TNA Slammiversary

Brayan talks Slammiversary, NXT and all the news.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Live from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with your hosts,
Brian Alvarez and Mike sempervb.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Right, you're ready, where you're ready, Let's get it off.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez here on Wrestling Observer Live.
We are here every day Monday through Friday, New Pacific
three Eastern Sunday three Pacific sixth Eastern Saturday Mornings with
Jim Valley, Today Pacific one Eastern Sundays with andrews Arian.
And it's Tuesday here on the show, and you know
what that means. We got a lot to talk about

(00:49):
here today. Yes, I am here actually in Lovely Canon Beach, Oregon.
Here today for the next couple of days, half vacation.
I'm still doing all the normal work except for yesterday's
Observer Radio. Thank God for Garrett. But anyway, we got
a lot to get into here today. It's Tuesday, and
so we got NXT tonight and NXT is actually a

(01:13):
go home show sort of the NXT tonight is they
got a six man tag involving Trick Williams, Joe Hendry,
and Mike Santana, all of whom are facing off for
the TNA title coming up on Sunday at Slammiversary. And
as always, whenever there's anything T and A related to
talk about, we're lucky enough to just by coincidence, have

(01:36):
Landstorm as the co host here today, so we're gonna
talk about that on the program. We got raw from
last night, which included a gauntlet match to determine the
challenger for Gunther at SummerSlam. We'll tell you about that.
We got Impact in Slam a versary lineups for the
next couple of days. A match has been announced for
tomorrow's Dynamite, which is interesting and I'll tell you why.

(02:00):
We've also got notes on the Goldberg retirement rating, which
I really got to talk about, and I'll tell you
why when I get to it and SmackDown on Friday,
and plenty more. If you want to text us here
today questions for Lance or myself, you're welcome to do so.
Four two five seven eight zero seven five sixty six.

(02:21):
That is four two five seven eight zero seven five
sixty six at for W online at gmail dot com
is the email I'm at for W online, Threads, Instagram,
and cameo at Brian Alvarez on ex and Blue Sky.
I could have won with more Observer Live.

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Speaker 2 (06:05):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Are the show Bryan Alvarez here, Wrestling Observer Live. Oh,
Lance Storm is joining us here today. All Lance Storm,
which is my favorite nickname for you, Lance. What's going on?

Speaker 6 (06:29):
Not too much? Finally, stop raining here in Calgary.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
So it's been raining, oh all.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
Day yesterday, like for like twenty four hours straight, very wet.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, Lance, we haven't talked to you since since this weekend.
What if anything did you watch on this wild weekend?

Speaker 6 (06:49):
What did I watch? I watched the Goldberg retirement match.
I was curious to see it and see how we did.
I've always liked Bill and got along with him, so
I watched that. Thought it was quite good considering his age.
I thought Gunther and he did a great job. I
would have liked to have heard his entire speech at
the end. I'll probably track it down at some point.

(07:12):
But yeah, I saw a few clips of a few matches.
I saw all of Monday Night Raw last night, but
I didn't actually watch any of the shows other than
the Gunther match.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Well, I want to mention the Goldberg retirement match rating
because it's kind of interesting actually, because everybody was talking
about all of the shows this weekend. Okay, so you know,
we had this big kind of debate on Observer Radio

(07:44):
about like what's the point of all of this, Like
everyone's trying, Oh, we're gonna do this show to counter
this show, and it's not nineteen eighty eight, and I
can watch this on this device and I can record
this to watch it later, like, is anything really affecting
anything else? You know what I'm saying. And you know,

(08:07):
AW ran their show, which ended up being an eight
hour show. There was actually seven hours of wrestling on
the show. The first hour of the pre show was
only talking, so if we're talking about just wrestling matches,
they ran seven hours of wrestling matches and it actually
cut into the beginning of Saturday Night's main event, which originally,

(08:30):
you know, they didn't really want to go head to
head with Saturday Night's main event, so they moved it,
but then they went head to head with Saturday Night's
main event for the main event anyway, so everyone's talking
about will it affect Saturday Night's main event? Will it
not affect Saturday Night's main event? You know, blah blah blah.
So the Saturday Night's Main event number did one point

(08:51):
four million viewers, and it was down twenty seven percent
from the last Saturday Night It's main event. Okay, Now,
the moment you hear that, obviously your first thought is, wow,
maybe all In actually did effect Saturday Night's main event.

(09:12):
The show is down twenty seven percent from the show
in May, and it did have the retirement match of
Bill Goldberg. Now we don't have the quarter hour ratings,
so we can't really determine, you know, because all In
didn't go headhead with the entire show. It just went

(09:33):
head to head with the first I can't remember half
hour or something like that. So but here's here's the
notable thing about this. Okay, yes, this show was down
twenty seven percent from the last show. The last show
in May did two million viewers and a point five
to four. Okay, this show did one point four million

(09:55):
and a point three to three. So that's a substantial drop,
and if you want to, you probably could argue that
all In heard it. However, However, the first Saturday Night's
main event in December of twenty twenty four did one
point six million and a point four the second one

(10:17):
in January did one point four million, one point four
to nine million and a point three to three, and
the one on this past Saturday to one point four
million and a point three to three. So what actually happened.
I'm not saying that all In did not affect Saturday
Night's main event. Maybe it did, But what actually happened
if you look at the last four episodes is for

(10:40):
some reason. The May episode just did surprisingly well. The
July twelfth show this past Saturday actually did virtually exactly
the same as the show in January, and only a
little bit below the show in December. So while it
is down some stantially from the last show, really the

(11:03):
last show was kind of the aberration. The last show
did an extra half million viewers above all of the
other shows. So I don't really know what the answer is.
We don't have quarters to really make the determination, but
you know, you can say that going head to head
with you know, parts of all Out, the show was
down twenty seven percent from last time. But you could

(11:24):
also look at all of the ratings for Saturday night's
main event and say it's actually, it's actually more likely
that what happened was May was just substantially up for
reasons I cannot explain, but anyway, that's the number.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
I think.

Speaker 6 (11:39):
Also, too, traditionally aren't television ratings on the weekend traditionally
lower during the summer, Like, do we have a summer
number to compare?

Speaker 1 (11:49):
No, because they just started back up again in December.
So when you only have two winter numbers, a spring
number and a summer number.

Speaker 6 (11:56):
My kids are out of school, whether it's good people vacation,
chance that people just turnt home on a Saturday as well.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Well, the SmackDown on Friday did well. It was up
twenty percent from the previous week. This was the show
that actually went head tohead with the Ring of Honor show.
Although I don't think anyone, I don't think anyone thinks
that the Ring of Honor pay per view is going
to affect SmackDown. But this show did one point four
million viewers in a point three to seven and we

(12:23):
didn't even talk about this on any of the shows
this weekend. But on SmackDown Friday, the Wyatts won the
tag team titles. So I talked about this before the match,
actually because I didn't think the Wyatts were gonna win
the titles, because you know, the Wyatts had been off

(12:46):
TV for a long time, and their first match back,
my god, they had an atrocious match with the Motor
City machine Guns, which filthy Tom. It is current state
and me and my current state, we would have had
a better match with the MotorCity machine Guns. This thing
was just off the rails. It's almost impossible to have

(13:08):
a bad match with the MotorCity machine Guns. But like
the Wyatts, particularly Dexter Loomis. I mean, this poor guy
had probably the worst night of his career. And I
was talking about this prior to the tag title match,
because I said, you know, one difference between you know,
Triple H and Vinces. If they would have had that

(13:33):
match and Vince was in charge, I mean, like that's
probably the end of the Wyatts. I mean, he would
have pulled the plug on them immediately. But the thing
with Hunter, you know, whatever you want to say about
the guy, like he'll have his plan, he'll have his storyline,
and you know, ninety five percent of the time, he's

(13:54):
just gonna keep going. And so you could see, like
when they brought the Wyatts back, the idea was they're
gonna run through that tag team division. All of the
other tag teams are gonna be fighting amongst themselves, and
like the Wyatts are are gonna end up winning the titles.
I mean that's what it looked like when they started
the thing. Then they had that horrible match, and so

(14:17):
like I just thought, I don't know if they're gonna
put these belts on the Wyatts, dude, but he did.
So the Wyatts are the tag team champions. I mean,
God bless them, they're the worst tag team in the division,
but like that's the story they're telling right now, and
they much like this show, barreled on through. So the
Whites are the tag team champions.

Speaker 6 (14:37):
And I believe if you consider Tiffany Stratton to be
a heel, every WWE championship is currently held by heels.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Well, I think Tiffany is supposed to be a babyface,
as astonishing as that is, So there is one right now,
there is one. There's one babyface champion, and I do
expect some title changes to be up coming, maybe even
CM punk at Summer Slam, although we are going to

(15:06):
talk about that after the break and a little bit
more on on seth rawlins uh that that's coming up
after the break as well. We'll do the Raw Report
and talk all of the rest of the news and
some TNA notes with Lance and of course if you
have questions Texas four two five, seven, eight zero seven,
five sixty six, But we're gonna add to a break.
We'll be back in a moment with more Wrestling Observer Live.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Some stop.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike simper Vivi on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
All Right, a couple of things here. First off, we
were just talking about the whits winning the tag titles. Lance,
the whites are babyfaces?

Speaker 6 (16:21):
Are they really?

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (16:23):
Spooky creepy?

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes, the whites are babyfaces. The whites are baby face
and and this this doesn't actually count because they are heels.
But uh, the Judgment Day did win the tag titles
as total babyfaces. They went into the match, they worked
total babyface, they made a baby face come back and
they won clean. And it was like, but they're heels,

(16:45):
but they're a heel group. Yeah, it was ridiculous. Now,
I will say, as we'll get to later, I'm fine
with all the champions being heels if one of those
champions is Naomi. She was she actually, I was gonna say,
was on Raw. She has been so awesome since her

(17:07):
most recent heel turn when she did that promo on
Raw and she called all the women in the locker
room raggedy heifers. I died, I absolutely died, raggedy heifers.
She was the greatest. I hope she never loses the belt.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
She's really found her confidence and oh, Yeah, it's just
it was fantastic. I was really impressed last night.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Okay, we also have to talk. We'll do the full
raw report, but I know you want to talk about uh,
Nicky and Chelsea, which I also want to talk about,
because I had a bunch of people that were messaging
me saying that match was horrible, and this is before

(17:51):
I watched it, and so I watched it, and honestly,
it wasn't horrible until about the last thirty seconds. Last
thirty seconds, that thing went off the rails. Before then
it was it was, it was not too bad.

Speaker 6 (18:02):
Did you find Nicky's post about the finish?

Speaker 1 (18:06):
What'd she say about the finish? I saw that. I'm
about to read the whole interview she did about the experience,
But what did she say about the finish?

Speaker 6 (18:12):
She said, she instinctively accidentally went for her old finish
by mistake. She was supposed to go for the TKO
because the rack attack is what broke her neck, but
she just instinctively accidentally went for her old finish that
broke her neck, and when she did, she realized she
screwed up, and that's when Chelsea countered out and then

(18:32):
she went for the proper finish.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
What is a rack attack?

Speaker 6 (18:36):
Compared to Ako, she would do the torture rack and
then drop to her knees and the woman would bump
on her back. Oh yeah, yeah, broke her neck.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
That ain't good for your neck.

Speaker 6 (18:45):
And so when Chelsea fed in for the new finish,
she for some reason just muscle memory spun her around
backwards and then tried to pick her up for the
rack and then realized, oh crap, this is the one
that broke my neck. I'm not supposed to do it.
And they had to counter out of it. So it
was just a memory lapse.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, that was weird. So she did an interview and
it was funny. She goes she always puts a lot
of pressure on herself. She was coming back from a
seven year layoff. She says, where I'm at now is
I knew I wasn't going to go in tonight and
be perfect. I knew I wasn't going to be an
Eo Sky. I wasn't going to be a rear Ripley.

(19:23):
I wasn't going to be a Bailey. I wasn't even
gonna be a Chelsea Green. I howled. I don't think
she meant to Bury her, But god, what a line.
And then she's talked about how you know it's been
seven years I had a baby, you haven't been in
the ring, and she was very happy. She was very
blown up, she said, but I gave it my all. Well,
you know what, Nikki, I'll tell you one thing. No

(19:46):
matter how blown up you were in that match, you
were not as blown up as brown Breaker. Oh my god,
that poor guy. He was dying in that match, as
we shall get too later. But I thought, honestly, like
nothing against Chelsea, but I thought, honestly, in that match,
I thought Nicky like did a better job than she did,

(20:09):
very much like on Saturday, I thought that Trich did
a better job than Tiffany. So that's just me. But
you wanted to talk about their full circle deal.

Speaker 6 (20:19):
Here, well sort of. I posted on I don't know
if it was Threads or Blue Sky and actually texted
Chelsea about it. But Chelsea's WWE television debut, when she
was like weeks into the business, was as Megan Miller,
the physical therapist for Daniel Bryan, and had the confrontation

(20:41):
with Brie. Not Nicky unfortunately, But for the enjoyment of myself,
last night, I considered it the same person and Bree
slapped the holy hell out of her in the ring
for rumors of her having an affair with Daniel Bryan
and tonight, however, many years later, she got to go
full sole and have the grudge match with a Bella.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
I feel like she knocked her silly with that slap.
I can't remember if that's the case or not, but
I do know that Stephanie McMahon had a reputation too.

Speaker 6 (21:13):
I remember everyone said, steph slap's worthy hardest.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, you know everyone, you know, they watched all these
matches and you talk about this or that or this
big move or landing on this head or whatever. But
I don't think people realize how many people in wrestling
got messed up because they got slapped. I mean, there
have been a lot of people that have gotten messed
up because they got slapped by some lady or another.
And Stephanie was she was a what do they call.

Speaker 6 (21:41):
It a potato?

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Well yeah, that too god.

Speaker 6 (21:47):
But yes, there's actually proper ways to slap people, and
not everybody utilizes that technique.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, I like, I like the old slap the neck
so you actually don't even touch the head that's slapping
in the face really frickin hard.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
I'm as fine with the face as long as it's
just with the fingers. It's when you get the heel
of the hand in the side of the head that
you're gonna get knocked out.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
So NXT tonight we have got the go home show
kind of for a Different Promotions pay per view. It
is Trick Williams, Joe Hendry and Mike Santana versus Dark State,
and obviously the Slammiversary main event coming up on Sunday
is Trick, Joe and Mike Santana for the TNA title.

(22:36):
The TNA title being defended in the main event of
a TNA pay per view by an NXT wrestler against
two TNA wrestlers. So we got that six man and
we got Tony d and Channing Stas Lorenzo and Luca
Cruzefino in a three way, and then on on Impact Thursday,

(22:59):
we got Joe henda In Santana versus Trick and Frankie Kazarian.
So many different uh, a lot of different combinations of
these three guys leading up to this main event, Champion
Moose versus Sammy Callahan Tessa Blanchard and Danny Luna and
order for versus the System. That's the TV the actual
TNA Go Home show coming up on Thursday. Is that taped?

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, let the guy in charge that what's his name,
Bigfoot Silva? Let him know that I never know if
the show's taped or not. So is that his name Carlos? Well,
I know, but like Bigfoot Silva's name is Antonio Carlos Silva.
So like the other day, you guys don't know what happens,
which you don't. So I called Dave to do the

(23:49):
Observer show at usually around midnight, and he's usually not ready,
and then you know, eventually he'll say, I'm I'm checking
my emails and so we connect everything and then for
some reason, it's like another half hour before the show starts. Okay,
So he finally comes over ready to do the show,

(24:09):
and I say, what are we gonna talk about here today?
And so the other day he's like, you know, all
the shows this weekend and you know this and that
and Carlos Silva and this and that and so like
and I actually should record this someday because the way
he actually says it is he goes NFC Impacts, Slammiversary,

(24:31):
Summer Slam, Goldberg's retirement, and I'm like, whoah, dude, hold honest, sec,
I'm trying to write it down. So I write it down,
calib you yeah, and I try and put it in
the order. So I do, like, you know, the pro
wrestling first, then I do the MMA, and he doesn't
want to do the TV shows until the very end,
even though I used to always want to do him
first because I figured they were more important, but he

(24:51):
likes to do him at the end. So I'm putting
everything in order, and I put Carlos Silva in the
MMA section because I hear Carlos sil and it's like, okay,
it's Antonio Carlos Silva, Bigfoot Silva. Like what's going on
with him? Is he added retirement or something like that?
So like we do the whole show, and then I
do in the MMA section, what stupid thing did Connor

(25:11):
do today?

Speaker 7 (25:12):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (25:12):
He was weightlifting with his Oh. And then you know,
it's what's going on with Bigfoot Silva? And he goes
Bigfoot Silva, I'm talking about that guy in charge of TNA.
I was like, what, oh, Carlos Silva Okay, who.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
Looks a surprising amount like Sean Michaels. What if you
if you put a hat on him?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Oh, the current Shawn Michaels.

Speaker 6 (25:37):
The current Sean Michaels. If you put a cowboy hat
on Carlos Silva and Sadam mctguerrilla, you could get a
photo and people would mistake it for Sean.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
It's the cowboy hat.

Speaker 6 (25:48):
There's also a similar something. I'm not sure what it is,
but I've mentioned to a few people backstage. You're like, oh,
my god, does he ever look like Sean?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, my dad is a I mean he is a Mexican,
and whenever he wears a cowboy hat, he actually does
sort of come. He does kind of have that Sean
Michaels thing. It's just kind of the older man with
like a little bit of you know, stubble right here,
and uh, you know, he's in pretty good shape, I
would say. But anyway, what's the point of all of this.

(26:20):
I don't know, except that the show is taped this
coming Thursday, and it doesn't matter if it's light or taped.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
But there you go.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
All right, then, yep, we got the main event, and
we got the Masha Slamovich J C. Jayne match for
the knockouts and NXT titles. Yep, we got the Nemoths
and the Hardy's and Trey Miguel and Zach Wentz and
aj Francis and Casey Navarro for the tag titles. In
a ladder match, Champion Moose against Leon Slater X Division

(26:52):
title to.

Speaker 6 (26:53):
See if Leon can beat Amazing Reds record and become
the youngest ex Division shap ever.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yep, Ash and Heather by elegance versus inspiration. The former
Iconics was all Le versus Cedric Alexander and Tessa Blanche
versus any art. Well, so there you go. That's the
lineup when we come back. I got to make one
comment about the lineup for Dynamite on Wednesday, which, by
the way, we have one match but it's notable, and

(27:22):
then we'll get into the raw report. So stick around, everybody.
Back in a moment Observer Live.

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Speaker 5 (30:47):
Eight hundred four eight five six thousand three, eight hundred
four eight five six thousand three, eight hundred four eight
five six thousand three. That's eight hundred four eight five
six zero zero three.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike Simpervivi on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Back in the show, Brian Alvarez here, Wrestling Observer Live,
Lance Storm joining us here today. The heck's going on
with this thing? Kle Lee, all right, So I don't
have in front of me, of course, because I was
busy during the break my children arguing over a block. Anyway,

(31:35):
there is a match announced for tomorrow's Dynamite show, and
I bring it up because it involves the Death Writers,
meaning John Moxley is in the match. And I bring
it up because I thought for sure that he was
going to take some time off after that match on Saturday,

(31:59):
but apparently not. They're they're barreling on forward. It's Death
Riders against Hangman and I forget the other two, but
that's the only match announced thus far. And you know,
they're they're moving from All In, which did like twenty
seven twenty eight thousand people to this Chicago residency and

(32:19):
as of yesterday, there were only eleven hundred tickets out
for Dynamite, eleven hundred, and I think the building was
only set up for like maybe twelve hundred. But you
know a lot of people were, oh, man, they should
have done a much bigger building for the for the
first show after, and I mean, you could you could
argue that, but I mean it is actually an issue

(32:42):
that they'd only sold eleven hundred tickets yesterday and that
wasn't sold out, so they didn't even sell out twelve
hundred seats for the post All In show. So I think,
like you guys watched WrestleMania, and you know, they've been
doing a really good job with wrestle Mania of late,
but it wasn't until it wasn't. It was a while ago,

(33:05):
but you know, for a long time. You know, they
did WrestleMania one, which was a big deal, and then
WrestleMania two really wasn't all that big a deal, and
then WrestleMania three was a big deal because they had
a Hogan and Andre but then you know WrestleMania four,
in WrestleMania five, and you know it wasn't then what
it became, which is like, you don't miss WrestleMania. It

(33:28):
doesn't matter if Hogan and Andre's the main event or Bushwhacker,
Luke and whoever, like you are gonna see like that's
a big show of the year. They made it an event,
and they made the raw after wrestle Mania an event,
and so far aw has kind of done that a
little bit with double or Nothing. And obviously they had

(33:48):
big they had a couple of big shows in Wembley,
and they're trying to make that for all In, which
is like all In is their WrestleMania every year. It's
gonna be a giant event. They're gonna run a stay,
it's gonna be the big blowoff shows. Like for the
hardcore fans, that's what it is already, but it's not
there like to the regular wrestling audience. Yet their wrestle media,

(34:10):
you don't miss it no matter what. So they need
to brand that. And they also they really do need
to brand like the Dynamite after all, in as you
got to watch this show, there's gonna be all sorts
of stuff, the whole shebang and uh and clearly with
eleven hundred tickets out, which I know people are gonna go, well,

(34:30):
it's they're only there's only set up for a twelve hundred.
You're right, that twelve hundred should be gone by now.
It's the show after all, In they should have been
eleven hundred in a twelve hundred seed building. So there's
work to be done obviously, and this has been has
been obvious for a while. You know, the pay per
views always do well. They do they they sell lots
of tickets and they do very well on pay per view.

(34:54):
The TV is not doing well. Some shows do better
than others, but in general, the TV isn't doing great,
and so they need to work on that.

Speaker 6 (35:06):
It's a tougher branding because it's a lot easier if
you're coming in for many weekend to stay till Tuesday.
Sure you're not going to stay Monday and Tuesday to
catch the show Wednesday to fly out on Thursday if
you're coming in for all In. So there's a big
disconnect just by the geography of being on Wednesday rather

(35:28):
than the day after all in.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
All right, So this raw show here was it was
all right, I thought pretty good.

Speaker 6 (35:41):
Actually I enjoyed it. I thought it was interesting that
off on the heels of the all women's Evolution show.
The first two hours of this show was all women.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
It was very, very women heavy all the way up
until the main event. Actually, yeah, everything else was all women.
And you know, the thing about the show also is
I mean more than you know. There was one awesome
match on the show, a women's match actually Bailey and Lyra,

(36:13):
and I think that the main event. It was pretty
It was a pretty good gatlet match, but it wasn't
like something you people look back and go, my god,
you remember that gauntlet match before SummerSlam. But what was
most notable to me about the show is between the
Women's Evolution show on Sunday and I mean the Saturday
night It's main event as well. But they weren't Atlanta

(36:35):
for Goldberg, so that's kind of an aberration. It was
his retirement match of course they're gonna go nutty. But
the Sunday, the Sunday Women's Evolution Show and this Raw show,
these frickin' fans were fire. I mean, they were so
hot for that Women's Evolution show and Dave was kind

(36:57):
of talking about how, well, you know, it sounded like
more women, heavy audience, lots of little girls and lots
of women. Well Raw was the next night and it
wasn't all little girls and women. And they were on
fire for this show, and especially at the end of
the show when Roman Reigns came back. I mean, they
were just going nutty. And it really felt between between

(37:20):
Saturday and between Sunday and Monday, and really, I guess
Saturday too, it really felt like this place is heating
up again. And it wasn't like it had cooled down,
because I mean it had as far as like booking
goes and you know, some of the crowds here and
there in terms of like their reactions, it kind of
felt like it had cooled down a little bit. But

(37:42):
it's certainly like if you look at ticket sales and
you know, business, I mean, it was still totally on fire.
There's been absolutely no business decline, but the crowd reactions
from the last two days made it feel like this
company is like heating up again. So I guess we'll see.
You know, we got three weeks until Summer Slam. It's

(38:02):
a two night Summer Slam. But man, this crowd was crazy.
So the show opened up with the Naomi segment and
she came out and she was just she was so awesome.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
She was on fire.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
She was like, she was the best promo in the show.
I mean, I don't think anyone was even close, to
be honest. So she came out and she was awesome.
She's interrupted by Rhea and she's interrupted by EO and
leads to Adam Pierce announcing a three way for the
title at SummerSlam. And the only thing I did not

(38:37):
like about this is Naomi is a heel champion. Ria
and EO are both babyfaces, And when Adam Pierce came
out to announce that Naomi was gonna have to defend
in a three way against two babyfaces and a match
where she can lose that belt without being pinned, she

(39:00):
was like happy, She smiled, she was like yeah, I
was like, why are you excited about this? Like the
whole idea is that he always hates having to defend
in a three way. But she was happy, So I
don't know why that didn't make sense.

Speaker 6 (39:13):
Maybe she's got friends that are gonna help her out
because three ways are no DQ, which drives me insane.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
That is that is true? Yeap? By the way, since
when we're gauntlet matches no DQ.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
I don't know. But as soon as Michael Cole said
those words after the trip in the main event, I
lost interest because I hate those rules and I always
wonder why the villains are standing ringside that long before
they help.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
I could have sworn that they have done gauntlet matches
where a person has been eliminated via DQ.

Speaker 6 (39:45):
Oh, I'm sure they have.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
They just randomly announced there's no DQ's in a gauntlet.
I was like, what, that doesn't make any sense. So
we add Raquel and roxand versus Oscar Kyrie, which I
thought was pretty good. Roxanne and Raquel won, and they
continue to work together to win matches and they're starting

(40:07):
to get on the same page, and that, of course,
is building to the eventual return of Live Morgan to
be very happy.

Speaker 6 (40:15):
I'm becoming a big fan of Roxanne.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Oh, you're becoming.

Speaker 6 (40:20):
Well, I haven't seen her much. I don't watch this.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Show, dude. She's freaking great. Yes, yes, but I probably
twenty one.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
I've probably seen less than five of her matches.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
So yeah, she's been this good, like since she came in.
I mean, this is not like one of those those
women that came in it was bad. I mean she
came in at like nineteen or whatever she was, and
she was already like one of the best women's workers
they had. And man, she's good. We had a and this,
by the way, this is also notable. Jackie asks Simon

(40:53):
what's up with Seth Rawlins and allegedly Seth had his
evaluation in Birmingham, and Paul claimed, we have no information,
and I now, I mean, listen, I don't have that
much inside information. But I will say I believe one

(41:14):
hundred percent that he has a minor knee injury. They
weren't the injury on Saturday Night's main event. He's getting
the minor knee injury taken care of. They're gonna lead
you to believe he's gonna be out nine months. He's
gonna make a surprise return, maybe not as early as
Summer Slam, but significantly quote ahead of schedule, and the

(41:36):
way they did this segment right here, it was like
if he was legitimately injured on Saturday night and tore
his ACL and everything else, that they're kind of hinting
that he did. I mean, they don't have no information
on Monday, Paul isn't keeping it a secret and making
it come across like a total angle. I mean, I

(41:57):
I'm of the camp that he's mildly hurt and we'll
be back somewhat soon.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
But I'm also of the camp that this injury has
gotten a lot of speculation and a lot of buzz
and a lot of talk, and they're going to want
to keep that in the dark, to keep that buzz
and talk going no matter what.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
No, we had the women's best of three falls match
Lyra versus Bailey with the Winter getting Becky at SummerSlam,
and the first match went a minute the first fall
and the first fall goes a minute and it's just
a cradle Bailey, Slappter and Pinder, and I was like,
what a waste, Like I was already irritated, But then

(42:39):
the second fall went ten minutes and the third fall
went I don't even know how long longer. But this
match was frickin' awesome. I mean, by the time they
got to the end, the place is going wild. The
work is great, and the finish was so awesome as
Bailey had a thanks she got her in like the

(43:02):
crossface or whatever, and Lyra is fighting for these ropes
and she's fighting for these ropes and she's not gonna
make it and she's about to grab and Bailey does
a deal where she pushes off the ropes and does
a roll back into the move, but Lyra uses her
momentum to continue rolling to her feet and she hits
a night wing and gets the pin clean pin. It's

(43:23):
her and Becky at SummerSlam. This was the best thing
on the show. It probably would have been. I think
this was better in a three way at the Evolution show,
which was awesome. So this was great.

Speaker 6 (43:36):
I enjoyed it too. I just don't like the inconsistency,
especially on the same show, in that the other title
match was kind of in a three way that Naomi won,
and the decision is we'll have another three way, and
this one they had a three way where one person won,
and they decided that the two challengers will have a
single match to determine who's the single challenger. It's like,

(43:57):
why too, completely different change of brains of thought for
the exact same scenario.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
And then, uh, really, the only thing I want to
talk about because we don't have time is the main event,
which was the Gauntlet match, and it didn't go an hour,
went about forty five minutes, and uh, bron Breaker beat Penta,
bron Breaker beat La Night, bron Breaker beat jay Uso.
And then finally the last match, it's bron Breaker in
CM Punk and everybody tries to interfere your Bronson reads,

(44:26):
et cetera, et cetera, and then jay Uso comes out
and Punk ends up hitting the gts and winning. And
my two takeaways are number One, poor bron Breaker was freakin' exhausted.
I mean, dude, he's trying to do his sprinting spear
and this guy can barely run. And the other point

(44:46):
is like the idea is, you know, this guy runs
a gauntlet to get a title shot. Ciampunk came in
at the end against an exhausted guy and after interference one,
so like, if the idea was to get him over
big for Gun, I don't think this did it at all.
We'll talk about Roman after the break Observer Live.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike Simpervivi on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
So the raw show ended with all Roman reigns coming out,
and he ran wild and they chanted O c OTC
and they chanted his name and he ended up destroying
Reed and Braun And I guess we have to find
out what he's doing at SummerSlam. Is it like Roman
and Bronson Reed? Is it Roman and bron Breaker? Who's

(45:43):
Roman facing?

Speaker 6 (45:45):
I don't know, but they were singing his name, which
was weird.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Yeah, I mean they've done that before. They've they've done
the Roman Reigns Roman Reigns song before. But I think
obviously it was probably I mean, Mike guess is because
whatever happened. Somebody asked like, well, if the seth injury
was a work, why did they have to redo the
last forty minutes of Saturday Night's the main event. Well,

(46:10):
it's because if it was a work, they haven't told
anybody it was a work, like all the production people
and the other wrestlers. That's what I talked about the
other day. If people find out this whole thing was
a work. They're gonna be furious because everybody was under
the impression Saturday that he got hurt on that spot,
and they like had to scramble in the last forty

(46:30):
minutes to get the show back on track because I
was told there was something at the end of the show,
which I later heard was it was not a cash in,
but there was something planned for the end of the
show that didn't happen because of what happened with.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
Set The rest of Goldberg's speech.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Well, it could have been that, but what I actually
think it was was Seth probably was was gonna head
down to the ring or something, and Roman Reigns was
gonna make his big return, and they were gonna do
Roman Reigns in Seth rollins at SummerSlam. So with set out,
maybe it's gonna be Roman and Braun or Roman and
Bronson or something of that nature. But anyway, we're out
of time. Thank you, Lance. We'll see you over the

(47:08):
next couple of days and I'll be back tonight. Brian
and Vinnie show Mid South Wrestling and More Wrestling Observer Live.

(47:48):
You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast
on the eight Side network,