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

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I love you, Solo! Mama Monster! Concord! My home!

<v Speaker 1>I want your soul. You've got grown-ass wrestlers in the

<v Speaker 1>back going on Twitter. You have legs. I was 99%

<v Speaker 1>positive it was just chest up. I have been begging

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

<v Speaker 1>I want to know the reason why he won't hire me.

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to an early episode 978 of the Salomonster Sounds

<v Speaker 1>Off for Saturday, August 29th, 2026. Early because AEW has

<v Speaker 1>a big pay-per-view tomorrow, right smack in the middle of

<v Speaker 1>the day, and they're messing with my schedule. I have

<v Speaker 1>less sympathy for WWE counter-programming them now that they're counter-programming

<v Speaker 1>against me. Actually, WWE is too. They have a AAA

<v Speaker 1>show streaming on YouTube starting at noon Eastern tomorrow, and

<v Speaker 1>then it leads directly into an NXT heatwave show at

<v Speaker 1>3 p.m. So it's going to be a busy day

<v Speaker 1>of wrestling tomorrow, whatever you're choosing to watch. So let's

<v Speaker 1>make sure I get you guys all caught up a

<v Speaker 1>little bit earlier than usual. It was a bad week

<v Speaker 1>to be an 80-year-old. Funny enough, Vince McMahon just turned

<v Speaker 1>81 on Monday, but he's still alive and kicking. I

<v Speaker 1>cannot say the same for Dolly Parton or Tim Curry,

<v Speaker 1>who both died on Tuesday and at the same age, too.

<v Speaker 1>They were both 80. Very sad to hear. Tim Curry,

<v Speaker 1>obviously a legendary actor. He's been in a ton of

<v Speaker 1>different things over the years. Clue is probably still my favorite.

<v Speaker 1>His role in the movie Clue. I know everyone, not everyone,

<v Speaker 1>but a lot of people will say the Rocky Horror

<v Speaker 1>Picture Show. And that's all well and good. But to me,

<v Speaker 1>my favorite role of his will always be in Clue.

<v Speaker 1>I say Clue and Congo. He was actually in the

<v Speaker 1>movie Congo. I think that came out back in 95.

<v Speaker 1>But Dolly did a music video. with Hulk Hogan back

<v Speaker 1>in 1987 that aired on her old variety show. But

<v Speaker 1>there was another wrestler who shared a connection with her,

<v Speaker 1>and no, it is not Ric Flair, despite the stupid

<v Speaker 1>video clip he chose to post as a tribute to

<v Speaker 1>her in death. Stay classy, Ric. I think Flair could

<v Speaker 1>learn something from Ricky Morton of the Rock and Roll Express,

<v Speaker 1>who posted a very nice tribute to Dolly on his

<v Speaker 1>Facebook page. Growing up in a small house in Antioch,

<v Speaker 1>Tennessee with my mom, my dad, and my four brothers,

<v Speaker 1>we did not have much, but we had each other.

<v Speaker 1>And just down the street from us lived a woman

<v Speaker 1>who would go on to become one of the most

<v Speaker 1>beloved people in the world, Dolly Parton. I remember seeing

<v Speaker 1>Dolly riding her bicycle to and from the store. To

<v Speaker 1>the world, she would become a superstar, an icon, and

<v Speaker 1>a legend. But to us kids in Antioch, she was

<v Speaker 1>just Dolly from down the street. She was always so

<v Speaker 1>kind to little old Ricky and my brothers. She never

<v Speaker 1>made us feel like we were bothering her. She always

<v Speaker 1>had a smile and a kind word. Those are the

<v Speaker 1>memories that stay with you. As I got older, I

<v Speaker 1>watched her become everything the world knows her for. Her music,

<v Speaker 1>her generosity, her heart, and the way she treated people.

<v Speaker 1>But when I think of Dolly, I do not think

<v Speaker 1>first about the fame. I think about that little girl

<v Speaker 1>from Tennessee who grew up to touch so many lives,

<v Speaker 1>including ours. It's funny how life works. Sometimes the people

<v Speaker 1>who become legends are the same people You remember simply

<v Speaker 1>as the kind person from your neighborhood. Today, Tennessee lost

<v Speaker 1>a piece of its heart. The world lost an incredible woman,

<v Speaker 1>and I lost someone I will always be grateful to

<v Speaker 1>have known, even if those memories go all the way

<v Speaker 1>back to when I was just a little boy. Thank

<v Speaker 1>you for being kind to little old Ricky and my brothers.

<v Speaker 1>We truly lost a queen today. That was very nice.

<v Speaker 1>Dolly from down the street. It's like Jeff Jarrett living

<v Speaker 1>in the same neighborhood with a young Taylor Swift and

<v Speaker 1>getting her to babysit his kids. That was also in Tennessee.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you for making the sound of number one again

<v Speaker 1>on the Apple Podcast charts for Pro Wrestling after last

<v Speaker 1>week's show. Second time this summer that we've hit that mark.

<v Speaker 1>Let's keep it going into September. I saw the Coyote vs.

<v Speaker 1>Acme movie on Thursday. This is the John Cena movie

<v Speaker 1>that wrapped filming in 2022. What? A long time ago,

<v Speaker 1>it was originally greenlit as an HBO Max film by

<v Speaker 1>the previous regime at Warner Brothers Discovery. And then David

<v Speaker 1>Zaslav took over and the picture got shelved. They were

<v Speaker 1>more interested in getting a tax break for never releasing it.

<v Speaker 1>And then a company called Ketchup Entertainment came along and

<v Speaker 1>they bought the rights to the film for theatrical release.

<v Speaker 1>And it finally saw the light of day. It's also

<v Speaker 1>rocking a 95% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, 91% audience score.

<v Speaker 1>I am part of that 91%. I really like the movie.

<v Speaker 1>I didn't love it like it's going to be in

<v Speaker 1>my top three movies of the year or anything. It's

<v Speaker 1>no Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it is very much

<v Speaker 1>in the same vein as that movie. It's a fun

<v Speaker 1>blend of live action and animation. John Cena is really

<v Speaker 1>good in it. He's very much John Cena. If John

<v Speaker 1>Cena played an evil, over-the-top corporate executive... Or lawyer, I

<v Speaker 1>guess technically he is. I loved the Roadrunner and Wile E.

<v Speaker 1>Coyote stuff as a kid. I still laugh out loud

<v Speaker 1>at a lot of it. There's actually a few moments

<v Speaker 1>early in the film where they show, they replay some

<v Speaker 1>of the old clips. And I laughed harder at that

<v Speaker 1>than any of the new stuff that they have in

<v Speaker 1>the movie. Which is not to say the new stuff

<v Speaker 1>is bad. You just can't beat the classics. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>some comedy is just timeless. But I will say there

<v Speaker 1>is a moment near the end where I teared up

<v Speaker 1>a little bit. I'm not going to lie. That got

<v Speaker 1>me in my feels. So if you were pissed that

<v Speaker 1>this movie was being held hostage and it looked like

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't going to be released, but now it has been,

<v Speaker 1>go support it. It's not going to be a box

<v Speaker 1>office blockbuster or anything like that, but hopefully it'll do

<v Speaker 1>well enough to recoup the $ 50 million that Ketchup paid

<v Speaker 1>to acquire it. If you want to make a PayPal

<v Speaker 1>donation and support the podcast, you may do so on thesolidmonster.com.

<v Speaker 1>You'll see the PayPal link at the top of the page.

<v Speaker 1>$ 10 or more will get you a nickname and a

<v Speaker 1>shout out. I want to say thank you to the

<v Speaker 1>Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soep. Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray.

<v Speaker 1>The Georgian Nightmare, Timothy Tillis. Big Time, Boris Vainman. Billy

<v Speaker 1>Hardcore Habibi. Hey Billy, how you been? The Chicago Slayer,

<v Speaker 1>Willie Eichard. Night Stalker, Nayef Alsafar. Dashing David Brown. who

<v Speaker 1>is sending a big shout-out to Martin, Stephen, Craig, Ryan, Patrick,

<v Speaker 1>and Gerard. The gang is back in town for London.

<v Speaker 1>All In, along with himself and his best friend Mark,

<v Speaker 1>attending his first AEW show. That's one hell of a

<v Speaker 1>first show to attend. Wembley Stadium. And James Hollywood Herrera,

<v Speaker 1>who I will be seeing this coming Friday at the

<v Speaker 1>Globe Theatre for House of Glory Fallout. Los Angeles, I'm

<v Speaker 1>coming back. I will be inside you this Friday, and

<v Speaker 1>we're going to be streaming the show live again on

<v Speaker 1>the House of Glory YouTube channel. We got a great

<v Speaker 1>response to the last show, some audio issues aside. Last

<v Speaker 1>I checked, high intensity was up over 90,000 views and climbing.

<v Speaker 1>This time we've got a very cool attraction signed and

<v Speaker 1>sealed for the first time ever. The Amazing Red steps

<v Speaker 1>into the ring with the reigning AEW international champion Kyle Fletcher.

<v Speaker 1>The Proto Star, back in House of Glory. Last time

<v Speaker 1>he would have been in House of Glory, he was

<v Speaker 1>wrestling tag team matches. A very different Kyle Fletcher than

<v Speaker 1>the one we see today. And I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>he will still be the international champion after this weekend,

<v Speaker 1>but whether he is or he isn't, he will be there.

<v Speaker 1>The brand new HOG World Champion, Sweet Cheeks, Joey Silver,

<v Speaker 1>will be in action for his first title defense. Shotzi

<v Speaker 1>Blackheart puts her HOG Women's Championship on the line against

<v Speaker 1>Steph DeLander. Zelina, the former Zelina Vega, debuts for us

<v Speaker 1>against Shayna Baszler. Hook will be in action. He just

<v Speaker 1>debuted for us in New York. Now we're sending for

<v Speaker 1>him in LA. Laredo Kid will be in action. And

<v Speaker 1>a whole lot more. Standing room only is all that's

<v Speaker 1>left for balcony and general admission. So you can get

<v Speaker 1>those tickets at HOGRestling.net or stream it live and free

<v Speaker 1>on YouTube. Remember, it's West Coast. So that should be

<v Speaker 1>an 11 p.m. Eastern start time for the stream. JD

<v Speaker 1>and I will be on the call. So come say hello.

<v Speaker 1>Looking forward to being back in the City of Angels.

<v Speaker 1>So let's dive in here. We'll start with AEW because

<v Speaker 1>not only do we have all in to talk about,

<v Speaker 1>there is some news as well. But the go-home episode

<v Speaker 1>of Dynamite from Glasgow on Wednesday, I thought it was

<v Speaker 1>a pretty boring show. As you can probably tell from

<v Speaker 1>the hour I spent talking about it. That was the

<v Speaker 1>entire stream. I mean, look, there just isn't a whole

<v Speaker 1>lot to talk about sometimes. I'm not a miracle worker, people. Okay?

<v Speaker 1>I can only do so much. The build to this

<v Speaker 1>all-in pay-per-view has just been all over the place. There

<v Speaker 1>are certain things that I've liked, like the Willow and

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes stuff, which I think has been pretty good. Or

<v Speaker 1>the interactions between Kyle Fletcher and Okada heading into the

<v Speaker 1>international title three-way. The Kenny Omega-Will Ospreay stuff has been

<v Speaker 1>hit or miss with me. I think Ospreay's largely been

<v Speaker 1>pretty strong on his promos, although the one from Wednesday

<v Speaker 1>was rinse-repeat from what we've been hearing from him. And

<v Speaker 1>Kenny Omega wasn't even on the show. I mean, that's

<v Speaker 1>just bizarre for him to not even be there. As

<v Speaker 1>was the decision to put Swerve Strickland against Jack Perry

<v Speaker 1>as the main event of the show. Jack Perry... who,

<v Speaker 1>as of this recording, has not even been announced for

<v Speaker 1>a match. on this pay-per-view. My guess is he ends

<v Speaker 1>up in the casino gauntlet. But you had Jack Perry

<v Speaker 1>on one side of the ring, and on the other

<v Speaker 1>side of the ring you had Swerve, who is stuck

<v Speaker 1>doing trios bullshit. That was the main event to the

<v Speaker 1>final Dynamite before Wembley Stadium. That made absolutely no sense

<v Speaker 1>to me. The trio stuff is pretty inexcusable. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>given that you have two former AEW world champions involved here, Hangman,

<v Speaker 1>Adam Page, and Swerve, and there were some people online

<v Speaker 1>making hay about the fact that, oh, you know, a

<v Speaker 1>year ago in Texas at All In, Hangman was in

<v Speaker 1>the main event. He was wrestling for and winning the

<v Speaker 1>world championship, and now he's on the fucking pre-show. True.

<v Speaker 1>Although I do like the fact that they will rotate

<v Speaker 1>people in and out of the main event scene. It

<v Speaker 1>doesn't always have to be the same people. But to

<v Speaker 1>go from the main event to the pre-show, that is

<v Speaker 1>quite the change. And there wasn't even a mention, though,

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday, of what was even happening with the trios

<v Speaker 1>match at all. And not until Thursday, on the media

<v Speaker 1>call with Tony Khan, we finally got news on what

<v Speaker 1>they're actually doing. Reason being, according to Brian Alvarez, was

<v Speaker 1>that Tony was still working out all the details. He

<v Speaker 1>said there was a lot still to be determined. So

<v Speaker 1>the build to that has been shit. And then this

<v Speaker 1>Continental Cup. Let this be the last Continental Cup that

<v Speaker 1>they ever do. This tournament has been a complete waste

<v Speaker 1>of time. Just stick to the Continental Classic. There was

<v Speaker 1>no need for this. Tony Khan was very noncommittal on

<v Speaker 1>Thursday when he was asked about, hey, are you going

<v Speaker 1>to run this back again next year? He didn't exactly

<v Speaker 1>say yes. So hopefully that means this is a one

<v Speaker 1>and done thing. You tried it. And again, it just

<v Speaker 1>never ever felt as special as like the Continental Classic,

<v Speaker 1>which is a different kind of tournament. And that's cool.

<v Speaker 1>They do that once a year. This is not needed.

<v Speaker 1>But all this just to get Nigel McGuinness a moment

<v Speaker 1>on the show. Now, Nigel had a moment. He was

<v Speaker 1>in the casino gauntlet, I do believe, two years ago,

<v Speaker 1>the last time they were at Wembley. So that was

<v Speaker 1>his Wembley moment. And this is just all geared to

<v Speaker 1>get him another, you know, Wembley moment here on this show.

<v Speaker 1>I may be wrong. You know, I'll get to my

<v Speaker 1>quick predictions here in a moment. I have him going

<v Speaker 1>over and winning the championship just because I have a

<v Speaker 1>different idea for what to do with Jon Moxley, but

<v Speaker 1>he may well retire this weekend. This could very well

<v Speaker 1>end up being Nigel's last match for all we know.

<v Speaker 1>You know, but it is entirely possible this is all

<v Speaker 1>designed to get him that one last big match and

<v Speaker 1>maybe he leaves his boots in the ring at Wembley, right?

<v Speaker 1>And that's all well and good. And I'm not even

<v Speaker 1>saying the matches have all been bad in this tournament,

<v Speaker 1>but this tournament has been a bust. I'm sorry. So

<v Speaker 1>a very mixed bag when it comes with the build

<v Speaker 1>to this show. I'm sure the show itself is going

<v Speaker 1>to be great. I'm sure the matches are largely going

<v Speaker 1>to be great. And they will deliver like they usually do.

<v Speaker 1>As far as attendance, people have been talking about the

<v Speaker 1>attendance here for this show. Last I saw from WrestleTix,

<v Speaker 1>they were up over 43,000 tickets distributed. They're also approaching

<v Speaker 1>and likely going to go over a $ 6 million gate soon.

<v Speaker 1>That would roughly match what they did their last time

<v Speaker 1>in 2024 when they came to Wembley and fall below

<v Speaker 1>what their first show did in 2023. That show had

<v Speaker 1>a gate in excess of $ 10 million. Ain't nobody going

<v Speaker 1>to be complaining about 43,000 or 45,000 people at Wembley

<v Speaker 1>Stadium and a $ 6 million gate. Those are not bad numbers.

<v Speaker 1>They may be down, but they're not bad. Now we've

<v Speaker 1>got eight matches on the main card. which is just

<v Speaker 1>fine with me. Tony Khan on the media call Thursday

<v Speaker 1>said he's mapped out a four-hour pay-per-view and they should

<v Speaker 1>be done by 5 p.m. Eastern. They're going to have

<v Speaker 1>to be because they have a curfew at Wembley, which

<v Speaker 1>is I think 10.30 p.m. local time, 5.30 p.m. Eastern time.

<v Speaker 1>But Tony specifically said they're planning to be done by

<v Speaker 1>5 p.m. Eastern. We need more of these curfews. Can

<v Speaker 1>we get more curfews on these pay-per-views? There's a two-hour

<v Speaker 1>pre-show starting at 11 a.m. Eastern with only one match

<v Speaker 1>announced so far. I think there's at least a chance, maybe.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, nothing's been said. Maybe it'll be set on

<v Speaker 1>Collision tonight. As I am recording this, Collision has not

<v Speaker 1>taken place yet. Based on what we saw on Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday, would not be surprised if they add a

<v Speaker 1>TBS championship match with Persephone challenging Maya World for her title.

<v Speaker 1>But the one match announced so far is a seven-team

<v Speaker 1>trios roulette royale. Basically a trios version of a casino

<v Speaker 1>gauntlet match. With Hangman Adam Page and Brodito defending their

<v Speaker 1>titles against six other teams, including The Demand, The Death Riders,

<v Speaker 1>The Bang Bang Gang, The Dogs, The Conglomeration, and a

<v Speaker 1>wildcard team. Tony said with the landscape of wrestling changing,

<v Speaker 1>including free agents... He can field one hell of a

<v Speaker 1>wildcard team. Hmm. I wonder who that team will be.

<v Speaker 1>I'll tell you what's wild. The idea of the New

<v Speaker 1>Day debuting on the fucking pre-show. Which makes me think

<v Speaker 1>that they have to, right? I mean, this has to

<v Speaker 1>be one of those times where the pre-show match bleeds

<v Speaker 1>over into the main card. It actually would make a

<v Speaker 1>lot of sense, too, to save that wildcard team for

<v Speaker 1>last and make people have to tune into the pay-per-view

<v Speaker 1>to see who it is. And then just debut them there.

<v Speaker 1>It's going to be Swerve Strickland. It's going to be Kofi.

<v Speaker 1>It's going to be Austin Creed. And I predict those

<v Speaker 1>will be your new trios champions. Because if they're debuting

<v Speaker 1>them in that spot, it really should not go any

<v Speaker 1>other way. I got Kevin Knight retaining his TNT championship

<v Speaker 1>over Darby Allin in their Falls Count Anywhere match. I'm

<v Speaker 1>going with Kanosuke Takeshita to walk out once again international

<v Speaker 1>champion in his three-way against Okada and Kyle Fletcher, which

<v Speaker 1>is going to be fucking amazing. Divine Dominion defend their

<v Speaker 1>AW Women's Tag Team titles against the Brawling Birds. This

<v Speaker 1>is where the Brawling Birds finally collect some gold. We

<v Speaker 1>have the finals of the Continental Cup. Jon Moxley, the

<v Speaker 1>reigning Continental Champion in their one-on-one with the injured Nigel McGuinness.

<v Speaker 1>For the first time in 20 years, both men trained

<v Speaker 1>by Les Thatcher. They have not wrestled a match since 2006.

<v Speaker 1>This will be their first in 20 years, and I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure their last. And I'm Not all that confident in

<v Speaker 1>this prediction, but I've been saying it. I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>stick with it. Nigel McGuinness to win. That opens up

<v Speaker 1>the door for Jon Moxley to be doing something else. Now,

<v Speaker 1>on Dynamite, Moxley beat Claudio in the semifinals. Nigel beat

<v Speaker 1>Kyle O'Reilly, who may have suffered a broken orbital bone.

<v Speaker 1>There was fear of that on Wednesday. He had a

<v Speaker 1>nice shiner by the end of it. I haven't heard

<v Speaker 1>any updates on him since. Again, maybe they'll say something

<v Speaker 1>on Collision tonight. As far as what's going to happen here,

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to say McGinnis wins. And it opens up

<v Speaker 1>Jon Moxley to make a surprise entry into the casino gauntlet,

<v Speaker 1>but the casino gauntlet would have to go on after

<v Speaker 1>this match. So if the gauntlet comes before this match,

<v Speaker 1>I'm fucked, in my prediction. And Moxley is almost certainly

<v Speaker 1>going to win in that case. But assuming that the

<v Speaker 1>gauntlet comes on after, we have Andrade entering at number one,

<v Speaker 1>we have MJF entering at number two... I do think

<v Speaker 1>Jon Moxley enters and wins. That's kind of my wildcard

<v Speaker 1>prediction there. I do think we're going to have the

<v Speaker 1>debut of Ilya Dragunov, who is a free agent right now.

<v Speaker 1>I think he's going to debut here in this match.

<v Speaker 1>I have him entering at number three after Andrade and MJF,

<v Speaker 1>and I think that would be a nice surprise. And again,

<v Speaker 1>Moxley wins. He gets the gauntlet win, the contract that

<v Speaker 1>comes with it, and therefore he can then challenge whenever

<v Speaker 1>he would like. He just has to give one week's

<v Speaker 1>notice for the AEW World Championships. Coming out of All In.

<v Speaker 1>We have Adam Copeland and Christian Cage defending the AW

<v Speaker 1>Tag Team titles against the Young Bucks. To some, this

<v Speaker 1>is a dream match that they never thought they would see.

<v Speaker 1>This is not a match that needs any stipulations or

<v Speaker 1>any kind of overbooking or anything. This is just a

<v Speaker 1>straight shot, right? Edging Christian, who first made their bones

<v Speaker 1>25 plus years ago. The Young Bucks from the generation

<v Speaker 1>that followed. Generation Me. Now they're getting in the ring

<v Speaker 1>together for the first time. I got the Bucks. getting

<v Speaker 1>the win here, getting the chip, if you will, walking

<v Speaker 1>out new tag team champions. Willow Nightingale is going to

<v Speaker 1>defend her AEW Women's World Championship against Mercedes Monet, who

<v Speaker 1>won her second straight Owen Hart Foundation tournament to get

<v Speaker 1>the shot. Willow beat Tekla at Redemption last month. Tekla,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, no match on this show that she's

<v Speaker 1>been announced for, but she is said to be in London.

<v Speaker 1>So she will likely be appearing in some form or

<v Speaker 1>fashion next tomorrow on the pay-per-view or the pre-show. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>there's some pre-show match with the women that gets added.

<v Speaker 1>But she is not the champion. Willow is the champion.

<v Speaker 1>And I have been predicting a Willow Nightingale retention here

<v Speaker 1>in this match. And some people think I'm crazy for

<v Speaker 1>saying that. But I've been fairly confident in my prediction

<v Speaker 1>on that. And then we see on Dynamite this past

<v Speaker 1>Wednesday a very brief segment in the back. where Willow

<v Speaker 1>was laid out. She was attacked by Mercedes, who has

<v Speaker 1>Willow's hand in a chair, and she stomps on it.

<v Speaker 1>And it was very brief, and it was like, all right,

<v Speaker 1>that's fine, but what are they going for here? Are

<v Speaker 1>they going to do some sort of injury angle with

<v Speaker 1>the hand going into the pay-per-view? Well, now we know

<v Speaker 1>why they shot that angle, because Tony Khan himself, and

<v Speaker 1>then later Willow, confirmed that Willow Nightingale is working with

<v Speaker 1>a broken hand that she suffered in her title defense

<v Speaker 1>against Maya World on Collision last week. Just had to

<v Speaker 1>get that match in there. Now she's injured. I feel like...

<v Speaker 1>the odds are against me. So Willow is waiting on

<v Speaker 1>some x-ray results to find out how extensively she'll be

<v Speaker 1>able to use the hand, but they're clearing her to wrestle,

<v Speaker 1>so she's got her hand obviously all wrapped up. She's

<v Speaker 1>going to be in there. She's going to have one hand, basically.

<v Speaker 1>And look, it all comes down to how serious the

<v Speaker 1>injury is. You know, if you have a broken hand,

<v Speaker 1>that sounds pretty fucking serious. And I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>she's going to need surgery for it or if it's

<v Speaker 1>something that she could just let it heal on its own.

<v Speaker 1>But if she's got a broken hand, this sounds like

<v Speaker 1>let's just get through Wembley and then get her out

<v Speaker 1>of the ring so that she can heal and recover

<v Speaker 1>or have surgery if she would need surgery. It doesn't

<v Speaker 1>speak to Willow's going to win and Mercedes is going

<v Speaker 1>to lose and Willow is just going to continue to

<v Speaker 1>defend her championship with a broken hand because that would

<v Speaker 1>be fucking stupid. And so if that's the case, then

<v Speaker 1>Willow should lose this match. I don't want to see

<v Speaker 1>Willow Nightingale win for the sake of winning and then what?

<v Speaker 1>Surrender the title on Wednesday? I mean, that would be stupid.

<v Speaker 1>Somebody asked me about that. Do I think they would

<v Speaker 1>do that? I hope not because that would be fucking dumb.

<v Speaker 1>So Mercedes probably should be winning this match, but without

<v Speaker 1>knowing the full extent of the injury and what her

<v Speaker 1>status is going forward, I'm just going to stick with

<v Speaker 1>my prediction. I'm not going to suddenly change. I'm sticking

<v Speaker 1>with Willow to win. Obviously, I just feel a lot

<v Speaker 1>less confident about that now. It just boils down to

<v Speaker 1>the nature of the broken hand and how bad it is.

<v Speaker 1>But Mercedes' chances of winning just shot way up. I'll

<v Speaker 1>stick with Willow, though. I felt like coming into this,

<v Speaker 1>Willow was going to win. I'm going to stick with that.

<v Speaker 1>And then we have the AW World Championship. In the

<v Speaker 1>main event, Kenny Omega defends against Will Ospreay, who revealed

<v Speaker 1>on the Ariel Helwani show on Tuesday, speaking of injuries,

<v Speaker 1>that his neck surgery cost more than $ 420, 000. Welcome to

<v Speaker 1>the American healthcare system, Will Ospreay. He said that this

<v Speaker 1>shocked him when he saw the amount, but he did

<v Speaker 1>say that Tony Khan paid the entire cost of the operation.

<v Speaker 1>He said it costs more than his house. Where does

<v Speaker 1>he live? What part of England does he live? I

<v Speaker 1>may have to look at some real estate over there.

<v Speaker 1>I could tell right away that Will Osprey does not

<v Speaker 1>live in the United States, at least not in the

<v Speaker 1>Northeast he doesn't, because no house worth living in over

<v Speaker 1>here is $ 420, 000. I would kill for a $ 420, 000 house.

<v Speaker 1>Are you kidding me? Why do you think I'm still here?

<v Speaker 1>Do you see these home prices? Then again, I live

<v Speaker 1>in New York. I mean, that's my first mistake. I

<v Speaker 1>could live like a fucking king if I moved to

<v Speaker 1>the Midwest. Don't think I haven't thought about it. I

<v Speaker 1>just I can't do it. Look, the build has been

<v Speaker 1>very up and down on this. They've done some stuff

<v Speaker 1>and had some segments like that face to face a

<v Speaker 1>couple of weeks ago that I really thought was very

<v Speaker 1>strong and I enjoyed it. And then there are other

<v Speaker 1>weeks where it just feels very repetitive, this sudden shift

<v Speaker 1>to have Kenny as the heel, which they felt like,

<v Speaker 1>I guess, was necessary because this is all about the

<v Speaker 1>big babyface story with Will Ospreay. Finally going in there

<v Speaker 1>and doing the one thing he hasn't been able to

<v Speaker 1>do and overcoming adversity, overcoming injury, overcoming all the Death

<v Speaker 1>Rider stuff. And this last match they had at Forbidden

<v Speaker 1>Door three years ago where He says it keeps him

<v Speaker 1>up at night. I feel like I didn't really beat

<v Speaker 1>you because I needed Don Callis' help. I have to

<v Speaker 1>go out there and prove I can do it on

<v Speaker 1>my own. And Kenny is acting more heelish, like the

<v Speaker 1>championship has corrupted him. This is the story they've chosen

<v Speaker 1>to tell. All of this washes away and falls off

<v Speaker 1>the minute the bell rings. Because at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the day, it's Kenny Omega and it's Will Ospreay. And

<v Speaker 1>it's the main event of Wembley Stadium. If you think

<v Speaker 1>these guys are going to go in there and have

<v Speaker 1>anything but a classic... then you don't know Kenny Omega

<v Speaker 1>and Will Ospreay very well. Or you haven't seen the

<v Speaker 1>previous matches that they've had. So while the build hasn't been,

<v Speaker 1>you know, the best build to a Wembley main event,

<v Speaker 1>the match itself could very well end up being the

<v Speaker 1>best one that they've ever done. But this can go

<v Speaker 1>no other way, other than Will Ospreay walking out in

<v Speaker 1>front of his friends and family and fans as the

<v Speaker 1>new world champion. Everything that they have done this year,

<v Speaker 1>everything really since he has come back from that neck injury,

<v Speaker 1>has been building to this moment. There were people at

<v Speaker 1>Wembley two years ago who said, well, would this be

<v Speaker 1>a good time to put Will Ospreay in a position

<v Speaker 1>to win the title? Well, maybe they should wait. Well,

<v Speaker 1>they waited. Wisely, they waited. Here we are two years later.

<v Speaker 1>Who knows if they're going to be back at Wembley, right?

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they will. Maybe not even next year. Maybe it'll

<v Speaker 1>be another two years. But you don't wait. This is

<v Speaker 1>it right here. This is the moment. If you're going

<v Speaker 1>to crown the guy, this is the place to do it.

<v Speaker 1>So that's your card. I will be live on YouTube

<v Speaker 1>on Sunday night, tomorrow night. Figure around 8 p.m. Eastern.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to watch the show, have myself some dinner,

<v Speaker 1>and then go live after that. I won't go live

<v Speaker 1>right away. But about 8 o'clock or so, we'll go live,

<v Speaker 1>we'll hang out, we'll talk about All In. And hopefully

<v Speaker 1>I will see you guys there. Even if you're not

<v Speaker 1>a sicko, feel free to drop by and hang out. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned Will Ospreay was a guest on Ariel Helwani's

<v Speaker 1>show this week. He made some headlines for some things

<v Speaker 1>that he said this week. We'll start here, though. Some

<v Speaker 1>things he said in this interview here about WWE. On

<v Speaker 1>why he did not grow up as a fan of

<v Speaker 1>the WWE product. He had this to say. It just

<v Speaker 1>wasn't for me. I didn't like the presentation behind it,

<v Speaker 1>and I still have those feelings now. I found TNA,

<v Speaker 1>and I feel like that was a style that spoke

<v Speaker 1>to me. The X Division was huge for me. Seeing

<v Speaker 1>that and then finding pro wrestling. Noah, Dragon Gate, and

<v Speaker 1>New Japan were the things that inspired me and made

<v Speaker 1>me want to become a pro wrestler. I've just never

<v Speaker 1>been a WWE guy. Respect it. I just don't like it.

<v Speaker 1>And this is nothing new. I mean, Ospreay has been

<v Speaker 1>pretty open about being a fanatical TNA fan when he

<v Speaker 1>was younger. He loved the X Division. He watched guys

<v Speaker 1>like AJ Styles and Amazing Red and Samoa Joe. those

<v Speaker 1>were the men that he wanted to emulate. And he

<v Speaker 1>has said the minute Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff walked

<v Speaker 1>into TNA, the product changed into something that he just

<v Speaker 1>was no longer a fan of. So he's been vocal

<v Speaker 1>about this before. In terms of joining WWE, he said this,

<v Speaker 1>I received an offer in 2016 to be a part

<v Speaker 1>of the Cruiserweight Classic, and I think they saw that

<v Speaker 1>there was video from Cork and Hall of me debuting

<v Speaker 1>with New Japan. And they offered me a deal to

<v Speaker 1>sign with them. But the money was terrible. It was bad.

<v Speaker 1>I was making more money in New Japan. That was

<v Speaker 1>the thing that blew my mind. I didn't know I

<v Speaker 1>was going to get an offer from New Japan. I

<v Speaker 1>just wanted to go do it because the Super Juniors

<v Speaker 1>and the IWGP Junior title was one of the coolest

<v Speaker 1>things for me. So then after I signed my deal,

<v Speaker 1>it was funny comparing the two and just being like,

<v Speaker 1>how am I making more money at this place? I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure I could have made more money in WWE

<v Speaker 1>if I'd have signed there and done a good job.

<v Speaker 1>But it just wasn't for me. It's never been something

<v Speaker 1>that has taken my interest at all. Man, every time

<v Speaker 1>I hear something new about that Cruiserweight Classic, Will Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>was invited to be a part of it. Amazing Red

<v Speaker 1>was supposed to be a part of it. I talked

<v Speaker 1>about that recently because he sat down with Chris Van

<v Speaker 1>Vliet and talked about the week before. He was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to be in that tournament. He was doing some motion

<v Speaker 1>capture for the WWE game and he broke his leg.

<v Speaker 1>So he ended up not being in the tournament. But

<v Speaker 1>if everybody was healthy, And if Ospreay would have agreed,

<v Speaker 1>you could have had Will Ospreay, Amazing Red, Kota Ibushi,

<v Speaker 1>all of these people in the Cruiserweight Classic. That would

<v Speaker 1>have been fucking incredible. He said WWE made an offer

<v Speaker 1>to him before he joined AEW, and it was a

<v Speaker 1>lovely offer, but it involved him having to move to

<v Speaker 1>the United States. And he has no ambition to move there,

<v Speaker 1>so that was a deal-breaker for him. One of the

<v Speaker 1>main reasons he's talked about is his son, Or his stepson.

<v Speaker 1>He doesn't want to uproot his life just to put

<v Speaker 1>him in a school system that he doesn't understand. He

<v Speaker 1>says it intimidates him. School shootings will do that to

<v Speaker 1>a parent. I don't blame him. On whether or not

<v Speaker 1>he would have said yes if he didn't have to move,

<v Speaker 1>he said, nah, I don't know. I do respect it.

<v Speaker 1>I really do. It's just, I don't like the way

<v Speaker 1>it's filmed. I don't like the wrestling behind it. I

<v Speaker 1>think it's very minimalistic. I'll never say never because that's

<v Speaker 1>what we do in the industry now. We just want

<v Speaker 1>to make sure we keep all of our options open.

<v Speaker 1>But right now with the format and how much fun

<v Speaker 1>I'm having in AEW and how much freedom I have

<v Speaker 1>to be me. I don't have anyone putting a script

<v Speaker 1>in my hand. I have bullet points and I go

<v Speaker 1>out there and I just waffle. Now by minimalistic, he

<v Speaker 1>explained it like this. Because Ariel said, when you say minimalistic,

<v Speaker 1>what do you mean? He said, the comparison in our

<v Speaker 1>matches and our main event matches is very different. Like,

<v Speaker 1>one spear for them will be super satisfying. And honestly,

<v Speaker 1>I respect it. Man, I wish I could get one

<v Speaker 1>spear over. I wish I could. But it's just not

<v Speaker 1>in me. I prefer what we do. I prefer taking

<v Speaker 1>people on rides and showing people different ways that I

<v Speaker 1>can get into a styles clash. and like the full

<v Speaker 1>contact of it. I've been seeing WWE recently, and I

<v Speaker 1>saw this one clip, and the girl missed her by

<v Speaker 1>like flipping miles, like a country mile. But it's not

<v Speaker 1>just the girls, it's the guys as well. And I

<v Speaker 1>do wonder if they're being told, we're already making money,

<v Speaker 1>you don't need to kill one another. And I'm not

<v Speaker 1>saying everyone kills each other in AEW. I mean, they

<v Speaker 1>kind of do. I'm not saying everyone kills each other

<v Speaker 1>in AEW, but there's more contact. And I like that.

<v Speaker 1>I like to feel alive when I do pro wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want people to whiff on a strike on me.

<v Speaker 1>I'd much rather people hit me and then make it

<v Speaker 1>look bad on TV. And I completely understand what he's saying.

<v Speaker 1>You know, when he calls the WWE product minimalistic. That

<v Speaker 1>doesn't make it bad. It's just, it's different from what

<v Speaker 1>you would see in AEW. AEW does tend to be

<v Speaker 1>more contact than WWE, a faster pace than WWE. There's

<v Speaker 1>a lot more going on because Tony Khan, I'm sure,

<v Speaker 1>lets these guys and girls go out there, for the

<v Speaker 1>most part, and construct their matches in a way that

<v Speaker 1>they want their matches to look like. He gives them

<v Speaker 1>that freedom. WWE is far more controlling when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to these things. All you need to do is watch Unreal.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you see it at the gorilla position for

<v Speaker 1>every match. If there's one thing that really opened my

<v Speaker 1>eyes and surprised me the first time I watched the

<v Speaker 1>season of Unreal, it was the level to which the agents,

<v Speaker 1>you know, they're sitting there next to Triple H and

<v Speaker 1>Bruce and they got their headsets on. Everyone has a

<v Speaker 1>certain agent or agents for their match. It could be

<v Speaker 1>Bobby Roode. It could be Tyson Kidd. It could be Abyss.

<v Speaker 1>Whoever it is. And they're sitting there. And they are

<v Speaker 1>clued in to all of the moves that are coming up.

<v Speaker 1>Like every move and when. And I'm not just talking

<v Speaker 1>like the big spots or the finish. Like almost move

<v Speaker 1>for move, blow for blow. They know exactly what these

<v Speaker 1>guys are doing, and part of that is also wanting

<v Speaker 1>to make sure that the production is aware of it

<v Speaker 1>so they know what camera angle to have. They exert

<v Speaker 1>far more control over things than even I imagined. That

<v Speaker 1>might make for a tighter television show, but it also

<v Speaker 1>kills off a lot of the spontaneity of what these

<v Speaker 1>wrestlers do when they're in the ring. That's why so

<v Speaker 1>many wrestlers say they hate TV, they love working house shows.

<v Speaker 1>Of course they do, because they have so much more freedom, right?

<v Speaker 1>And you don't have to worry about commercial breaks and

<v Speaker 1>a hard out and all that kind of stuff. But

<v Speaker 1>you're taking that spontaneity away from them. Some people just

<v Speaker 1>don't want to work under those battlefield conditions. They like

<v Speaker 1>their freedom, even if sometimes they get maybe too much

<v Speaker 1>freedom and they do a lot of really stupid shit

<v Speaker 1>that they shouldn't be doing. And you end up having

<v Speaker 1>blood three, four matches in a row on some of

<v Speaker 1>these pay-per-views because there's no discussion clearly going on where

<v Speaker 1>it's like, hey, we're getting color in our match, so

<v Speaker 1>maybe don't do it in yours. Fuck you. Just for that,

<v Speaker 1>we're going to get double juice in our match. Like,

<v Speaker 1>it's just one right after the other after the other.

<v Speaker 1>It does help to sometimes have someone in your ear

<v Speaker 1>telling you, hey, you know what, that sounds like a

<v Speaker 1>bad idea. Don't do that. Or we're already doing this

<v Speaker 1>in the main event. We don't want to be doing

<v Speaker 1>that in the opening match. So maybe don't do that.

<v Speaker 1>But it's a matter of personal taste. For me as

<v Speaker 1>a fan, I can watch an episode of Raw or

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown and be completely bored by the actual matches. Sometimes

<v Speaker 1>they're slow, they're plotting, they're moving at half speed. It's

<v Speaker 1>like they're just pacing themselves for the inevitable commercial break.

<v Speaker 1>But that doesn't mean that I'm in love with everything

<v Speaker 1>I see on Dynamite, right? Quite the contrary. You could

<v Speaker 1>have two guys and they're going a million miles an

<v Speaker 1>hour and doing all kinds of high spots and dives

<v Speaker 1>and wild moves. And if it's just a bunch of

<v Speaker 1>moves and dives, who gives a shit? I mean, some

<v Speaker 1>people find that exciting. It could literally just be them

<v Speaker 1>out there doing all kinds of wacky moves and counters

<v Speaker 1>and all. And they and they love it. Right. Because

<v Speaker 1>that's the style they love. But there needs to be

<v Speaker 1>more to it than that. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

<v Speaker 1>And that goes for both products. Tony Khan, he loves

<v Speaker 1>his trios matches. He is obsessed with them. I am

<v Speaker 1>convinced that Tony Khan broke a one-wish willow some time

<v Speaker 1>ago and wished for fucking trios matches up the ass

<v Speaker 1>every single week. And that's what we have on the

<v Speaker 1>television show. Now, part of it may be that he

<v Speaker 1>has so many people under contract and he has no

<v Speaker 1>time for all of them. He feels the only way

<v Speaker 1>to get them on the show is to do all

<v Speaker 1>of these multi-person matches. You know, but he does them

<v Speaker 1>to the point of absurdity. To where... I see another

<v Speaker 1>three trios matches are lined up, you know, for Dynamite tonight.

<v Speaker 1>And I just mentally check out, like, how many fucking

<v Speaker 1>trios matches can one company do? But anyway, I don't

<v Speaker 1>see a problem with anything Ospreay said there. I know

<v Speaker 1>it's going to get some WWE fans triggered. It's going

<v Speaker 1>to get them in their feelings. And I already saw

<v Speaker 1>some of that. There's nothing wrong in what he said.

<v Speaker 1>He's just being honest about how he feels about the product. Right?

<v Speaker 1>He's not intentionally trying to shit on it. He just said,

<v Speaker 1>it's just, it's not for me. And so one day,

<v Speaker 1>five years from now, seven years from now, if Will

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay signs with WWE, then everybody can turn around and

<v Speaker 1>call him a hypocrite. But until then, it doesn't look

<v Speaker 1>like he has a whole lot of interest in leaving

<v Speaker 1>where he is. Now, he did make another comment, not

<v Speaker 1>on the interview with Ariel, but he made a comment

<v Speaker 1>about The Rock the other day. And he made this

<v Speaker 1>comment on Good Morning Britain, and he got mocked for it.

<v Speaker 1>He's been dragged for it now for days by people

<v Speaker 1>on social media and other, you know, podcasters and people.

<v Speaker 1>And fair play, Osprey has put his foot in his

<v Speaker 1>mouth before. But I actually did something that I'm willing

<v Speaker 1>to bet most of those people didn't do. I watched

<v Speaker 1>the entire six-minute segment. And clearly most of the people

<v Speaker 1>commenting on it did not. Or they're just dealing in

<v Speaker 1>bad faith. I didn't just read a fucking tweet. Context

<v Speaker 1>is important here. The segment itself just wasn't very good.

<v Speaker 1>They had Will Ospreay on, but he was playing second

<v Speaker 1>fiddle to Jack Whitehall, who's an English comedian. He's also

<v Speaker 1>a big wrestling fan. I believe he's also friends with

<v Speaker 1>Tony Khan. But they never even bothered to identify Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>as an AEW wrestler on screen. Like on the lower third,

<v Speaker 1>he was just wrestler. And this is their partner in

<v Speaker 1>the UK, no less. ITV broadcasts AEW shows over there.

<v Speaker 1>It was very clear watching this that the hosts had

<v Speaker 1>very little, if any, idea what AEW even was. They

<v Speaker 1>just wanted to talk to Jack Whitehall about The Rock

<v Speaker 1>and WWE. And I understand even being on Good Morning

<v Speaker 1>Britain at all is a big deal. That's a big

<v Speaker 1>show over there. I don't think they're number one, but

<v Speaker 1>it's one of the big morning shows over there. But

<v Speaker 1>this was pretty embarrassing stuff. And they're the ones who

<v Speaker 1>even brought up Dwayne Johnson. Because Whitehall met him, and

<v Speaker 1>they wanted him to tell the story of meeting The Rock.

<v Speaker 1>That's the only reason Ospreay even interjected with that comment

<v Speaker 1>when he said, The Rock has never headlined Wembley Stadium.

<v Speaker 1>And that's what everybody ran with. Oh, what a dumb

<v Speaker 1>thing for him to say. Well, maybe, but I saw

<v Speaker 1>it as him trying to get the train back on

<v Speaker 1>the fucking tracks. Because he's trying to promote this big

<v Speaker 1>show at Wembley Stadium this weekend, and these people are

<v Speaker 1>more interested in talking about the fucking rock. He's trying

<v Speaker 1>to bring it back around to AEW actually running this

<v Speaker 1>big pay-per-view coming up on Sunday, which is the entire

<v Speaker 1>reason he should have been there for. So a little

<v Speaker 1>bit of context goes a long way. You can still say,

<v Speaker 1>I was still a dumb thing to say, but it's

<v Speaker 1>not like, like people were making it out. Like he

<v Speaker 1>just randomly brought up the rock. Like he's so happy

<v Speaker 1>to be in the main event. I'm going to be

<v Speaker 1>made of any Wembley stadium on Sunday. You know, who

<v Speaker 1>hasn't made of any Wembley stadium, the rock, like give

<v Speaker 1>me a fucking break. That's not even the most embarrassing

<v Speaker 1>thing to happen on good morning, Britain. How about inviting

<v Speaker 1>a wrestling podcaster on the show to talk about the

<v Speaker 1>death of Burt Reynolds? Because you, Mistook him for a

<v Speaker 1>British film critic with a similar name. Yes. Yes. This

<v Speaker 1>is a real thing that happened. Imagine my surprise when

<v Speaker 1>I got that email. And my dumb ass for thinking

<v Speaker 1>that they were asking me because Burt Reynolds one time

<v Speaker 1>25 years ago made a cameo at a WrestleMania. But hey,

<v Speaker 1>I got my ass on ITV in front of a

<v Speaker 1>million people and I got to plug the podcast. So

<v Speaker 1>who's the dumb ass now? Only when they went to

<v Speaker 1>go pay me after did I realize something is very

<v Speaker 1>wrong here. They wanted to send my payment to an

<v Speaker 1>address in the UK. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

<v Speaker 1>I'm in the US. You're paying me in dollars. You're

<v Speaker 1>not paying me in pounds. One more AEW note real

<v Speaker 1>quick here. The company will be heading to France for

<v Speaker 1>the first time for Grand Slam France on Tuesday, October

<v Speaker 1>6th from the Adidas Arena with Dynamite and Collision being

<v Speaker 1>taped that night. Evidently, the show is airing live that Tuesday,

<v Speaker 1>which means Dynamite will be going head-to-head with NXT. And

<v Speaker 1>my birthday will be spent doing the Uncrowned Wrestling Show

<v Speaker 1>and then turning around and reviewing Dynamite that night. Happy

<v Speaker 1>birthday to me, I guess. Switch over to WWE. You know,

<v Speaker 1>last year, the company held its first Wrestlepalooza, the first

<v Speaker 1>PLE of the ESPN era. Mark Shapiro of TKO even

<v Speaker 1>said at the time they had hoped to build the

<v Speaker 1>WrestlePalooza brand up as one of their annual tentpole events

<v Speaker 1>on par with WrestleMania and SummerSlam. It's okay, I'll give

<v Speaker 1>you a second to finish laughing. But that was September 2025.

<v Speaker 1>September 2026 is about to begin and there was no

<v Speaker 1>word on there being another WrestlePalooza until Thursday. When WWE

<v Speaker 1>announced the return of WrestlePalooza in December. They're bringing back

<v Speaker 1>December PLEs for the first time in six years. And

<v Speaker 1>they're doing so as part of a new three-year agreement

<v Speaker 1>with the Western Australia government to bring the show to Perth.

<v Speaker 1>Along with one SmackDown and one Raw. So SmackDown will

<v Speaker 1>take place on Friday, December 11th. 11th at the RAC

<v Speaker 1>Arena with WrestlePalooza on Saturday, December 12th, and then Raw

<v Speaker 1>on Monday, December 14th. Yeah, it's good to get something

<v Speaker 1>during what is typically a dead period for WWE. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>I would argue right now is a dead period for WWE,

<v Speaker 1>but At the end of the year, the holidays, that

<v Speaker 1>period in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it's usually a dead period.

<v Speaker 1>Which is why John Cena chose it to do his

<v Speaker 1>retirement match last year, because he figured there's nothing going on,

<v Speaker 1>and the company's not making any real money during that period,

<v Speaker 1>so let's have a big event in Q4. But the

<v Speaker 1>thing is, this show is coming two weeks after Survivor Series.

<v Speaker 1>That's not good. Two weeks between PLEs is never a

<v Speaker 1>good thing. AEW was doing that shit for a while

<v Speaker 1>where they would have all in at the end of

<v Speaker 1>August on that bank holiday weekend. And then they would

<v Speaker 1>turn right around a week or two, maybe not even

<v Speaker 1>two weeks later, and they would have all out. I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>why would you do that? And then finally, Tony smartened

<v Speaker 1>up and now all out is at the end of

<v Speaker 1>September because having a week or two between pay-per-views is

<v Speaker 1>fucking stupid. But on top of that, we don't know.

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned Cena. We don't know what this means for

<v Speaker 1>the John Cena Classic, which was supposed to be happening

<v Speaker 1>around this same time. Now, does it happen as part

<v Speaker 1>of WrestlePalooza? I can't imagine that being the case. It

<v Speaker 1>sounds like this would have to be its own standalone

<v Speaker 1>event with all of the different matches that would be

<v Speaker 1>part of it. Although it would be funny if it

<v Speaker 1>did take place at WrestlePalooza, doing the John Cena Classic

<v Speaker 1>on the same show where he got murdered by Brock

<v Speaker 1>Lesnar last year. Maybe they do both shows that day.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they are separate shows and they actually happen on,

<v Speaker 1>what is it, Saturday, December 12th. Since the Perth show

<v Speaker 1>would be airing early in the morning right here with

<v Speaker 1>the time zone difference. Didn't they do an Elimination Chamber

<v Speaker 1>from Perth that had Rhea Ripley and Nia Jax in

<v Speaker 1>the main event a few years ago? 2023, 2024, something

<v Speaker 1>like that. That show aired at like 6 o'clock in

<v Speaker 1>the morning over here. So I'm sure the Perth show,

<v Speaker 1>you know, WrestlePalooza is going to be airing You know,

<v Speaker 1>very early in the morning, and then you could just

<v Speaker 1>come back later that night here in the States, and

<v Speaker 1>you can do the John Cena classic as a separate special.

<v Speaker 1>I just don't know why you would want to do that. Like,

<v Speaker 1>why would you want to do both shows in the

<v Speaker 1>same day? I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility.

<v Speaker 1>I could see them doing it. I don't think it

<v Speaker 1>would be smart, but it's not like the two would

<v Speaker 1>directly conflict with each other. But the thing is, they

<v Speaker 1>don't even know what the John Cena stuff is going

<v Speaker 1>to look like. You could tell every time somebody asked

<v Speaker 1>Cena about it. He sounds as clueless as anybody. And

<v Speaker 1>I legitimately I don't think it's just him. I got

<v Speaker 1>to keep everything, you know, close to the vest. No,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think they know what the fuck they're doing.

<v Speaker 1>They haven't figured it out yet. But for WrestlePalooza, maybe

<v Speaker 1>it's a hopeful sign for Rhea Ripley being back in

<v Speaker 1>time for that show. I saw Bronson Reed. He replied

<v Speaker 1>under the announcement tweet with a big smile. He's chomping

<v Speaker 1>at the bit. He's chomping at the bit to get

<v Speaker 1>on that card. Their last time in Perth was Crown

<v Speaker 1>Jewel last year. He beat Roman Reigns on that show.

<v Speaker 1>So he's hoping to get a big spot on this one, too.

<v Speaker 1>There was a very embarrassing story that got posted this

<v Speaker 1>week on SEScoops.com by one BJ Bethel, who fancies himself

<v Speaker 1>a pro wrestling journalist. That's what it always says under

<v Speaker 1>his name. Not for SEScoops, he's not. Not after this.

<v Speaker 1>He posted a story about which has since been pulled.

<v Speaker 1>I will read to you from the story so you

<v Speaker 1>know what it's about. Again, context is key. It had

<v Speaker 1>to do with ESPN's alleged unhappiness with WWE only one

<v Speaker 1>year into a five-year deal to air PLEs on the

<v Speaker 1>ESPN Unlimited app. This is what he wrote. Only one

<v Speaker 1>year into ESPN's five-year deal to air World Wrestling Entertainment

<v Speaker 1>events on its unlimited app, the network won't be renewing

<v Speaker 1>the contract when it expires. Multiple sources told SE Scoops

<v Speaker 1>the deal faced several problems, including the current media market, quote,

<v Speaker 1>culture and synergy issues between the two companies and the

<v Speaker 1>failure of cable providers to pick up the cost of

<v Speaker 1>the app for customers. ESPN and WWE reached a five-year, $ 1. 6

<v Speaker 1>billion deal in 2025 to air premium live events on

<v Speaker 1>ESPN's new app, which launched a year ago. The deal

<v Speaker 1>between WWE and ESPN came together at the executive level

<v Speaker 1>within Disney and TKO, sources told SE Scoops when the

<v Speaker 1>deal was announced last year. One source said there were

<v Speaker 1>virtually no discussions between the two companies when the app

<v Speaker 1>was launched and WWE PLEs began airing on it. That

<v Speaker 1>changed recently, with ESPN promoting WWE content, making the PLEs

<v Speaker 1>available on lesser tiers, and airing the first hour of

<v Speaker 1>shows on linear networks, much to the chagrin of sports fans.

<v Speaker 1>Awful Announcing reported last week that there had been more

<v Speaker 1>WWE discussion on the main ESPN Network's three morning shows

<v Speaker 1>than there had been of Major League Baseball and the NHL,

<v Speaker 1>a disparity that drew major backlash on social media and

<v Speaker 1>from media publications. On Monday, Sports Media Watch reported the

<v Speaker 1>app's monthly and annual sales will both rise next month.

<v Speaker 1>The price of the app through the Hulu and Disney

<v Speaker 1>Plus bundle changed as of last week, according to Axios.

<v Speaker 1>Disney saw the unlimited app as a way to recoup

<v Speaker 1>carriage fee losses as fewer people purchase cable packages. Disney

<v Speaker 1>executives view WWE PLEs as an extra incentive for providers

<v Speaker 1>to strike deals to offer the app to customers. Since then,

<v Speaker 1>the PLEs... have become more available to customers. Without providers

<v Speaker 1>picking up the app, it's been on ESPN to sell

<v Speaker 1>it directly to customers, something it never considered when it

<v Speaker 1>was rolled out. Nearly all press releases from ESPN when

<v Speaker 1>the app was released said it would be available from

<v Speaker 1>cable providers and mentioned its standalone cost only in passing.

<v Speaker 1>When asked if anything could save the deal, one source

<v Speaker 1>pointed to a massive increase in subscriptions or providers picking

<v Speaker 1>up the app at a deal friendly to ESPN. The

<v Speaker 1>key here is the lead. Okay, the key here is

<v Speaker 1>what I mentioned at the beginning of this story, which

<v Speaker 1>was this very declarative statement that ESPN had already made

<v Speaker 1>the decision after only one year not to renew with

<v Speaker 1>WWE at the end of their existing deal. Something that

<v Speaker 1>ESPN itself came out and refuted directly from Ben Caffardo,

<v Speaker 1>who works in communications for them. He tweeted the following statement.

<v Speaker 1>There is no truth to the report that we have

<v Speaker 1>decided not to renew. They never checked with us before publishing,

<v Speaker 1>and had they, we would have told them that was

<v Speaker 1>completely false. Josh Nason of F4WOnline also tweeted, he said,

<v Speaker 1>Regarding the story circulating today, stating that ESPN has already

<v Speaker 1>chosen to not renew the WWE deal that expires in

<v Speaker 1>four years, I am told by someone that would know

<v Speaker 1>that claim is completely baseless. Now, I say this as

<v Speaker 1>someone who worked in public relations for 20 years. If

<v Speaker 1>a journalist was doing a story like this and making

<v Speaker 1>a declarative statement like Bethel made, you would at the

<v Speaker 1>very least expect him to reach out to their PR

<v Speaker 1>department or communications people to verify whether it was true

<v Speaker 1>to get a statement. Even if you thought that you

<v Speaker 1>weren't really going to get a straight answer out of them,

<v Speaker 1>because a lot of times, You can't give an answer

<v Speaker 1>or you may not want to give an answer. Whatever

<v Speaker 1>it may be, at the very least, you reach out

<v Speaker 1>for comment. And if they give you one, you run it.

<v Speaker 1>If they don't, then you say that you reached out

<v Speaker 1>for comment and they declined. Or you reached out but

<v Speaker 1>your calls went unreturned. BJ responded to Cafardo and said,

<v Speaker 1>I tried contacting ESPN through and then he included a link. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>we'll get back to that in a second. He included

<v Speaker 1>a link directly off the support page of the ESPN website.

<v Speaker 1>He said he tried contacting them through that link last night.

<v Speaker 1>Also left a voicemail on a support phone line. In fairness,

<v Speaker 1>I forgot about previous correspondence with Ben in April and

<v Speaker 1>his email or I would have contacted him there. I

<v Speaker 1>am also standing by my story. He linked to their

<v Speaker 1>fan support page on the ESPN website that visitors use

<v Speaker 1>to open a ticket. That was his way of reaching

<v Speaker 1>out to them, and he said he did so the

<v Speaker 1>night before. So he couldn't even wait to get the

<v Speaker 1>story up to see if he would get a response.

<v Speaker 1>He just went and posted it. And he was rightfully

<v Speaker 1>mocked for this, as he should be. By the way,

<v Speaker 1>it took me like 10 seconds to do a simple

<v Speaker 1>Google search and find Ben Caffardo's email address at ESPN.

<v Speaker 1>But he revised the story to include the quote from Cafardo,

<v Speaker 1>but included the statement, Well, that didn't last very long.

<v Speaker 1>Because the next day, Essie Scoops, to its credit, released

<v Speaker 1>the following statement instead of just ignoring the whole situation. Yesterday,

<v Speaker 1>we published a report from BJ Bethel on WWE's relationship

<v Speaker 1>with ESPN. We are retracting that story in its entirety.

<v Speaker 1>Before a story like this runs, the subject deserves a

<v Speaker 1>direct chance to respond, and that step wasn't taken to

<v Speaker 1>the appropriate standard. Since publication, it's come to light that

<v Speaker 1>this effort fell way short. We ran it, and the

<v Speaker 1>buck stops with us. We've parted ways with Mr. Bethel,

<v Speaker 1>have had our verification procedures reviewed by an outside partner,

<v Speaker 1>and updated our process as a result. And good on S.E.

<v Speaker 1>Scoops for addressing it and taking action because it's as

<v Speaker 1>much a black eye for them as it is for

<v Speaker 1>old BJ. And I will say in the interest of

<v Speaker 1>full disclosure, this podcast used to call S.E. Scoops home

<v Speaker 1>when I first started it in 2007 through around 2013 now.

<v Speaker 1>But this is the same B.J. Bethel who reported last

<v Speaker 1>year that AEW was averaging around 500,000 viewers for Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>on HBO Max since the show debuted on the app.

<v Speaker 1>And that combined with its cable numbers, this meant Dynamite

<v Speaker 1>was averaging over a million viewers per episode. 1 million

<v Speaker 1>to 1.2 million viewers per episode. Now, he attributed this to, quote, sources, right?

<v Speaker 1>His sources. This is from a man who couldn't even

<v Speaker 1>find an email address for a PR contact at ESPN.

<v Speaker 1>And we're supposed to believe that he has sources releasing

<v Speaker 1>HBO Max numbers to him when Tony Khan, the president

<v Speaker 1>of AEW, has gone on record as saying that they

<v Speaker 1>don't even provide him with the specific numbers on how

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite is doing? Now, whether or not you think he's

<v Speaker 1>lying or telling the truth about that, that's a whole

<v Speaker 1>other story. But how are we supposed to believe that

<v Speaker 1>he has sources giving him confidential data like that when

<v Speaker 1>he's on the fucking ESPN website filling out the same

<v Speaker 1>forms Grandpa Hank is filling out because his power went

<v Speaker 1>out and he wants to know why ESPN isn't showing

<v Speaker 1>up on the TV anymore. What's even funnier, that story

<v Speaker 1>was later updated to reflect that Tony Khan on last

<v Speaker 1>year's Dynasty media call corroborated the report. When, in fact,

<v Speaker 1>if you go back and listen to what Tony Khan

<v Speaker 1>actually said on that media call, because it's the first

<v Speaker 1>question that John Alba asked him about was that BJ

<v Speaker 1>Bethel report about the HBO Max numbers. At no point

<v Speaker 1>in Tony's answer does he actually corroborate anything. In fact,

<v Speaker 1>he admits that he gets no numbers from Warner Brothers Discovery.

<v Speaker 1>What he said was that he was told Dynamite was

<v Speaker 1>one of their top streaming sports shows and that those

<v Speaker 1>numbers that were in the report were consistent with one

<v Speaker 1>of the top shows on max streaming not necessarily top

<v Speaker 1>streaming sports shows on there so at no point did

<v Speaker 1>he verify the 500,000 figure or anything specific nor have

<v Speaker 1>those numbers ever been confirmed or reported by anybody since

<v Speaker 1>HBO knows what they are And when they want everybody

<v Speaker 1>else to know when the numbers are really, really good,

<v Speaker 1>they let them know, as was the case just recently,

<v Speaker 1>I think this week, with their new Lantern show, which

<v Speaker 1>apparently is doing really well. Boy, they were quick to

<v Speaker 1>release that. The show pulled in over 9 million viewers

<v Speaker 1>in its first three days on HBO Max. If they

<v Speaker 1>ever want people to know what the AEW numbers are,

<v Speaker 1>all they have to do is release them. And up

<v Speaker 1>to now, they haven't done that. So this whole thing

<v Speaker 1>was very embarrassing. And BJ has one less paycheck coming

<v Speaker 1>in now. All because the situation was handled very poorly.

<v Speaker 1>Can I believe that ESPN is unhappy with how the

<v Speaker 1>WWE deal has gone for them so far? Sure, I

<v Speaker 1>can believe that. Doesn't make it true. I don't have

<v Speaker 1>anything to back it up, but I can believe it.

<v Speaker 1>I can believe that they were expecting a bigger increase

<v Speaker 1>in the number of ESPN Unlimited subscriptions because of the

<v Speaker 1>addition of all the WWE content. And that they haven't

<v Speaker 1>seen that. It hasn't manifested yet. I can believe they

<v Speaker 1>might have a sense of buyer's remorse after year one,

<v Speaker 1>but it's still year one of a five-year deal. I

<v Speaker 1>doubt very seriously any decisions have been made or top-line

<v Speaker 1>discussions have been had about not renewing when the deal

<v Speaker 1>is up this far in advance. WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful

<v Speaker 1>Select reported this week that WWE was planning a live

<v Speaker 1>edition of AAA on Saturday, November 14th from the Hammerstein

<v Speaker 1>Ballroom in New York City. However, a source at the

<v Speaker 1>Manhattan Center, which houses the Hammerstein, it's on the main

<v Speaker 1>level when you first walk in, said that date had

<v Speaker 1>been removed from its internal calendar. Good. House of Glory

<v Speaker 1>is running a show that night on Long Island. Less

<v Speaker 1>competition for us. Less competition for us. I do hope

<v Speaker 1>they do something from Hammerstein at some point, though. I

<v Speaker 1>think that could be a lot of fun. It's an

<v Speaker 1>expensive venue to run, though. But it's not like they

<v Speaker 1>don't have the resources to be able to do it.

<v Speaker 1>Bianca Belair, who recently gave birth to her and Montez

<v Speaker 1>Ford's baby son, Romeo, is dealing with some post-pregnancy complications.

<v Speaker 1>She posted to her IG stories this week that she's

<v Speaker 1>dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. And that

<v Speaker 1>is not all. She posted, No one ever talks about

<v Speaker 1>this stuff. Currently carpal tunnel in both hands. Fingers completely numb.

<v Speaker 1>No feeling in surgery finger whatsoever. No grip strength. And

<v Speaker 1>now also mom thumb. WTF, LOL. Mom thumb apparently is

<v Speaker 1>a painful condition that causes swelling in the tendons on

<v Speaker 1>the thumb side of the wrist. I mean, this woman

<v Speaker 1>can't catch a break. I mean, at this rate, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not sure we're ever going to see her back in

<v Speaker 1>the ring. I know her surgery finger still hasn't healed properly.

<v Speaker 1>You know, after Carmella and Corey Graves had their first son,

<v Speaker 1>she ended up with an injury, injured with drop foot,

<v Speaker 1>which is a nerve condition. Scott Steiner wrestled with Dropfoot

<v Speaker 1>after he left WCW, but he was never the same

<v Speaker 1>performer that he was before. She hasn't wrestled since. It's

<v Speaker 1>been three years. I mean, childbirth is a dangerous thing.

<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of potential complications that women can have

<v Speaker 1>and injuries that they suffer. And most of these women,

<v Speaker 1>they don't wrestle for a living, right? It's a little

<v Speaker 1>bit different with them because they rely on their bodies

<v Speaker 1>functioning properly to be able to get in the ring

<v Speaker 1>and safely do the things that a pro wrestler is

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be able to do. If you have nerve

<v Speaker 1>damage in your foot, or you can't bend your finger properly,

<v Speaker 1>you can't work. You can't wrestle. Or even if you can,

<v Speaker 1>they're probably not going to clear you. So hopefully she

<v Speaker 1>gets well soon. Raw and SmackDown, just real quick here.

<v Speaker 1>Just going back to Raw from Monday night. Just the

<v Speaker 1>key stuff that happened there. We had the semi-final round

<v Speaker 1>matches in the Roman Reigns tournament to crown a number

<v Speaker 1>one contender for Mexico City. Rey Fenix and Dragon Lee,

<v Speaker 1>they had a banger. Best match of the tournament so far.

<v Speaker 1>Rey Fenix picks up the win. Penta picked up the

<v Speaker 1>win over La Parca, which sets up brother versus brother

<v Speaker 1>in the finals on Raw this Monday night. It will

<v Speaker 1>be Fenix against Penta for the first time since they

<v Speaker 1>wrestled on Dynamite six years ago. And again, just be aware,

<v Speaker 1>spoilers abound for this show and SmackDown next week. I

<v Speaker 1>haven't bothered with them. I won't even be here for

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown next Friday because I'll be in LA. Anything worth

<v Speaker 1>discussing as far as SmackDown goes, I'll talk about it

<v Speaker 1>and do a review on the sound off next Sunday.

<v Speaker 1>But the finals are over. Whoever it is, I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>it's Penta. Penta is going to the finals or Rey

<v Speaker 1>Fenix to wrestle Roman for the championship. Oba Femi and

<v Speaker 1>Braun Breaker, they had their contract signing for Sunday night's

<v Speaker 1>main event. I liked it. I thought both men were strong. Oba, though,

<v Speaker 1>was stronger on the mic. Looking forward to their match.

<v Speaker 1>LA Knight and Solo Sokoa, they were in the main

<v Speaker 1>event taking on the Usos. We had no winner. Instead,

<v Speaker 1>we had the return of Royce Keyes. But he did

<v Speaker 1>not come alone. He had with him a brand new

<v Speaker 1>team straight up from NXT, OTM. Out the mud. Bronco Nima,

<v Speaker 1>Lucian Price from NXT. This is after Bronco Nima had

<v Speaker 1>just joined the Peros del Mal faction in AAA back

<v Speaker 1>in June. Only recently he got kicked out. Now we

<v Speaker 1>know why. And so we have a new trio on Raw.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm all for it because at least it's something

<v Speaker 1>different than the typical bloodline bullshit that we get at

<v Speaker 1>the end of the show. Now they have some more competition.

<v Speaker 1>So that's a good thing. And it's a good spot

<v Speaker 1>for Royce Keys to be in. I don't know long

<v Speaker 1>term as we look ahead over the next few months

<v Speaker 1>if this is still going to be the makeup of

<v Speaker 1>this group. If they're going to add someone new or

<v Speaker 1>add some new people. We still don't know when Jacob

<v Speaker 1>is finally going to break away from Roman Reigns. Is

<v Speaker 1>that going to happen this year? They're going to save

<v Speaker 1>it for Mania season. It could happen to Money in

<v Speaker 1>the Bank, which we all assume is when LA Knight

<v Speaker 1>is going to get his championship match. A lot of questions,

<v Speaker 1>and that doesn't even include what may go down in

<v Speaker 1>terms of the War Games teams this year. So, OTM

<v Speaker 1>being called up, are they ready to be called up?

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if they're ready to be called up.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I've seen limited doses of them in NXT

<v Speaker 1>when I'll check in, and I haven't seen anything from

<v Speaker 1>them recently. But they're two big guys who are in

<v Speaker 1>a prime spot on the show. We have some fresh

<v Speaker 1>faces now. Let's see how they do. SmackDown, I mean, God,

<v Speaker 1>it's almost not even worth discussing anymore. We had another

<v Speaker 1>main event. Ruined by Sami Zayn, which perfectly fits the

<v Speaker 1>character that he is portraying right now. Right? Justice for Sami.

<v Speaker 1>If I can't have it, no one will. Because we

<v Speaker 1>had a number one contenders triple threat match. Gunther, Kevin Owens,

<v Speaker 1>and Finn Balor. And we didn't have a finish. And

<v Speaker 1>the reason we didn't have a finish is because Sami

<v Speaker 1>Zayn got involved. As did CM Punk. He eventually came out.

<v Speaker 1>Everybody ended up laid out by belt shots. And for

<v Speaker 1>the second week in a row, Sami Zayn was the

<v Speaker 1>last man standing. Holding the WWE Championship high above his head.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what configuration of these men we're going

<v Speaker 1>to get if they're just going to run back the

<v Speaker 1>match we had at SummerSlam to try to, again, crown

<v Speaker 1>the number one contender or who Punk is going to

<v Speaker 1>be defending against next. It could be one of these

<v Speaker 1>men individually. It could be none of these men. Remember

<v Speaker 1>Damian Priest. He threw it out there weeks and weeks

<v Speaker 1>ago that he wanted a crack at the World Heavyweight Championship.

<v Speaker 1>So who knows who's going to get that next shot?

<v Speaker 1>There are a lot of people, though, gunning for the

<v Speaker 1>WWE Championship, which I think is a good thing. It's

<v Speaker 1>good to have a lot of competition. all built around

<v Speaker 1>the top title on the brand so that's good at

<v Speaker 1>least cody rhodes and randy orton they had a pretty

<v Speaker 1>good face-off they can't touch each other because if they

<v Speaker 1>do the person who touches the other man and lays

<v Speaker 1>a finger on them will never again be able to

<v Speaker 1>challenge for the wwe title So they went face-to-face, nose-to-nose,

<v Speaker 1>but they didn't touch. Randy was saying and doing everything

<v Speaker 1>he possibly could to get under this man's skin. He

<v Speaker 1>was insulting his dog. He claimed that Pharaoh was dead,

<v Speaker 1>which I hope is not true. Talking about his dead dog,

<v Speaker 1>and he was talking about his... God, what did he

<v Speaker 1>call his mom? Oh, his trailer park trash mom and

<v Speaker 1>his trashy-ass wife. And just, like, really... digging the knife

<v Speaker 1>in and Cody looked like he was about to explode,

<v Speaker 1>but he was able to restrain himself. And then he

<v Speaker 1>insulted Orton. And for what this was, I mean, I

<v Speaker 1>thought it was fine. There's really nothing left to do

<v Speaker 1>with these two before their match at Sunday night's main event,

<v Speaker 1>but we have one SmackDown left to go. So maybe

<v Speaker 1>we get some sort of video package. Maybe they do

<v Speaker 1>a formal contract signing. I don't know. It just feels

<v Speaker 1>like we've reached the end of the road here. Now

<v Speaker 1>we just got to get the match. Tatum Paxley had

<v Speaker 1>her first match on SmackDown, her in-ring debut against Meechan.

<v Speaker 1>I thought she looked good. And that was really it.

<v Speaker 1>There's nothing else even worth talking about from SmackDown. SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>was not a good show this week. But just be

<v Speaker 1>aware there are spoilers floating around for next week. So

<v Speaker 1>if you don't want to be spoiled by anything happening

<v Speaker 1>on that show, you'll have to just play it safe,

<v Speaker 1>I guess, over the next week. It's kind of hard

<v Speaker 1>when they tape that much television a week out. But

<v Speaker 1>if you're going to be on social media, just be

<v Speaker 1>aware of that. But speaking of Sunday night's main event,

<v Speaker 1>I mentioned this on Uncrowned on Tuesday. I'll mention it here, too.

<v Speaker 1>That show airs on Peacock, as many of you know,

<v Speaker 1>at least here in the U.S., I guess internationally. Is

<v Speaker 1>it Netflix or is it YouTube? I think it's on

<v Speaker 1>YouTube internationally, or if you use a VPN. But here

<v Speaker 1>it's on Peacock. Those are the only WWE events that

<v Speaker 1>are left on the cock, are these quarterly specials. And

<v Speaker 1>you are going to be paying more now to see

<v Speaker 1>them because Peacock just raised its prices again. And there's

<v Speaker 1>a whole list on the Peacock website of what the

<v Speaker 1>price increases are. They apply to the monthly and annual subscriptions.

<v Speaker 1>A monthly sub is going up. The premium plus monthly

<v Speaker 1>sub is going up. The annual plus, I mean, it's

<v Speaker 1>just ridiculous. That's in addition to the ESPN Unlimited price

<v Speaker 1>increase that goes into effect on September 17th. You need

<v Speaker 1>ESPN Unlimited in the U.S. to watch WWE PLEs, unless

<v Speaker 1>you're smart and you just use a VPN in Netflix.

<v Speaker 1>That's really all you need. Most people, though, I think

<v Speaker 1>they get it for free if you already have an

<v Speaker 1>existing ESPN subscription. But for those who don't, a full

<v Speaker 1>year of ESPN Unlimited will now cost you $ 320. which

<v Speaker 1>is up $ 20 from $ 300. And I said it the

<v Speaker 1>other day, I mean, it's never been more expensive than

<v Speaker 1>it is right now to be a WWE fan. But

<v Speaker 1>everything seems to be going up. Apple TV this week

<v Speaker 1>raised its monthly subscription by $ 2 to $ 14. 99. And then

<v Speaker 1>there's also this, which I found interesting. Soon, eligible YouTube

<v Speaker 1>Premium subscribers in the U.S. will gain access to Ed-supported

<v Speaker 1>Peacock Premiums. This is after YouTube announced the price hike

<v Speaker 1>for premium users across parts of Europe and Asia. This

<v Speaker 1>is a few months after they raised prices here in

<v Speaker 1>the U.S. But there was a story in the New

<v Speaker 1>York Times this week reporting that Netflix has had discussions

<v Speaker 1>about making other streaming services available through the Netflix app,

<v Speaker 1>including Peacock. That sounds like it might save people money.

<v Speaker 1>But there's no word on how that would work, if

<v Speaker 1>you would automatically get all of the Peacock content through Netflix,

<v Speaker 1>or probably not. Or if they would just offer you

<v Speaker 1>a way to watch it through Netflix, but you would

<v Speaker 1>still have to pay a separate fee for the Peacock service.

<v Speaker 1>I imagine that's exactly how it would work. But this

<v Speaker 1>is what the big streamers are shifting towards now. Amazon

<v Speaker 1>does it with its Prime Video app. Through the app,

<v Speaker 1>you can subscribe to HBO Max, you can subscribe to

<v Speaker 1>Apple TV. I don't know why you would bother unless

<v Speaker 1>you just want less clutter, I guess, on your menu

<v Speaker 1>screen with all the different app icons. Just consolidate everything

<v Speaker 1>into one, I suppose. Or maybe you like one user

<v Speaker 1>interface more than the other. Some of these services have

<v Speaker 1>a good user interface. Some of them are fucking terrible.

<v Speaker 1>It's one of the reasons I hate Peacock. This week

<v Speaker 1>was the season finale of Dark Side of the Ring

<v Speaker 1>with an episode devoted to Zach Gowen, the famed one-legged

<v Speaker 1>wrestler who's worked for WWE, TNA, and AEW, and who

<v Speaker 1>at just 20 years of age was put on SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>to work with Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, and Vince McMahon.

<v Speaker 1>And they're combined 155 years of age at that time.

<v Speaker 1>That's a lot more life experience than young Zack had.

<v Speaker 1>He got tossed into the deep end of the pool.

<v Speaker 1>But he got to live his dream and all was

<v Speaker 1>well for a while until it wasn't. I thought this

<v Speaker 1>was one of those episodes that shows what can happen

<v Speaker 1>when you're given too much too soon. And how easy

<v Speaker 1>it is to piss it all away. But it's also

<v Speaker 1>an inspirational story because here you have a guy with

<v Speaker 1>one leg flying around the ring doing things that he

<v Speaker 1>just should not be able to do. And even though

<v Speaker 1>he lost his big gig, he went through pretty bad

<v Speaker 1>drug addiction also. He came out on the other side

<v Speaker 1>a better person. So it's by no means the darkest

<v Speaker 1>or heaviest episode of the season, but I think it

<v Speaker 1>fits the criteria for when you think dark side of

<v Speaker 1>the ring. They do show what the dark side of

<v Speaker 1>the ring can look like. And I think you need

<v Speaker 1>episodes like this that do have that happy ending. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I knew of Zach Gowen, as many of you did,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure, from his stint in WWE back in 2003.

<v Speaker 1>This was during the Ruthless Aggression era, which was a

<v Speaker 1>great era of WWE from an in-ring perspective, especially on SmackDown,

<v Speaker 1>where all of this took place, by the way, on SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>But think of the roster of talent that WWE had

<v Speaker 1>back then. They had big names like The Rock and

<v Speaker 1>Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker, but they were mixed in

<v Speaker 1>with guys like Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar and Chris

<v Speaker 1>Benoit and Eddie Guerrero and Edge and Rey Mysterio and

<v Speaker 1>a young John Cena. who by that point was well

<v Speaker 1>into his Doctor of Thuganomics phase, all that talent, and

<v Speaker 1>then in comes this skinny, one-legged dude working with these

<v Speaker 1>legends on top. I'm sure that had to breed a

<v Speaker 1>lot of resentment in that locker room. I mean, how

<v Speaker 1>could it not? But the talking heads for this included

<v Speaker 1>Zack's mother, she of SmackDown fame from the night that

<v Speaker 1>Brock Lesnar killed her son right in front of her, Rhino,

<v Speaker 1>who was friends with Gowan, going back to their days

<v Speaker 1>on the Detroit Independence scene, Jimmy Jacobs, who's one of

<v Speaker 1>his closest friends to this day, and Charlie Haas, who

<v Speaker 1>was part of the world's greatest tag team with Shelton

<v Speaker 1>Benjamin back during this era. Jacobs and Rhino, even though

<v Speaker 1>they're friends of Zack's, are not shy here in admitting

<v Speaker 1>how much of an asshole he became back then. So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, they're pretty honest about that. But we got

<v Speaker 1>his backstory about being a wrestling fan for as long

<v Speaker 1>as he's been able to form memories. His father left

<v Speaker 1>when he was four years old, but he was living

<v Speaker 1>in an apartment complex with his mom with a drug

<v Speaker 1>dealer on one side of them and a prostitute living

<v Speaker 1>on the other side. I mean, at least it wasn't

<v Speaker 1>a boring childhood. Can't say that. Pretty quickly here, we

<v Speaker 1>get the story of how he lost his leg, which

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure is what most people are wondering, especially if

<v Speaker 1>you're not familiar with his story. It's like, how did

<v Speaker 1>he lose the leg? Well, he wasn't born with one leg.

<v Speaker 1>What happened was he was bowling at summer camp when

<v Speaker 1>he was about eight years old, and he broke his leg.

<v Speaker 1>Broke his leg in three places. Eight months later, nine

<v Speaker 1>months later, whatever it was, his leg still is not

<v Speaker 1>healing properly. And the doctors are stumped. They're trying to

<v Speaker 1>figure out what's going on here until they do a

<v Speaker 1>biopsy and they discover a cancerous tumor growing on his femur.

<v Speaker 1>It's a condition called osteosarcoma, which is a rare form

<v Speaker 1>of bone cancer. So he went through chemotherapy and says

<v Speaker 1>he never thought of it as something that he would

<v Speaker 1>die from until all of his friends that he made

<v Speaker 1>at the children's hospital started dying. Like one by one.

<v Speaker 1>And then he realized how serious this really was, which

<v Speaker 1>was a pretty chilling way of describing things. At that point,

<v Speaker 1>the doctors sat him and his mom down and said, look,

<v Speaker 1>your best chance of survival here is going to be

<v Speaker 1>an above the knee amputation. And that's what saved his life.

<v Speaker 1>And coming home from the hospital, he has said before

<v Speaker 1>his grandmother ordered the 1992 Royal Rumble for him. And

<v Speaker 1>that's what really reignited his passion for wrestling. Same. Same.

<v Speaker 1>Not the leg amputation part. Talking about the 92 rumble part.

<v Speaker 1>Shout out to Zach's grandmother for being awesome. It's too

<v Speaker 1>bad that Gowan never wrestled in a Royal Rumble. He

<v Speaker 1>would have had a valid argument for winning even if

<v Speaker 1>he got dumped out because you need both feet to

<v Speaker 1>touch the floor. A missed opportunity there. But he joined

<v Speaker 1>the amateur wrestling team in school only because he knew

<v Speaker 1>a lot of the pro wrestlers that he watched on TV,

<v Speaker 1>they had done amateur wrestling. So he ends up training

<v Speaker 1>pro And then we see video of his first match

<v Speaker 1>against Truth Martini. And holy shit, there's a name I

<v Speaker 1>haven't heard in years. Truth Martini from Ring of Honor.

<v Speaker 1>Last I heard years ago, he was running his own school.

<v Speaker 1>I wonder if he's still doing that. I'm a little

<v Speaker 1>surprised they didn't interview him for this. Uh, Maybe they

<v Speaker 1>tried and they just couldn't make it happen. I don't know.

<v Speaker 1>But he said he wanted to wrestle in TNA because

<v Speaker 1>they had all of his favorite wrestlers at the time,

<v Speaker 1>like AJ Styles and Low Key. He wanted to be

<v Speaker 1>an X Division guy. He sounds like Will Ospreay. So

<v Speaker 1>he sent a tape in to Bill Behrens, who was

<v Speaker 1>a talent scout for them at the time. They did

<v Speaker 1>get Behrens on camera for this. That got him a tryout.

<v Speaker 1>The tryout went really well. A little too well, actually.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't get into the weeds on this here in

<v Speaker 1>the episode. But what happened is Gowan had given an

<v Speaker 1>interview to Hannibal on his YouTube channel some time ago.

<v Speaker 1>And he talked about that day. And it's actually a

<v Speaker 1>pretty cool story. So they bring him into the fairgrounds

<v Speaker 1>in Nashville to do a dark match. This is right

<v Speaker 1>before one of their weekly pay-per-views. So you know it's

<v Speaker 1>still early in the TNA era because they're still doing

<v Speaker 1>those weekly pay-per-views. And so he comes in as Tenacious Z.

<v Speaker 1>That was the name he was going by, Tenacious Z.

<v Speaker 1>And he wrestled Truth Martini, and they were barely 90

<v Speaker 1>seconds into their match. And they had to go home.

<v Speaker 1>They had to stop it because the fans were losing

<v Speaker 1>their minds over what they were seeing. He says Scott Armstrong,

<v Speaker 1>who was the referee for their match, told him he

<v Speaker 1>had Jerry Jarrett in his earpiece saying, Telling him to

<v Speaker 1>take it home, take it home, right? They can't follow this,

<v Speaker 1>take it home. Because they were about to go live

<v Speaker 1>on the air for the pay-per-view. And they were worried

<v Speaker 1>that the crowd would be dead after this. So they

<v Speaker 1>were 90 seconds into what was supposed to be a

<v Speaker 1>7 or 8 minute match. And they end it, they

<v Speaker 1>get to the back, and almost right away they offer

<v Speaker 1>him a contract. And they ask him to sign it.

<v Speaker 1>And at least he was smart enough not to sign

<v Speaker 1>it without having a lawyer look it over first. And

<v Speaker 1>it's a good thing he did, because not long after this,

<v Speaker 1>WWE came calling. And I'm so happy they told the

<v Speaker 1>John Laurinaitis story. You can't do an episode on Zach

<v Speaker 1>Gowen and not tell the John Laurinaitis story, because it's

<v Speaker 1>such a great story. But John Laurinaitis is also a moron,

<v Speaker 1>so any chance that I get to relay all of

<v Speaker 1>that to you, I'm more than happy to jump at

<v Speaker 1>the chance. Now, it should be noted that Paul Heyman

<v Speaker 1>was actually, and they didn't mention this, but Paul Heyman

<v Speaker 1>was actually the one who got Gowan on WWE's radar.

<v Speaker 1>They played audio in the episode from Bruce Prichard's podcast many,

<v Speaker 1>many years ago, where he talked about their interest in him.

<v Speaker 1>But again, I believe Heyman is the one who actually

<v Speaker 1>got him on their radar in the first place. So

<v Speaker 1>that then got to Johnny Ace, who was... I don't

<v Speaker 1>think at that time he was their head of talent

<v Speaker 1>relations yet. I think in 2003 that was still Jim Ross.

<v Speaker 1>But if so, Laurinaitis was being groomed for that spot.

<v Speaker 1>He would have been like his apprentice in a way.

<v Speaker 1>But Laurinaitis was tasked with signing this one-legged wrestler. He's

<v Speaker 1>really good. We want to sign him, so reach out

<v Speaker 1>to him. Offer him a deal. Now you would think,

<v Speaker 1>how hard could it be? How many one-legged wrestlers are there? Well,

<v Speaker 1>it just so happens that Steve Kern was training a

<v Speaker 1>one-legged wrestler in Florida by the name of Steve Chamberlain,

<v Speaker 1>who had lost his leg back in 1999 in a

<v Speaker 1>motorcycle accident. Chamberlain was 270 pounds. He was not the

<v Speaker 1>one-legged wrestler that they wanted to sign. And they very

<v Speaker 1>nearly did before they realized that Laurinaitis fucked up. I

<v Speaker 1>signed the one-legged wrestler you wanted. He's pretty good. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>you signed the wrong guy. Or almost signed him. I

<v Speaker 1>don't think they actually signed him. He almost signed the

<v Speaker 1>wrong guy. So then they reached out to Gowan to

<v Speaker 1>offer him a contract. So yes, Johnny Ace nearly signed

<v Speaker 1>the wrong one-legged wrestler, who was a good 100 pounds

<v Speaker 1>heavier and a lot older than Zach Gowan was. Interesting note,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, about Steve Chamberlain. Chamberlain later started a

<v Speaker 1>non-profit called the 50 Legs Foundation, which gets prosthetic limbs

<v Speaker 1>to kids and veterans and people who need them. And

<v Speaker 1>a few years ago, Gowen got a new prosthetic leg

<v Speaker 1>through the foundation. How about that? Everything in the universe

<v Speaker 1>is connected. And so at 19 years old, Gowen signed

<v Speaker 1>a three-year deal with WWE. More than that, though, he's

<v Speaker 1>told that he's going to be debuting on SmackDown in

<v Speaker 1>an angle with Hulk Hogan, who he idolized growing up.

<v Speaker 1>This is when Hogan was doing the Mr. America gimmick

<v Speaker 1>on TV. And I mean, like, it doesn't get any

<v Speaker 1>bigger than that, right? Working with Hogan and Vince. But

<v Speaker 1>that's also a lot to put on the shoulders of

<v Speaker 1>a 19-year-old with very little experience, let alone on television. Actually,

<v Speaker 1>I think he would have probably been about 20 by

<v Speaker 1>the time he actually debuted on TV. He said his

<v Speaker 1>first night in, they take him to see Vince McMahon.

<v Speaker 1>And he's in the locker room, and out from the

<v Speaker 1>shower comes Hulk Hogan, his childhood hero, buck-ass naked with

<v Speaker 1>nothing but flip-flops on his feet. And he shakes his hand,

<v Speaker 1>thanks him for being there. Childhood ruined. That's it. Now,

<v Speaker 1>he does admit he looked. He took a peek. He

<v Speaker 1>said Hogan was doing all right for himself. Reminds me

<v Speaker 1>of the Gawker trial when he testified. Under oath, mind you.

<v Speaker 1>Hogan testified under oath that Hulk Hogan had a 10-inch penis.

<v Speaker 1>Terry Bollea did not have a 10-inch penis. Maybe not,

<v Speaker 1>but at least according to Zach Gowen, the Hulkster had

<v Speaker 1>nothing to be ashamed of. You know, I have to say,

<v Speaker 1>Gowen's got a little Hogan in him with the stories

<v Speaker 1>that he has told over the years about being a

<v Speaker 1>fan of Hogan's growing up. It has changed multiple times.

<v Speaker 1>So when he was in TNA, the story back then

<v Speaker 1>was Hogan once visited him in the hospital when he

<v Speaker 1>was 11 years old. That was his make-a-wish. And it

<v Speaker 1>was after that meeting that Gowan decided, I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>beat cancer and I'm going to become a pro wrestler

<v Speaker 1>when I grow up. Gowan would later go on to

<v Speaker 1>say that was something that Mike Tenet made up and

<v Speaker 1>he just went along with it, which I don't know

<v Speaker 1>if I believe that. I don't know that Mike Tenet

<v Speaker 1>made that up. But then another time, he said Hogan

<v Speaker 1>was supposed to visit him as part of the Make-A-Wish program,

<v Speaker 1>but he said he didn't want to meet him because

<v Speaker 1>he knew he was going to beat cancer and survive.

<v Speaker 1>That was the version that his mother told on the

<v Speaker 1>old WWE Confidential show, that he was offered to make

<v Speaker 1>a wish, he turned it down because he knew he

<v Speaker 1>was going to live, but that if he could have

<v Speaker 1>picked someone to meet, it would have been Hogan. But wait,

<v Speaker 1>there's another version. Years ago, in a USA Today story

<v Speaker 1>written by Ross Foreman, Ross Foreman used to write for

<v Speaker 1>WCW Magazine, he currently works for TNA as its VP

<v Speaker 1>of Public Relations. In that article... said that Gowan was

<v Speaker 1>in the hospital recovering, and at that time he watched

<v Speaker 1>wrestling on TV. He saw Hogan, and that became his

<v Speaker 1>inspiration to become a pro wrestler. So there's been many

<v Speaker 1>different versions of the basic same story. I'll go with

<v Speaker 1>the one his mom told, right? Mothers never lie. We'll

<v Speaker 1>go with that version. But he debuts on TV in

<v Speaker 1>a Piper's Pit segment where Roddy Piper accidentally, quote-unquote, pulled

<v Speaker 1>off his prosthetic leg. He actually tried to pull his

<v Speaker 1>real leg off first and Gowan had to yell up

<v Speaker 1>at him like, that's the wrong leg. That's the real leg.

<v Speaker 1>The fake one is the other one. And then finally

<v Speaker 1>Piper yanked it off. And that wasn't even the first

<v Speaker 1>time that we saw someone get their prosthetic leg yanked

<v Speaker 1>off on WWE television, right? Diesel pulled off Mad Dog

<v Speaker 1>Vashon's leg on an In Your House pay-per-view once. Then

<v Speaker 1>you had Montez Ford last year on SmackDown in that

<v Speaker 1>great TLC match using a fan's prosthetic leg as a weapon.

<v Speaker 1>They should add that as a usable weapon in the

<v Speaker 1>next 2K game. I think once it gets used at

<v Speaker 1>least twice on television as a weapon, it should qualify

<v Speaker 1>for the video game. Now, unfortunately for Gowan, this great

<v Speaker 1>angle that he was supposed to work with Hogan and Piper,

<v Speaker 1>it goes up in smoke when Hogan quits. It was

<v Speaker 1>like two weeks later. Hogan quit the company. He walks out.

<v Speaker 1>And then Vince fired Piper. for going on HBO's Real

<v Speaker 1>Sports and being a little too honest for his liking

<v Speaker 1>about all of his friends dying young. It was a

<v Speaker 1>very dark piece about drug use and wrestling and WWE

<v Speaker 1>over the years. That episode was Dark Side of the

<v Speaker 1>Ring before Dark Side of the Ring. And WWE was

<v Speaker 1>real petty about it, too. They put a statement out

<v Speaker 1>after They let him go, saying that one of the

<v Speaker 1>reasons they did so was Piper revealing his own disturbing

<v Speaker 1>drug use in the interview. Like, as if he was

<v Speaker 1>the only one that had done that kind of stuff

<v Speaker 1>that he was admitting to. He was just one of

<v Speaker 1>the few who was honest about it. And no, that

<v Speaker 1>had nothing to do with the real reason why they

<v Speaker 1>fired him. They fired him because it made them look bad.

<v Speaker 1>The one who really got screwed over by all this

<v Speaker 1>was Sean O'Hare, who had been put with Piper. He

<v Speaker 1>was part of that same angle. I can't remember a

<v Speaker 1>single thing he did in that company after that. They

<v Speaker 1>relegated him to Velocity. And then, as I recall, he

<v Speaker 1>got hurt, and then he got fired. That's how it

<v Speaker 1>goes sometimes. So with Hogan and Piper gone, it came

<v Speaker 1>down to Vince and Gowan, who wrestled at the Vengeance

<v Speaker 1>pay-per-view in 2003. I believe the original plan was for

<v Speaker 1>them to wrestle at SummerSlam. So it got bumped up

<v Speaker 1>by a month. And this match is infamous for Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon getting busted open badly. Like, he was bleeding like

<v Speaker 1>a faucet, as he did in the Buried Alive match

<v Speaker 1>with The Undertaker at the Survivor Series that year. That

<v Speaker 1>man was a bleeder. I don't remember much about the

<v Speaker 1>match other than Vince bleeding and him working over Gowan's leg, which...

<v Speaker 1>I mean... the problem with working the leg... I mean,

<v Speaker 1>it should seem pretty obvious. Like, if you're in there

<v Speaker 1>with a one-legged wrestler, they can't sell the leg. Like,

<v Speaker 1>how are you supposed to sell the leg properly if

<v Speaker 1>you only have one leg? It's even more unbelievable than

<v Speaker 1>when you watch these matches today and someone gets their

<v Speaker 1>knee worked over for like 80% of the match. And

<v Speaker 1>then four minutes later, they just get up and hit

<v Speaker 1>a move off the top rope. Like, hello? You just

<v Speaker 1>spent most of the match selling your leg and now

<v Speaker 1>you're flying around all over the place like it never

<v Speaker 1>even happened. Oh, but adrenaline. It's the adrenaline. Adrenaline. In

<v Speaker 1>this case, it's even worse because there's only so much

<v Speaker 1>selling that you can really do without the match being

<v Speaker 1>boring as all hell. Anyway, two things began to happen.

<v Speaker 1>Number one, the fans began to resent Gowan because he

<v Speaker 1>was being pushed so hard, right? He was being pushed

<v Speaker 1>so hard, so fast. The other is that he got

<v Speaker 1>a big head behind the scenes. And so he didn't

<v Speaker 1>exactly ingratiate himself to the rest of the locker room.

<v Speaker 1>And Rhino told the story of Gowan being at a

<v Speaker 1>bar one night but not being old enough to drink.

<v Speaker 1>And he's telling the, I assume the bouncer, like, I'm

<v Speaker 1>on TV. I'm a WWE superstar. So therefore you should

<v Speaker 1>let me in. And Rhyno's like, man, that's just not

<v Speaker 1>something you go around saying. It just makes you sound

<v Speaker 1>like an asshole. And he was. And he admits it.

<v Speaker 1>He was an asshole back then. He thought that he

<v Speaker 1>was some hot shit. He was in a match once

<v Speaker 1>with Big Show, Kurt Angle, Haas and Benjamin. And they're

<v Speaker 1>trying to put the match together and Gowan's like, Well,

<v Speaker 1>I'd like to do it this way. I'd like to

<v Speaker 1>do this and that. And when he suggested a spot

<v Speaker 1>where he would knock Big Show, I think he was

<v Speaker 1>going to knock him off the apron. Show just blew

<v Speaker 1>up at him. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but

<v Speaker 1>it was something to the effect of like, motherfucker, I'm

<v Speaker 1>500 pounds. You're buck 50. There's nothing believable about you

<v Speaker 1>taking me down. You're not taking me down. And Haas

<v Speaker 1>said that that's when the beatings began. They beat the

<v Speaker 1>tar out of that boy. So then came the match

<v Speaker 1>with Brock Lesnar. They mentioned that. They covered it, which

<v Speaker 1>is one of the more memorable angles in SmackDown history.

<v Speaker 1>They asked Zack if he could bring his mom to

<v Speaker 1>the show, to sit in the front row. And Gowan

<v Speaker 1>was going to bleed in the match. Arn Anderson showed

<v Speaker 1>him beforehand how to blade himself. But when he does

<v Speaker 1>it in the course of the match, nothing comes out.

<v Speaker 1>So he tries again, and again, nothing happens. So he says,

<v Speaker 1>fuck it. And he just slices the shit out of

<v Speaker 1>his forehead and the blood comes pouring out. One of

<v Speaker 1>the sickest blade jobs you'll ever see. And this is

<v Speaker 1>in front of his mom. Who's right there, like right

<v Speaker 1>in the corner where the aisleway is right in the

<v Speaker 1>front row. And Brock is giving him F5 after F5

<v Speaker 1>into the ring posts. And finally his mom jumps the

<v Speaker 1>barricade to go tend to her son. I thought Brock

<v Speaker 1>was going to F5 the mom. I remember watching this going,

<v Speaker 1>oh my God, he's going to F5 his mother into

<v Speaker 1>the post. This is going to be unbelievable. And he

<v Speaker 1>didn't do it. But 2003 Brock Lesnar, man, he was

<v Speaker 1>something different. He was something special. They did not talk

<v Speaker 1>about the angle where Lesnar shoved him down a flight

<v Speaker 1>of stairs in his wheelchair. They showed it very briefly,

<v Speaker 1>but they didn't talk about it. The story behind that

<v Speaker 1>was they brought in a stunt double, to take that

<v Speaker 1>bump down the stairs. I mean, Darby Allen would never.

<v Speaker 1>He would never allow them to use a stunt double.

<v Speaker 1>He would do it himself. Even if there were no

<v Speaker 1>cameras around, he would do it because he's a sick man.

<v Speaker 1>But they bring in a stunt double. Obviously, this guy

<v Speaker 1>had two feet. It was not a one-legged stunt double.

<v Speaker 1>But Vince turns to Gowan and he asks him, you

<v Speaker 1>want to take the bump? And Gowan looks at him

<v Speaker 1>and goes, are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? Like, no,

<v Speaker 1>I don't want to do it. I'm not trained to

<v Speaker 1>take a bump down a flight of stairs with a

<v Speaker 1>wheelchair bouncing off my head. But he says Vince would

<v Speaker 1>have let him take the bump if he said yes.

<v Speaker 1>That's pretty nuts. He told the story of doing an

<v Speaker 1>autograph signing one day, and he was very pleasantly surprised

<v Speaker 1>to see he had a very long line. It took

<v Speaker 1>two hours to sign for everyone. And for the most part,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he would look up and say hello and

<v Speaker 1>shake people's hands, but like a lot of it was

<v Speaker 1>Him with his head down just signing for people. And

<v Speaker 1>one of the people waiting in line was his father.

<v Speaker 1>The same father who walked out on he and his

<v Speaker 1>mom when he was four. The same father who used

<v Speaker 1>to beat his mother while he hid in a cabinet

<v Speaker 1>under the sink with the door cracked open just a

<v Speaker 1>little bit so he could see what was going on.

<v Speaker 1>He's looking down at the desk. He hears this voice.

<v Speaker 1>Would you sign an autograph for your dad? And he

<v Speaker 1>looks up and there he is. And as you would imagine,

<v Speaker 1>he was shell-shocked. But he signed the autograph for him.

<v Speaker 1>And his father handed him a letter. And the two

<v Speaker 1>parted ways. He barely remembered what the contents of the

<v Speaker 1>letter even were, so he didn't really tell us. I

<v Speaker 1>don't get the sense it was anything profound. But that

<v Speaker 1>was the last time that he saw his dad. And

<v Speaker 1>if you're Zach, I mean, you gotta be thinking, like,

<v Speaker 1>does he really want to reconcile? Or is he just

<v Speaker 1>coming back around because now I'm famous and I'm on TV?

<v Speaker 1>And he wants to, you know, work his way back

<v Speaker 1>into my life. That's what I would be thinking. Now

<v Speaker 1>you want to come back into my life? So coming

<v Speaker 1>out of the angle with Brock, Gowan is supposed to

<v Speaker 1>be injured, right? And storyline, he's in the hospital. We're

<v Speaker 1>not going to see him for a while. But the

<v Speaker 1>office gets wind of him being out and about, taking

<v Speaker 1>pictures with fans, and they're not happy about it. And

<v Speaker 1>his attitude was, and this is what he told them, says,

<v Speaker 1>it's fake. Who cares? What's the big deal? So now

<v Speaker 1>he's got heat with the office, right? He's got heat

<v Speaker 1>with the office and the locker room. Not a good combo.

<v Speaker 1>So he ends up getting concussed in a match sometime

<v Speaker 1>later with Tajiri and had to take time off. The

<v Speaker 1>idea was that once he was all healed up, he

<v Speaker 1>could call them and let them know and they would

<v Speaker 1>have him back on the road. Instead, they send him

<v Speaker 1>to meet with Jim Ross, who told him that he

<v Speaker 1>needed more time to mature. Now he took it to

<v Speaker 1>mean that they didn't want him around anymore. And it

<v Speaker 1>was February of 2004 when he was let go. Now,

<v Speaker 1>what he didn't mention here was that during that period

<v Speaker 1>where he was off getting healthy again, he fell in

<v Speaker 1>love with a girl who lived in Detroit. WWE wanted

<v Speaker 1>him to move to Louisville to work in OVW for

<v Speaker 1>a while and pay his dues and work his way

<v Speaker 1>back into the good graces of the locker room. He

<v Speaker 1>called John Laurinaitis and he told him, look, I appreciate

<v Speaker 1>you wanting me to move to Louisville, but I'm going

<v Speaker 1>to stay in Detroit. And I'll keep training at my

<v Speaker 1>local wrestling school. And then you give me a call

<v Speaker 1>whenever you're ready to put me back on TV. Then

<v Speaker 1>came the meeting with Jim Ross. So him turning down

<v Speaker 1>their request to move to Louisville and train in OVW

<v Speaker 1>is likely what did him in. But he has credited

<v Speaker 1>Jim Ross with being very gracious in the way, I guess,

<v Speaker 1>in the way that he fired him that day. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>because he told him, he goes, look, Zach, it's not

<v Speaker 1>a talent issue. It's a maturity issue. But I guess

<v Speaker 1>he did it in a nice way. And that's when

<v Speaker 1>he hits rock bottom at that point in his life.

<v Speaker 1>There was no more money coming in, no more women,

<v Speaker 1>just pills and parties. He went back to TNA in

<v Speaker 1>2005 until one night he's popping somas. He ends up

<v Speaker 1>going up to Jeff Jarrett's suite. I don't know where

<v Speaker 1>they were, but I guess Jeff Jarrett had a suite

<v Speaker 1>maybe in the hotel. He goes up there and he

<v Speaker 1>goes over to Jeff Jarrett. Now, Jeff Jarrett is technically

<v Speaker 1>his boss, right? He goes over to Jeff Jarrett and

<v Speaker 1>he asks him, hey, do you know where I can

<v Speaker 1>get some Coke? Which is a really dumb thing to

<v Speaker 1>ask your boss. Don't do that. Suffice it to say,

<v Speaker 1>he did not get that contract with TNA that they

<v Speaker 1>were ready to offer him. I mean, this kid just

<v Speaker 1>put his foot in his mouth at all the wrong times.

<v Speaker 1>He was 24, though, when he met his wife, Kelly,

<v Speaker 1>who was 18 at the time. They've been together for

<v Speaker 1>18 years now. He was deep into his drug addiction.

<v Speaker 1>But she liked to party too, and I guess she

<v Speaker 1>just didn't think that he was as bad off as

<v Speaker 1>he was. And one night he was delivering pizza in

<v Speaker 1>a rough neighborhood in Detroit when a guy pulled a

<v Speaker 1>gun on him and asked him to empty his pockets,

<v Speaker 1>which he did. And he gave up his cash, his keys,

<v Speaker 1>his phone, and the guy told him to turn around.

<v Speaker 1>And he's thinking, well, that's it. I'm going to turn around.

<v Speaker 1>He's going to blow my brains out. But he turns

<v Speaker 1>around and the guy just says, run. Like, it's fucking

<v Speaker 1>Bray Wyatt in the hoodie here. And so he runs,

<v Speaker 1>and he ran around the corner. He reached into his sock,

<v Speaker 1>and he pulled out two pills that I guess he

<v Speaker 1>was keeping on him. And he said he was willing

<v Speaker 1>to die for those pills. So think about how bad

<v Speaker 1>off you need to be. Like, here, take my wallet

<v Speaker 1>or whatever, my cash, take my phone, take my keys,

<v Speaker 1>take all of this. But, like, had the guy wanted

<v Speaker 1>the pills... He's admitting that he would have been willing

<v Speaker 1>to die. He would have probably said no. He would

<v Speaker 1>have fought him off for it. That's when you know

<v Speaker 1>you need help. He finally told his mother, I need help.

<v Speaker 1>And she pulled out a letter that they, I guess,

<v Speaker 1>had come in the mail. I don't even know if

<v Speaker 1>he was aware of it, but she knew where the

<v Speaker 1>letter was. She pulls out this letter from WWE that

<v Speaker 1>they had mailed out to all talents offering to pay

<v Speaker 1>for rehab. That was part of their wellness policy, which

<v Speaker 1>was amended in 2007, a few months after the Benoit murder-suicide,

<v Speaker 1>to offer rehab services to any current or former talents

<v Speaker 1>in need of it. So the wellness policy went into

<v Speaker 1>effect a few months after Eddie Guerrero passed away. This

<v Speaker 1>particular policy was not part of the original wellness policy, though.

<v Speaker 1>That's why I said in 2007 is when they actually

<v Speaker 1>instituted this. And that letter is what saved his life.

<v Speaker 1>Whatever Vince McMahon's intentions were in putting that policy into place,

<v Speaker 1>it is one of the best things that that company

<v Speaker 1>has ever done. But he did give a deposition to

<v Speaker 1>the House Oversight Committee where he was asked flat out,

<v Speaker 1>what motivated you to suddenly offer this service? And Vince's

<v Speaker 1>response was, two words, public relations. That's it. That's what

<v Speaker 1>he said. That was his only real motivation in doing it,

<v Speaker 1>but still, it doesn't change the fact that it's helped

<v Speaker 1>save many lives. And that's where the story has a

<v Speaker 1>happy ending, because not only did he beat cancer, he

<v Speaker 1>beat his demons. He and his wife started a family.

<v Speaker 1>They have four kids. He does motivational speaking now. He's

<v Speaker 1>also a DDP yoga instructor. I know that. And he

<v Speaker 1>volunteers at the same children's hospital in Michigan that helped

<v Speaker 1>him when he first got sick. He even popped up

<v Speaker 1>in AEW last year for a match on the Beach

<v Speaker 1>Break episode of Dynamite against Ricochet. And that is how

<v Speaker 1>the episode came to an end. That is how the

<v Speaker 1>season comes to an end. They ended on a happy note.

<v Speaker 1>Not their strongest season as far as subjects go. I

<v Speaker 1>still enjoyed it. If there is a Season 8, there

<v Speaker 1>is still plenty of topics for them to cover. I

<v Speaker 1>feel like in wrestling, there's just never going to be

<v Speaker 1>any real shortage of topics for them to dive into.

<v Speaker 1>And as I do at the end of every season,

<v Speaker 1>I'll list off some ideas. You guys can email me

<v Speaker 1>or tweet me, chime in, let me know what you think.

<v Speaker 1>The Ashley Massaro story is at the top of the

<v Speaker 1>list every year. Like, if that doesn't qualify for Dark

<v Speaker 1>Side of the Ring, I don't know what does. If

<v Speaker 1>they wanted a big name, let's say, to lead off

<v Speaker 1>a new season with, Jeff Hardy would make for a

<v Speaker 1>good episode or two, I would say. Now, Jeff and Matt,

<v Speaker 1>they sat down for interviews this season for the Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett TNA episodes. And they were actually talking about Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Jarrett's redemption arc and his whole redemption story. They could

<v Speaker 1>do the same for Jeff, this Jeff, not Jeff Jarrett.

<v Speaker 1>If they get him and his brother to sit down

<v Speaker 1>for it, I could see Jeff Hardy being the subject

<v Speaker 1>of one of those episodes. Frankly, it doesn't even have

<v Speaker 1>to be just Jeff. You would probably do an episode

<v Speaker 1>on the Hardys because Matt has had his issues before, too.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, it was at a point many, many years ago,

<v Speaker 1>like 2011, 2010, like around then, where I felt like

<v Speaker 1>I was talking about Matt Hardy on the podcast every week. And,

<v Speaker 1>you know, DWIs and DUIs and stuff. You know, we

<v Speaker 1>hear a lot of that with Jeff Hardy over the last,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, 15 years or so. Matt was pretty

<v Speaker 1>bad off, too, at one point, before he got his

<v Speaker 1>act together. So you could do an entire episode or

<v Speaker 1>two just on the Hardy boys, both of them. But

<v Speaker 1>other subjects, Ravishing Rick Rude, Perry Saturn, who has a podcast,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, or he's got a YouTube channel. So

<v Speaker 1>Perry's around. I'm sure Perry would be willing to sit

<v Speaker 1>down for an episode. Crash Holly, he's got a sad story.

<v Speaker 1>Larry Sweeney, I mention him every year. Takeshi Morishima, I

<v Speaker 1>mentioned his name for the first time last year as

<v Speaker 1>a potential subject. One of the lesser known names, I suppose,

<v Speaker 1>to like the mainstream audience. But they always have an

<v Speaker 1>episode or two like that. I think he can make

<v Speaker 1>for an interesting episode. And that piece of shit, Buck Zumoff.

<v Speaker 1>Not that I really want to go and hear about

<v Speaker 1>all the awful things he did to his daughter. But,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, again, dark side of the ring. It certainly

<v Speaker 1>fits the criteria for dark. I'll just say that. But

<v Speaker 1>you guys chime in. Let me know what you think

<v Speaker 1>you'd like to see if they do a season 8.

<v Speaker 1>All right, let's knock off a few questions here and

<v Speaker 1>get the hell out of here. This is the mailbag portion,

<v Speaker 1>which means you can email me if you want to

<v Speaker 1>hear your question possibly get read here on the show.

<v Speaker 1>The email address is thesolomonster at gmail.com. Please include your

<v Speaker 1>name and where you are from when you write in.

<v Speaker 1>Nicholas from Long Island, New York. It's pretty telling that

<v Speaker 1>when WWE brought Big Cass back that there was zero

<v Speaker 1>mention or has been zero mention or sign of Enzo

<v Speaker 1>Amore on WWE TV. One moment I remember was when

<v Speaker 1>he decided to invade WWE at the 2018 Survivor Series

<v Speaker 1>while in the crowd via an awful disguise. Was there

<v Speaker 1>ever a reason given by Enzo as for why he

<v Speaker 1>decided to disrupt the Survivor Series? Honestly, reflecting on Enzo's

<v Speaker 1>entire story, he would be a perfect candidate for a

<v Speaker 1>Dark Side of the Ring episode. Could you see Vice

<v Speaker 1>doing an episode on him in the future? I don't

<v Speaker 1>see that happening. I don't think that would be one

<v Speaker 1>of the stronger ones. So I'm going to say no,

<v Speaker 1>probably on that one. There's a lot of other better

<v Speaker 1>topics that they could dive into. But yeah, he wore

<v Speaker 1>a disguise. He ended up getting, I don't think they

<v Speaker 1>threw him out of the building, but they carried him

<v Speaker 1>to the back at the Staples Center. Security did. It

<v Speaker 1>was all very embarrassing. He did it as a publicity

<v Speaker 1>stunt to get himself trending on social media. And it worked.

<v Speaker 1>But he didn't come across as cool. He just came

<v Speaker 1>across as desperate. You know, he was desperate for attention.

<v Speaker 1>I think there's still a chance he comes back to WWE.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, just because they brought Cass back on his

<v Speaker 1>own doesn't mean that Enzo still isn't coming in, even

<v Speaker 1>if it was just to do some stuff in NXT.

<v Speaker 1>Julius from the Bronx. I just saw clips of a

<v Speaker 1>Triple H Tajiri match for the World Heavyweight Championship in 2003.

<v Speaker 1>It was during a Japan tour, and it seemed like

<v Speaker 1>Triple H wrestled closer to Strong Style for it. What

<v Speaker 1>do you think it would have been like to see

<v Speaker 1>prime Triple H in a G1 tournament? And what WWE

<v Speaker 1>wrestlers would you have liked or would still like to

<v Speaker 1>see compete in the G1 if they have not already

<v Speaker 1>done so? Strong style Triple H. I did see that match.

<v Speaker 1>I think that was posted on The Vault like a

<v Speaker 1>year or two ago. He adapts to the style. Do

<v Speaker 1>I see Triple H being in a G1 back then?

<v Speaker 1>I don't. I mean, he wouldn't have been at the

<v Speaker 1>top of my list of people that I would have

<v Speaker 1>liked to have seen in the G1. I think 2000,

<v Speaker 1>2001 Triple H, he would have done fine. I just

<v Speaker 1>don't think the G1 really suits him or his style.

<v Speaker 1>What I do think is that someone like Kurt Angle

<v Speaker 1>back then, Kurt Angle, Sheamus, I mean, they would have

<v Speaker 1>been great in a G1. Cesaro, Samoa Joe back in

<v Speaker 1>the day. And as far as right now, Ilya Dragunov.

<v Speaker 1>We could be close to it actually happening. I think

<v Speaker 1>he would excel in a tournament like that. And Mac

<v Speaker 1>from New Jersey. I see a lot of talk about

<v Speaker 1>the greatest heel turns, but not much about the greatest

<v Speaker 1>baby face turns. Who do you think had the greatest

<v Speaker 1>baby face turn of all time? Well, I just answered

<v Speaker 1>this question on the podcast last year. I did a

<v Speaker 1>whole last segment on it as part of the mailbag.

<v Speaker 1>Tops for me is the Steve Austin turn of WrestleMania 13.

<v Speaker 1>Because the impact of that, I mean, first of all,

<v Speaker 1>it was a badass moment in that match. It was

<v Speaker 1>a badass turn. But the impact of that one turn

<v Speaker 1>alone outweighs any of the other ones that have ever

<v Speaker 1>been done. If you want more, I would go with

<v Speaker 1>Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18 and Randy Savage at WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>7 after his match with the Ultimate Warrior. Because that

<v Speaker 1>was great. I mean, he came in as the Macho King.

<v Speaker 1>He came in as the heel. And he left to

<v Speaker 1>a standing ovation. He left with a different woman on

<v Speaker 1>his arm as a babyface, not as the Macho King,

<v Speaker 1>but as the Macho Man. The metamorphosis, the transition back

<v Speaker 1>was completed. And it was just this fantastic WrestleMania moment.

<v Speaker 1>Daniel Bryan on Raw back in 2014, that's another one, right?

<v Speaker 1>Shedding the skin of the Wyatt family. That's an all-timer

<v Speaker 1>Raw moment right there. The reaction that that guy, my God.

<v Speaker 1>And the other one I would mention here, the Nikita

<v Speaker 1>Koloff one has to be near the top of the list.

<v Speaker 1>And for a lot of people, it probably would be

<v Speaker 1>number one, and they wouldn't be wrong if they cited

<v Speaker 1>it as their number one. It might be the top

<v Speaker 1>one for me if I had grown up watching Jim

<v Speaker 1>Crockett promotions. But this one I didn't see until many

<v Speaker 1>years later. Koloff coming out to tag with Dusty Rhodes

<v Speaker 1>against the Horsemen. It was supposed to be Dusty and

<v Speaker 1>Magnum T.A. Magnum T.A. had his car accident. They needed

<v Speaker 1>a replacement. Nikita had been booked as the big Russian

<v Speaker 1>heel for years. And so seeing him walk out with Dusty,

<v Speaker 1>just the sight of it, and then the reaction that

<v Speaker 1>it got, You just would not see anything like that

<v Speaker 1>in wrestling today, I don't believe. It was just one

<v Speaker 1>of those all-time moments. So, it's a lot easier to

<v Speaker 1>make a list like this, I think, when you list

<v Speaker 1>out all the heel turns and talk about greatest heel

<v Speaker 1>turns of all time, and number one is still Hogan, obviously.

<v Speaker 1>But there have been some great babyface ones. Those are

<v Speaker 1>just a few of them. Anyway, keep emailing me, thesolidmonster

<v Speaker 1>at gmail.com. I want to hear from you guys. I

<v Speaker 1>have a feeling I may need more questions for next

<v Speaker 1>week's show. I don't know what next week's podcast is

<v Speaker 1>going to look like in terms of the content and

<v Speaker 1>substance that we'll have to dive into. I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>first be coming back from L.A. I'll probably just do

<v Speaker 1>my Smackdown review also as part of the podcast. uh

<v Speaker 1>but i'm coming back from la and then i got

<v Speaker 1>to get the show out kind of early enough on

<v Speaker 1>sunday because then we have sunday night's main event to

<v Speaker 1>close out the weekend it's going to be a lot

<v Speaker 1>and there's no more dark side of the ring episodes

<v Speaker 1>to talk about so get those questions on in and

<v Speaker 1>uh there will be a show that'll be episode 979

<v Speaker 1>we're getting close to 980 that'll be next sunday In

<v Speaker 1>the meantime, I'm here for the Raw Post Show on

<v Speaker 1>Monday night. Brand new episode of the Uncrowned Wrestling Show

<v Speaker 1>coming your way on Tuesday. There's a bunch of stuff

<v Speaker 1>here and other little news and notes, plus Sunday night's

<v Speaker 1>main event predictions. I'm going to save all of that

<v Speaker 1>for the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. So that'll be on Tuesday.

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday night will be a brand new installment of Tuesday

<v Speaker 1>Night Titans over on JD's YouTube channel. And then Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>the post-all-in episode, Fallout, from All In London on Dynamite.

<v Speaker 1>I will not be here for the SmackDown review on Friday.

<v Speaker 1>As I mentioned, I'll be in Los Angeles flying out

<v Speaker 1>that day, in fact, for the show that night. Hopefully,

<v Speaker 1>I will see some of you there. I'm looking forward

<v Speaker 1>to that. And then back with you next weekend for

<v Speaker 1>a brand new pod and Sunday night's main event as

<v Speaker 1>we close out the summer, right? The unofficial end of

<v Speaker 1>summer with Labor Day coming up. So until then, be well,

<v Speaker 1>stay safe. have yourselves a great rest of your weekend.

<v Speaker 1>And if you're watching all in enjoy, join me on

<v Speaker 1>the YouTube channel Sunday night for the live review, the good,

<v Speaker 1>the bad, and the ugly. We'll talk about it all.

<v Speaker 1>And then I will see you back here next Sunday

<v Speaker 1>for nine 79 until then. Take care guys. The solid

<v Speaker 1>monster sounds off. So that announcement brought out Cody Rhodes,

<v Speaker 1>who ran out to the ring jacket lists. Cody was

<v Speaker 1>all fired up. He did that thing that he does

<v Speaker 1>where he gets very angry and And he screams, Enough! Enough!

<v Speaker 1>That's his thing now? Like a substitute school teacher? When

<v Speaker 1>the class is just out of control? Enough! Enough! He

<v Speaker 1>tries to sound all tough. Like he's gonna whoop that ass. Enough! Enough! See,

<v Speaker 1>Cody doesn't say it as deeply as that. It's just

<v Speaker 1>not intimidating enough. That's the problem. Like, I can see it. Like,

<v Speaker 1>if he had, you know, his kid or whatever is

<v Speaker 1>misbehaving at home and just, you know, he starts yelling, Enough!

<v Speaker 1>I have had absolutely enough! The kid probably looks at

<v Speaker 1>him and just laughs and walks away. Enough! The Sala

<v Speaker 1>Monster sounds off. Since 2007. Bringing you the good, the bad,

<v Speaker 1>and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams, bonus

<v Speaker 1>content for subscribers, and follow The Sala Monster on Facebook, Instagram,

<v Speaker 1>and X. The Sala Monster.