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

<v Speaker 1>Sounds Off. I love you, Solo!

<v Speaker 2>Mama Monster! Concord!

<v Speaker 1>My home! I want your soul. I like playing in

<v Speaker 1>a woman.

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

<v Speaker 1>Come over here and fight me. Is that Pat Patterson?

<v Speaker 1>You have legs. Holy mackerel, did he get fat? I

<v Speaker 1>was 99% positive it was just chest up. I have

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

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

<v Speaker 1>hire me.

<v Speaker 2>Welcome to episode 980 of the Solid Monster Sounds Off

<v Speaker 2>for Sunday, September 13th. I am the Sala Monster. I

<v Speaker 2>apologize for the way I sound. I am very sick.

<v Speaker 2>I guess I didn't come back from Los Angeles unscathed.

<v Speaker 2>The COVID bug bit me. It got me. But the

<v Speaker 2>show must go on. I want to thank everyone who

<v Speaker 2>joined me for the Dynamite Rebel Heart Stream on Wednesday night.

<v Speaker 2>I had said 100% of all of your Super Chats

<v Speaker 2>that night would be donated to the non-profit I Am ALS.

<v Speaker 2>which helps fund not only research into that horrific disease,

<v Speaker 2>but also support programs for patients suffering from it. We

<v Speaker 2>raised around.

<v Speaker 1>$ 1, 000.

<v Speaker 2>In Super Chats, which, after YouTube fees and whatnot, of

<v Speaker 2>course I didn't realize until after that there was a

<v Speaker 2>separate fundraising function on there that I could have set up,

<v Speaker 2>but after fees was probably closer to $ 700 or so,

<v Speaker 2>so I kicked in the rest, and all told, a

<v Speaker 2>donation was made for $ 1, 345 on behalf of the Soundoff

<v Speaker 2>family in honor of Taneya Brooks, better known as Rebel

<v Speaker 2>from AEW. So you can find the receipts on my socials.

<v Speaker 2>I'll put this community up against any other. You guys

<v Speaker 2>turned out in a big way, so thank you for that.

<v Speaker 2>We are in the middle of a busy wrestling weekend

<v Speaker 2>with WWE in Mexico City this past Friday for SmackDown,

<v Speaker 2>then again tomorrow night for Raw. In between all of that,

<v Speaker 2>they've got two nights of triple mania. Night two is

<v Speaker 2>taking place tonight. We have a new WWE champion. And

<v Speaker 2>after last night, we have a new women's world champion.

<v Speaker 2>Two down, one to go. Tomorrow night, could it happen?

<v Speaker 2>Is it possible? We'll talk about it. If you would

<v Speaker 2>like to make a PayPal donation and support the show,

<v Speaker 2>you may do so on thesolidmonster.com. $ 10 or more will

<v Speaker 2>get you a nickname and a shout-out. I want to

<v Speaker 2>say thank you. To the Portland pop star, Paul Hamilton.

<v Speaker 2>Big B, Brian Becerra. The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soep.

<v Speaker 2>Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray. The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichard. The

<v Speaker 2>Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis. James Hollywood Herrera. And Killshot Keith Hart.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you, guys.

<v Speaker 2>Mark Shapiro of TKO spoke at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia

<v Speaker 2>and Technology Conference on Tuesday, and he had a few

<v Speaker 2>things to say about WWE and UFC, saying that after

<v Speaker 2>signing their media rights deals with each company, they did, quote,

<v Speaker 2>resize their superstar and fighter pay compensation. Like it's a

<v Speaker 2>JPEG image on the computer. We have to do a

<v Speaker 2>little resizing. But also that investors don't need to be

<v Speaker 2>concerned as any increases are baked into their numbers with, quote,

<v Speaker 2>no further adverse impact. Well, they get a few more

<v Speaker 2>takers on those 50% pay cuts, and that should put

<v Speaker 2>them right where they want to be. He said both

<v Speaker 2>companies rely on development. In the case of WWE, 75%

<v Speaker 2>of our superstars come from NXT, starting in our developmental

<v Speaker 2>league and coming all the way up. Don't think that

<v Speaker 2>isn't the dream scenario for them. where they get to

<v Speaker 2>a point, and there's already a high makeup of NXT

<v Speaker 2>talent on the main roster, but it's not entirely developmental talent.

<v Speaker 2>But don't think that they don't want to get to

<v Speaker 2>a point that the large majority, if not all of

<v Speaker 2>their roster, is made up of NXT talents who came

<v Speaker 2>up through the developmental system, because it's a lot easier

<v Speaker 2>to pay those people less than they would if they

<v Speaker 2>went after name talents from other places. I'm sure that's

<v Speaker 2>their dream scenario five years from now. On WWE PLE

<v Speaker 2>performance on ESPN Unlimited, Shapiro said that they're performing well,

<v Speaker 2>but soon will be doing much better, thanks to the

<v Speaker 2>YouTube TV agreement with ESPN. I did notice recently, because

<v Speaker 2>we did just get access to it on YouTube TV.

<v Speaker 2>We were like the last ones. And I did notice

<v Speaker 2>recently that ESPN Unlimited has been integrated into my YouTube app,

<v Speaker 2>or YouTube TV app, where now it's listed as its

<v Speaker 2>own channel, like everything else in the channel lineup. So

<v Speaker 2>I could just pull it up now like any other

<v Speaker 2>cable channel. And I can just watch the PLEs that

<v Speaker 2>way without having to open the ESPN app. So that's convenient,

<v Speaker 2>at least. On WWE, he also said this. We're scoring

<v Speaker 2>on our family first message. Remember, WWE is a different

<v Speaker 2>audience than the UFC. And when it comes to going

<v Speaker 2>after families, that's our audience. And I think advertisers are

<v Speaker 2>starting to see that. Frankly, I'm excited for 2027 because

<v Speaker 2>we are working with the Walt Disney Company on some

<v Speaker 2>special events around Disney and WWE and bringing those two

<v Speaker 2>audiences together since, of course, What do they have in common?

<v Speaker 1>Family. He sounds like Okada now. Family, Kyle. Family. So

<v Speaker 1>WWE getting in bed with the mouse.

<v Speaker 2>The WrestleVotes radio followed up on this and said, WWE's

<v Speaker 2>interest in working with Disney predates its ESPN deal. The

<v Speaker 2>ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex has been discussed as

<v Speaker 2>a potential home for WWE events, festivals, and larger fan experiences.

<v Speaker 2>If you thought you were sick of Danhausen before, wait

<v Speaker 2>until you get Danhausen on ice.

<v Speaker 1>Oh, it's coming.

<v Speaker 2>And, you know, everybody, of course, is joking, or in

<v Speaker 2>some cases, maybe they're being serious when they say, oh,

<v Speaker 2>you know, the television programming, it's going to go from

<v Speaker 2>TVPG to TVG, and it's going to be even more insufferable.

<v Speaker 2>One doesn't have anything to do with the other in

<v Speaker 2>that regard. Like, the on-air product is not going to change.

<v Speaker 2>I mean, you're going to have, like, Netflix, for example.

<v Speaker 2>The edits and censorship, I'm sure, will continue, and there

<v Speaker 2>are reasons for that. This sounds to me like it's

<v Speaker 2>just more of a, hey, how can we kind of

<v Speaker 2>bring the two sides together for events and special attractions?

<v Speaker 2>Maybe even at Walt Disney World. You know, stuff like that.

<v Speaker 2>And honestly, it I could see where that makes sense,

<v Speaker 2>like a world in which that makes sense. So long

<v Speaker 2>as it doesn't have an impact on the on air product,

<v Speaker 2>which I'm not reading, you know, into this, anything like that,

<v Speaker 2>but who knows, this is how it starts. Who's to

<v Speaker 2>say down the road, you know, they get in bed together,

<v Speaker 2>things go well, uh, that they can't expand their, uh,

<v Speaker 2>their partnership into something more. Nick Khan also did some

<v Speaker 2>talking this week to the varsity podcast, where he said

<v Speaker 2>that creative plans for WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia have

<v Speaker 2>already been decided upon. He said it's never been outside

<v Speaker 2>the U.S.

<v Speaker 1>Or Canada.

<v Speaker 2>It's going to be in Riyadh. It's going to be

<v Speaker 2>a significant show. We're already across the creative. Of course,

<v Speaker 2>that's subject to any injury, but we are already across

<v Speaker 2>the creative, which is kind of a weird way of

<v Speaker 2>putting it. But in addition to that, we announced two

<v Speaker 2>shows from the MSG Theater. WrestleMania Saturday will have a

<v Speaker 2>watch along party followed by either NXT or Triple A.

<v Speaker 2>And the next day, MSG Theater, a watch-along party followed

<v Speaker 2>by either NXT or AAA, whichever one did not go

<v Speaker 2>on the Saturday night. So we're also going to do

<v Speaker 2>viewing parties and all of these things from the U.S.

<v Speaker 2>and other countries. We think ultimately the fans will go

<v Speaker 2>home happy. Still no actual dates announced for all of

<v Speaker 2>these shows that he's talking about. He also addressed fan criticism,

<v Speaker 2>just in general, saying those complaints... Some of them we

<v Speaker 2>look at and we say, hey, there's some truth to this.

<v Speaker 2>Let's make a little adjustment here, this or that. But

<v Speaker 2>you cannot cater. You have to rely on your team

<v Speaker 2>to know. We have the best creative in terms of

<v Speaker 2>all wrestling in Triple H, real name Paul Levesque. We

<v Speaker 2>have the best live events team, in my opinion. We

<v Speaker 2>have the best merchandise consumer products team. They're able to

<v Speaker 2>monetize it. The best creative in terms of all of wrestling.

<v Speaker 2>I'll just say this, even if that were true and

<v Speaker 2>you believe that to be true, the bar is in hell.

<v Speaker 2>I don't think you can set that bar any lower.

<v Speaker 2>WWE held TripleMania Night 1 on Friday from the MGM

<v Speaker 2>Grand in Las Vegas immediately after SmackDown went off the air.

<v Speaker 2>I caught most of it yesterday as I was laying

<v Speaker 2>around dying a slow death. I thought it was pretty average,

<v Speaker 2>to be honest, especially for what's supposed to be such

<v Speaker 2>a big show. Very much a WWE show, a two

<v Speaker 2>hour and 40 minute show with a good, I don't know,

<v Speaker 2>30 or 40 minutes of commercials. It felt less like

<v Speaker 2>a PLE and more like a glorified episode of Raw

<v Speaker 2>or SmackDown. When people tell me that Rey Mysterio versus

<v Speaker 2>Omos was the main event of the show, I didn't

<v Speaker 2>believe them at first. I knew it was on the card,

<v Speaker 2>but I didn't realize that they were closing with it.

<v Speaker 2>Omos had to win to be reinstated, but if he lost,

<v Speaker 2>he would be forced to leave AAA forever. And you

<v Speaker 2>knew The Undertaker wasn't going to allow that. He loves Omos.

<v Speaker 2>Where would he go if he couldn't appear at AAA anymore?

<v Speaker 2>AAA sure doesn't want to use him. As soon as

<v Speaker 2>Vince left, that was the end of Omos on television.

<v Speaker 2>They fucking sent him to Japan. So it was David

<v Speaker 2>versus Goliath, and Goliath won. Omos gets to stay. But

<v Speaker 2>then they did a takeoff of the old Big Show

<v Speaker 2>spot from SmackDown many years ago when Rey was tied

<v Speaker 2>down to a gurney. And Big Show swung him into

<v Speaker 2>the ring post, which was a dangerously stupid spot to do,

<v Speaker 2>since Rey couldn't brace himself with his hands, you know,

<v Speaker 2>and he hit the ground face first.

<v Speaker 1>Cool visual, though.

<v Speaker 2>People still talk about it to this day, but still

<v Speaker 2>very stupid. So here, Ray was tied to a stretcher,

<v Speaker 2>or not a stretcher, but a backboard, and Omos lifted

<v Speaker 2>him up for a choke slam on the backboard and

<v Speaker 2>dumped him through the announce desk.

<v Speaker 1>And he took this.

<v Speaker 2>Perfect bump, too, where, like, the table collapsed and he

<v Speaker 2>kind of slid down I would go with the four-way

<v Speaker 2>elimination match as the best on the show. I thought

<v Speaker 2>that was good with Los Americanos beating Fraxium, the LWO,

<v Speaker 2>and the Tokyo Bad Boys.

<v Speaker 1>Roxanne Perez, who I still think is Ms.

<v Speaker 2>Money in the Bank for this year, she won a

<v Speaker 2>number one contenders match for the Reina de Reina style,

<v Speaker 2>which is being defended tonight. Roxanne gets the win over Natty,

<v Speaker 2>La Hiedra, and Fabi Apache.

<v Speaker 1>And that was it.

<v Speaker 2>I mean, nothing else really stood out to me. Night

<v Speaker 2>2 is the more loaded of the two nights. Night

<v Speaker 2>2 of TripleMania airs tonight on YouTube with El Grande

<v Speaker 2>Americano challenging Dominic Mysterio for the AAA Mega Championship that

<v Speaker 2>Dom has now held for one full year. And that

<v Speaker 2>should be coming to an end tonight. The War Raiders,

<v Speaker 2>they're hosting an open challenge for their AAA Tag Team titles.

<v Speaker 2>Flammer takes on La Catalina. for the Reina de Reina's title.

<v Speaker 2>Flammer has held that championship for over 1,100 days. Her

<v Speaker 2>reign is second right now in wrestling, only to Athena's

<v Speaker 2>Forever Reign as the Ring of Honor Women's Champion. So

<v Speaker 2>this feels ripe for a title change on their biggest

<v Speaker 2>show of the year, one would think. Rey Fenix defends

<v Speaker 2>the AAA Cruiserweight title in a four-way against Nathan Frazier,

<v Speaker 2>Jack Cartwheel, and Minnie Vikingo. Psycho Clown takes on El Carcinero.

<v Speaker 2>in a Mexican street fight. First time I saw Carson Arrow,

<v Speaker 2>I thought, when did Luchasaurus leave AEW for AAA? I

<v Speaker 2>didn't realize until just recently the man under the mask

<v Speaker 2>is Drake Moreau, who is currently dating Roxanne Perez. The

<v Speaker 2>height difference between those two is still hilarious whenever I

<v Speaker 2>see a photo of them together. And they've got their

<v Speaker 2>annual Copa Bardal, which is like their version of a

<v Speaker 2>Royal Rumble, only eliminations can take place by pinfall or submission,

<v Speaker 2>not just over the top rope. And we also don't

<v Speaker 2>know Any of the names in advance. That's how it works.

<v Speaker 2>Last year, Omos won the trophy, so they'll have a

<v Speaker 2>new winner this year. And that's the card. I won't

<v Speaker 2>be live for it, but I do plan on checking

<v Speaker 2>it out. Anything worth discussing, I'll talk about on the

<v Speaker 2>Uncrowned Wrestling Show this Tuesday. Let me take you back

<v Speaker 2>to Raw this past Monday night and 946, which is

<v Speaker 2>the name of the Royce Keys OTM faction. They were

<v Speaker 2>taunting the bloodline all night long. This is a show-long storyline.

<v Speaker 2>where they were out in the parking lot and they

<v Speaker 2>wanted the bloodline, i.e. the Usos, who showed up with

<v Speaker 2>a pipe and a baseball bat because they were put

<v Speaker 2>in the hospital the week before.

<v Speaker 1>So they were looking for revenge, and it.

<v Speaker 2>Was Jacob Fatu who tried to be the voice of

<v Speaker 2>reason and tried to tell Jimmy and Jay, look, you've

<v Speaker 2>got to just run the play. This is not the

<v Speaker 2>smart thing to do. That's what they want. They want

<v Speaker 2>you to go find them. But you've got to hold back.

<v Speaker 2>You've got to run the play.

<v Speaker 1>He's a coach.

<v Speaker 2>And Jacob, you know, telling them this certainly adds fuel

<v Speaker 2>to the fire, I think, to the theory, conspiracy theory,

<v Speaker 2>which is a very realistic conspiracy theory, that Jacob Fatu

<v Speaker 2>is in cahoots with 946. Because again, his relationship with

<v Speaker 2>Royce Keys they've established goes back many, many years, right?

<v Speaker 2>They grew up in the same area together. They've been

<v Speaker 2>friends for a long, long time. And they have yet

<v Speaker 2>to go after Jacob, right? Jacob is the one guy

<v Speaker 2>so far... I guess outside of Roman, who they haven't

<v Speaker 2>put their hands on. And now Jacob is telling them, no, no, no,

<v Speaker 2>don't go out there with your weapons and hurt these guys.

<v Speaker 1>You got to stay back here.

<v Speaker 2>All of this just to lead to the end of

<v Speaker 2>the show, which is where they did this angle where

<v Speaker 2>they set fire to the Uso's rental car in the

<v Speaker 2>parking lot. Not a very impressive fire. But yes, they

<v Speaker 2>burned their rental car.

<v Speaker 1>Ooh.

<v Speaker 2>What a sinister thing for them to do. Look, I

<v Speaker 2>like the fact that Royce Keyes is getting a big push.

<v Speaker 2>And I hope that these guys find great success on

<v Speaker 2>Monday Night Raw. But this angle and the segments they

<v Speaker 2>did on Monday, this ain't it. I thought this was very,

<v Speaker 2>very lame. But without Roman there, I mean, this is

<v Speaker 2>the kind of stuff that.

<v Speaker 1>They do, right?

<v Speaker 2>They're just waiting for Roman to come back, basically. The

<v Speaker 2>Vision is back at full strength. Oh, boy.

<v Speaker 1>So exciting.

<v Speaker 2>So Bronson Reed is back and Bron Breaker. Logan Paul

<v Speaker 2>still has his arm in a brace, but he was there.

<v Speaker 2>Austin Theory, Maxine Dupree. And they laid out Obafemi again.

<v Speaker 2>They laid him out on Sunday night's main event when

<v Speaker 2>Reed came back. And I guess I didn't talk about

<v Speaker 2>it last week because it was Sunday night's main event.

<v Speaker 2>I had already done the podcast, but Bronson Reed came

<v Speaker 2>back in the best shape of his fucking life. Bronson

<v Speaker 2>Reed came back. He had said that the goal was

<v Speaker 2>to come back around 265, 270 in terms of his weight.

<v Speaker 2>and that if he could hit that goal, which it

<v Speaker 2>looks like he did, that he would be down a

<v Speaker 2>good 90 to 100 pounds from what he was just

<v Speaker 2>three years ago. And still a big guy, but to

<v Speaker 2>call him Big Bronson Reed now doesn't hit quite the same.

<v Speaker 2>But good for him. Good for him, good for his health.

<v Speaker 2>He is, again, in tremendous shape. And they laid out

<v Speaker 2>Obafemi again when he came out to the ring today.

<v Speaker 2>There was this big controversy, which I just fucking laugh at. Like,

<v Speaker 2>it ended with Oba laid out in the ring and

<v Speaker 2>the Vision was posing, and Bronson Reed put his foot

<v Speaker 2>on Oba, like on his ribs, right? And then Oba

<v Speaker 2>Femi very angrily brushes it off. I didn't even notice

<v Speaker 2>it right away until people started making a big deal

<v Speaker 2>about it after the fact. WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select

<v Speaker 2>reported that it was not a scripted moment, and it

<v Speaker 2>caught people backstage off-guard. And some were not happy about it.

<v Speaker 2>And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? This is

<v Speaker 2>a big controversy or this is a heat-getting moment?

<v Speaker 1>We need more moments like that.

<v Speaker 2>If you're Obafemi and you're laying there, unless you're out

<v Speaker 2>cold unconscious, which he wasn't. But you're laying there, right?

<v Speaker 2>Second night in a row you've been laid out by

<v Speaker 2>these guys. And you're angry and you're pissed off. And

<v Speaker 2>this guy is putting his foot on you. I would

<v Speaker 2>shove that fucking foot off too. That's a realistic moment. Oh,

<v Speaker 2>it wasn't scripted and people weren't very happy about it.

<v Speaker 2>Shut the fuck up. Are we really talking about this

<v Speaker 2>as some sort of big deal? It's unbelievable to me.

<v Speaker 2>I'm watching this. I'm like, how is this a story?

<v Speaker 2>Am I missing something here? What is the big deal?

<v Speaker 2>If he was in there no-selling the guy, like the

<v Speaker 2>guy's hitting moves and he just gets up and no-sell.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's a different story. But that's not what

<v Speaker 1>this was. This is much ado about nothing. Nothing. And

<v Speaker 1>if people in the back are upset about it, get

<v Speaker 1>over it. This is a nothing burger.

<v Speaker 2>Here are the first two Money in the Bank qualifying matches.

<v Speaker 1>They're doing the three ways again.

<v Speaker 2>Triple H loves doing the three ways and the four

<v Speaker 2>ways for these tournaments when it comes to qualifying matches.

<v Speaker 1>They did it for King of the Ring and Queen

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring. So Braun Breaker.

<v Speaker 2>Becomes the first male superstar to qualify, and Sol Ruka

<v Speaker 2>becomes the first female superstar to qualify.

<v Speaker 1>Sol Ruka's not going to win Money in the Bank.

<v Speaker 2>Bron Breaker, without knowing who the other, I guess it's

<v Speaker 2>going to be five other men, I would assume, six

<v Speaker 2>and six, without knowing who the other names are going

<v Speaker 2>to be, Bron Breaker would have to be the early favorite.

<v Speaker 2>But I need to know who some of these other

<v Speaker 2>names are going to be that are going to be

<v Speaker 2>in the tournament. Sol's not going to win, though. We

<v Speaker 2>also have the return of a former women's champion Bayley.

<v Speaker 2>Sounds like she has agreed to terms to return. There's

<v Speaker 2>a lot of weird reporting on this between The Observer

<v Speaker 2>and PW Insider and Fightful. It sounds like she's agreed

<v Speaker 2>to terms to return, but hasn't actually put pen to

<v Speaker 2>paper and signed a new, which is what Meltzer said.

<v Speaker 1>Yep, she signed a new deal.

<v Speaker 2>And then there's since been reporting to the contrary that

<v Speaker 2>she hasn't actually signed that deal yet, but they expect

<v Speaker 2>her to do so.

<v Speaker 1>I would too.

<v Speaker 2>If she hasn't actually signed the contract yet, to me

<v Speaker 2>it's just a formality, because they're not putting her back

<v Speaker 2>on television if they don't truly believe that she is

<v Speaker 2>sticking around. Like, I just can't fathom that. So even

<v Speaker 2>if the actual contract has not yet been signed, there

<v Speaker 2>has to be some sort of verbal agreement for her

<v Speaker 2>to return. I don't see this going any other way.

<v Speaker 2>If a contract hasn't been signed, it will be shortly.

<v Speaker 2>So Bailey is going to be sticking around. That's her decision,

<v Speaker 2>it looks like, and Look, if that's what makes her happy,

<v Speaker 2>then God bless her. It's disappointing in that I think that, again,

<v Speaker 2>she would have had so many new faces to work

<v Speaker 2>with if she would have left and gone somewhere else.

<v Speaker 2>And I honestly don't see her getting a push that's

<v Speaker 2>going to be any different than what they were doing

<v Speaker 2>with her before. It's not like, well, she's re-signed and

<v Speaker 2>all of a sudden she's going to be back in

<v Speaker 2>the title picture and doing all of these big things

<v Speaker 2>in the division. I don't really see things being any different.

<v Speaker 2>But again, if that's where she wants to be, then

<v Speaker 2>I'm happy for her. We had a Women's World Championship

<v Speaker 2>match that was the highlight of the show with Liv

<v Speaker 2>Morgan against Stephanie Viqueur. It was better than their, it

<v Speaker 2>wasn't like a great match, but it was better than

<v Speaker 2>their WrestleMania match. I mean, how could it not be?

<v Speaker 2>They got 11 minutes more to actually work with. And again,

<v Speaker 2>Liv Morgan escapes with her title, thanks to the Judgment Day,

<v Speaker 2>which leads me to the news overnight. That Stephanie Viqueur,

<v Speaker 2>she got her rematch in Santiago, Chile, because they're on

<v Speaker 2>this international tour. And that is, of course, Stephanie's home country.

<v Speaker 2>Becky Lynch was appointed as the special guest referee to

<v Speaker 2>ensure a fair fight. And Stephanie is once again the

<v Speaker 2>Women's World Champion. The insufferable reign of Ms. Trouble Trouble

<v Speaker 2>is finally over. Liv gave Becky a good smack during

<v Speaker 2>the match. She was basically daring her to hit her.

<v Speaker 2>And then instead Liv hit Stephanie with Oblivion. She had

<v Speaker 2>the match won. After counting two, Becky flipped Liv the

<v Speaker 2>double bird. And that led to Stephanie ultimately hitting her

<v Speaker 2>twisting splash off the top rope to win the championship.

<v Speaker 2>Don't think that Liv won't raise a stink about that

<v Speaker 2>on Raw this week and be demanding her rematch ASAP.

<v Speaker 1>I love this. I think this is great.

<v Speaker 2>Most people seem to be pretty happy about this based

<v Speaker 2>on the comments I saw under the WWE tweet. But

<v Speaker 2>there were a lot of people who clearly are very

<v Speaker 2>new fans who were just flummoxed. They were flabbergasted. at

<v Speaker 2>the idea that WWE would actually do a title change

<v Speaker 2>at a live event. Like it's something they could not

<v Speaker 2>conceive of, even though this is something that's happened many

<v Speaker 2>times before.

<v Speaker 1>Although it's been a while.

<v Speaker 2>I think you would have to go back seven years

<v Speaker 2>to find the last time that a title changed hands

<v Speaker 2>on a live event.

<v Speaker 1>That was Andrade taking the U.S.

<v Speaker 2>Title from Rey Mysterio because that was at the annual

<v Speaker 2>post-Christmas show at Madison Square Garden. I'm trying to remember

<v Speaker 2>if I was there. I went to a few of

<v Speaker 2>those post-Christmas shows. Offhand, I don't remember if I was

<v Speaker 2>at that one or not. I don't even think they

<v Speaker 2>do them anymore. But I think that's as far back

<v Speaker 2>as you'd have to go. The last one I could

<v Speaker 2>remember anyway that they did. It's not unheard of. There

<v Speaker 2>have been title changes, whether it's the U.S. title, IC title,

<v Speaker 2>tag team titles, even the WWE championship. You go way

<v Speaker 2>back to 1994 and Diesel beat Bob Backlund in eight

<v Speaker 2>seconds of Madison Square Garden to win the belt.

<v Speaker 1>So this is not unheard of. I think it's great.

<v Speaker 2>I think it just tells people, you know, hey, you

<v Speaker 2>should buy a ticket to come to these live events

<v Speaker 2>because you never know what might happen. Big things can

<v Speaker 2>happen at the live events. Titles could change hands at

<v Speaker 2>the live events. But it also just it adds an

<v Speaker 2>air of unpredictability to things like instead of everything just

<v Speaker 2>being on TV, because there were a lot of comments

<v Speaker 2>I saw. So this is trash. How could you do this?

<v Speaker 2>How is this not on Raw? I got news for you.

<v Speaker 2>You look at some of these U.S.

<v Speaker 1>Crowds.

<v Speaker 2>I was very happy to see this happen in Chile

<v Speaker 2>because it got a tremendous reaction. You know, that being

<v Speaker 2>her home country, of course, people went nuts for it.

<v Speaker 2>So it made the moment feel that much more special.

<v Speaker 2>And then EO Sky and Bailey and Sol Ruka, they

<v Speaker 2>came out to celebrate with her and put her up on,

<v Speaker 2>actually EO put her up on her shoulders. And they

<v Speaker 2>really made this feel like a big deal. And it

<v Speaker 2>was the right place to do it. So I thought

<v Speaker 2>that was very, very cool. And it's not the sort

<v Speaker 2>of thing that you could do on a regular basis,

<v Speaker 2>but it's okay to do it. Yeah, despite what some

<v Speaker 2>people may think, and again, I think a lot of

<v Speaker 2>it is just newer fans.

<v Speaker 1>Who don't know any better. You know, oh, how could

<v Speaker 1>you not do this on TV? Like, why not?

<v Speaker 2>I have yet to see one good reason why that

<v Speaker 2>should not have been at this event. It just felt

<v Speaker 2>like the right moment and the right place for it

<v Speaker 2>to happen. There was also this note this week, Fightful

<v Speaker 2>Select said, is reporting that there was a pitch earlier

<v Speaker 2>this year to put Ivy Nile and Jordan Grace together

<v Speaker 2>as a tag team. And vignettes were filmed this summer

<v Speaker 2>with the idea that they would be airing starting this month.

<v Speaker 2>And according to Fightful, neither Nile nor Grace.

<v Speaker 1>Have been injured.

<v Speaker 2>They've just been waiting for a creative. So if you're

<v Speaker 2>wondering what the hell happened to Jordan Grace, maybe there's some,

<v Speaker 2>some issue. There's some reason why she hasn't been on

<v Speaker 2>television or maybe there was an injury. which never made

<v Speaker 2>any sense because they would throw her on main event

<v Speaker 2>every now and then, so she wasn't hurt. Now you know.

<v Speaker 2>They just didn't have anything for her to do. Now

<v Speaker 2>the report says that Ivy's deal is up this fall,

<v Speaker 2>while Grace has years left on her contract. Fightful had

<v Speaker 2>reported earlier in the month that plans for Niall had

<v Speaker 2>been developing for quite a while. WWE recently filed a

<v Speaker 2>trademark for the term Iron Built, which could be a

<v Speaker 2>potential tag team name for the duo. So I am

<v Speaker 2>of two mindsets on this. On the one hand, great

<v Speaker 2>if this gets them on television, especially Jordan Gray. Jordan

<v Speaker 2>Gray is a former TNA knockout champion who did cameos

<v Speaker 2>in two Royal Rumbles that came off as a big

<v Speaker 2>deal because she was a big deal in the other

<v Speaker 2>place from whence she came. And then she came to

<v Speaker 2>WWE and she has felt like the exact opposite. So

<v Speaker 2>I'm not saying that she was like the biggest star

<v Speaker 2>in the business or anything. But how do you go

<v Speaker 2>from being someone who is, again, a world champion and

<v Speaker 2>looked at as someone who could be a real player

<v Speaker 2>in this women's division to coming to WWE and them

<v Speaker 2>not having anything creatively for you to do? Is that

<v Speaker 2>not an indictment on the creative in this company? But

<v Speaker 2>yet I have to listen to Nick Khan talk about

<v Speaker 2>how Triple H is the best creative in all of wrestling.

<v Speaker 2>That's why I said the bar is in hell. The

<v Speaker 2>standards have been lowered greatly if they believe that to

<v Speaker 2>be true. So if this is true, then great. It

<v Speaker 2>could be a way to get them back on TV.

<v Speaker 2>On the other hand, you're taking two people. And to me,

<v Speaker 2>it's more egregious in the case of Jordan because she

<v Speaker 2>doesn't have to be in a team. For Ivy Nile,

<v Speaker 2>it might be the best thing for her because she's

<v Speaker 2>not being used otherwise. But. You know, putting them in

<v Speaker 2>a tag team together, another makeshift team in a division

<v Speaker 2>that doesn't really exist. There isn't much of a women's

<v Speaker 2>tag team division right now. There was a period of

<v Speaker 2>time where the women's tag team division was actually more

<v Speaker 2>pushed than the men's tag team division. And you had

<v Speaker 2>all of these different teams, Asuka and Kairi, and you

<v Speaker 2>had Charlotte and Alexa, and you had Nia and Lash,

<v Speaker 2>and you had, go down the list, right? All the

<v Speaker 2>different teams they had. And boy, has that faded away.

<v Speaker 1>What do you have now?

<v Speaker 2>I mean, I guess you still technically have Charlotte and

<v Speaker 2>Alexa or Charlotte and Tatum. You've got Fatal Influence, Nia

<v Speaker 2>and Lash are still around. Beyond that, I mean, you've

<v Speaker 2>got a whole lot of nothing. So you're going to

<v Speaker 2>put these two women in a tag team division that's

<v Speaker 2>basically dead. I don't see that being a good long-term

<v Speaker 2>strategy here for someone like Jordan Grace. But if it

<v Speaker 2>gets her on television, it gets her at least in

<v Speaker 2>front of the camera, I suppose that's a good thing.

<v Speaker 1>But to me, it's inexcusable.

<v Speaker 2>You signed this woman, and you brought her up to

<v Speaker 2>the main roster with no real plan of what to do.

<v Speaker 2>And I always say it, like, I don't understand how

<v Speaker 2>and why you call people up from NXT without having

<v Speaker 2>some sort of three to six month plan in mind

<v Speaker 2>for what you want to do with that person.

<v Speaker 1>I don't get it. I don't understand it.

<v Speaker 2>It's almost as if they called her up with the intent,

<v Speaker 2>because I'm pretty sure she was Jade Cargill's first.

<v Speaker 1>Challenger for the WWE Women's Championship.

<v Speaker 2>And it almost feels like the only reason that they

<v Speaker 2>even bothered to call her up was because they needed somebody.

<v Speaker 1>They needed a body.

<v Speaker 2>Somebody with at least some credibility that they could put

<v Speaker 2>in there who could lose to Jade, who hadn't defended

<v Speaker 2>her title in over 100 days. I mean, that literally

<v Speaker 2>may have been the only reason that she was even

<v Speaker 2>called up in the first place. That may have been

<v Speaker 2>the big creative plan they had for her. That's not

<v Speaker 2>much of a plan. Now, over on SmackDown, that was

<v Speaker 2>the first of the shows from Mexico City. We had

<v Speaker 2>a WWE championship match between CM Punk and Sami Zayn.

<v Speaker 2>And I, going into the show, just didn't even think

<v Speaker 2>about the possibility that Sami Zayn was going to win

<v Speaker 2>the title back on that show. So when he did,

<v Speaker 2>I was quite surprised. Didn't mind it, but I was surprised.

<v Speaker 2>But he did say, right, nobody gets theirs until I

<v Speaker 2>get mine. Everybody has been screwed over by Sami recently.

<v Speaker 2>Anybody who's even come close to the championship, whether it's

<v Speaker 2>Kevin Owens or anybody else, Sami has been there to

<v Speaker 2>screw things up. They had a match. It was a

<v Speaker 2>good match. Nothing terribly special. Their Raw match was better

<v Speaker 2>back in July. But it was about all the gaga

<v Speaker 2>at the end. Johnny Gargano, who went to Sami earlier

<v Speaker 2>in the show, now he's not planking anymore. So this

<v Speaker 2>is an improvement. And by the way, I was talking

<v Speaker 2>about Jordan Grace. Dude, there's example after example. I can't

<v Speaker 2>stop thinking about that Nick Khan quote. It's just so

<v Speaker 2>comical to me. You look at what they've been doing

<v Speaker 2>for the last four or five months with fucking Blake Monroe.

<v Speaker 2>You look at what they've done for the last six

<v Speaker 2>months with Johnny Gargano. Who in their right fucking mind

<v Speaker 2>honestly believes that this is the best creative in all

<v Speaker 2>of wrestling right now? I mean, look, I guess if

<v Speaker 2>you're comparing it to other places, you might actually believe that.

<v Speaker 2>But the implication is that the creative is so great

<v Speaker 2>right now, and I just can't wrap my head around this.

<v Speaker 2>There are not people that honestly, truly, in their heart

<v Speaker 2>of hearts believe this. I refuse to believe that. But anyway,

<v Speaker 2>since Johnny Gargano is not planking anymore, he came out

<v Speaker 2>during the match. He got what he had thought was

<v Speaker 2>a commitment. from sammy to give him the first title

<v Speaker 2>shot if sammy won the championship sammy was very non-committal

<v Speaker 2>right but johnny took that as okay i'm i'm first

<v Speaker 2>in line he came out and tried to help it

<v Speaker 2>didn't work kevin owens came out he tried to prevent

<v Speaker 2>sammy from using the belt at one point which ended

<v Speaker 2>up in the ring owens went to go hit sammy

<v Speaker 2>with the belt as sammy had done to him sammy

<v Speaker 2>ducked owens hit punk didn't seem terribly upset about it

<v Speaker 2>but it was unintentional And then Sammy gave a low

<v Speaker 2>blow to Kevin. owens sammy zane ends up winning the

<v Speaker 2>wwe championship back he had that nine day run and

<v Speaker 2>now it looks like he'll be able to enjoy more

<v Speaker 2>than nine days as the champion he's now a two-time

<v Speaker 2>champion both times coming outside the united states right first

<v Speaker 2>time was in riad second time here was in mexico

<v Speaker 2>city And we have now had a whole series of

<v Speaker 2>WWE title changes here this year alone. I pointed this

<v Speaker 2>out the other night. Four of the five WWE title

<v Speaker 2>changes this year have taken place on television, either on

<v Speaker 2>Raw or on SmackDown. And it's like the world title

<v Speaker 2>changing hands last night, the women's world title changing hands

<v Speaker 2>at a house show.

<v Speaker 1>I have no problem with it. I think it's great.

<v Speaker 2>I think it shows you that you don't have to

<v Speaker 2>just do big, major world title changes on a PLE.

<v Speaker 2>You know, it's okay to do title changes on TV. Now,

<v Speaker 2>you do get to a point. You don't want to

<v Speaker 2>overdo it. So, like, if Sammy was to drop the

<v Speaker 2>belt back in two weeks, I mean, you don't want

<v Speaker 2>to get into a habit where your world championship is

<v Speaker 2>changing hands every.

<v Speaker 1>Fucking, you know, five or six weeks. But I loved it.

<v Speaker 2>I loved it, and I love the fact that we've

<v Speaker 2>had a whole bunch of title changes on TV this year.

<v Speaker 2>It also means that at this moment, as I am

<v Speaker 2>recording this, the Crown Jewel match in November, if nothing

<v Speaker 2>else were to change between now and then, the Crown

<v Speaker 2>Jewel title match would not be a WrestleMania rematch between

<v Speaker 2>Roman Reigns and CM Punk, but it would be a

<v Speaker 2>battle between Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn.

<v Speaker 1>And it may not be.

<v Speaker 2>I just never really thought they wanted to go back

<v Speaker 2>to Roman and Punk again. So whether it's Roman and

<v Speaker 2>Sami or if Roman by chance loses the belt... I

<v Speaker 2>don't see it being Reigns and Punk. Now, Worlds Collide

<v Speaker 2>is coming up in a few weeks, September 26th in Chicago.

<v Speaker 2>That was the first thing I thought of after I

<v Speaker 2>saw Sami win that championship. I said, you know, CM

<v Speaker 2>Punk has already been advertised for Worlds Collide. I don't

<v Speaker 2>really see the point in doing some random CM Punk

<v Speaker 2>versus AAA match.

<v Speaker 1>That doesn't make any sense to me. They're in Chicago.

<v Speaker 1>Punk just lost his belt.

<v Speaker 2>He certainly has a reason to go to Nick Aldis

<v Speaker 2>and say, look, I think I deserve a rematch. My

<v Speaker 2>guess is that we're going to get a rematch, at

<v Speaker 2>least involving these two, unless they put Kevin Owens in there,

<v Speaker 2>that that's going to take place at Worlds Collide would

<v Speaker 2>be my guess. And maybe Punk wins the belt back there.

<v Speaker 2>But my thought is that that is what they're gearing

<v Speaker 2>up for. They have a big WWE championship match on

<v Speaker 2>that show. And there was another idea that I kind

<v Speaker 2>of pitched on Friday about which I think would be

<v Speaker 2>kind of cool. Realistically, do I see them doing it?

<v Speaker 2>Probably not. But, you know, looking ahead to November, I

<v Speaker 2>mentioned Crown Jewel. There's another event coming up in November.

<v Speaker 2>It's called the Survivor Series. And we have war games.

<v Speaker 2>We already know that. They're advertising war games. It's the

<v Speaker 2>annual thing. And it seems very likely we're going to

<v Speaker 2>end up with some sort of gang war between the

<v Speaker 2>Bloodline and 946. Or maybe they do three teams and

<v Speaker 2>it's the Bloodline, 946, and some babyface team. Probably some

<v Speaker 2>combination of those stars is what we're looking at. However,

<v Speaker 2>the WWE title scene right now is so chaotic and

<v Speaker 2>so messy. And there's so much competition at the top. Zayn, Punk, Owens, Gunther, Balor, Gargano.

<v Speaker 2>Why not take the men's war? You can still have

<v Speaker 2>a regular traditional women's war games match. But on the

<v Speaker 2>men's side, why not make it for the WWE Championship?

<v Speaker 2>It's not a team affair. It's not a tag team

<v Speaker 2>match of any kind. Let's say Sami Zayn goes into

<v Speaker 2>Survivor Series as the WWE Champion. It's almost like a

<v Speaker 2>gauntlet style kind of match where it starts out with

<v Speaker 2>him and one of the challengers and then the way

<v Speaker 2>a war games match would normally work where people then

<v Speaker 2>come out at certain intervals. But you end up with

<v Speaker 2>like five, six, seven different guys all fighting for the

<v Speaker 2>WWE title inside war games. You have enough people in

<v Speaker 2>there to justify using two rings. You wouldn't have ten people.

<v Speaker 2>But still, you got a whole bunch of people, maybe

<v Speaker 2>half a dozen different people. I think it would switch

<v Speaker 2>things up a little bit from the traditional, you know,

<v Speaker 2>men's war game stuff that we see every year with

<v Speaker 2>the blood. Because God forbid we should have anybody but

<v Speaker 2>the bloodline of war games. It's something a little bit different.

<v Speaker 2>And it really lends itself well, I think, to the

<v Speaker 2>competition that we see on SmackDown right now at the

<v Speaker 2>top of the card.

<v Speaker 1>So just food for thought.

<v Speaker 2>It could be an interesting way just to shake things

<v Speaker 2>up a little bit on the war games front. I

<v Speaker 2>wanted to mention this. There was a fake tweet going around.

<v Speaker 2>Not even a fake tweet. It was a real tweet,

<v Speaker 2>but it was bullshit. But it was going around from

<v Speaker 2>a troll account that said The Undertaker... was listed as

<v Speaker 2>the producer for the Punk and Zayn title match, and

<v Speaker 2>that it was Undertaker's call to switch the belt from

<v Speaker 2>CM Punk to Sami Zayn. First of all, Undertaker was

<v Speaker 2>in Las Vegas, running night one of TripleMania. He wasn't

<v Speaker 2>in Mexico City. Second of all, an agent, or a

<v Speaker 2>producer as they're called, would not be the one deciding

<v Speaker 2>to change the WWE Championship. That would be a creative decision.

<v Speaker 2>And unless Undertaker has secretly joined the SmackDown creative team,

<v Speaker 2>that doesn't even make any sense. And it doesn't help

<v Speaker 2>when you have someone like Jonathan Coachman amplifying such a

<v Speaker 2>report under the guise of, well, it may or may

<v Speaker 2>not be true. You know, I don't know. But if

<v Speaker 2>it is, here's what I think. When it's very clearly

<v Speaker 2>not true. And then when he gets called out on it,

<v Speaker 2>he pretends like, oh, he was just testing people who

<v Speaker 2>didn't listen to the actual video.

<v Speaker 1>I watched the video.

<v Speaker 2>And it was stupid to give that account any oxygen

<v Speaker 2>at all, let alone leave open the possibility that it

<v Speaker 2>might be true. Because people on social media are gullible

<v Speaker 2>enough to believe it. Okay, I give you Exhibit A. Like,

<v Speaker 2>it literally says parody and satire in the bio. Need

<v Speaker 2>I remind you all of Wessel Votes? Have we forgotten

<v Speaker 2>the lessons of Wessel Votes? So that was very embarrassing.

<v Speaker 2>The only other thing of note on SmackDown, Damian Priest, finally,

<v Speaker 2>he turned heel on R-Truth. I think a lot of

<v Speaker 2>us saw this coming. They've telegraphed it over the last

<v Speaker 2>couple of weeks. I think that's a good move. I

<v Speaker 2>think it's going to be a good move for Damian Priest,

<v Speaker 2>at least for him, I hope it is. He hasn't

<v Speaker 2>really hit on SmackDown in the way that he did

<v Speaker 2>on Raw when he was in the Judgment Day and

<v Speaker 2>then broke away from the Judgment Day. He just hasn't

<v Speaker 2>been able to get back up to that level. And

<v Speaker 2>maybe as a heel, he'll have some big baby faces

<v Speaker 2>to work with, or he could work with Trick Williams

<v Speaker 2>in the U.S.

<v Speaker 1>Title picture.

<v Speaker 2>I think this is going to be a good move

<v Speaker 2>for him. I think it was necessary, so I was

<v Speaker 2>happy to see it. And it does finally break him

<v Speaker 2>out of the tag team scene with R-Truth. There were

<v Speaker 2>no Money in the Bank qualifying matches on Friday like

<v Speaker 2>we had on Monday, but those will start on SmackDown

<v Speaker 2>this coming Friday. Now, Raw tomorrow night. is in Mexico

<v Speaker 2>City with Roman Reigns defending the World Heavyweight Championship, the

<v Speaker 2>first title defense of Roman Reigns, whether he's as WWE

<v Speaker 2>champion or World Heavyweight Champion. In four years since he

<v Speaker 2>defended on SmackDown against Matt Riddle in 2022, he is

<v Speaker 2>defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Penta. Could we get

<v Speaker 2>the hat trick? You know, with 9-4-6, I don't think

<v Speaker 2>it can be ruled out. But if you're an LA

<v Speaker 2>Knight fan who thinks that he has a prayer of

<v Speaker 2>beating Roman should they wrestle at Money in the Bank

<v Speaker 2>for the World Heavyweight Championship, you're hoping that Roman Reigns

<v Speaker 2>tomorrow night retains. Because if by chance he doesn't, even

<v Speaker 2>if he wins it back at Worlds Collide, LA Knight's

<v Speaker 2>chances of winning the World Heavyweight title would go from

<v Speaker 2>about 2% to a big ol' fat goose egg. So

<v Speaker 2>pick your poison. Who would you prefer gets the short

<v Speaker 2>title reign, Penta or LA Knight? Roman keeps telling Jacob Fatu, 9-4-6,

<v Speaker 2>it's not my problem, it's your problem. And that may

<v Speaker 2>be true until 9-4-6 becomes his problem. That could be

<v Speaker 2>tomorrow night. I would still be shocked if they actually

<v Speaker 2>pulled the trigger on this. Three major title changes in

<v Speaker 2>the span of 72 hours.

<v Speaker 1>It's hard for me to see it.

<v Speaker 2>I think they've set things up very well to let

<v Speaker 2>you think that the title might change hands.

<v Speaker 1>Oh, my God.

<v Speaker 2>They changed the WWE title on Friday. Stephanie won the

<v Speaker 2>Women's World title on Saturday. That must mean Penta's got

<v Speaker 2>a real shot.

<v Speaker 1>It's smart.

<v Speaker 2>If that was kind of part of their strategy here,

<v Speaker 2>I thought that was smart. I still don't see that

<v Speaker 2>title changing hands, though. Chad Gable is going to defend

<v Speaker 2>his Intercontinental title against Dragon Lee. And we have two

<v Speaker 2>more Money in the Bank qualifying matches. On the women's side,

<v Speaker 2>it's the debuting Lola Weiss in her first match on

<v Speaker 2>Raw against Raquel Rodriguez and Kalani Jordan, who is the

<v Speaker 2>reigning NXT Women's Champion. I can't imagine beating Lola in

<v Speaker 2>her first match. And on the men's side, it's Javon Evans,

<v Speaker 2>Big Cass, who beat him a few weeks ago, and

<v Speaker 2>Austin Theory. And that should be a win for Javon Evans.

<v Speaker 2>Javon Evans and Money in the Bank Those two were

<v Speaker 2>made to go together. He already lost the big cast.

<v Speaker 1>Let him get a win.

<v Speaker 2>Let him get his win back here and put him

<v Speaker 2>in the money in the bank. It'll make for a

<v Speaker 2>better match with Javon in there. The last time Taneya

<v Speaker 2>Brooks wrestled a match was February of 2024. She was

<v Speaker 2>tagging with Harley Cameron and it wasn't for AEW is

<v Speaker 2>for Great Lakes championship wrestling to find her last AEW match.

<v Speaker 2>You would have to go back even further four years

<v Speaker 2>ago to her time on AEW dark, which doesn't even

<v Speaker 2>exist anymore. A couple of months after her last match

<v Speaker 2>is when she began to experience the symptoms and the

<v Speaker 2>mobility issues associated with her ALS, even though it took

<v Speaker 2>until March of this year for her to get an

<v Speaker 2>accurate diagnosis of what the problem was. But this woman

<v Speaker 2>has been through the ringer over the past few years.

<v Speaker 2>Her doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her.

<v Speaker 2>Tony Khan helped get her into the Mayo Clinic, and

<v Speaker 2>it was after that that she was first diagnosed with

<v Speaker 2>something called primary pulmonary lymphoma.

<v Speaker 1>Which is a rare form of lung cancer.

<v Speaker 2>And she had been in the hospital the year before

<v Speaker 2>with what she thought was pneumonia. They put her on

<v Speaker 2>meds for a year. She had all kinds of infections

<v Speaker 2>and ruptures. She had surgery to remove a mass on

<v Speaker 2>her lung. And then came the cancer diagnosis, which she

<v Speaker 2>was treated for. But she was still having very serious

<v Speaker 2>issues and was getting worse by the week. She was

<v Speaker 2>about to undergo surgery to remove multiple masses on her

<v Speaker 2>lungs when she got hit with the ALS diagnosis. ALS,

<v Speaker 2>it's a terminal illness for which there is no cure.

<v Speaker 2>It causes patients to gradually lose control of their muscles

<v Speaker 2>and their speech. ALS is what Steve Mongo McMichael died

<v Speaker 2>from last year. He was 67 years old. Rebel is

<v Speaker 2>only 48. The same age that the butcher was when

<v Speaker 2>he died last weekend. There's a lot of sadness coming

<v Speaker 2>into that Rebel Heart episode of Dynamite on Wednesday, which

<v Speaker 2>will go down as one of the more memorable episodes

<v Speaker 2>they've ever done. They acknowledge the death of the butcher,

<v Speaker 2>Andy Williams, at the top of the show on Wednesday,

<v Speaker 2>and then again later on with Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Taz,

<v Speaker 2>all delivering remarks. Excalibur in particular, he read from something

<v Speaker 2>he had prepared, and he was barely able to make

<v Speaker 2>it through before completely breaking down. It was very tough

<v Speaker 2>to watch, but it was also a beautiful tribute to

<v Speaker 2>a close friend of his. You could hear the pain

<v Speaker 2>in his voice. They pay tribute to the butcher on

<v Speaker 2>Collision last night with a 10-bell salute. And they had

<v Speaker 2>comments from different AEW stars throughout the night. If you

<v Speaker 2>have not seen the comments, and I don't think this

<v Speaker 2>aired on TV, I don't believe, but they posted on

<v Speaker 2>social media after about two and a half minutes worth

<v Speaker 2>of comments in the locker room from Eddie Kingston.

<v Speaker 1>That was very hard to watch.

<v Speaker 2>You could tell, and look, Eddie's lost a lot of people,

<v Speaker 2>a lot of friends and colleagues of his, but you

<v Speaker 2>could tell how this just ripped him apart. But it's

<v Speaker 2>understandable they wanted to save all of that stuff on

<v Speaker 2>The Butcher for last night because Wednesday was about Rebel

<v Speaker 2>and raising awareness for ALS. To do a full dedication

<v Speaker 2>to The Butcher on top of that would have been

<v Speaker 2>too much.

<v Speaker 1>Too much sadness for one show.

<v Speaker 2>Tony Khan also revealed that Andy was in discussions with

<v Speaker 2>them recently about potentially contributing behind the scenes in AEW.

<v Speaker 2>He said, a lot of people don't know this. In fact,

<v Speaker 2>I don't think anybody knows this. I haven't really talked

<v Speaker 2>about it. In recent weeks, Andy had been in conversations

<v Speaker 2>with AEW about things outside the ring. You know, Andy

<v Speaker 2>passed away as a very young man at 48 years old.

<v Speaker 2>And in recent weeks, he had said, I don't think

<v Speaker 2>I'm going to be able to wrestle forever. And Andy

<v Speaker 2>had ideas for AEW promotions. And he had ideas for

<v Speaker 2>how he could contribute backstage. And Andy just had, a

<v Speaker 2>few weeks ago in August, had meetings with my staff

<v Speaker 2>that I set up. And I was interested in Andy

<v Speaker 2>continuing here out of the ring. His tag team partner,

<v Speaker 2>The Blade, sent in a nice message that Tony Schiavone

<v Speaker 2>read on the air last night as Blade was already

<v Speaker 2>booked on a flex wrestling show in Ithaca, New York.

<v Speaker 2>He couldn't be there in person. And they also held

<v Speaker 2>a Butcher Battle Royal on Collision with Daniel Garcia winning,

<v Speaker 2>which is fitting given that he and Butcher are both

<v Speaker 2>from Buffalo, New York. With that win, Garcia gets $ 100, 000,

<v Speaker 2>which he or, I mean, AEW really, will be donating

<v Speaker 2>to the nonprofit Music Cares. which was near and dear

<v Speaker 2>to Andy as someone who loved music as well as wrestling.

<v Speaker 2>The other thing they also announced, as I am recording this,

<v Speaker 2>it's about an hour away, but today, Sunday, at noon Eastern,

<v Speaker 2>they are going to be airing The House Always Wins

<v Speaker 2>for free on the AEW YouTube channel and the MyAEW

<v Speaker 2>streaming service. So this was... I'm trying to remember what

<v Speaker 2>year this would have been from. This was a few

<v Speaker 2>years ago. I think at Daily's Place, so... Probably 2020

<v Speaker 2>or 2021, they filmed this event that was not aired

<v Speaker 2>on television.

<v Speaker 1>It was like a house show, basically, called The House

<v Speaker 1>Always Wins.

<v Speaker 2>And there was a battle royal on that show that

<v Speaker 2>I believe, I think they already spoiled it.

<v Speaker 1>I think The Butcher won.

<v Speaker 2>And then he also got a TNT title match on

<v Speaker 2>that show against Darby Allin. Also on that show, Rebel

<v Speaker 2>was part of an eight-woman tag team match. So they

<v Speaker 2>are going to be premiering this event. It was almost

<v Speaker 2>like lost media. Nobody had ever seen it outside of

<v Speaker 2>whoever was in the building that day. They are going

<v Speaker 2>to be airing it for the first time today. Again,

<v Speaker 2>on the AEW YouTube channel or the MyAEW service, either

<v Speaker 2>one for free.

<v Speaker 1>That is today at noon Eastern.

<v Speaker 2>So if you want to check out The House Always Wins,

<v Speaker 2>of which The Butcher was part, you can go ahead

<v Speaker 2>and check that out. As far as Rebel goes, they

<v Speaker 2>used her in an old-school Britt Baker waiting room segment

<v Speaker 2>that they used to do.

<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty sure they recorded this in advance. I thought

<v Speaker 1>it was amusing.

<v Speaker 2>It was just cool to see her comedic timing and

<v Speaker 2>everything was still there. So that was kind of a

<v Speaker 2>nice little throwback. And then Britt Baker was part of

<v Speaker 2>her first match in nearly two years. She teamed with

<v Speaker 2>Hikaru Shida and Persephone against Thunder Rosa, Maya World, and Haiyan.

<v Speaker 1>And I say the heels won, but again.

<v Speaker 2>The psychology here was all ass backwards because they're supposed

<v Speaker 2>to be the heels, but they're being cheered because Rebel is,

<v Speaker 2>you know, coming out to help the heels. It didn't

<v Speaker 2>really matter on this show. Given the circumstances, it is

<v Speaker 2>what it is. It was a very, very nice moment, though.

<v Speaker 2>Rebel wheeled herself in her electric wheelchair down to the

<v Speaker 2>ring to hand the glove to Britt, who used it

<v Speaker 2>to apply lockjaw and win the match. And everybody was

<v Speaker 2>very emotional. Uh, rebel was emotional. Brit was emotional. Brit

<v Speaker 2>sat in her lap and then rebel wheeled herself, uh,

<v Speaker 2>back to the stage. They turned around to kind of

<v Speaker 2>look at the crowd. And at that moment, rebel just

<v Speaker 2>sort of broke down in Brit's arms. And then brick

<v Speaker 2>got very emotional. I got very emotional. This was, this

<v Speaker 2>was tough to watch, but it was still a beautiful moment.

<v Speaker 2>And the reaction that she got, you know, from the

<v Speaker 2>crowd there was, was, was great. Uh, May well be

<v Speaker 2>the last time we see her on Dynamite. Again, this

<v Speaker 2>is a chronic, progressive thing. So I would love to

<v Speaker 2>imagine that maybe she'll pop up even more in the future,

<v Speaker 2>but realistically, that's probably not going to happen.

<v Speaker 1>So that made the moment even more bittersweet, just knowing that, right?

<v Speaker 2>I mean, you try not to, in your mind, trend

<v Speaker 2>to the negative, but you also got to be realistic

<v Speaker 2>about this. And it was very sad, but again, beautiful

<v Speaker 2>in its own way. And I thought the way they

<v Speaker 2>handled this was... Tremendous. And again, we on the stream

<v Speaker 2>on Wednesday night raised a lot of money for IMALS.

<v Speaker 2>If you would like to donate directly, you may do so.

<v Speaker 2>If you go to imals.org slash rebel, because she has

<v Speaker 2>her own page there, you can go there directly if

<v Speaker 2>you wish to donate yourself. We also had a tease

<v Speaker 2>for a potential trios title match at All Out. swerve

<v Speaker 2>in the new level defending their titles against Hangman Adam Page,

<v Speaker 2>Brody King, and Bandito. And they could always add Ricochet

<v Speaker 2>and the Gates of Agony, I suppose. I think it

<v Speaker 2>makes for a weaker attraction, honestly. If they do that

<v Speaker 2>as opposed to just keeping it to the two trios teams,

<v Speaker 2>I think it would be a bigger match that way.

<v Speaker 2>They'll probably end up adding Ricochet and GOA, though, because

<v Speaker 2>Ricochet pointed out that Toa Leona, his shoulder wasn't even

<v Speaker 2>down on the mat when they lost those belts, and

<v Speaker 2>so they need their rematch. So that's probably what we're

<v Speaker 2>looking at for All Out. We had Stephen Borden. El

<v Speaker 2>Hijo del Sting made his Dynamite debut in ring teaming

<v Speaker 2>with Darby Allin against Josh Alexander and Mark Davis. So

<v Speaker 2>we got not only his first Dynamite match, but we

<v Speaker 2>got a little promo in the back from Borden. And

<v Speaker 2>he's very good. Like, you know, very poised as far

<v Speaker 2>as the promo goes. Not timid or nervous or anything

<v Speaker 2>like that. He's got a great look, right? He's in

<v Speaker 2>great shape. Obviously, he looks a lot like his father,

<v Speaker 2>minus the face paint. And in-ring, again, it was a

<v Speaker 2>tag match, so he was limited in what he did,

<v Speaker 2>but what he did looked good.

<v Speaker 1>So again, he's still very green. Still very inexperienced.

<v Speaker 2>He's had maybe a total of 30-ish matches to his

<v Speaker 2>name so far. But there's definitely something there, and I

<v Speaker 2>will say, I thought that finish was very cool. It

<v Speaker 2>was like a combination Scorpion, Death Drop, Coffin Drop. Scorpion,

<v Speaker 2>Coffin Drop. I thought that was very cool. Mercedes, Monet,

<v Speaker 2>and Tekla, there was a back-and-forth promo between the two

<v Speaker 2>of them. willow nightingale came out with her her hand

<v Speaker 2>still wrapped her broken hand so they were very heavily

<v Speaker 2>teasing the idea that this match it all out which

<v Speaker 2>hasn't been announced yet but instead of it being mercedes

<v Speaker 2>and tecla one-on-one because the one thing the two of

<v Speaker 2>them agree on is that they both think willow nightingale

<v Speaker 2>sucks and then willow came out so it looks like

<v Speaker 2>we're probably going to end up getting a three-way for

<v Speaker 2>the women championship in Chicago would be my guess. We

<v Speaker 2>had Will Ospreay as well. We had a little revelation

<v Speaker 2>from him. I'm glad they did this. He was talking

<v Speaker 2>to Jon Moxley in the back. Last we saw the

<v Speaker 2>two of them in the ring together the week before,

<v Speaker 2>they both looked very surprised to see the graphic put

<v Speaker 2>up on screen announcing their world championship match for All Out,

<v Speaker 2>especially Moxley.

<v Speaker 1>He was like, oh.

<v Speaker 2>And it was just a very weird way to go

<v Speaker 2>ahead and announce that as the main event. So here

<v Speaker 2>they were talking in the back and Ospreay tells Moxley,

<v Speaker 2>I'm the one who asked for this match because I

<v Speaker 2>owe you. You're the only man to ever pin me

<v Speaker 2>here in 2026. So in Osprey's mind, you are the

<v Speaker 2>number one contender. He said, but it's not going to

<v Speaker 2>be like Dynasty, though. He said, this time, because, again,

<v Speaker 2>it's not continental rules, you can have the Death Riders

<v Speaker 2>at ringside in your corner. And we're also not bound

<v Speaker 2>by a 20-minute time limit. I got you for 60. 60.

<v Speaker 2>And he's coming at Moxley for revenge. He's going to

<v Speaker 2>be calculated. He's got a game plan. And he knows

<v Speaker 2>exactly what it takes to beat a Death Rider. So

<v Speaker 2>I like the fact that they acknowledge that Ospreay asked

<v Speaker 2>for the match. And it wasn't just like Tony Khan

<v Speaker 2>on the spot said, hey, put a graphic together. I

<v Speaker 2>just came up with my main event. So at least

<v Speaker 2>they tried to explain it that way. A lot of

<v Speaker 2>ticket movement, apparently. Once that match was announced, a lot

<v Speaker 2>of ticket movement.

<v Speaker 1>In fact.

<v Speaker 2>All Out is already sold out. They are all out

<v Speaker 2>of tickets. Two weeks out from the show, all out

<v Speaker 2>of their current allotment anyway. As per WrestleTix, just over 9,100

<v Speaker 2>tickets gone. In the past in that venue, the sellout

<v Speaker 2>number has been 9,400. So even if they put some

<v Speaker 2>more tickets on sale, they're going to be gone too.

<v Speaker 2>So that would be their fastest sellout in that building

<v Speaker 2>in years. Meanwhile, WWE, which is running the same city

<v Speaker 2>that night, head-to-head for Worlds Collide with CM Punk on

<v Speaker 2>the show, they have over 10,000 tickets out. Now, that's

<v Speaker 2>the Allstate Arena, so they're not sold out yet. It's

<v Speaker 2>a bigger building, but that's still 10,000 tickets. So that's 20,000

<v Speaker 2>fans watching wrestling in Chicago that night. I'd say that's

<v Speaker 2>pretty damn good. Today's episode is sponsored by HIMS. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Another week.

<v Speaker 2>Another Ric Flair controversy of some kind. This time it

<v Speaker 2>was British publication The Independent publishing an exclusive on Tuesday

<v Speaker 2>about Ric Flair suing an influencer talent agency, claiming the

<v Speaker 2>agency duped him into handing over the rights to his

<v Speaker 2>image and likeness.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to read you directly from the story.

<v Speaker 2>It's a long one, and I'll chime in here as

<v Speaker 2>I go along. Legendary pro wrestler Ric Nature Boy Flair said,

<v Speaker 2>is suing a digital talent agency he claims duped him

<v Speaker 2>into signing away the rights to his own image and

<v Speaker 2>likeness while promising him a six-figure monthly revenue stream that

<v Speaker 2>allegedly never materialized. A 77-year-old flair whose real name is

<v Speaker 2>Richard Morgan Fleer spent four decades, quote, building something through

<v Speaker 2>his body, his blood, his pain, his persona, his craft,

<v Speaker 2>and his commitment to excellence at a level that only

<v Speaker 2>16 world championships can describe. according to a $ 10 million

<v Speaker 2>lawsuit obtained by The Independent. I love how he uses

<v Speaker 2>the fake number in his lawsuit, a number that he

<v Speaker 2>has acknowledged is not accurate. I guess we're kayfabe in

<v Speaker 2>the courts now. But Flair's complaint says that FAM Networks,

<v Speaker 2>a cutting-edge, talent-first management agency and media company representing some

<v Speaker 2>of the most unique and impactful influencers around the world,

<v Speaker 2>pounced on an opportunity to rook the elderly performer out

<v Speaker 2>of what was rightfully his.

<v Speaker 1>What FAM did was simple.

<v Speaker 2>It waited until he needed help managing the digital legacy

<v Speaker 2>of everything he had built, presented him with a document

<v Speaker 2>he was not equipped to understand, told him he had

<v Speaker 2>lawyers when he did not, gave him 14 minutes to

<v Speaker 2>read it, and walked away with a perpetual license to

<v Speaker 2>his identity, the complaint contends, adding that the pending legal

<v Speaker 2>action is only the beginning. The nature boy is not finished,

<v Speaker 2>the complaint states. The case has just begun. Reached by

<v Speaker 2>phone at his home in Hillsborough County, Florida, Fleer, who

<v Speaker 2>last wrestled in 2022, told The Independent that he wants

<v Speaker 2>to bury the people at FAM Networks and said he

<v Speaker 2>lost out on at least.

<v Speaker 1>$ 250, 000 in revenues so far.

<v Speaker 2>Messages sent to five different departments at FAM Networks were

<v Speaker 2>all returned as undeliverable. A contact form on the company's

<v Speaker 2>website was inoperable on Tuesday. It does not have a

<v Speaker 2>publicly listed phone number. As Ric Flair, Richard Fleer electrified

<v Speaker 2>arenas around the world, his complaint explains, calling him one

<v Speaker 2>of the most celebrated, decorated, and recognizable professional athletes in

<v Speaker 2>the history of the sport. His career transcended the ring

<v Speaker 2>and became an indelible part of American pop culture, it

<v Speaker 2>goes on. A name, a likeness, and an identity that

<v Speaker 2>carries commercial value precisely because generations of fans have given

<v Speaker 2>it meaning through their devotion, the complaint states. That identity,

<v Speaker 2>the product of a lifetime of work, sacrifice, and sacrifice again,

<v Speaker 2>is what FAM Networks came for. Can they be any

<v Speaker 2>more dramatic about this?

<v Speaker 1>Like, holy shit.

<v Speaker 2>FAM, which maintains offices in New York City and Los Angeles,

<v Speaker 2>purportedly defrauded Fleer by quietly taking control of his social

<v Speaker 2>media accounts, recategorizing them to make recovery near impossible, and

<v Speaker 2>milked his persona for profits that he never sold. Well,

<v Speaker 2>clearly his Twitter account is not included in this. At 5.57 p.m.

<v Speaker 2>on December 5th, 2025, Fleer opened an email from FAM

<v Speaker 2>which came with a contract attached, according to the complaint

<v Speaker 2>which was filed September 5th in Manhattan Supreme Court. At 6.11 p.m.,

<v Speaker 2>14 minutes later, he signed it, the complaint continues. In

<v Speaker 2>those 14 minutes, without the benefit of legal counsel, without

<v Speaker 2>a single attorney reviewing a single word on his behalf,

<v Speaker 2>and in direct contradiction of a contractual recital, FAM itself

<v Speaker 2>well whose fault is that so they told him that

<v Speaker 2>it was it was looked over by their lawyers so

<v Speaker 2>what Why would he sign such a sweeping agreement like

<v Speaker 2>this without having his lawyer look it over first? This

<v Speaker 2>is not the man's first rodeo here. He's made lots

<v Speaker 2>of business deals before. This is not grandpa sitting at

<v Speaker 2>home getting an email from a Nigerian prince and mailing

<v Speaker 2>him his retirement savings. FAM, quote, knew he had no lawyer,

<v Speaker 2>the complaint alleges. FAM wrote the clause saying he did anyway.

<v Speaker 2>Fleer has, and then they put this in parentheses, Fleer

<v Speaker 2>has trouble discerning AI-generated content from reality and often gets

<v Speaker 2>confused about things he sees online, according to his daughter, Charlotte.

<v Speaker 2>The company, which promotes online influencers and pairs them up

<v Speaker 2>with corporate deals, offered Fleer a full slate of speaking

<v Speaker 2>engagements and appearances, with 90% of the proceeds going to him,

<v Speaker 2>the complaint states. It says FAM pledged 50% to Fleer

<v Speaker 2>for collaborative projects and 10% for passive content. FAM would

<v Speaker 2>also restore Fleer's hacked, demonetized Facebook page which it claimed

<v Speaker 2>would throw off six figures on a monthly basis. These

<v Speaker 2>were not aspirations, the complaint argues. These were contractual obligations. However,

<v Speaker 2>it alleges FAM delivered none of them. It sourced not

<v Speaker 2>one speaking engagement, not one in-person appearance, not one personal

<v Speaker 2>project at the 90% royalty tier. It reposted existing content.

<v Speaker 2>At the same time, FAM enriched itself by as much

<v Speaker 2>as $ 20, 000 a month by monetizing Flair's Facebook page while

<v Speaker 2>paying him next to nothing, according to the complaint. It

<v Speaker 2>then transferred Fleer's Facebook page to itself, effectively locking Fleer's

<v Speaker 2>existing team out and blowing a potential advertising deal they

<v Speaker 2>already had in the works. By taking operational control of

<v Speaker 2>Fleer's digital life, FAM was allegedly able to entrench itself

<v Speaker 2>in a position from which it could demand a ransom

<v Speaker 2>for his own property's return. When Fleer signed the contract

<v Speaker 2>with FAM, the company was already embroiled in an almost

<v Speaker 2>identical case involving... UFO-ologist, is that even a fucking word?

<v Speaker 2>Stephen Greer, according to the complaint. Yet FAM disclosed none

<v Speaker 2>of this to Mr. Fleer before he signed because the

<v Speaker 2>complaint argues disclosure would have ended the transaction. The complaint

<v Speaker 2>contends that the contract that FAM convinced Fleer to sign

<v Speaker 2>and later weaponized should be declared null and void. It

<v Speaker 2>describes the agreement as not a contract, but rather a trap.

<v Speaker 2>giving FAM the right to act in Fleer's name without

<v Speaker 2>his involvement and erecting practically insurmountable barriers preventing him from

<v Speaker 2>extracting himself from the deal. New York courts of equity

<v Speaker 2>do not enforce traps, and they do not enforce perpetual

<v Speaker 2>licenses extracted from elderly men in 14 minutes without counsel

<v Speaker 2>on the basis of false recitals.

<v Speaker 1>And undisclosed litigation, states the complaint.

<v Speaker 2>Last year, Fleer sued a cannabis company he was involved

<v Speaker 2>in promoting, along with iconic prizefighter Mike Tyson. for $ 50

<v Speaker 2>million alleging fraud, self-dealing, and civil RICO conspiracy. Fleer is

<v Speaker 2>now asking a judge to rescind the agreement with FAM,

<v Speaker 2>to order control of his Facebook page returned to him,

<v Speaker 2>a declaratory judgment stating that FAM has no right to

<v Speaker 2>his name, image, or likeness, and for a complete accounting

<v Speaker 2>of revenues generated in his name. He is also demanding

<v Speaker 2>compensatory damages, among other things, of at least $ 5 million

<v Speaker 2>for breach of contract, compensatory and punitive damages of at

<v Speaker 2>least $ 5 million for fraudulent inducement, damages to be determined

<v Speaker 2>at trial for violations of New York civil rights law,

<v Speaker 2>and it goes on and on here for what he

<v Speaker 2>is looking for. A trial date has not yet been set. Look,

<v Speaker 2>the people who run this company sound like a bunch

<v Speaker 2>of shysters, and if what Flair says is true, then

<v Speaker 2>they should have to pay for that. But how you

<v Speaker 2>sign off on a deal like this without consulting your

<v Speaker 2>attorney first is beyond my comprehension. And if he got fleeced,

<v Speaker 2>it sounds to me like he's just as responsible for it.

<v Speaker 2>Like the man was just on social media two weeks ago,

<v Speaker 2>threatening to send his lawyer after anyone who stole his robes.

<v Speaker 2>He can send them after those people, but he can't

<v Speaker 2>hit the forward button on his email to let his

<v Speaker 2>lawyer look over a contract. By the way, after Flair

<v Speaker 2>posted those threats about his robes, Cary Silkin, the former

<v Speaker 2>owner of Ring of Honor, he replied to Flair on X,

<v Speaker 2>asking him to pay the money he still owes Cary

<v Speaker 2>from 15 years ago. He said, I know this is

<v Speaker 2>old news, but hopefully Steve Solomon gives you the.

<v Speaker 1>$ 200, 000.

<v Speaker 2>And Ric Flair gives me the $ 41, 000 that has been

<v Speaker 2>owed to me since 2009. I had publicly admitted to

<v Speaker 2>being a fool for paying up front. Be that as

<v Speaker 2>it may, I'm here. 41K should be nothing for you,

<v Speaker 2>nature boy. That's money that Flair owes to Silken for

<v Speaker 2>no showing four signings that he was supposed to do,

<v Speaker 2>I think.

<v Speaker 1>I think it was four signings.

<v Speaker 2>I could have my details screwed up here, but I

<v Speaker 2>believe he signed on for six. He did two of them,

<v Speaker 2>and then he flaked on the rest, possibly because he

<v Speaker 2>had signed to go to TNA. If my timeline is

<v Speaker 2>right on that, I think that would have been around

<v Speaker 2>that time period. So he took the money, but he

<v Speaker 2>never did all the signings that he promised to do.

<v Speaker 2>You know, despite him having to pay alimony to three

<v Speaker 2>or four ex-wives, you would think with all the shit

<v Speaker 2>that he's been promoting, he would have enough money to

<v Speaker 2>pay back Carrie Silken. You know, he's plugged energy drinks

<v Speaker 2>and wings and edibles, horn blasters. Yes, which let you

<v Speaker 2>attach a train horn to your car. This is a

<v Speaker 2>real thing. He's promoted it for some reason. I still

<v Speaker 2>see him in those fucking CarShield commercials. He's done videos

<v Speaker 2>for some telehealth service that sends you dick pills at

<v Speaker 2>a discount. All these endorsements and products, you would think

<v Speaker 2>the man would be able to pay off his debts.

<v Speaker 1>Mailbag time.

<v Speaker 2>If you have questions or comments you want to send

<v Speaker 2>in to me, thesolomonster at gmail.com. Please include your name

<v Speaker 2>and where you are from when you write in. Stuart

<v Speaker 2>from Paisley, UK. Passing this along as news, Harry Styles

<v Speaker 2>confirmed gigs in Wembley next year, just before the English

<v Speaker 2>bank holiday. I know it was basically confirmed, but I

<v Speaker 2>think this makes it official that they will not be

<v Speaker 2>doing all-in at Wembley next year.

<v Speaker 1>My wife is the Harry fan. Right. It's okay.

<v Speaker 2>It's okay, brother. Like, we're all friends here. A little

<v Speaker 2>Sunday confessional never hurt the soul. Nicholas from Long Island,

<v Speaker 2>New York. As I am sending this question in, it

<v Speaker 2>is the 25-year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I was

<v Speaker 2>going back re-watching WWE's first show since the attacks, and

<v Speaker 2>Stephanie McMahon made one of the most disgusting comments I've

<v Speaker 2>ever heard by comparing the attacks to her father's steroid trial.

<v Speaker 2>My jaw dropped when she said that, and I always wondered,

<v Speaker 2>did she ever get punished for her comments on that show,

<v Speaker 2>and why was there no public apology from her in

<v Speaker 2>the aftermath? Since those words left her mouth, why did

<v Speaker 2>she think it was a good idea to say what

<v Speaker 2>she said? That's a great question only Stephanie can answer.

<v Speaker 2>It is still one of the most tone-deaf things I

<v Speaker 2>have ever heard in my life. Like, I was floored

<v Speaker 2>when I heard her use that analogy. Like, you talk

<v Speaker 2>about tone-deaf and stupid. Why was she not punished? I mean,

<v Speaker 2>why would she be punished? She was giving her honest thoughts,

<v Speaker 2>and I'm sure her fucking family probably agreed with her.

<v Speaker 2>You know, she was the only one who had enough

<v Speaker 2>guts to say it publicly, and I wish she hadn't,

<v Speaker 2>because it was incredibly stupid. I haven't heard her say

<v Speaker 2>anything about it since. I'm sure because she probably feels

<v Speaker 2>the same way that she did back then, but it

<v Speaker 2>was a very, very stupid thing to say.

<v Speaker 1>Michael from Liverpool, England.

<v Speaker 2>Moxley, The Bucks, Kenny, and Okada are some of the

<v Speaker 2>names whose contracts are supposedly expiring next year. Who, in

<v Speaker 2>your opinion, would benefit by making the move to WWE?

<v Speaker 2>After seeing Kenny put on a classic with Will Ospreay

<v Speaker 2>in London and passing the torch to him, it seems

<v Speaker 2>like the time is fitting for Omega to take the

<v Speaker 2>next step and finally have.

<v Speaker 1>A run in WWE. Moxley and the Bucks also.

<v Speaker 2>However, despite Kenny having an outstanding career, he needs to

<v Speaker 2>take that opportunity. I don't even think Tony Khan would

<v Speaker 2>disagree with that. Oh, I think he would very much

<v Speaker 2>disagree with that. I got to be honest with you.

<v Speaker 2>I don't think a single name that you mentioned there

<v Speaker 2>would benefit in any meaningful way from going to WWE.

<v Speaker 1>Not one of them.

<v Speaker 2>And I would not have felt that way the last

<v Speaker 2>time that the Bucks and Kenny, their contracts came due.

<v Speaker 2>And the Bucks have talked about like having conversations with

<v Speaker 2>Triple H and he was very nice to them. I

<v Speaker 2>don't know if Kenny ever, if it ever got to

<v Speaker 2>the point where Omega spoke to WWE or had any

<v Speaker 2>sort of negotiation. Ultimately, though, the Elite, they came together.

<v Speaker 2>They were going to make the decision as a group.

<v Speaker 2>And apparently there was a difference of opinion with some

<v Speaker 2>of the members, but they ultimately chose to stay in AEW.

<v Speaker 2>And so now all these years have gone by. Omega

<v Speaker 2>is still one of the best in the world. It

<v Speaker 2>does feel like he's close to the end, right? As

<v Speaker 2>far as just doing this on a full-time basis, how

<v Speaker 2>many more years does he have left in him having

<v Speaker 2>those kinds of matches? If he went to WWE, he

<v Speaker 2>wouldn't have to put his body through nearly as much

<v Speaker 2>as he does in these matches in AEW.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think they would let him.

<v Speaker 2>But I think we're at a point now where honestly Omega.

<v Speaker 1>Is, you know, he's where he needs to be.

<v Speaker 2>I'm not saying it wouldn't be cool still to see

<v Speaker 2>him up against Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins or Cody

<v Speaker 2>or punk, right? Which we, we could have had an

<v Speaker 2>AW and never did. I'm not saying that wouldn't be cool.

<v Speaker 2>I'm just saying like the, this notion that it's, it's

<v Speaker 2>time for him to go to WWE. I think he's

<v Speaker 2>happy right where he is. And I think that if

<v Speaker 2>he was, a little bit younger and hadn't gone through

<v Speaker 2>the health issues that he had gone through, he might

<v Speaker 2>feel differently.

<v Speaker 1>I might feel differently.

<v Speaker 2>I don't have this overwhelming sense this time that he

<v Speaker 2>has to go to WWE. And I feel the same

<v Speaker 2>way about the Bucks. The Bucks are a tag team, right?

<v Speaker 2>Matt and Nick Jackson are not going to WWE to

<v Speaker 2>do singles matches. WWE has a terrible tag team division.

<v Speaker 2>Tag team wrestling is not a priority in that company.

<v Speaker 2>The best tag team division of wrestling is exactly where

<v Speaker 2>they are right now. Why would they leave?

<v Speaker 1>Why would they leave? Plus, they have EVP titles in

<v Speaker 1>addition to wrestling as talent. Why would they want to

<v Speaker 1>give that up?

<v Speaker 2>Jon Moxley? Moxley is going to retire in AEW. Moxley,

<v Speaker 2>I guarantee you, Moxley has zero interest in going back

<v Speaker 2>to WWE.

<v Speaker 1>Zero.

<v Speaker 2>I would be, of all the names you just mentioned,

<v Speaker 2>I would be stunned if Moxley went.

<v Speaker 1>Back to WWE.

<v Speaker 2>Okada, I don't know when Okada's contract is up. I

<v Speaker 2>feel the same way about Okada. You can argue that,

<v Speaker 2>you know, what they've done with Okada and AEW, maybe

<v Speaker 2>you're like not thrilled about it. Do you honestly believe

<v Speaker 2>that if Okada went to WWE, that they would use

<v Speaker 2>him better? than AEW has I don't believe that so

<v Speaker 2>all of the names you mentioned I think are exactly

<v Speaker 2>where they need to be now it would be smart

<v Speaker 2>if their contracts are coming due for them to maybe

<v Speaker 2>use WWE as leverage like the the idea that maybe

<v Speaker 2>they'll leave or even have negotiations I but just try

<v Speaker 2>to leverage themselves a better deal to stay right from

<v Speaker 2>Tony Khan. That's just good business. But ultimately I think

<v Speaker 2>they all stay and I think they all should stay.

<v Speaker 2>I don't think a single one of them would benefit

<v Speaker 2>from going to WWE. Armando from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, who

<v Speaker 2>is celebrating 27 years on this earth today. Happy birthday, Armando.

<v Speaker 2>What would you say are certain points in wrestling where

<v Speaker 2>someone getting a token title reign or a transitional reign

<v Speaker 2>would have worked well, I think back to Jerry Lawler

<v Speaker 2>in 2011, where he could have won the title, the

<v Speaker 2>WWE title from the Miz at the pay-per-view. I think

<v Speaker 2>he's talking about the, uh, the elimination chamber pay-per-view and

<v Speaker 2>then drop it back to him the next night.

<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

<v Speaker 2>I remember feeling that same way at that time. You

<v Speaker 2>could have given Lawler a, like a token title run.

<v Speaker 2>And I think people would have popped for it. Um,

<v Speaker 2>I mean the ones that come to mind that we

<v Speaker 2>never got to see, but I think could have worked, um, Yeah,

<v Speaker 2>the earliest one I could think of would be Rick

<v Speaker 2>Rude in 1990. There was a period there in the summer.

<v Speaker 2>I know him and the Warrior had a match in

<v Speaker 2>July of 90 on Saturday night's main event. And it

<v Speaker 2>kind of led to a rematch at SummerSlam and they

<v Speaker 2>had a cage match. You could have had Rude win

<v Speaker 2>the belt on that Saturday night's main event show. I

<v Speaker 2>think it was their Wild Kingdom episode. You could have

<v Speaker 2>put the belt on Rude. And let him hold it

<v Speaker 2>for about a month, month and a half, and then

<v Speaker 2>drop it back in the cage match. Owen Hart in

<v Speaker 2>the summer of 94. I think I've talked about this

<v Speaker 2>on the podcast before. You could have had, they actually

<v Speaker 2>had a lumberjack match that Owen won. He kind of

<v Speaker 2>won the belt for like a minute. And then the

<v Speaker 2>decision got overturned and the match continued. I would have

<v Speaker 2>loved to have seen Owen get the belt. after he

<v Speaker 2>won King of the Ring in that period, again, like June, July,

<v Speaker 2>and very similar to Warrior and Rude because they had

<v Speaker 2>a cage match at SummerSlam. So have Owen win the

<v Speaker 2>belt and then drop it back to Bret in the

<v Speaker 2>cage match. I mean, there would have been no harm

<v Speaker 2>in doing that. I always felt that the match that

<v Speaker 2>Triple H and Ric Flair had on that one episode

<v Speaker 2>of Raw in 2003 from Greensboro, they really did a

<v Speaker 2>good job throughout the night of building Flair up And

<v Speaker 2>you really wanted to see him win that championship. I

<v Speaker 2>think you could have put the world heavyweight title on

<v Speaker 2>him that night for a short run. As far as

<v Speaker 2>any other ones, I look, I think a short run

<v Speaker 2>for Samoa Joe in 2017, if he would have beaten

<v Speaker 2>Brock in their match and then held it for like

<v Speaker 2>a month, I think that would have been cool. And

<v Speaker 2>maybe you want to use LA night in 2026, right?

<v Speaker 2>As a, a potential candidate for a short run, I

<v Speaker 2>don't want to say a transitional run, because if he

<v Speaker 2>was to actually beat Roman to win the belt, he

<v Speaker 2>would just lose it right back to him. I don't

<v Speaker 2>think it would be to transition it to somebody else.

<v Speaker 2>But I'm sure there's a lot of LA Knight fans

<v Speaker 2>out there who were like, hey, what about Knight getting

<v Speaker 2>a short run like that in 2026? Ricardo in Jersey City,

<v Speaker 2>New Jersey. After AEW All In, I listened to clips

<v Speaker 2>from Jim Cornette about the Omega and Osprey main event.

<v Speaker 2>It's no secret that he has a large disdain for

<v Speaker 2>anything that seems to involve Kenny Omega and the Bucks.

<v Speaker 2>But hearing his thoughts seems so disingenuous that I find

<v Speaker 2>myself less interested in knowing his opinions, despite his obvious

<v Speaker 2>contributions to pro wrestling. That, coupled with Eric Bischoff's comparing

<v Speaker 2>the match to anything involving the Nasty Boys, convinced me

<v Speaker 2>that these opinions are said to garner not only attention

<v Speaker 2>and views, but a lapse in thought's on pro wrestling

<v Speaker 2>from a previous generation of talent. As someone who enjoys

<v Speaker 2>matches just as much as the story behind them, I

<v Speaker 2>find it hard to look for opinions that are in

<v Speaker 2>good faith. Is it time to ignore past personalities like

<v Speaker 2>Cornette and Bischoff, and others whose opinions can't be taken

<v Speaker 2>seriously despite the contributions that they've made, whether good or bad? Also,

<v Speaker 2>as a side question, how do you differentiate a pro

<v Speaker 2>wrestling argument being said in good faith versus bad faith?

<v Speaker 2>For example, when you said that Mercedes Monet is one

<v Speaker 2>of the best ever and someone else says something completely

<v Speaker 2>false about her and you said you can't take that

<v Speaker 2>person seriously. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a loaded question.

<v Speaker 2>So I say that about certain people, not because they

<v Speaker 2>have a different opinion than mine. But when you see

<v Speaker 2>these people who are like, oh, Mercedes Hogan and Mercedes

<v Speaker 2>never puts anybody over, she wouldn't even be in the

<v Speaker 2>top 30, you know. that's where I can't take your

<v Speaker 2>opinion seriously because there's a very clear bias, right? You

<v Speaker 2>clearly have a, a dislike for this person and you're

<v Speaker 2>not making an argument based in good faith. You're making

<v Speaker 2>it based on just pure emotion, right? Whether it's super positive,

<v Speaker 2>if you're like a Mercedes Stan or super negative, if

<v Speaker 2>you're a hater of anything and everything she does. And that,

<v Speaker 2>that applies to anybody, not just Mercedes, right? But we'll

<v Speaker 2>use her as an example. As far as Jim Cornette

<v Speaker 2>and Eric Bischoff, yeah, I mean, the Bischoff comments, I

<v Speaker 2>listened to what he said because I wanted the full context.

<v Speaker 2>The Nasty Boys thing was just set to get attention.

<v Speaker 2>The point he was making was that, like, he had

<v Speaker 2>seen matches that the Nasty Boys had in WCW, which

<v Speaker 2>were like, you know, hardcore plunder type matches. And that's

<v Speaker 2>what he was comparing Omega and Osprey to. And even that,

<v Speaker 2>I was blown away by that because, yes, there was

<v Speaker 2>blood in the match. I don't think anybody who watched

<v Speaker 2>that main event at all in would look at that

<v Speaker 2>as an overly violent match or one that had a

<v Speaker 2>lot of garbage and plunder. Like, if you watch AEW,

<v Speaker 2>you've seen plenty of garbage and plunder matches and Texas

<v Speaker 2>death matches, right? Where beyond the blood, you've got thumbtacks

<v Speaker 2>and you've got barbed wire and you've got cinder blocks

<v Speaker 2>and you've got syringes and you've got chains and you've

<v Speaker 2>got all kinds of bullshit, right? We didn't get that. Like,

<v Speaker 2>the analogy didn't make any sense to me. Of all

<v Speaker 2>the matches you would describe in that way, I didn't

<v Speaker 2>see the comparison. So, yes, he was trying to be–

<v Speaker 2>it's all very performative, I guess would be a good

<v Speaker 2>way to describe it. That doesn't mean that Cornette or Bischoff,

<v Speaker 2>they don't have good points to be made because they

<v Speaker 2>did spend a lot of time in wrestling in pretty

<v Speaker 2>prominent positions. But some of these opinions and things that

<v Speaker 2>they say, which make them– and especially with Bischoff, it

<v Speaker 2>makes them seem very out of touch on certain things–

<v Speaker 2>it takes away from everything else that they say. You know,

<v Speaker 2>there's a lot of stuff that I'll, you know, there'll

<v Speaker 2>be a clip or whatever from Bischoff. And I just,

<v Speaker 2>I just shake my head and Cornette. I mean, Cornette

<v Speaker 2>at least is honest about the fact that he, he

<v Speaker 2>doesn't like Kenny Omega and he doesn't like the box

<v Speaker 2>and you.

<v Speaker 1>Kind of know what to expect.

<v Speaker 2>So you, if anything, you watch it for entertainment value

<v Speaker 2>more than anything else. I would not put a lot

<v Speaker 2>of stock in a Jim Cornette opinion about a Kenny

<v Speaker 2>Omega main event, because you already know it's going to

<v Speaker 2>be tinted in, in hatred because he just doesn't like

<v Speaker 2>him as a wrestler.

<v Speaker 1>He doesn't like his wrestling style. He thinks he's been

<v Speaker 1>terrible for the business.

<v Speaker 2>And he always brings up the nine-year-old girl he wrestled,

<v Speaker 2>which was like 20 fucking years ago. He still hasn't

<v Speaker 2>been able to get over that. And so it, it

<v Speaker 2>kind of, it tinges every other opinion that he has

<v Speaker 2>of the man, but you kind of know that going in,

<v Speaker 2>that doesn't mean that, you know, they should be completely

<v Speaker 2>ignored or they don't have, you know, good opinions to

<v Speaker 2>contribute every now and then, but I don't, There's a

<v Speaker 2>lot of stuff that they will say that I just

<v Speaker 2>can't take seriously. You kind of know what to expect.

<v Speaker 2>And if you want to listen to what they say

<v Speaker 2>for entertainment value, that's really why they do it. It's

<v Speaker 2>all about entertainment value more than anything else. Dak from St. Paul, Minnesota.

<v Speaker 2>Appreciate the birthday wishes on Uncrowned. Going through some stressful times,

<v Speaker 2>so that helped perk up the spirits. I have a

<v Speaker 2>quick buy, sell, rent for you. Buy, sell, or rent

<v Speaker 2>on these Hollywood personas. Hollywood Hogan, Hollywood Rock, or Hollywood Batista.

<v Speaker 2>It doesn't have to do with the impact on the

<v Speaker 2>industry or how long they lasted. It's just simply based

<v Speaker 2>on which you enjoyed watching the most. Also, I want

<v Speaker 2>to give you a shout out for how great the

<v Speaker 2>Rebel Heartstream was. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. A

<v Speaker 2>lot of people, like I said, were able to participate

<v Speaker 2>and we had a good time on Wednesday. Which one

<v Speaker 2>did I enjoy the most? I can't vote against Hollywood Rock.

<v Speaker 2>Hollywood Rock, to me, I got to buy on that one.

<v Speaker 2>I will buy on, man, I really want to buy.

<v Speaker 1>On Batista, but it was so, it was just, it

<v Speaker 1>was so short.

<v Speaker 2>I got to buy on Hollywood Rock, rent on Hollywood Hogan,

<v Speaker 2>sell on Hollywood Batista. But if Batista would have stuck

<v Speaker 2>around with that gimmick for at least another six months,

<v Speaker 2>I might have a different opinion. Eddie from Annapolis, Maryland.

<v Speaker 2>Are we building to a Survivor Series that sees Jacob Fatu,

<v Speaker 2>Royce Keys, and 946 take on the Bloodline? Or are

<v Speaker 2>we building to a Survivor Series that has Jacob in

<v Speaker 2>the Bloodline versus Royce Keys and 946? And that is

<v Speaker 2>the night that he turns on Roman Reigns.

<v Speaker 1>Possible.

<v Speaker 2>I think if Roman was to defend his belt of

<v Speaker 2>money in the bank and actually lost the championship, that

<v Speaker 2>would probably be the place where Jacob would turn against him.

<v Speaker 2>And not at Survivor Series. So, I mean, either one

<v Speaker 2>of these scenarios is plausible, or the WWE title idea

<v Speaker 2>that I came up with, just so we don't have

<v Speaker 2>to have the predictable Bloodline War Games match.

<v Speaker 1>I'd be fine with that, too.

<v Speaker 2>Doesn't mean you can't do something with the bloodline in

<v Speaker 2>946 right just doesn't have to be war games Michael

<v Speaker 2>from Long Island you talked about Mercedes and Becky when

<v Speaker 2>talking about the goat in women's wrestling I believe that

<v Speaker 2>Alexa Bliss absolutely belongs in that conversation if you account

<v Speaker 2>for everything not just in ring from character evolution to

<v Speaker 2>promo to merch to drawing on TV segments meet and

<v Speaker 2>greet appearances to the sheer amount of different women's wrestlers

<v Speaker 2>today that we know have flat out said Alexa is

<v Speaker 2>the one who got them into wanting to wrestle like Tatum.

<v Speaker 1>Paxley we all know who this is.

<v Speaker 2>Look I'm not saying Alexa hasn't had influence over some

<v Speaker 2>of the wrestlers maybe that are in NXT right now

<v Speaker 2>and who were watching her from when she first came

<v Speaker 2>into the company.

<v Speaker 1>It's certainly possible. But she is not in that conversation.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry. And me personally, I.

<v Speaker 2>Don't give a shit about how much merch she sells

<v Speaker 2>or the meet and greets like that. Doesn't even factor

<v Speaker 2>into my, like when I, in my mind, if I'm

<v Speaker 2>having a conversation with myself, like self, who do you

<v Speaker 2>consider to be the greatest of all time?

<v Speaker 1>Whether it's women, men, whatever the case may be.

<v Speaker 2>I can tell you that one thing that does not

<v Speaker 2>factor into my decision is, well, yeah, but like how

<v Speaker 2>many media.

<v Speaker 1>Appearances did this person make? Or how much merch did

<v Speaker 1>they sell? I don't give a shit. I don't care.

<v Speaker 1>It could be a nice cherry on top.

<v Speaker 2>You want to talk about Stone Cold and the fact

<v Speaker 2>that he sold a shitload of merch and the highest

<v Speaker 2>selling T-shirt of all time. John Cena, all the merch

<v Speaker 2>he sold. I mean, you could mention that as part

<v Speaker 2>of their Hall of Fame resume. But me personally, that

<v Speaker 2>doesn't factor one iota into what I consider like who

<v Speaker 2>is the greatest of all time. Like, I don't care

<v Speaker 2>about that. It's a feeling I have. I watched their

<v Speaker 2>body of work. For me, it's the matches, right? It

<v Speaker 2>could be the stories as well. Promos, everyone's going to

<v Speaker 2>weigh these things differently. To me, what is their match

<v Speaker 2>catalog look like? And those stories that they've told in

<v Speaker 2>the ring. I don't care about this other stuff. So

<v Speaker 2>that doesn't even factor into my mind. Alexa is, she's

<v Speaker 2>had a lot of success. She's won a lot of championships.

<v Speaker 2>But it doesn't even factor into the conversation.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry.

<v Speaker 2>Mike from Phoenix, I was curious your thoughts on two

<v Speaker 2>what-if questions regarding Steve Austin's neck injury from SummerSlam 1997.

<v Speaker 2>Number one, if Austin had not gotten hurt, do you

<v Speaker 2>think Austin's in-ring style would have still evolved into the

<v Speaker 2>brawler that he became in the Attitude Era? It seemed

<v Speaker 2>that the brawler ring style was more in line with

<v Speaker 2>the Attitude Era style of wrestling, but is it possible

<v Speaker 2>that the Attitude Era style of wrestling became aligned with

<v Speaker 2>how Austin wrestled?

<v Speaker 1>Good point.

<v Speaker 2>People had to work a certain style against Austin because

<v Speaker 2>there were things he couldn't do, and he was the

<v Speaker 2>top guy, right? He was the golden goose, and so

<v Speaker 2>you had to kind of work his style. I think

<v Speaker 2>there's something to that. I think that he would have

<v Speaker 2>evolved into more of a brawler, but he still would

<v Speaker 2>have incorporated some of the stuff that he did as, like,

<v Speaker 2>Stunning Steve. Like, some of the more elaborate bumps that

<v Speaker 2>he would have taken, or him taking, you know, more

<v Speaker 2>pile drivers, you know, stuff like that.

<v Speaker 1>It would have been a mix of both. I think

<v Speaker 1>there would have been an evolution, but not to the

<v Speaker 1>extent that there was.

<v Speaker 2>And number two, which, if any, matches do you think

<v Speaker 2>would have been better from Austin, 98-02, if he had

<v Speaker 2>not gotten hurt? I feel like he did get the

<v Speaker 2>most out of his style and still had great matches,

<v Speaker 2>but maybe he could have done more with Undertaker or

<v Speaker 2>Triple H if he was fully healthy. Yeah, you know,

<v Speaker 2>that Backlash 2002 match is rough. Mostly that match is

<v Speaker 2>just boring. That's that match he had with The Undertaker.

<v Speaker 2>The big one, actually, from 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal,

<v Speaker 2>Austin against Owen Hart. That was the rematch. That was

<v Speaker 2>fucking terrible. And it lasted less than five minutes. Austin

<v Speaker 2>was still healing from the neck injury. Owen was still

<v Speaker 2>recovering from a really bad concussion. And so you put

<v Speaker 2>the two of them in the ring together, and it

<v Speaker 2>was like there was nothing they could do. As Austin

<v Speaker 2>and Owen Hart go, two of the great workers of

<v Speaker 2>their time, they had a terrible match. I think his

<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania 18 match with Scott Hall could have been better.

<v Speaker 2>But that cuts both ways, right? Hall wasn't the same

<v Speaker 2>performer by that point that he used to be. Jose

<v Speaker 2>from New York City. What is your favorite weekly wrestling

<v Speaker 2>show theme to get you hyped for the show?

<v Speaker 1>Hmm. Past or present? Oh, man.

<v Speaker 2>The old Saturday Night's Main Event theme or the old

<v Speaker 2>Saturday Night's Main Event intros. Those used to get me

<v Speaker 2>pumped up. But so did the original Raw intro. Or

<v Speaker 2>the Thorn in Your Eye intro they used during the

<v Speaker 2>Attitude Era. Across the Nation was a really good one.

<v Speaker 2>They used that one from 02 to 06, I believe.

<v Speaker 2>Burn It to the Ground by Nickelback. Okay, you can

<v Speaker 2>mock Nickelback all you want. That intro was fire. I

<v Speaker 2>don't care what anybody says. I mean, you got the

<v Speaker 2>OG Smackdown theme.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, come on, man. That's goaded.

<v Speaker 2>The old Marilyn Manson intro for SmackDown when they used

<v Speaker 2>the beautiful people. The original WCW Monday Nitro one was

<v Speaker 2>pretty good. There's been a lot of great ones, man.

<v Speaker 2>I tell you what, I feel sorry for all the

<v Speaker 2>new fans who watch these shows now and they have

<v Speaker 2>no idea because they don't do proper intros anymore.

<v Speaker 1>They don't exist.

<v Speaker 2>And I mean, I guess on Dynamite, they still do

<v Speaker 2>a little intro video. But, like, on Raw and SmackDown,

<v Speaker 2>you don't get it at all anymore. And the songs

<v Speaker 2>they use are fucking garbage. I'm sorry, but they are.

<v Speaker 2>They have a new song for SmackDown now, too. I

<v Speaker 2>forgot who sings it, but whatever. These Raw and SmackDown

<v Speaker 2>songs are fucking garbage.

<v Speaker 1>Okay? They're terrible.

<v Speaker 2>Instead, they go into a cold open with Michael Cole

<v Speaker 2>or Joe Tessitore talking over people walking backstage with their

<v Speaker 2>empty coffee cups. Ooh, how exciting. If I had to

<v Speaker 2>pick just one, I would go with the Beautiful People

<v Speaker 2>intro for SmackDown that they used during the Ruthless Aggression era.

<v Speaker 2>Rabat from Derby, England. Do you think Triple H losing

<v Speaker 2>to Chris Benoit at WrestleMania 20 would have made it

<v Speaker 2>more special if Triple H kept the World Heavyweight Championship

<v Speaker 2>from Armageddon 2002 all the way until WrestleMania 20? Or

<v Speaker 2>do you think that would have been overkill? I don't

<v Speaker 2>think it affected things one way or the other. I

<v Speaker 2>think that entire Reign of Terror was overkill.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't think it would have made any difference.

<v Speaker 1>It was still a special moment. Darren from Newark, New Jersey.

<v Speaker 2>In hindsight, we all know that the NWO revival in

<v Speaker 2>2002 was a flop. What if Kevin Nash didn't get

<v Speaker 2>hurt in July and X-Pac wasn't released the following month

<v Speaker 2>with Shawn Michaels successfully recruiting Triple H to Raw to

<v Speaker 2>the NWO? What would an all-click member NWO save for

<v Speaker 2>Big Show look like in 2002? I think it would

<v Speaker 2>have been terrible. I don't see that as being a

<v Speaker 2>positive for the show. Having the clique together backstage was

<v Speaker 2>probably a problem enough for them, but putting them all

<v Speaker 2>together on TV, would that have appealed to me?

<v Speaker 1>Not really.

<v Speaker 2>Bringing back the NWO, once they got away from Hogan, Hall,

<v Speaker 2>and Nash, it was a lost cause. It was a

<v Speaker 2>lost cause. It was never going to work in the

<v Speaker 2>long term. Steve from Virginia, are there any title unification

<v Speaker 2>matches that you would recommend and or are your favorites?

<v Speaker 1>No.

<v Speaker 2>No, I can't think of a single one that I

<v Speaker 2>thought was anything special or that I would consider to

<v Speaker 2>be my favorite.

<v Speaker 1>Not one.

<v Speaker 2>Ty from Philly writes in with this. I was listening

<v Speaker 2>to your Raw live stream when someone mentioned Kane's unused

<v Speaker 2>theme by Typo Negatives. And I figured I would give

<v Speaker 2>you a backstory. The band was contacted by Jim Johnston

<v Speaker 2>to create a new theme for Kane when he returned

<v Speaker 2>in 2002. They sent the song to WWE and were

<v Speaker 2>told their version was too dark for the direction that

<v Speaker 2>they were going in for the character. Rather than letting

<v Speaker 2>it go to waste, the band released the song on

<v Speaker 2>the European edition of their album Life Is Killing Me

<v Speaker 2>as a bonus track. WWE then reached out to Creed,

<v Speaker 2>which fell through, and then Finger Eleven, who created Slow Chemicals.

<v Speaker 2>Here's an interview transcript from the surviving members. Lead singer

<v Speaker 2>Peter died in 2009 from an aortic dissection. Going into

<v Speaker 2>greater detail about their experience. And I will just read

<v Speaker 2>you part of what they said about it. This is

<v Speaker 2>from metalinjection.net. Peter was definitely bummed about the whole WWF thing.

<v Speaker 2>Peter was always so focused, but for that one piece,

<v Speaker 2>he really wanted the WWF guys to feel the character.

<v Speaker 2>I remember when the music guy, Jack Johnson, I think

<v Speaker 2>his name was, contacted Peter personally. It wasn't hard to

<v Speaker 2>get a hold of us. He contacted us and was like,

<v Speaker 2>I'm from the WWF, I'm a fan of your work,

<v Speaker 2>and I think we can compose something for one of

<v Speaker 2>our returning characters. We're all like, yeah, sure, why not?

<v Speaker 2>We traveled to Connecticut. Josh Silver has family in Connecticut,

<v Speaker 2>so we killed two birds with one stone. We sat

<v Speaker 2>down at the big building. They're playing us this reenactment.

<v Speaker 2>and clips of the Kane character. He's dark, menacing, blood red.

<v Speaker 2>He screams goth.

<v Speaker 1>Really?

<v Speaker 2>I never saw Kane as being goth. At this point,

<v Speaker 2>you could see the passion in Peter's eyes. So we

<v Speaker 2>get a tape of his original walkout song and a

<v Speaker 2>blueprint of what they wanted. Peter spent hours listening to

<v Speaker 2>it on a loop. We're on the plane, and he's

<v Speaker 2>tapping his fingers to the BPM. Once we get back

<v Speaker 2>to New York, Peter throws in this satanic growling chant,

<v Speaker 2>and Johnny starts beating the drums to start it off.

<v Speaker 2>Everything just fell into place so perfectly, and it came

<v Speaker 2>out the way we wanted it to. Peter was passionate

<v Speaker 2>about this piece. So we send it back to Jack, Jim,

<v Speaker 2>and he loved it. He told us that this is

<v Speaker 2>what they wanted, and we were thrilled because at that point,

<v Speaker 2>this was, I think, 2002.

<v Speaker 1>We had been on the back burner.

<v Speaker 2>We started to, you know, I guess at that point,

<v Speaker 2>typo negative just weren't, you know, what everybody knew from

<v Speaker 2>a few years earlier. So it was a way for

<v Speaker 2>us to reintroduce ourselves and for the people who watched

<v Speaker 2>the WWF stuff to find out about us. They wanted

<v Speaker 2>the Kane character to return to... Oh, wait. They wanted

<v Speaker 2>the Kane character to return at the Summer Jam wrestling...

<v Speaker 2>The Summer Jam.

<v Speaker 1>See, now... I remember the Summerfest. This is the first

<v Speaker 1>time I'm hearing about the Summer Jam.

<v Speaker 2>And they had it mapped out where he would come

<v Speaker 2>in and wreak havoc against these anti-American guys. And we

<v Speaker 2>were all planning on getting the show and just watching

<v Speaker 2>it all unfold for that particular moment. We get a

<v Speaker 2>call and Johnson doesn't want to use our work anymore

<v Speaker 2>because they had different plans for the character where they

<v Speaker 2>wanted him to be a bit more on the normal side.

<v Speaker 2>And what we composed was too dark. Peter was bummed

<v Speaker 2>out by this because it was an opportunity for us

<v Speaker 2>to get back out there. They ended up giving it

<v Speaker 2>to these other kids. The thing about it all was

<v Speaker 2>how they didn't want any vocals, but the version that

<v Speaker 2>ended up being picked was vocalized. There were no hard feelings.

<v Speaker 2>They wanted to use it for a future video package

<v Speaker 2>or DVD purposes, and they said they would contact us

<v Speaker 2>if anything and thanked us for our work. We were

<v Speaker 2>never contacted to this day. Peter felt like we were snubbed,

<v Speaker 2>and considering how much work and dedication he put into it,

<v Speaker 2>it kind of killed his drive. Peter really valued this piece,

<v Speaker 2>and he really wanted to release it, so we decided

<v Speaker 2>to put it on the extended version of Life is

<v Speaker 2>Killing Me in 2003, and the song became a hit.

<v Speaker 1>Fans in Europe, they loved it.

<v Speaker 2>They loved it, man, and Peter was proud, but he

<v Speaker 2>still wanted Kane to walk out to it, and because

<v Speaker 2>he felt a connection to the character, it ate away

<v Speaker 2>at him, and he was never able to see the

<v Speaker 2>original plans unfold.

<v Speaker 1>Very interesting.

<v Speaker 2>I did not know that. before you sent that in

<v Speaker 2>to me. I have listened to the song. I mean,

<v Speaker 2>if you type in typo negative in Kane, it should

<v Speaker 2>come up on YouTube. I can see what they're talking

<v Speaker 2>about as far as it being a little too dark.

<v Speaker 2>It is a dark piece. I mean, it's a cool song,

<v Speaker 2>but I don't think anybody is complaining about that Finger

<v Speaker 2>Eleven song.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's a great theme. Jim from Pennsylvania.

<v Speaker 2>We still have not found out about who attacked Jacob

<v Speaker 2>Fatu in October of last year. looks like yet another

<v Speaker 2>example of Triple H failing to pay off a storyline.

<v Speaker 2>I've noticed this has been a recurring theme during his

<v Speaker 2>booking tenure, where storylines look promising on paper in the beginning,

<v Speaker 2>but he either gets bored of them quickly, hopes the

<v Speaker 2>audience is dumb enough to forget about them, or wrestlers

<v Speaker 2>get fired before the story can be completed. It's just

<v Speaker 2>frustrating as a viewer to be invested in stories that

<v Speaker 2>are being told only for them to be dropped as

<v Speaker 2>soon as the head writer loses interest in them, or

<v Speaker 2>when big angles and turns are followed up with nothing. Well,

<v Speaker 2>before I go on here, I had people, what was it,

<v Speaker 2>a couple weeks ago, right, on Raw, where Paul Heyman

<v Speaker 2>was talking to his phone.

<v Speaker 1>He had to go take a phone call. And, of course,

<v Speaker 1>there were some people, oh, who's on the phone?

<v Speaker 2>I'm like, have you not learned your lesson? Nobody is

<v Speaker 2>on the fucking phone, okay? Like, don't torture yourself this way.

<v Speaker 2>Sometimes it's the fan's fault. You can't put that all

<v Speaker 2>on Triple H. Sometimes the fans just let their imagination

<v Speaker 2>get the.

<v Speaker 1>Better of them. Oh, he was on the phone with somebody.

<v Speaker 1>It must be a mystery person. No, it's not.

<v Speaker 2>They do shit like this all the time, and it

<v Speaker 2>goes nowhere. I would say the vast majority of the time,

<v Speaker 2>it will go nowhere. So you can't set yourself up

<v Speaker 2>for disappointment like that. But anyway, he says, as terrible

<v Speaker 2>as a lot of the stuff in the Vince era was,

<v Speaker 2>I at least can recall this wasn't as big of

<v Speaker 2>an issue, which got me thinking, what are some other

<v Speaker 2>notable unsolved mysteries or abandoned storylines in WWE history that

<v Speaker 2>the audience deserved to get a proper payoff to? Surely

<v Speaker 2>there has to be some examples of this in the

<v Speaker 2>pre-Triple H era that I am not thinking of. Well,

<v Speaker 2>I mean, lest we forget, the lockbox... WrestleMania 32, Hell

<v Speaker 2>in a Cell, Undertaker and Shane McMahon. If Shane won,

<v Speaker 2>he would get control of Monday Night Raw. If he lost,

<v Speaker 2>he would have to hand the lockbox over to Vince

<v Speaker 2>because supposedly he had a lockbox that had damaging materials

<v Speaker 2>inside of it for Vince McMahon. And Shane lost and

<v Speaker 2>we never heard about the lockbox ever again. Given what's

<v Speaker 2>happened in real life with Vince McMahon since then, you

<v Speaker 2>can use your imagination to figure out what Shane was

<v Speaker 2>blackmailing him with. But in reality, there was never any

<v Speaker 2>plan for the lockbox stuff. It was something that Vince

<v Speaker 2>added in the very last minute just to drive interest

<v Speaker 2>in WrestleMania. There was no plans for any kind of

<v Speaker 2>follow-up with that. The GTV storyline. This was during the

<v Speaker 2>Attitude Era. We started getting these hidden camera clips of

<v Speaker 2>wrestlers backstage not knowing they were being filmed, doing embarrassing

<v Speaker 2>things like Val Venis getting caught stuffing a sock in

<v Speaker 2>his crotch. Eddie Guerrero being filmed in the shower with

<v Speaker 2>a couple of Godfather's hoes. I think one of them

<v Speaker 2>was actually Victoria. And that's what led to Eddie and

<v Speaker 2>Chyna splitting up. You know, stuff like that.

<v Speaker 1>Supposedly, GTV was intended for Goldust.

<v Speaker 2>That was going to be the reveal. But he left

<v Speaker 2>for WCW instead. Then there was a rumor that they

<v Speaker 2>were going to reveal Tom Green was the one behind GTV.

<v Speaker 2>But then Vince watched an episode of his old TV

<v Speaker 2>show and he didn't find him funny. So they just

<v Speaker 2>dropped the entire thing. And honestly, I could see that.

<v Speaker 2>Tom Green, he could be amusing. I also didn't really

<v Speaker 2>find him very funny. I could just imagine somebody like

<v Speaker 2>Vince who doesn't get his style of humor watching that going,

<v Speaker 2>what's so funny about this?

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, the whole thing got dropped.

<v Speaker 2>Who lifted the briefcase? At the King of the Ring

<v Speaker 2>in 1999, there was a ladder match, right? Stone Cold

<v Speaker 2>against Vince and Shane. It was for control of the company.

<v Speaker 2>And Austin was reaching up and someone was pulling the

<v Speaker 2>briefcase up. And they never did reveal who it was. Now,

<v Speaker 2>the belief is that it was the big boss man,

<v Speaker 2>but they never actually came right out and said who

<v Speaker 2>it was. But I mean, boss man rejoined them on

<v Speaker 2>Raw the next night, so you just kind of put

<v Speaker 2>two and two together on that. The Vince McMahon limo

<v Speaker 2>explosion might be the biggest one. But I'll give him

<v Speaker 2>a pass on that. There's a good reason we never

<v Speaker 2>got a resolution to that one. And I think we

<v Speaker 2>all know what that is. And the only other one

<v Speaker 2>I can think of, and again, we're keeping it to WWE.

<v Speaker 2>You want to get into WCW, I.

<v Speaker 1>Mean, you got the White Hummer. And even on that one.

<v Speaker 2>Like Bischoff has said, there was never any plan to reveal.

<v Speaker 2>They were just doing it to try to drum up

<v Speaker 2>interest in the TV show. But in terms of WWE,

<v Speaker 2>that's kind of a minor one. But the pie.

<v Speaker 1>Right?

<v Speaker 2>The pie that hit Kevin Owens in the face. We

<v Speaker 2>never did find out who threw that pie. It's still

<v Speaker 2>a mystery to this day. Anyway, thank you for all

<v Speaker 2>the questions. You can always email me, again, thesolomonster at gmail.com.

<v Speaker 2>I am planning on hitting all of my regular streams

<v Speaker 2>and shows this week. I guess it'll just depend on

<v Speaker 2>how I feel day to day. I'm pretty miserable right now,

<v Speaker 2>but we got through this, so until I... Say otherwise,

<v Speaker 2>I guess on X, I should be here for all

<v Speaker 2>the usual stuff. I certainly don't want to miss Raw

<v Speaker 2>tomorrow night. It's going to be a big show. It's

<v Speaker 2>going to be a big stream, the post-Raw show. And

<v Speaker 2>then Tuesday, Uncrowned, TNT, hopefully, on Tuesday night. We've got

<v Speaker 2>Dynamite on Wednesday, the post-show, and then SmackDown coming up

<v Speaker 2>this Friday. So it should be a regular week. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 2>thank you for all of the support. I will be

<v Speaker 2>back with you next Sunday for a brand new episode,

<v Speaker 2>981 of the Solid Monster Sounds Off. So until then,

<v Speaker 2>be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of

<v Speaker 2>your week, and I will see you back here real

<v Speaker 2>soon for more Sound Off.

<v Speaker 1>Until then, take care, guys. The Sala Monster sounds off.

<v Speaker 2>So then it was backstage to Danhausen's lair with The

<v Speaker 2>Miz and Kit Wilson still shitting their... Shitting their... You know,

<v Speaker 2>they are sitting there looking very zombified.

<v Speaker 1>They may well have... I mean, they were electrocuted, so

<v Speaker 1>they may well have lost all control of their bodily functions.

<v Speaker 2>For those keeping score, we have one mute person on

<v Speaker 2>this show every single week who just planks and lays there.

<v Speaker 2>while his wife watches helplessly and then we have a

<v Speaker 2>couple of dudes one of whom i should point out

<v Speaker 2>is a former two-time wwe champion and wrestlemania headliner who

<v Speaker 2>sits there every week also mostly mute uh because these

<v Speaker 2>two men were previously electrocuted weeks ago the fact that

<v Speaker 2>ms is a two-time wwe champion and wrestlemania headliner i

<v Speaker 2>don't want to hear anybody ever complain about fucking Sami

<v Speaker 2>Zayn ever again.

<v Speaker 1>The fuck out of here. The Salamonster sounds off. Since 2007.

<v Speaker 1>Bringing you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

<v Speaker 2>Check out the weekly live streams, bonus content for subscribers,

<v Speaker 2>and follow The Salamonster on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

<v Speaker 1>The Salamonster.

<v Speaker 2>Dog shit.