as it sounds, you can add

<v Speaker 1>Janelle Grant to that list because were it not for

<v Speaker 1>those anonymous emails that were sent to the WWE Board

<v Speaker 1>of Directors in twenty twenty two and leak to the

<v Speaker 1>Wall Street Journal, which made mention of her. Vince McMahon

<v Speaker 1>does not tweet out his phony retirement message and step

<v Speaker 1>aside when he does, and Paul Leveck does not ascend

<v Speaker 1>to the position of head of Creative. Vince does not

<v Speaker 1>sell the company when he does, and if he does

<v Speaker 1>eventually decide to sell, maybe it's not to a friendly

<v Speaker 1>face like Ari Emmanuel, who he went with primarily because

<v Speaker 1>he wanted to make sure that despite everything, he could

<v Speaker 1>stay on in some position of power. And then he

<v Speaker 1>finally doesn't go away for good in twenty twenty four

<v Speaker 1>when the lawsuit drops right, all of these things likely

<v Speaker 1>do not happen were it not for Janelle Grant. But

<v Speaker 1>now it's over. However it goes in arbitration, we may

<v Speaker 1>never know because when and if they do reach a

<v Speaker 1>my guess is it ends up being a confidential one,

<v Speaker 1>and so we're never going to know how much money

<v Speaker 1>she ends up with or if she ends up with anything.

<v Speaker 1>This is now going behind closed doors for all intents

<v Speaker 1>and purposes. This case is now over, and on Tuesday,

<v Speaker 1>Janelle Grant posted the following message on her Instagram page.

<v Speaker 1>She said, I'll be honest and say it. I've been struggling.

<v Speaker 1>It happened to be a perfect storm of everything all

<v Speaker 1>at once. Thank you for checking in with me and

<v Speaker 1>for your patience. I also received a lot of questions,

<v Speaker 1>and I hope this helps to clear up any confusion.

<v Speaker 1>It's completely okay to continue reaching out and sending messages.

<v Speaker 1>I'm grateful for your messages to offer a visual that

<v Speaker 1>might help my life. Resembles the Anderson Cooper podcast about grief.

<v Speaker 1>These profound and meaningful exchanges have helped me feel less alone.

<v Speaker 1>I believe that making a difference in the world begins

<v Speaker 1>with how we show up in it. I've been outside

<v Speaker 1>five times this year, but here I am, and I'm

<v Speaker 1>still showing up to be part of this solution. Imagine

<v Speaker 1>my surprise when I got an alert on my phone

<v Speaker 1>the other day that Janelle Grant is now following you

<v Speaker 1>on Instagram. I was not expecting that. What I can

<v Speaker 1>say is this, everyone has their opinion on what they

<v Speaker 1>believe or what they don't believe. When it comes to

<v Speaker 1>all of these allegations, yes they are just allegations, but

<v Speaker 1>they were very specific ones, very detailed, ones with text

<v Speaker 1>message receipts in some cases, right where there's smoke, there's fire.

<v Speaker 1>You've heard that expression, and there was an awful lot

<v Speaker 1>of smoke billowing up here. Right. He doesn't help his

<v Speaker 1>cause when it comes out that he's signed multiple NDAs

<v Speaker 1>with multiple women over the years, including a nearly eight

<v Speaker 1>million dollar one to a former talent who was never

<v Speaker 1>publicly named. How bad must that have been for him

<v Speaker 1>to pay out that much money? Right? The Tanning Salon

<v Speaker 1>incident in two thousand and six, the rape allegation against

<v Speaker 1>him by Rida Chatterton, the former referee right who claimed

<v Speaker 1>that he assaulted her in the back of his limousine

<v Speaker 1>in nineteen eighty six. Do I believe that Vince McMahon

<v Speaker 1>committed bad deeds? You bet your ass I do. And

<v Speaker 1>he put himself in the position that he is in

<v Speaker 1>right now, on the outside looking in. He did this

<v Speaker 1>to himself. He's hardly a victim here, a victim of

<v Speaker 1>his own impulses, maybe a victim of his own hubris

<v Speaker 1>that he thought he could get away with anything just

<v Speaker 1>by throwing money at it. Right, It worked well enough

<v Speaker 1>for him years before that. Why would this be any different?

<v Speaker 1>It probably wouldn't have been had a certain someone whoever

<v Speaker 1>it was not leak those emails to the board, which

<v Speaker 1>is what led to him to stop making payments to

<v Speaker 1>her in the first place. Whoever sent those emails and

<v Speaker 1>she denies that she had anything to do with that,

<v Speaker 1>but the person claimed to be a friend of hers.

<v Speaker 1>Whoever sent them got the ball rolling down the hill

<v Speaker 1>and led us to where we are now. So this

<v Speaker 1>chapter may be closed, but he still has the Ring

<v Speaker 1>Boys lawsuit pending against him, which is also a civil suit.

<v Speaker 1>My guess is that one ends the way that they

<v Speaker 1>all do, because when you have billions in the bank

<v Speaker 1>like he does, it's just easier to pay to make

<v Speaker 1>your problems go away. There were a ton of EXWWE

<v Speaker 1>names that became free agents this past Thursday, as their

<v Speaker 1>ninety day non compete periods have expired. This is after

<v Speaker 1>the company released a wave of names back on April

<v Speaker 1>twenty fourth. Among the names that we know of who

<v Speaker 1>are now free the Motor City machine Guns, who I

<v Speaker 1>would be shocked if we don't see them tonight at redemption.

<v Speaker 1>I would be shocked if we don't see them this

<v Speaker 1>week because Dynamite and Collision are in Detroit. They're in

<v Speaker 1>the Motor City. So if they're coming in. It will

<v Speaker 1>be no later than this week. I fully expect them

<v Speaker 1>to be on TV. Kyrie saying, I guess the question

<v Speaker 1>what Kyrie is. Does she end up back in stardom.

<v Speaker 1>Does she go to Marigold or I think she's had

<v Speaker 1>a pretty good working relationship with rossi Ogawa over the years.

<v Speaker 1>I could see her in Marigold. If she ends up

<v Speaker 1>in stardom, she could potentially work with AW, or she

<v Speaker 1>could sign with AW and still do work in stardom.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe Tony has interest in her, maybe she wants to

<v Speaker 1>have Maybe she'll get a dual contract. Like some people

<v Speaker 1>look at thunder Rosa. You know she's got a dual

<v Speaker 1>contract with AW and CMLL. Who's to say that with

<v Speaker 1>Kyrie it wouldn't be a similar situation. Kyrie is going

<v Speaker 1>to land on her feet somewhere. That goes without saying.

<v Speaker 1>If I had a venture A guests, we probably will

<v Speaker 1>see her in AW. But whether or not she signs

<v Speaker 1>with them or signs with a Stardom for example, that's

<v Speaker 1>the only thing I'm not sure of. Alistair Black and Zelena,

<v Speaker 1>who is now going by the same names Zelena, but

<v Speaker 1>with an X instead of a Z. That was her

<v Speaker 1>way around that. Look, we know the way things ended

<v Speaker 1>with Black and AW. I don't want to say it

<v Speaker 1>was acrimonious, but I don't think it was also a

<v Speaker 1>situation where there were a lot of, you know, handshakes

<v Speaker 1>and smiles on his way out of the company. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if Tony Khan would want to bring him back.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if Tony Khan would want to bring

<v Speaker 1>the two of them in. Let's say, if the two

<v Speaker 1>of them are sort of a package deal and they

<v Speaker 1>want to work together. I don't know. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>about him going back to AAW. I could see him

<v Speaker 1>maybe landing in TNA and being kind of a bigger

<v Speaker 1>fish there if they could afford him. If I have

<v Speaker 1>to always put that caveat in there, because with TNA

<v Speaker 1>these days, you never know. This one's a little bit

<v Speaker 1>harder to predict, just based on the way things ended

<v Speaker 1>last time with him in AW. I'm kind of fifty

<v Speaker 1>to fifty on it leaning towards no. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>where he's going to end up. Santos Escobar, who is

<v Speaker 1>now going by the name Romeo Malverdi, very talented guy.

<v Speaker 1>I could see Tony having an interest in him. Zoe Serrano,

<v Speaker 1>the former Zoe Stark, who already is back on the

<v Speaker 1>independen scene. I saw she wrestled the other night. She'll

<v Speaker 1>be a solid addition to any women's division, honestly, whether

<v Speaker 1>it's the aw Women's division, the knockouts division in TNA,

<v Speaker 1>or again, whatever her goals may be as far as

<v Speaker 1>where she wants to work, Hopefully she gets that opportunity

<v Speaker 1>because she got a raw deal. She went through a

<v Speaker 1>very traumatic injury, and I thought that she again was

<v Speaker 1>a solid addition to that raw women's roster. Could have

<v Speaker 1>been a women's intercontinental champion, could have been built up

<v Speaker 1>to that level. Never had the chance, you know, she recovered,

<v Speaker 1>she had just gotten cleared and then they just cut her,

<v Speaker 1>so she never got her redemption arc. She never had

<v Speaker 1>the chance to come back and show what she can

<v Speaker 1>do and make that big comeback. Hopefully she can show that,

<v Speaker 1>you know, somewhere else and then maybe WWE has an

<v Speaker 1>interest in bringing her back one day if that's something

<v Speaker 1>that's of interest to her. Bo Dallas, Joe Gacy, Eric Rowan,

<v Speaker 1>Dexter Loomis, and Nicki Cross who is now going by

<v Speaker 1>Nicki Storm. All the members of the Wyat six are

<v Speaker 1>now available. Nicki, of course, is also now the co

<v Speaker 1>owner of Progress Wrestling and DeFi Wrestling. She actually just

<v Speaker 1>returned to OTT Wrestling the other night. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that they're all going to be together, but they are

<v Speaker 1>now free now. It's also being reported by F four

<v Speaker 1>w online that there are seven names who are currently

<v Speaker 1>waiting to be signed by AW. One source also confirmed

<v Speaker 1>that there may be more, but I know of only

<v Speaker 1>seven personally, So there could be a big move to

<v Speaker 1>grab more talent for AW and Ring of Honor in

<v Speaker 1>the next few weeks. And you know, look, AW already

<v Speaker 1>has a lot of talent on the books, but as

<v Speaker 1>the report points out, you know, you've got Dynamite, You've

<v Speaker 1>got Collision, You've got Ring of Honor television to fill

<v Speaker 1>every single week, And so Tony Kahn may be looking

<v Speaker 1>for some extra talent to kind of flesh out the rosters.

<v Speaker 1>He already has more than enough talent to fill those rosters.

<v Speaker 1>But when talent like the New Day become available to

<v Speaker 1>finally work with the Young Bucks, when Seamus becomes available

<v Speaker 1>on October first, like there are talents that have name

<v Speaker 1>value coming off TV, well, I mean in terms of Seamus,

<v Speaker 1>I guess it's been a while since he's been on TV.

<v Speaker 1>The New Day they were being more used during commercial

<v Speaker 1>breaks than they were on television. But you know what

<v Speaker 1>I mean, when you have these talents that have that

<v Speaker 1>name value, and they have the talent to add something

<v Speaker 1>to your roster, to add something to your television show,

<v Speaker 1>you would be a fool to not at least have

<v Speaker 1>that conversation and see if a deal can be worked out.

<v Speaker 1>I have zero doubt that Kofe and Woods are going

<v Speaker 1>to end up in AW once they are free to

<v Speaker 1>do so, as well the machine guns, and it's only

<v Speaker 1>going to make a tag team division that's already the

<v Speaker 1>best in the world even stronger Shamus as well. I

<v Speaker 1>would be stunned if Tony Khan does not make a

<v Speaker 1>play for Shamus when he becomes available, and that Shamus

<v Speaker 1>would say no if he was made an offer would

<v Speaker 1>also surprise me. So I don't know if those would

<v Speaker 1>count as three of the names towards the seven that

<v Speaker 1>they're referring to here. I think Kyrie would be another one,

<v Speaker 1>Escobar again, Alistair and Zelina that I don't know or

<v Speaker 1>if he would even want to go back and let's

<v Speaker 1>not leave TNA out of the conversation again. I think

<v Speaker 1>they pick up a few people too, but they're just

<v Speaker 1>not going to pay what aw is going to be

<v Speaker 1>able to pay some of the bigger names on that list.

<v Speaker 1>They're just not TNA lost two more this week, by

<v Speaker 1>the way. Victoria Crawford, the former Alicia Fox, is gone

<v Speaker 1>from TNA, as is Alice Lane, who worked as a

<v Speaker 1>referee for them. She received their All Star Award earlier

<v Speaker 1>this year for her handling of the Steve Macklin concussion

<v Speaker 1>during his match with Mike Santana. WWE snatched her up

<v Speaker 1>and they have her officiating some NXT loops. Even the

<v Speaker 1>referees are leaving. Nobody is safe. There was another big

<v Speaker 1>story this week that for some they may look at

<v Speaker 1>this as a good thing, but this is very much

<v Speaker 1>not a good thing if you are a fan of

<v Speaker 1>variety and not having one company monopolizing everything and having

<v Speaker 1>independent voices, however independent they may have been before this,

<v Speaker 1>because it's not as if they weren't already in bed

<v Speaker 1>with WWE before this new broke, but this is actually

<v Speaker 1>quite depressing, to be quite honest. You know, many years

<v Speaker 1>ago in nineteen ninety three, to be exact, there was

<v Speaker 1>a little something called Radio WWF, which was Vince McMahon's

<v Speaker 1>way of trying to expand his product's reach from television

<v Speaker 1>into radio, and Jim Ross was a key part of

<v Speaker 1>that endeavor. Ross had been on radio before. He hosted

<v Speaker 1>a show called Wrestling with Jim Ross every Sunday on

<v Speaker 1>a talk radio station out of Atlanta. This is when

<v Speaker 1>he was still working for WCW, and so he pitched

<v Speaker 1>a similar idea to Vince after he started working for him,

<v Speaker 1>and Vince loved it. Hence Radio WWF was born, and

<v Speaker 1>it didn't last very long. It lasted a matter of

<v Speaker 1>months from ninety three into ninety four. I want to

<v Speaker 1>say they ran it through WrestleMania time. It was sometime

<v Speaker 1>in the first half of ninety four where they would

<v Speaker 1>provide alternate commentary for the pay per views from JR

<v Speaker 1>and Gerrilla Monsoon and then later on a raven Johnny

<v Speaker 1>Polo I believe started doing it with JR. But they

<v Speaker 1>even covered news from around the wrestling world, not just

<v Speaker 1>the WWF. Now, it may not have been the most

<v Speaker 1>flattering news that they would cover, like the scissors incident,

<v Speaker 1>in WCW between arn Anderson and said Vicious. It's kind

<v Speaker 1>of like that brief period twenty years ago where WWE

<v Speaker 1>started covering wrestling industry news on WWE dot com. Do

<v Speaker 1>you remember this, They were covering TNA releases on their

<v Speaker 1>own website. I want to say it was a Shane

<v Speaker 1>McMahon idea because he would have been heading up the

<v Speaker 1>digital side of things back then. I mean, Shane had

<v Speaker 1>a lot of ideas. Shane wanted to buy ECW when

<v Speaker 1>it was headed for bankruptcy and running on his own.

<v Speaker 1>Vince said no. Shane wanted to buy UFC when it

<v Speaker 1>was nearing bankruptcy, Vince said no. Shane wanted to buy

<v Speaker 1>the Pride Fighting Organization. Vince said no because he couldn't

<v Speaker 1>control the outcomes and then you got to deal with

<v Speaker 1>the state athletic commissions and all that stuff. He didn't

<v Speaker 1>want to have anything to do with that. Shane wanted

<v Speaker 1>to run ECW as an online only show in two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and six when they brought it back so that

<v Speaker 1>they could be edgier, and Vince said no to that too.

<v Speaker 1>It's not hard to see why he eventually had the

<v Speaker 1>blow up with his father and quit. He wanted to

<v Speaker 1>show his dad that he could run something on his

<v Speaker 1>own and be successful at it just like he was,

<v Speaker 1>and Vince just kept shutting him down. Anyway. That was

<v Speaker 1>Radio WWF many years ago. This week came the announcement

<v Speaker 1>that starting this Monday tomorrow, WWE is partnering with Sirius

<v Speaker 1>XM to launch WWE Radio, which will be taking over

<v Speaker 1>Channel one point fifty six on Sirius XM, replacing the

<v Speaker 1>existing Pro Wrestling Nation twenty four to seven channel. The

<v Speaker 1>lineup will still be anchored by Busted Open Radio, along

<v Speaker 1>with all of their usual shows hosted by Sam Roberts,

<v Speaker 1>Peter Rosenberg, and others. WWE Radio will also have live

<v Speaker 1>commentary for every pl with Vic Joseph and Booker T

<v Speaker 1>calling SummerSlam live for Serious XM listeners, and there will

<v Speaker 1>be audio simulcast for select television programs. The WWE and

<v Speaker 1>Fanatics group of podcasts will also air on WWE Radio,

<v Speaker 1>including Cody Rhoades, Stephanie McMahon and The Undertaker shows, and

<v Speaker 1>WWE Now from Sam Roberts and Megan Morant. Episodes of

<v Speaker 1>those podcasts will air daily at four pm Eastern. WWE

<v Speaker 1>Radio will broadcast several live shows directly from Minneapolis and

<v Speaker 1>the days leading up to SummerSlam, capturing the quote vibrant

<v Speaker 1>atmosphere and fan excitement surrounding the weekends events. This is

<v Speaker 1>according to the press release they put out. Dave Lgreca,

<v Speaker 1>Bully Ray, Mark Henry, Tommy Dreamer, Sam Roberts, and Peter

<v Speaker 1>Rosenberg will host from the Minneapolis Convention Center and will

<v Speaker 1>analyze upcoming storylines, interview WWE personalities and superstars, and speak

<v Speaker 1>with fans in Minneapolis and across the country. So if

<v Speaker 1>you're wondering, well, what does all this mean for discussion

<v Speaker 1>of other wrestling companies and wrestling shows on SiriusXM and

<v Speaker 1>I'm Busted Open, it means exactly what you think it means.

<v Speaker 1>Thunder Rosa is under contract to AW and CML. WWE

<v Speaker 1>does not play nice with AW, nor does Triple A

<v Speaker 1>play nice with CML. She announced that she will no

<v Speaker 1>longer be working I'm Busted Open. Now. My understanding is

<v Speaker 1>that she hasn't been on very many times anyway over

<v Speaker 1>the past year. Maybe here and there, but that's not

<v Speaker 1>even the point. The point is there is not expected

<v Speaker 1>to be any AW coverage on the channel, whatsoever, moving forward,

<v Speaker 1>Rosa posted on her social media on Friday, after four

<v Speaker 1>unforgettable years, it's time to turn the page. Some chapters

<v Speaker 1>in life change you forever, and this has been one

<v Speaker 1>of them. Being part of Busted Open has been so

<v Speaker 1>much more than sitting behind a microphone. It gave me

<v Speaker 1>the opportunity to share my perspective, connect with wrestling fans

<v Speaker 1>around the world, and celebrate the sport that has given

<v Speaker 1>me so much. I'm especially grateful to Tony Kahan for

<v Speaker 1>believing in me, trusting me to represent aw and allowing

<v Speaker 1>me to contribute my voice to one of the most

<v Speaker 1>respected wrestling shows in our industry. To Dave Logreca, Tommy Dreamer,

<v Speaker 1>Bully Ray, Mark Henry, the producers and everyone behind the scenes,

<v Speaker 1>thank you for welcoming me, challenging me, inspiring me, and

<v Speaker 1>making me feel like family. And she had a lot

<v Speaker 1>of other very complimentary things to say. She said, this

<v Speaker 1>isn't goodbye, it is simply the beginning of a new chapter.

<v Speaker 1>I will see you all very soon. I don't listen

<v Speaker 1>to bus That Open these days, and it's not because

<v Speaker 1>I dislike the show or anything. I think what Dave

<v Speaker 1>Logreca has built over there is very impressive. Starting the

<v Speaker 1>show way back in two thousand and nine, there weren't

<v Speaker 1>very many wrestling radio shows or podcasts back then. I

<v Speaker 1>mean I started my show in two thousand and seven.

<v Speaker 1>You had Don Toni and Kevin Cassel, you had live

<v Speaker 1>audio wrestling used to air on the radio out of Toronto.

<v Speaker 1>I know Melter and Alvarez, they had their show on

<v Speaker 1>YadA before Iyada went belly up. But these shows were

<v Speaker 1>few and far between, you know, compared to what we

<v Speaker 1>have today. He took a show that he started with

<v Speaker 1>Doug Morton, who still works for Sirius XM as fan

<v Speaker 1>hosted with fan opinions on everything, not just WWE, but TNA,

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor, New Japan, all of it. But it

<v Speaker 1>was a fan show. And then he brought on Bully

<v Speaker 1>Ray and other wrestlers or ex wrestlers started hosting and

<v Speaker 1>it just became a very different show. But I don't

<v Speaker 1>even have a serious XM subscription, so outside of the

<v Speaker 1>clips that I see on social media or on their

<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel that I do occasionally come across, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>a regular listener, so I can't speak to the daily

<v Speaker 1>listening experience. When it comes to how much coverage other

<v Speaker 1>promotions have been getting on Busted Open, I suspect not

<v Speaker 1>very much. I know they would cover AAW, but not

<v Speaker 1>as much as WWE, and truth be told, I get

<v Speaker 1>those same complaints even from my show sometimes, and that's twofold.

<v Speaker 1>Sometimes there just isn't really anything to talk about beyond

<v Speaker 1>the television shows. When it comes to AAW. There's not

<v Speaker 1>a lot of actual news. And also the AW content

<v Speaker 1>doesn't do as well as the WWE content to begin with. Right,

<v Speaker 1>I still cover it, I still do it. I'm a fan,

<v Speaker 1>But the numbers don't lie. And that was true of

<v Speaker 1>AAW even years ago, when the numbers were better than

<v Speaker 1>they are now, they were always lower than the WWE content,

<v Speaker 1>Which makes sense. I mean, the bigger company is going

<v Speaker 1>to cast a wider net when it comes to fans

<v Speaker 1>searching on YouTube for even if the product sucks, even

<v Speaker 1>if the product is fucking boring and uninspired. If anything,

<v Speaker 1>it does even better because when people get upset or

<v Speaker 1>they don't like what they're watching, they seek out content

<v Speaker 1>to see if other people feel the same way that

<v Speaker 1>they do, and then they commiserate together. That does happen. Right,

<v Speaker 1>jump on WFAN radio here in New York and listen

<v Speaker 1>to all the Mets fans calling in. Okay, it's the

<v Speaker 1>same thing. They're gonna bleed orange and blue until the

<v Speaker 1>day they die, but they're not gonna be afraid to

<v Speaker 1>let you know how they feel when the team sucks.

<v Speaker 1>From what I do here, though, their coverage of anything

<v Speaker 1>outside WWE was already fairly minimal. Tommy Dreamers on the show.

<v Speaker 1>He worked for TNA for many years, as does Nick Neamith.

<v Speaker 1>Right now he's their champion. He also has a hosting

<v Speaker 1>gig on there, so they do cover TNA and likely

<v Speaker 1>will continue to do so since TNA is playing nice

<v Speaker 1>with WWE. Dave Lgreca after the announcement was made, he

<v Speaker 1>claimed that the content of the shows would not be changing, right,

<v Speaker 1>nothing is changing. By Friday, Dave had people calling in

<v Speaker 1>and asking if they were still going to be covering

<v Speaker 1>AW and they avoided giving a straight answer to the question.

<v Speaker 1>They would be great dodgeball players. Okay, but what else

<v Speaker 1>is he gonna say? Right, They're on a station now

<v Speaker 1>that is called WWE Radio. You don't have to be

<v Speaker 1>a MENSA member to figure out what that means. You

<v Speaker 1>know what it means. I know what it means, and

<v Speaker 1>I know Jonathan Coachman also had a show on the

<v Speaker 1>channel and he was recently let go. Now thunder Rosa

<v Speaker 1>says that she's not going to be back. The cleansing

<v Speaker 1>has begun, as one of the ESPN executives said of

<v Speaker 1>their partnership with WWE last year, they claimed that there

<v Speaker 1>was going to be a separation of church and state.

<v Speaker 1>Remember that until they got a C letter grade from

<v Speaker 1>an ESPN dot com writer and flipped out over it.

<v Speaker 1>You had JBL's saying that Andreas Hale, who was just

<v Speaker 1>let go by ESPN, is part of a wave of

<v Speaker 1>layoffs last week, that Andreas Hale should have just given

<v Speaker 1>them an A grade, even if he didn't believe it

<v Speaker 1>was worthy of one. Because now ESPN is in a

<v Speaker 1>business relationship with WWE, and so how are you gonna

<v Speaker 1>have your business partner giving you a C grade? JBL

<v Speaker 1>has what I call WWE brain, and WWE brain dictates

<v Speaker 1>that nothing exists outside of WWE or the groups that

<v Speaker 1>they're friendly with. Right, nothing else exists. Why wouldn't that

<v Speaker 1>same logic apply here? It's a business relationship and really

<v Speaker 1>that's the issue. This is why it's more important than

<v Speaker 1>ever to have independent voices out there for you to

<v Speaker 1>listen to and watch and engage with. Less of that

<v Speaker 1>we have the worse it is for fans, which is

<v Speaker 1>not to say that there aren't people who work for

<v Speaker 1>SERIOUSXM who don't have their own platforms written apart from that,

<v Speaker 1>but in terms of that platform that media, as has

<v Speaker 1>happened with ESPN and WWE, when you co opt media

<v Speaker 1>in this way, and make no mistake, that is what

<v Speaker 1>WWE is doing here. They are co opting media. Realistically,

<v Speaker 1>they co opted Busted Open years ago. They only just

<v Speaker 1>now made it official and this is great for WWE,

<v Speaker 1>but it's terrible for everyone else, you know, you look

<v Speaker 1>at it from WWE's perspective. SERIOUSXM is built into most

<v Speaker 1>cars at this point. Right, if you're not subscribed to it,

<v Speaker 1>you probably have a free trial. You may not even

<v Speaker 1>know it. Millions of people tune in every day, maybe

<v Speaker 1>not to Bust It Open, but there's the Howard Stern Show,

<v Speaker 1>there's other live programs. People have different reasons from why

<v Speaker 1>they subscribe. Why wouldn't WWE want to tap into that? Right?

<v Speaker 1>If you subscribe, you'll now be able to listen live

<v Speaker 1>to all the plees and other events, even if you're

<v Speaker 1>not interested in all the podcast stuff. That's pretty cool.

<v Speaker 1>That's probably it's the biggest perk out of all of this.

<v Speaker 1>And when they have events like SummerSlam, they can build

<v Speaker 1>a whole week of coverage around it on location, right,

<v Speaker 1>they could offer access to whatever talent the bus that

<v Speaker 1>open folks want to bring on. So for WWE, this

<v Speaker 1>is a no lose situation for them. Now if you're

<v Speaker 1>Dave Logreca and Sirius XM, because I don't know how

<v Speaker 1>much power and influence Dave even has over there. At

<v Speaker 1>this point, there's so many more voices in the room

<v Speaker 1>as compared to how it was when he first started

<v Speaker 1>the show, And if SiriusXM wants to work with WWE,

<v Speaker 1>Dave Logreca is not going to be in any position

<v Speaker 1>to stop that. Okay, let's just be honest. But if

<v Speaker 1>you're Dave, I can understand him taking an opportunity like this.

<v Speaker 1>That WWE would buy in on this and that they

<v Speaker 1>saw the value in it is a testament to what

<v Speaker 1>he has built over there, and for serious they started

<v Speaker 1>their own twenty four hour channel last year, which is

<v Speaker 1>what WWE is now taking over. They're taking over the

<v Speaker 1>twenty four to seven pro wrestling channel they had, and

<v Speaker 1>from what I understand, there was a lot of repeat

<v Speaker 1>content on there. It didn't sound to me like they

<v Speaker 1>had a full schedule of original content. So I don't

<v Speaker 1>know how well it was even doing. Again, I can't

<v Speaker 1>speak to that, but it wouldn't surprise me that Sirius

<v Speaker 1>looked at that and said, you know what, WWE wants

<v Speaker 1>to come in and rebrand the entire thing. We're not

<v Speaker 1>going to say no to that. We need you, we

<v Speaker 1>need the content. And so one of the concessions that

<v Speaker 1>they had to make was likely getting rid of certain

<v Speaker 1>people the WWE did not want working on the channel

<v Speaker 1>and not giving airtime to other promotions that they don't

<v Speaker 1>approve of. Right they attached their name to it. WWE

<v Speaker 1>Radio is not coming on the air tomorrow on their

<v Speaker 1>first full day of operation and giving you a full

<v Speaker 1>recap of AEW redemption tonight. Okay, maybe it's a gradual thing,

<v Speaker 1>and you know, at first there's some talk here and

<v Speaker 1>there to give the appearance of business as usual, but

<v Speaker 1>believe me, it is anything but business as usual. Now

<v Speaker 1>it's just business. They are now in arm of WWE.

<v Speaker 1>You know you've heard of state run media, right, that's

<v Speaker 1>what this is. Sirius is not going to rock the

<v Speaker 1>boat on this because they're now in business with WWE,

<v Speaker 1>just like ESPN is in business with WWE. And forget

<v Speaker 1>aw and other promotions for a second. What does this

<v Speaker 1>mean for criticism of WWE, like on a channel called

<v Speaker 1>WWE Radio. How much criticism are they willing to tolerate

<v Speaker 1>before it becomes an issue? They've already started promoting this

<v Speaker 1>on their television shows. They talked about the launch on

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown Friday Night. You think WWE is going to want

<v Speaker 1>people watching the TV show to go, oh wow, I

<v Speaker 1>can listen to WWE on the radio now and analysis

<v Speaker 1>of the TV shows on the radio, just to tune

<v Speaker 1>in and hear Dave Legreca frothing at the mouth in

<v Speaker 1>his bathrobe about how the Rock ruined WrestleMania. You fucking

<v Speaker 1>kidding me? If you have a ple that wasn't very

<v Speaker 1>good and deserves to be torn, are they going to

<v Speaker 1>be afraid to call balls and strikes because they don't

<v Speaker 1>want to upset their bosses? You know, the ones who

<v Speaker 1>sign their paychecks. If there's a serious news story related

<v Speaker 1>to WWE, then maybe it doesn't paint them in the

<v Speaker 1>best light. Is that going to get any coverage at

<v Speaker 1>all on WWE Radio? I mean, were those stories getting

<v Speaker 1>coverage to begin with on Busted Open? Maybe not, but

<v Speaker 1>you're certainly not going to hear about it on there.

<v Speaker 1>Not Now, as long as you understand what you're getting

<v Speaker 1>and what you're paying for, that's up to you. If

<v Speaker 1>that's something that you're okay with, if that's something that

<v Speaker 1>interests you, or if it doesn't interest you, it's going

<v Speaker 1>to be up to the individual. I don't get a

<v Speaker 1>chance to listen to very many wrestling podcasts these days.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I talk about wrestling enough on my end

<v Speaker 1>that whatever free time I have, the last thing I

<v Speaker 1>want to do is listen to more pro wrestling. But

<v Speaker 1>what I think is important and what I would want

<v Speaker 1>to listen to are people without an agenda who are

<v Speaker 1>going to call it like they see it. If they

<v Speaker 1>think something is really good, they'll tell you it's good.

<v Speaker 1>If they I think something absolutely sucks, they're not going

<v Speaker 1>to be shy about it, and they're not gonna run

<v Speaker 1>away from telling you that either, but also hopefully explaining

<v Speaker 1>why why do you feel that way? Here's why I

<v Speaker 1>think this is bad, Here's what I think would have

<v Speaker 1>been better, or how they can make it better, or

<v Speaker 1>what I hope to see next time. But whatever they're saying,

<v Speaker 1>it's coming from a place of honesty. You may not

<v Speaker 1>like it, and you don't have to agree with it,

<v Speaker 1>but you can at least believe that it's the person's genuine, honest,

<v Speaker 1>unfiltered opinion. That's what I would want to listen to.

<v Speaker 1>That's how I try to conduct myself, and fuck whoever

<v Speaker 1>is not happy with that. It's the thing I love

<v Speaker 1>the most about what I do and doing it on

<v Speaker 1>my own is that I never have to worry if

<v Speaker 1>someone above me is going to have an issue with

<v Speaker 1>something I'm saying, or I have to clear it with

<v Speaker 1>someone first. I don't even have to think about it.

<v Speaker 1>I just say it. If it's live, it's out there

<v Speaker 1>for the world to see. And if it's recorded, like

<v Speaker 1>this podcast is I finished recording, I slap on the intro,

<v Speaker 1>I slap on the out I convert it, I upload it,

<v Speaker 1>and I post it and it's out there for the world.

<v Speaker 1>To listen to and I don't pay it another thought.

<v Speaker 1>Like even doing the Uncrowned Wrestling show for Ariel Helwani

<v Speaker 1>and for Yahoo. No one has ever told me, oh,

<v Speaker 1>you can't say that, or oh you can't cover that,

<v Speaker 1>or oh maybe stay away from that. They leave me

<v Speaker 1>alone and they let me do my thing. It's the

<v Speaker 1>whole reason they brought me on to the team in

<v Speaker 1>the first place. They didn't want me to change a

<v Speaker 1>single thing. And I love that. I love working with

<v Speaker 1>people like that. And look, who's to say that one

<v Speaker 1>day an opportunity may not come up to do something

<v Speaker 1>where I do have to answer to somebody else or

<v Speaker 1>avoid talking about certain things. Right, I can't say that

<v Speaker 1>really appeals to me. But I also can't sit here

<v Speaker 1>and tell you that if there was an opportunity, you know,

<v Speaker 1>worth pursuing, that I wouldn't do it. It would have

<v Speaker 1>to make sense for me and hopefully allow me to

<v Speaker 1>continue doing what I do here. It's why I can't

<v Speaker 1>begrudge look Greca for doing this. I know he's getting

<v Speaker 1>some hate and he's gonna a lot of you sold

<v Speaker 1>out comment. It's such a huge opportunity for him. I

<v Speaker 1>get it. I understand it. But like the recent aj

<v Speaker 1>Styles comments about him wanting to see WWE acquire a

<v Speaker 1>wrestling promotion in Japan like they did with TRIPAA, these

<v Speaker 1>types of deals have real consequences, maybe not right away,

<v Speaker 1>but they do, and they're not good consequences. If you're

<v Speaker 1>part of the bus at Open crew or you work

<v Speaker 1>for Serious XM, this is a cause for celebration for

<v Speaker 1>everyone else. I mean, I guess it all depends on

<v Speaker 1>what you're looking for out of your pro wrestling discussion.

<v Speaker 1>And for those of you who don't have SERIOUSXM or

<v Speaker 1>you didn't listen to busts that Open to begin with,

<v Speaker 1>then absolutely nothing changes for you and you can continue

<v Speaker 1>to follow the same shows that you always followed. And

<v Speaker 1>if this is one of them, and I assume it is,

<v Speaker 1>if you're listening to this, I appreciate the hell out

<v Speaker 1>of you for it. Next weekend, do we got two

<v Speaker 1>nights of Summer Slam coming up from yous Bank Stadium

<v Speaker 1>in Minneapolis, and it looks like thirty thousand plus for

<v Speaker 1>each night, which is way down from what they did

<v Speaker 1>last year. And granted last year they had John Cena

<v Speaker 1>defending the WWE Championship in the main event of Night

<v Speaker 1>two against Cody Rhodes, but that was first of all,

<v Speaker 1>that was only one night, and second of all, that

<v Speaker 1>still doesn't account for such a big drop, such a

<v Speaker 1>steep drop in what they did last year. Ticket prices

<v Speaker 1>obviously factor into that, but I also think overall interests

<v Speaker 1>in the product. You know, they peaked, we were were

<v Speaker 1>already passed the peak. So this was not going to

<v Speaker 1>do as well as last year if the interest level

<v Speaker 1>in what WWE was providing to people wasn't there, And

<v Speaker 1>clearly it is not, not to the same degree that

<v Speaker 1>it was before, which again is to say not to

<v Speaker 1>say that sixty or seventy thousand combined for the two

<v Speaker 1>nights is a bad total kind of all by itself,

<v Speaker 1>but when you compare it to what they've done before,

<v Speaker 1>it's a bad total. Well, don't know what the matches

<v Speaker 1>are that are airing on Saturday, what the matches are

<v Speaker 1>that are airing on Sunday. They'll make that announcement this week.

<v Speaker 1>I actually think it's pretty shitty. If you're someone who's

<v Speaker 1>only attending one night, maybe you can only afford to

<v Speaker 1>go one night, and you have no idea if the

<v Speaker 1>matches that you really want to see are taking place

<v Speaker 1>on the night that you paid for. Like imagine buying

<v Speaker 1>a ticket to see Obafemi against Brockelesner inside Hell in

<v Speaker 1>a Cell and you find out this week that you're

<v Speaker 1>going on the one night that they're not wrestling. I'd

<v Speaker 1>be pretty pissed off about that. If I'm gonna run

<v Speaker 1>down the card, here give my predictions. You guys can

<v Speaker 1>chime in with your own. We may get more match

<v Speaker 1>We should get more matches, at least one or two

<v Speaker 1>more this week, and we'll find out what's taking place

<v Speaker 1>on which night, and I'm sure I'll talk more about

<v Speaker 1>it on Crowned on Tuesday. We do know. Apparently ESPN

<v Speaker 1>would like the Intercontinental Championship match between Penta and Chad

<v Speaker 1>Gable to take place on the ESPN portion of the show.

<v Speaker 1>I assume ESPN is doing what they've been doing, which

<v Speaker 1>is airing the first hour of both nights on ESPN,

<v Speaker 1>and so it looks like Chad Gable and Penta is

<v Speaker 1>going to be in the first hour on one of

<v Speaker 1>the two nights. This is one of the matches I

<v Speaker 1>am most looking forward to next weekend. This is or

<v Speaker 1>should be the crowning of Chad Gable. Chad Gable will

<v Speaker 1>never be in a better position than he is now

<v Speaker 1>to finally win the championship that has eluded him now

<v Speaker 1>for years. He's had opportunity after opportunity in the past

<v Speaker 1>when he was a babyface to win the title. He

<v Speaker 1>had that feud with Gunther. It didn't work out and

<v Speaker 1>he went heel and he had this whole El Grande

<v Speaker 1>Americano run with a torn the rotator cuff thrown in there,

<v Speaker 1>so he missed a whole bunch of time due to

<v Speaker 1>the injury. He came back, he had that incredible match

<v Speaker 1>in May at the Triple A Show that set him

<v Speaker 1>up for this babyface run that he is now on Penta.

<v Speaker 1>I love him to death. I think he's fantastic, but

<v Speaker 1>it's time. There should be nothing here except Dad Gable

<v Speaker 1>new Intercontinental Champion. Anything else is a fail. As I

<v Speaker 1>said when they did the Gauntlet match on Raw a

<v Speaker 1>few weeks ago, they have one job. Their one job

<v Speaker 1>in that match was to send Chad Gable to Minneapolis.

<v Speaker 1>Send Chad Gable to his hometown in front of his people,

<v Speaker 1>in front of his family, in front of his friends,

<v Speaker 1>to win the Championship, and they did that. He won

<v Speaker 1>the Gauntlet. You got one job left, don't drop the ball.

<v Speaker 1>Chad Gable will be your new Intercontinental Champion. We have

<v Speaker 1>Fatal Influence taking on Page and the Bella Twins because

<v Speaker 1>Briebella now has her sister back. Friday night, Nikki Bella

<v Speaker 1>made her return, so we're getting a six woman tag or,

<v Speaker 1>as Bryson said to me on X team, Total Divas.

<v Speaker 1>That's basically what it is. Page and Bribella are Total Divas.

<v Speaker 1>That's their name, that should be their name. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think the Total Divas are getting the win here Fatal Influence.

<v Speaker 1>They just won the women's tag team titles at Saturday

<v Speaker 1>Night's main event, and then Lanny Reid went in there

<v Speaker 1>against Bribella on Friday and got pinned. This should be

<v Speaker 1>a win for Fatal Influence. And the only question is

<v Speaker 1>do we see a heel turn on the baby face side?

<v Speaker 1>Does Page go heal and align with Fatal Influence and

<v Speaker 1>join Fatal Influence? So do they add her as a

<v Speaker 1>fourth member? That's one idea. Do the Bella Twins turn

<v Speaker 1>on Page now that they're reunited, keep Page baby face

<v Speaker 1>and make Nicki and Brie heels. Probably not. I don't

<v Speaker 1>see that because I still think that the goal here

<v Speaker 1>is to ultimately put the tag belts on Nicki and Brie.

<v Speaker 1>They've never been women's tag team champions together, right, they

<v Speaker 1>would have been by now, but then Nicky got hurt.

<v Speaker 1>So if that's the case, and they want to eventually

<v Speaker 1>transition those belts over to the Bellas, and right now

<v Speaker 1>you have the belts on a couple of heels, I

<v Speaker 1>would think you want to keep the Bella's baby face.

<v Speaker 1>So if anybody was to go heel out of this,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm not saying there will be a heel turn

<v Speaker 1>because I'm just not sure it would be page, I

<v Speaker 1>would think one thing I am sure of is that

<v Speaker 1>fatal influence. They need this win, and I think they

<v Speaker 1>get this win. We have Trick Williams defending the United

<v Speaker 1>States Championship against Baron Corbin. Yes, his very first match

<v Speaker 1>back in the company after years, and it's a championship match. Now.

<v Speaker 1>They set this match up because it's so important. In

<v Speaker 1>an off air angle, on Friday night, after SmackDown went

<v Speaker 1>off the air, they still haven't figured out that the

<v Speaker 1>show is back to two hours. They're still booking for

<v Speaker 1>a three hour show, and so stuff is being left off.

<v Speaker 1>But they shot this angle that they put up on

<v Speaker 1>their socials and now we know it's one on one

<v Speaker 1>for the championship. Meanwhile, they had Trick Williams on Friday

<v Speaker 1>on the show fighting at a fatal four way number

<v Speaker 1>one contenders match for the WWE Championship, which has nothing

<v Speaker 1>to do with Baron Corbin or the US title. And

<v Speaker 1>so here we are. It's a case of deja vous

<v Speaker 1>all over again. I can remember making the case heading

<v Speaker 1>into WrestleMania this year. You guys remember hearing me talk

<v Speaker 1>about this. I was making the case for Carmelo Hayes

<v Speaker 1>to be added to the Trick William Sammy's ain match

<v Speaker 1>for the US title. Don't leave him off the show?

<v Speaker 1>And what did they do? They left him off the show.

<v Speaker 1>Now we're heading into SummerSlam and I find myself yet

<v Speaker 1>again asking why is Carmelo Hayes not added to the

<v Speaker 1>US title match to make it a triple threat? Why

<v Speaker 1>is he being left off the card? Some things never change,

<v Speaker 1>even Baron Corbin himself posted in the comments under the

<v Speaker 1>match graphic on WWE's IG when somebody asked where is

<v Speaker 1>mellow what about him, and Corbin said he needs to

<v Speaker 1>be they have one SmackDown left to make it happen.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it does. I do think we're going

<v Speaker 1>to get a new United States Champion, though, I think

<v Speaker 1>they're going to belt up Baron Corbin in his first match.

<v Speaker 1>Sammy's Ain wasn't sure that Sammy's Ain would have a

<v Speaker 1>match on this card. I figure he might be sitting

<v Speaker 1>next to Carmelo Hayes at the catering table backstage watching

<v Speaker 1>everybody else wrestle. And then on Friday, Sammy was informed

<v Speaker 1>by Adam Pears that there would be a fatal four

<v Speaker 1>way match at the end of the night involving Trick Williams,

<v Speaker 1>Damian Priest, Royce Keys, and Finn Baller, and the winner

<v Speaker 1>of that match would go on to SummerSlam to meet

<v Speaker 1>Sammy in a number one Contenders match in the winner

<v Speaker 1>of that match would then come out of Summer Slam

<v Speaker 1>as the number one contender for the WWE Championship, which

<v Speaker 1>sounds very unfair because Sammy Zaane never got his rematch

<v Speaker 1>as many others do after he lost to Cmpunk, and

<v Speaker 1>more than that, more than the rematch, like clause or

<v Speaker 1>whatever you want to call it. He got royally screwed

<v Speaker 1>by his boss at Saturday Night's main event when Nick

<v Speaker 1>All disinterfered and cost him and Gun through the match.

<v Speaker 1>So at the very least, I never expected him to

<v Speaker 1>be added to the he made his pitch. By the way,

<v Speaker 1>on Friday, he says, add did the Cody in Punk

<v Speaker 1>match make it a triple threat, which I never thought

<v Speaker 1>was going to happen. I told you that last week.

<v Speaker 1>I said that match is locked in. That's exactly what

<v Speaker 1>Adam Pierce told him, that the match is locked But

<v Speaker 1>I said, what would only be fair would be to

<v Speaker 1>tell Sammy, Okay, you know what, you have a very

<v Speaker 1>valid gripe after what happened coming out of SummerSlam. You're

<v Speaker 1>going to wrestle the champion, whether it's Punk, whether it's Cody,

<v Speaker 1>you get first crack at it. They didn't even do that.

<v Speaker 1>They're making him fight for it, which is very unfair.

<v Speaker 1>But the reason they're doing it is because if they didn't,

<v Speaker 1>he wouldn't have had a match at SummerSlam. So you

<v Speaker 1>kind of weigh the pros and cons here and it's like, well,

<v Speaker 1>maybe this doesn't make as much sense, but at least

<v Speaker 1>we get him on the card. I would rather he

<v Speaker 1>have a match on the card, So I'm glad he's wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>Finn Balor won that four way match, so it's going

<v Speaker 1>to be Sammy's Ain't against Finn Balor. And it's ten

<v Speaker 1>years since Finn Balor beat Seth Rollins to win the

<v Speaker 1>Universal Championship at SummerSlam and also injured his arm. Ten

<v Speaker 1>years since Finn Balor has held a top title, a

<v Speaker 1>major title in WWE, and here now he finds himself

<v Speaker 1>in a Number one Contenders match, and I'm thinking that

<v Speaker 1>Finn Balor, who has been getting a bit of a

<v Speaker 1>push since he got called up to called up to

<v Speaker 1>since he got called over to SmackDown, I feel like

<v Speaker 1>they're setting him up for a championship match. Not that

<v Speaker 1>he's going to win, but he's had like these backstage

<v Speaker 1>interactions with Cody and with Punk you know, hate Champ

<v Speaker 1>See You Soon, and he's actually been winning. We've had

<v Speaker 1>Winn Balor on these shows. I don't know, we're Pinn Balor.

<v Speaker 1>A Pinn Balor is apparently on vacation. He's sunning himself

<v Speaker 1>in the Caribbean somewhere and we've had Win Balor on television.

<v Speaker 1>I think we see Winn Balor at Summerslim next weekend,

<v Speaker 1>and he's going to beat Sammy and all that's gonna

<v Speaker 1>do is feed into this whole justice for Sammy and

<v Speaker 1>he's going to be on this crusade against injustice. I

<v Speaker 1>think they keep that going. I think he's losing, and

<v Speaker 1>I think Finn Valor is going to be the number

<v Speaker 1>one contender coming out of that show. We have La Knight,

<v Speaker 1>Solo Socoa, and Royce Keys. What a motley crew this is.

<v Speaker 1>They're gonna be taking on Jacob Fatu and the USOS.

<v Speaker 1>I can't bet against the blood Line here. If the

<v Speaker 1>blood Line is involved, chances are they're going to win.

<v Speaker 1>I'm very worried that Solo Sokoa is going to turn

<v Speaker 1>on La Knight and Royce Keys and rejoin the Bloodline.

<v Speaker 1>I've enjoyed Solo these last several weeks on his own

<v Speaker 1>kind of being a little goofy. I think again that

<v Speaker 1>there's great potential in him as a singles babyface. I

<v Speaker 1>don't want to see him just go back to the

<v Speaker 1>blood Line. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope

<v Speaker 1>I'm wrong. I'm going with Jacob Fatu and the USSOS

<v Speaker 1>bloodline for the win. We have Gunther, the man who

<v Speaker 1>retired John Cena, the man who retires AJ Styles. He

<v Speaker 1>is going to be wrestling the SmackDown General manager Nick

<v Speaker 1>All This stepping into the ring for the first time

<v Speaker 1>in over three years, for the first time ever in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>They had a contract signing segment on Friday that was

<v Speaker 1>pretty good. Guntherer power bombed him through the contract signing table.

<v Speaker 1>Not much more you can do at this point. All

<v Speaker 1>this cost this man a potential championship opportunity. There's a

<v Speaker 1>lot of heat going back and forth. Guntherer has beaten

<v Speaker 1>him up and put him put him to sleep. What's

<v Speaker 1>left for him to do? The only thing left now

<v Speaker 1>is to see what all this looks like after this

<v Speaker 1>long layoff, and what does he look like in a

<v Speaker 1>WWE ring? Is this going to be the only match?

<v Speaker 1>I find it hard to believe this will be the

<v Speaker 1>only time he ever wrestles in WWE. But I also

<v Speaker 1>would caution people who think that maybe this is going

<v Speaker 1>to be the start of an n ring run for him.

<v Speaker 1>I don't see it that way. They had the right

<v Speaker 1>story here for him, they're doing the one match he's

<v Speaker 1>going to lose. For him to go in there and

<v Speaker 1>beat Gunther, I mean maybe the people in the would

<v Speaker 1>be happy in the moment, but it would be so

<v Speaker 1>fucking ridiculous. So Gunther is gonna win. And then I think,

<v Speaker 1>Nick all this, you know, he puts the suit back

<v Speaker 1>gun and goes back to being the GM until there's

<v Speaker 1>another opportunity down the road, maybe for him to do

<v Speaker 1>another match. But Guntherer has to win this. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>for anything other than that to be the end result

<v Speaker 1>of this, I just think would be completely ridiculous. And

<v Speaker 1>then we have, speaking of ridiculous, the ladder match, right,

<v Speaker 1>we have a big six way ladder match tonight on

<v Speaker 1>the redemption card. Well, we have a ladder match with

<v Speaker 1>five women to crown a new interim WWE Women's Champion,

<v Speaker 1>and we know four of the five names, Charlotte Flair,

<v Speaker 1>Jade Cargill, Tiffany Stratton, and Chelsea Green. And the fifth

<v Speaker 1>spot will be occupied by the winner of the match

<v Speaker 1>this Friday between Julia and lash Legend, which I talked

<v Speaker 1>about Sammy Zan and how unfair it is that he

<v Speaker 1>even has to fight for a shot to become number

<v Speaker 1>one contender. I gotta say Nya jacks she also has

<v Speaker 1>a very valid gripe. She's been involved in two different

<v Speaker 1>qualifying matches over the last couple of weeks on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>and the only reason she even got a second one

<v Speaker 1>is because she got fucked over in the first one.

<v Speaker 1>She was wrestling Jade. Charlotte interfered and cost Nya the

<v Speaker 1>match by disqualification through no fault of her own, and

<v Speaker 1>so she was placed in another match, this time against Charlotte,

<v Speaker 1>and the same fucking thing happened. Jade got involved, and

<v Speaker 1>so Nya got screwed, and so their great plan was

<v Speaker 1>We're gonna put Lash Legend, your tag team partner, in

<v Speaker 1>a qualifying match, and you're just out of it completely. Now,

<v Speaker 1>Nya seemed okay with this once she found out, you know,

<v Speaker 1>backstage after that Lash was getting the spot, she was

<v Speaker 1>very gracious. But in storyline, if you think about it,

<v Speaker 1>why would you not put Naya Jackson the ladder match.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not advocating that I want to see Nia Jax

<v Speaker 1>take that last one. I'm just saying though, logically, logically,

<v Speaker 1>this woman got jobbed out here. So lash Legend is

<v Speaker 1>going to qualify, and that might break some people's hearts

<v Speaker 1>to hear me say that, But considering there's only one

<v Speaker 1>heel in the match right now, there's one heel that's it.

<v Speaker 1>Considering that that spot is likely going to lash legend now,

<v Speaker 1>they don't have any direction for Julia. They don't have

<v Speaker 1>any direction for Keana James right now since splitting them up.

<v Speaker 1>Keana lost her qualifier to Chelsea Green on Friday. Julia

<v Speaker 1>will likely suffer the same fate. I'm sorry to say.

<v Speaker 1>Julia was attacked twice by the way, by Blake Monroe,

<v Speaker 1>and there has been no mention of it. Since there's

<v Speaker 1>been no follow up. Julia doesn't seem terribly bothered by it.

<v Speaker 1>She hasn't said a word about it. Like when they

<v Speaker 1>ret con stuff like this, it may not seem like

<v Speaker 1>a big deal, but it's part of a larger problem

<v Speaker 1>creatively when they start and stop stories like this. But

<v Speaker 1>you have these five women. They're fighting over a fake belt.

<v Speaker 1>I mean faker than the fake wrestling belt that Rhea

<v Speaker 1>Ripley still has. This is a real fake belt when

<v Speaker 1>what they should be fighting for is Riha's belt or

<v Speaker 1>at the very least a contract hanging above the ring

<v Speaker 1>for a shot at Ria's belt if she is coming

<v Speaker 1>back soon. Instead, we have this interim garbage. You know

<v Speaker 1>my thoughts on this. WWE reportedly chose the route of

<v Speaker 1>caution with Rihea Ripley's meniscus injury, choosing to hold her

<v Speaker 1>out of action for longer than she might have hoped.

<v Speaker 1>This is according to wrestle votes on Fight Full Select.

<v Speaker 1>They reported on Thursday that there was a strong internal

<v Speaker 1>push for the popular start to make a full recovery

<v Speaker 1>from the injury, as opposed to making it worse and

<v Speaker 1>trying to make it to next weekend SummerSlam. According to

<v Speaker 1>the outlet, the hope is for Ripley to return to

<v Speaker 1>action in the fall and raining Women's United States Champion

<v Speaker 1>in Minnesota native Tiffany Stratton was originally going to defend

<v Speaker 1>her title on the pl but is now in the

<v Speaker 1>ladder match instead, one of several plans that needed to

<v Speaker 1>be changed due to the injury, except did it did

<v Speaker 1>you need to go this route? Did you need to

<v Speaker 1>have a five way ladder match? No, that's something they

<v Speaker 1>chose to do, and that's fine. They chose that. You know,

<v Speaker 1>we want to have a special attraction on this show,

<v Speaker 1>So we'll have a ladder match, right, ladder matches. People

<v Speaker 1>love ladder matches, So we'll have a ladder match. But

<v Speaker 1>like you read this and it's almost like, well, they

<v Speaker 1>their hands were tied and they had no choice, Like,

<v Speaker 1>give me a fucking break. There were other ways to

<v Speaker 1>go about deciding on a new champion, interior or otherwise.

<v Speaker 1>You could have absolutely have taken the time to build

<v Speaker 1>up a program for Tiffany Stratton to defend her US

<v Speaker 1>title on this show. For example, Blake Monroe, who actually

<v Speaker 1>confronted Tiffany in the back and they're teasing something between

<v Speaker 1>the two of them Lake Monroe. They started running vignettes

<v Speaker 1>for her a few months ago. At this point, she

<v Speaker 1>has yet to wrestle a match on TV. You mean

<v Speaker 1>to tell me that you couldn't have her debut in

<v Speaker 1>the rings several weeks ago, start feeding her some wins

<v Speaker 1>and start building up something for Tiffany Stratton in her

<v Speaker 1>in her home state to be doing a summerslim. They

<v Speaker 1>did nothing, So I don't want to hear it, like, well,

<v Speaker 1>all these plans had to be changed. Yes, I understand,

<v Speaker 1>injuries happen and they can fuck up your plans, and

<v Speaker 1>some plans have to change. But you know, there were

<v Speaker 1>other ways of going about doing this that would have

<v Speaker 1>made more sense. But here we are, and my prediction

<v Speaker 1>for the latter match, I mean, maybe I'm going out

<v Speaker 1>on a limb here. I don't know. I think lash

<v Speaker 1>Legend qualifies, and I think Lash Legend wins the championship,

<v Speaker 1>she becomes the interim Women's champion, and they set up

<v Speaker 1>a match at some point with her and Rhea Ripley

<v Speaker 1>once Rhea comes back, so that Rihea can beat her

<v Speaker 1>and we can be right back to where we were before.

<v Speaker 1>But I think they give it to her. I feel

<v Speaker 1>now like Charlotte and Jade, who were supposed to have

<v Speaker 1>a singles match, I'm sure they're gonna cancel each other out.

<v Speaker 1>And that leaves Tiffany, who has the US title. And

<v Speaker 1>I understand they're in her her home state, but for

<v Speaker 1>her to win this, to me, it doesn't make any sense.

<v Speaker 1>And then Chelsea Green and I just feel like, if

<v Speaker 1>you have the choice between Chelsea and Lash, they ain't

<v Speaker 1>gone with Chelsea. I think they want in that situation.

<v Speaker 1>I think they would much rather do or build up

<v Speaker 1>a match between Rhea and a heel like lash Legend,

<v Speaker 1>not a baby face like Chelsea. Now we have Dan Housen.

<v Speaker 1>Dan Housen, how's a summer slut match. He's gonna go

<v Speaker 1>one on one with Dominic Mysterio. Dominic Mysterio is still

<v Speaker 1>the Triple A Mega Champion and he is getting ready

<v Speaker 1>to defend his title at Triple Mania in September. It

<v Speaker 1>is a joke if they job him out to Dan

<v Speaker 1>Housen here. I don't care how popular Dan Housen may be.

<v Speaker 1>I know he's on a streak. I don't think he's

<v Speaker 1>lost a match yet. I don't give a shit. Dom

<v Speaker 1>has that belt. Maybe in WWE it doesn't mean anything,

<v Speaker 1>but in Triple A, use if they send dom In

<v Speaker 1>there to lose to Dan Housen, Like if I'm Undertaker,

<v Speaker 1>I'm fucking pissed. Like you know, that doesn't sit well

<v Speaker 1>with me. I think dom has to win this, honestly,

<v Speaker 1>and you know what, he could win and then after

<v Speaker 1>the match, and Dan Housen can curse him and then

<v Speaker 1>eventually he'll go on to lose his championship the next

<v Speaker 1>time he defends it. We have Oba Femi and Brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesner inside Hell in a Cell. I told you guys

<v Speaker 1>a couple of weeks ago that I felt like this

<v Speaker 1>is going to open one of the two nights. I

<v Speaker 1>still feel that way. I think they're gonna want that

<v Speaker 1>match on ESPN, and I mean, it's what they did

<v Speaker 1>at Wrestle Media, right they opened was It night too,

<v Speaker 1>I believe, so that would be my guess as far

<v Speaker 1>as when we see that match. I don't know which night,

<v Speaker 1>but I think it would open one of the two nights.

<v Speaker 1>Triple H is going to be on Raw tomorrow night

<v Speaker 1>to officiate the waigh in for their match. This is

<v Speaker 1>the blowoff. This is match number three. The first one

<v Speaker 1>Brock won, the second one oba winning. The third one

<v Speaker 1>is the only outcome, the only acceptable outcome here to

<v Speaker 1>this Brock Lesner is undefeated in Hell in a Cell matches.

<v Speaker 1>He's only had two of them, but he's won, and

<v Speaker 1>both of them, I believe were against the Undertaker, and

<v Speaker 1>he had two excellent ones with the Undertaker. Their first

<v Speaker 1>two matches I thought were very fun. The first one

<v Speaker 1>only went four minutes, the second one went six. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>it's a lot of finisher spam, but you got to

<v Speaker 1>admit like they've been exciting matches. I don't think this

<v Speaker 1>one will be any different. I think these two were

<v Speaker 1>going to go in there and they're gonna have an

<v Speaker 1>excellent match that I hope goes longer than six minutes. Right,

<v Speaker 1>we went from four minutes to six minutes. Hopefully we

<v Speaker 1>hit double digits. Maybe we can hit ten minutes for

<v Speaker 1>this match. I don't want the match to be less

<v Speaker 1>time than the time it takes for them to lower

<v Speaker 1>the fucking cell okay down to the down to the floor.

<v Speaker 1>So let's hope we at least, you know, get some

<v Speaker 1>length out of this and gets a big win. There's

<v Speaker 1>no other way for this to go. Is this going

<v Speaker 1>to be brock Lesner's last match. I don't believe it

<v Speaker 1>will be. I mean a lot of people bought into

<v Speaker 1>it at WrestleMania and they got burned right for thinking that,

<v Speaker 1>oh my god, this is it. Look, oh my god,

<v Speaker 1>his boots are in the ring, his boots, and then

<v Speaker 1>it all turned into a joke a few weeks later. So, yes,

<v Speaker 1>it's Minneapolis. I don't think that means anything in terms of, oh,

<v Speaker 1>this has to be his final match. It probably will

<v Speaker 1>not be his final match. They certainly aren't building it

<v Speaker 1>up that way, and if he takes his boots off again,

<v Speaker 1>who's gonna fucking believe him? Right? I mean, we saw

<v Speaker 1>the shit at WrestleMania already, where there is money to

<v Speaker 1>be made as long as he is physically able to

<v Speaker 1>do so, Brocklesner is going to be in business, right,

<v Speaker 1>He's open for business? Why would he end it? At

<v Speaker 1>SummerSlam Oba FEMU wins Eo Sky winner or the Queen

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring, We're gonna challenge for the Women's World Championship.

<v Speaker 1>This will be the first title defense of Live Morgan's reign.

<v Speaker 1>She won the championship from Stephanie Vecaer at WrestleMania, has

<v Speaker 1>not defended the title a single time since the booking

<v Speaker 1>of Live Morgan. The booking of really the whole fucking

<v Speaker 1>division horrendous, awful. Get that belt off of her, put

<v Speaker 1>it on Eo Sky. I don't have a whole lot

<v Speaker 1>of optimism that things are gonna be any different with

<v Speaker 1>EO having the belt, but at least it then sets

<v Speaker 1>up a crown Jewel match in a few months between

<v Speaker 1>Rhea and EO, and they could tell that story. Since

<v Speaker 1>Rhea still has never been able to beat Eosky. I

<v Speaker 1>think that's the way we get that match. Eo Sky

<v Speaker 1>is going to win the Women's World Championship. We have

<v Speaker 1>the undisputed WWE Championship on the line, Cee, I'm Punk

<v Speaker 1>defending the title against the former champion, Cody Rhods. I

<v Speaker 1>am not afraid to admit I got it wrong with this.

<v Speaker 1>I got it wrong. This does not feel like the

<v Speaker 1>nine two main event, not more than Roman Reigns and

<v Speaker 1>seth Rawlins. That face to face promo with punkin Cody

<v Speaker 1>on Friday Night was beneath what the two of them

<v Speaker 1>are capable of. Didn't do a whole hell of a

<v Speaker 1>lot to get me too excited for this either. I

<v Speaker 1>thought it was all right, but it needed to be

<v Speaker 1>more than all right, and it wasn't. It wasn't anywhere

<v Speaker 1>near what I was hoping it would be. The sense

<v Speaker 1>of anger or heat, you know, between the two of

<v Speaker 1>them wasn't there in the way that I was hoping

<v Speaker 1>it would be. And they didn't need a whole lot

<v Speaker 1>of time to really promote this thing. There's only so

<v Speaker 1>much you can really do because again, they've been kept

<v Speaker 1>apart their entire run so far in WWE. Largely, but

<v Speaker 1>they just they haven't. I was hoping that, you know,

<v Speaker 1>they would throw some gasoline on the fire, and we

<v Speaker 1>didn't really get that. But here we are, and it's

<v Speaker 1>a fresh match that we haven't seen. It's a big match.

<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying it no longer feels bigger to me

<v Speaker 1>than you know, the way they've really pushed Roman and

<v Speaker 1>so as being like the ultimate finale between the two

<v Speaker 1>of them, which is why I'm sure when we get

<v Speaker 1>the announcements this week of what's gonna be on Night

<v Speaker 1>one and what's gonna be on Night two, my guest

<v Speaker 1>would be Cody and Punk they headline night one, Roman

<v Speaker 1>and Seth headline Night two, that would be my guess.

<v Speaker 1>The question here, and it's a question that has been

<v Speaker 1>asked many times over the last couple of years, is

<v Speaker 1>Cody Rhoads gonna go heal? Or in this match, is

<v Speaker 1>someone gonna go he is punking to go heel? Is

<v Speaker 1>Cody gonna go heal? I hope so, and I hope

<v Speaker 1>the answer is Cody wroats because we're at a point

<v Speaker 1>now where I feel like it's the right time to

<v Speaker 1>take Cody in a different direction other than just the

<v Speaker 1>corporate statesman who comes out every week and ask the

<v Speaker 1>fans what do you want to talk about? Right after

<v Speaker 1>a while, it just gets fucking old, and I think

<v Speaker 1>you not reset things with Cody, but you just take

<v Speaker 1>things in a different direction, and you'll let him run

<v Speaker 1>as a heel. What kind of heel would Cody be?

<v Speaker 1>Is he going to be just like this overt heel

<v Speaker 1>who's healing on the fans and or being a chicken shit?

<v Speaker 1>I don't know about that, but just taking it in

<v Speaker 1>a direction, maybe it's even more corporate. It's kind of

<v Speaker 1>hard to believe he could be more corporate than he

<v Speaker 1>already is when he comes out there, but something along

<v Speaker 1>those lines. And let Punk be sort of the anti

<v Speaker 1>authority baby fait, which sounds goofy now because it's a

<v Speaker 1>very different CM Punk than the one we had during

<v Speaker 1>the Summer of Punk in twenty eleven. But let him

<v Speaker 1>take on that mantle and eventually you can kind of

<v Speaker 1>run things back between the two of them. Now. I

<v Speaker 1>say this not to predict a Cody Rhodes title win.

<v Speaker 1>I'm predicting CM Punk is going to retain the WWE Championship,

<v Speaker 1>but that doesn't mean that Cody can't you know, turn

<v Speaker 1>heel when the match is over or in the course

<v Speaker 1>of the match, he tries to take a couple of

<v Speaker 1>short cuts and maybe they don't work, maybe they blow

<v Speaker 1>up in his face. Right, Cody can go heal but

<v Speaker 1>not win the belt. Here, it's kind of like I

<v Speaker 1>want my cake and I want to be able to

<v Speaker 1>eat it too, where I don't want them to just

<v Speaker 1>put the belt back on Cody, but I want them

<v Speaker 1>to do something different with Cody. That's kind of where

<v Speaker 1>I'm at with this. Punk is brand new to Smack

<v Speaker 1>then I think they're going to probably position him as

<v Speaker 1>their top baby face on the brand. But he also

<v Speaker 1>just won the championship a few weeks ago, and I

<v Speaker 1>don't think you want to start playing hot potato with

<v Speaker 1>the WWE title where it's changing hands every few weeks.

<v Speaker 1>I think you need to keep that belt on one

<v Speaker 1>person for a little bit, then you can move it

<v Speaker 1>on to somebody else if you want to. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>saying Punk has to hold it until WrestleMania. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think it changes hands here, So I'm going with Punk,

<v Speaker 1>And maybe the prediction of a Cody heel turn is

<v Speaker 1>more of a hope than a prediction. I understand people

<v Speaker 1>saying that these are not creative minds to be trusted

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to a major heel turn after what

<v Speaker 1>we got with John Cena last year, and you have

<v Speaker 1>absolutely every right to feel that way. I feel the

<v Speaker 1>same way. I'm not going to sit here and tell

<v Speaker 1>you that I have all the faith in the world

<v Speaker 1>that if they turned one of these guys heel, it's

<v Speaker 1>gonna be this amazing thing. Yeah, maybe on night one.

<v Speaker 1>The problem is Week two, Week three, Week four. I

<v Speaker 1>don't trust these people. You're absolutely right if you feel

<v Speaker 1>that way, it doesn't mean they shouldn't try. And then

<v Speaker 1>we have the World Heavyweight Championship on the line. Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns defends the title against Seth Rolins, the former champion.

<v Speaker 1>This is the match that I believe will close out

<v Speaker 1>the weekend. And you got fourteen years of history going

<v Speaker 1>back to the formation of the Shield, right, I think

<v Speaker 1>it's fourteen years, twelve years. I believe since Seth put

<v Speaker 1>the chair in Romans back and broke up the family,

<v Speaker 1>They've had big matches over the years. Roman has not

<v Speaker 1>beaten Seth. Right, they keep pointing that out like in

<v Speaker 1>major matches, because Roman has that one win on Raw

<v Speaker 1>in like twenty eighteen, that they would rather you forgot

<v Speaker 1>the story. He doesn't really fit the narrative because the

<v Speaker 1>story is that Roman has just never been able to

<v Speaker 1>beat Seth. I think that changes next weekend now. Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reign said after he won the Championship of WrestleMania and

<v Speaker 1>they trotted him out there on the post show, he said,

<v Speaker 1>you got me through the summer. I haven't forgotten about that. Technically,

<v Speaker 1>the summer would take us through the end of September.

<v Speaker 1>I assume they're going to do wrestle Palooza again, so

<v Speaker 1>he may stick around until wressel Palooza. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that Roman is going to be around much after that.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they bring him back for war games at Survivor series.

<v Speaker 1>I can't imagine we're going to see a whole lot

<v Speaker 1>of Roman Reigns though on television in September or October,

<v Speaker 1>you know what I mean, Like October. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if we get him at all. Quite frankly, does that

<v Speaker 1>mean they take the title off of him. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think it happens here. I don't think they take the

<v Speaker 1>belt off him. I think they have a longer term

<v Speaker 1>vision that may well be Roman Reigns in Oba Femi

<v Speaker 1>and WrestleMania next year. If you were to ask me

<v Speaker 1>right now put me up the spot. You know who's

<v Speaker 1>my pick to win the Royal Rumble in twenty twenty seven.

<v Speaker 1>On the men's side, it's Obafemi, And so if that's

<v Speaker 1>gonna be the match they do at WrestleMania next year,

<v Speaker 1>it's hard for me to envision them taking the belt

<v Speaker 1>off Roman in between now and then. I think they

<v Speaker 1>would want to keep it on him. I think he

<v Speaker 1>finally gets that big win over Seth Rollins. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know what Rollins goes on to next after this, maybe

<v Speaker 1>something with La Knight. But I don't see Roman Reigns

<v Speaker 1>or Cmpunk either one of them losing their championships at

<v Speaker 1>Summerslim next weekend. But those are my predictions. That's the

<v Speaker 1>card as it currently stands, and so maybe we'll get

<v Speaker 1>another match or two thrown in there this week on TV.

<v Speaker 1>But let me know what you think. Let me know

<v Speaker 1>what you think about the two title matches and everything

<v Speaker 1>else on this show. Where do you think things are

<v Speaker 1>going with the champions? Is Cody going, Heel is Punk going?

<v Speaker 1>Heel is anybody going heel, let me know what you think.

<v Speaker 1>Dark Side of the Ring. This week was devoted to

<v Speaker 1>the famous match between Samoa Joe and Necro Butcher from

<v Speaker 1>IWA Mid South in two thousand and five, A fantasy

<v Speaker 1>matchup for a lot of indie wrestling fans who wanted

<v Speaker 1>to see Joe, who was a brawler but I mean

<v Speaker 1>hardly a death match guy against Necro, who worked a

<v Speaker 1>much more sadistic violence style. In an age now where

<v Speaker 1>we've seen far worse in death matches and Texas death matches,

<v Speaker 1>this felt less like a death match watching and in

<v Speaker 1>more like just a brutal fight between two guys who

<v Speaker 1>happened to be using whatever they could get their hands

<v Speaker 1>on around ringside. This was not about light tubes or

<v Speaker 1>staple guns or anything like that. No light tube was

<v Speaker 1>harmed in the making of this pro wrestling match. It's

<v Speaker 1>a memorable match to those who saw it. I was

<v Speaker 1>not one of those people until many years later watching

<v Speaker 1>it on YouTube or daily Motion or wherever it was

<v Speaker 1>that I saw it for the first time. The match

<v Speaker 1>clocks in at under ten minutes, which had me wondering

<v Speaker 1>when they first announced that this was going to be

<v Speaker 1>one of the topics this season, like how are they

<v Speaker 1>going to get a forty five minute episode out of this?

<v Speaker 1>But what they did was they used it to also

<v Speaker 1>profile Necro Butcher, right, I mean, they gave us a

<v Speaker 1>little bit on Samoa Joe, but we kind of know

<v Speaker 1>who Samoa Joe is, but a lot of people may

<v Speaker 1>not know or remember who Necro Butcher is unless you

<v Speaker 1>were a big fan of his or that style of

<v Speaker 1>wrestling back then. And talked also about some of the

<v Speaker 1>childhood trauma that he suffered that colored a lot of

<v Speaker 1>what we saw from him years later in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>colored it in red. It was a violent match, It

<v Speaker 1>was a bloody match, but there was nothing terribly gory

<v Speaker 1>about this particular match. I thought they did a really

<v Speaker 1>good job with this. I enjoyed this more than I

<v Speaker 1>thought I would. Among the names that they got for

<v Speaker 1>this to be interviewed were the two main characters which

<v Speaker 1>you needed. You needed, Samoa Joe and Necro Butcher. Joe

<v Speaker 1>is fucking great in this, but I mean Joe is

<v Speaker 1>great in everything he's in, even Twisted Metal. From what

<v Speaker 1>you guys tell me. Eddie Kingston was interviewed AW referee

<v Speaker 1>Bryce Remsburg who officiated this match. He was interviewed Madman Pondo,

<v Speaker 1>friend sometimes tag team partner of Necros Dave Praizac, who

<v Speaker 1>did commentary for the match. How's this for a commentary team?

<v Speaker 1>Dave praise Ac did commentary with Eddie Kingston and CM

<v Speaker 1>punk for this match, and they interviewed Rob Naylor, who

<v Speaker 1>is a wrestling historian now and he's a former Dragon

<v Speaker 1>Gate USA announcer. They didn't mention this, but he also

<v Speaker 1>worked as a creative assistant in Florida Championship Wrestling and

<v Speaker 1>then NXT from twenty eleven to twenty thirteen. He worked

<v Speaker 1>very closely with Dusty Road. He was basically Dusty's right

<v Speaker 1>hand man, and I think my favorite Rob Naylor's story

<v Speaker 1>was Dusty had gotten a new dog one day and

<v Speaker 1>he asked Rob to take the dog for a walk.

<v Speaker 1>Dusty had named the dog Ty Black. Well. Dusty was

<v Speaker 1>also a huge fan of Seth Rollins work when he

<v Speaker 1>came into developmental and Set's name and ring of honor

<v Speaker 1>was Tyler Black, so he named his dog Ty Black

<v Speaker 1>as a nod to seth Rawlins. I always get a

<v Speaker 1>kick out of that story. When I first started watching

<v Speaker 1>Ring of Honor in two thousand and six, Joe had

<v Speaker 1>already had that legendary run as Ring of Honor World

<v Speaker 1>Champion for I think it was almost six hundred and

<v Speaker 1>fifty days. It was almost two years. The first main

<v Speaker 1>event I ever saw live was Joe against Brian Danielson

<v Speaker 1>against Kenta at the New Yorker Hotel for the Ring

<v Speaker 1>of Honor World title. The year before that, in that

<v Speaker 1>same venue, Joe had that legendary match with Kenta Kobashi.

<v Speaker 1>Like Joe was the man, he was. That dude Necro

<v Speaker 1>Butcher I was a lot less familiar with until he

<v Speaker 1>started popping up in ROH Like I knew him really

<v Speaker 1>from the feud with Ring of Honor and CZW that

<v Speaker 1>he was part of when they did that whole inter

<v Speaker 1>promotional war between the two companies. Same thing with the

<v Speaker 1>Kings of Wrestling Chris Heiro and Claudio I believe when

<v Speaker 1>I first saw them in Ring of Honor they were

<v Speaker 1>affiliated with CZW as part of that whole feud. But

<v Speaker 1>Necro had no regard whatsoever for his own body, and

<v Speaker 1>he developed a reputation for just taking these horrendous bumps

<v Speaker 1>on the indies and taking just so much punishment. This

<v Speaker 1>guy was wrestling on broken glass and thumbtacks and light

<v Speaker 1>tube broken light tubes, with bare feet. He didn't even

<v Speaker 1>have boots. Like the elevator didn't go up to the

<v Speaker 1>top floor with this guy, if you know what I mean.

<v Speaker 1>Except years ago, who was it? I think it may

<v Speaker 1>have been Jim Cornett mentioned that Necro had like a

<v Speaker 1>genius level IQ. Right. I've heard that about Raven too,

<v Speaker 1>that Raven was like a MENSA member. But apparently Necro

<v Speaker 1>had a very high IQ. He was actually a very

<v Speaker 1>intelligent guy, and in the episode they mentioned that he

<v Speaker 1>was a good student in school, but because of that

<v Speaker 1>he got bullied a lot by the other kids. And

<v Speaker 1>he used to watch wrestling with his father until one

<v Speaker 1>day there was a house fire and his father died

<v Speaker 1>in the fire. He was burned up, according to Necro,

<v Speaker 1>so they had a closed casket at the funeral. I

<v Speaker 1>mean this put the dark in dark side of the ring.

<v Speaker 1>After that, no friends, no father to sit and watch

<v Speaker 1>wrestling with. He was all alone and he had no

<v Speaker 1>one to hang out with. And I think that explains

<v Speaker 1>a lot when it comes to this man's penchant for abuse.

<v Speaker 1>He took a lot of it as a child, right,

<v Speaker 1>he was punched, he was kicked, said, the kids gave

<v Speaker 1>him swirlies in the bathroom. But he had the mentality

<v Speaker 1>of don't sell it, don't sell it, don't let them

<v Speaker 1>know that it hurts me. Don't let them know that

<v Speaker 1>it bothers me. And he learned in wrestling like he

<v Speaker 1>could take all kinds of physical abuse more than most,

<v Speaker 1>and he always had the mindset of you can't hurt me,

<v Speaker 1>nothing you can do can hurt me. Well, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I think Samoa Joe may have proved otherwise in this match.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't mention it here, but Necro actually served in

<v Speaker 1>the army. They wanted him to reach enlist and he

<v Speaker 1>had met some wrestlers during his time in service, and

<v Speaker 1>they gave him some training and he decided, I'd much

<v Speaker 1>rather do this, I'd much rather wrestle than stay in

<v Speaker 1>the army. And so that's what ultimately led him to

<v Speaker 1>making the jump to the ring. How we got to

<v Speaker 1>this how we got to this match was really it

<v Speaker 1>was born out of the message boards online. This was

<v Speaker 1>a match that the fans really willed into existence. And

<v Speaker 1>Rob Naylor talked about posting back then on the old

<v Speaker 1>Roh message boards that he wanted to see Samoa Joe

<v Speaker 1>wrestle Necro Butcher, and he got flamed for it right

<v Speaker 1>because the Ring of Honor fans they thought that it

<v Speaker 1>was beneath Joe, like why would he stoop so low

<v Speaker 1>as to do a match with this garbage wrestler. But

<v Speaker 1>for years, the belief was that the heat between Joe

<v Speaker 1>and Necro was very real and it stemmed from an

<v Speaker 1>incident at a Chakara show. Chakaro was a very family

<v Speaker 1>friendly promotion with a lot of very over the top

<v Speaker 1>silly gimmicks that was run by Mike Quackenbush, one of

<v Speaker 1>the many casualties of the Speaking Out movement six years ago,

<v Speaker 1>after which he shut down Chakara. I don't even know

<v Speaker 1>what he's up to these days, nor do I care.

<v Speaker 1>But Necro and mad Man Pondo, they were brought in

<v Speaker 1>for a match in Chikara in a tag team tournament

<v Speaker 1>against the pair of Ring of Honor students who were

<v Speaker 1>very green. Necro thought the kids were stinking out the joint,

<v Speaker 1>so he took matters into his own hands and he

<v Speaker 1>and Pondo they really started roughing him up. And they

<v Speaker 1>interviewed both students in the episode, and they admitted that

<v Speaker 1>they were both legitimately knocked out at different points during

<v Speaker 1>the match, and the story was that Joe had a

<v Speaker 1>hand in training those kids, and when word got back

<v Speaker 1>to him about what had happened and they were taking

<v Speaker 1>advantage of he was furious. As it turns out, none

<v Speaker 1>of that was true. It's the work of wrestling fiction.

<v Speaker 1>That Joe did cut a promo on Necro after the

<v Speaker 1>incident at a show, calling him up, I think like

<v Speaker 1>a pilled up bully, and he said, Necro, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the Necro butcher is fucking dead. This was after Ian Rotten,

<v Speaker 1>the promoter for iw A Mid South, he was looking

<v Speaker 1>for a big match to book for their show at

<v Speaker 1>the ECW Arena. He had gotten Joe and Neckro to

<v Speaker 1>agreed to wrestle each other. You know, when Joe cut

<v Speaker 1>that promo on Necro, he had never even seen the

<v Speaker 1>Chakhara match. This, this match that supposedly infuriated him, He

<v Speaker 1>had never even seen it. All he knew was what

<v Speaker 1>he was told, which is that Necro had roughed up

<v Speaker 1>a couple of students. Joe had never even trained anybody

<v Speaker 1>a day in his life. He didn't have a hand

<v Speaker 1>in their training. Necro though, he didn't know if the

<v Speaker 1>heat between them was real or not, and he wasn't

<v Speaker 1>very happy about some of the things that Joe said

<v Speaker 1>about him in that promo. And I'm sure you know

<v Speaker 1>Ian Rotten was in his ear telling him things as

<v Speaker 1>promoters do to get him all riled up, you know,

<v Speaker 1>for the match, but he didn't know what to make

<v Speaker 1>of Joe's real feelings about him. He was just happy

<v Speaker 1>to take the booking. But the absolute best part of

<v Speaker 1>the episode was listening to Samoa Joe reveal the real

<v Speaker 1>reason why he took the match. He said his then

<v Speaker 1>girlfriend now wife lived very close to Philadelphia, so he

<v Speaker 1>literally took the booking to get some ass. Amazing. The

<v Speaker 1>two of them had very different reasons for accepting this match. Right.

<v Speaker 1>For Necro, it was to show that he was more

<v Speaker 1>than just a death match guy. Right, it was the

<v Speaker 1>chance to kind of elevate his stock and maybe even

<v Speaker 1>open himself up to getting booked in other places that

<v Speaker 1>might not have otherwise booked him. And for Joe, it

<v Speaker 1>was just another match and a good excuse for him

<v Speaker 1>to get some action with his girl, a totally valid

<v Speaker 1>reason to accept any booking, by the way, So imagine

<v Speaker 1>Joe's surprise when this thing blew up into something bigger

<v Speaker 1>than just another wrestling match. He's talking about the day

<v Speaker 1>he got to the building, coming into the arena, and

<v Speaker 1>just the vibe everybody was like looking at him, they

<v Speaker 1>were all excited, and he's like, hey, guys, Like for him,

<v Speaker 1>it was just another day at the office, just another

<v Speaker 1>fucking match. But everybody was like this was so hyped

<v Speaker 1>up on the internet. It was so like everyone was

<v Speaker 1>so excited to see, what is this match gonna look like?

<v Speaker 1>Joe is gonna kill him, maybe he'll shoot on him.

<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, this is gonna be so great. One

<v Speaker 1>of the things I really liked about the episode is

<v Speaker 1>that and they show the match. As they show the match,

<v Speaker 1>and they kind of take us through the different parts.

<v Speaker 1>In the different spots, we get the perspectives of all

<v Speaker 1>these different people. Joe is sitting in a room by him,

<v Speaker 1>He's sitting on like bleachers in this room, watching the

<v Speaker 1>match projected onto this giant screen or maybe it was

<v Speaker 1>a giant wall. Meanwhile, you got Eddie Kingston who's sitting

<v Speaker 1>He's sitting there geeking out watching the match on a

<v Speaker 1>MacBook like a fourteen inch screen, and what followed was

<v Speaker 1>just a hard hitting, brutal, bloody grudge match. It's not

<v Speaker 1>a death match. It's actually very tame compared to your

<v Speaker 1>typical death match, and most of them Nekro has had

<v Speaker 1>in his career outside outside of all the head bumps

<v Speaker 1>that he took here, those were horrifying. Necro had just

<v Speaker 1>flown back from Japan fifteen hours with a head wound.

<v Speaker 1>He flew home to West Virginia, he got in his truck,

<v Speaker 1>he made the six hour drive or whatever it is,

<v Speaker 1>from West Virginia to Philadelphia to wrestle Joe, and then

<v Speaker 1>the wound opened up during their match, which is where

<v Speaker 1>all the blood came from. They fight into the crowd

<v Speaker 1>early in the match, again not a long match, less

<v Speaker 1>than ten minutes long, but early in the match, they

<v Speaker 1>fight into the crowd and Joe goes to deliver. If

<v Speaker 1>you've ever seen a Samoa Joe match, you see him

<v Speaker 1>do the snap power slam. He did it on the

<v Speaker 1>concrete floor here, but because there were so many drinks

<v Speaker 1>that had been spilled, there was like a wet spot

<v Speaker 1>on the floor as he's executing this power slim. He

<v Speaker 1>slips and he almost executed necro Butcher in the process.

<v Speaker 1>He cracked the floor just hard with his skull, and

<v Speaker 1>he was he was definitely concussed, had to be concussed.

<v Speaker 1>I don't see how he couldn't be concussed, you know.

<v Speaker 1>Bryce Remsburg says, Oh, it's not something you're gonna see

<v Speaker 1>on Monday night Raw. Yeah, well there's a reason for that.

<v Speaker 1>Not that I'm all that enchanted with Raw lately, but

<v Speaker 1>I also like my wrestlers to not crack their skulls

<v Speaker 1>on the concrete. If I have the choice between that

<v Speaker 1>or Raw, I'm gonna watch RAW. I'll take my wrestlers

<v Speaker 1>without brain damage, thank you very much. So then there

<v Speaker 1>was an even sicker spot where Joe executed neck keep saying, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>keep saying he executed Neckro. It felt like maybe he

<v Speaker 1>was trying to execute this man. Now he had him

<v Speaker 1>on the apron and he gave it. It was like

<v Speaker 1>an exploder off the apron to the floor and again

<v Speaker 1>Neckro's head smacked the floor. There's no mats out there.

<v Speaker 1>His head smacked the floor with a sickening thud. He's

<v Speaker 1>like Mick Foley in that regard where you watch him

<v Speaker 1>take these sickening bumps and you watch with amazement as

<v Speaker 1>he just gets right back up to his feet and

<v Speaker 1>he just keeps on going. I mean, I guess the

<v Speaker 1>closest thing today that I could compare it to is

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allen. You know, I would say Folly and Necro

<v Speaker 1>are a lot closer in terms of their look and

<v Speaker 1>their style, but you got Darby compared to them. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>Darby is like a scrawny little teenager with face Painton,

<v Speaker 1>but he takes these insane bumps in a ridiculous amount

<v Speaker 1>of punishment. He just keeps getting back up from it. Somehow.

<v Speaker 1>Necro calls that supplex he took off the apron long

<v Speaker 1>term storytelling. I call it long term brain damage. He

<v Speaker 1>calls it long term storytelling because in the Chakara match

<v Speaker 1>where he roughed up those students, he gave one of

<v Speaker 1>them a very similar suplex off the apron. And so

<v Speaker 1>they just, you know, chalk it up to a happy accident,

<v Speaker 1>because you know, they claim that Joe and Necro they

<v Speaker 1>didn't go over any of these spots beforehand. It's just

<v Speaker 1>a happy accident that it worked out that way. Joe

<v Speaker 1>was at one point dishing out open hand palm strong

<v Speaker 1>and Necro, who is just his face is just dripping blood.

<v Speaker 1>The blood is splattering into the crowd with every palm strike.

<v Speaker 1>And this was the point in the match where Joe

<v Speaker 1>said his girlfriend was there. His girlfriend was in attendance

<v Speaker 1>for the match, the one he took the booking so

<v Speaker 1>that he could smash. She was in the crowd, and

<v Speaker 1>this was the point where she got up and left,

<v Speaker 1>because he says, she almost threw up, and she still

<v Speaker 1>married the guy. She's a keeper. The fact that she

<v Speaker 1>stayed with him after that and didn't run away, I

<v Speaker 1>think is it's a sign that you should be holding

<v Speaker 1>on to her for dear life. So Joe didn't feel

<v Speaker 1>like it would make sense for him to pin Neckro

<v Speaker 1>or make him submit, so he just beat him senseless

<v Speaker 1>until he couldn't respond to the referees ten count. He

<v Speaker 1>tried to get up, he collapsed to the mat. Referee

<v Speaker 1>called the match off, and then when it was over,

<v Speaker 1>Necro was down selling for so long, Joe went over.

<v Speaker 1>He kind of gave him a little kick to the head,

<v Speaker 1>like almost like an Orange Cassidy kick to the head,

<v Speaker 1>and that just kind of woke up Necro and gave

<v Speaker 1>him a reason to fire up, and he knocked Joe

<v Speaker 1>out of the ring. It almost looked like Joe was

<v Speaker 1>running away from him because Necro went out after him.

<v Speaker 1>He had to be held back and Joe left, and

<v Speaker 1>Joe thought it was important that Necro end the night

<v Speaker 1>standing on his own two feet, and that really put

<v Speaker 1>Necro over. Really, the whole match did the way it

<v Speaker 1>was constructed, like he's this tough son of a bitch

<v Speaker 1>who would not quit. Joe really put this guy over

<v Speaker 1>in a major way, even though Necro lost. It's one

<v Speaker 1>of those examples of winning by losing right. Some of

<v Speaker 1>the biggest matches and moments in people's careers were ending

<v Speaker 1>up on the losing end. Steve Austin is the best

<v Speaker 1>example of this that I could think of, against Brett

<v Speaker 1>Hart at WrestleMania. He lost, but he really won that night, right,

<v Speaker 1>That's the match that made him. Or maybe for the

<v Speaker 1>purposes of this match, the better comparison would be Mankind

<v Speaker 1>against the Undertaker inside Hell and his Cell. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>the man took an ungodly beating and he lost. People

<v Speaker 1>still talk about that match to this day, not that

<v Speaker 1>Mick wasn't already like a main event player in that

<v Speaker 1>company beforehand. But it's like pre sell and post sell.

<v Speaker 1>It's like these two different phases of his career, of

<v Speaker 1>his life. And again people are still doing little mini

<v Speaker 1>documentaries all these years later about that Hell and a

<v Speaker 1>Cell match. And like Foley that night, Necro actually came

<v Speaker 1>back out later in the show. Now Mick didn't wrestle,

<v Speaker 1>he did come back out to take more bumps in

<v Speaker 1>the first blood match between Austin and Kin at the

<v Speaker 1>King of the Ring. Necro had another full blown match

<v Speaker 1>to wrestle that night, which is nuts. I loved the

<v Speaker 1>line that Necro used though in the episode he said

<v Speaker 1>Johnny Valentine used to say, I can't make people believe

<v Speaker 1>in wrestling, but I can make them believe in Johnny Valentine,

<v Speaker 1>and that was his mentality. I'm going to make the

<v Speaker 1>people believe in the Necro butcher. Now. They talked about

<v Speaker 1>Necro later on being diagnosed with stage three Hodgkins lymphoma

<v Speaker 1>and he was bedridden for about nine months. The first

<v Speaker 1>three treatments didn't work and they were about to tap out,

<v Speaker 1>but they did the fourth one and the fourth one

<v Speaker 1>took you just never know. So he beat cancer. He

<v Speaker 1>ended up backing the ring and they didn't get into this,

<v Speaker 1>but he did wrestle again. He fractured his hip in

<v Speaker 1>four different places a couple of years ago while wrestling

<v Speaker 1>in Japan, and he was stuck in the hospital there

<v Speaker 1>for weeks and weeks in this tiny hospital where no

<v Speaker 1>one spoke English. Like that's scary. He actually reminds me

<v Speaker 1>of when I hurt my knee in Colombia and my

<v Speaker 1>friends they rushed me to this tiny hospital at like

<v Speaker 1>one in the morning and we get there in the

<v Speaker 1>first person I tried talking to doesn't speak English, and

<v Speaker 1>it's like I'm bleeding all over the floor. Good times.

<v Speaker 1>At least in my case, I found people who did

<v Speaker 1>speak English and they took good care of me. I

<v Speaker 1>can't complain for necro Butcher. I'm sure it was scary,

<v Speaker 1>you know, laying there with a broken hip and not

<v Speaker 1>being able to speak to anybody and communicate with anybody.

<v Speaker 1>So fractured hip. He had a total knee replacement. I

<v Speaker 1>know a few years ago. The man has been through

<v Speaker 1>the ringer. But that's the price you pay, you know,

<v Speaker 1>for doing what he does. You know, what you're signing

<v Speaker 1>up for. You know what you're getting yourself into. This

<v Speaker 1>episode did not have the tragic ending that many of

<v Speaker 1>these have, but I do think you come away with

<v Speaker 1>a better understanding of how somebody like Necro could end

<v Speaker 1>up becoming this like deathmatch icon. Like what drives someone

<v Speaker 1>to want to do that for a living. Their upbringing

<v Speaker 1>has a lot to do with it. It did for Necro,

<v Speaker 1>that much is clear. The bullied as a kid, then

<v Speaker 1>he ended up as a loner when his dad died.

<v Speaker 1>It definitely shaped him. So I enjoyed this one more

<v Speaker 1>than I thought I would, and this is cool. Weiss

<v Speaker 1>commissioned three hundred limited edition VHS copies of this Dark

<v Speaker 1>Side of the Ring episode, and they included the full

<v Speaker 1>match in there as well, fifty copies of which were

<v Speaker 1>signed by some Joe and Necro Butcher, and they sold

<v Speaker 1>out very quickly. They're all gone now, and I don't

<v Speaker 1>think they're making more of them. But if you got

<v Speaker 1>your hands on one, all you need is a VCR

<v Speaker 1>to play it, And if you're young enough to be asking, well,

<v Speaker 1>what the hell is a VCR? Go look it up.

<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna be over here in the corner Crying. I

<v Speaker 1>will be live tonight after aw Redemption for the YouTube review,

<v Speaker 1>so hopefully you will be able to join me there.

<v Speaker 1>Hopefully this show will not be ending too late tonight,

<v Speaker 1>so that'll be tonight on YouTube, and then of course

<v Speaker 1>all the usual streams. This week. I want to close

<v Speaker 1>out the month of July strong, so join me there.

<v Speaker 1>Row post show on Monday night, Dynamite post show coming

<v Speaker 1>out of Redemption on Wednesday, and then the final SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>before SummerSlam on Friday, and then next weekend is Summer Slam,

<v Speaker 1>and the way that the schedule looks is really not

<v Speaker 1>any different than usual, outside of me doing two extra shows,

<v Speaker 1>basically doing three shows next weekend. I'll be live after

<v Speaker 1>Summer Slam Night one. I'll be live after Summer Slam

<v Speaker 1>Night two, and in between you will get the usual

<v Speaker 1>Sunday podcast. That'll be episode nine seventy four. I got

<v Speaker 1>one episode left to go through from this new season

<v Speaker 1>of WWE Unreal, so I didn't talk about it this week.

<v Speaker 1>Once I'm done with the season, I'll just put some

<v Speaker 1>some thoughts down and some notes together, and I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>i'll do something, if not on the sounduff next weekend

<v Speaker 1>then maybe on YouTube as an exclusive. We'll see, but

<v Speaker 1>that is the plan, and again hopefully you guys will

<v Speaker 1>join me for all of it, including Summer Slam next weekend.

<v Speaker 1>So until then, be well, stay safe, harrisill is a

<v Speaker 1>great rest of your week. If you are tuning into

<v Speaker 1>Redemption tonight, enjoy the show. I will see you on

<v Speaker 1>the Flip Side live on YouTube and back here next

<v Speaker 1>Sunday for episode nine seventy four. Until then, take care, guys.

<v Speaker 1>The solemn monster sounds off. Pinn Balor is no more.

<v Speaker 1>How about that finn Balor actually wins a match. I'm

<v Speaker 1>pleasantly surprised. Granted, of course, you know it was against

<v Speaker 1>the MFT. So I said before, you know, pinn Balor

<v Speaker 1>is gone, but I didn't say pinn Balor was gone forever.

<v Speaker 1>He'll be back, pinn Balor. From what I understand, I

<v Speaker 1>got some breaking news here. This isn't even news that

<v Speaker 1>Meltzer had or Sap or anybody else, or Wrestle votes

<v Speaker 1>or Wressel votes or anyone. I hear from my birdies

<v Speaker 1>and my sources. Pin Balad is actually away on vacation.

<v Speaker 1>Irony has gone back to go. You know, visit the family.

<v Speaker 1>He'll be back. Oh believe me, he'll be back, and

<v Speaker 1>it won't be very long before he's back. The Solo

<v Speaker 1>Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad, and

<v Speaker 1>the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus content

<v Speaker 1>for subscribers, and follow The Sola Monster on Facebook, Instagram,

<v Speaker 1>and X The Solo Monster, I love you so long.