<v Speaker 1>It's business time, baby.

<v Speaker 2>You are listening to Solo Monster Sounds Off.

<v Speaker 3>I love you, Solo!

<v Speaker 1>Mama Monster! Concord!

<v Speaker 3>My home!

<v Speaker 1>I want your soul.

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

<v Speaker 1>You have legs.

<v Speaker 3>I was 99% positive it was just chest up.

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

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

<v Speaker 2>why he won't hire me.

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to episode 984 of the Solomonster Sounds Off for Sunday,

<v Speaker 1>October 11th, 2026. I am the Solomonster. Thank you all

<v Speaker 1>for the birthday love this week. Another trip around the sun.

<v Speaker 1>It burns me just a little bit more with each

<v Speaker 1>passing year, but I'm still here. I'm still here, and

<v Speaker 1>that's what matters. TNA is still here. Somehow, I don't

<v Speaker 1>know how, TNA has outlasted many people over the years.

<v Speaker 1>They have their Bound for Glory pay-per-view tonight, just a

<v Speaker 1>few hours away, and it was incredible that after being

<v Speaker 1>stuck at less than 800 tickets sold or distributed for

<v Speaker 1>their biggest show of the year, almost overnight, the number

<v Speaker 1>of tickets distributed spiked by like 1,400, which sounds totally

<v Speaker 1>plausible and not questionable at all. Now I see they're

<v Speaker 1>up around 2,200 tickets for the show tonight, and that'll

<v Speaker 1>look a lot better on camera than 750 would have.

<v Speaker 1>But color me skeptical about them actually selling all of

<v Speaker 1>those extra tickets. They may have distributed them. Did they

<v Speaker 1>actually sell that many that quickly after weeks of moving, what,

<v Speaker 1>20 tickets at a time? I'm skeptical. But Amazing Red

<v Speaker 1>is taking his rightful place in the TNA Hall of

<v Speaker 1>Fame tonight. He is being inducted by Frankie Kazarian. Those

<v Speaker 1>two have a history of X Division title matches together

<v Speaker 1>dating all the way back to 2004. A lot of

<v Speaker 1>history there. And Red was one of the early pioneers

<v Speaker 1>of that division. Guys like him and AJ Styles and

<v Speaker 1>Samoa Joe. ODB is being inducted by Al Snow and

<v Speaker 1>Tracy Brooks. And Conan is being inducted by Mike Santana.

<v Speaker 1>Max Castor is coming to TNA. He is answering the

<v Speaker 1>open challenge issued by Moose. Castor and Anthony Bowens, they

<v Speaker 1>saw their AEW contracts expire at the beginning of this month,

<v Speaker 1>so they're free agents now. Or at least Bowens is.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what kind of deal Castor has with TNA.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it's full-time or not. Zoe Serrano

<v Speaker 1>is bringing Shayna Baszler in to be her tag team

<v Speaker 1>partner again. So Shayna is making her TNA debut. And

<v Speaker 1>tonight should shed some light on Leon Slater's future with

<v Speaker 1>that company, because he should walk out of there as

<v Speaker 1>the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion. If he does not,

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't necessarily mean he still can't at Genesis in

<v Speaker 1>January or something. They've done that before. But if they're

<v Speaker 1>not willing to commit to him and make him the champion,

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't speak well to his future there. Because you

<v Speaker 1>know he's going to be getting offers from WWE and

<v Speaker 1>from AEW. Speaking of AEW, we had the psycho killer...

<v Speaker 1>Tommaso Ciampa in the house on Friday night for House

<v Speaker 1>of Glory Salvation. Live on YouTube, north of 130,000 views

<v Speaker 1>on that show. We were peaking out with over 5,000

<v Speaker 1>at different points on the live stream. We've been seeing

<v Speaker 1>a lot of success on YouTube. We thank you for that.

<v Speaker 1>I think actually we are on the verge of 100,000

<v Speaker 1>subscribers on the House of Glory YouTube channel. I also

<v Speaker 1>had the chance to interview Ciampa and the Motor City

<v Speaker 1>Machine Guns, which was very cool. You won't find two

<v Speaker 1>nicer dudes than Alex Shelley and Chris Saban, one of

<v Speaker 1>the most decorated tag teams of the last 25 years.

<v Speaker 1>And to see them out there still doing their thing

<v Speaker 1>and doing it at such a high level, it's been

<v Speaker 1>great to see them in our ring doing it. Ciampa

<v Speaker 1>and Charles Mason, they had a hell of a main event.

<v Speaker 1>A war is more like it. It was Ciampa's night.

<v Speaker 1>Not so much for Mason, who I also had the

<v Speaker 1>chance to sit down with, unfortunately, after the show, and

<v Speaker 1>That interview was less pleasant, we'll say. If it's not

<v Speaker 1>already up by the time you listen to this, it

<v Speaker 1>will be shortly on our socials. He had a message

<v Speaker 1>for our HOG world champion, Joey Silver, who took that

<v Speaker 1>title from him back in August. We also had the

<v Speaker 1>return of Tommy End for the first time in four years,

<v Speaker 1>tagging with his wife, Zelina, against Shotzi Blackheart and Leo Rush.

<v Speaker 1>Amazing Red successfully defended his crown jewel championship against former

<v Speaker 1>WWE ID prospect Marcus Mathers, who earlier that same day

<v Speaker 1>announced that he was no longer part of WWE ID.

<v Speaker 1>And he's not the only one. Lainey Luck, who was

<v Speaker 1>the WWE ID Women's Champion for almost a full year,

<v Speaker 1>just recently dropped the belt and she too has exited

<v Speaker 1>the program. And look, it's the nature of developmental... and

<v Speaker 1>the ID program that not everybody is going to get signed.

<v Speaker 1>But what I saw of Laney, she was very good.

<v Speaker 1>And Mathers is just a great pro wrestler. Still very young,

<v Speaker 1>but he is just at a very high level. Had

<v Speaker 1>his ID contract personally handed to him by none other

<v Speaker 1>than William Regal when he got signed last year. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know the circumstances around his departure, but how do

<v Speaker 1>you not bring those two to the PC to be signed?

<v Speaker 1>And again, maybe it wasn't a WWE decision, but how

<v Speaker 1>do you not snatch them up? WWE ID is kind

<v Speaker 1>of like their way of tagging you so they can

<v Speaker 1>get first dibs over everyone else. Like, if we eventually

<v Speaker 1>want you, we have the right to sign you first.

<v Speaker 1>They can't do it. Only we can. Mathers, I think,

<v Speaker 1>would fit in well in NXT. So their loss is

<v Speaker 1>going to be somebody else's gain. And hey, I'm not complaining.

<v Speaker 1>It just means that hopefully we'll be able to get

<v Speaker 1>him back into HOG for more in the future. But unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>there was a very scary moment on Friday night in

<v Speaker 1>the six-way scramble match. Vic Vendetta, one of our young

<v Speaker 1>prospects who wrestles for our Legacy Pro Wrestling promotion, where

<v Speaker 1>a lot of the students cut their teeth. He attempted

<v Speaker 1>a shooting star press, and he didn't get the full

<v Speaker 1>rotation that he wanted, and he landed right on his face.

<v Speaker 1>And his body landed basically on top of him in

<v Speaker 1>like a scorpion pose. It was very, very scary. It

<v Speaker 1>reminded me a lot of Brock Lesnar's botched shooting star

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania. And it was really Brock's neck that saved him.

<v Speaker 1>He had that thick neck from all those years of

<v Speaker 1>amateur wrestling and all the bridging. But he was tended

<v Speaker 1>to by medics, taken to the hospital to be evaluated.

<v Speaker 1>The great news is that he is doing well. He

<v Speaker 1>is doing better and recovering. And as scary as it looked,

<v Speaker 1>it could have ended up a lot worse. And so

<v Speaker 1>we are all wishing Vic the very best for a

<v Speaker 1>speedy recovery. You know, accidents happen. We've been very fortunate that,

<v Speaker 1>you know, we've not had to deal with something like

<v Speaker 1>that before. But it can happen, you know, when you

<v Speaker 1>take any kind of high risk like that. Even if

<v Speaker 1>it's a move you've done before, all it takes is

<v Speaker 1>one bad landing. But he's doing well and we wish

<v Speaker 1>him all the best. And thank you. For your support

<v Speaker 1>of the show, you make this all possible. It not

<v Speaker 1>only means a lot for you to take some of

<v Speaker 1>your hard-earned money and support the podcast in that way,

<v Speaker 1>but to share it out with your friends and followers

<v Speaker 1>and subscribe to the YouTube channel. I can't hit that.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, HOG is about to hit 100K. I can't

<v Speaker 1>hit 100K without you guys. So I appreciate all your

<v Speaker 1>support on there. And even to get those email questions

<v Speaker 1>for the mailbag. I love the engagement. So keep it coming.

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

<v Speaker 1>the podcast, you may do so on thesolomonster.com. I want

<v Speaker 1>to say thank you this week to Rachel from the

<v Speaker 1>Badger State. Holy shit. I thanked her personally, but I'll

<v Speaker 1>thank her again here for her support. And I will also,

<v Speaker 1>in honor of Rachel and all the people who I

<v Speaker 1>know are rooting for the Brewers, I will say go Brewers.

<v Speaker 1>I don't really have a dog in this fight, but

<v Speaker 1>as long as it's not the Dodgers. So I will say,

<v Speaker 1>go Brewers. The Portland Pop Star, Paul Hamilton. Thank you

<v Speaker 1>for the birthday love, Paul. I appreciate it. Big B,

<v Speaker 1>Bryant Becerra. The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soep. Velvet Revolver,

<v Speaker 1>Robert Murray. The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichard. Big Time, Boris Vainman.

<v Speaker 1>Left Hook, Luke Hyams. Le Champion, Lamont Ambler. What's going on, Lamont?

<v Speaker 1>The Orlando Commando, Christopher Thompson. Killshot Keith Hart. Road Warrior

<v Speaker 1>Roderick Welch, who said last July he lost his CDL

<v Speaker 1>due to an accident in Kentucky. He was picking up

<v Speaker 1>a load from the same brewery that Cody interviewed Kevin Owens.

<v Speaker 1>But I'm back now on the road. So congrats, brother.

<v Speaker 1>I'm happy to hear it. Main event, Michael Omahoney. Longtime

<v Speaker 1>listener over a decade, in fact, but a first-time donator

<v Speaker 1>who just celebrated a birthday yesterday. So, Michael, I hope

<v Speaker 1>it was a great one. Happy birthday, brother. I love

<v Speaker 1>those first time long times. And shout out to Dean

<v Speaker 1>the Mountain Man Mowbray of Scenescape Shop on YouTube. He

<v Speaker 1>is back. He's got several WWE paintings up for you

<v Speaker 1>to browse. It's a series of silhouette wrestling paintings. I

<v Speaker 1>got legends like Macho Man Randy Savage and Bret Hart

<v Speaker 1>and The Undertaker. And then some more modern names like

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns and Oba Femi. You can actually build your

<v Speaker 1>own Mount Rushmore with the paintings that he has on there.

<v Speaker 1>You can collect more than one. Just visit DeanMowbray.co.uk slash wrestling.

<v Speaker 1>That's Dean M-O-W-B-R-A-Y.co.uk slash wrestling. And right now you can

<v Speaker 1>get 20% off when you use the code Salamonster at checkout.

<v Speaker 1>That's even better. That's DeanMowbray.co.uk slash wrestling. He's got some

<v Speaker 1>new ones going up there soon for John Cena and

<v Speaker 1>Ric Flair as well. You can even reach out to

<v Speaker 1>him via the contact form on the page if you

<v Speaker 1>have any requests or you have different versions maybe of

<v Speaker 1>ones that are currently up on the site. Go ahead

<v Speaker 1>and send him a message. You can also find him

<v Speaker 1>on Facebook and YouTube at Scenescape Shop. All one word.

<v Speaker 1>WWE Money in the Bank was last night in New Orleans,

<v Speaker 1>a night of absolutely maddening booking decisions and a few

<v Speaker 1>good matches that made for a very middle-of-the-road show overall

<v Speaker 1>that peaked with the opener. Although I did like the

<v Speaker 1>men's Money in the Bank match. I thought it was

<v Speaker 1>excellent as Money in the Bank matches go. So, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>so many of them are the same at this point.

<v Speaker 1>But the show still peaked with the World Heavyweight title match.

<v Speaker 1>It was the best thing on the entire show. I'd

<v Speaker 1>be willing to go six, maybe six and a half

<v Speaker 1>out of ten on this. Booking-wise, it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>a lot less than that. Coming into this show, L.A.

<v Speaker 1>Knight spoke openly about how he felt like this was

<v Speaker 1>now or never for him. And whether you want to

<v Speaker 1>consider that to be in kayfabe or not, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that's a shoot. That's really what it felt like. It

<v Speaker 1>did feel that way. Add to that, you had Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns in his promo on Monday night calling L.A. Knight

<v Speaker 1>just another egg in the omelette. And I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>break your bitch ass. And then he went out there

<v Speaker 1>and he did just that. He proved that everything he

<v Speaker 1>said was right. And by the way, I have to

<v Speaker 1>say this. I don't remember if it was WrestleVotes or

<v Speaker 1>Fightful Select. I guess it's all one and the same now.

<v Speaker 1>But WrestleVotes had, I believe it was them, an update

<v Speaker 1>this week. And I apologize if it was someone else.

<v Speaker 1>But they talked about how internally in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>People were very impressed that that promo segment, that opening

<v Speaker 1>promo segment on Monday night, we had LA Knight and

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns face to face in the ring. And it

<v Speaker 1>was a good exchange, you know, and I thought it

<v Speaker 1>was a good night for both of them. But, you know,

<v Speaker 1>LA Knight as well. LA Knight, I thought, had a

<v Speaker 1>good night on the mic. And the report that came

<v Speaker 1>out was talking about like Roman in glowing terms, how

<v Speaker 1>like internally people were very impressed by Roman and his

<v Speaker 1>range in this promo. And I'm like, what about the

<v Speaker 1>other guy that was in this segment? It was he

<v Speaker 1>fucking chopped liver. But it's such just a perfect example,

<v Speaker 1>I think, of the way they think they're in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>Oh my God, did you see how great Roman did

<v Speaker 1>in this segment? Oh my God, he showed a side

<v Speaker 1>of him that we've never seen before. This guy is

<v Speaker 1>going places. Yeah, and he was in the ring with

<v Speaker 1>that other guy, whoever he is. Such is the state

<v Speaker 1>of LA Knight and his position in WWE right now.

<v Speaker 1>He'll always be overshadowed by Roman Reigns. He's not the

<v Speaker 1>only one. I mean, Roman is the guy. He's the

<v Speaker 1>chosen one. It's not like LA Knight is the only

<v Speaker 1>victim of this. But yeah, that's what Roman said. You know,

<v Speaker 1>just another egg in the omelet, I'm going to break

<v Speaker 1>your bitch ass. Knight was just another egg in a

<v Speaker 1>very large omelet. You know, he got his moment to

<v Speaker 1>shine for those 25 minutes last night, and he did.

<v Speaker 1>I thought that was the best that L.A. Knight has

<v Speaker 1>looked in the ring his entire career. So with the

<v Speaker 1>spotlight on him, he went out there, he showed what

<v Speaker 1>he can do, and the crowd was there with him

<v Speaker 1>the whole time. It felt like they were back in

<v Speaker 1>Mexico City, as electric as that crowd was, right from

<v Speaker 1>the opening bell. And Roman's had some great ones this year,

<v Speaker 1>three of them. This one, the one with Penta, and

<v Speaker 1>the WrestleMania match with CM Punk. The matches with Jacob

<v Speaker 1>fought too. They were good, but they were nothing like

<v Speaker 1>those three. But they gave Knight a lot. He got

<v Speaker 1>to kick out of a bunch of stuff, as did Roman,

<v Speaker 1>including a BFT, which they said nobody had ever kicked

<v Speaker 1>out of before. But in the end, the story ended

<v Speaker 1>the way that I knew it always would. And it

<v Speaker 1>wasn't just me trying to be Debbie Downer, it was

<v Speaker 1>me being practical about it. and setting my expectations accordingly.

<v Speaker 1>But it doesn't mean that I still wasn't disappointed with

<v Speaker 1>the outcome. I was, especially when the story was right

<v Speaker 1>there with 9-4-6, who were there and they came out

<v Speaker 1>after the match. If they wanted 9-4-6 to send a

<v Speaker 1>message to the bloodline, playing a part in costing Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns the World Heavyweight title would have sent that message

<v Speaker 1>loud and clear. And it also would have given them

<v Speaker 1>a great excuse to put the belt on LA Knight

<v Speaker 1>for a little bit. Or if they wanted to go

<v Speaker 1>with the idea that I pitched, or a similar kind

<v Speaker 1>of idea, you know, turning LA Knight heel and maybe

<v Speaker 1>linking him up with 9-4-6 as the champion and one

<v Speaker 1>of the masterminds behind the whole thing, that would have

<v Speaker 1>flipped things on its head on Mondays for a while

<v Speaker 1>until they were ready to put the belt back on

<v Speaker 1>Roman right in time for WrestleMania season. So unless their

<v Speaker 1>grand plan here involves some other big swerve that sees

<v Speaker 1>Roman as the leader of 9-4-6, which is, again, one

<v Speaker 1>of those wild theories that people have been pitching and

<v Speaker 1>talking about lately. Outside of that, if that were to happen,

<v Speaker 1>there's no good reason they could not have pulled the

<v Speaker 1>trigger last night and given those people in New Orleans

<v Speaker 1>the finish that they clearly were ready for. Now, I

<v Speaker 1>understand why they didn't do it with Penta in Mexico City,

<v Speaker 1>but to do what they did in Mexico City and

<v Speaker 1>then turn right around and do the same thing again

<v Speaker 1>in New Orleans... As a fan and as a viewer,

<v Speaker 1>it's just very deflating. All in the name of building

<v Speaker 1>to a match next year that's going to be a

<v Speaker 1>big deal no matter what they do. So why play

<v Speaker 1>it safe? Why not have some fun instead of feeding

<v Speaker 1>us the same slop? But that's what they do. They

<v Speaker 1>play it safe. And also, Roman has a new movie

<v Speaker 1>out this week. And I'm sure they want him on

<v Speaker 1>the red carpet with the big gold belt. As they

<v Speaker 1>do Liv Morgan, who also has a movie coming out

<v Speaker 1>this month. And she got her belt back last night too.

<v Speaker 1>And I said this in my review last night. In

<v Speaker 1>another world in which Roman Reigns does not exist on

<v Speaker 1>the same roster with LA Knight, LA Knight would have

<v Speaker 1>made a great World Heavyweight Champion. Whether that was back

<v Speaker 1>in 2023, after their first match, or whether it was

<v Speaker 1>last night. But each time he ran into one very

<v Speaker 1>big problem. Roman is in the middle of a title

<v Speaker 1>run that is building to something at WrestleMania. Knight was

<v Speaker 1>just collateral damage in that. But it's also very clear

<v Speaker 1>to me they just don't see him as a world champion.

<v Speaker 1>I had one person last night bring up his age

<v Speaker 1>as a factor. And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?

<v Speaker 1>The guy is only two years older than Roman. They're

<v Speaker 1>both in their 40s. So I don't want to hear

<v Speaker 1>the age nonsense. Now the only chance that LA Knight

<v Speaker 1>might have at holding world gold one day would be

<v Speaker 1>if they move him over to SmackDown. And even then,

<v Speaker 1>look at the top of the card right now on SmackDown.

<v Speaker 1>SmackDown is very busy right now. when it comes to

<v Speaker 1>the world title chase. But him working with guys like

<v Speaker 1>Punk and Owens may not be such a bad idea,

<v Speaker 1>because it just feels like his goose is cooked right now.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he lost. Again. Clean. No bloodline interference, no 9-4-6.

<v Speaker 1>He lost. And I don't know where he goes from here.

<v Speaker 1>Anywhere but up. But I don't know where that is.

<v Speaker 1>But it is through no fault of his own. He

<v Speaker 1>went out there last night. It's not like he shit

<v Speaker 1>the bed. He went out there last night and had

<v Speaker 1>the match of his life. So he's got nothing to

<v Speaker 1>hang his head about in that regard. Tiffany Stratton is Ms.

<v Speaker 1>Money in the Bank for the second time in her career.

<v Speaker 1>We had a Women's Money in the Bank ladder match

<v Speaker 1>with all but I think Tiffany was the only one

<v Speaker 1>who had prior Money in the Bank experience. Actually, I

<v Speaker 1>take that back. Roxanne Perez, I think, was in the

<v Speaker 1>match last year. But you had a lot of newer

<v Speaker 1>faces in there. You had Lash Legend, right? And you

<v Speaker 1>had JC Jane and you had Lola Weiss and you

<v Speaker 1>had Sol Ruka. And there were a lot of different potentials.

<v Speaker 1>But the one that I had chosen very early on,

<v Speaker 1>even before I saw her wretched booking this year, was

<v Speaker 1>Roxanne Perez. I think if you would have told me, like,

<v Speaker 1>this is how they're going to book and use Roxanne

<v Speaker 1>Perez this year. When I did the prediction show in December,

<v Speaker 1>if you would have told me that, I would have been, well,

<v Speaker 1>first of all, it's WWE, so I probably would have

<v Speaker 1>believed you. But I would have just shook my head.

<v Speaker 1>But she really has been an afterthought in the Judgment

<v Speaker 1>Day stuff. Raquel has the Intercontinental title. Liv Morgan just

<v Speaker 1>won back the World Heavyweight Championship. Dom had the AAA

<v Speaker 1>Megatitle for most of this year. JD McDonough, he's got

<v Speaker 1>a big head. I don't know what else to say.

<v Speaker 1>And then you have Roxanne Perez. who has done a

<v Speaker 1>whole lot of nothing. She's done a whole lot of

<v Speaker 1>losing this year. And I said this coming in, like

<v Speaker 1>even if she wasn't the name that I, you know,

<v Speaker 1>picked when people were asking me early in the year

<v Speaker 1>for predictions, if you just objectively look at the lineup

<v Speaker 1>for this match and Lola just debuted, she's still very

<v Speaker 1>new soul. You know, she's been there for a little

<v Speaker 1>while and yeah, sure. You could have put the briefcase

<v Speaker 1>in her hands if you wanted to, but the one

<v Speaker 1>who would have benefited the most story-wise too, From winning

<v Speaker 1>that briefcase was Roxanne Perez. And in the scenario that

<v Speaker 1>I pitched when we talked about the preview and predictions

<v Speaker 1>last week, I said, you know, I have Liv Morgan

<v Speaker 1>winning the World Heavyweight Championship, but because Roxanne wins the briefcase,

<v Speaker 1>you set it up in a way where she could

<v Speaker 1>even come out and show up during the match, and

<v Speaker 1>she has the briefcase, and you lead people to believe

<v Speaker 1>that she's going to cash in, but she helps Liv win.

<v Speaker 1>She helps Liv win the belt, and then she drops

<v Speaker 1>the bomb on her. And again, you don't have to

<v Speaker 1>have her cash in on the same night. If you

<v Speaker 1>want to have her hold it for a few months

<v Speaker 1>and build to WrestleMania season or something, I mean, that's fine.

<v Speaker 1>You can really tease it out and tease the tension.

<v Speaker 1>Liv has to look over her shoulder for months on end.

<v Speaker 1>There's a few different ways you could have gone with it,

<v Speaker 1>but storyline-wise, it just made all the sense in the world.

<v Speaker 1>And then they just went and had Tiffany Stratton win

<v Speaker 1>the briefcase again. And I'm like, this doesn't excite me

<v Speaker 1>at all. And all they're going to end up doing here...

<v Speaker 1>is running the story that they had already run previously

<v Speaker 1>with her and Nia Jax now they could put a

<v Speaker 1>little twist on it which is what I would do

<v Speaker 1>just to be different and if you want to you

<v Speaker 1>can still get to the same destination let's say if

<v Speaker 1>the idea is to turn Tiffany heel which I think

<v Speaker 1>would be a good idea you could have Tiffany Stratton

<v Speaker 1>cash in her money in the bank when she's ready

<v Speaker 1>to do so and fail whether she kind of ambushes

<v Speaker 1>Chelsea with it or she calls her shot in advance

<v Speaker 1>because Chelsea's her BFF you know you and me let's

<v Speaker 1>have this match right they're all friendly and And they

<v Speaker 1>announce it a week out, right? And we know in

<v Speaker 1>advance that Tiffany's going to be cashing in her money

<v Speaker 1>in the bank. Actually, I kind of like that better

<v Speaker 1>because Tiffany Stratton, she came in as a heel, right?

<v Speaker 1>Willing to do whatever it takes. And we saw what

<v Speaker 1>happened the last time she won money in the bank, right?

<v Speaker 1>She fucking hit Naya with the briefcase and cashed in

<v Speaker 1>and won the belt, stabbed her in the back. Now

<v Speaker 1>she's been a babyface for quite some time and feels

<v Speaker 1>very out of place. And so maybe that's what she does.

<v Speaker 1>She feels like, you know what? You're my friend. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not going to cash in on you from behind. I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to cash in on you from the front and

<v Speaker 1>tell you to your face in advance. I want a

<v Speaker 1>shot at that title. I'm cashing in my briefcase. And

<v Speaker 1>you set up a match that Chelsea wins, you know,

<v Speaker 1>and maybe it's a slip on a banana peel finish

<v Speaker 1>or whatever, because that's kind of how they book Chelsea,

<v Speaker 1>but Chelsea wins. And maybe that's what sets off Tiffany.

<v Speaker 1>She tried to do things the right way, right? She

<v Speaker 1>was trying to be a good person and a good

<v Speaker 1>friend and it blew up in her face. And maybe

<v Speaker 1>that's the impetus for her just losing her shit and

<v Speaker 1>going heel on Chelsea Green. So if she won the briefcase,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, what's done is done. I actually kind of

<v Speaker 1>preferred if they do it that way and she has

<v Speaker 1>a failed cash-in because they've mentioned multiple times on TV

<v Speaker 1>in the lead-up to this. They pointed out that on

<v Speaker 1>the women's side, the women have a 100% success rate

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to cash-ins. And I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>they mentioned that for a reason or they're just mentioning

<v Speaker 1>it because they like mentioning these random stats. But I

<v Speaker 1>think at some point you got to break that up. Right.

<v Speaker 1>You can't you can't have it where people just know

<v Speaker 1>every single time. OK, well, this is a guaranteed title win.

<v Speaker 1>This is the perfect time to have somebody fail. And

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany can afford it. I mean, if she's going to

<v Speaker 1>go heel, it's not going to matter if she fails anyway.

<v Speaker 1>Unlike fucking Damien Sandow or a Baron Corbin cash where

<v Speaker 1>they just fucking lost. And in the case of Corbin

<v Speaker 1>looked like an idiot. And it's not like it led

<v Speaker 1>to anything big. They just made him look like an idiot.

<v Speaker 1>So that's how I would prefer they do it. But

<v Speaker 1>I would have preferred they don't even put the briefcase

<v Speaker 1>in her hands at all. The hell does she need

<v Speaker 1>it for? You could tell the same story or a

<v Speaker 1>similar story with her wanting to challenge Chelsea for the

<v Speaker 1>belt and either beating her or failing and turning. You

<v Speaker 1>could do all of that without the need for the briefcase.

<v Speaker 1>Roxanne is the one who would have benefited the most.

<v Speaker 1>And then when I saw Liv win the championship later

<v Speaker 1>in the show, I just scratched my head. I said,

<v Speaker 1>this is even worse. This makes the decision not to

<v Speaker 1>put the briefcase in Roxanne's hand even worse. As far

<v Speaker 1>as the match itself, I thought the match was a mess.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, there was the moment that people are going

<v Speaker 1>to be talking about the most coming out of this

<v Speaker 1>match involving Tiffany. And this came in the first two

<v Speaker 1>minutes of the match where she almost killed herself. And

<v Speaker 1>she did that swanton off the ladder.

<v Speaker 3>And.

<v Speaker 1>As she was coming down, like the trajectory of her body,

<v Speaker 1>she looked like she was like a lawn dart. She

<v Speaker 1>was heading down into the ground. She tucked at the

<v Speaker 1>last second, hit the ground. Nobody caught her. She splatted

<v Speaker 1>the back of her head on the floor, immediately grabbed

<v Speaker 1>the back of her head. It looked bad. It sounded worse.

<v Speaker 1>And the referees rushed over to check on her and

<v Speaker 1>the matches grinded to a halt for a few minutes

<v Speaker 1>at this point. Little did we know that she was

<v Speaker 1>the planned winner. So they had to take her out

<v Speaker 1>of the match immediately. Maybe then Roxanne could have gotten

<v Speaker 1>a win, but they deemed that she was okay, which

<v Speaker 1>she actually wasn't okay. She admitted that after the show

<v Speaker 1>she was still hurting, but she had a soldier through it.

<v Speaker 1>She had a power through it. I would certainly hope

<v Speaker 1>that they evaluated her enough to determine that, okay, you're

<v Speaker 1>not concussed. She might be hurt, but she's not concussed.

<v Speaker 1>And so she thinks she's okay. We'll let her continue

<v Speaker 1>because if not, if it comes out that she was concussed,

<v Speaker 1>then she should have been pulled from the match right

<v Speaker 1>then and there. And that wasn't the only scary part

<v Speaker 1>of this match. There was a spot later in the

<v Speaker 1>match that I honestly I'd never seen anything like this before.

<v Speaker 1>And you had JC Jane on the ladder reaching up

<v Speaker 1>for the briefcase and Lola Vice climbed up behind her

<v Speaker 1>on the same side and put her in a choke.

<v Speaker 1>And slowly but surely, JC is fading, and then they

<v Speaker 1>slowly fall backwards off the ladder onto a ladder bridge

<v Speaker 1>that was set up. But when they landed on the

<v Speaker 1>ladder bridge, the ladder bounced in such a way that

<v Speaker 1>it slid through the ropes out of the ring with

<v Speaker 1>them on top of it. So they both went sliding

<v Speaker 1>out of the ring, too, and no way to brace

<v Speaker 1>their fall. They just fell backwards on the back of

<v Speaker 1>their head and the back of their neck and crashed

<v Speaker 1>and burned on the floor. Thankfully, they were okay. And

<v Speaker 1>I've watched this back far too many times now to

<v Speaker 1>just see how the hell did this happen. And they

<v Speaker 1>actually landed as safely as you could land. But, like,

<v Speaker 1>in the moment, even the announcers, like, you could hear

<v Speaker 1>it in Corey Graves' voice and Michael Cole. Like, they

<v Speaker 1>were panicked because it looked awful. But it looked great,

<v Speaker 1>if that makes sense. Like, it was awful. It was

<v Speaker 1>an awful landing for them. But thankfully, they were okay. So, like, visually,

<v Speaker 1>it looked incredible. Like, if you tried to replicate that

<v Speaker 1>spot 10 times out of 10, you probably wouldn't be

<v Speaker 1>able to do it. Like, the laws of physics were

<v Speaker 1>on their side here, because I don't know how else

<v Speaker 1>to describe this. But there were a lot of moments

<v Speaker 1>like that where you just kind of held your breath, like, man,

<v Speaker 1>I just hope they make it out of here in

<v Speaker 1>one piece. So Tiffany Stratton for the second time, not

<v Speaker 1>a very exciting decision here, the booking again. One of

<v Speaker 1>those booking decisions on this show that just made me go,

<v Speaker 1>what the fuck are they thinking? Obafemi. He conquered Bronson Reed.

<v Speaker 1>This was the outcome that I guess everybody should have expected,

<v Speaker 1>but I was kind of hoping that they would go

<v Speaker 1>the other way with it and they could always build

<v Speaker 1>to a rematch and have Oba show some vulnerability. I

<v Speaker 1>never had any expectation he was going to lose clean

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that. But they just went the predictable

<v Speaker 1>route and they had Oba toss him around the ring

<v Speaker 1>and pick up the win, fall from grace. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>they had a good match. There was nothing wrong with

<v Speaker 1>the match. outside of what you think of the outcome

<v Speaker 1>of the match. The one issue that I think it

<v Speaker 1>could become more of an issue the more we see

<v Speaker 1>this sort of thing. It's not an issue right now.

<v Speaker 1>Oba is still super over. But they had him kick

<v Speaker 1>out of two brass knuckle shots to the jaw and

<v Speaker 1>a tsunami splash. Because, of course, the vision came out

<v Speaker 1>and they tried to interfere and they passed the knucks

<v Speaker 1>to Bronson Reed. And behind the referee's back, he punched

<v Speaker 1>Oba in the face with it once. He punched Oba

<v Speaker 1>in the face with it a second time. And then

<v Speaker 1>immediately went up top and came off with the tsunami.

<v Speaker 1>And Obafemi kicked out. And it just makes me wonder, like,

<v Speaker 1>if we are supposed to have some sense of believability

<v Speaker 1>in these future matches that Obafemi is going to have,

<v Speaker 1>even just in the time between now and, let's say,

<v Speaker 1>him and Roman at WrestleMania, if you want people to

<v Speaker 1>believe that there's actually a chance that his opponent could

<v Speaker 1>pick up a win over this guy, This is a

<v Speaker 1>terrible way to go about doing it. Because now it's like,

<v Speaker 1>what is the next person going to have to do?

<v Speaker 1>What are they going to have to throw at this

<v Speaker 1>man to give you at least some sense that maybe

<v Speaker 1>this person could actually beat Obafemi? Remember, it took seven

<v Speaker 1>F5s for Brock Lesnar to beat this man in Italy.

<v Speaker 1>And now here you get two brass knuck shots and

<v Speaker 1>a tsunami. It's still not enough. Kind of takes the

<v Speaker 1>drama out of this guy's matches, doesn't it? I mean,

<v Speaker 1>if he kicks out of all that, what are you

<v Speaker 1>going to have to do? You're going to have to

<v Speaker 1>drop an anvil on his head? What is it going

<v Speaker 1>to take? So that's the only main critique I guess

<v Speaker 1>I have based on what they did here. I thought

<v Speaker 1>it was ridiculous. That whole sequence I thought was ridiculous.

<v Speaker 1>But again, when you look at the bigger picture here,

<v Speaker 1>you can see where they're going with this. They are

<v Speaker 1>afraid to do anything that is going to, in their mind,

<v Speaker 1>potentially position Obafemi in such a way where he looks weak.

<v Speaker 1>We can't have that. He can't show weakness. He can't

<v Speaker 1>show vulnerability. He's got to go in there. He's got

<v Speaker 1>to just outlast everything that these people throw at him.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't matter if they use weapons. It doesn't matter

<v Speaker 1>if it's two on one, three on one, four on one.

<v Speaker 1>It doesn't matter. We got to keep him strong. Remember,

<v Speaker 1>remember back in the day, got to keep Roman strong. Well,

<v Speaker 1>now it's keep Oba strong, but just don't keep him

<v Speaker 1>too strong. Because that could work against you, too. It's

<v Speaker 1>okay to show some vulnerability. It's okay to have him

<v Speaker 1>have to fight back from some little bit of adversity,

<v Speaker 1>if need be, and still get him to where you

<v Speaker 1>want him to be. But he beat Bronson Reed. Now, look,

<v Speaker 1>they could run it back again if they want to,

<v Speaker 1>but he beat him. Not only did he beat him,

<v Speaker 1>he beat him with all of the support, the people

<v Speaker 1>who came out to try to help him, and, you know, again,

<v Speaker 1>the Knucks. I don't see the need to even run

<v Speaker 1>this back again. I'm not saying they won't. They might.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe they'll have Bronson Reed come out and do what

<v Speaker 1>Paul Heyman told him to do on Raw last Monday. Tsunami, tsunami,

<v Speaker 1>after tsunami, after tsunami. Maybe he'll do that on Raw

<v Speaker 1>on Monday. Maybe that's their way of taking Oba Femi

<v Speaker 1>off television for the rest of October. And then the

<v Speaker 1>rematch at Crown Jewel is Oba and Bronson because Bronson

<v Speaker 1>took him out on Raw. Actually, the more I talk

<v Speaker 1>about this, that's probably exactly what they're going to do.

<v Speaker 1>We'll get the tsunami after tsunami on Monday. And then

<v Speaker 1>that way they could run it back and just have

<v Speaker 1>him beat him again in Saudi. Liv Morgan. She is

<v Speaker 1>once again the Women's World Champion. She beat Stephanie Viqueur

<v Speaker 1>and Becky Lynch. Actually pinned Stephanie, pinned the champion to

<v Speaker 1>win back the Women's World Championship. This was the weakest

<v Speaker 1>match on the entire show. This was actually a big disappointment.

<v Speaker 1>My expectations were higher for this. given who was involved,

<v Speaker 1>and some of them have wrestled each other one-on-one, and

<v Speaker 1>they've had some good matches. There was no reason to

<v Speaker 1>think that this wouldn't be a good match, and again,

<v Speaker 1>I was just very disappointed when this was over. I

<v Speaker 1>was disappointed all around by this. I was disappointed in

<v Speaker 1>the match. I was disappointed in the booking. I was

<v Speaker 1>disappointed in basically everything that you can possibly think of

<v Speaker 1>When it comes to this match and when it was

<v Speaker 1>over and Liv Morgan was the champion again, I said, boy,

<v Speaker 1>too bad that Roxanne doesn't have the briefcase. What a

<v Speaker 1>dumb decision not to put the briefcase on her. That

<v Speaker 1>was just stupid. But Liv Morgan is the champion again.

<v Speaker 1>Ashley could take her belt with her on the red

<v Speaker 1>carpet when she does her bad lieutenant press and red

<v Speaker 1>carpet in a couple of weeks and whatever it is

<v Speaker 1>that they're going to have her doing. Not a surprise

<v Speaker 1>to see her win the belt back. I just thought

<v Speaker 1>that they would go about things differently with her and

<v Speaker 1>Roxy in the whole Judgment Day story. So Liv has

<v Speaker 1>her belt, Raquel has her belt, and Roxanne has nothing.

<v Speaker 1>So we're basically back to where we were before. Exciting stuff, everybody.

<v Speaker 1>Very exciting. And then we had the main event, which

<v Speaker 1>was the Men's Money in the Bank ladder match. We

<v Speaker 1>had CM Punk and Kevin Owens and Braun Breaker and

<v Speaker 1>Trick Williams, Javon Evans, and Penta. Penta is Mr. Money

<v Speaker 1>in the Bank. Very happy to see Penta get the win.

<v Speaker 1>Wasn't sure they would actually do it. Very happy they did.

<v Speaker 1>I had Kevin Owens as my pick. I would have

<v Speaker 1>been just as happy with him winning. But I have

<v Speaker 1>nothing to say negative about Penta winning this match. And

<v Speaker 1>I'm actually very, very happy to see him having the

<v Speaker 1>success that he's having right now. He didn't win the

<v Speaker 1>world title against Roman, but he had a hell of

<v Speaker 1>a match with him. That obviously upped his stock in

<v Speaker 1>the eyes of the people that even work for the

<v Speaker 1>company behind the scenes. He's super over. People love him.

<v Speaker 1>He's done great. And now he's got a briefcase that

<v Speaker 1>doesn't guarantee that he's going to be a world champion.

<v Speaker 1>But man, I don't want to see the meltdown and

<v Speaker 1>the reaction if he cashes in at some point and

<v Speaker 1>fucking loses. Tiffany Stratton could cash in and lose. Penta

<v Speaker 1>should not be cashing in and losing. But I also

<v Speaker 1>don't see him cashing in probably until next year. I

<v Speaker 1>don't think this is going to be an immediate cash in.

<v Speaker 1>He could hold on to it for a while. I

<v Speaker 1>do think unless the landscape changes on Monday nights... Far

<v Speaker 1>more likely that he would cash in on SmackDown for

<v Speaker 1>the WWE Championship instead of the World Heavyweight title. Unless

<v Speaker 1>the plan is, hey, you know what? We did so

<v Speaker 1>well with Penta and Roman the first time. And we

<v Speaker 1>didn't pull the trigger on Penta that night. We're going

<v Speaker 1>to run it back again. And this time it's going

<v Speaker 1>to be different. Now, if this time it's going to

<v Speaker 1>be different, then hey, that's great. What I don't want

<v Speaker 1>is for Penta to cash in his money in the

<v Speaker 1>bank at some point on Roman Reigns and fucking lose again.

<v Speaker 1>Because that would be stupid. But think about it, if

<v Speaker 1>the idea is to keep the belt on Roman until

<v Speaker 1>Mania and then transition it over to Oba, do you

<v Speaker 1>honestly think that Penta stands a much better chance against him?

<v Speaker 1>I kind of feel like he's got no choice but

<v Speaker 1>to cash in on SmackDown. One person did ask me

<v Speaker 1>on X earlier this morning, they said, are we looking

<v Speaker 1>at Penta cashing in for a AAA mega title match

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania? God, I hope not. That would be awful.

<v Speaker 1>That would be a fucking dreadful idea. You put a

<v Speaker 1>briefcase in his hand, if he's going to cash in,

<v Speaker 1>it's going to be for one of your two world championships.

<v Speaker 1>He's not cashing in for a fucking NXT title or

<v Speaker 1>a AAA title. None of that matters. We're talking about

<v Speaker 1>the WWE main roster. I don't give a shit about

<v Speaker 1>the AAA title. He's either cashing in for the WWE

<v Speaker 1>championship or the world heavyweight championship, or he's not cashing in.

<v Speaker 1>But I don't see it happening for a while. Now,

<v Speaker 1>even though he won the match and it was a

<v Speaker 1>great night for Penta, It was a better night, I

<v Speaker 1>would argue, in some ways, for Bron Breaker, and also

<v Speaker 1>a good night for Stone Cold Javon Evans. Now, Bron Breaker,

<v Speaker 1>talk about weak booking this year, when I was talking

<v Speaker 1>about Roxanne before, his stock has really fallen. I wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>say his stock has risen this year. His stock has

<v Speaker 1>actually gone the other way. Sometimes, though, all it takes

<v Speaker 1>is one really good night, one really good performance to

<v Speaker 1>turn things around. And despite... questionable booking for him throughout

<v Speaker 1>much of this year and the injury that kept him

<v Speaker 1>out for a few months earlier this year that didn't

<v Speaker 1>help but you know he's been back now for a

<v Speaker 1>long time you can't you can't be talking about the

<v Speaker 1>hernia anymore okay that was in fucking February and March

<v Speaker 1>maybe April now we're in October and he went in

<v Speaker 1>there last night he didn't win but boy he was

<v Speaker 1>dominant and they gave him multiple spots multiple moments in

<v Speaker 1>this match where he was mowing guys down with spears

<v Speaker 1>and He was lifting up two guys at a time

<v Speaker 1>for suplexes. He destroyed Javon Evans with this spear outside

<v Speaker 1>the ring where it looked like he murdered this kid.

<v Speaker 1>To the point where they did this whole spot where

<v Speaker 1>Javon had to be taken out on a stretcher. And

<v Speaker 1>they followed the stretcher backstage into the ambulance. He was

<v Speaker 1>shipped off. It looked like his night was over. And

<v Speaker 1>my mind started wandering about, okay, is somebody going to

<v Speaker 1>take his place? Well, nobody took his place, but they

<v Speaker 1>did eventually drive him back where he drove himself, I guess,

<v Speaker 1>back to the building. The ambulance drives right up to

<v Speaker 1>the ring. Bron Breaker's looking at this like, what is

<v Speaker 1>going on here? You got to move back, move back

<v Speaker 1>until the door opens and we see that it's Javon Evans.

<v Speaker 1>And then he attacks Bron and he goes, he goes

<v Speaker 1>on the attack and people are with it and they're

<v Speaker 1>cheering for Javon. And I'm like, man, are they, are

<v Speaker 1>they actually going to do this? Because when we were

<v Speaker 1>doing the predictions, I said, I give Javon Evans a

<v Speaker 1>non-zero chance of winning. Trick Williams, to me, had zero

<v Speaker 1>chance of winning. Javon Evans had a very low chance,

<v Speaker 1>but I didn't put it at zero. I said it

<v Speaker 1>was non-zero. If they really wanted to go out there

<v Speaker 1>and have a dark horse pick out of left field

<v Speaker 1>that most people wouldn't be expecting, Javon would be that guy.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm starting to, like, in my head as I'm

<v Speaker 1>watching this, I'm like, well, I mean, they wouldn't have

<v Speaker 1>him drive all the way back from the hospital in

<v Speaker 1>this ambulance and do this, you know, this is a

<v Speaker 1>spot that's usually reserved for, like, top stars, right? Maybe

<v Speaker 1>he is winning. And then he ended up not winning.

<v Speaker 1>And that was a big surprise to me that they

<v Speaker 1>would do a spot like that and the guy would

<v Speaker 1>drive back and still fucking lose. But it built up

<v Speaker 1>to a completely different spot, which was a great visual.

<v Speaker 1>Although the setup for it was complete dog shit. But

<v Speaker 1>what they did was they had Javon set up this

<v Speaker 1>tall ladder, the tallest ladder that anybody had used all night.

<v Speaker 1>but before he actually sets the ladder up and the fan, again,

<v Speaker 1>the fans are really into it and everything. And it's

<v Speaker 1>kind of building to some big moment. And then the

<v Speaker 1>match just came to a, to a standstill because there

<v Speaker 1>were other smaller ladders in the ring. And I guess,

<v Speaker 1>I think what happened is the referees pass word to

<v Speaker 1>him that they wanted him to get those ladders out

<v Speaker 1>of the ring. And maybe it was a safety thing

<v Speaker 1>or whatever. So Javon was like rearranging furniture for like

<v Speaker 1>three or four minutes. And it just killed, it just

<v Speaker 1>killed the crowd there for, for a couple of minutes

<v Speaker 1>as he's, all right, we'll move this ladder out. Let's

<v Speaker 1>move this ladder out. Okay, now I can set the

<v Speaker 1>big ladder up. So that was dumb. But even dumber

<v Speaker 1>than that, he sets the ladder up basically next to

<v Speaker 1>the ropes. And I'm looking at this and I'm like, dude,

<v Speaker 1>what are you doing? Like, you're not going to reach

<v Speaker 1>the briefcase. But he sets the ladder up so far

<v Speaker 1>away from the briefcase and starts climbing that they just

<v Speaker 1>badly telegraphed the big spot that they were setting up for.

<v Speaker 1>And I just feel like I don't know. There had

<v Speaker 1>to be a better way to do it. Maybe not,

<v Speaker 1>I guess, because if he set it up in the middle,

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't going to be able to fly as far.

<v Speaker 1>So this is, I guess, how they felt they had

<v Speaker 1>to do it safely. But it just looked preposterous, you know,

<v Speaker 1>watching him climb a ladder where it was very clear

<v Speaker 1>he wasn't anywhere near the briefcase. I actually thought they

<v Speaker 1>were going to do a spot where he went through

<v Speaker 1>the windshield. But he climbs to the top of this

<v Speaker 1>ladder and Bron Breaker is standing at the bottom. And

<v Speaker 1>Bron Breaker has a devilish smile on his face and

<v Speaker 1>he slowly tips the ladder over. And Javon just goes

<v Speaker 1>ass over tea kettle through the air and he crashes

<v Speaker 1>through the roof of this ambulance, which apparently is made

<v Speaker 1>of paper mache. And I just thought visually it looked great.

<v Speaker 1>It was a completely ridiculous spot, like I said. But

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was a cool visual. And the reason

<v Speaker 1>they did it was to sell toys. Because they have

<v Speaker 1>this breakaway... called the Slambulance that Mattel is now selling,

<v Speaker 1>and they've been hawking this shit. And we just happen

<v Speaker 1>to have a spot with an ambulance where somebody breaks

<v Speaker 1>through the roof. So if you wanted to know why

<v Speaker 1>they came up with this spot, that's the only reason

<v Speaker 1>that they came up with that spot. But that was

<v Speaker 1>a big spot for Javon to be in. So even though, again,

<v Speaker 1>he didn't win, he was one of the highlights of

<v Speaker 1>the men's money in the bank match this year. And

<v Speaker 1>I knew he would be. When he qualified, I said,

<v Speaker 1>he belongs in a match like this because he's going

<v Speaker 1>to do a lot of wicked shit. I just didn't

<v Speaker 1>expect there to be an ambulance spot. But this just

<v Speaker 1>seemed to me like the kind of match where he

<v Speaker 1>could thrive. He's always flying around and doing all this

<v Speaker 1>really cool shit. So I thought he did well. But

<v Speaker 1>Braun Breaker was really the MVP. And I think that

<v Speaker 1>this match, it helped a lot in terms of rehabbing him.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying that he's kind of back to the

<v Speaker 1>way he was being positioned previously. the end of last year,

<v Speaker 1>beginning of this year. But I did think it did

<v Speaker 1>a lot to help rehab him a bit. But Penta

<v Speaker 1>gets the win. CM Punk, Kevin Owens, they basically took

<v Speaker 1>each other out. Kevin Owens is going to have to

<v Speaker 1>wait for another opportunity at some point if he wants

<v Speaker 1>to get his hands on the world championship. But I

<v Speaker 1>thought the match was excellent. It was easily the better

<v Speaker 1>of the two Money in the Bank matches. The Money

<v Speaker 1>in the Bank matches have become very predictable. You– predictable

<v Speaker 1>and unpredictable at the same time. Predictable in that you

<v Speaker 1>know you're going to go in there and get a

<v Speaker 1>lot of car crash spots and you just hope that

<v Speaker 1>you know they don't kill each other and break their

<v Speaker 1>necks in doing so unpredictable in that sometimes things go

<v Speaker 1>wrong like we saw in the women's match with lola

<v Speaker 1>and jc and so it can be unpredictable the ladders

<v Speaker 1>can be unpredictable in that regard but it's just a

<v Speaker 1>collection of spots i mean that's basically what all these

<v Speaker 1>ladder matches have turned into these days wwe aew it

<v Speaker 1>doesn't matter You know, it's a collection of spots where

<v Speaker 1>they feel like they constantly have to try to top

<v Speaker 1>each other and top what they've done before because it's

<v Speaker 1>already been seen. And that's part of the problem is

<v Speaker 1>that we've seen so many of them and they do

<v Speaker 1>them every single year. It's all been done. So yeah,

<v Speaker 1>you can come up with like the ambulance spot. Maybe

<v Speaker 1>it's never been done in quite that way before. And

<v Speaker 1>I give them points for at least trying to do

<v Speaker 1>something different. But it's all the same shit. Sometimes it works,

<v Speaker 1>sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it just feels like a fucking mess,

<v Speaker 1>like the women's match did. And sometimes it works where

<v Speaker 1>the fans are not just into it, but it can

<v Speaker 1>actually help elevate certain people in the process. And I

<v Speaker 1>feel like that's what we saw in the men's match

<v Speaker 1>last night. So it was a success in that regard.

<v Speaker 1>And the one outcome really on this show where I

<v Speaker 1>was truly happy, and I said, you know what, that

<v Speaker 1>was the right outcome. I didn't feel that way about

<v Speaker 1>hardly anything else on this show, except that main event.

<v Speaker 1>So they opened with an excellent match. They closed with

<v Speaker 1>an excellent match. Everything else in the middle was just,

<v Speaker 1>you know, hit or miss. The booking on this show

<v Speaker 1>was more miss than hit. So I'm very much in

<v Speaker 1>the middle. It wasn't like a bad show. There was

<v Speaker 1>just a lot of bad booking, in my opinion. The

<v Speaker 1>talent went out there and in most cases they delivered.

<v Speaker 1>The booking, though, did not support them. It was actually

<v Speaker 1>quite maddening to see some of the decisions that they made.

<v Speaker 1>That was the story of Money in the Bank this year.

<v Speaker 1>Now we go into Raw tomorrow night. We got a

<v Speaker 1>six-man tag already announced. It's going to be Solo, Sakoa,

<v Speaker 1>and The Usos taking on 946. They had a little

<v Speaker 1>run-in after the Roman match last night. They brawled through

<v Speaker 1>the concourse. They brawled out into the parking area. That

<v Speaker 1>was just to, I guess, put a little more heat

<v Speaker 1>on things before we go into Monday night. And we'll

<v Speaker 1>see if there is some big swerve that they got planned.

<v Speaker 1>Because 946, it feels like they need a new member.

<v Speaker 1>And they're going to get a new member. And the

<v Speaker 1>question is, who's turning on who? Is it going to

<v Speaker 1>be Solo Sakoa? Is it going to be Roman Reigns?

<v Speaker 1>Is it going to be LA Knight? Is it going

<v Speaker 1>to be somebody that we're not even thinking of, a

<v Speaker 1>new face? Drew McIntyre is on his way back. And

<v Speaker 1>I don't see Drew McIntyre with 9-4-6. But keep Drew

<v Speaker 1>McIntyre in mind because he's likely going to end up

<v Speaker 1>on Monday Night Raw when he comes back. And so

<v Speaker 1>where does he fit into things? My thought process was

<v Speaker 1>if you put the belt on LA Knight, and had

<v Speaker 1>Roman go off with the bloodline to work against 946

<v Speaker 1>heading into war games, you could have had an LA

<v Speaker 1>Knight Drew McIntyre program for the World Heavyweight Championship, but

<v Speaker 1>obviously that's out the window now. I don't know what

<v Speaker 1>they're going to do, but we should be getting Drew

<v Speaker 1>back very soon. I think his movie obligations have finished up.

<v Speaker 1>So that wrapped up WWE's weekend in the Big Easy,

<v Speaker 1>which was originally supposed to host WrestleMania this year before

<v Speaker 1>it got taken away from them and given to Las

<v Speaker 1>Vegas again. But they were promised a future WrestleMania, and

<v Speaker 1>Fightful is reporting that WWE and the city of New

<v Speaker 1>Orleans have a hold on the Superdome. Not Silverdome, Hogan.

<v Speaker 1>On the Superdome for the spring of 2029, which, unless

<v Speaker 1>they're bringing the Royal Rumble there, would mean WrestleMania 45.

<v Speaker 1>But if I'm New Orleans, I'm getting that in writing

<v Speaker 1>after the stunt they pulled this year. I'm not believing

<v Speaker 1>a word these people say. Next year's WrestleMania is still

<v Speaker 1>set for Riyadh. The belief is April 10th and 11th.

<v Speaker 1>That comes from post-wrestling and internal documents they were told

<v Speaker 1>show those as being the dates, although they still have

<v Speaker 1>not been announced publicly. Could be that they want to

<v Speaker 1>hold off as long as possible on announcing anything to

<v Speaker 1>prevent Tony Khan from being able to plan something around

<v Speaker 1>that time. Or it could also be that they're reconsidering

<v Speaker 1>their plans for Saudi Arabia next year. That seems a

<v Speaker 1>lot less likely to me. The Tony Khan stuff actually

<v Speaker 1>seems far more plausible. Look, I said previously it would

<v Speaker 1>take an act of God for them not to run

<v Speaker 1>Saudi and to move the show somewhere else, unless the U.S.

<v Speaker 1>government upgrades its travel advisory and just outright says, do

<v Speaker 1>not travel there. Right now, it's more of a recommendation.

<v Speaker 1>But short of that, I don't think WrestleMania is going anywhere.

<v Speaker 1>Crown Jewel, though... Could be a different story. And we

<v Speaker 1>are now less than a month out from that show

<v Speaker 1>in Riyadh on November 7th. A few weeks ago, the

<v Speaker 1>airport in Riyadh was struck by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels

<v Speaker 1>as part of all the chaos going on right now

<v Speaker 1>stemming from this stupid war. That was a few weeks ago.

<v Speaker 1>This week, it happened again. And it was worse because

<v Speaker 1>people died this time. Three Saudi nationals were killed in

<v Speaker 1>attacks on the airport in Riyadh. Riyadh has only one

<v Speaker 1>airport for commercial travel, and it's been under attack for

<v Speaker 1>the last month or so. The General Authority of Civil

<v Speaker 1>Aviation said in a statement that the attacks also resulted

<v Speaker 1>in injuries to a number of Saudi citizens and residents

<v Speaker 1>of various nationalities. They said the first attack on Thursday

<v Speaker 1>targeted the airport, while the second attack struck an aircraft

<v Speaker 1>belonging to one of their state carriers. and one of

<v Speaker 1>its pilots was among those killed. They got hit with

<v Speaker 1>two ballistic missiles. I already had my notes prepped on this,

<v Speaker 1>and then I saw that yesterday, it happened again. The

<v Speaker 1>airport in Riyadh was targeted again, with many people wounded

<v Speaker 1>and travelers evacuated.

<v Speaker 3>The U.S.

<v Speaker 1>Embassy in Riyadh issued a security alert yesterday advising Americans

<v Speaker 1>to avoid King Khalid International Airport and surrounding areas. And

<v Speaker 1>then just this morning, the Houthis issued a new threat

<v Speaker 1>against using Saudi airports and airspace. They're saying the airports

<v Speaker 1>and airspace are potential targets and sites for operations by

<v Speaker 1>our forces. So the missiles are flying and people are dying.

<v Speaker 1>I should write a song about this. If WWE doesn't

<v Speaker 1>move this show, that tells you everything you need to

<v Speaker 1>know about where their priorities lie. Of course they should

<v Speaker 1>move the show. They're committed to that date for ESPN,

<v Speaker 1>but that doesn't mean they need to be committed to

<v Speaker 1>Riyadh for it. Move the fucking show already. What the

<v Speaker 1>hell is taking so long? WrestleMania is still far enough away,

<v Speaker 1>you don't have to make that decision yet. But Crown

<v Speaker 1>Jewel is close enough, plus they would need time to

<v Speaker 1>book a different venue, although I suspect they would already

<v Speaker 1>have a hold on an arena stateside, just in case.

<v Speaker 1>If not, then that's pretty stupid. But it's close enough

<v Speaker 1>that the decision should have been made weeks ago to

<v Speaker 1>move this show. But we're at a point now where

<v Speaker 1>every day that goes by that they don't move it

<v Speaker 1>makes them look like a bunch of greedy assholes with

<v Speaker 1>no regard for the safety of their talent and their employees.

<v Speaker 1>It's just not worth the risk, and it's embarrassing that

<v Speaker 1>they haven't already made that decision. Move the fucking show.

<v Speaker 1>AEW has its WrestleDream pay-per-view this Saturday in Orlando just

<v Speaker 1>three weeks after All Out, which is not ideal under

<v Speaker 1>any circumstance. But they did lose a week with the

<v Speaker 1>Pac-Tribute show. The focus of that show was not on

<v Speaker 1>advancing any storylines for the next one. Then last week

<v Speaker 1>was their Grand Slam France show, which was like a

<v Speaker 1>mini pay-per-view with some good wrestling matches and not much else,

<v Speaker 1>although they did confirm a couple of new matches for

<v Speaker 1>the pay-per-view. And so now they're left with one dynamite

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday to flesh everything out, including five more names

<v Speaker 1>that need to qualify for the main event of this show,

<v Speaker 1>which happens to be for the AEW World Championship. Right

<v Speaker 1>now we only know three of the men involved, one

<v Speaker 1>of whom is the champion, that being Will Ospreay. This

<v Speaker 1>show just doesn't feel important at all. It'll have the

<v Speaker 1>usual great wrestling on it, but I imagine it does...

<v Speaker 1>Probably near the bottom, buy rate-wise, of all the AEW pay-per-views,

<v Speaker 1>what they end up doing this year, by the time

<v Speaker 1>this year is over. Right now, we only have five

<v Speaker 1>matches confirmed. That's about as close to a Paul Levesque

<v Speaker 1>show as you'll ever see. That will not stand. Tony

<v Speaker 1>Khan will not stand for that. By Wednesday, we'll get

<v Speaker 1>that number up to seven or eight, I'm sure. Bandito,

<v Speaker 1>he handed Kofi his first loss in AEW on Wednesday

<v Speaker 1>in their Ring of Honor World Title match. And then

<v Speaker 1>came the challenge to a best two out of three

<v Speaker 1>falls rematch from All Out for the AEW Trios belts

<v Speaker 1>with Swerve Strickland and The New Level defending against Hangman

<v Speaker 1>Adam Page, Brody King, and Bandito. This is going to

<v Speaker 1>be great. Their match was the best match from All Out,

<v Speaker 1>so I don't mind them running it back one more

<v Speaker 1>time with a stip. I don't see the outcome being

<v Speaker 1>any different, though. Swerve and New Level will retain. The

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks, fresh off their tag team title win at

<v Speaker 1>All Out, defend their AEW tag team titles against Kyle

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher and Kevin Knight, who earned the shot with their

<v Speaker 1>win over Darby Allin and Stephen Borden, whether it was

<v Speaker 1>intended that way or not. Fletcher then lost clean to

<v Speaker 1>Darby in their TNT title match on Wednesday. He will

<v Speaker 1>lose again here. I don't think those belts are coming

<v Speaker 1>off the Bucks until they get in the ring with

<v Speaker 1>Kofi and Creed next year. I think it's all building

<v Speaker 1>to that match. If there were any surprises on that

<v Speaker 1>Grand Slam France show, And there weren't many. It was

<v Speaker 1>pretty predictable stuff. But it would have been Mark Davis

<v Speaker 1>and Jake Doyle beating the Death Riders. Davis pinned Gabe Kidd,

<v Speaker 1>not Jon Moxley. But yet he still earned himself a

<v Speaker 1>continental title match against Jon Moxley on this pay-per-view. In fact,

<v Speaker 1>it was announced less than five seconds after Davis got

<v Speaker 1>the pin in this match. I'm a sucker for a

<v Speaker 1>good Mark Davis singles match. This is be good maybe

<v Speaker 1>even very good but there's hardly any drama here either

<v Speaker 1>in the outcome if they have kept the continental title

<v Speaker 1>on Moxley all year just to have him lose it

<v Speaker 1>to Mark Davis at Wrestle Dream I'll eat my hat

<v Speaker 1>And I don't even wear one. I'll go out and

<v Speaker 1>buy a hat and spread some Dijon mustard on it

<v Speaker 1>before I chow down. Mercedes Monet defends her AEW Women's

<v Speaker 1>World Championship against the former champion Tekla. This will be

<v Speaker 1>Monet's second defense after her win over Queen Aminata in France.

<v Speaker 1>It didn't take Monet two and a half years to

<v Speaker 1>win the big one, just to drop it three weeks later.

<v Speaker 1>Broken nose or no broken nose. This is a rare

<v Speaker 1>heel versus heel dynamic. even though people cheer for Tekla

<v Speaker 1>like she's a babyface now, but she's still out there

<v Speaker 1>calling Willow Nightingale a dumb bitch and getting booed for it,

<v Speaker 1>so I assume she's supposed to be a heel. I'm

<v Speaker 1>looking forward to this, though. I don't give Tekla much

<v Speaker 1>of a shot. Mercedes is going to retain, but I

<v Speaker 1>am looking forward to this. And then we have the

<v Speaker 1>main event, the first ever AEW Clockwork Carnage match, the

<v Speaker 1>brainchild of one Will Ospreay, because with only three weeks,

<v Speaker 1>they had no other challengers set up for this show.

<v Speaker 1>They should have just done Osprey against Okada on this

<v Speaker 1>pay-per-view if they needed someone instead of doing it in France.

<v Speaker 1>But it consists of two stages with eight men. Two

<v Speaker 1>will be randomly selected to start. And then every three

<v Speaker 1>minutes thereafter, a new man will enter until all eight

<v Speaker 1>have been called. And during that period, anyone who gets

<v Speaker 1>pinned or submitted is eliminated. They do not advance to

<v Speaker 1>stage two. So stage two could have all eight men

<v Speaker 1>or it could have just two men. But once all

<v Speaker 1>eight are called, stage two then begins with a 15-minute countdown.

<v Speaker 1>And the man who collects the most number of pins

<v Speaker 1>or submissions during those 15 minutes wins the match and

<v Speaker 1>is the AEW world champion. So if the casino gauntlet

<v Speaker 1>and the Ironman match had a baby, this is what

<v Speaker 1>it would look like. And I'm all for trying out

<v Speaker 1>new concepts once. And if they work, you can use

<v Speaker 1>it again. Maybe it even becomes an annual thing. If

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't work, then we never have to speak of

<v Speaker 1>it again. I feel like this could work. It sounds

<v Speaker 1>like a total clusterfuck, but it could work. I won't

<v Speaker 1>be judge and jury until I see how it actually

<v Speaker 1>plays out. So far, Samoa Joe and Speedball Mike Bailey

<v Speaker 1>are the only two names to qualify, along with Ospreay,

<v Speaker 1>of course, because he's the champion. So they have five

<v Speaker 1>more spots to fill just three days before the pay-per-view.

<v Speaker 1>You want to see a rush job. This is a

<v Speaker 1>rush job. So this week, there is another three-hour combined

<v Speaker 1>dynamite and collision on Wednesday. This is just exhausting already.

<v Speaker 1>We have five qualifiers. Darby Allin is going to be

<v Speaker 1>taking on Hechecero, and this will be for the TNT Championship.

<v Speaker 1>Ricochet takes on Ace Austin. Kanosuke Takeshita, who we have

<v Speaker 1>not seen since Wembley, he takes on Brian Cage. Adam Copeland,

<v Speaker 1>no longer tied down by those pesky tag team titles.

<v Speaker 1>He takes on Josh Alexander. And Kazuchika Okada takes on

<v Speaker 1>Myron Reed. And that, too, will be a title match.

<v Speaker 1>That will be for Okada's international title. Also on the

<v Speaker 1>show on Wednesday, the Death Riders, Jon Moxley, Gabe Kidd,

<v Speaker 1>and Daniel Garcia are going to be taking on the

<v Speaker 1>Don Callis family. Mark Davis, Jake Doyle, and Wardlow. And

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes Monet is teaming with Megan Bain and Lena Cross again,

<v Speaker 1>this time to take on the Triangle of Madness, Tecla

<v Speaker 1>Sky Blue and Julia Hart. So we look at these

<v Speaker 1>qualifying matches, we look at the names that are in

<v Speaker 1>these matches. Darby Allin is a former AEW world champion

<v Speaker 1>this year. And right now he is without his tag

<v Speaker 1>team partner. No way he doesn't get in, especially with

<v Speaker 1>the TNT title on the line there. So Darby is

<v Speaker 1>going to get into this match. Same with Okada. With

<v Speaker 1>the international title on the line, there's no way he loses.

<v Speaker 1>At least if it wasn't a title match, you could

<v Speaker 1>argue maybe they throw Myron Reed out there. Myron Reed,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, is great. And I know Myron Reed

<v Speaker 1>is someone who, if he was in this match, he

<v Speaker 1>would say, why is he in there? He has no chance.

<v Speaker 1>But it would be nice just to throw somebody in

<v Speaker 1>there who maybe, at the end of all of it,

<v Speaker 1>could actually come out of it a bigger star. But

<v Speaker 1>if the international title is on the line, then there's

<v Speaker 1>no way Okada is losing. My biggest disappointment with this

<v Speaker 1>potential lineup here that we're looking at Where is Tommaso Ciampa? Like,

<v Speaker 1>not even in a qualifier. He should be in this.

<v Speaker 1>Especially after that battle he had with Okada in Chicago

<v Speaker 1>and the crowd reaction to him. I mean, I didn't

<v Speaker 1>think we would see Kenny Omega in this. I didn't

<v Speaker 1>think realistically we would see MJF in this. MJF said

<v Speaker 1>the last time we saw him that when he comes back,

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay won't see it coming. It'll be unexpected. Where this

<v Speaker 1>match could be useful and what I would do is

<v Speaker 1>to have one of those seven other men pin the

<v Speaker 1>champion during the course of this match. It has to happen.

<v Speaker 1>Will Ospreay needs to be pinned by somebody to set

<v Speaker 1>them up as his next challenger coming out of WrestleDream.

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay is going to win this match, but at least

<v Speaker 1>they can use it to set up the title match

<v Speaker 1>for full gear. That's why I thought Ciampa should have

<v Speaker 1>been in this. I think Ciampa would have been a

<v Speaker 1>great choice for that spot. But since he isn't, I'm

<v Speaker 1>looking at these names, and what I think we're looking at,

<v Speaker 1>I think we're looking at Darby Allin being that guy.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, think about it. Will Ospreay, he lost to

<v Speaker 1>Jon Moxley at Dynasty. Had to avenge that loss, right?

<v Speaker 1>And he did sew it all out. Ospreay also lost

<v Speaker 1>something like 11 of the 13 previous matches that he

<v Speaker 1>had with Okada before beating him in France this past week.

<v Speaker 1>The one time Ospreay and Darby shared the ring together, one-on-one,

<v Speaker 1>Darby beat him. That was two years ago in the

<v Speaker 1>Continental Classic. So I think it's going to be Darby

<v Speaker 1>getting that spot. He's already beaten Okada. He's already beaten Takeshita.

<v Speaker 1>He's already beaten Joe. He beat Ricochet on the Pac-Tribute show. So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that would leave Speedball and Copeland as the

<v Speaker 1>other options to, again, we're not talking about winning the

<v Speaker 1>clockwork card. We're just talking about being the one to

<v Speaker 1>pin Ospreay during the match. Speedball and Copeland. Speedball is

<v Speaker 1>in United Empire with him. I don't want to see that.

<v Speaker 1>And Copeland against Osprey, like if that was going to

<v Speaker 1>be the full gear main event, I don't want to

<v Speaker 1>see that. I'm sorry, I don't want to see that either.

<v Speaker 1>I think it's Darby coming out of this pay-per-view. It

<v Speaker 1>should have been Ciampa, though, getting that spot. But that

<v Speaker 1>is your WrestleDream lineup as of Sunday. Winter is Coming

<v Speaker 1>has been announced for Arena Monterrey in Mexico on December 9th.

<v Speaker 1>Do they even have winter in Mexico? What an odd

<v Speaker 1>place to bring a show called Winter is Coming It's

<v Speaker 1>like when Tony used to do those beach break shows

<v Speaker 1>in Chicago and Cleveland. It never made any sense to me.

<v Speaker 1>But could that be where we get MJF against Andrade?

<v Speaker 1>We never did get that match. I thought Arena Mexico

<v Speaker 1>would be the perfect place for it. Now they have

<v Speaker 1>another chance to do it. MJF, by the way, he

<v Speaker 1>appeared in a pre-taped segment during Wednesday's New Japan show

<v Speaker 1>challenging Ryohei Oiwa. Oiwa and Zack Sabre Jr., they had

<v Speaker 1>just won their tag team match when MJF popped up

<v Speaker 1>on screen saying, And he said that he wants to

<v Speaker 1>beat Oiwa to finally lock the forbidden door and prove

<v Speaker 1>who the real master of the headlock takeover is. Because

<v Speaker 1>Oiwa has used it as a finish. MJF said he

<v Speaker 1>would even put his real AEW World Championship, the Triple B,

<v Speaker 1>on the line, which is of no real consequence because

<v Speaker 1>he's not the champion. But his mission is to put

<v Speaker 1>New Japan Pro Wrestling out of business as he feels

<v Speaker 1>Japanese wrestling is a blight on our society. Oiwa is

<v Speaker 1>challenging Yota Tsuji for the IWGP World Heavyweight title tomorrow

<v Speaker 1>on their King of Pro Wrestling show. Is it tomorrow?

<v Speaker 1>I guess tonight, technically. It would be tonight. We'll see.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe MJF will pop up on that show. And this

<v Speaker 1>was just a terrible story this week. Lucha Libre star

<v Speaker 1>El Hijo de Fishman. Fishman, his father, was a big

<v Speaker 1>star in Mexico in the 70s and 80s. So this

<v Speaker 1>is the son of... who should know better because he's

<v Speaker 1>been wrestling for almost 20 years. It's not like he's

<v Speaker 1>a rookie. But he was arrested on Wednesday in Hidalgo, Mexico,

<v Speaker 1>after 75-year-old referee Gerardo German Pineda, also known as El Buho,

<v Speaker 1>which translates to the owl, died in the ring during

<v Speaker 1>Fishman's match with Mascara Sagrada. It was either during the

<v Speaker 1>match or immediately after the match. I've seen conflicting reports.

<v Speaker 1>Fishman grabbed Pineda, and gave him a package pile driver.

<v Speaker 1>A 75-year-old man taking a package pile driver. And he

<v Speaker 1>never got back up. People thought he was laying there

<v Speaker 1>just selling. He wasn't selling. He was dead. Lucha Blog

<v Speaker 1>summed it up like this. The local reports are that

<v Speaker 1>Buho lay on the mat unmoving for minutes before anyone

<v Speaker 1>even checked on him, thinking that he was selling. There

<v Speaker 1>was reportedly no ambulance or medical personnel on hand. Those

<v Speaker 1>are required for Hidalgo shows, and this card was running

<v Speaker 1>a bit under the radar. When paramedics arrived, they could

<v Speaker 1>only confirm that Buho had passed away. The police are

<v Speaker 1>holding Hiho de Fishman in custody while investigating. A photo

<v Speaker 1>of the pile driver is circulating. Can't circulate a photo

<v Speaker 1>of a medic who isn't there, but that's going to

<v Speaker 1>be as big of a deal. Superluchas then reported that...

<v Speaker 1>a hearing would take place within 48 hours to decide

<v Speaker 1>if Fishman would be released or if he would be

<v Speaker 1>charged with a crime in relation to the man's wrongful death.

<v Speaker 1>A manslaughter charge would have resulted in a prison sentence

<v Speaker 1>of anywhere from 5 to 15 years. El Patron Lucha Libre,

<v Speaker 1>which is the promotion where the match and the incident

<v Speaker 1>took place, said its lawyers were handling the legal process.

<v Speaker 1>El Buho had refereed in the area for 30 years,

<v Speaker 1>and before that he was a wrestler himself as a

<v Speaker 1>tag team with his brother. On Thursday, Fishman was released

<v Speaker 1>after reaching a reparatory agreement with Pineda's family, and a

<v Speaker 1>representative of the law firm involved issued the following statement

<v Speaker 1>on video, and this is translated. To be precise, I

<v Speaker 1>would just like to emphasize that through the efforts of

<v Speaker 1>the firm, with the staff that makes up our team,

<v Speaker 1>a repertory agreement was reached under which Mr. Hiho de

<v Speaker 1>Fishman is now free. Through his, or through this, repertory

<v Speaker 1>agreement in compensation for damages. Due to these unfortunate events

<v Speaker 1>in which, in a certain way, there was no situation

<v Speaker 1>that warranted going further in a legal process, we concluded.

<v Speaker 1>And so his release was secured today. So he is free,

<v Speaker 1>and I guess they're paying off the family, and I

<v Speaker 1>guess that's the end of that. I mean, that's just awful.

<v Speaker 1>And look, accidents happen in the ring. It doesn't mean

<v Speaker 1>you send someone to jail for negligent homicide necessarily, unless

<v Speaker 1>it really was that negligent and you can prove it,

<v Speaker 1>because you still have to be able to prove such

<v Speaker 1>a thing in court if you want to send the

<v Speaker 1>guy up the river. Now, if it came out that

<v Speaker 1>the referee didn't want to do the spot and Fishman

<v Speaker 1>just grabbed him and did it anyway, then that would

<v Speaker 1>be different. But we don't know what was discussed beforehand.

<v Speaker 1>We don't know if the referee knew and was in

<v Speaker 1>on it, or if he didn't know that he was

<v Speaker 1>going to do that. And even if he did, the

<v Speaker 1>man is 75 years old, for Christ's sake. Like, maybe

<v Speaker 1>don't drop him on his fucking head. So a lot

<v Speaker 1>of people now are arguing for the need for more

<v Speaker 1>regulation in Mexico when it comes to these smaller independent

<v Speaker 1>shows that, you know, quote-unquote, fall under the radar. And, like,

<v Speaker 1>the need for an actual commission. And look, that's a

<v Speaker 1>fair argument to have, but Charging the guy with manslaughter

<v Speaker 1>or negligent homicide, that was never going to happen. Unlike

<v Speaker 1>that incident I talked about in Mexico years ago, I

<v Speaker 1>talked about this on the podcast with that bastard who

<v Speaker 1>tossed a cinder block at another wrestler's head during their match,

<v Speaker 1>all because he got hit in the head with a chair.

<v Speaker 1>So I guess that was the guy's receipt, to throw

<v Speaker 1>a fucking cinder block at his head. And he almost

<v Speaker 1>killed him. That guy had to have emergency surgery to

<v Speaker 1>remove a blood clot from his brain. And the asshole

<v Speaker 1>who threw it at him, was he blackballed for it?

<v Speaker 1>Of course not. He wasn't locked up. He wasn't blackballed

<v Speaker 1>because what wrestler wouldn't want to work with someone like that?

<v Speaker 1>Who gets so worked up that he hits another worker

<v Speaker 1>in the head with a cinder block. Right? What promoter

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't want to book someone like that on their show?

<v Speaker 1>That he should have gone to jail for. In a

<v Speaker 1>perfect world, he'd still be locked up today. And actually,

<v Speaker 1>he might actually be alive if he was locked up

<v Speaker 1>today because a few years after that, he died of COVID.

<v Speaker 1>So funny enough, had he been locked up, he might

<v Speaker 1>actually still be breathing today. Let's get to your mailbag questions.

<v Speaker 1>You can always email me, thesolomonster, at gmail.com. Please include

<v Speaker 1>your name and where you are from when you write in.

<v Speaker 1>We'll start here with Matt from New Jersey, who sent

<v Speaker 1>this in prior to Money in the Bank. I'm starting

<v Speaker 1>to think that we're getting a swerve ending to Money

<v Speaker 1>in the Bank, with Roman being revealed to be aligned

<v Speaker 1>with 946. Who wants to be the one to tell him?

<v Speaker 1>It's very likely, he says, that Roman wins at Money

<v Speaker 1>in the Bank, especially seeing his schedule released and all

<v Speaker 1>the appearances that he has in the near future. They

<v Speaker 1>also need to make 9-4-6 strong, which you can't do

<v Speaker 1>if you don't impact the outcome of the match. It's

<v Speaker 1>possible they don't show up, and that's why they already

<v Speaker 1>booked a match for Monday, but that would be strange. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>it would be. On the surface, it doesn't make sense,

<v Speaker 1>but I started thinking about how Roman is the only

<v Speaker 1>member of the bloodline. who has not been physically targeted

<v Speaker 1>by 946. He's largely stayed out of it, letting the

<v Speaker 1>Usos and Jacob handle it, and subbed in Solo, of

<v Speaker 1>all people, to team with Jimmy and Jay on Monday

<v Speaker 1>instead of himself. That's because come Monday, he won't be

<v Speaker 1>aligned with them anymore. There's been so much emphasis placed

<v Speaker 1>on Roman winning without help, he could say that he

<v Speaker 1>doesn't need his family anymore, and or he tested them

<v Speaker 1>and they failed. I think they want us to think

<v Speaker 1>that still Solo or Jacob could turn on the family

<v Speaker 1>and join 946, but they're They are to distract from it,

<v Speaker 1>eventually being Roman. Roman is the only true heel in

<v Speaker 1>the group character-wise, and this could be a way to

<v Speaker 1>get the fans to boo him again. This leads to

<v Speaker 1>Sami against Roman in Saudi, where Sami will be a

<v Speaker 1>massive babyface, at least for one day. And Jimmy, J. Jacob,

<v Speaker 1>and Solo end up as a babyface group together. Roman

<v Speaker 1>can feud with his family to kill time until Mania,

<v Speaker 1>where he will lose to Oba Femi, who similarly is

<v Speaker 1>feuding with The Vision until the Royal Rumble. What do

<v Speaker 1>you do with LA Knight? Sadly, I don't think that's

<v Speaker 1>a priority, but hopefully a heel turn. Well, I'll answer

<v Speaker 1>your last question first. I don't know what you do

<v Speaker 1>with LA Knight if not turn him heel. And even

<v Speaker 1>turning him heel is no guarantee of success. Because like

<v Speaker 1>you said, coming out of this match, he doesn't really

<v Speaker 1>feel like a priority. So the short answer is, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know and I don't think they care. Now, as

<v Speaker 1>far as your idea about Roman, you make some very

<v Speaker 1>valid points. But I said this about Jacob, though, for

<v Speaker 1>a while. I said, well, you know, Jacob, he hasn't

<v Speaker 1>been touched. He hasn't been attacked yet by 946. And

<v Speaker 1>he has the past friendship with Royce Keys. And so

<v Speaker 1>this could be Jacob's ticket out of the bloodline and

<v Speaker 1>out from under Roman's thumb. And he could join them and,

<v Speaker 1>you know, be aligned with them. And then he got

<v Speaker 1>hit by a fucking car. So that didn't work out

<v Speaker 1>the way that I thought maybe it would. So the

<v Speaker 1>fact that Roman hasn't been touched by them yet doesn't

<v Speaker 1>necessarily mean anything. But I think you make a lot

<v Speaker 1>of very valid points. I can't say that it would

<v Speaker 1>be the worst idea, especially if it puts Jacob, let's say,

<v Speaker 1>in a real leadership position as far as the existing

<v Speaker 1>bloodline that would be left over. So I don't hate it.

<v Speaker 1>And I think it would be a big swerve. And

<v Speaker 1>it could explain, again, why they didn't want to take

<v Speaker 1>the belt off Roman. Again, I think there's much bigger

<v Speaker 1>reasons why they didn't want to take the belt off

<v Speaker 1>Roman last night. But your idea, I think, is a

<v Speaker 1>very sensible one as far as how you've laid it

<v Speaker 1>out here. I could actually see that happening. Carlos from St. Pete, Florida,

<v Speaker 1>formerly of Burlington, Vermont. Can't get much different than that

<v Speaker 1>from Vermont to Florida. In my opinion, Conrad is a

<v Speaker 1>bad faith actor feeding on tribalism. This industry suffered two

<v Speaker 1>major losses in the last month. People are mourning and

<v Speaker 1>trying to simply enjoy the sport and the escapism of it.

<v Speaker 1>And I feel people like this guy and Meltzer and

<v Speaker 1>Sapp are out here throwing gas on the fire trying

<v Speaker 1>to divide fan bases simply because he has an inability

<v Speaker 1>to be objective to the actual product and enjoy it. Opinions,

<v Speaker 1>good and bad, about wrestling are one thing, but to

<v Speaker 1>call a performer a plant is so immature and adolescent

<v Speaker 1>it borders on conspiracy brain type nonsense. Have people like

<v Speaker 1>Conrad and Dave become part of the problem or simply

<v Speaker 1>a bigger problem than just the tribal fans? So you're

<v Speaker 1>lumping a lot of people together here. I feel like

<v Speaker 1>we should kind of separate them out. Meltzer is a

<v Speaker 1>weird one because Dave, I think, gets a lot of

<v Speaker 1>shit from people. Sometimes that is just way over the

<v Speaker 1>top and sometimes uncalled for. And then we had that thing,

<v Speaker 1>it was the last week or the week before, where

<v Speaker 1>he was talking about The Rock's video tribute to Pac

<v Speaker 1>and talking about, well, you know, there were people... In WWE,

<v Speaker 1>who were very surprised that he mentioned AEW in the video.

<v Speaker 1>It's one of those things where there's no real news

<v Speaker 1>value in it. And all it's going to do is, again,

<v Speaker 1>create this discourse on social media, this tribalism. It just

<v Speaker 1>throws gasoline on a fire that you don't have to

<v Speaker 1>be doing that. But he chose to do it anyway.

<v Speaker 1>And I just think something like that is completely unnecessary.

<v Speaker 1>And yes, it does feed into the tribalism. As far

<v Speaker 1>as Conrad goes, Conrad was voicing his opinion. Now, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know how this all came up in the first place.

<v Speaker 1>Because when he first made these comments about Roman, I

<v Speaker 1>guess these were like fresh comments. Because he first made

<v Speaker 1>these comments, it had to be like a month ago.

<v Speaker 1>This wasn't like a new story. I don't know how

<v Speaker 1>it came up. I assume it came up on one

<v Speaker 1>of the podcasts he does with Bischoff. I don't remember

<v Speaker 1>what the context was. It might have been something Bischoff

<v Speaker 1>said and Conrad was responding. I don't really hear a

<v Speaker 1>lot from Conrad on the current product. And a lot

<v Speaker 1>of what he does with the shows that he does,

<v Speaker 1>it's classic stuff. It's doing deep dives into older shows.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't honestly know what his opinions are on

<v Speaker 1>a lot of the current product. But he voiced his opinion.

<v Speaker 1>And it obviously upset a lot of people. I assume

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns fans, who were very upset by what he

<v Speaker 1>had to say. He's talking about he's not as good

<v Speaker 1>as people say he is. He's not on Mount Rushmore.

<v Speaker 1>And you've never seen a Roman Reigns shirt out in

<v Speaker 1>the wild, which is true. I've never seen a Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns shirt. Outside of when I've been to wrestling shows,

<v Speaker 1>I've seen Roman Reigns shirts. But you don't see Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns shirts out there the way that you would see

<v Speaker 1>some of the bigger names in the history of the business,

<v Speaker 1>whether it was Hogan or Austin or the NWO and

<v Speaker 1>maybe even Cena, because Cena had so many fucking shirts.

<v Speaker 1>So he made a lot of points that were not wrong.

<v Speaker 1>I don't agree with everything that he had to say,

<v Speaker 1>but he made some valid points, but it was his opinion.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know Conrad to be someone who has a

<v Speaker 1>reputation for constantly making inflammatory statements or having hot takes

<v Speaker 1>about the current product to rile people up or he's

<v Speaker 1>saying it, he doesn't really mean it. He doesn't strike

<v Speaker 1>me as that kind of person. So no, I don't

<v Speaker 1>think Conrad is a bad faith actor. I think he

<v Speaker 1>believes what he says about Roman Reigns. That's his opinion.

<v Speaker 1>He's an old school wrestling fan. I don't think he

<v Speaker 1>views Roman in the same vein as someone like Hogan

<v Speaker 1>as far as his place is. Kind of like in

<v Speaker 1>the history of the business. And there's a lot of

<v Speaker 1>people who would agree. And you know what? Roman is

<v Speaker 1>not Hogan. I mean, you could say that Roman is

<v Speaker 1>a better person than Hogan. You could say that Roman

<v Speaker 1>had more WrestleMania main events than Hogan. That doesn't mean

<v Speaker 1>that Roman Reigns is a Mount Rushmore guy and Hogan isn't.

<v Speaker 1>Or he's on Rushmore with Hogan. Who's to say five

<v Speaker 1>years from now that doesn't change, right? He's not retiring

<v Speaker 1>anytime soon. Maybe he'll get to a place where one

<v Speaker 1>day people will see him that way. Conrad doesn't see

<v Speaker 1>him that way. I don't see him that way. I

<v Speaker 1>don't say that, though, as a slight to Roman because

<v Speaker 1>Roman is very good and Roman is very important to

<v Speaker 1>the company right now. Is he important to WWE in

<v Speaker 1>the same way that Hogan was when he was the

<v Speaker 1>top guy or even Austin? No. No, he's not. The

<v Speaker 1>world would not end if Roman Reigns suddenly disappeared and

<v Speaker 1>WWE did not have him anymore. And that's the big difference.

<v Speaker 1>But he can have that opinion. I mean, can you

<v Speaker 1>give me other examples of shit like this that Conrad

<v Speaker 1>has said to get people riled up? I mean, it

<v Speaker 1>was very weird when I first heard the comments because

<v Speaker 1>I don't normally, you know, see comments from him that

<v Speaker 1>are like that. But he was giving his opinion. He's

<v Speaker 1>entitled to do so. There's nothing wrong with that. You

<v Speaker 1>may disagree with it, but so what? You know, there's

<v Speaker 1>a lot of people crying about it. They got tears

<v Speaker 1>streaming down their face. Get over it. Buck up. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I don't see the issue with it. Dave,

<v Speaker 1>that's a different story. You definitely have some bad faith actors.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to say he's a bad faith actor.

<v Speaker 1>You do have people like that out there, though. Absolutely.

<v Speaker 1>There are people who will feed off of this stuff.

<v Speaker 1>They love the engagement. I don't think Conrad falls into

<v Speaker 1>that category. Brian from Florida. This past Tuesday on Uncrowned,

<v Speaker 1>when discussing clockwork carnage and comparing the second half of

<v Speaker 1>the match to Iron Survivor, you said that you... Would

<v Speaker 1>hope that WWE brings the Iron Survivor match to the

<v Speaker 1>main roster at some point. What PLE would you debut it?

<v Speaker 1>Survivor Series? That seems predictable due to the name and

<v Speaker 1>you already have War Games. Would you get rid of

<v Speaker 1>War Games completely? Or maybe alternate years? What PLE could

<v Speaker 1>use a special stipulation match like Iron Survivor to add excitement?

<v Speaker 1>I think any PLE that doesn't have some sort of existing...

<v Speaker 1>gimmick match or some sort of big draw to it

<v Speaker 1>the way that Royal Rumble does. You know, WrestleMania is WrestleMania,

<v Speaker 1>so it kind of sells itself. SummerSlam, I think, is

<v Speaker 1>also similar to Mania. It doesn't need some sort of

<v Speaker 1>annual gimmick-type match. But you've got the Rumble, you've got

<v Speaker 1>Elimination Chamber, you've got Money in the Bank. So really,

<v Speaker 1>any PLE, and maybe it's a new one that they create,

<v Speaker 1>but any PLE that doesn't have something like that could

<v Speaker 1>probably benefit from it. becoming an annual thing and i

<v Speaker 1>actually think it probably works better honestly as an annual

<v Speaker 1>gimmick more than war games does i would not get

<v Speaker 1>rid of war games completely i think you can alternate

<v Speaker 1>or you can just use war games when you feel

<v Speaker 1>like okay we haven't done it in a year or

<v Speaker 1>two and right now the lay of the land we

<v Speaker 1>have these kind of factions and this is the direction

<v Speaker 1>that we want to go in the problem is i

<v Speaker 1>don't know what the lead time is on them because

<v Speaker 1>you got to remember They have to put together promotional materials,

<v Speaker 1>marketing materials, advertising posters for Survivor Series months in advance.

<v Speaker 1>And they're going to want to have that War Games

<v Speaker 1>branding on there. So that means that depending on how

<v Speaker 1>far in advance they need to know, are we or

<v Speaker 1>are we not doing War Games, they have to have

<v Speaker 1>a sense of what their creative is going to be.

<v Speaker 1>Which means they may need to know what their creative

<v Speaker 1>for November is going to be in March. And that

<v Speaker 1>may not always be the case. So that's probably one

<v Speaker 1>of the problems they run into. But, like, in a

<v Speaker 1>perfect world, yeah, just use war games when you feel

<v Speaker 1>there is a need to use war games. And it

<v Speaker 1>should not just be something you do every year. Well,

<v Speaker 1>it's time for war games. The bloodline. They're going to

<v Speaker 1>be in war games again. Like, yawn, gag, snore. Okay?

<v Speaker 1>It gets fucking boring after a while. So if that's

<v Speaker 1>what you're going to do every year, then you may

<v Speaker 1>as well not even do it. And so who knows,

<v Speaker 1>maybe Survivor Series, I suppose you could try to implement

<v Speaker 1>the Iron Survivor thing, but I would use it on

<v Speaker 1>a PLE that could really benefit from it. And then

<v Speaker 1>how it would work, you know, you have qualifying matches. Now,

<v Speaker 1>the thing is that you do one for the men

<v Speaker 1>and the women, right? They have two of everything now.

<v Speaker 1>You have two rumbles, you have two chamber matches, you

<v Speaker 1>have two money in the bank matches. They probably want

<v Speaker 1>to do one for the men and one for the women, right?

<v Speaker 1>Which I think is how they do it in NXT.

<v Speaker 1>So probably... best to have its own sort of dedicated

<v Speaker 1>show and you can open with one close with one

<v Speaker 1>have you know two or three matches in the middle

<v Speaker 1>and maybe you even call the show iron survivor i

<v Speaker 1>i don't know but i just think it was one

<v Speaker 1>of those gimmicks where when they first did it i

<v Speaker 1>didn't know what to make of it this is how

<v Speaker 1>i feel about clockwork carnage and that's why i'm not

<v Speaker 1>going to be judge and jury until i see it

<v Speaker 1>play out with my own eyes i was skeptical about

<v Speaker 1>it but then when they did it it was like

<v Speaker 1>man that was a lot of fun and i wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>mind seeing that become an annual thing Maybe that happens

<v Speaker 1>with Clockwork Carnage in AEW, or maybe it flops. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know, but I would like to see it brought

<v Speaker 1>to the main roster at some point. Waldo from Jämtlent, Sweden.

<v Speaker 1>Hope I said that right. I know a lot of

<v Speaker 1>fans keep calling for one last Jeff Hardy vs. CM

<v Speaker 1>Punk feud, but realistically, I don't think that'll ever happen. However,

<v Speaker 1>what do you think about the idea of Dominic Mysterio

<v Speaker 1>having a program with Jeff instead? Dominic has mentioned in

<v Speaker 1>interviews that he grew up a massive Jeff Hardy fan,

<v Speaker 1>and you could build a really compelling story around that

<v Speaker 1>real-life detail. Jeff Hardy makes a return. Dominic comes out

<v Speaker 1>to interrupt him, heavily praising Jeff as his childhood hero

<v Speaker 1>and teasing a potential face turn. Just as the crowd

<v Speaker 1>gets on his side, Dom pivots hard. He brings up

<v Speaker 1>Jeff's past struggles with substance abuse, accusing Jeff of betraying

<v Speaker 1>him and all of his young fans when he left

<v Speaker 1>back in 2009. Dom hits him with the line, CM

<v Speaker 1>Punk was right about you all along. Dom attacks Jeff

<v Speaker 1>to kick off a feud, with the end goal of

<v Speaker 1>Dom going over to cement his heel heat. Do you

<v Speaker 1>think a storyline like this would work, or is touching

<v Speaker 1>on Jeff's real-life history too played out at this point? Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I gotta say, like, when you hit that part of

<v Speaker 1>the pitch, I kind of groaned, because it's just not

<v Speaker 1>something I would do. And it's been done. It's been

<v Speaker 1>done multiple times and it would just feel cheap to

<v Speaker 1>me for the sake of being cheap. I do think

<v Speaker 1>a Dom and Jeff Hardy program could work. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know that Jeff coming in as a single is something

<v Speaker 1>that WWE is interested in. At this point, I just

<v Speaker 1>don't know that they want Jeff in to do singles matches.

<v Speaker 1>And as far as Jeff physically, does he feel like

<v Speaker 1>he would want to or be able to come in

<v Speaker 1>to work singles matches? Because he's not coming in just

<v Speaker 1>to do a program with fucking dominic mysterio right they

<v Speaker 1>would bring him into work with with bigger names than

<v Speaker 1>that but yeah i mean i could see that being

<v Speaker 1>a program i wouldn't mind it you know being a

<v Speaker 1>program i think it would it would help dom who

<v Speaker 1>doesn't really have a whole lot going on right now

<v Speaker 1>but if that means touching on like his past you

<v Speaker 1>know substance abuse issues and bringing that up again i

<v Speaker 1>mean we saw that when he feuded with seamus right

<v Speaker 1>during the the the pandemic era shows So as recently

<v Speaker 1>as five, five or six years ago, they were doing

<v Speaker 1>that stuff. I don't want to see that again. So

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't do that. But if they wanted to have

<v Speaker 1>like a small feud between them, I mean, I'd be

<v Speaker 1>fine with that. As long as Dom goes over in

<v Speaker 1>the end. Chase from Braintree, Massachusetts. He put this in quotes.

<v Speaker 1>Bron Breaker and Oba Femi are the future. End quote. Oba, obviously. Bron,

<v Speaker 1>I don't get it at all. No memorable matches or feuds.

<v Speaker 1>has not shown that he can talk in any sort

<v Speaker 1>of back-and-forth sustained program. That running spear, which looks both

<v Speaker 1>ridiculously fake and too real, I predict he will never

<v Speaker 1>live up to this multiple-time WrestleMania main eventer stuff. Well,

<v Speaker 1>first of all, side note here. Tell your son Leo

<v Speaker 1>that video game track that he created that you sent

<v Speaker 1>me kicks ass. Very cool stuff, so congrats to him.

<v Speaker 1>I feel like this email aged poorly. coming off of

<v Speaker 1>Money in the Bank last night, because Bron Breaker was

<v Speaker 1>the MVP of that Men's Money in the Bank match.

<v Speaker 1>And he has an intensity to him that not a

<v Speaker 1>lot of people have. Like, that's the first thing you

<v Speaker 1>really notice about him, is the intensity. And they talk

<v Speaker 1>about him hitting the ropes and how fast he can be.

<v Speaker 1>He is very fast on his feet. I think that

<v Speaker 1>the Bron Breaker stuff was probably overplayed to the point

<v Speaker 1>where it worked against him. Because everybody was saying all

<v Speaker 1>of that. And some people still are. And then you

<v Speaker 1>get this image in your head of like, okay, well,

<v Speaker 1>everybody is talking about this guy like he's the next

<v Speaker 1>Roman Reigns or the next John Cena. And I feel

<v Speaker 1>like it's unfair to him. I do think that he

<v Speaker 1>is still in a position to be one of the

<v Speaker 1>top stars in this company for years to come. He's

<v Speaker 1>not going to be though in the Oba Femi role.

<v Speaker 1>He's not going to be like the guy, like not

<v Speaker 1>anytime in, in, in the immediate, like next few years.

<v Speaker 1>So I wouldn't put him in that spot. But I

<v Speaker 1>don't think you can say, well, I don't see anything

<v Speaker 1>in this guy. He can't talk. Everything looks contrived. No.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he was doing stuff in that match last

<v Speaker 1>night that looked pretty badass, and it was getting over

<v Speaker 1>pretty well with the crowd. And you could talk about

<v Speaker 1>how sometimes the spear spots are too contrived in the

<v Speaker 1>way they're set up. This is a problem with just

<v Speaker 1>WWE and wrestling in general. It's a problem every single

<v Speaker 1>time you do a Money in the Bank match where

<v Speaker 1>everybody has to stand next to each other and prepare

<v Speaker 1>to catch the person as they're about to dive off

<v Speaker 1>the top of the ladder. Or any match where you

<v Speaker 1>have a bunch of wrestlers all balled up together outside

<v Speaker 1>the ring to try to catch the other person. Obviously,

<v Speaker 1>I don't want that person to go splat on the

<v Speaker 1>ground like Tiffany Stratton did last night, but that looks

<v Speaker 1>pretty contrived. So that's a wrestling problem, okay? That's not

<v Speaker 1>a Braun Breaker problem. I think Braun has the tools

<v Speaker 1>to be a big star. I think Braun has the

<v Speaker 1>tools to one day be in a WrestleMania main event.

<v Speaker 1>Is he going to have five WrestleMania main events? No,

<v Speaker 1>probably not. That's why I say I think they overplay

<v Speaker 1>it or they overhype it. But I disagree. I think

<v Speaker 1>he definitely has certain tools and certain intangibles, and he's

<v Speaker 1>still growing and getting better. I think his promos will

<v Speaker 1>get better. I don't think his promos are terrible. Um,

<v Speaker 1>maybe sometimes he's, he's stifled by what they want him

<v Speaker 1>to say, but like when I see him doing interviews

<v Speaker 1>and stuff, he's one of those people where I think

<v Speaker 1>if they allowed him to speak a little more freely,

<v Speaker 1>maybe that's part of what's going on here that he

<v Speaker 1>would be better off. So I disagree with you. I

<v Speaker 1>think there is something there, but people have to tone

<v Speaker 1>the rhetoric down. He's not going to be the next

<v Speaker 1>big thing. He's not the end all be all, but

<v Speaker 1>he's pretty damn good. He's still growing. The booking has

<v Speaker 1>to be there to support him. The jury is out

<v Speaker 1>on that, whether or not that's going to be the case.

<v Speaker 1>But I think he could still be a big star

<v Speaker 1>for them. Diego from Miami, Florida. First time emailer. I've

<v Speaker 1>been listening to the podcast for only a few months,

<v Speaker 1>and this is my first time writing in. I wanted

<v Speaker 1>to take you back to 2001, the night after Survivor

<v Speaker 1>Series on Raw. I remember being in middle school at

<v Speaker 1>the time and seeing Ric Flair show up on Raw.

<v Speaker 1>Got me really excited. But what confused the hell out

<v Speaker 1>of me was the fact that less than 24 hours earlier,

<v Speaker 1>we were cheering for Kurt Angle as he helped Team

<v Speaker 1>WWF beat the Alliance... While Austin had been acting like

<v Speaker 1>the chicken should heal for months, and then seemingly out

<v Speaker 1>of nowhere, the roles were reversed with no explanation or

<v Speaker 1>real journey. They just pretended the entire invasion angle never happened. Well, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>because I think a lot of us like to pretend

<v Speaker 1>the entire invasion angle never happened. There's a reason for that.

<v Speaker 1>He said, I wanted to get your thoughts on the

<v Speaker 1>piss-poor creative during that period. How would you have turned

<v Speaker 1>Austin babyface again? Or at least make it make sense?

<v Speaker 1>And do you think the way they handled this hurt

<v Speaker 1>the character on top of the already failed heel run?

<v Speaker 1>I think it just piled on to, you know, a

<v Speaker 1>larger problem that was created when he first won heel

<v Speaker 1>at WrestleMania 17. People didn't want to see him as

<v Speaker 1>a heel. And it slowly but surely killed their business

<v Speaker 1>and killed their ratings. It was like, I could see

<v Speaker 1>there being a lot of Attitude Era fans who quit

<v Speaker 1>on wrestling that day. Like when he went heel and

<v Speaker 1>they saw him shoulder to shoulder with Vince McMahon, I

<v Speaker 1>guarantee you there were a lot of fans and maybe

<v Speaker 1>they were more casual in their viewing. Maybe WWF was

<v Speaker 1>the only wrestling they watched at the time. They probably said,

<v Speaker 1>you know what, peace out, I'm done. Then they checked out.

<v Speaker 1>Because for them, Austin was like, man, this guy's a badass.

<v Speaker 1>And Austin probably got them into wrestling the way Hogan

<v Speaker 1>got so many people into wrestling when he was the guy.

<v Speaker 1>And then you see this guy betray all of that.

<v Speaker 1>He goes heel and now he's with the boss. It's like,

<v Speaker 1>it's the opposite of what got them into it in

<v Speaker 1>the first place. So who knows how many wrestling fans

<v Speaker 1>left and never came back. And so after that, it's like,

<v Speaker 1>if you look at the invasion angle, he, he turned

<v Speaker 1>baby face in the summer for like six days and

<v Speaker 1>then went right back to being a heel because it

<v Speaker 1>was all a ruse. Remember the invasion pay-per-view. And then,

<v Speaker 1>so he'd had a few more months as a heel and,

<v Speaker 1>And the reason they did what they did, you're not wrong.

<v Speaker 1>It came out of nowhere. There was no real explanation

<v Speaker 1>for why all of a sudden Austin went from being

<v Speaker 1>the chicken shit heel to being the badass Texas rattlesnake again.

<v Speaker 1>The simple answer is that the invasion angle was over.

<v Speaker 1>Team WWF won. They wanted to just get this shit

<v Speaker 1>over with. And they probably realized that it was a

<v Speaker 1>mistake to turn him heel in the first place, which

<v Speaker 1>was Austin's idea. And they just wanted to get him

<v Speaker 1>back to where he was. There was no big long-term

<v Speaker 1>planned out story. How are we going to get him

<v Speaker 1>back there? We're going to play it out over a

<v Speaker 1>period of months. And I got to be honest with you, like,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think I would have done it any differently

<v Speaker 1>because my priority, if I were them, would have been

<v Speaker 1>to do what they did, which was we got to

<v Speaker 1>put a stop to this and we got to get

<v Speaker 1>him back to being the old Austin now and not

<v Speaker 1>prolong this anymore. So, I mean, maybe I would have

<v Speaker 1>come up with a different, angle to do it, but

<v Speaker 1>it would have been quick, and it still wouldn't have

<v Speaker 1>made a whole lot of sense. But I don't think

<v Speaker 1>they were wrong to try to get him back to

<v Speaker 1>being a babyface ASAP, because, I mean, it just, it

<v Speaker 1>wasn't working. And they needed him back as a babyface.

<v Speaker 1>They couldn't play this out over 90 days. Like, nobody

<v Speaker 1>wanted to see that. They wanted the old Stone Cold back.

<v Speaker 1>And the Alliance had been defeated. He was a man

<v Speaker 1>without You know, an island without an army. He was

<v Speaker 1>all by himself. And they wanted him back to being

<v Speaker 1>their top babyface. You know, him and Rock. Side by side.

<v Speaker 1>A number one, A number two. So that's what they did.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know how I might have handled it differently. But, again,

<v Speaker 1>perfect world scenario. Sure, you can come up with a

<v Speaker 1>whole bunch of different ideas. Well, here's the story I

<v Speaker 1>would have told of a redemption arc, you know, for

<v Speaker 1>Steve Austin. Nobody wanted to see that. They wanted the

<v Speaker 1>old Stone Cold back. They gave them the old Stone Cold.

<v Speaker 1>By that point, though, the damage was done. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he was still super popular, but it wasn't the same.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they did a lot of damage to him

<v Speaker 1>that year. As entertaining as parts of his heel run were,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying it was a total loss, but they

<v Speaker 1>did a lot of damage to that Austin character, and

<v Speaker 1>they lost a lot of fans during that period. Julius

<v Speaker 1>from the Bronx, the WrestleMania 21 match between The Undertaker

<v Speaker 1>and Randy Orton, usually gets high praise despite Orton no-showing

<v Speaker 1>the rehearsal the morning before. Does that show Randy's natural talent?

<v Speaker 1>And do you think it could have rivaled the HBK-Curt

<v Speaker 1>Angle match if it was properly rehearsed? No.

<v Speaker 3>No.

<v Speaker 1>It was not going to be anywhere close to the

<v Speaker 1>Shawn Michaels-Curt Angle match. Because you were talking about two

<v Speaker 1>workers in Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle who were generational talents.

<v Speaker 1>Orton and Undertaker were not generational talents in the way

<v Speaker 1>that Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels were. So in terms

<v Speaker 1>of a wrestling match, the answer is no. You could

<v Speaker 1>rehearse that match for fucking six months, and they were

<v Speaker 1>not going to be able to have the kind of

<v Speaker 1>match that those two had on that same WrestleMania show.

<v Speaker 1>But as far as Orton usually getting high praise despite

<v Speaker 1>no showing the rehearsal the morning before, I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that most people would even know that. The people who

<v Speaker 1>praised that match, they liked the match because it was

<v Speaker 1>a good match. Orton told that story, what was it,

<v Speaker 1>WWE Untold? Is that what it was? They filmed that

<v Speaker 1>however many years ago it was. That's when I first

<v Speaker 1>heard the story of him no-showing. So basically what happened was,

<v Speaker 1>I think the Hall of Fame was, was the Hall

<v Speaker 1>of Fame that day? The Hall of Fame maybe was

<v Speaker 1>the night before. And they had a rehearsal scheduled for

<v Speaker 1>the next day and everybody was there. Undertaker was there.

<v Speaker 1>Randy's dad was there, right? Cowboy Bob. And he was

<v Speaker 1>supposed to be there and they were going to go

<v Speaker 1>over the match and what they were going to do

<v Speaker 1>and what the plan was going to be. Orton stayed

<v Speaker 1>out a little too late, carousing and doing whatever it

<v Speaker 1>was that he was doing back then. And he got there.

<v Speaker 1>I think he got there just as the rehearsal was ending.

<v Speaker 1>And he's still pretty new in the business. So this

<v Speaker 1>was 2005, right? He had only debuted on TV in 2002.

<v Speaker 1>So he was probably still 24, right? Maybe 25, something

<v Speaker 1>like that. If it was anybody other than Randy Orton,

<v Speaker 1>That might have been a death knell for their career.

<v Speaker 1>Randy has been given a lot of chances over the years.

<v Speaker 1>There's a reason why when it comes to like the

<v Speaker 1>wellness policy, there was one point where people were talking

<v Speaker 1>about the Orton rule because there is or was at

<v Speaker 1>one point this policy that dictated after a certain, it

<v Speaker 1>was a three, right? Maybe three failures or whatever of

<v Speaker 1>the wellness policy, you're terminated and Orton had, supposedly hit

<v Speaker 1>that number, but they changed the rule. Again, maybe I'm

<v Speaker 1>getting my details mixed up, but it was something like

<v Speaker 1>that where they changed the rules so that Orton wouldn't

<v Speaker 1>be terminated. Otherwise, he would have been gone, and they

<v Speaker 1>didn't want to get rid of Randy Orton. They're not

<v Speaker 1>going to do that for just anybody. Randy Orton was

<v Speaker 1>a special talent. They tolerated a lot of bullshit with

<v Speaker 1>him that they would never have tolerated with certain other people.

<v Speaker 1>Can you imagine if that was CM Punk back then?

<v Speaker 1>Can you imagine if it was CM Punk causing problems

<v Speaker 1>or striking out multiple times with the wellness policy and

<v Speaker 1>having disciplinary issues, you honestly think they would have kept

<v Speaker 1>him around? He would have been gone so fast his

<v Speaker 1>fucking head would have spun around. But they made exceptions

<v Speaker 1>for Randy Orton because it's Randy Orton right he's a

<v Speaker 1>special talent we don't want to lose him Jerry from

<v Speaker 1>Glasgow Scotland I recall you saying on TNT that Eddie

<v Speaker 1>Guerrero would have been a great money in the bank

<v Speaker 1>winner if the concept of the match went back further

<v Speaker 1>in WWE who would you say would have been another

<v Speaker 1>great money in the bank holder because it would suit

<v Speaker 1>their character best. I would agree with Eddie also, but Mr. Perfect,

<v Speaker 1>Randy Savage, early legend killer Randy Orton, and early Kurt Angle.

<v Speaker 1>And my personal favorite, he says, corporate or Hollywood rock,

<v Speaker 1>I believe, would kill it. Oh, absolutely. I mean, first

<v Speaker 1>of all, you just took some of my answers. Hogan, though,

<v Speaker 1>Hogan basically did an early version of a Money in

<v Speaker 1>the Bank cash in a WrestleMania IX. He was really

<v Speaker 1>the first, just without the briefcase. At least if he

<v Speaker 1>had the briefcase, though, it would have made more sense,

<v Speaker 1>what they did there at Caesar's Palace. But Corporate Rock

<v Speaker 1>from like 98, 99, I mean, he would have been

<v Speaker 1>great with that briefcase. I think mid-90s Owen Hart would

<v Speaker 1>have been fantastic, just taunting his brother with that briefcase.

<v Speaker 1>The Million Dollar Man holding a money-in-the-bank briefcase, I think

<v Speaker 1>that would have fit his character. He could pay people.

<v Speaker 1>He could pay people off to weaken the champion before

<v Speaker 1>cashing in on them. And then one more I would

<v Speaker 1>throw in would be early Jericho in WWE. Like when

<v Speaker 1>he first came to the company, I can picture that

<v Speaker 1>guy running around with a briefcase for a while. Daniel

<v Speaker 1>from Los Angeles, buy or sell on the better heel run,

<v Speaker 1>quote unquote better heel run. Stone Cold Steve Austin in

<v Speaker 1>2001 or John Cena in 2025? both for the actual

<v Speaker 1>turn along with the matches, promos, segments, etc. Oh, Austin

<v Speaker 1>clears this by a country mile. I know, I just

<v Speaker 1>got done talking about what a bad business decision that was.

<v Speaker 1>And WWE did some pretty big business with John Cena

<v Speaker 1>last year, but they were always going to do big

<v Speaker 1>business with his retirement tour. The Austin heel run was

<v Speaker 1>far more enjoyable than the John Cena one was. The

<v Speaker 1>John Cena heel turn had no, outside of the turn itself,

<v Speaker 1>Outside of the actual turn at Elimination Chamber, I cannot

<v Speaker 1>tell you, I cannot name or point out to you

<v Speaker 1>a single moment or segment, forget the matches, a moment

<v Speaker 1>or segment during that John Cena heel run that is

<v Speaker 1>in any way memorable to me. There's not one. I

<v Speaker 1>can't think of one promo where I'm going to go

<v Speaker 1>back and rewatch it or man, that was fun or man,

<v Speaker 1>the heat that this guy got. This was so much like, no,

<v Speaker 1>there isn't a single fucking one during that entire run.

<v Speaker 1>It was garbage. Austin, on the other hand, there were

<v Speaker 1>definitely a lot of funny moments. You got to admit

<v Speaker 1>that you got to admit. I mean, look, we got

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Angle with a little cowboy hat on his head.

<v Speaker 1>We had Austin playing the banjo with Vince McMahon. we

<v Speaker 1>had that one segment leading into the invasion pay-per-view and

<v Speaker 1>they had all the team members together. Austin's there, Taker,

<v Speaker 1>I think Kane, Kurt Angle, Jericho. Vince is like giving

<v Speaker 1>him a speech and that Austin is like, he's like

<v Speaker 1>repeating everything Vince says, I think after he says it

<v Speaker 1>and Taker is just, he's getting more annoyed like each

<v Speaker 1>time he does it. And then God, was it in

<v Speaker 1>that segment? I think Austin maybe touched Undertaker, put his

<v Speaker 1>hand on his shoulder or something. And Taker was like,

<v Speaker 1>you know, Next time you're going to pull back a

<v Speaker 1>nub or something like that. But he was trying so

<v Speaker 1>hard to crack these guys up. And it was just,

<v Speaker 1>you could tell. Or like the one episode of TV,

<v Speaker 1>I think it was SmackDown, where Undertaker threw him through

<v Speaker 1>a glass window backstage. And they had to strap Austin

<v Speaker 1>to a stretcher and they were going to stretcher him out.

<v Speaker 1>And so Vince and Triple H were with him as

<v Speaker 1>they were wheeling him out. And he's like, my eye,

<v Speaker 1>I can't see. I didn't do nothing to that man.

<v Speaker 1>There were moments that would make you piss yourself laughing

<v Speaker 1>during that Austin run. During the Cena run, I can't

<v Speaker 1>name a single one. So what does that tell you?

<v Speaker 1>That's my answer. Brandon from Milwaukee. I was recently watching

<v Speaker 1>WWE from 2001. Man, a lot of 2001 questions this week.

<v Speaker 1>I was watching from 2001 during the invasion era. And

<v Speaker 1>I was wondering when Triple H tore his quad, did

<v Speaker 1>Kurt Angle basically replace him and get the spot that

<v Speaker 1>he was going to have? And if Triple H doesn't

<v Speaker 1>get hurt, what do you think Kurt ends up doing

<v Speaker 1>during the invasion? Well, I'll answer the second question first.

<v Speaker 1>I have no idea. I think Kurt Angle, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>even sure he's part of that big invasion tag team match.

<v Speaker 1>You know, I mean, He might be a part of it,

<v Speaker 1>but he's not as big of a part of it

<v Speaker 1>as he was. But what he would be doing, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know. I think you're right. I think there's a

<v Speaker 1>very good chance you're right and Triple H would have

<v Speaker 1>gotten his spot. But here's the thing, and I've talked

<v Speaker 1>about this before, that you've got to remember. If you

<v Speaker 1>think back to that period, May, June, it's very clear

<v Speaker 1>to me that they were about to split the two-man

<v Speaker 1>power trip. They had that Judgment Day pay-per-view. Triple H

<v Speaker 1>was the Intercontinental Champion. He put the belt up against

<v Speaker 1>Kane in a chain match, right? And Austin interfered on

<v Speaker 1>his behalf, but he hit Triple H in the head

<v Speaker 1>with a chair by accident. And he cost Triple H

<v Speaker 1>the belt. Well, Austin still had a world title defense

<v Speaker 1>coming up later on in the main event of that

<v Speaker 1>pay-per-view against The Undertaker. And Triple H came out and

<v Speaker 1>he helped Austin win. So even though Austin fucked him

<v Speaker 1>over inadvertently, he still helped Austin retain his title at

<v Speaker 1>the end of the night. But the cracks were beginning

<v Speaker 1>to show. And then on Raw the very next night,

<v Speaker 1>they lost their tag team titles to Jericho and Benoit.

<v Speaker 1>And it was Triple H who hit Austin inadvertently with

<v Speaker 1>a sledgehammer in the gut. And that's what cost them

<v Speaker 1>the tag team titles. And I think where they might

<v Speaker 1>have been going with that is that Austin was going

<v Speaker 1>to flip out over this, that was ultimately going to

<v Speaker 1>lead to the end of their little alliance. And so

<v Speaker 1>the only question then is, would they be building to

<v Speaker 1>a big main event match between them at SummerSlam? And

<v Speaker 1>would Triple H be in the babyface role as the

<v Speaker 1>leader of Team WWF, or maybe the co-leader along with

<v Speaker 1>The Rock? But it would be Triple H and Austin

<v Speaker 1>instead of Austin and Angle at SummerSlam for the championship.

<v Speaker 1>Or would they have held off on that match until

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania the following year? And the reason I say that

<v Speaker 1>is because there was a plan in place. This has

<v Speaker 1>been talked about. I think Jim Ross has talked about this.

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon had JR and the people behind the scenes

<v Speaker 1>work up a plan where WCW was going to be

<v Speaker 1>run as its own separate show. They were going to

<v Speaker 1>give Monday Night Raw to WCW. And SmackDown was going

<v Speaker 1>to be the WWF show. And it sounds preposterous now

<v Speaker 1>just talking about it. Like, would they really give Raw

<v Speaker 1>up to WCW? But that was the plan. And they

<v Speaker 1>had JR working on a house show schedule and contacting

<v Speaker 1>venues to book dates for WCW as its own brand.

<v Speaker 1>If that plan would have gone through, there's not a

<v Speaker 1>chance in hell that Vince McMahon would have given Raw

<v Speaker 1>to WCW and not have some of his top stars

<v Speaker 1>on that WCW roster. And so I do wonder if

<v Speaker 1>maybe Triple H would have been the top guy on

<v Speaker 1>Raw and as the WCW guy. And they would have

<v Speaker 1>put the WCW title on Triple H and separated him

<v Speaker 1>and Austin out until they got to WrestleMania the following year.

<v Speaker 1>And they do what they ended up doing anyway. They

<v Speaker 1>had like a title unification on that show, right? Jericho

<v Speaker 1>was the undisputed champion, Triple H beat him, and Triple

<v Speaker 1>H had both belts, right, at the end of WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>And then coming out of that WrestleMania is when they

<v Speaker 1>debuted that new undisputed belt design. But you could have

<v Speaker 1>separated them had Austin versus Triple H, champion against champion,

<v Speaker 1>title for title at WrestleMania in the Sky Dome, and

<v Speaker 1>Triple H wins and unifies the belts, and you end

<v Speaker 1>up in the same place that they ended up being

<v Speaker 1>in anyway. So that may have been the plan. Or

<v Speaker 1>maybe there was no plan. Maybe they weren't thinking that

<v Speaker 1>far ahead because it was May. Maybe they didn't know

<v Speaker 1>what they were going to be doing at WrestleMania the

<v Speaker 1>following March. And then Triple H got hurt, and it

<v Speaker 1>was all moot anyway.

<v Speaker 3>So.

<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think there's a very good chance he would

<v Speaker 1>have gotten the Kurt Angle spot and maybe he would

<v Speaker 1>have represented Team WWF. But I put that other idea

<v Speaker 1>out there as a possibility, too. Only if they were

<v Speaker 1>going to keep the branch truly separate. Once the match

<v Speaker 1>in Tacoma happened with Booker T and Buff Bagwell, it

<v Speaker 1>was dead. And maybe at that point, yeah, he would

<v Speaker 1>have gotten the top babyface spot representing Team WWF against

<v Speaker 1>the Invaders. Nicholas from Long Island, New York. I was

<v Speaker 1>heartbroken over the death of Pac. A lot of the

<v Speaker 1>response on social media has mainly been positive, but the

<v Speaker 1>comments made by Val Venus on Pac's death were absolutely disgusting,

<v Speaker 1>and I won't repeat what he said. Looking at Venus's

<v Speaker 1>social media posts in the past, it reminds me of

<v Speaker 1>Marty Jannetty on Facebook. Val's posts were so bad at

<v Speaker 1>one point he got banned on X. I can't remember

<v Speaker 1>a time when Jannetty's social media got banned, though. Who

<v Speaker 1>is the worst social media user between the two? I

<v Speaker 1>i don't i mean dude they're both fucking horrible okay

<v Speaker 1>they're both fucking terrible marty genetti once on his facebook

<v Speaker 1>page actually posted a question asking if it was okay

<v Speaker 1>for him to have sex with the uh with god

<v Speaker 1>who was it he came to find out or believe

<v Speaker 1>that this woman might actually be his daughter But I

<v Speaker 1>think they were dating or he wanted to have sex

<v Speaker 1>with her. Like, yeah, this is as bad as it sounds. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>Marty Jannetty is a fucking freak. And he has posted

<v Speaker 1>some really just insane shit on his Facebook page. Val

<v Speaker 1>Venus is worse. Val Venus is much worse, though, because

<v Speaker 1>Val Venus will piggyback off of, you know, a tragedy

<v Speaker 1>or some sort of event and post just the most

<v Speaker 1>insane shit. Almost like he's just trying to capitalize on it.

<v Speaker 1>Jannetty just, Every now and then, I mean, he'll just

<v Speaker 1>post something that just is incredibly stupid. It's not necessarily

<v Speaker 1>tied into someone dying or some sort of event. So

<v Speaker 1>I guess I'll give Jannetty the edge on this one,

<v Speaker 1>and I'll say that Val is worse. But, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>neither one of them should be on social media, for

<v Speaker 1>being honest. Social media would be a better place without

<v Speaker 1>them on there. David from Sacramento says, With modern technology,

<v Speaker 1>everyone is always on their phone. I bring this up

<v Speaker 1>to do something a little bit different in place of buy, sell,

<v Speaker 1>and rent. Of the following matches, which would you put

<v Speaker 1>down the phone, record the match, pick up the phone

<v Speaker 1>to distract yourself, or deem the bathroom break? Brett vs.

<v Speaker 1>Owen in the cage at SummerSlam 94. Ric Flair and

<v Speaker 1>the 1992 Royal Rumble. Triple H against The Undertaker, end

<v Speaker 1>of an era Hell in a Cell. Cody vs. Roman 2,

<v Speaker 1>WrestleVengers Endgame. I, well, I was going to say I

<v Speaker 1>love all these matches. Love is not a word I

<v Speaker 1>would use for Triple H and The Undertaker in the cell.

<v Speaker 1>This is a very good match. I had the benefit

<v Speaker 1>of being in the crowd for it, so I had

<v Speaker 1>the live crowd experience, which was a lot of fun,

<v Speaker 1>especially on that near fall. I don't love it the

<v Speaker 1>way that I love the other matches that you mentioned here, though.

<v Speaker 1>I'm using this scale that you've come up with here.

<v Speaker 1>First of all, I'm going to put my phone down.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to put my phone down for... I'll put

<v Speaker 1>my phone down for the Brett and Owen cage match.

<v Speaker 1>The rumble I would record, which is tough because that's

<v Speaker 1>a 60-minute match. Maybe I'll put the phone down for

<v Speaker 1>the rumble. I'll record Brett and Owen. At least it'll

<v Speaker 1>be a shorter match. I will pick up the phone

<v Speaker 1>to distract myself during the Cody and Roman match, and

<v Speaker 1>the bathroom break would be the Hell in a Cell match.

<v Speaker 1>I guess that's the way I would do it. Can't

<v Speaker 1>go wrong with any of those, though, realistically. And Luke

<v Speaker 1>from Maricopa, Arizona. Of all the characters that are synonymous

<v Speaker 1>with the Halloween movies, the two that always come to

<v Speaker 1>mind are Laurie Strode and Dr. Sam Loomis. So I

<v Speaker 1>ask you, taking in all of their film appearances in

<v Speaker 1>the franchise, which actor slash character do you appreciate and

<v Speaker 1>enjoy watching more? Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie or Donald

<v Speaker 1>Pleasance as Dr. Loomis? I gotta go Dr. Loomis here.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Donald Pleasance is just fantastic. He just, he

<v Speaker 1>added so much just by agreeing to be in that

<v Speaker 1>first movie with no idea that he would end up doing,

<v Speaker 1>you know, three or four more of them. But like

<v Speaker 1>he was an accomplished actor and I think he was

<v Speaker 1>a theater actor and And God, what was the story?

<v Speaker 1>I think he did it. What was it? Was it

<v Speaker 1>one of his grandkids? Maybe. I don't know. I forget

<v Speaker 1>the story, but like him agreeing to be in that

<v Speaker 1>first Halloween movie was huge for John Carpenter to get

<v Speaker 1>him to agree to be part of it. And so

<v Speaker 1>I got, I got to go Dr. Loomis. Plus he's

<v Speaker 1>just such a great character. He's such a great character.

<v Speaker 1>And also I see some people who sometimes will post

<v Speaker 1>like skits on like Tik TOK and social media, like,

<v Speaker 1>impersonating him and they're fucking hilarious. So I got to

<v Speaker 1>go Dr. Loomis on that. But those are the questions.

<v Speaker 1>A lot of great questions. A lot of you apparently

<v Speaker 1>stepped in your time machine and teleported this week back

<v Speaker 1>to 2001. Not really sure. Look, if I could teleport

<v Speaker 1>back to 2001, I would teleport back to September 10th

<v Speaker 1>and warn people. That's what I would do. Anyway, keep

<v Speaker 1>emailing me your questions, thesolidmonster at gmail.com. I did want

<v Speaker 1>to comment on this, though, because I went to the

<v Speaker 1>movies this week. And I went to go see Other Mommy,

<v Speaker 1>which is a new horror movie that just came out.

<v Speaker 1>It's got Jessica Chastain, who's a great actress. And honestly,

<v Speaker 1>she really is the best part of the movie. She

<v Speaker 1>plays technically two different parts in the movie. She plays

<v Speaker 1>the mother, and she also plays this entity, which mimics

<v Speaker 1>her and looks like her. So she technically has a

<v Speaker 1>dual role in the movie, which you would think would

<v Speaker 1>make it even better. This is one of the worst

<v Speaker 1>movies I've seen. Maybe the worst movie I've seen in

<v Speaker 1>the theater all year. I did not see Scream 7

<v Speaker 1>in the theater. I saw that after the fact, and

<v Speaker 1>that was pretty fucking terrible. But this was worse than that.

<v Speaker 1>I regret that I spent money to go see this movie.

<v Speaker 1>I would advise you not to do so. You may

<v Speaker 1>enjoy it more anyway, I think, if you wait and

<v Speaker 1>just watch it on streaming. But it is not a

<v Speaker 1>great movie. Now, I didn't even know that they didn't

<v Speaker 1>lift the embargo until the movie was already out. Which

<v Speaker 1>is usually a pretty bad sign when you don't see

<v Speaker 1>reviews popping up right before the movie comes out. Or

<v Speaker 1>people are not allowed to release their reviews and post them.

<v Speaker 1>That's usually a bad sign. It's usually a sign the

<v Speaker 1>studio has no faith. in the quality of the film

<v Speaker 1>that they're putting out, this is a movie where whoever

<v Speaker 1>put that trailer together deserves a raise, okay? Even though

<v Speaker 1>they were being very deceitful in the way they did this.

<v Speaker 1>But the best part of the movie, you can just

<v Speaker 1>watch the trailer. The trailer is probably the best part

<v Speaker 1>of this movie. There are actually things that they released,

<v Speaker 1>like it might have been a later trailer or commercial spots.

<v Speaker 1>There's like a bathtub scene. That's not even in the movie.

<v Speaker 1>And they do that sometimes. But that's not even in

<v Speaker 1>the movie. The trailer is what hooked me. Hook, line,

<v Speaker 1>and sinker. And it got me to be like, oh man,

<v Speaker 1>this looks cool. I gotta see this. And then you

<v Speaker 1>go see it and you realize, holy shit, the movie

<v Speaker 1>peaked with the trailer. I just didn't find the movie

<v Speaker 1>to be that scary. It was really not scary at all.

<v Speaker 1>It was built on jump scares. And the director, I think,

<v Speaker 1>even made a comment It's to the effect of, oh,

<v Speaker 1>we've got like 50 jump scares in this movie. And

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, that's not a flex that I would be

<v Speaker 1>making here. When you're relying on 50 fucking... And by

<v Speaker 1>the way, there aren't 50 jump scares in this movie,

<v Speaker 1>but that's what he said. Maybe he said it tongue-in-cheek.

<v Speaker 1>But if you're relying on jump scares, dozens of jump

<v Speaker 1>scares to sell your movie, what that tells me is

<v Speaker 1>that you don't have faith in the actual story of

<v Speaker 1>the movie itself. If all you're trying to do is

<v Speaker 1>every five minutes or less... You're just trying to shock

<v Speaker 1>people and scare people. And so the movie, like, and

<v Speaker 1>it peaks kind of early on where you see the entity.

<v Speaker 1>I happen to believe, and this is one of the

<v Speaker 1>reasons I love the original Halloween movie. You don't really

<v Speaker 1>see a lot of Michael Myers, at least not until

<v Speaker 1>later in the movie. And in a movie where you

<v Speaker 1>have a villain or a demon or whatever it may be,

<v Speaker 1>and it's kind of hidden, right? Or you don't get

<v Speaker 1>a really good glimpse of it. You don't even see

<v Speaker 1>it maybe until later in the movie. You build up

<v Speaker 1>that suspense. I tend to like that more, and I

<v Speaker 1>think that works better. They threw it at you in

<v Speaker 1>the opening salvo of the movie. You see it. And

<v Speaker 1>it just goes from there, and it's just a completely

<v Speaker 1>preposterous thing where you look at these characters and the

<v Speaker 1>actions they take and the way they behave, and I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>these people are fucking dumb. They deserve to die. I

<v Speaker 1>can't stand movies that have stupid characters. It just drives

<v Speaker 1>me nuts. So this movie has that as well. But

<v Speaker 1>it's just not that scary. It's not. I was like

<v Speaker 1>checking out midway through. I'm like, what is this? This

<v Speaker 1>is not what I expected it to be. And then

<v Speaker 1>even the ending of the movie I thought was not

<v Speaker 1>very good. So I was just disappointed on the whole.

<v Speaker 1>And it reminded me of The Babadook. Now, I saw

<v Speaker 1>The Babadook. The Babadook came out in 2014. I went

<v Speaker 1>to go see The Babadook. I said, what a stupid

<v Speaker 1>name for a movie. I don't even know what that means.

<v Speaker 1>I went to go see it, and I fucking, I

<v Speaker 1>started dozing off in the middle of it. I'm like,

<v Speaker 1>this movie fucking sucks. The Babadook fucking sucks. This movie

<v Speaker 1>gave off Babadook vibes to me. That's not a good thing.

<v Speaker 1>Whereas I had just seen Resident Evil, which I thought

<v Speaker 1>was a really good movie, and I won't even... get

<v Speaker 1>into Obsession, which I think Obsession has kind of ruined

<v Speaker 1>all the remaining horror movies for me this year because

<v Speaker 1>that will end up being the movie of the year

<v Speaker 1>for me. Now, I'm going to be seeing Clayface in

<v Speaker 1>a couple of weeks. I've already got my tickets for that.

<v Speaker 1>I'm looking forward to that. And this Godzilla movie that's

<v Speaker 1>coming out next month, I mean, there are critics that

<v Speaker 1>are already saying that it should be under consideration for

<v Speaker 1>Best Picture. It's like a Best Picture nominee for a

<v Speaker 1>fucking Godzilla movie. So I'm trying to temper my expectations there.

<v Speaker 1>But I got to see that. I'm going to see Doomsday.

<v Speaker 1>So we'll see. When the year is over, we'll see.

<v Speaker 1>But it sucked. I felt like it was a bait

<v Speaker 1>and switch and I cannot in good conscience recommend that

<v Speaker 1>you go see this movie avoid avoid at all costs

<v Speaker 1>what you should not avoid are the streams that are

<v Speaker 1>coming up on the YouTube channel this week where you

<v Speaker 1>should be subscribed. And if you're not, you got to

<v Speaker 1>change that and make sure notification bell is turned on.

<v Speaker 1>I'm going to be live on YouTube Monday night for

<v Speaker 1>the Raw post show with all the money in the

<v Speaker 1>bank fallout. We'll see what happens with that 9-4-6 main event.

<v Speaker 1>Tuesday will be a brand new episode dropping of the

<v Speaker 1>Uncrowned Wrestling Show. And then Tuesday night, back in our

<v Speaker 1>normal spot for Tuesday Night Titans. Wednesday, a three-hour spectacular

<v Speaker 1>for Dynamite and Collision as we get the final qualifiers

<v Speaker 1>for WrestleDream. And then this coming Friday night, I am

<v Speaker 1>back for the SmackDown Post Show live on YouTube. And

<v Speaker 1>then next Sunday, we do it all over again, episode 985.

<v Speaker 1>So until then, be well, stay safe, have yourselves a

<v Speaker 1>great rest of your week. I will see you on

<v Speaker 1>the streams and then back here next Sunday for more SoundOff.

<v Speaker 1>Until then, take care, guys. The Sala Monster sounds off.

<v Speaker 1>So that announcement brought out Cody Rhodes, who ran out

<v Speaker 1>to the ring jacketless. Cody was all fired up. He

<v Speaker 1>did that thing that he does where he gets very

<v Speaker 1>angry and he screams, Enough!

<v Speaker 3>Enough!

<v Speaker 1>That's his thing now, like a substitute school teacher when

<v Speaker 1>the class is just out of control.

<v Speaker 3>Enough! Enough!

<v Speaker 1>He tried to sound all tough, like he's going to

<v Speaker 1>whoop that ass.

<v Speaker 3>Enough! Enough!

<v Speaker 2>Enough see cody doesn't say it as deeply as that

<v Speaker 2>it's just not it's not intimidating enough that's the problem

<v Speaker 2>like i can see like if he had you know

<v Speaker 2>his kid or whatever is misbehaving at home and just

<v Speaker 2>you know he starts yelling enough.

<v Speaker 1>I have had absolutely enough kid probably looks at him

<v Speaker 1>and just laughs and walks away.

<v Speaker 3>The solid monster sounds off since Bringing you the good,

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<v Speaker 1>The Salamonster.