<v Speaker 1>Goods. Business time, baby, you are listening to Solo Monster

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I love your mama monster dude, I want

<v Speaker 1>your soulier mind a woman.

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

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

<v Speaker 1>I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chested up.

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

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

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

<v Speaker 1>This is episode nine seventy four of the Solemn Monster

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off at is Sunday, August second, twenty twenty six.

<v Speaker 1>I am the Solo Monster. We are currently in between

<v Speaker 1>both nights of Summer Slim. Night one is in the

<v Speaker 1>books and the full video full recap is up on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube right now. I do have a lot to say though, insummation,

<v Speaker 1>as far as fallout from Night one and something I

<v Speaker 1>didn't get a chance to address last night, and the

<v Speaker 1>review which was Triple H's post show comments. So I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to talk about that dark side of the ring

<v Speaker 1>review on the Big boss Man episode from this past week,

<v Speaker 1>and a bunch of other things. I want to thank

<v Speaker 1>you guys for ninety three thousand subscribers on YouTube, even

<v Speaker 1>though Meltzer is saying it's actually seventy eight thousand, but

<v Speaker 1>thank you for getting me there. Onward and upward man,

<v Speaker 1>now it's ninety four. That's the next goal. You could,

<v Speaker 1>of course find me on their Live tonight for the

<v Speaker 1>night Io post show. Before we get into all the news, though,

<v Speaker 1>I want to say thank you to everybody who dropped

<v Speaker 1>the PayPal don't know this week. You guys are awesome.

<v Speaker 1>You may do so on thesolo monster dot com. You'll

<v Speaker 1>see the link at the very top of the page.

<v Speaker 1>Ten dollars or more. We'll get your nickname in a

<v Speaker 1>shout out like these fine folks. I want to say

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

<v Speaker 1>for your generosity as always. And she mentioned something that

<v Speaker 1>I pointed out on X the other day, which was

<v Speaker 1>that this week the seven year anniversary this past Thursday,

<v Speaker 1>since I was able to get my mother's children's book published.

<v Speaker 1>Believe it or not, it's been seven years since the

<v Speaker 1>Adventure of Hardy the Horse was released. I can't even

<v Speaker 1>believe it's been that long. But if you have a

<v Speaker 1>son or daughter, or maybe a young niece, and nephew

<v Speaker 1>friend's family, maybe they have a young child. They seem

<v Speaker 1>to really enjoy the illustrations. It really makes the story,

<v Speaker 1>pot really brings it to life. It is still available.

<v Speaker 1>You can go to Amazon dot com and you can

<v Speaker 1>pick up your own copy. But I want to thank

<v Speaker 1>everybody who has done so. Sent in a photo to me,

<v Speaker 1>as people have done over the years. That always puts

<v Speaker 1>a smile on my face. Recon Russell Bullwear with the

<v Speaker 1>double Drop. Thank you, Brother Big b Bryant Bessera, the

<v Speaker 1>Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, the Diamond Dallas Dance Machine,

<v Speaker 1>Harrison's Soep Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eicherd.

<v Speaker 1>I saw your tweet before, Brother Big Time, Boris Weinman,

<v Speaker 1>c The Destroyer. Better than Raw Robert Michael Scheck. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I mean it doesn't take a whole lot to be

<v Speaker 1>better than Raw these days. Nightstalker and I f Alsaphar

<v Speaker 1>Kill Shot Keith Hart, James Hollywood Herrera coming back to

<v Speaker 1>your backyard in what is it about a month? Hopefully

<v Speaker 1>I'll see you there. Also shout out to the Texas

<v Speaker 1>time Bomb Jason Lecarter Hey Jason, Thank you, man, and

<v Speaker 1>I got a shout out Dean Dean the Mountain Man

<v Speaker 1>Mowbray of Scenescape Shop on YouTube. It's been a while,

<v Speaker 1>but you've heard me talk about his paintings in the past.

<v Speaker 1>Well he's still at it. In fact, he just started

<v Speaker 1>a new range of silhouette wrestling paintings and the first

<v Speaker 1>several of which are up on his website right now. Man,

<v Speaker 1>you got the Rock, you got Stone Cold Hull, Cogan,

<v Speaker 1>The Undertaker, Macho Man, Brett Hart. They're up for sale.

<v Speaker 1>You can go to the website visit to Deanmobray dot

<v Speaker 1>co dot UK slash Wrestling and that's Dean moowbr Ay

<v Speaker 1>dot co dot UK slash Wrestling, And exclusively for listeners

<v Speaker 1>of this podcast, you can use the code Solemn Monster

<v Speaker 1>at checkout to get twenty percent off and that's good

<v Speaker 1>for paintings and prints on the rest of the site too,

<v Speaker 1>on items that are not already discounted. So again that's

<v Speaker 1>Dean Moobray dot co dot UK slash Wrestling. You know,

<v Speaker 1>as wrestling fans, it's fun to fantasy book because we

<v Speaker 1>all do it, and now there is an app that

<v Speaker 1>allows you to do just that. It's a mobile game

<v Speaker 1>called Eras of Wrestling set in the world with hundreds

<v Speaker 1>of original characters, each with their own lore. You play

<v Speaker 1>as the general manager running your very own wrestling promotion,

<v Speaker 1>and you ca let cards for wrestlers, managers, match types, venues, promos,

<v Speaker 1>all sorts of stuff. Then you use those cards to

<v Speaker 1>run shows, and you can customize things like teams and

<v Speaker 1>title belts and unlocked feuds and merch all while you

<v Speaker 1>build your promotion's history across five different eras of Wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>each with its own unique style. So the game comes

<v Speaker 1>from the studio behind Eighties Mania Wrestling and Modern Mania Wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>The artwork is badass. I mean, it's got a slick

<v Speaker 1>comic book presentation. It plays great in short spurts or

<v Speaker 1>marathon sessions, and the best part is that it's free

<v Speaker 1>with regular updates. If you've never heard of it before,

<v Speaker 1>now you have no excuse not to try it out.

<v Speaker 1>I think you'll enjoy it. Just search Eras of Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>in the App Store or Google Play. That's Eras of

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling and go gm the promotion that you've always dreamed of.

<v Speaker 1>See it gives a whole new meaning to be the booker,

<v Speaker 1>doesn't it. I get to be the booker on the

<v Speaker 1>streams every week. Now you get to do it on

<v Speaker 1>your phone or your tablet, So get to it. This Friday,

<v Speaker 1>House of Glory presents High Intensity twenty twenty six from

<v Speaker 1>the NYC Arena. We are five rows deep and damn

<v Speaker 1>near sold out, but tickets are still available hog Wrestling

<v Speaker 1>dot Net and this is a big one for us.

<v Speaker 1>The first time ever that we are streaming the event

<v Speaker 1>live and free in full on the official House of

<v Speaker 1>Glory YouTube channel. So if you've never had a chance

<v Speaker 1>to sample the show before, there is no better time

<v Speaker 1>than this Friday night. I believe the official handle on

<v Speaker 1>there is Hog Wrestling. You'll be able to tell. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>we're closing in on ninety thousand subscribers there seven pm

<v Speaker 1>Eastern start time. I will be on the call with

<v Speaker 1>JD and among the matches that you will see, Charles

<v Speaker 1>Mason defends his HG World Championship against the Mad King

<v Speaker 1>Eddie Kingston Zillifa two will be in the house. He's

<v Speaker 1>going to be defending his Crown Jewel Championship against the

<v Speaker 1>Amazing Red and I know that's a match that Zilla

<v Speaker 1>has wanted for a very long time, so he gets it.

<v Speaker 1>This Friday, the Hardys will be in the house defending

<v Speaker 1>their Hrog Tag team titles. Shatzi Blackheart puts her Hog

<v Speaker 1>Women's championship on the line against the Queen of Spades SHANEA. Basler.

<v Speaker 1>We got Darren Richardson defending his Cruiserweight title against the

<v Speaker 1>Blackhart Leo Rush, Mitas Black and Jay Line, three times

<v Speaker 1>Hog Tag Team champions. They've had a falling out and man,

<v Speaker 1>it breaks my heart to see it. Now they face

<v Speaker 1>each other one on one. I don't know what's gotten

<v Speaker 1>into Midas this year. He has not been right since

<v Speaker 1>they lost those tag belts to the Hardys. Lions had

<v Speaker 1>enough of his shit. It all comes to a head

<v Speaker 1>this Friday. We got Bang Bang Ricky Sosa debuting for

<v Speaker 1>US in Chicago. Right. We had him back in June.

<v Speaker 1>He was supposed to be at our last New York show,

<v Speaker 1>but he couldn't make it. This Friday, he makes up

<v Speaker 1>for it. He'll be in Action Taken on Casey Navarro,

<v Speaker 1>and we got the annual Matt Travis Memorial Battle Royal

<v Speaker 1>for a championship contract that is on the menu This Friday.

<v Speaker 1>As well. That contract is how Charles Mason won that

<v Speaker 1>title in the first place, and he didn't even win

<v Speaker 1>the Battle Royal. One of his minions did at the

<v Speaker 1>time and offered it to him, and that's how Mike

<v Speaker 1>Santana's reign as champion came to an end. So that

<v Speaker 1>Battle Royal carries some great significance to it. Could be

<v Speaker 1>a contract for any championship. Really believe me when I

<v Speaker 1>tell you though, We have been working very hard to

<v Speaker 1>put together one of our best cards ever and I

<v Speaker 1>think that you're gonna like it more than you will SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>I know I'm going out on a limb saying that,

<v Speaker 1>but I'm pretty sure you will. And this is why

<v Speaker 1>I will not be live for the post show this

<v Speaker 1>Friday on YouTube. I'll be on a different YouTube channel,

<v Speaker 1>but I'll be in Queen's I hope to see you there.

<v Speaker 1>If you cannot make it, YouTube is the next best

<v Speaker 1>place I want to see my Sounduff family represented in

<v Speaker 1>the live chat. We also just announced our next Los

<v Speaker 1>Angeles date, back at the Globe Theater for Fallout on

<v Speaker 1>Friday night, September fourth. Already announced for the show, the

<v Speaker 1>Protos star the reigning aew International Champion. Kyle Fletcher will

<v Speaker 1>be in action. It's been a while. The last time

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher was in an hog ring, it was with Mark

<v Speaker 1>Davis to challenge the Britskoes for the hog Tag team titles.

<v Speaker 1>I was four years ago. This is a very different

<v Speaker 1>Kyle Fletcher than the man we saw that night. Will

<v Speaker 1>he even be the International champion when he gets to

<v Speaker 1>la If not, that's going to be a long flight

<v Speaker 1>back from London. But he'll be there and I'll be

<v Speaker 1>there too. Tickets are on sale right now. Before I

<v Speaker 1>get into Summer Slam. There's some miscellaneous items I have

<v Speaker 1>on the agenda here that I want to talk about. First,

<v Speaker 1>wrestle Mania this year, remember change venues. It was originally

<v Speaker 1>scheduled to take place in New Orleans. TKO got greedy, surprise, surprise.

<v Speaker 1>They saw how much money they made in Las Vegas

<v Speaker 1>last year, so they decided to bring it back. Well,

<v Speaker 1>Triple Mania was already announced for Las Vegas this year,

<v Speaker 1>Triple Mania thirty four. It's going to be a two

<v Speaker 1>night event. Night one in Vegas on Friday night, September eleventh,

<v Speaker 1>Night two on Sunday, September thirteenth, in Mexico City. Originally,

<v Speaker 1>Night one was going to be held at the Luxor

<v Speaker 1>Hotel and Casino. They sold out instantly. Not a lot

<v Speaker 1>of tickets, but they sold out instantly due to the

<v Speaker 1>high demand. They have now moved the show out of

<v Speaker 1>the Luxor, which would have fit maybe fifteen hundred people,

<v Speaker 1>and into the much larger MGM Grand Garden Arena, which

<v Speaker 1>can fit over fifteen thousand for wrestling. Money in the

<v Speaker 1>Bank was held there in twenty twenty two. Aw held

<v Speaker 1>its first ever pay per view Double or Nothing there

<v Speaker 1>in twenty nineteen. People who already bought tickets to Night one,

<v Speaker 1>they will be getting more information in the days to

<v Speaker 1>come about what this means for their seats, but the

<v Speaker 1>date and time remained the same for the show for

<v Speaker 1>a triple Mania. I don't know why they would have

<v Speaker 1>booked the Luxor in the first place. I think they

<v Speaker 1>greatly underestimated the domestic interest in a triple A show.

<v Speaker 1>But it's a great sign for the brand now. The

<v Speaker 1>first week of WWE Radio on SiriusXM is in the

<v Speaker 1>books after they replaced the Pro Wrestling twenty four to

<v Speaker 1>seven channel with all WWE All the time, with some

<v Speaker 1>TNA sprinkled in there. And by the way, this is

<v Speaker 1>as good a place as any to bring this up.

<v Speaker 1>Another example of why LOL TNA will never die. For

<v Speaker 1>those of you who may be living under a rock,

<v Speaker 1>or maybe you don't live in the US, in which

<v Speaker 1>case you may not know. Lebron James recently signed to

<v Speaker 1>play for the Philadelphia seventy six ers. TNA happened to

<v Speaker 1>have a live episode of Impact in Philadelphia on Thursday night,

<v Speaker 1>coming off the best ratings that they have done yet

<v Speaker 1>on AMC. The week before, they did three hundred and

<v Speaker 1>seven thousand viewers on the backs of Matt and Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Hardy in a Righteous deletion match from the Hardy Compound

<v Speaker 1>against the Righteous. So they were riding the little wave

<v Speaker 1>of momentum, so of course they would do something to

<v Speaker 1>try to fuck it all up. They extended an invitation

<v Speaker 1>to Lebron James to attend the show on Thursday and

<v Speaker 1>be the official title holder, the belt holder for the

<v Speaker 1>Nick Nemeth TNA title defense against Jeff Hardy, so he

<v Speaker 1>would present the winner with the championship when the match

<v Speaker 1>was over. It was clearly a pr stunt. Lebron has

<v Speaker 1>never watched a single minute of TNA his entire life.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, if you put a gun to his head,

<v Speaker 1>I doubt he could tell you what it even stands for.

<v Speaker 1>But TNA put out a promotional like a poster. They

<v Speaker 1>put out graphics on social media for it, like they

<v Speaker 1>thought he might actually show up. They put his face

<v Speaker 1>in there, his jersey was in there, and they knew

<v Speaker 1>he was not going to show up, but they did

<v Speaker 1>it anyway because it was a stunt. But it has

<v Speaker 1>to be the title holder for the world title match,

<v Speaker 1>right or that's what he was supposed to be, a

<v Speaker 1>world title match that never aired on the live show.

<v Speaker 1>They were tape television on Thursday as well. One of

<v Speaker 1>the matches they taped to air on a future date

<v Speaker 1>was Nick Nemeth against Jeff Hardy for the TNA World

<v Speaker 1>Heavyweight title. I want to know what they would have

<v Speaker 1>done if Lebron actually accepted their invitation. Would they have

<v Speaker 1>still taped it to air later on or would they

<v Speaker 1>have bumped it up to the live show, Because as

<v Speaker 1>it was, a lot of fans who saw these posts

<v Speaker 1>rightly assumed that the match was airing live on Thursday.

<v Speaker 1>They were very upset when it didn't because they did

<v Speaker 1>a poor job of communicating that to the people. Matt

<v Speaker 1>Hardy tried to defend this on social media. There is

<v Speaker 1>no defense for it. Even the champion himself, Nick Nemeth,

<v Speaker 1>said they could have done a better job of communicating

<v Speaker 1>to people that the match was not actually airing live

<v Speaker 1>on Thursday. Matt may not know this, Matt, Matt Hardy

<v Speaker 1>may not know this, but people screenshoted it. They absolutely

<v Speaker 1>advertised the title match on their website as far back

<v Speaker 1>as July eighth for Thursday, with the words airing live

<v Speaker 1>on AMC Thursday Night Impact. So they misled their audience.

<v Speaker 1>The minute you start putting shit like that out on

<v Speaker 1>social media, it is no longer tongue in cheek, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>but let's be honest. The real reason they did it

<v Speaker 1>was to try to draw viewers away from aw Collision,

<v Speaker 1>because they aired Collision on Thursday this week, to avoid

<v Speaker 1>colliding with SummerSlam. I mean, that's how you would say, right,

<v Speaker 1>they would be colliding with SummerSlam. That's why they did it.

<v Speaker 1>That's why they did it. Not only that they apparently

<v Speaker 1>tagged a Lebron James fan account on Instagram instead of

<v Speaker 1>Lebron's actual account. So Loltna is immortal. So I doubt

<v Speaker 1>you're gonna hear about all that on WWE radio now.

<v Speaker 1>But what you will hear is Tommy Dreamer heaping praise

<v Speaker 1>on that concert slop on Raw last Monday, talking about

<v Speaker 1>how oh it was great because it helped get Joe

<v Speaker 1>Hendry over. Yes, he really said that. Those were the

<v Speaker 1>words that actually left the mouth of Tommy Dreamer. I

<v Speaker 1>can't imagine why wanted him off creative with hot takes

<v Speaker 1>like that. But they had interviews with a bunch of

<v Speaker 1>WWE personalities throughout the week, like Seth Rollins and cmpunk.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's exactly the type of stuff that you

<v Speaker 1>would expect. They even had Triple H on Busted Open,

<v Speaker 1>and they posted the entire twenty minute video to their

<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel. Dave Lagreca and Nick Nemmuth were the ones

<v Speaker 1>who were quote unquote interviewing him. Dave Legreca chimed in

<v Speaker 1>a couple of times with comments, but he didn't ask

<v Speaker 1>a single question the entire interview, outside of Nick Nemmoth

<v Speaker 1>asking about house shows. I don't think there were any questions,

<v Speaker 1>so I'm not sure I could really call it an interview,

<v Speaker 1>that's not even really what it was. It was mostly

<v Speaker 1>a forum for Triple H to just talk about whatever

<v Speaker 1>he felt like, which included him talking about how he

<v Speaker 1>wishes the fans who criticize would put all of that

<v Speaker 1>passion into the talent and not the writing. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think the criticism isn't getting to him. You gotta watch

<v Speaker 1>this interview, but listen to this. This is what he

<v Speaker 1>had to say. That passion is what drives people. It's

<v Speaker 1>no different than the NFL, where guys that have never

<v Speaker 1>played a down of football in their life or haven't

<v Speaker 1>played since peewee or whatever are screaming and ranting. This

<v Speaker 1>coach sucks. He knows nothing about football, doesn't understand the game.

<v Speaker 1>Why would he run that play? Why wouldn't he do this?

<v Speaker 1>Why wouldn't he do that? Why would they draft that guy?

<v Speaker 1>There's millions of reasons why. But it's that passion. Just

<v Speaker 1>like the NFL or the NBA or Major League Baseball,

<v Speaker 1>people sit on the couch and they yell, I'm done,

<v Speaker 1>I'm never watching the Knicks again. They suck and then

<v Speaker 1>they win and now they're the greatest thing ever. It's amazing.

<v Speaker 1>It's passion. At the end of the day, it's why

<v Speaker 1>we do what we do. I was waiting for it.

<v Speaker 1>I was waiting for the reference. It's why we do

<v Speaker 1>what we do. That's his favorite go to quote. It's

<v Speaker 1>what we do, he says. I wish sometimes we could

<v Speaker 1>put that passion into the talent now opposed to when

<v Speaker 1>somebody gets heat in our business, it's like, God, why

<v Speaker 1>would they write that that way? As opposed to that

<v Speaker 1>no good piece of crap did this. There's something about

<v Speaker 1>that innocence of not knowing and it's still real to me,

<v Speaker 1>damn it. First off, him throwing out all of these

<v Speaker 1>sports analogies is really lame because at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the day, it's a television show. It's not a sport.

<v Speaker 1>It's a TV show with writers and predetermined outcomes. And

<v Speaker 1>I always praise the roster, like you can have the

<v Speaker 1>greatest roster ever assembled. But if the writing is terrible

<v Speaker 1>and the creative is bad, it don't matter. It doesn't matter.

<v Speaker 1>Stop pretending you're like the NFL or the NBA or

<v Speaker 1>Major League Baseball. You're not. If you really were like

<v Speaker 1>those leagues, there would be a union and a collective

<v Speaker 1>bargaining agreement. But we don't need to get into that.

<v Speaker 1>But if you are of the belief that kfab needs

<v Speaker 1>to make comeback, which it's not, okay, it can never

<v Speaker 1>come back the way that it used to be. The

<v Speaker 1>toothpaste is out of the tube already, okay, and they

<v Speaker 1>did a lot to make that happen, quite frankly, But

<v Speaker 1>if that's how you feel, that's reasonable. Like he's not

<v Speaker 1>wrong in that regard. But for him, of all people,

<v Speaker 1>to sit there and say something like that and in

<v Speaker 1>the very next breath he'll be promoting the next season

<v Speaker 1>of fucking Unreal on Netflix, it shows how disconnected he

<v Speaker 1>is to reality. Oh I wish the fans would believe more.

<v Speaker 1>I wish we could get back to that a little bit.

<v Speaker 1>But let's throw it in people's face every week, how

<v Speaker 1>fake the entire show is. Let's get my name on

<v Speaker 1>screen in the credits at the very end of every

<v Speaker 1>show so they know who produces it. Let's bring fans

<v Speaker 1>into the gorilla position with all the wrestlers congratulating each

<v Speaker 1>other for their performance. Let's take cameras into the writer's

<v Speaker 1>room and remind people why the shows are so fucking terrible.

<v Speaker 1>In the first place. You know, they posted the full

<v Speaker 1>segment from Monday of that god awful Joe Hendry concert

<v Speaker 1>with Dan Housen. They have since scrubbed it from their

<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel. The best you could find now is a

<v Speaker 1>clip from the end where they had some ZUFA boxer

<v Speaker 1>Ryan Garcia get in the ring and hit Henry in

<v Speaker 1>the back with the guitar and then he posed with

<v Speaker 1>the judgment day. I had no idea who he was,

<v Speaker 1>but everyone was in an uproar on social media over

<v Speaker 1>comments that he has made in the past and they're bad, Like,

<v Speaker 1>I can't believe they would put a piece of shit

<v Speaker 1>like this on their show. Bad. But even before I

<v Speaker 1>knew about any of that stuff, I was just offended

<v Speaker 1>that he was involved in this segment at all. Now.

<v Speaker 1>Wressel Votes Radio on Fight Full Select reported on Thursday

<v Speaker 1>that Monday's raw at the ind of It Dome in

<v Speaker 1>Los Angeles carried additional importance as several Netflix executives were

<v Speaker 1>said to be in attendance. One source reportedly described the

<v Speaker 1>opening segment featuring Paul Hayman, Oba Femi, and Brock Lesner

<v Speaker 1>as not a good look, citing the microphone issues that

<v Speaker 1>Haymon dealt with and the botched Fall from Grace spot.

<v Speaker 1>So yeah, when Oba was beating up the fake cops,

<v Speaker 1>there was a little uh. There was a little stumble

<v Speaker 1>when he tried to pick the guy up for the

<v Speaker 1>Fall from Grace. I it wasn't that big of a deal,

<v Speaker 1>but it was noticeable anyway, The report says. It was

<v Speaker 1>also noted that the Dan Hausen and Joe Hendry segment

<v Speaker 1>missed the mark, with Ryan Garcia's appearance being considered underwhelming

<v Speaker 1>and unnecessary given the controversy surrounding the boxer. This makes

<v Speaker 1>it so much worse the fact that they had Netflix

<v Speaker 1>executives in attendance and they were trying to put their

<v Speaker 1>best foot forward and they actually greenlit that segment. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>if that isn't an indictment of the creative brain trust

<v Speaker 1>in this company, I don't know what is. People also

<v Speaker 1>wanted my thoughts on the Grayson Waller work shoot promo

<v Speaker 1>from NXT on Tuesday Night. Now, we haven't seen Waller

<v Speaker 1>on TV prior to this, since he was squashed by

<v Speaker 1>Obafemi back in April. They had him hanging around New

<v Speaker 1>Day for months and months. Once the New Day split

<v Speaker 1>that left Waller without any direction. But I mean, let's

<v Speaker 1>be real here, he hasn't had a direction since Austin

<v Speaker 1>Theory got hurt and disappeared for all those months, but

<v Speaker 1>then he reappeared as part of the vision Austin Theory

<v Speaker 1>did when I actually thought that Grayson Waller would have

<v Speaker 1>made more sense for the vision. But we never did

<v Speaker 1>get a match between the two of them, even though

<v Speaker 1>they tagged for I mean literally they tagged for years

<v Speaker 1>and it had become a running joke. It was a punchline,

<v Speaker 1>like the constant teases of a split between the two

<v Speaker 1>of them, and then they would pull back, and then

<v Speaker 1>they would tease it and then they would pull back.

<v Speaker 1>That's when they actually were given television time, which was

<v Speaker 1>very rare. And then Theory got hurt and Waller was

<v Speaker 1>talking shit about him on TV or He's soft. But

<v Speaker 1>that was it. That was the end of it. So

<v Speaker 1>in a last ditch effort to save this man's career,

<v Speaker 1>Sean Michaels put a microphone in his hand and had

<v Speaker 1>him walk out there unannounced to cut a worked shoot promo.

<v Speaker 1>There were people in the chat. I was doing TNT

<v Speaker 1>Live with JD on his channel and people in the

<v Speaker 1>chat were just, Oh, my god, the grace grace of

<v Speaker 1>Waller pipe bine. You gotta see this promo. You gotta

<v Speaker 1>see this pro over and over and over again. This

<v Speaker 1>is the promo, right. He said that it was time

<v Speaker 1>he started rattling some cages. He made his main roster

<v Speaker 1>debut at Madison Square Garden, and then he broke his leg,

<v Speaker 1>but he fought his way back. He went to WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>he won the SmackDown tag team titles. But then something changed,

<v Speaker 1>and it wasn't his work ethic, it wasn't his talent.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe he didn't politic or kiss the right ass, but

<v Speaker 1>the last couple of years of his career have been

<v Speaker 1>in absolute embarrassment, and he's mad enough to admit it.

<v Speaker 1>Says he spent a year carrying two hundred and forty

<v Speaker 1>pounds of idiot on my back, making him relevant again,

<v Speaker 1>so much so that these people actually chanted his name

<v Speaker 1>never before, never since. But I don't care how many

<v Speaker 1>bells and whistles you give him. At the end of

<v Speaker 1>the day, that Marty Janetti is still allergic to the microphone.

<v Speaker 1>So let me stop there without naming him. He buried

<v Speaker 1>Austin Theory by calling him the Marty Janetti of the team.

<v Speaker 1>This made no sense because Theory is the one on

<v Speaker 1>television every week and one half of the Tag Team Champions,

<v Speaker 1>while Waller needed a workshoot promo to try to revive

<v Speaker 1>his career because the company he works for has no

<v Speaker 1>idea what to do with him, which seems there's a

<v Speaker 1>lot of that going around lately. But how does that

<v Speaker 1>make Theory the Janetti of their team? If anything, that

<v Speaker 1>makes Waller the Janetti of the team. If he wanted

<v Speaker 1>to argue that he's the more talented of the two,

<v Speaker 1>then just say so instead of using this dated reference

<v Speaker 1>that doesn't even really make sense here in this context,

<v Speaker 1>like the talent gap between Sean and Marty was not

<v Speaker 1>nearly as big as some people make it out to be.

<v Speaker 1>The reason Marty Jeanetti did not find more success as

<v Speaker 1>a single has more to do with his own fuck

<v Speaker 1>ups than anything else. You find it funny, though, that

<v Speaker 1>it was Sean Michaels who thought it was who thought

<v Speaker 1>a Marty Janetti reference would be good in this promo

<v Speaker 1>here in the twenty twenty six, But he goes on

<v Speaker 1>he said that it was ironic that he was dressed

<v Speaker 1>for a funeral, referring to all those segments with New

<v Speaker 1>Day after they lost the tag team titles where they

<v Speaker 1>dressed up like they were in mourning. But the only

<v Speaker 1>thing dying was my career. But it's a new day,

<v Speaker 1>he said. He can cash a check and sit and

<v Speaker 1>catering instead. He got himself in the best shape of

<v Speaker 1>his career. He's had demons though. One of those demons

<v Speaker 1>is the NXT Championship. He said that title used to

<v Speaker 1>mean something. He said, when you win the title, you

<v Speaker 1>get treated like a god. He said he didn't, so

<v Speaker 1>he gets treated like a Netflix ad break comedy act.

<v Speaker 1>And he said that he's going to change that by

<v Speaker 1>coming after the NXT Championship. He said, Cruz Montana, which

<v Speaker 1>is Mike Santana's real name or not his real name,

<v Speaker 1>is new name. Actually, some people might believe that Mike

<v Speaker 1>Santana is his real names. It is not, but he

<v Speaker 1>said Cruz Montana will. It'll be a shiny new toy

<v Speaker 1>that people won't care about in a few weeks. He said,

<v Speaker 1>it's not two thousand and five. Because being the best

<v Speaker 1>man in TNA is like being the best talent in

<v Speaker 1>a local YMCA. You know, I wonder if TNA lets

<v Speaker 1>him go in raw when they bend over for him,

<v Speaker 1>or if they at least insist on lubing up first.

<v Speaker 1>We know who the dominant one is in that relationship.

<v Speaker 1>Waller said that Tony DiAngelo only won the championship because

<v Speaker 1>no one was left. Said, the NXT men's roster is soft.

<v Speaker 1>You're lazy, you're complacent, you're happy to be here. The

<v Speaker 1>women of NXT are running laps around you. Yet ninety

<v Speaker 1>percent of you think that you should get called up tomorrow.

<v Speaker 1>But here's the secret, ladies and gentlemen. I look at

<v Speaker 1>that roster, maybe ten percent is ready. They're all women,

<v Speaker 1>and the fans in the PC each yeared because they

<v Speaker 1>know it's true. He called all the indie guys in

<v Speaker 1>the Evolved brand Charisma vacuum. He said, HBK is smiling

<v Speaker 1>back at Gorilla because he's finally telling the truth. And

<v Speaker 1>then finally they cut his mic. What they wanted was

<v Speaker 1>a viral moment with this promo, so they got what

<v Speaker 1>they wanted out of it. Social media was a blaze

<v Speaker 1>about this Grason Waller promo. People have been overrating this

<v Speaker 1>all week. Waller did a good job delivering it. It

<v Speaker 1>was a lot to memorize. There was a lot to

<v Speaker 1>unpack there, and there were parts of it that I liked.

<v Speaker 1>You know, as far as him being in Netflix ad break,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's true, that's basically how they were treating him.

<v Speaker 1>But he also, again, this promo wasn't some profound thing

<v Speaker 1>like people were making it out to be. When you know,

<v Speaker 1>the show was over on Tuesday, and he buried everybody

<v Speaker 1>there is being shit. He buried TNA as being shit,

<v Speaker 1>and he buried Evolve, all the Evolved guys for not

<v Speaker 1>being able to cut a promo he was being too meta. Yeah, Like,

<v Speaker 1>it's funny we get this promo in the same week

<v Speaker 1>that Triple H is unbusted open wishing the fans could

<v Speaker 1>just believe in KFA Again, why would I give a

<v Speaker 1>shit about someone's ability on the microphone? Like, just as

<v Speaker 1>a fan watching the show, I'm just watching the show

<v Speaker 1>and I'm watching things play out and I'm looking for action,

<v Speaker 1>Like I'm not looking I'm not watching the show going. Boy,

<v Speaker 1>you know, I can't wait to see like the best

<v Speaker 1>ones on the microphone. I mean, obviously you have guys

<v Speaker 1>that are great on the microphone, and they could be

<v Speaker 1>very entertaining. I don't think somebody goes into a pro

<v Speaker 1>wrestling show though, like that's that's not the criteria by

<v Speaker 1>which they're judging the entire show. Let's see who has

<v Speaker 1>the best mic skills here on the show, he focused

<v Speaker 1>a lot on promo ability. This guy can't cut a promo.

<v Speaker 1>That guy can't cut a promo. This guy's a charisma vacuum.

<v Speaker 1>This isn't fucking LFG, dude, Like he's saying this on

<v Speaker 1>a show where people wrestle to settle their beats and

<v Speaker 1>win championships. They do it in the wrestling ring. They

<v Speaker 1>do it in wrestling matches, not promo contests. The promo itself,

<v Speaker 1>substance wise, really wasn't anything special. The reason this promo

<v Speaker 1>was important for Grayson Waller was because this was his

<v Speaker 1>Hail Mary. Now, there was a movie that came out

<v Speaker 1>earlier this year, Project Hail Mary. That's what this was

<v Speaker 1>for Grayson Waller. This was his Project Hail Mary. Because

<v Speaker 1>they have nothing for this guy. He was on the

<v Speaker 1>fast track to ninety days at home until he would

<v Speaker 1>be able to sign somewhere else. Maybe this promo helped

<v Speaker 1>save his career. That'll be up to Sean Michaels. I

<v Speaker 1>guess if they plan to use him down there from

<v Speaker 1>now on. But if he's making main roster money, they're

<v Speaker 1>not going to want him working developmental for very long.

<v Speaker 1>And if he gets brought back to Raw SmackDown, he's

<v Speaker 1>just going to be right back where he was before,

<v Speaker 1>unless he can show something in NXT to really open

<v Speaker 1>their eyes. And that's me being a cautious optimist, okay,

<v Speaker 1>because how many people were getting pushed and doing reasonably

<v Speaker 1>well in NXT and then they get called up to

<v Speaker 1>the main roster and it's like they forget the whole

<v Speaker 1>reason they called him up in the first place. So

<v Speaker 1>who's to say that doesn't happen to this guy even

<v Speaker 1>if he does win the NXT Championship at some point.

<v Speaker 1>But maybe maybe he can open up their eyes working

<v Speaker 1>down there. Maybe this promo is a start to doing

<v Speaker 1>just that. I hope for his sake it is. That's

<v Speaker 1>why that promo was such a big deal. It's not

<v Speaker 1>the promo of the year or anything like that, but

<v Speaker 1>it could be the promo that helps save that man's job.

<v Speaker 1>SummerSlam Night one was a good show that could have

<v Speaker 1>been great. I would go six out of ten or

<v Speaker 1>so maybe six and a half, and Night one was

<v Speaker 1>the stronger of the two on paper. Coming into this

<v Speaker 1>weekend tonight, it comes down really to Roman and Seth

<v Speaker 1>and Penta and Chad Gable. I need them to go

<v Speaker 1>out there and over deliver. That women's ladder match tonight

<v Speaker 1>is either going to be great or it's going to

<v Speaker 1>be a disaster. I just feel like there's no in between.

<v Speaker 1>Last night, though, they closed the show not with the

<v Speaker 1>WWE Championship match, which clearly irked CM Punk when he

<v Speaker 1>was asked about it on the post show, but he's

<v Speaker 1>a competitive guy. But they ended with hell to Sell

<v Speaker 1>and apparently this is something that brock Lesner himself pitched for.

<v Speaker 1>It was brock Lesner against Oba Femi and last year

<v Speaker 1>John Cena said that he did the job to Brock

<v Speaker 1>to get him heat it up before he ultimately rides

<v Speaker 1>off into the sunset in Minnesota. That's what he said.

<v Speaker 1>He knew something. He was referring to SummerSlam which was

<v Speaker 1>in Minneapolis, and watching that match and Brock putting him

<v Speaker 1>over and then giving him the big endorsement when the

<v Speaker 1>match was over, calling himself the past and calling Oba

<v Speaker 1>the future. It felt like in appropriate time for him

<v Speaker 1>to walk away, but WrestleMania felt like an appropriate time

<v Speaker 1>for him to walk away after he lost to Oba

<v Speaker 1>the first time and he came back anyway to do

<v Speaker 1>it two more times. Now, was that really necessary? No,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't, but it was likely Brock's idea to blow

<v Speaker 1>it off inside Helen his cell. Helena Cell is the

<v Speaker 1>perfect match to blow off big feuds if you make

<v Speaker 1>use of the cell. And of course you have to

<v Speaker 1>have the right feud to just put something in hell

<v Speaker 1>and a cell when it doesn't really feel like it's

<v Speaker 1>worthy of the cell, that sucks, But you also want

<v Speaker 1>to make sure you make use of the structure, right.

<v Speaker 1>They call it the devil's playground for a reason. We

<v Speaker 1>saw that with See I'm Punk and Drew McIntyre. And

<v Speaker 1>not every match is going to look like that. It's

<v Speaker 1>not going to be that bloody and violent, violent by

<v Speaker 1>WWE standards, but that's the way that you use the

<v Speaker 1>cell to blow off a big feud. Having now seen

<v Speaker 1>the match last night, it did not need the cell.

<v Speaker 1>Now I know why they did it. They were lagged. Well,

<v Speaker 1>they did it for a few reasons. First of all,

<v Speaker 1>they were lagging in ticket sales. They had tickets to

<v Speaker 1>sell to what Michael Cole last night referred to as

<v Speaker 1>a capacity crowd. It was not a capacity crowd unless

<v Speaker 1>they have changed the definition of a capacity crowd. It

<v Speaker 1>was not a capacity crowd, but they had tickets to sell,

<v Speaker 1>and being able to advertise a Hell and a Cell

<v Speaker 1>match is going to potentially sell more tickets. And also

<v Speaker 1>Brock wanted to pay it forward to Oba the way

<v Speaker 1>that Undertaker did for him in his rookie year back

<v Speaker 1>in two thousand and two, and then did it again

<v Speaker 1>in twenty fifteen, which is why Brock did the spot

<v Speaker 1>last night where he ripped up the canvas to expose

<v Speaker 1>the wooden boards underneath. He did that exact same spot

<v Speaker 1>in his second Helena Cell match with the Undertaker that

<v Speaker 1>they had back in twenty fifteen, only it was Brock

<v Speaker 1>taking a tombstone onto the exposed boards, except, as I recall,

<v Speaker 1>he didn't actually land on the boards. They said he did,

<v Speaker 1>but you know that's not really how it worked. And

<v Speaker 1>like Oba last night, Brock kicked out. Rock kicked out

<v Speaker 1>in that match, and he went on to win the match.

<v Speaker 1>And he was undefeated two and zero coming into last

<v Speaker 1>night against the Undertaker inside helen is Cell against anybody,

<v Speaker 1>because he only had two cell matches in his life

<v Speaker 1>before last night. So in their eyes, it's a feather

<v Speaker 1>in Oba's cap to be able to say that he's

<v Speaker 1>the only man to ever beat the unbeaten beast inside

<v Speaker 1>Helena Cell. And that sounds nice at all. But I

<v Speaker 1>don't really give a shit about these accolades so much

<v Speaker 1>as I want to see them go out there and

<v Speaker 1>have a really great match, a really great, memorable Helen

<v Speaker 1>of Cell match. Unfortunately, we did not get that last night.

<v Speaker 1>What we got was an eleven minute plunder match for

<v Speaker 1>our main event, which just happened to have a giant

<v Speaker 1>cage around it. The opening match would Live Morgan an

<v Speaker 1>Eosky went longer than the Helena Cell match did to

<v Speaker 1>close the show. It took longer to lower the cage

<v Speaker 1>and get both men down to the ring than it

<v Speaker 1>did for them to actually fight inside the cell. But

<v Speaker 1>the worst part was that, because again you can always

<v Speaker 1>have a great eleven minute match, the worst part was

<v Speaker 1>that it was just getting good. It felt like it

<v Speaker 1>was just about to shift. That of first gear when

<v Speaker 1>all of a sudden it ended. It's like if you

<v Speaker 1>ride roller coasters, right, it'd be like slowly ascending to

<v Speaker 1>the top of the roller coaster, which like the scariest part,

<v Speaker 1>but like you're slowly climbing right to the top of

<v Speaker 1>the coaster and just before the big drop they turn

<v Speaker 1>it off and they tell you can climb down. Now

<v Speaker 1>take the stairs back to the ground. So, unfortunately, this

<v Speaker 1>was not one of the better cell matches. You know, now,

<v Speaker 1>maybe Brock just doesn't have it in him anymore to

<v Speaker 1>go beyond what we saw last night. Because since he

<v Speaker 1>came back last year, out of all the matches that

<v Speaker 1>he's had, and I'm not counting the Rumble, and I'm

<v Speaker 1>not counting you know war games where you had like

<v Speaker 1>eight other people, ten other people, whatever it was, I'm

<v Speaker 1>talking singles matches since he came back last year, last

<v Speaker 1>night was the longest and it still only went eleven minutes,

<v Speaker 1>and that was the main event of the show, which

<v Speaker 1>none of those other singles matches were. That may be

<v Speaker 1>all he has left to give, in which case I'm

<v Speaker 1>fine never seeing him in the ring again. He did

<v Speaker 1>what he needed to do. He put over the next

<v Speaker 1>big thing. Now he can ride off into the sunset,

<v Speaker 1>just like John Cena said, I don't believe he will.

<v Speaker 1>I don't believe that that was brock Lesner's last match,

<v Speaker 1>but it should be. I thought the perfect ending was WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>but let last night be it. But in the end,

<v Speaker 1>the most important part of all of this, even though

<v Speaker 1>the match itself was disappointing, they put the new guy

<v Speaker 1>over in a big way. That's the positive takeaway from this.

<v Speaker 1>It was very clear from day one, because of his

<v Speaker 1>size and his look, that they were strapping the rocket

<v Speaker 1>to Obafemi. I wish I could say the same for

<v Speaker 1>some of the other young stars on the roster, and

<v Speaker 1>this became a topic of conversation after the show. When

<v Speaker 1>Triple H sat down for the post show scrum, I

<v Speaker 1>can't even remember the last one that he did. He

<v Speaker 1>was asked about a comment made recently by Damian Priest,

<v Speaker 1>which was on SmackDown. I believe it was written into

<v Speaker 1>the television show, so the whole thing came off. Here

<v Speaker 1>is k Fabe, Although obviously his response, you know what

<v Speaker 1>he said here was more than just Kfabe, but it

<v Speaker 1>kind of it was just weird because I know Priests

<v Speaker 1>made that on Smackedann and we supposed to believe that

<v Speaker 1>he went in there and he kind of worked the

<v Speaker 1>shoot comment in there, or were they just playing off

<v Speaker 1>real emotions. I'm sure they're playing off some very real

<v Speaker 1>emotions that people do have in the back. But it

<v Speaker 1>was when Priests said that he was sick and tired

<v Speaker 1>of seeing the same faces on top, you know, on

<v Speaker 1>the top of the card. So Triple H was asked

<v Speaker 1>about this. I'm going to read you his entire response

<v Speaker 1>here and then I will retort. He said, Look, I

<v Speaker 1>get that if you're the guy that wants to take

<v Speaker 1>the spot, it's frustrating when there's guys above you that

<v Speaker 1>have the spot. We're in a period of time where

<v Speaker 1>there's a lot of top performers in top spots that

<v Speaker 1>over time have earned those spots and are selling tickets

<v Speaker 1>and are incredibly popular. So you really have to do something.

<v Speaker 1>The narrative of it's my turn, I've been here for

<v Speaker 1>a while. There are no turns. That's not how it works.

<v Speaker 1>You earn the spot. Believe me, if somebody is getting

<v Speaker 1>over more than somebody else, we move that person into

<v Speaker 1>the spot and move the other person down. Okay, sure,

<v Speaker 1>move the other person down, he says. But it's not

<v Speaker 1>just that. It's not just that they're getting the loud

<v Speaker 1>crowd reaction. Are they going to be good in the spot?

<v Speaker 1>Are they going to hold up there into the bargain?

<v Speaker 1>Are they going to screw up if we give it

<v Speaker 1>to them. Are they going to make a mistake that

<v Speaker 1>we regret. There's all those things factored in. And I

<v Speaker 1>love the fact that sometimes talents are like, well it's frustrating.

<v Speaker 1>Great that means work harder, get yourself there, figure it out,

<v Speaker 1>figure out the way, figure out how to get it done.

<v Speaker 1>I've seen a million talents succeed because of what they do,

<v Speaker 1>not because of storyline or creative They gave them the spot.

<v Speaker 1>Ninety nine percent of the time in this business, the

<v Speaker 1>person gets over and then gets the push. That's how

<v Speaker 1>it works, That's how it's supposed to work. Do you go,

<v Speaker 1>do you and then we follow it, because otherwise most

<v Speaker 1>of the time they will choke on it. If it's

<v Speaker 1>not what the fans believe in, big believer in. If

<v Speaker 1>you want the spot, go take it. Whenever anybody says,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know why I'm not in that spot, well,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, are you more over than Cody Roman,

<v Speaker 1>Punk Live EO. The people that are in that spot,

<v Speaker 1>get there, make those crowd reactions. Whatever you need to

<v Speaker 1>make it happen. That's what we're here to do. I

<v Speaker 1>love that mentality because I think it makes people work harder,

<v Speaker 1>and if they're not willing to work to get the spot,

<v Speaker 1>then you shouldn't have it anyway. Boy, I'm sure that

<v Speaker 1>those comments are going to go over like a fucking

<v Speaker 1>lead balloon in the back there. So yes, of course

<v Speaker 1>you need to find a way to get over and

<v Speaker 1>get the crowd invested in what you're doing. That goes

<v Speaker 1>without saying right. It can't just all be on the company.

<v Speaker 1>It's not like, hey, I can only bowl if there's

<v Speaker 1>bumpers on the side. I can't ride a bike unless

<v Speaker 1>I have training wheels. Right, you have to be able

<v Speaker 1>to do it on your own. I don't think anybody

<v Speaker 1>is denying that. I don't think there's any person who

<v Speaker 1>works in that locker room who has made it as

<v Speaker 1>far as they have to even be in w There

<v Speaker 1>is not a single person, I am sure, in that

<v Speaker 1>locker room who is so lazy to think, oh, well,

<v Speaker 1>I've made it. I'm here, I'm on TV. I don't

<v Speaker 1>have to do anything. I just want Creative to just

<v Speaker 1>sort of get me to where I need to be,

<v Speaker 1>especially in this day and age. If you're relying on

<v Speaker 1>Creative to get you to where you need to be,

<v Speaker 1>you're a fucking idiot. But I don't think there's anybody

<v Speaker 1>in the back who honestly feels that way, And I

<v Speaker 1>think they would be insulted frankly listening to him say

<v Speaker 1>it in that way. Whenever he opens his mouth and

<v Speaker 1>he talks about this stuff, it is just so disingenuous

<v Speaker 1>to think that he doesn't have anything to do with it,

<v Speaker 1>Like he's shifting it from Creative to them and saying, hey,

<v Speaker 1>it's on you, get over right. It can't be all

<v Speaker 1>on them. It's not the nature of what they do

<v Speaker 1>in this day and age. It's a fucking television show,

<v Speaker 1>and it's structured in that way, and they have an

<v Speaker 1>entire writing team and they have to pick and choose

<v Speaker 1>the people that they want you get over right, They'll

<v Speaker 1>do their part, But to insinuate that it's mostly just

<v Speaker 1>on them, you know, and Creative is just sort of

<v Speaker 1>in the background to guide them a little bit here

<v Speaker 1>and there, right because you listen to what he is saying,

<v Speaker 1>and that's how it comes off. Again. It is just

<v Speaker 1>so disingenuous because if you don't have the support of

<v Speaker 1>the office, or you don't have the support of the

<v Speaker 1>creative team, it doesn't matter how loud the crowds may be,

<v Speaker 1>you're dead in the water. Look at La Night over

<v Speaker 1>the past three years. Oba. I'm not saying Oba doesn't

<v Speaker 1>put in the work. I mean that dude is a beast,

<v Speaker 1>But you can't tell me that they did not have

<v Speaker 1>him pegged for the top spot before he even wrestled

<v Speaker 1>Cody on that Saturday Night's main event last year, before

<v Speaker 1>he even debuted officially on the main roster, they had

<v Speaker 1>stars in their eyes. They had found their next big superstar.

<v Speaker 1>It's a lot more than just oh great, go work harder.

<v Speaker 1>Then they absolutely have their favorites, and they absolutely have

<v Speaker 1>people who they don't like as much, and no matter

<v Speaker 1>what they do, they're just never gonna make it to

<v Speaker 1>a top spot. And then you have people, frankly who

<v Speaker 1>they're just not good enough to be in a top

<v Speaker 1>spot relative to the other talent they have. There is

<v Speaker 1>that too, and that's a hard thing for some fans

<v Speaker 1>to accept that there are favorites of there, there are

<v Speaker 1>people they like. There are nice guys and nice girls

<v Speaker 1>on the roster who maybe just aren't main event level

<v Speaker 1>material right there. I'm not naming names here, but I'm

<v Speaker 1>just saying that happens as well. Not everybody can be

<v Speaker 1>in a main event spot. There are only so many

<v Speaker 1>spots in the main event. That is true. But to

<v Speaker 1>hear him talk about it, it's like, well, if you're

<v Speaker 1>not over, well that's all on you. There are people

<v Speaker 1>on that roster who aren't over right now because they

<v Speaker 1>are given shit creative, or they're getting time cut from

<v Speaker 1>their matches, or they're not getting consistent television time at all.

<v Speaker 1>You can't get over if you're not on TV. I

<v Speaker 1>don't give a shit what you say. If you cannot

<v Speaker 1>get on television, if you're barely able to get visibility

<v Speaker 1>on the shows, you cannot get over. They don't really

<v Speaker 1>have many house shows anymore. You're not even working live

<v Speaker 1>events and getting over in front of those crowds. So

<v Speaker 1>if you're not getting on the show, you're basically absent.

<v Speaker 1>You're basically it's like you don't exist. It's like you're

<v Speaker 1>ghosted on these shows. You know. Jeff Cobb just did

<v Speaker 1>an interview I think it was with Denise Salcido. It

<v Speaker 1>was at wressel con whatever whatever, the big convention is

<v Speaker 1>in Minneapolis this weekend, and he's I believe a free

<v Speaker 1>men now is ninety days are up. Obviously, he was

<v Speaker 1>part of the MFTs and they didn't do anything with him,

<v Speaker 1>and he was there for like a year and they

<v Speaker 1>just didn't do anything with him. So he is doing

<v Speaker 1>this interview and he's talking about he seems like a

<v Speaker 1>really chill, very down to earth guy. He's a very

<v Speaker 1>good wrestler. Jeff Cobb is not somebody who was going

<v Speaker 1>to come to WWE realistically and be World Heavyweight Champion

<v Speaker 1>or WWE Champion. And that's not me saying he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>have the talent for it, but like, I don't know that.

<v Speaker 1>When he signed with them and debuted, even the most

<v Speaker 1>ardent of Jeff Cobb fans was thinking, oh man, this

<v Speaker 1>guy's the limit. He could be you know in main

<v Speaker 1>events with Cody Rhodes and all these different people. That

<v Speaker 1>probably was not going to happen, but they didn't do

<v Speaker 1>anything with him. He never had the opportunity to really

<v Speaker 1>show what he can do like bell to bell on

<v Speaker 1>a consistent basis, or even have the chance to develop

<v Speaker 1>any real personality on the shows. Maybe is a babyface

<v Speaker 1>instead of a heel, right, even though he came in

<v Speaker 1>as a heel. That was largely the problem with the MFTs,

<v Speaker 1>which became a chore to watch on SmackDown every week

<v Speaker 1>because there was no character development, you know, on a

<v Speaker 1>television show where they often talk about the importance of

<v Speaker 1>character and the importance of story, and the importance of charisma,

<v Speaker 1>and the import all of these elements that go into

<v Speaker 1>being successful in their business, in their industry, right in

<v Speaker 1>their company. He talked in this interview with Denise and again,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm paraphrasing here, where when they weren't doing anything

<v Speaker 1>with him, he was constantly like going to people in

<v Speaker 1>the Whether it was Triple H or just people around him,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but he was going to people and saying, hey, like,

<v Speaker 1>let me, let me talk like or let me if

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to be used in this way, let

<v Speaker 1>me at least wrestle put me on main event. Put

<v Speaker 1>me on main event, and let me go out there

<v Speaker 1>and just try to have some great matches, and the

<v Speaker 1>response that he kept getting was, you know, in so

<v Speaker 1>many words, and that's not really what we have in mind, right,

<v Speaker 1>It was something to that effect. The guy wasn't doing anything.

<v Speaker 1>Everybody knew it, and he was trying. He was going

<v Speaker 1>to people, and he says he was trying to get

<v Speaker 1>something at least even if it was on like the

<v Speaker 1>C Show, and they still wouldn't do anything with him,

<v Speaker 1>and then they cut him. So in an example like that,

<v Speaker 1>I would love for someone to bring that up to

<v Speaker 1>Triple H and say, you know, what's your response to that.

<v Speaker 1>What are talents supposed to do when maybe they're not

<v Speaker 1>being utilized and they're trying to make, you know, f

<v Speaker 1>efforts behind the scenes to contribute in some way where

<v Speaker 1>they think they can, and they're being turned down. What

<v Speaker 1>do you have to say about that? You know how

<v Speaker 1>frustrating that must be for someone like him, who's so

<v Speaker 1>low on the totem pole there and because of that

<v Speaker 1>can't get anybody to give two shits because they probably

<v Speaker 1>look at him and go, this guy's never going to

<v Speaker 1>draw us any money. Well, then why the fuck did

<v Speaker 1>you sign him in the first place. He's not a rookie. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>how long he's been around for He's a veteran of

<v Speaker 1>the wrestling industry. I think people know who he is.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he's got this big body of work. You

<v Speaker 1>obviously signed him, you knew what you were getting. I

<v Speaker 1>don't understand this. I don't understand when they sign people

<v Speaker 1>or they bring people up from developmental whatever it may be.

<v Speaker 1>How do you not know? How do you not have

<v Speaker 1>a plan, you know, for what to do with these

<v Speaker 1>people and say, Okay, this guy or this girl may

<v Speaker 1>not be good at this. You know their inn ring

<v Speaker 1>is a little shaky, or maybe they're great in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>but their promos aren't great, or you know, everything is great,

<v Speaker 1>except we don't really see a whole lot from them

<v Speaker 1>personality wise, So maybe we need to work on that

<v Speaker 1>and get them more, you know, Mike Time, like, are

<v Speaker 1>they not doing this? Are they not evaluating each of

<v Speaker 1>these people on a talent by talent basis and saying, Okay,

<v Speaker 1>we called them up, we signed them, we're paying them. Well,

<v Speaker 1>now what's the best use of them? How do we

<v Speaker 1>give them the opportunity to go out there and get

<v Speaker 1>over You have to give them the opportunity to get over,

<v Speaker 1>because God forbid, if they decide to take the bull

<v Speaker 1>by the horns and do something that they're not told

<v Speaker 1>to do, they'll get heat for it. That's what I

<v Speaker 1>love about that. Well, like when I hear wrestlers talk

<v Speaker 1>about this and do shoot interviews and stuff, like they're

<v Speaker 1>not doing anything with me or they're not pushing me,

<v Speaker 1>and so I tried to take the incentive and then

<v Speaker 1>a promo maybe they went off script and they said something,

<v Speaker 1>or in a match they did something, and then they

<v Speaker 1>go back and they got heat for it. You and I

<v Speaker 1>was supposed to do that. You didn't clear it, and

<v Speaker 1>now they had They're in the doghouse. Now. It's like,

<v Speaker 1>how the fuck are you supposed to get over in

<v Speaker 1>a situation like that. It's it's got to be such

<v Speaker 1>a mind fuck for some of these people, Like I've

<v Speaker 1>used Carmelo Hayes as an example recently of all of this.

<v Speaker 1>Carmelo Hayes may never be WWE champion at this rate,

<v Speaker 1>but he was the United States champion, and that's where

<v Speaker 1>he really started to get over. It was through the

<v Speaker 1>work that he was doing in the ring, not even

<v Speaker 1>his promos. His matches were getting over he was starting

<v Speaker 1>to actually get reactions from the people, right, the reactions

<v Speaker 1>that Triple H talks about. And then after they took

<v Speaker 1>the title off of him, he vanished. He couldn't buy

<v Speaker 1>television time on most weeks, still can't. He was left

<v Speaker 1>off the WrestleMania card despite all that great work he

<v Speaker 1>put in. He was left off the Summer Slam card.

<v Speaker 1>Does that mean he didn't get himself over? Does that

<v Speaker 1>mean he didn't work as hard as Trick Williams or

<v Speaker 1>Baron Corbin who's been back for all of what three weeks?

<v Speaker 1>What does he have to do? Does he have to

<v Speaker 1>kiss someone's ass? Does he have to suck someone off

<v Speaker 1>in the office. I mean, maybe that's how it worked

<v Speaker 1>back in the eighties, but that shouldn't be how it

<v Speaker 1>works today. Maybe he can sleep with the boss's daughter.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe that's the fastest way to the top. It's the

<v Speaker 1>tired Vince McMahon brass ring cliche. You got to reach

<v Speaker 1>up and grab that brass ring, pal, Well, you know

<v Speaker 1>that's awfully hard to do sometimes when you hit your

<v Speaker 1>head on that glass ceiling. I'm sure those comments went

<v Speaker 1>over great with certain people in that locker room. Cmpunk

<v Speaker 1>retained the WWE Championship over Cody Rhodes. This was a

<v Speaker 1>match I was looking forward to for a really long time.

<v Speaker 1>I thought they did a pretty poor job though, coming

<v Speaker 1>into this show of really heating this up to the

<v Speaker 1>point where I was like, genuinely excited. The excitement level

<v Speaker 1>wasn't there for it in the way that it should

<v Speaker 1>have been for a match this big, right, first time ever,

<v Speaker 1>for all intents and purposes, first time ever. I thought

<v Speaker 1>it was a very boring start, plotting through much of

<v Speaker 1>the first half of this match, and not a lot

<v Speaker 1>of heat for a match this big. Finally it started

<v Speaker 1>to pick up. Obviously, you're gonna hear a lot about

<v Speaker 1>the awful moon salt that Punk tried. I mean, bless him.

<v Speaker 1>He tried something that he has tried very few times before.

<v Speaker 1>I think maybe once he tried it. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if this was his homage to Terry Funk, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the crooked moon salt. The CM stands for a crooked

<v Speaker 1>moon salt. Haha. I don't know. He should never ever

<v Speaker 1>try that again. It was awful. I mean, he's the

<v Speaker 1>worst moon salt I've ever seen in a big title match,

<v Speaker 1>at least like this and he almost killed Cody on

<v Speaker 1>the landing, but they really picked things up towards the end.

<v Speaker 1>There were a lot of you know, countering out of

<v Speaker 1>each other's finish. There was a ref bump and so

<v Speaker 1>you knew fuckery was coming. And that fuckery turned out

<v Speaker 1>to be Randy orton his first appearance since Wrestlemany the

<v Speaker 1>last time we saw him. He lost to Cody and

<v Speaker 1>then Punk kicked him in the head. After the match,

<v Speaker 1>he ran in unbeknownst the pun Punk dropped Cody with

<v Speaker 1>an RKO and then slipped away, and Punk ends up

<v Speaker 1>getting the win. He retains the championship. I'm sure that

<v Speaker 1>will cause more tension between Punk and Cody, you know,

<v Speaker 1>did you know? Oh? I didn't know. I don't believe

<v Speaker 1>you right, that sort of thing. But now it looks

<v Speaker 1>like Cody and Randy are gonna reignite their few. They're

<v Speaker 1>going to go off together and I guess try to

<v Speaker 1>have the feud they wanted to have earlier this year

<v Speaker 1>before Pat McAfee got inserted into it. They killed most

<v Speaker 1>of my interest, honestly and even seeing it. But I

<v Speaker 1>hope they can reignite it and turn this into something

<v Speaker 1>that makes me want to see more of it because

<v Speaker 1>right now I'm not really as excited as I should

<v Speaker 1>be for that. But them feuding, non titled, you know,

<v Speaker 1>without the championship involved, is fine. Let them do their

<v Speaker 1>own thing. Punk in the meantime can go and he's

<v Speaker 1>got a plethora of new faces on that show, people

<v Speaker 1>that he's name dropped in recent weeks, whether it's Priest,

<v Speaker 1>whether it's Royce Keys, whether it's Trick Williams. Obviously we're

<v Speaker 1>going to have a Number one Contenders match tonight between

<v Speaker 1>sammy's Ain and Finn Balor, so coming out of that,

<v Speaker 1>there'll be a challenger for him, and let him work

<v Speaker 1>with those people for a while, you know, let him

<v Speaker 1>work with some newer people. But also there's one name

<v Speaker 1>who's not so new, but he is apparently, like Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>was rumored to be on his way back to TV

<v Speaker 1>very soon. I'm very happy to hear this. He's been

<v Speaker 1>gone now for over a year, well over a year,

<v Speaker 1>probably closer to a year and a half. But it

<v Speaker 1>was I think in July of last year that he

<v Speaker 1>had the next fusion surgery, and so here we are

<v Speaker 1>now in early August, and it sounds like Kevin Owens,

<v Speaker 1>who is in Minneapolis. He was doing signings. I've seen

<v Speaker 1>video of him.

<v Speaker 2>He's there.

<v Speaker 1>Doesn't mean he's going to be on the show tonight,

<v Speaker 1>but there is a possibility that maybe we'll see him

<v Speaker 1>on night too tonight. What he would be doing, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know, honestly, outside of maybe trying to help Sammy's

<v Speaker 1>Ain beat Finn Balor, I don't know what else he

<v Speaker 1>would be doing. If the plan is to keep them

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown, which I hope it is, because I am

<v Speaker 1>all in on a CM Punk Kevin Owens feud, and

<v Speaker 1>maybe that's something they'd want to go to right away.

<v Speaker 1>Totally understandable. Maybe they want to bring Owens back, let

<v Speaker 1>him work with a couple of other people, you know,

<v Speaker 1>rack up some wins, build them up for a championship feud,

<v Speaker 1>and then do punkin Owens right the promos, the promos

<v Speaker 1>alone would would have me drawn to my television screen,

<v Speaker 1>So I definitely hope that's something that we can dive

<v Speaker 1>into in the next few months. It's just going to

<v Speaker 1>be great to have Owens back on the show. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that show has just been so dead and lifeless for

<v Speaker 1>so long, and now you got Orton back, Orton and

<v Speaker 1>Cody will do their thing. You got Punk on the

<v Speaker 1>show now and he can defend against different people. You

<v Speaker 1>get Owens back. When Drew McIntyre comes back, what brand

<v Speaker 1>is he going to be on. There's hopeful signs to

<v Speaker 1>inject some new life into SmackDown and some big names too,

<v Speaker 1>because they don't you know, have a ton of big

<v Speaker 1>names on the show right now. But it can't just

<v Speaker 1>be big names in established names. You got to have

<v Speaker 1>a mix. You want to have a mix of the

<v Speaker 1>veteran talent and the younger talents, and so I feel

<v Speaker 1>like the tools are all there. They just have to

<v Speaker 1>figure out a way to put it together so that

<v Speaker 1>show is actually watchable on most weeks. But as far

<v Speaker 1>as the match with punkin Cody, not what I was

<v Speaker 1>hoping it would be. In the end, it turned out

<v Speaker 1>to be good enough. I thought it was a solid

<v Speaker 1>enough match, but it went almost thirty minutes and just

<v Speaker 1>a good chunk of it was just very boring and

<v Speaker 1>just not terribly interesting. You could tell by the reaction

<v Speaker 1>from the crowd, who was very quiet during the first

<v Speaker 1>half of that match. We had the debut, the ring

<v Speaker 1>debut of Nick Aldos in WWE. He finally got his moment,

<v Speaker 1>and they paid for Oasis. They paid for an Oasis

<v Speaker 1>track Morning Glory for him to come out to Triple

<v Speaker 1>Ah said that they got clearance a day or two

<v Speaker 1>I think before the show, and he let all know.

<v Speaker 1>He was so excited to let him know. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>good on them for actually shelling out the money. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure that didn't come cheap. And I'm sure that's going

<v Speaker 1>to be edited off the I haven't checked, but I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure it's going to be edited off the replay. If

<v Speaker 1>it isn't already, at some point it will be ESPN Netflix.

<v Speaker 1>I doubt very seriously it'll it'll live on there. But

<v Speaker 1>for one night anyway, it was a very cool entrance.

<v Speaker 1>All this came out. Man, he looked to be in

<v Speaker 1>great shape. He has been waiting for this moment for

<v Speaker 1>a very long time, right, you never know when you're

<v Speaker 1>going to get the call, and this one came on

<v Speaker 1>very short notice. And he was in there and he

<v Speaker 1>never looked out of place. He didn't get overly guest

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that to where it looked like Gunther

<v Speaker 1>was carrying him towards the end, even though he has

<v Speaker 1>a wrestled in three years. It was like no time

<v Speaker 1>at all had gone by, and they had a very

<v Speaker 1>basic match. But I enjoyed it. I thought it was

<v Speaker 1>a good wrestling match. I loved how into it the

<v Speaker 1>crowd was, you know, for a guy in all this

<v Speaker 1>who yes, he's been on TV for a few years now,

<v Speaker 1>but a lot of these people have probably never even

<v Speaker 1>seen him wrestle before. You have to imagine that there's

<v Speaker 1>a very big chunk of the WWE audience that doesn't

<v Speaker 1>know Nick All this as the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion.

<v Speaker 1>They don't know his brutus magnus days, you know in TNA,

<v Speaker 1>So this is their first exposure to him in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>and they were solidly behind him, you know, and all

<v Speaker 1>of the submission attempts and when he was trapped in

<v Speaker 1>the sleeper and they wanted desperately to see him fight

<v Speaker 1>out of it. When he applied the you know, the

<v Speaker 1>Texas clover leaf, or I guess it wasn't the Texas

<v Speaker 1>clover leaf, but what they say it was the King's Uh.

<v Speaker 1>I forgot what he calls it. I know it's named

<v Speaker 1>after the town I think he was born in in

<v Speaker 1>the UK. The Kings Kingston maybe Kingston clover Leaf. But

<v Speaker 1>when he locked it on, the people popped huge for it.

<v Speaker 1>His wife Mickey James was there in the front row

<v Speaker 1>with their son Donovan like this this was this was

<v Speaker 1>well done right basic as it was. They didn't you know,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't overbooked. There was no interference, there was no

<v Speaker 1>you know, cheating involved, There was no special stipulation, there

<v Speaker 1>was no plunder. There were no slim gym tables, there

<v Speaker 1>were no kendo sticks. They had a basic professional wrestling

<v Speaker 1>match and it worked and the right guy went over.

<v Speaker 1>Because Nick All, this is not suddenly going to be

<v Speaker 1>a full time performer. I didn't really expect him to be,

<v Speaker 1>so if this was the only time we ever see

<v Speaker 1>him in the ring, I'm glad for him that he

<v Speaker 1>was able to get that moment against someone like Gunther

<v Speaker 1>in a big, you know show like SummerSlam. They had

<v Speaker 1>thirty seven thousand people there. Whatever. It was good for

<v Speaker 1>him because I know he's been waiting a very long

<v Speaker 1>time for that. Now when the show is over, they

<v Speaker 1>shot a segment in the back where he handed Triple

<v Speaker 1>h his letter of resignation as the SmackDown General manager.

<v Speaker 1>And now he had been relieved temporarily of his duties.

<v Speaker 1>But I guess the idea is that, you know, well,

<v Speaker 1>I knew what I was getting into, and I was

<v Speaker 1>the GM, and I had to surrender those duties to

<v Speaker 1>fight Gunther because he just got under my skin, you know,

<v Speaker 1>he just got to me. And I guess the idea is,

<v Speaker 1>maybe he thinks that Triple H doesn't think he can

<v Speaker 1>do the job fairly anymore. So it's been my great

<v Speaker 1>honor and privilege to serve as the GM. And Triple

<v Speaker 1>H took the letter and he put him over. He

<v Speaker 1>thanked him and said, you've done a tremendous job over

<v Speaker 1>these last three years, and as far as this letter

<v Speaker 1>is concerned, and he ripped it up and he said,

<v Speaker 1>you're officially reinstated as the GM of SmackDown. So all

<v Speaker 1>this is back to being the GM. And if we

<v Speaker 1>do see him in the ring again at some point,

<v Speaker 1>my guess is it's maybe a cameo in the rumble

<v Speaker 1>or something like that. But for all intents and purposes,

<v Speaker 1>I think his in ring career is over. So long

<v Speaker 1>as he remains in WWE, I still think the GM

<v Speaker 1>role is the best role for him, gets him on

<v Speaker 1>the show every single week. He's in the middle of everything.

<v Speaker 1>Look at look at how much Adam Pierce is all

<v Speaker 1>over the television show every week. What a great gig,

<v Speaker 1>gets more television time than most of the talent does,

<v Speaker 1>doesn't have to take any bumps. It's great. Then we

<v Speaker 1>had the tail of two trios matches. We had the

<v Speaker 1>men's trios match six man tag. It was La Night

<v Speaker 1>Solo Sokoa and Royce Keys against Jacob Fatu and the

<v Speaker 1>usos Solo Sakoa man I said this last night. I

<v Speaker 1>feel vindicated. I've been saying this for how long now,

<v Speaker 1>probably close to a year, that this man has a

<v Speaker 1>great babyface run buried within him. If they stopped this

<v Speaker 1>friggin stoic mob boss gimmick that he's doing leading the MFTs,

<v Speaker 1>it's not the right role for him. He was completely miscast.

<v Speaker 1>You are completely ignoring all of the elements that will

<v Speaker 1>really help get him over where he can be more

<v Speaker 1>like himself, he can be more genuine, he can show

<v Speaker 1>more of his personality. And now he's getting the chance

<v Speaker 1>to do that. And wouldn't you know he's starting to

<v Speaker 1>get over that moment in the match where he decided

<v Speaker 1>to run it back and have them played Jay's music

<v Speaker 1>so he can eat and they panned out and everybody

<v Speaker 1>was yeating along with him, and Jay had this look

<v Speaker 1>on his face like he had this look on his

<v Speaker 1>face like somebody just ripped a frigging fart in the

<v Speaker 1>middle of the match. That was the best part of

<v Speaker 1>the entire match. That and there was this crazy spot

<v Speaker 1>where Royce Keys gave Fatu, who came charging in outside

<v Speaker 1>by the timekeeper's barricade. He caught him and he gave

<v Speaker 1>him a power slam over the barricade onto the concrete

<v Speaker 1>and he went over with him and they both just

<v Speaker 1>took this hillacious bump. I actually had a lot of

<v Speaker 1>fun with this match. I didn't know what to expect.

<v Speaker 1>It's a six man tag, I mean, it felt like

<v Speaker 1>a television match coming into this, but I thought that

<v Speaker 1>everybody had a chance to shine. There were some fun

<v Speaker 1>moments in there, and in the end they had freaking

<v Speaker 1>La Night hit his finish and Pinjeu, So you can't

<v Speaker 1>ask for anything better than that. Now. Wrestle Votes Radio

<v Speaker 1>on fight Ful Select had a report on Thursday that

<v Speaker 1>said Solo Socoa was only supposed to be a babyface

<v Speaker 1>on a short term basis. However, there is said to

<v Speaker 1>be speculation within WWE that those plans could be reconsidered

<v Speaker 1>because of how well he has been received in the role,

<v Speaker 1>and the report notes that one talent describes Socoa as

<v Speaker 1>one of the funniest superstars behind the scenes. The source

<v Speaker 1>added that they were thrilled that Solo is getting a

<v Speaker 1>chance to show off his personality. Yeah, it only took

<v Speaker 1>a few years, so they were thinking about turning him

<v Speaker 1>heel again coming out of this match, possibly even rejoining

<v Speaker 1>the bloodline. That's that's what I read into that. The

<v Speaker 1>fact that that was even a thought in their head

<v Speaker 1>is scary. Let's see Triple H put his money where

<v Speaker 1>his mouth is now, all right, go get yourself over,

<v Speaker 1>that's what he says, right, go get yourself over. Well,

<v Speaker 1>guess what Solo Socoa is getting himself over as a babyface.

<v Speaker 1>Let's see what they do. Do they squander it, do

<v Speaker 1>they ruin it and turn him back, or do they

<v Speaker 1>let him do his thing and see how far he

<v Speaker 1>can go? Because this is a classic case of it.

<v Speaker 1>The other Trios match involved the women, and this was

<v Speaker 1>not good. This was the opposite of what this match was,

<v Speaker 1>and part of it was that Bribella got injured. Although

<v Speaker 1>even if Bribella didn't get injured, I hardly think this

<v Speaker 1>match was going to light the world on fire. But

<v Speaker 1>her getting hurt just made things worse. And it was

<v Speaker 1>pretty early in the match too. It looked like it

<v Speaker 1>happened on a cannon ball up against the ring steps

<v Speaker 1>that jac Jane gave her and she immediately clutched her

<v Speaker 1>right shoulder. It looked like maybe it was dislocated or separated.

<v Speaker 1>I thought maybe it was a clavigal potentially, but she

<v Speaker 1>kept holding that shoulder for the rest of the match.

<v Speaker 1>I can't believe they didn't take her out of the match.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you got six women out there, She's got

<v Speaker 1>two partners. Why did she have to remain in this match?

<v Speaker 1>I have no idea. Even if she was telling the

<v Speaker 1>referee I'm okay, I'm okay, she clearly was not okay

<v Speaker 1>and it and it at least partially ruined the rest

<v Speaker 1>of the match because she couldn't do any real spots.

<v Speaker 1>She couldn't do anything. She was like a armed woman

<v Speaker 1>out there. So this match just was a mess, and

<v Speaker 1>Fatal Influence won at least, I mean that was that

<v Speaker 1>was the right outcome. When the match was over, though

<v Speaker 1>the Bella is mostly Nicki attacked Page because Page took

<v Speaker 1>the losing fall in the match, and because Bree couldn't

<v Speaker 1>do anything. It was mostly just Nicki beating her up

<v Speaker 1>and giving her a rack attack, and so the Bellas

<v Speaker 1>have I guess gone, heel, I look, this whole thing

<v Speaker 1>is a fucking mess. Okay, because Nicki Bella was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to be at WrestleMania. Nicki Bella and her sister have

<v Speaker 1>never been the women's tag team champions before. The reason

<v Speaker 1>they even came back was because they wanted to win

<v Speaker 1>the women's tag team titles at least once. They were

<v Speaker 1>going to have that opportunity at WrestleMania, not a doubt

<v Speaker 1>in my mind. They were going to win those belts

<v Speaker 1>and then on SmackDown a week or two or whatever

<v Speaker 1>it was before maybe it was maybe it was longer

<v Speaker 1>than that. But before WrestleMania, Nicki got hurt. She hurt

<v Speaker 1>her ankle and so she couldn't wrestle, so they brought

<v Speaker 1>in Page in that spot. It was actually Nicki in

<v Speaker 1>storyline who made the phone call to bring in page,

<v Speaker 1>which was funny to me last night when Nicki was saying, like,

<v Speaker 1>you know, don't take my spot. You don't take my spot.

<v Speaker 1>You gave her your spot. The fuck are you talking about?

<v Speaker 1>Be mad at yourself? But like they had this plan,

<v Speaker 1>Nicki got hurt, the sisters were not able to win

<v Speaker 1>the belts together. Nicki finally just last week made her return.

<v Speaker 1>She finally got cleared. She came back from the injury.

<v Speaker 1>And now it looks like Brie is hurt and Brie

<v Speaker 1>is gonna be out probably for a while. We don't

<v Speaker 1>know the severity of it yet. Triple H even said

<v Speaker 1>at the scrum last night that it looks bad. Like

<v Speaker 1>he was waiting on results or an MRI or whatever

<v Speaker 1>and to get a definitive diagnosis. But he's hoping it

<v Speaker 1>didn't look as bad as it looked to them. So

<v Speaker 1>if they're saying it looked bad, it's probably bad. And

<v Speaker 1>so she's gonna go away for a while. And now regardless,

<v Speaker 1>and now Nicki just came back and she's got no

<v Speaker 1>partner because they just turned on Page. So they can't

<v Speaker 1>put like Nikki with Page, what you gonna do, You're

<v Speaker 1>gonna show up on SmackDown and be like, oh my bad,

<v Speaker 1>my bad. So like one Bella gets hurt, comes back,

<v Speaker 1>the other Bella gets hurt, and now she's probably out,

<v Speaker 1>Like the whole thing is a fucking mess. And then

<v Speaker 1>we have liv Morgan retaining her Women's World Championship, her

<v Speaker 1>first title defense in over one hundred days, defended it

<v Speaker 1>successfully over the Queen of the Ring, Eo Sky. If

<v Speaker 1>I'm being totally honest with you looking back at it

<v Speaker 1>now as I sit here and reflect on night one,

<v Speaker 1>this was the match of the night. This right here

<v Speaker 1>was the match of Night one. They had a very

<v Speaker 1>good opener. I thought the closing sequence was very good.

<v Speaker 1>I was hoping EO would pick up the win. If

<v Speaker 1>they're actually gonna do something with Live, I have no

<v Speaker 1>issue with her retaining, because I mean, one hundred plus

<v Speaker 1>days of her being a manager for the judgment day

<v Speaker 1>and not doing much of anything else gets kind of

<v Speaker 1>time after a while. But maybe we'll see Stephanie Vicaire

<v Speaker 1>pop up on Raw Monday night and they can get

<v Speaker 1>back to that. I don't know. It seems to me

<v Speaker 1>like the idea here because I thought they were setting

<v Speaker 1>up for Ria and Eo at Crown Jewel, and maybe

<v Speaker 1>the idea was they want Ria and Live, they want

<v Speaker 1>to go back to that again and that's the Crown

<v Speaker 1>Jewel match, and they wanted to keep the championship on

<v Speaker 1>her for that reason. I don't know, I don't really

<v Speaker 1>need to see that again, but I thought this was

<v Speaker 1>the best thing on the entire show. Bell to Belle.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they got thirteen minutes, so they got five

<v Speaker 1>or six minutes more than they gave Live for her

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania match. That scene and unreal by the way, where

<v Speaker 1>she comes back after her match with Stephanie, which was

<v Speaker 1>like six minutes, and she comes to the back and

<v Speaker 1>Triple H is like gassing her up, Like, oh that

<v Speaker 1>was great. It was perfect. It was like the best

<v Speaker 1>thing ever. And all Live is concerned about was like,

<v Speaker 1>did did we make good time? Because they obviously got

<v Speaker 1>their time cut and wanted to make sure like it

<v Speaker 1>worked out okay, like you were able to like, do

<v Speaker 1>you know whatever else he needed to do because we

<v Speaker 1>we went shorter. Like that's basically what she was saying.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm like, man, it's like, okay, I guess the

<v Speaker 1>mentality is it's just different, man, It's just different. If

<v Speaker 1>they were building me up for a big WrestleMania match,

<v Speaker 1>this was gonna be my moment, right And I'm in

<v Speaker 1>one of the feature matches on the show, like a

<v Speaker 1>women's world champion. Obviously I wouldn't be in the Women's

<v Speaker 1>World Championship match. That'd be weird. But like I was

<v Speaker 1>in the World Championship match on that show and they

<v Speaker 1>came to me and said, hey, you only have six minutes.

<v Speaker 1>Obviously I would want to go out there and make

<v Speaker 1>the most of those six minutes. I would try to

<v Speaker 1>make those six minutes the best that I could possibly

<v Speaker 1>make it. But I wouldn't be very happy about it.

<v Speaker 1>So I wonder how she really felt about it. Obviously

<v Speaker 1>she wasn't going to cuss out Triple H and say

<v Speaker 1>it to his face. But I felt more sad for

<v Speaker 1>her than anything else watching that her and Stephanie. Tonight

<v Speaker 1>is night two again. I'll be live on YouTube for

<v Speaker 1>the post show when the show is over, probably around

<v Speaker 1>the same time. I mean, that show last night was

<v Speaker 1>very economical. I think it was three hours in and out. Look,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not complaining. It would have been nice to get

<v Speaker 1>a little more action on the show than we did.

<v Speaker 1>Because we have so many. I mean, the breaks in

<v Speaker 1>between the matches are just so fucking long that I

<v Speaker 1>wish we had a little more action, not like four

<v Speaker 1>hours worth, but like it would have been nice to

<v Speaker 1>have another match when we have six. Would have been

<v Speaker 1>nice to squeeze another match in there, but I guess

<v Speaker 1>that would squeeze into their ad times, so we can't

<v Speaker 1>have that. But tonight is night too. We have the

<v Speaker 1>Intercontinental Championship on the line, Chad Gable challenging Penta in

<v Speaker 1>Gable's hometown of Minneapolis. There should be a win for Gable.

<v Speaker 1>This is going to be his first championship singles title

<v Speaker 1>in WWE. Anything else is unacceptable. Dan Housen, speaking of unacceptable,

<v Speaker 1>is going to be in a human monies on a

<v Speaker 1>poll match. Whoever came up with the concept for this

<v Speaker 1>match should be beaten over the head with a pole.

<v Speaker 1>That'll be against Dominic Mysterio, which should be a win

<v Speaker 1>for dom Trick Williams defends the United States Championship against

<v Speaker 1>Baron Corbin. I'm maybe going out on a limb here,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but I'm going with Corbin to win

<v Speaker 1>the title. Sammy's a and Finn Baller number one contenders

<v Speaker 1>match for the WWE Championship. I'm picking Baller to win. Now.

<v Speaker 1>I suppose if Kevin Owens was to return tonight, he

<v Speaker 1>might help Sammy win and that would be kind of cool,

<v Speaker 1>I guess, But barring any Owens interference, I'm picking Baller

<v Speaker 1>to win. Then we have the Interim Women's Championship ladder

<v Speaker 1>match Charlotte Flair, Jade car Gill, Tiffany Stratton, Chelsea Green

<v Speaker 1>and Lash Legend, who had a two minute match with

<v Speaker 1>Julia on SmackDown on Friday night. Lash I figured was

<v Speaker 1>gonna be the one to qualify. I'm picking Lash to win.

<v Speaker 1>I just think that they might look at this lineup

<v Speaker 1>here and go, hey, whoever's gon to win the interim

<v Speaker 1>title is only going to have it on a very

<v Speaker 1>interim basis because Rhea is probably going to be back

<v Speaker 1>very soon, and so why go ahead and put it

<v Speaker 1>on Charlotte. You know, for example, if she's only going

<v Speaker 1>to have it for a few weeks and we could

<v Speaker 1>save that match for later on, let's give some rub

<v Speaker 1>to Lash, even if it's only for a month or whatever. Like.

<v Speaker 1>I could see that being the mentality here, and it

<v Speaker 1>really doesn't make any sense to me to put it

<v Speaker 1>on Tiffany because she's already got the US title. Chelsea,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, come on, do you honestly expect that. I'm

<v Speaker 1>thinking it's Lash or it's Jade, you know, barring barring

<v Speaker 1>a Lash win. Here the Julia thing. Look, I said

<v Speaker 1>my piece on Friday that made me so mad just

<v Speaker 1>just watching that whole thing. It's very clear Julia is

<v Speaker 1>done in this company. It's over. The Julia experiment on

<v Speaker 1>the main roster is over, dead and buried. And I

<v Speaker 1>said this on Friday, that would it not have made

<v Speaker 1>more sense to put Blake Monroe in that spot against

<v Speaker 1>Julia in that qualifying match on Friday and have Blake

<v Speaker 1>qualify instead of Lash unless Lash is gonna win, right,

<v Speaker 1>that's the whole thing. If I think Lash is gonna win,

<v Speaker 1>that's probably why she's in the match. But I'm just saying,

<v Speaker 1>like it would have made more sense to me as

<v Speaker 1>someone who has watched the television and saw many weeks

<v Speaker 1>ago Blake Monroe attacked Julia. Actually she's attacked Julia more

<v Speaker 1>than once on this show. Do that match, have Blake win,

<v Speaker 1>go to the ladder match, and then yeah, she's not

<v Speaker 1>gonna win necessarily, but like Tiffany, Stratton is in there,

<v Speaker 1>and we've seen some segments with her in Tiffany where

<v Speaker 1>Blake has been eyeballing the US title, and god knows

<v Speaker 1>that Tiffany could use some challengers for the United States Championship.

<v Speaker 1>But you could do something in the ladder match that

<v Speaker 1>allows you to split off from that into a feud

<v Speaker 1>with Tiffany and with Blake for the US title. But

<v Speaker 1>maybe that's making too much sense. I know, I got

<v Speaker 1>to stop doing that. I got to stop doing that.

<v Speaker 1>And then the World Heavyweight Championship on the line. In

<v Speaker 1>the main event, Roman Reigns defends against Seth Rollins. Did

<v Speaker 1>you know that these two were members of the Shield?

<v Speaker 1>You might not be aware of that, but if you've

<v Speaker 1>watched the television over the last few weeks, they've made

<v Speaker 1>that abundantly clear that these two were once part of

<v Speaker 1>this thing called the Shield. It was a tag team

<v Speaker 1>back in the day, just the two of them. Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns is gonna win. I don't know if they're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have some sort of convoluted finish here. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if it's just going to be a straight up you know,

<v Speaker 1>really good wrestling match, and Roman beats them clean and finally,

<v Speaker 1>you know, exercises the demons because he's never been able

<v Speaker 1>to beat Balor in like a major match one on one,

<v Speaker 1>and so he'll finally be able to do it, and

<v Speaker 1>then he'll you know, do the usual our farming and

<v Speaker 1>he'll point to the skies and that's how it goes

<v Speaker 1>off the air. I don't know. I don't know. All

<v Speaker 1>I can tell you is that I think Roman Rains

<v Speaker 1>is going to retain and they're not ready to take

<v Speaker 1>that championship off of him just yet. And that is

<v Speaker 1>night too of SummerSlam coming up in just a few hours.

<v Speaker 1>And because of that, and because I want to try

<v Speaker 1>to get this show out as quickly as possible, and

<v Speaker 1>I still got a dark side of the Ring review

<v Speaker 1>here to get into. I did have a bunch of

<v Speaker 1>like notes here and stuff I wanted to get into.

<v Speaker 1>As far as AW is concerned, I think what I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna do. I'm going to hold off on that until Tuesday,

<v Speaker 1>and so as part of everything else that I'll do

<v Speaker 1>on the Uncrowned Wrestling Show, we'll get into all of

<v Speaker 1>the AW stuff from this past week. The Redemption fallout

<v Speaker 1>of the way. Things are looking for Grand Slam Mexico

<v Speaker 1>this Wednesday, which is looking pretty stacked, I gotta say,

<v Speaker 1>but I'll save that for the Tuesday show. Dark Side

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring this week was dedicated to the story

<v Speaker 1>of Ray Trailer, better known to wrestling fans as the

<v Speaker 1>Big boss Man, one of those characters from my childhood

<v Speaker 1>that still stands out to this day. The Corrections Officer

<v Speaker 1>from Cobb County, Georgia had one of the catchier theme

<v Speaker 1>songs too, That was a Gym Heart and JJ maguire production.

<v Speaker 1>This episode was very similar to the John Tenta episode

<v Speaker 1>from I know it was the last season or a

<v Speaker 1>couple of seasons ago, but they did one on Earthquake,

<v Speaker 1>who was also a very colorful character from that Golden era,

<v Speaker 1>someone who worked with the Hulk Hogan and was always

<v Speaker 1>in the mix in some way. But similar to in

<v Speaker 1>that the boss Man comes off as generally a very

<v Speaker 1>good dude, decent human being who left this earth far

<v Speaker 1>too soon. Tenta was only forty two when he died.

<v Speaker 1>Boss Man was forty one. Two guys who looked older

<v Speaker 1>than they really were. I mean, think about this. Boss

<v Speaker 1>Man was only twenty six years old when he worked

<v Speaker 1>with Hogan, But there was nothing dark or sinister about him.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he didn't treat people badly. He was never

<v Speaker 1>accused of anything heinous. He wasn't known to be a

<v Speaker 1>big party guy on the road. Everybody loved working with him.

<v Speaker 1>Very funny guy behind the scenes, very affable, and they

<v Speaker 1>both loved their families, and that came across in both

<v Speaker 1>of their episodes. You know, we see a lot of

<v Speaker 1>sad stories on these Dark Side of the Ring episodes,

<v Speaker 1>but it's been a while since one of them got

<v Speaker 1>to me like this one. Did you know when they

<v Speaker 1>got into the discussion of how he died in the

<v Speaker 1>day he died, I'm not going to lie, you know,

<v Speaker 1>I cried. That got me, you know, listening to his

<v Speaker 1>daughter talk about doing chess compressions and giving him mouth

<v Speaker 1>to mouth to try to save him. That just that

<v Speaker 1>broke me. And it's depressing to think of just how

<v Speaker 1>many wrestlers went out that way, you know, dead of

<v Speaker 1>a heart attack at such an early age, and we

<v Speaker 1>know why that is in a lot of cases. Although

<v Speaker 1>they did mention here that heart problems did run in

<v Speaker 1>boss Man's family, but that doesn't make it any less sad.

<v Speaker 1>You know, I find myself sometimes as we all get older,

<v Speaker 1>and as I get older, and with each passing year

<v Speaker 1>and I'm not even that old, I realize, like, holy shit,

<v Speaker 1>I'm now older than so and so and they died.

<v Speaker 1>The fact that, like Owen Hart, for example, for all

<v Speaker 1>the years I watched him on TV, the fact that

<v Speaker 1>Owen was only thirty four years old when he died,

<v Speaker 1>it just it still blows me away, and I hate it.

<v Speaker 1>I just hate all the guys and gals, but mostly

<v Speaker 1>guys that are in the grave right now with kids

<v Speaker 1>out there that barely remember them because they were so

<v Speaker 1>young when they died. The wrestling business has had a

<v Speaker 1>very toxic relationship with addiction because the nature of what

<v Speaker 1>they do and what they put their bodies through. The

<v Speaker 1>human body was not built to take bumps. Human beings

<v Speaker 1>are not meant to be slammed over and over again

<v Speaker 1>for ten years straight or fifteen years, twenty years straight.

<v Speaker 1>But that was only part of the episode. I enjoyed it. Overall.

<v Speaker 1>They were able to get boss Man's wife Angela and

<v Speaker 1>his daughter Lacey to sit down for this. Jim Cornett

<v Speaker 1>has interviewed he managed Boss Men when he was Big

<v Speaker 1>Bubba Rogers and Bubba was Cornett's bodyguard during their time

<v Speaker 1>in Jim Crockett Promotions. Whenever Cornett gets broken up on

<v Speaker 1>these shows, like he did during the Owen Hard episode,

<v Speaker 1>you know, he really liked the person and he really

<v Speaker 1>gets broken up, you know. Talking about Bubba, he even

<v Speaker 1>has to get up at one point a walk away

<v Speaker 1>for a little bit so that he doesn't turn into

<v Speaker 1>a blubbering mess on camera. They talked to al Snow,

<v Speaker 1>who had a very memorable feud with boss Man in

<v Speaker 1>his second stint with the company in the Attitude era

<v Speaker 1>Gerald Briscoe and Terry Runnolds, which felt kind of random,

<v Speaker 1>but she actually was very good friends with boss Man.

<v Speaker 1>She has said in the past that he even gave

<v Speaker 1>her away at her wedding when she got remarried in

<v Speaker 1>two thousand and two, so they were pretty close.

<v Speaker 2>Ye.

<v Speaker 1>Boss Man is someone who his main run in the

<v Speaker 1>business was actually very brief. You know. After coming to

<v Speaker 1>the WWF, he feuded with Hulk Hogan, which was the

<v Speaker 1>peak of his career, and then he settled in as

<v Speaker 1>like a mid to upper mid card babyface and he

<v Speaker 1>never achieved that same level of stardom again, not until

<v Speaker 1>he came back in ninety eight. Initially they actually made

<v Speaker 1>him part of the Steve Austin Vince McMahon storyline, but

<v Speaker 1>that didn't last very long. But the stuff he did

<v Speaker 1>do was very memorable. So as brief as his run

<v Speaker 1>on top was, it was very memorable. He had a

<v Speaker 1>job as an actual corrections officer in Cobb County before

<v Speaker 1>getting into wrestling, which is where the gimmick came from.

<v Speaker 1>It didn't pay well, though he ended up getting into wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>He caught the eye of Dusty Rhodes. Even though he

<v Speaker 1>never had any formal training, He had two training sessions

<v Speaker 1>in the span of two weeks. That was it. He

<v Speaker 1>was a big guy, much bigger back then than he

<v Speaker 1>was when he turned babyface. So he ended up on

<v Speaker 1>TV pretty quick. He was wrestling squash matches and he

<v Speaker 1>got vaulted pretty quickly into a feud with Dusty, which

<v Speaker 1>did big business pretty much everywhere they went with it. It

<v Speaker 1>was the same thing with Hogan, you know, many years later.

<v Speaker 1>They did huge business with the house show program that

<v Speaker 1>they worked. They did cover the infamous Starcade scaffold match

<v Speaker 1>from the night of the Skywalkers between the Road Warriors

<v Speaker 1>and the Midnight Express. This is the match where Jim

<v Speaker 1>Cornett was dangling off the edge of the scaffold and

<v Speaker 1>Bubba had one job he had one that night catch

<v Speaker 1>him on the way down. That they glossed over it

<v Speaker 1>pretty quick. They didn't get too far into the weeds

<v Speaker 1>on this. But Road Warrior Hawk actually wrestled that match

<v Speaker 1>with a broken leg. I say wrestled, I mean, but

<v Speaker 1>there's not much wrestling going on in a scaffold match.

<v Speaker 1>I've never actually seen a scaffold match that I enjoyed.

<v Speaker 1>I think they suck, and there's a reason that you

<v Speaker 1>don't see them anymore. Everyone is so tentedive, everyone is

<v Speaker 1>so terrified to even be up there. It looks like

<v Speaker 1>they're moving in slow motion, especially back then. You know,

<v Speaker 1>back then, generally speaking, the guys were so much bigger.

<v Speaker 1>They were fucking jacked up, And you got these big,

<v Speaker 1>three hundred pounds jacked up dudes climbing twelve to fifteen

<v Speaker 1>feet in the air on this little narrow scaffold. Yeah'll

<v Speaker 1>probably seeing their lives flash before their eyes. I wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>want to go up there. But the original idea that

<v Speaker 1>Dusty pitched was that after the match, Cornett would throw

<v Speaker 1>his legs up and he would fall backwards like a cheerleader,

<v Speaker 1>and the midnights in Bubba would be down low to

<v Speaker 1>catch him. But then Cornett saw how high the scaffold was,

<v Speaker 1>and he said he would end up killing all three

<v Speaker 1>of them. So he came up with the idea of

<v Speaker 1>just dropping down on his stomach on the scaffold and

<v Speaker 1>very slowly rolling over the edge, and he would dangle

<v Speaker 1>there for a little bit and at just the right

<v Speaker 1>moment he would let go and Bubba would catch him.

<v Speaker 1>Bubba did not catch him. He was a few feet

<v Speaker 1>off and Cornet fell straight down. He blew out both

<v Speaker 1>his knees, including his ACL, and Bubba told him, you know, Jimmy,

<v Speaker 1>you fell so fast, Jimmy, you fell so fast. I

<v Speaker 1>just I couldn't catch you. Cornett has said that not

<v Speaker 1>only did he blow out his ACL and destroy his miniscus,

<v Speaker 1>he tore all the ligaments in the knee that keep

<v Speaker 1>it attached to the femur and the tibia, and he

<v Speaker 1>never had the knee fixed, and he had it scoped,

<v Speaker 1>but he never had it fixed because it would have

<v Speaker 1>kept him off the road for months and he couldn't

<v Speaker 1>afford to take that much time off. You know, back then,

<v Speaker 1>if he didn't work, he didn't get paid. So instead

<v Speaker 1>he had the doctor scope it. I think he had

<v Speaker 1>him chop off all the little nerve endings that were

<v Speaker 1>floating around in there that caused the pain. Right, you

<v Speaker 1>chop off the nerve endings, you won't feel anything. But

<v Speaker 1>there was another scaffold match the following year, and this

<v Speaker 1>time Bubba got up on the scaffold himself and he

<v Speaker 1>didn't fall off, but he took a punch to the balls.

<v Speaker 1>He still had to go up there though and work.

<v Speaker 1>He was part of the match and he ended up

<v Speaker 1>getting paid five thousand dollars for that. Everybody else got

<v Speaker 1>ten grand a piece, and that really bothered him. He

<v Speaker 1>was very hot about that, and ultimately it's what led

<v Speaker 1>to him going to the WWF. This is when Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon was looking for monsters to feed to Hogan. Once

<v Speaker 1>Vince found out that he worked as a real life

<v Speaker 1>corrections officer, the Big boss Man was born. Now they

<v Speaker 1>completely skipped over his initial run as part of the

<v Speaker 1>Twin Towers with Akim Remember Akem The African Dream because

<v Speaker 1>you see, Dusty Roads was the American dream, so Akim

<v Speaker 1>was the African dream who danced funny, which was their

<v Speaker 1>way of making fun of Dusty before he ended up

<v Speaker 1>coming to the company. That's also how Virgil got his

<v Speaker 1>name with Ted d Biassi Dusty's their real name was Virgil.

<v Speaker 1>So they took this man's servant and they called him Virgil,

<v Speaker 1>and then Dusty came in and they put him in

<v Speaker 1>polka dots, and I'll be damned if he didn't get

<v Speaker 1>over in spite of it. You know, sometimes natural charisma

<v Speaker 1>just can't be denied, no matter how ridiculous they try

<v Speaker 1>to make you look. Terry Taylor had no natural charisma.

<v Speaker 1>If they made Dusty Roads the Red Rooster, I guarantee

<v Speaker 1>you he would have had the fans in those buildings

<v Speaker 1>crowing like roosters. I'm sad they skipped over the Twin

<v Speaker 1>Towers run though, because one of my favorite matches from

<v Speaker 1>that era involved them actually live on NBC against Hulk

<v Speaker 1>Hogan and Randy Savage. It was the night the Mega

<v Speaker 1>Powers broke up. Akim fell through the ropes. He damn

<v Speaker 1>near broke his neck in that match, but it's still

<v Speaker 1>a top three Angle all time for me. In wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>they did cover boss Man feuding with Hogan as a

<v Speaker 1>singles and the famous steel cage match they had on

<v Speaker 1>Saturday Night's main event where Hogan gave him a superplex

<v Speaker 1>from the top of the cage, which was a crazy

<v Speaker 1>spot to see back then, especially from guys who were

<v Speaker 1>that big. Hogan didn't have to be doing superlexes off

<v Speaker 1>the top in those hard ass rings, no less, it's

<v Speaker 1>no wonder the man had ten or eleven back surgeries.

<v Speaker 1>But what's nuttier is that they did the same spot

<v Speaker 1>over and over again multiple times all over the house shows,

<v Speaker 1>and it ended up being one of the most successful

<v Speaker 1>house show programs box office wise, that the company had

<v Speaker 1>ever seen. He actually worked Hogan years later in WCW

<v Speaker 1>in the main event of the very first and Nitro

<v Speaker 1>at the Mall of America, so a lot of history

<v Speaker 1>between those two. The two of them then became allies

<v Speaker 1>when they turned boss Man babyface. This would have been

<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety so now of course he could serve

<v Speaker 1>justice to all the bad guys and they can make

<v Speaker 1>a lot of money off boss Man merch. Remember they

<v Speaker 1>made those foam nightsticks. I had one of those wrestling

<v Speaker 1>buddies hasbro figures. They should have made plastic boss man handcuffs.

<v Speaker 1>Could have made some money off that. When he turned babyface,

<v Speaker 1>he dropped a lot of weight. If you look at

<v Speaker 1>him from the time he debuted there in the feud

<v Speaker 1>with Hogan to the time that you know he was

<v Speaker 1>working against Akim and Mister Perfect and all the other

<v Speaker 1>people that he worked against. Is a babyface. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>he had to have dropped at least one hundred pounds easily.

<v Speaker 1>Like it was that noticeable. And I had always wondered,

<v Speaker 1>you know why that was that he lost all the weight,

<v Speaker 1>Like was it health related? Did he have like some

<v Speaker 1>sort of health scare, or did it have to do

<v Speaker 1>with him just wanting to get himself in better shape cosmetically.

<v Speaker 1>It definitely made him quicker, and it made him more

<v Speaker 1>agile in the ring, and he was already pretty agile

<v Speaker 1>for a big guy. Honestly one of the best big

<v Speaker 1>guys in wrestling history. But what it was, Bruce Pritchard

<v Speaker 1>talked about this on his podcast many years ago, was

<v Speaker 1>that he had a knee injury at the time. It

<v Speaker 1>was really bothering him and plus Vince Vince did want

<v Speaker 1>him to drop some weight, and I guess the doctor

<v Speaker 1>told him, like, you have two options here. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>you can have surgery to fix your knee or you

<v Speaker 1>could drop the weight. And he chose to drop the

<v Speaker 1>weight and the knee stopped bothering him, wouldn't you know?

<v Speaker 1>He felt a lot better. But they got the mountee

<v Speaker 1>for this episode. Jacques Rougeau, who just got booed by

<v Speaker 1>his fellow countryman on the aw pay per view last

<v Speaker 1>weekend and he was almost kicked out of the building.

<v Speaker 1>They were at the they were in Montreal, they were

<v Speaker 1>at the Bell Center and this is a very Jacques story.

<v Speaker 1>So they did a pre show segment. I know, I'm

<v Speaker 1>taking a detour here, but they did a pre show

<v Speaker 1>segment last Sunday honoring eighty years of the Rougeau dynasty

<v Speaker 1>and they had Jacques and Raymond in the ring for it.

<v Speaker 1>And Meltzer reported that the reason that there was no

<v Speaker 1>video tribute like before they came out, maybe you think, oh,

<v Speaker 1>they play video or something. The reason there was no

<v Speaker 1>tribute video was Jacques had told them, oh, I'll take

<v Speaker 1>care of it, like I'll put the video together, and

<v Speaker 1>apparently he got it to them like the day of

<v Speaker 1>the show, and I don't know why they would have

<v Speaker 1>been relying on him to do the video, but in

<v Speaker 1>any event, he gets the video over to them and

<v Speaker 1>the video is too long. It has music in the

<v Speaker 1>background that they don't have the rights to. It has

<v Speaker 1>AI elements in it that they were never going to use,

<v Speaker 1>so they were like, we're not using this, and he

<v Speaker 1>pitched a fit over it, and he threw a temper

<v Speaker 1>tange from to the point where one person told him

<v Speaker 1>either calm down or we're gonna throw your ass out

<v Speaker 1>of here. And he actually posted the video to his

<v Speaker 1>Facebook page if you want to see it. I think

<v Speaker 1>it's pretty tame overall. I mean, of course, he included

<v Speaker 1>the footage of him pitting Hogan back in ninety seven

<v Speaker 1>from that Fancam footage. But in the episode here he

<v Speaker 1>said that he wasn't a real Mounte, but he was

<v Speaker 1>a real jerk. Yeah. Well, at least he's self aware.

<v Speaker 1>But he's also the only person I can remember on

<v Speaker 1>Dark Side of the Ring to be dressed in full

<v Speaker 1>gimmick while he was being interviewed. He had the whole

<v Speaker 1>Mounty costume on, right down to the replica Intercontinental title,

<v Speaker 1>which he held for literally two days, but he was

<v Speaker 1>there to talk about his jailhouse match with Boss Man.

<v Speaker 1>It's Summer Slim nineteen ninety one. God, I love that match. Honestly,

<v Speaker 1>it's the post match more than the match itself. After

<v Speaker 1>he loses, he gets handcuffed and he gets taken and

<v Speaker 1>the camera follows him as he's being taken away to

<v Speaker 1>the paddy wagon out back in Madison Square Garden, and

<v Speaker 1>for the rest of the pay per view, they would

<v Speaker 1>cut back to various scenes of him being taken to

<v Speaker 1>the precinct. He's being fingerprinted, you know, give me your finger,

<v Speaker 1>you want the finger, here's the finger, right, getting his

<v Speaker 1>mugshot taken, and then it ultimately ac culminates with him

<v Speaker 1>being thrown into a cell with some guy in leather.

<v Speaker 1>The whole thing was so wacky, but it was so great.

<v Speaker 1>It was so great, and you could tell like he

<v Speaker 1>loves being the Mounty. He loves being the Mounty. So

<v Speaker 1>when I met him many years ago, I was doing

<v Speaker 1>interviews for Fight TV at wressel Con. This would have

<v Speaker 1>been when WrestleMania came to Orlando, and he was one

<v Speaker 1>of the people I had a chance to briefly talk

<v Speaker 1>to was him and Jimmy Hart, and he was in

<v Speaker 1>full Mounty gear. He like he was the Mounty in

<v Speaker 1>that moment, and more than any other character he may

<v Speaker 1>have portrayed, the rouge O Brothers anything like that, Like

<v Speaker 1>he's the Mounty and nobody loves him more than he does.

<v Speaker 1>But those segments were just they were so entertaining. And

<v Speaker 1>the whole time, by the way, all the stuff that's

<v Speaker 1>going on at the precincts, he's just yelling at the officers.

<v Speaker 1>Do you know who I am? I'm the Mountie. My god,

<v Speaker 1>fucking love it. I will gladly take these segments over

<v Speaker 1>one Dan Hausen concert any day. They didn't get into

<v Speaker 1>any of Boss Man's feud with Nails, though, the evil

<v Speaker 1>x con who was out for revenge on the man

<v Speaker 1>who put him away unjustly, I'm sure, and whose voice

<v Speaker 1>they would alter in post production on all the TV shows.

<v Speaker 1>Every time he cut a promo, I swear to guy

<v Speaker 1>like he would be out there. And again, you know,

<v Speaker 1>I'm a younger fan, I don't know any better, and

<v Speaker 1>I'm listening to this guy cut a promo. Boss Man,

<v Speaker 1>you put me a womb boss I'm gonna Beachress Boss Burn.

<v Speaker 1>That's literally a nails promo right there. And then of

<v Speaker 1>course there's the the unreleased promo my Summer Slim Payoffs,

<v Speaker 1>a little life VIDs. There should be an extra zero

<v Speaker 1>this shit give me my fucking money vice anyway, but

<v Speaker 1>that was effectively the end of boss Man's run there.

<v Speaker 1>You know, the drawback to him working that schedule, and

<v Speaker 1>the schedule back then was just inhumane. I mean you

<v Speaker 1>go back and you look at that WA schedule in

<v Speaker 1>the eighties and even into the early nineties, it was inhumane.

<v Speaker 1>I mean they ran them like pieces of meat, you know,

<v Speaker 1>when they would have B cruse and C crews and

<v Speaker 1>they would run multiple shows on the same night across

<v Speaker 1>the country, and it was just insane. And he was

<v Speaker 1>never home to see his family, and his daughter grew

<v Speaker 1>very distant from him because, yeah, she was very young,

<v Speaker 1>and to her, you know, he had become this stranger,

<v Speaker 1>which is really sad to hear her say. That's what

<v Speaker 1>she said in the episode. But that's why they saw

<v Speaker 1>his WCW run as a blessing, you know, to you

<v Speaker 1>and me, his WCW run was nothing memorable, and he

<v Speaker 1>ran through a bunch of different gimmicks because he couldn't

<v Speaker 1>use the Big boss Man name anymore, so he came

<v Speaker 1>in using his old Big Bubba Rogers name, and then

<v Speaker 1>they made him the Boss, which Vince threatened to sue

<v Speaker 1>them over because it was too close to his old likeness.

<v Speaker 1>So then it was the Guardian Angel. Then he just

<v Speaker 1>went by his real name for a while. The only

<v Speaker 1>thing of note that he ever did there was when

<v Speaker 1>he initially came in, he feuded with Vader sting Invader.

<v Speaker 1>This feud was not but they still had some good

<v Speaker 1>matches together. You know, they worked. God how many fucking

<v Speaker 1>pay per views did they work in ninety four? Like

<v Speaker 1>three or four pay per views Spring Stampede. I know

<v Speaker 1>is won Bash at the Beach, which was Hogan's debut

<v Speaker 1>against Flair, Boss Man Invader, worked Fall Brawl and Halloween Havoc,

<v Speaker 1>and then after that, the only thing, the only thing

<v Speaker 1>I remember him doing after that, he joined the nWo,

<v Speaker 1>which I mean, who gives his shit because everybody joined

<v Speaker 1>the nWo, But he joined the nWo and he had

<v Speaker 1>a Mexican death match with Hugh Morris. Now, why Big

<v Speaker 1>Bubba and Hugh Morris would have a Mexican death match.

<v Speaker 1>I have no idea. I don't remember the context. I

<v Speaker 1>don't remember the story behind it, if there was a

<v Speaker 1>story behind it. What I do remember is that Bubba

<v Speaker 1>ran him down with a motorcycle and he won the

<v Speaker 1>match by count out. So I remember that. And I

<v Speaker 1>can't even blame Russo for this. You cannot even lay

<v Speaker 1>this at the feet of Vince Russo. This was early

<v Speaker 1>ninety seven. But if you didn't know the date, and

<v Speaker 1>I told you that boss Men and Bill DeMott were

<v Speaker 1>in a Mexican death match and boss Man ran him

<v Speaker 1>down with a motorcycle, one hundred percent, you would guess

<v Speaker 1>that this was during the Russo era of WCW. Vince

<v Speaker 1>Russo actually was also interviewed for this because they got

<v Speaker 1>into boss Man's return during the Attitude era. Now, Jim

<v Speaker 1>Cornett calls the creative for boss Man's second run rotten

<v Speaker 1>some of the worst stuff ever in the history of wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>And I will never get tired of these episodes where

<v Speaker 1>he and Russo take shots at one another. It's just

<v Speaker 1>too bad they're not in the same room together. But

<v Speaker 1>if they don't eventually do that, if they don't eventually

<v Speaker 1>end the series, Like eventually, Dark Side of the Ring

<v Speaker 1>will come to an end. And when that time comes,

<v Speaker 1>I hope it's not one of these like mid season cancelations.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they can get a heads up and they could

<v Speaker 1>do like a big series finale type episode. And my

<v Speaker 1>hope is that at the end of all of this

<v Speaker 1>it ends with the two of them face to face

<v Speaker 1>in the same room. If it doesn't end with that,

<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna be very disappointed, because you're you're gonna go out.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, at least take the series out in the

<v Speaker 1>blaze of glory, right, You got to give the people

<v Speaker 1>what they want. But Cornett, look, he's not totally wrong here.

<v Speaker 1>Some of it was rotten. But the stuff boss Man

<v Speaker 1>did in his second stint there, it's a guilty pleasure

<v Speaker 1>of mine. I actually love it. So I can't agree

<v Speaker 1>with him totally on that. I can understand, you know,

<v Speaker 1>the family not liking it. It was it was very questionable.

<v Speaker 1>They brought him back first as Vince McMahon's bodyguard. He

<v Speaker 1>was clad in a black tactical vest. He looked like

<v Speaker 1>the grandfather of the Shield. They brought this man back

<v Speaker 1>and his first night in he was working with Stone

<v Speaker 1>Cold Steve Austin, and I was there that night. It

<v Speaker 1>was my birthday gift that year, tickets to Raw at

<v Speaker 1>the nasau Colise. It was the same night that Austin

<v Speaker 1>ports Cement into Vince's limo, but the main event was

<v Speaker 1>Stone Cold and the Rock against Undertaker and Kine. There

<v Speaker 1>could be no better match to sum up the Attitude

<v Speaker 1>era than that one right there. And boss Man attacks

<v Speaker 1>Austin with a nightstick at the very end of the show,

<v Speaker 1>at the very end of the match, and he pulls

<v Speaker 1>the mask off for the big reveal, and I think

<v Speaker 1>that's how they went off the air. And the plan

<v Speaker 1>supposedly had been for him to feud with Austin, but

<v Speaker 1>there was a blown spot during Austin's Deadly Game match

<v Speaker 1>at Survivor Series with Mankind where boss Man was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to run in and hit him with a chair, except

<v Speaker 1>nobody could find where boss Man was. Apparently he was

<v Speaker 1>busy in the back going over his match later or

<v Speaker 1>whatever later with the Undertaker, deep in conversation, I guess

<v Speaker 1>with the Undertaker. Meanwhile, this match is going on and

<v Speaker 1>they're getting to the spot, and I think Vince, because

<v Speaker 1>Vince was at ringside, and Patterson was there, brisco all

<v Speaker 1>of them, and Vince's like, where's boss Man? And they

<v Speaker 1>didn't know he ran out, so they had to call

<v Speaker 1>an audible and they had Briscoe get in the ring

<v Speaker 1>and he hit I think Slaughter was there too, and

<v Speaker 1>Briscoe gets in the ring and he hits Austin with

<v Speaker 1>one of the worst chair shots that you will ever see. Now,

<v Speaker 1>it's not as bad as the Lance Storm one to

<v Speaker 1>was it RVD? I think in ECW it wasn't as

<v Speaker 1>bad as that. It wasn't as bad as the Hulk

<v Speaker 1>Hogan Love tap with the chair to Conan's head in WCW.

<v Speaker 1>But it's pretty bad. And it was bad enough that

<v Speaker 1>Austin when he got to the back, Austin just cussed

<v Speaker 1>him out, like he went off on him. So that

<v Speaker 1>ended any chance of Boston Men working an actual program

<v Speaker 1>with Austin. I mean, look, it's not like it would

<v Speaker 1>have been a long one anyway. I mean, this would

<v Speaker 1>have been in the period between Survivors series and the

<v Speaker 1>Rumble in ninety nine, all right, so maybe they would

<v Speaker 1>have gotten a pay per view match out of it,

<v Speaker 1>maybe at that December in Your House show Austin an Undertaker.

<v Speaker 1>They had a buried a live match on that show.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe instead of Austin Undertaker buried alive, it would have

<v Speaker 1>been Austin against the Man. But outside of that, believe me,

<v Speaker 1>any sort of Austin boss Man thing, it would have

<v Speaker 1>been brief. I'm not even sure. There would have been

<v Speaker 1>a pay per view match, maybe a television main event

<v Speaker 1>at best. But then they got into the hanging spot

<v Speaker 1>from his hell in a Cell match with Undertaker WrestleMania fifteen,

<v Speaker 1>which was not a good match, and it was Russo's

<v Speaker 1>idea to do the mock hanging and they tell him

<v Speaker 1>like that. You could hear the producer in the background

<v Speaker 1>tell Russo, you know boss Man's family. This was like

<v Speaker 1>the first time or one of the first times his

<v Speaker 1>family had come to see him live and they were

<v Speaker 1>in attendance for this, and Russo just laughs. He's like,

<v Speaker 1>oh my, oh, I had no idea, Bro, the first

<v Speaker 1>I'm hearing of this, bro. And Cornett said, how do

<v Speaker 1>you come back from a hanging? I mean, the man

<v Speaker 1>has a point. I mean, in aw, they would still

<v Speaker 1>kick out at two, but I mean that's besides the point.

<v Speaker 1>So we go from him being hanged to him feuding

<v Speaker 1>with Al Snow. Not sure which is worse, but he's

<v Speaker 1>feuding with Al Snow and he steals his pet Chihuahua Pepper.

<v Speaker 1>He cooks the dog. He feeds the dog to Al Snow.

<v Speaker 1>He fed Al Snow some pepper steak, and boss Man's

<v Speaker 1>daughter had to go to school the next day and

<v Speaker 1>answer questions from her friends about why her father was

<v Speaker 1>cooking someone's dog, and that then led to the infamous

<v Speaker 1>Kennel from Hell match to blow off their feud, a

<v Speaker 1>match so great that they never did it again. Even

<v Speaker 1>the mere mention of it probably would be enough to

<v Speaker 1>get you fired and blackballed from the industry. But after

<v Speaker 1>that he transitioned into a feud with the Big Show,

<v Speaker 1>which included boss Man hiring a fake police officer to

<v Speaker 1>inform Big Show that his father had passed away, even

<v Speaker 1>though he had not. But then he did, and so

<v Speaker 1>boss Man crashed the funeral of Big Show's father. He

<v Speaker 1>dragged Big Show's father's casket through the cemetery hitch to

<v Speaker 1>the back of the Blues Mob from the Blues Brothers movie.

<v Speaker 1>This was their world title feud, by the way, because

<v Speaker 1>Big Show won the Championship at Survivor Series that year.

<v Speaker 1>This is your WWE title feud. They ended up having

<v Speaker 1>a three minute match at the Armageddon pay per view

<v Speaker 1>that absolutely fucking sucked, and it involved Big Show laying

<v Speaker 1>on the floor outside. For I would say about eighty

<v Speaker 1>five percent of it. Now, was all of this stuff tasteless? Absolutely,

<v Speaker 1>they did a lot of tasteless shit back then. This

<v Speaker 1>was only a year or so after they shot the

<v Speaker 1>angle with a drunk Road Warrior Hawk being pushed off

<v Speaker 1>the top of the Titan Tron by Draws. But I

<v Speaker 1>would be lying if I said that I didn't find

<v Speaker 1>some of these segments very entertaining, because I did. I did,

<v Speaker 1>And Boss Man was fully committed to the role. He

<v Speaker 1>was such a rap bastard in that feud. He was great.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look look at what they had this man

<v Speaker 1>do in ninety nine, feeding a man's dog to him

<v Speaker 1>and dragging someone's cask get through the graveyard. We don't

<v Speaker 1>get heels like that anymore. But look, I understand where

<v Speaker 1>Cornett is coming from when he says that it sucks

<v Speaker 1>that most people may only remember Ray from all the

<v Speaker 1>stupid shit they had him doing in ninety nine. Right,

<v Speaker 1>instead of the fact that he was a great worker

<v Speaker 1>who had this whole career before that and worked some

<v Speaker 1>of the biggest names in the industry that I understand,

<v Speaker 1>and that does suck. If there are fans out there

<v Speaker 1>who identify him only for that and nothing else that

<v Speaker 1>he ever did, then that's that's terrible. They also interviewed

<v Speaker 1>referee Nick Patrick for this and he talked about the

<v Speaker 1>boys using somas, which is a muscle relaxer. There used

<v Speaker 1>to be a thing in wrestling called a soma coma

<v Speaker 1>because they would take so many of them. And this

<v Speaker 1>is where the episode went from the absurd, silly haha

<v Speaker 1>stuff to dark side of the ring. Boss Man was

<v Speaker 1>popping soma's just to not hurt anymore. He was in

<v Speaker 1>great pain. His family never saw him like that before.

<v Speaker 1>He you know, passing out of the dinner table, I

<v Speaker 1>mean stuff like that. And he wasn't a pill guy,

<v Speaker 1>you know, he wasn't really a drug guide. But he's

<v Speaker 1>got a bad back, his knee hurts, he's still working,

<v Speaker 1>he's still on the road, and he's self medicating to

<v Speaker 1>try to soldier on. And it was very easy back

<v Speaker 1>then to get prescriptions from certain doctors. These Mark doctors

<v Speaker 1>for whatever they needed. Oh hey, I've got a prescription

<v Speaker 1>for it, so it's okay. You know, look, the doc

<v Speaker 1>gave me a prescription. We're all good. How Chris ben

<v Speaker 1>Wah factored into this is that boss Man was getting

<v Speaker 1>his prescriptions from doctor phil Aston, the same doctor in

<v Speaker 1>Georgia who provided a lot of the other wrestlers with

<v Speaker 1>their candy, shall we say, including Chris Benwih That famous

<v Speaker 1>final photo of ben Wa that was taken the same

<v Speaker 1>day that they believe he killed Nancy that was taken

<v Speaker 1>in doctor Aston's office, which was later rated, and he

<v Speaker 1>admitted to illegally prescribing drugs, sometimes even without examining the patients.

<v Speaker 1>He pled guilty to like one hundred seventy five counts

<v Speaker 1>against him. He got sent to prison for ten years.

<v Speaker 1>He served his sentence, he got out, but he's dead

<v Speaker 1>now and the world is a better place for it.

<v Speaker 1>Ben Wah and the boss Man were actually very close

<v Speaker 1>again ben Wa, He's never even mentioned here, but the

<v Speaker 1>two of them were very close. Chris Jericho, in his

<v Speaker 1>second book, I believe it was his second book, said

<v Speaker 1>that when boss Man passed away, ben Wah called him

<v Speaker 1>up and he was crying, and he was saying, I

<v Speaker 1>can't do this anymore. I'm tired of all my friends

<v Speaker 1>dying on me. And that was a year before Eddie died,

<v Speaker 1>and then a few months after that, Johnny Grunge died,

<v Speaker 1>whom ben Wah was also very close with. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that man was a time bomb waiting to explode. But

<v Speaker 1>I dug up the journal entry that ben wa wrote.

<v Speaker 1>His father gave a copy of it to IRV Mushnick

<v Speaker 1>years ago. His father had told Mushnik that Chris's two

<v Speaker 1>best friends were Eddie Guerrero and Ray Trailer and I

<v Speaker 1>never knew they were that close. But you read this

<v Speaker 1>and it's very clear how much boss Man meant to him.

<v Speaker 1>This is what he wrote for those of you who

<v Speaker 1>may never have heard this before. This is in Benoi's

<v Speaker 1>own words. September twenty second, two thousand and four, Ray

<v Speaker 1>Trailor passed away from a heart attack. I don't remember

<v Speaker 1>the first time I met Ray, but that seems to

<v Speaker 1>be with a lot of my life. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if it's because I've lost a lot of memories because

<v Speaker 1>of bumping, or if I just don't like looking in

<v Speaker 1>rear view mirrors. Too much. This one thing I hate

<v Speaker 1>about myself for these walls I put up around myself

<v Speaker 1>sometimes when I feel hurt and everything seems to be oblivious.

<v Speaker 1>I love Ray Traylor. He's the only person that I

<v Speaker 1>know that I've never seen in a bad mood or

<v Speaker 1>not smile or not make me smile. Ever, he always

<v Speaker 1>made time for me, whether to talk or lend a

<v Speaker 1>helping hand. Ray Traylor was a real person, no guess work.

<v Speaker 1>I like to say. Ray Traylor was a man's man.

<v Speaker 1>He always used to say that about me to me.

<v Speaker 1>I would spend days with him. In every half hour,

<v Speaker 1>so though it seemed like every five minutes, he would say,

<v Speaker 1>Chris Benoi, have I told you I loved you yet?

<v Speaker 1>And I used to laugh and he would laugh. But

<v Speaker 1>by the end of the day, whenever we were done

<v Speaker 1>doing whatever we were doing, we would hug and I

<v Speaker 1>would tell him I loved him. I used to laugh

<v Speaker 1>when I would hear that from him all day. I

<v Speaker 1>used to laugh. Thinking about it now I don't, but

<v Speaker 1>I know why he did it and what he meant.

<v Speaker 1>Ray Trailer loved life and everything it offered. It is

<v Speaker 1>September twenty fifth today. I'm sitting on a plane on

<v Speaker 1>my way to Sue's City to wrestle. I just left

<v Speaker 1>Pickett Mills Baptist Church, where the service for Ray Trailer

<v Speaker 1>was held. I spent time with his wife, Angie, and

<v Speaker 1>two young daughters, Lacey and Megan. I listened to some

<v Speaker 1>of his friends get up and tell stories that made

<v Speaker 1>me laugh while I was crying. The most emotional part

<v Speaker 1>was listening to his daughter Lacey speak. I wanted to

<v Speaker 1>take all of her pain and sadness away. I pray

<v Speaker 1>that God gives them the strength and faith they need

<v Speaker 1>to get through this. Angie, Lacey, Megan. As Nancy and

<v Speaker 1>I left the church and watch them put Rays off

<v Speaker 1>and into the hearse we both waved goodbye one last time,

<v Speaker 1>and I thanked him in my heart and thanked God

<v Speaker 1>for putting him in my life, and I said, I

<v Speaker 1>love you Ray. It's tough to hear that things got

<v Speaker 1>bad enough that Ray and his wife separated. She couldn't

<v Speaker 1>take it anymore. And then Kurt Hennick died and that

<v Speaker 1>really bothered Ray. The two of them were very close,

<v Speaker 1>and that seemed to be the wake up call that

<v Speaker 1>he needed, because after Kurt's death, he told his wife,

<v Speaker 1>look I want to come back home. You know. He

<v Speaker 1>wanted her forgiveness, and they renewed their wedding vows, and

<v Speaker 1>his wife says that she never saw him get messed

<v Speaker 1>up again after that. He did still have pain, though,

<v Speaker 1>and he had been complaining one night about his knees,

<v Speaker 1>and she took the kids upstairs to bed. He said,

<v Speaker 1>I'll be up soon to tuck them in, and he

<v Speaker 1>never came upstairs. And when his wife came down to

<v Speaker 1>grab a drink for one of the kids, she looked

<v Speaker 1>over and she noticed him on the couch and his

<v Speaker 1>color didn't look right. And to hear his daughter say

<v Speaker 1>that she won't ever forget hearing her mother's screams and

<v Speaker 1>coming downstairs and finding her dad like that. You know,

<v Speaker 1>his wife called nine to one one. They told her

<v Speaker 1>lay him flat on the ground. The guy was over

<v Speaker 1>three hundred pounds though at that point, you know, so

<v Speaker 1>for a woman and her daughter, I mean, that was

<v Speaker 1>not an easy thing to do. But his daughter had

<v Speaker 1>just started taking CPR classes like the week before, so

<v Speaker 1>she started chess compressions and if you ever watch doctor

<v Speaker 1>Mike on YouTube, chest compressions, Chess compressions, chess compressions. Every

<v Speaker 1>time I say that out loud, He's the first person

<v Speaker 1>I think of. But she was doing chess compressions and

<v Speaker 1>giving him mouth to mouth and she said that she

<v Speaker 1>could feel his last breaths in her mouth. Like this

<v Speaker 1>is the part that is just it's heartbreaking. The paramedics arrived,

<v Speaker 1>but they couldn't revive him, and he was only forty

<v Speaker 1>one years old, and his wife says that his whole

<v Speaker 1>family died young from heart issues. Cornett says he died

<v Speaker 1>a week before the first Midnight Express reunion that they

<v Speaker 1>had planned. I guess at whatever convention they were going

<v Speaker 1>to be working. And this is the point where Cornet

<v Speaker 1>had to excuse himself to get up because he just

<v Speaker 1>totally broke down crying. They show part of his WWE

<v Speaker 1>Hall of Fame induction in twenty sixteen. We got a

<v Speaker 1>lot of home video footage throughout the episode, which was

<v Speaker 1>very cool to see. It's very similar to the Hulk

<v Speaker 1>Hogan docu series on Netflix in that regard, and I

<v Speaker 1>thought it did a good job of filling in the

<v Speaker 1>gaps on his personal life, because you know, to us,

<v Speaker 1>he was the big boss man. We didn't get to

<v Speaker 1>know Ray trailer, and by all accounts, he was a

<v Speaker 1>good person and he was a great father, and if

<v Speaker 1>that was his only legacy, that would be a fine

<v Speaker 1>legacy for him to leave behind. But he was also

<v Speaker 1>a great wrestler who was very successful at his craft,

<v Speaker 1>and by all accounts, never let all of that success

<v Speaker 1>that he had early on in his career get to

<v Speaker 1>his head. He was still the same person he was

<v Speaker 1>when he got into the business, just a little more famous.

<v Speaker 1>All right, again, I'm gonna be with you live on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube tonight as soon as Night two of Summer Slam

<v Speaker 1>is over, So close out the weekend with me and

<v Speaker 1>join me there. We had a lot of fun last night,

<v Speaker 1>so hopefully I'll get to see you back there. And

<v Speaker 1>then this week we have the Raw post show on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube Live on Monday night. We'll have the Dynamite Grand

<v Speaker 1>Slam Mexico post show on Wednesday. There will be no

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown post show on Friday, because again I will be

<v Speaker 1>at the NYC Arena for a big House of Glory

<v Speaker 1>show that will be streaming live on YouTube, just not

<v Speaker 1>on my channel, that'll be on the Hog Channel. I

<v Speaker 1>hope you can join, if not in person, hopefully on YouTube.

<v Speaker 1>That's going to be a big, big show on Friday.

<v Speaker 1>Next Sunday, I'll be back with you as usual for

<v Speaker 1>episode nine to seventy five of The Solemn Monster Sounds Off.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you again for getting me to ninety three thousand

<v Speaker 1>subs on YouTube. I very much appreciate that. Keeps spreading

<v Speaker 1>the good worst the best thing you guys can do.

<v Speaker 1>If you have friends wrestling fans who are looking for

<v Speaker 1>a new podcast to listen to or YouTube channel to

<v Speaker 1>subscribe to, let them know. I know that you're a

<v Speaker 1>Sound of Finn and we can grow the family even more.

<v Speaker 1>Follow me on x as well. I'll probably be live

<v Speaker 1>tweeting during the show tonight at solomonster On there be well,

<v Speaker 1>stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of your weekend.

<v Speaker 1>If you are watching Summer Slam tonight, enjoy. I'll see

<v Speaker 1>you for the post show and back here for nine

<v Speaker 1>to seventy five next Sunday. Until then, take care, guys.

<v Speaker 1>The Solemn Monster Sounds Off. So then it was backstage

<v Speaker 1>two Dan Housen's Lair with the Miz and Kit Wilson's

<v Speaker 1>still sitting there. You know they are sitting there looking

<v Speaker 1>very zombie. Five They may well have I mean, they

<v Speaker 1>were electrocuted, so they may well have lost all control

<v Speaker 1>of their bodily functions. For those keeping score, we have

<v Speaker 1>one mute person on this show every single week who

<v Speaker 1>just flanks and lays there while his wife watches helplessly.

<v Speaker 1>And then we have a couple of dudes, one of

<v Speaker 1>whom I should point out as a former two time

<v Speaker 1>WWE champion and wrestle Mania headliner, who sits there every week,

<v Speaker 1>so mostly mute because these two men were previously electrocuted

<v Speaker 1>weeks ago. The fact that Maz is a two time

<v Speaker 1>WWE champion and wrestle Media headliner. I don't want to

<v Speaker 1>hear anybody ever complain about fucking Sammy Zan ever again.

<v Speaker 1>The fuck out of here.

<v Speaker 2>The Solo Monster Sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,

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<v Speaker 1>The Solo Monster Dom Shit