April 3, 2024 • 22 mins
IT'S A WRESTLEZONE REUNION! Kevin Kellam joins Jon Jansen to talk all things #WrestleMania as this weekend, the Show of Shows takes over Philadelphia!
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(00:00):
It is episode six of the LineChange. Look at those look at the
look look look look look, lookat the four inch pythons junctions and look
at them. It It is likeFox Sports The Gambler sponsored by cut the
Sports betting at download cut Kutt dotCom also used the referral code Gambler,
but it is episode number six.Get the Line Change or wherever you get
(00:22):
your podcasts, It's on YouTube FoxSports The Gambler. Subscribe, subscribe,
subscribe, I will. I don'teven want to do any more of that.
I want to get to a wrestleZone reunion from we used to do
Wrestle Zone podcast together. We didall of it. I'm so excited to
be talking with in radio guy.I've always been following his career. He's
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killing it. Uh, Kevin Kellumand you're also a comedian too, and
we'll get to some doing. I'mdoing all the wrestling content this week with
the website sports Key to Wrestling,so we're gonna be very, very busy
in Philadelphia. Uh. And I'mgonna refrain from asking people how they feel
on the huah wah Sheets conversation.I want to know how all the locals
feel about the Civil War between lahBlah and sheets. That is my that
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is my distance of knowledge of Philadelphia. That that's your only knowledge. Yeah,
and they threw batteries at Santa Claus. I was told, oh,
yeah, we don't bring that up. Yeah, we don't. We don't
bring that up. We don't bringanymore. I was told they have a
prison at the Eagles Stadium, somaybe someone's gonna be put in the jail.
I'm pretty sure my dad might havebeen in it at some point.
I don't know they he might havewho knows. But WrestleMania is in Philadelphia,
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what about I? I come on, What a great city to host
it to. It's It's going tobe an incredible, incredible time. I'm
going to be at all the eventsall week, the indie shows. keV.
We talked about this a lot,you know, with Wrestal Zone.
We have been talking. We've beenin wrestling for a while and I wanted
to I've been asking this kind ofall week with a lot of people that
I've been talking to. This feelslike in tripa Ahs just talked about it
too. It feels like a newera is about to begin. How significant
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is this WrestleMania. WrestleMania forty seemslike a significant one. Maybe I hate
to see a change, but it'slike marking a new era. Here feels
like a beginning of something, ohwholeheartedly. And obviously there's a lot of
things going on outside of the ring, even off television that kind of reflect
that. In the last few years, coming out of the pandemic, there
(02:13):
was more and rumblings of WWE sellingthe company, and eventually they did do
that right right right before last year'srestimating in Los Angeles, which is a
wild time to do it, andthey do it too. William Morris Endeavor,
the Endeavor Group, which is amassive company. They owned the UFC.
It is a very multi billion dollarcomplicated deal, and Devor doesn't own
the company completely, but they owna majority share, so they own it,
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for lack of a better phrase.And then you have the entire finsic
man Scannal. So if I don'ttalk about that, I'm not talking about
this awful elephant in the room.But the odd juxtaposition to that is,
while all those things you think thatwould deeply affect the company in some harsh
way, either good or bad,and then one certainly as bad as these
allegations against BigMan and him being usherout of the company not once but twice
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in the last years. He wentout one when it was an NBA situation
and some infidelities and we're using hismoney, and then he left. Then
he comes back to facilitate this multibillion dollar deal, and then he's out
when there's even worse allegations, whichI don't want to go into further because
it's just depressing, but they're very, very sad and things like that should
not be allowed in sports and entertainmentat all, the things that are alleged.
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So while that's going on, hisson in law, one of the
greatest wrestlers of all time, hasto take the mantle here with new ownership
and a very talented team of peopleover the course of the last few years
and kind of steer the ship inthis direction when they still love contracts they
have to fill, they still haveto do all these other things, you
know, and fans are pumped,you know. I mean, they're excited
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about the Rock being there. TheRock is on the board of WWE.
He's going to back up his cousin, his bloodline family member, the Simoan
Wrestling nine. He seem multiple generationsagainst Cody Rhodes, who's coming back to
finish the store a bit for hisdead Dusty Rhodes. And it's a multi
night affair wrestling. A few yearsago, it used to be one big
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night, one big payoff. Nowit kind of feels like you're getting like
almost like the Avengers movie where they'regonna cut the movie into two big halves
and you're gonna get an end GamePart win and in Game Part two and
Night one the tag team match.Rock will be in the rank till wrestle.
He'll take on the Rock. Rockwill tag with Roman Reigns take on
Seth and Cody sinking Seth Rollins.We'll have a champion and Cody and if
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they win, they get the advantage. They can interfere in the match.
They can do anything you want nighttoo, and then Cody will challenge Roman
for the title, a title heis held since twenty twenty, which is
very unheard of and twenty thirty yearsof wrestling. Yeah, it doesn't happen
often and a sign of Yeah,things have kind of changed with the way
that they've booked these things. Idid a reader's digestive everything for the casual
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fan there. Yeah, yeah,very well done. So Rock comes in
and it looked like he was justgonna be standard movie star Rock at first,
and then this change happened where everybodywanted Cody Rhodes and it felt like
everybody was It felt like they weregoing to take over the crowd again,
was going to take over the wwuniverse, take over this thing, and
they were going to kind of messthe show up because they want Cody.
(05:04):
Well, now this shift has reallychanged. Now the Rock is sort of
back to what he was doing previouslyin the attitude in the nineties. Yeah.
Yeah, he's doing stuff he wasdoing in the nineties. He's taking
people bleed, you know. Imean like they're doing a lot of stuff
that's really testy. Because while thisis going on in the background, here's
another thing. I'll just kind oftell you what's going on if you don't
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follow a business. They signed afive billion dollars a year with Netflix.
They're gonna go on Netflix starting inJanuary twenty twenty five. This past week
on RAW, I was in Chicagoand I was talking to some people involved
with it, and they didn't giveme the skinny. But they said they're
going to do some stuff that's reallypushing the limit. That was the word
I heard. They're going to pushthe limit, and they definitely pushed the
limit, and they did blood,something they very rarely do in WWE modernly.
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You used to be old school wrestling. I know, the old school
fans. I think the wrestler bleedingon the cover of the magazine that was
eighties and nineties, maybe a littlebit in the thousands, all the wrestling
w's main competitor, they'll do alot of blood, but WW kind of
shared away from that. Now itseems like they're willing to embrace some of
those things and select occasions. Andthe biggest movie star in the world to
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made someone bleed on television, Yeahhe did. Did you did you expect
this to happen? Though? Didyou expect to see this rock? I
mean, what is this kind ofblown away your expectations of what this was
all going to be, because,yeah, just be the movie star guy
and now it's wrestle a rock again. Yeah, and you're getting the character
of the Rock and he'll come backand do things in the third person and
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use the catchphrases because he understands fanswant to see him play the hits.
And anyone who complaines use a diehardfan. It'd be like, Oh,
the Tom Brady's gonna come in thereand not do what the what the coach
tells him to do. He's gonnacall an audible. Yeah, well he
did that and one Super Bowls withit. So I mean like so when
anyone complains, those are those samefans that were pitching without the Rock coming
back in January. They were allabout they love Cody. Cody's their guy.
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The plan was for years to doRock versus Roman, to do Uncle
versus cousin, to do two membersof the same family in a big match
for the head of the for thisthis this uh, this honorary title in
the championship that's been held for threeThere's a lot of history there and and
that's still a match they can do. And that was a match there that
Rock one of the records that wewere trying to do that last year in
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Los Angeles and it didn't happen.And I think maybe now because the merger,
Rock stepped away and then he couldcome back into the deal. And
then now he has millions of millionsof dollars from it. He's on the
board for the company. Uh.And he's basically an executive producer in some
way or another. Uh. Ithink he's a smart guy. I think
he knows that the primary audience arethe people. You gotta make it happy
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this season ticket holder matters in ww A. And I want to say
they straight away from that or theywanted to dictate to that audience more and
then just play to the casuals,whereas you're spending all these plates. Yeah,
we're gonna give you something that acasual fan likes. We're gonna give
you something that a young lady likes. We're gonna give you new characters,
diverse characters, not just you know, uh, bleach blonde, tannedite guys
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out of college football. We're gonnagive you a variety of different people.
We're gonna give you people that youliked in the past, and we're gonna
give you all these different It's verymuch of a and uh and I think
Triple H understands it. I think, uh, it's been dialed in and
some of that was lost in thepast and now it's been brought back in
WrestleMania feels like WrestleMania again. That'sit. Say he didn't feel like that
in the past, Oh, butit does. I think you're just spot
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on with that. It feels huge. Now. Part of that too is
opponent s Roh Moraines is going tobe taking on and The Rock is involved
in all this with Cody Roads.So Cody Rhoades, Uh, I think
everybody you know knows the story.Well, he was with WWE, went
to aw I ended up basically gettingthat company off the ground, and then
returns back in WWE a little bitunexpected because he was so invested in aw
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But he's been like getting past allthat now it's been a while. He's
just become a great WWE character.What is the appeal? What do you
think has been the appeal so muchwith Cody Rhads that fans were almost hijacking
the show to the point that theychanged all of these plans up because it
feels he feels massive. What's theappeal there? With Cody Rose? It
still hits me every time when hecomes out and he comes out to the
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song where this man Downstate Kingdom andin the lead lyrics that he literally had
the band right in the lyrics thingsabout his wrestling life. This is a
guy whose father was Dusty Rhodes.This guy's father was one of the most
influential and greatest wrestlers of all time, and he out of college relatively a
year or two out of college,got a WW deal on his father's name
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alone, debuted in pro wrestling inthe WWE system from the get go and
was seen as somebody that would bea lifer. And when he felt like
he got lost in that system,he left and then went to the Independence.
Imagine somebody who doesn't even play collegefootball. They say, you're not
gonna make me the starter. Youknow, the Eagles an't gonna make You're
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not gonna make me the starter.I've been in the system for a long
time. Imagine somebody who's always beenthe perennial backup and then they go,
you know what, hey, Rock, put me make me the starter at
one of your teams in the UFL. Do it right now, and I'll
put that team in the league andI'll win a title and then you're gonna
want me back. And I thinkthat's exactly what he did. He created
the biggest competitor that's ever happened withw W, or at least he was
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at the table for it. Somebodyelse spent the money to do it.
That's a different story. But nowyou had this guy, and there's so
many people that watched over years.So there's a guys like me who are
in their thirties who've watched Cody ontelevision. You know, since he was
a kid, since since we werelike and you lod it is crazy.
He really was a kid then,you know, And now you see him
(10:22):
as this guy who really paved thispath. And he's very much, very
reminiscent of John Cena, where it'svery earnest. He says things that are
very earnest. Uh, And there'sa lot of comparisons to like Captain America.
I'm not the flash of character,but he kind of is. He
says some like crazy things. He'sgreat wrestling, he has great matches,
he's a great You need a greatbaby face, you need someone you can
get behind. And for the lastalmost four years now you've had a Darth
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Vader. You've had a cool heel, a heel that is fun to watch,
and people can cheer and buy hismerch, but they know he's still
the bad guy. They know he'sstill a guy who's like he's a character
in Roman Reigns, is manipulating hisfamily and he has hu Bristin is filled
with his ego, and that's whatRoman has become. He's he is bordering
on the point of perioting himself atthis point. And I mean that in
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the right way. And the timeis now to make the moment right.
And you have a new owner,you have a new company. And some
people think that's why they didn't pullthe trigger last year because ww sold the
Tika literally that weekend, like literal. As I'm walking into Sofi Stadium in
Los Angeles, I'm told, hey, can you pull out your phone and
just start streaming in the parking?And I wonder what big news may break,
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good or bad this week about somethings. But we'll see how things
kind of play out. And Ithink W's can have a very, very
successful weekend for Philadelphia. You're talkinghundreds of millions of dollars of taxable revenue
in terms of those entertainment between sportsand live music. This is one of
the biggest things. Is I livein Chicago. We of Lollapooza. It
brings in a quarter of a billiondollars a year in taxable revenue. If
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you told me WWE is doing thatthis weekend, it would not surprise me
that they could do that. Yeah, and because it feels like it's it's
getting massive, it's getting bigger.Oh, the secondary market for the tickets
is insane. It's wild. Itis absolutely wild. And we've kind of
been obviously since it's in Philly.The radio station has been in contact with
w W p R people and stuff, and they said, this thing selling
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this thing like they're they're expecting alot of people to be here. They're
expecting a lot of money, likeyou just said, in the city of
Philadelphia to be poured into whether itbe some of the some of the stores
here, some some of the restaurants, all that every it's going to be
a massive event. And to makethat true, I think that's a sign
of that people love the picture.Overall. It isn't a WW It's built
around one guy that, like theJohn Cena is the main guy of w
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W. There's multiple characters. It'sit's truly a three ring circus. But
Cody's one of those top guys andww's can make the bet on him and
I really, I really think they'regonna put the title on him this weekend.
And if they don't, I thinkyou can have some upset fans,
but you can still have some vansthat will leave with smile on their face.
And that's the most important thing.Yeah, w WE has has always
been in pop culture, and RussellMania has made its way. Look,
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super Bowl, it's the super Bowlis bigger than the NFL. It's bigger
than football. It becomes a cultureevent. And then this is this is
that true too. There's a lotof people this is the only resting show
to watch all year. Yeah,but I feel like that's getting bigger.
Why do you feel like that is? I know that the talent has been
really good. Everything's just been great. But I don't know if you feel
the same way. I feel likeabout like the lap fan type of thing
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where it's like, hey, Iwatched years ago, but now I'm hopping
back into it right exactly. Itfeels like there's more interesting. Oh,
that thing over there looks like alot of fun, Like, let me
check that out. I've gotten thataccessibility. So the Peacock deal, as
much as people say Peacock isn't thetop of the streaming services ww signing a
billion dollar deal with them. NickKahn, another big orchestrator of their deals,
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kind of understood that Peacock is builtaround a handful of different things.
The office, some newer NBC showsSNL every week, a handful of football
games they spend a lot of moneyon to have, right, And the
other big jewel in the crown ofNBC doing offering peacock is WWE. You're
talking about at least eight to ninemillion people in the United States that will
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pay for a streaming service, andthat's a retainer. When you talk about
the streaming services having churn, youknow, and people drop a service or
pick it up. I'm getting Netflixjust through the show. They're gonna drop
it. After you've heard that allthe time, right, you have friends
that talk that way. With WWE. You know, you're getting a big
premium live event every month. Youmay not watch the weekly TV shows,
but now you give that casual fanthat comes in now, and then you
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give them more accessibility where they're notpaying fifty dollars for a pay per view
every month. So for the pastfew years we've seen that pattern really come
together where fans aren't just gonna watchthe Royal Rumble and the WrestleManias. They're
gonna just watch those shows. They'rethe big tent pole shows every month,
the weekly premium live event, thepay per view would have you that they
build up to on Monday or onUSA Network and Fox Friday nights with Smacktown.
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Maybe they don't watch us, butthere's also clips. Wwa's YouTube presence
is it's astronomical. I I don'tI don't mean to say anything bad to
you know, the NHL fan.I love my Blackhawks. But ww has
a way bigger online presence than theNHL right now, and they have a
presence that is bordering on the NFLin terms of engagement and metrics that you
(15:15):
can play on. And people talkabout what the ratings are. Overnight TV
ratings are the most redundantly stupid numberI've ever seen. There's a lot more
people watching football than you even think. Oh, the Super Bowl wasn't watched
as much as last Seriously, doyou want to bring in those social media
numbers? Do you want to bringin people that are DVR in the game?
Do you want to like so there'sall those other things in ww got
really really keen on that, andI think bringing an endeavor a company that
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understands that data even more and howto sell that as something that is valuable.
It's Keith. You have a reallyreally engaged fan base, even at
the most die hard level and themost casual level. It seems like a
football league, right, Yeah,this is a big thing. Is is
engagement to me, It's one thingto watch a product. It's another thing
to actively engage with it to andactively be engaging with it over and over
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and over again. And it's been. But it's similar to sports. It's
similar to sports. I mean,and there's a season ends with football,
right, you get some time awayfrom that you can kind of decompress,
right, But this doesn't end.It kind of just keeps going and going.
So there'll be pills and valleys ofit, you know, like there'll
be there'll be something after estimating wheresome people just drop off. And that's
just natural, right. Uh methough, I'll be insane yelling at children
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and Arena, oh yeah, inPhiladelphia, yelling at children, And I
am looking for it. I amlooking forward to back at you and Philly
all right, Oh yeah, Iam looking forward to some just some real
rough neck folk. You know,I want to meet I want to meet
a broad street bullying person. Yeah, you know. And I'm not saying
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I want to pick a fight withhim, but I want to. I
want to meet somebody be like,come on, do you gonna go out
there and just do all that?And you're not gonna go out there and
pin neck guy the mat with hisstone cold star solid that's a solidude.
We're I'm gonna I'm gonna go towall I'm gonna get an ears in an
iced tea and totally wallop you overthe head. Then see my thing?
How do you pick up? Howdid you pick up on the Philly accent?
(17:07):
Like? What what are the thingsyou want? I watched a lot
of Shane Gillis. I think probablya lot of Big j Okerson, a
lot of Big j Okrison crackle crackle, a big j a lot of the
Philly the Philly comedy people turn outof that nice. Okay, So you
you you have been able to pickup the accent. So I do want
to get one more through Chicago.It's very similar, like Philadelphia is very
very similar. The chip is onyour shoulder between the other big cities.
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Oh no, we're cool, verydiverse, wild. Chicago's eruption everywhere it
takes fantastic. But I feel like, you know, New York and l
A and all them, they lookdown on cities like Philly and Chicago.
So I feel like, yeah,we're a bit of the we We we're
the scrappers, you know, chipChip, the chip chip. So there
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is a thing in wrestling we calla show stealer. It is the match
that is going to steal the show, the one that everybody talks about that's
not the main event. Always think, but there's a show stealer, the
one that go, oh my gosh, and what's two nights? Yeah,
you have two nights? What couldbe the show steelers? Because I'll ask
that since we might have multiple thethe one that's been built up to lightly
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and I think could be a realbig surprise for people. And then somebody
that people slept on. He wasa guy who's in one of the main
events last year is sammy's Ain,a very valiant French Canadian wrestler. He
is the good guy that you love, but he loses big matches. He
won last year with his tag partnerfor many years and he beat the longest
reigning tag team champions of all timeat that point. H and it was
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a big deal. And but there'salways a sense of he won't win big
matches by himself. He did totake on somebody who's been built much up
like Roman Reigns into the guy inWWE as terms of that number two monster
on the mountain, and he willkick you off the mountain. Longest reigning
Intercontinental champion, longer than Brett Hart, longer than mansho Man, Randy Savage,
(18:59):
longer than Sean Michael, saying namesthat the casual fan might know in
Gunda, the Ring General and Gunthercame out of Germany. He's a very
much larger than life, but verysoftly spoken character. I would compare him
to the Kingpin in Marvel's films inthat regard, and he is just He
(19:21):
has what I would describe as themeanest, most vicious sounding chop to a
human beings chest. You would everyou would think someone got shot. Yeah,
that's how it sounds. And Igot to interview Sammy's a few weeks
ago. That interviews up on theSports Get Wrestling wrestle Bins channel to check
it out. And and Sammy isthe underdog, and he's always been the
underdog, so who better to havehim in this match? I think it's
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a match that if they get thetime on a two night card where everyone
wants ever in that locker room isfighting for their time, and every producer
is fighting for their talent to gettheir time. I think he's a guy
you could have a match that peopleleave the weekend talking about Cody rock Roman,
that two night storyline that's going tosell out the building, that's the
one they're tuning in for. Butdo they you know, Wrestle in Ay
three back in eighty seven, everyonecame to see Hulk slam Andre, but
(20:07):
they left talk about Macha Man andRicky the Dragon Steamboat. I think this
is a similar situation. I thinkso this wrestles Own reunion, it's gonna
happen again. Kevin and I usedto do so many podcasts, talk about
wrestling every week, the SmackDown Rebellion. I think we were on the Ross
I we did a couple of those. I missed those days so much.
I'm miss talking wrestling with you.Also, you're a great radio personality,
(20:29):
oh dude. And also I lovethat you're still in the game, and
like, you know, we dothis media business. I know maybe this
doesn't mean much to the average listener, but people that listen to uh,
you know, did the line changeall the time? John? John's good
dude, and like seeing it,seeing him come through things and weather and
do the stuff in the career.And I you know, we we work
together pre pandemic and no, we'vechecked in during the pandemic when we were
(20:51):
when we were those early those earlyMarch twenty twenty days, were like,
Hey, we're getting laid off.Are you get laid off? I think
I'm getting laid off with those conversations. Yeah, So it's I love Hey,
I'll be corny. I love seeinga Rocky story. Man. I
love seeing it Rocky too, becausehe wins in that one, not Rocky.
Yeah, Rocky one was the betterRocky, so I'll take that.
Yeah. I was almost going toquote a line from Rocky I can't repeat.
(21:12):
That's good, Kevin, We're gonnado this again. Tell everyone again
where you're gonna because you're gonna bein Philly. Yeah, I'm doing a
lot of stuff. Just follow sportskey wrestling if you just want to know
more. What's going on. We'rea great aggregator. We cover up a
bunch of different things. I'll beout and about all the different events,
ww World, all those different things. Hopefully I'll get to see you on
Friday as well. MEETI interviews thosejust look up sports Key Wrestling, you
(21:34):
look at our website, you downloadher app. We have everything there.
We can give you so much greataggregated sports content in general. And then
I'm gonna be doing live stand upcomedy Wednesday night. I will be at
Punchline Comedy Club at seven thirty pmfor the All Pro Comedy Showcase. And
then on Thursday night at ten pm. If you're staying out late, you
just turn it into a weekend.I'm gonna be at the Helium Comedy Club
(21:55):
for the Nightcap show. You cancheck me out on Instagram at keV Kellum
six. It's key d K EL L l A M six Love it.
That's Kevin Kellum More line change continuingnext
It is episode six of the LineChange. Look at those look at the
look look look look look, lookat the four inch pythons junctions and look
at them. It It is likeFox Sports The Gambler sponsored by cut the
Sports betting at download cut Kutt dotCom also used the referral code Gambler,
but it is episode number six.Get the Line Change or wherever you get
(00:22):
your podcasts, It's on YouTube FoxSports The Gambler. Subscribe, subscribe,
subscribe, I will. I don'teven want to do any more of that.
I want to get to a wrestleZone reunion from we used to do
Wrestle Zone podcast together. We didall of it. I'm so excited to
be talking with in radio guy.I've always been following his career. He's
(00:45):
killing it. Uh, Kevin Kellumand you're also a comedian too, and
we'll get to some doing. I'mdoing all the wrestling content this week with
the website sports Key to Wrestling,so we're gonna be very, very busy
in Philadelphia. Uh. And I'mgonna refrain from asking people how they feel
on the huah wah Sheets conversation.I want to know how all the locals
feel about the Civil War between lahBlah and sheets. That is my that
(01:06):
is my distance of knowledge of Philadelphia. That that's your only knowledge. Yeah,
and they threw batteries at Santa Claus. I was told, oh,
yeah, we don't bring that up. Yeah, we don't. We don't
bring that up. We don't bringanymore. I was told they have a
prison at the Eagles Stadium, somaybe someone's gonna be put in the jail.
I'm pretty sure my dad might havebeen in it at some point.
I don't know they he might havewho knows. But WrestleMania is in Philadelphia,
(01:29):
what about I? I come on, What a great city to host
it to. It's It's going tobe an incredible, incredible time. I'm
going to be at all the eventsall week, the indie shows. keV.
We talked about this a lot,you know, with Wrestal Zone.
We have been talking. We've beenin wrestling for a while and I wanted
to I've been asking this kind ofall week with a lot of people that
I've been talking to. This feelslike in tripa Ahs just talked about it
too. It feels like a newera is about to begin. How significant
(01:53):
is this WrestleMania. WrestleMania forty seemslike a significant one. Maybe I hate
to see a change, but it'slike marking a new era. Here feels
like a beginning of something, ohwholeheartedly. And obviously there's a lot of
things going on outside of the ring, even off television that kind of reflect
that. In the last few years, coming out of the pandemic, there
(02:13):
was more and rumblings of WWE sellingthe company, and eventually they did do
that right right right before last year'srestimating in Los Angeles, which is a
wild time to do it, andthey do it too. William Morris Endeavor,
the Endeavor Group, which is amassive company. They owned the UFC.
It is a very multi billion dollarcomplicated deal, and Devor doesn't own
the company completely, but they owna majority share, so they own it,
(02:36):
for lack of a better phrase.And then you have the entire finsic
man Scannal. So if I don'ttalk about that, I'm not talking about
this awful elephant in the room.But the odd juxtaposition to that is,
while all those things you think thatwould deeply affect the company in some harsh
way, either good or bad,and then one certainly as bad as these
allegations against BigMan and him being usherout of the company not once but twice
(02:58):
in the last years. He wentout one when it was an NBA situation
and some infidelities and we're using hismoney, and then he left. Then
he comes back to facilitate this multibillion dollar deal, and then he's out
when there's even worse allegations, whichI don't want to go into further because
it's just depressing, but they're very, very sad and things like that should
not be allowed in sports and entertainmentat all, the things that are alleged.
(03:19):
So while that's going on, hisson in law, one of the
greatest wrestlers of all time, hasto take the mantle here with new ownership
and a very talented team of peopleover the course of the last few years
and kind of steer the ship inthis direction when they still love contracts they
have to fill, they still haveto do all these other things, you
know, and fans are pumped,you know. I mean, they're excited
(03:39):
about the Rock being there. TheRock is on the board of WWE.
He's going to back up his cousin, his bloodline family member, the Simoan
Wrestling nine. He seem multiple generationsagainst Cody Rhodes, who's coming back to
finish the store a bit for hisdead Dusty Rhodes. And it's a multi
night affair wrestling. A few yearsago, it used to be one big
(04:00):
night, one big payoff. Nowit kind of feels like you're getting like
almost like the Avengers movie where they'regonna cut the movie into two big halves
and you're gonna get an end GamePart win and in Game Part two and
Night one the tag team match.Rock will be in the rank till wrestle.
He'll take on the Rock. Rockwill tag with Roman Reigns take on
Seth and Cody sinking Seth Rollins.We'll have a champion and Cody and if
(04:21):
they win, they get the advantage. They can interfere in the match.
They can do anything you want nighttoo, and then Cody will challenge Roman
for the title, a title heis held since twenty twenty, which is
very unheard of and twenty thirty yearsof wrestling. Yeah, it doesn't happen
often and a sign of Yeah,things have kind of changed with the way
that they've booked these things. Idid a reader's digestive everything for the casual
(04:42):
fan there. Yeah, yeah,very well done. So Rock comes in
and it looked like he was justgonna be standard movie star Rock at first,
and then this change happened where everybodywanted Cody Rhodes and it felt like
everybody was It felt like they weregoing to take over the crowd again,
was going to take over the wwuniverse, take over this thing, and
they were going to kind of messthe show up because they want Cody.
(05:04):
Well, now this shift has reallychanged. Now the Rock is sort of
back to what he was doing previouslyin the attitude in the nineties. Yeah.
Yeah, he's doing stuff he wasdoing in the nineties. He's taking
people bleed, you know. Imean like they're doing a lot of stuff
that's really testy. Because while thisis going on in the background, here's
another thing. I'll just kind oftell you what's going on if you don't
(05:25):
follow a business. They signed afive billion dollars a year with Netflix.
They're gonna go on Netflix starting inJanuary twenty twenty five. This past week
on RAW, I was in Chicagoand I was talking to some people involved
with it, and they didn't giveme the skinny. But they said they're
going to do some stuff that's reallypushing the limit. That was the word
I heard. They're going to pushthe limit, and they definitely pushed the
limit, and they did blood,something they very rarely do in WWE modernly.
(05:46):
You used to be old school wrestling. I know, the old school
fans. I think the wrestler bleedingon the cover of the magazine that was
eighties and nineties, maybe a littlebit in the thousands, all the wrestling
w's main competitor, they'll do alot of blood, but WW kind of
shared away from that. Now itseems like they're willing to embrace some of
those things and select occasions. Andthe biggest movie star in the world to
(06:06):
made someone bleed on television, Yeahhe did. Did you did you expect
this to happen? Though? Didyou expect to see this rock? I
mean, what is this kind ofblown away your expectations of what this was
all going to be, because,yeah, just be the movie star guy
and now it's wrestle a rock again. Yeah, and you're getting the character
of the Rock and he'll come backand do things in the third person and
(06:27):
use the catchphrases because he understands fanswant to see him play the hits.
And anyone who complaines use a diehardfan. It'd be like, Oh,
the Tom Brady's gonna come in thereand not do what the what the coach
tells him to do. He's gonnacall an audible. Yeah, well he
did that and one Super Bowls withit. So I mean like so when
anyone complains, those are those samefans that were pitching without the Rock coming
back in January. They were allabout they love Cody. Cody's their guy.
(06:49):
The plan was for years to doRock versus Roman, to do Uncle
versus cousin, to do two membersof the same family in a big match
for the head of the for thisthis this uh, this honorary title in
the championship that's been held for threeThere's a lot of history there and and
that's still a match they can do. And that was a match there that
Rock one of the records that wewere trying to do that last year in
(07:10):
Los Angeles and it didn't happen.And I think maybe now because the merger,
Rock stepped away and then he couldcome back into the deal. And
then now he has millions of millionsof dollars from it. He's on the
board for the company. Uh.And he's basically an executive producer in some
way or another. Uh. Ithink he's a smart guy. I think
he knows that the primary audience arethe people. You gotta make it happy
(07:32):
this season ticket holder matters in ww A. And I want to say
they straight away from that or theywanted to dictate to that audience more and
then just play to the casuals,whereas you're spending all these plates. Yeah,
we're gonna give you something that acasual fan likes. We're gonna give
you something that a young lady likes. We're gonna give you new characters,
diverse characters, not just you know, uh, bleach blonde, tannedite guys
(07:53):
out of college football. We're gonnagive you a variety of different people.
We're gonna give you people that youliked in the past, and we're gonna
give you all these different It's verymuch of a and uh and I think
Triple H understands it. I think, uh, it's been dialed in and
some of that was lost in thepast and now it's been brought back in
WrestleMania feels like WrestleMania again. That'sit. Say he didn't feel like that
in the past, Oh, butit does. I think you're just spot
(08:13):
on with that. It feels huge. Now. Part of that too is
opponent s Roh Moraines is going tobe taking on and The Rock is involved
in all this with Cody Roads.So Cody Rhoades, Uh, I think
everybody you know knows the story.Well, he was with WWE, went
to aw I ended up basically gettingthat company off the ground, and then
returns back in WWE a little bitunexpected because he was so invested in aw
(08:35):
But he's been like getting past allthat now it's been a while. He's
just become a great WWE character.What is the appeal? What do you
think has been the appeal so muchwith Cody Rhads that fans were almost hijacking
the show to the point that theychanged all of these plans up because it
feels he feels massive. What's theappeal there? With Cody Rose? It
still hits me every time when hecomes out and he comes out to the
(08:56):
song where this man Downstate Kingdom andin the lead lyrics that he literally had
the band right in the lyrics thingsabout his wrestling life. This is a
guy whose father was Dusty Rhodes.This guy's father was one of the most
influential and greatest wrestlers of all time, and he out of college relatively a
year or two out of college,got a WW deal on his father's name
(09:18):
alone, debuted in pro wrestling inthe WWE system from the get go and
was seen as somebody that would bea lifer. And when he felt like
he got lost in that system,he left and then went to the Independence.
Imagine somebody who doesn't even play collegefootball. They say, you're not
gonna make me the starter. Youknow, the Eagles an't gonna make You're
(09:41):
not gonna make me the starter.I've been in the system for a long
time. Imagine somebody who's always beenthe perennial backup and then they go,
you know what, hey, Rock, put me make me the starter at
one of your teams in the UFL. Do it right now, and I'll
put that team in the league andI'll win a title and then you're gonna
want me back. And I thinkthat's exactly what he did. He created
the biggest competitor that's ever happened withw W, or at least he was
(10:01):
at the table for it. Somebodyelse spent the money to do it.
That's a different story. But nowyou had this guy, and there's so
many people that watched over years.So there's a guys like me who are
in their thirties who've watched Cody ontelevision. You know, since he was
a kid, since since we werelike and you lod it is crazy.
He really was a kid then,you know, And now you see him
(10:22):
as this guy who really paved thispath. And he's very much, very
reminiscent of John Cena, where it'svery earnest. He says things that are
very earnest. Uh, And there'sa lot of comparisons to like Captain America.
I'm not the flash of character,but he kind of is. He
says some like crazy things. He'sgreat wrestling, he has great matches,
he's a great You need a greatbaby face, you need someone you can
get behind. And for the lastalmost four years now you've had a Darth
(10:46):
Vader. You've had a cool heel, a heel that is fun to watch,
and people can cheer and buy hismerch, but they know he's still
the bad guy. They know he'sstill a guy who's like he's a character
in Roman Reigns, is manipulating hisfamily and he has hu Bristin is filled
with his ego, and that's whatRoman has become. He's he is bordering
on the point of perioting himself atthis point. And I mean that in
(11:09):
the right way. And the timeis now to make the moment right.
And you have a new owner,you have a new company. And some
people think that's why they didn't pullthe trigger last year because ww sold the
Tika literally that weekend, like literal. As I'm walking into Sofi Stadium in
Los Angeles, I'm told, hey, can you pull out your phone and
just start streaming in the parking?And I wonder what big news may break,
(11:33):
good or bad this week about somethings. But we'll see how things
kind of play out. And Ithink W's can have a very, very
successful weekend for Philadelphia. You're talkinghundreds of millions of dollars of taxable revenue
in terms of those entertainment between sportsand live music. This is one of
the biggest things. Is I livein Chicago. We of Lollapooza. It
brings in a quarter of a billiondollars a year in taxable revenue. If
(11:56):
you told me WWE is doing thatthis weekend, it would not surprise me
that they could do that. Yeah, and because it feels like it's it's
getting massive, it's getting bigger.Oh, the secondary market for the tickets
is insane. It's wild. Itis absolutely wild. And we've kind of
been obviously since it's in Philly.The radio station has been in contact with
w W p R people and stuff, and they said, this thing selling
(12:16):
this thing like they're they're expecting alot of people to be here. They're
expecting a lot of money, likeyou just said, in the city of
Philadelphia to be poured into whether itbe some of the some of the stores
here, some some of the restaurants, all that every it's going to be
a massive event. And to makethat true, I think that's a sign
of that people love the picture.Overall. It isn't a WW It's built
around one guy that, like theJohn Cena is the main guy of w
(12:39):
W. There's multiple characters. It'sit's truly a three ring circus. But
Cody's one of those top guys andww's can make the bet on him and
I really, I really think they'regonna put the title on him this weekend.
And if they don't, I thinkyou can have some upset fans,
but you can still have some vansthat will leave with smile on their face.
And that's the most important thing.Yeah, w WE has has always
been in pop culture, and RussellMania has made its way. Look,
(13:00):
super Bowl, it's the super Bowlis bigger than the NFL. It's bigger
than football. It becomes a cultureevent. And then this is this is
that true too. There's a lotof people this is the only resting show
to watch all year. Yeah,but I feel like that's getting bigger.
Why do you feel like that is? I know that the talent has been
really good. Everything's just been great. But I don't know if you feel
the same way. I feel likeabout like the lap fan type of thing
(13:22):
where it's like, hey, Iwatched years ago, but now I'm hopping
back into it right exactly. Itfeels like there's more interesting. Oh,
that thing over there looks like alot of fun, Like, let me
check that out. I've gotten thataccessibility. So the Peacock deal, as
much as people say Peacock isn't thetop of the streaming services ww signing a
billion dollar deal with them. NickKahn, another big orchestrator of their deals,
(13:45):
kind of understood that Peacock is builtaround a handful of different things.
The office, some newer NBC showsSNL every week, a handful of football
games they spend a lot of moneyon to have, right, And the
other big jewel in the crown ofNBC doing offering peacock is WWE. You're
talking about at least eight to ninemillion people in the United States that will
(14:07):
pay for a streaming service, andthat's a retainer. When you talk about
the streaming services having churn, youknow, and people drop a service or
pick it up. I'm getting Netflixjust through the show. They're gonna drop
it. After you've heard that allthe time, right, you have friends
that talk that way. With WWE. You know, you're getting a big
premium live event every month. Youmay not watch the weekly TV shows,
but now you give that casual fanthat comes in now, and then you
(14:28):
give them more accessibility where they're notpaying fifty dollars for a pay per view
every month. So for the pastfew years we've seen that pattern really come
together where fans aren't just gonna watchthe Royal Rumble and the WrestleManias. They're
gonna just watch those shows. They'rethe big tent pole shows every month,
the weekly premium live event, thepay per view would have you that they
build up to on Monday or onUSA Network and Fox Friday nights with Smacktown.
(14:52):
Maybe they don't watch us, butthere's also clips. Wwa's YouTube presence
is it's astronomical. I I don'tI don't mean to say anything bad to
you know, the NHL fan.I love my Blackhawks. But ww has
a way bigger online presence than theNHL right now, and they have a
presence that is bordering on the NFLin terms of engagement and metrics that you
(15:15):
can play on. And people talkabout what the ratings are. Overnight TV
ratings are the most redundantly stupid numberI've ever seen. There's a lot more
people watching football than you even think. Oh, the Super Bowl wasn't watched
as much as last Seriously, doyou want to bring in those social media
numbers? Do you want to bringin people that are DVR in the game?
Do you want to like so there'sall those other things in ww got
really really keen on that, andI think bringing an endeavor a company that
(15:37):
understands that data even more and howto sell that as something that is valuable.
It's Keith. You have a reallyreally engaged fan base, even at
the most die hard level and themost casual level. It seems like a
football league, right, Yeah,this is a big thing. Is is
engagement to me, It's one thingto watch a product. It's another thing
to actively engage with it to andactively be engaging with it over and over
(16:00):
and over again. And it's been. But it's similar to sports. It's
similar to sports. I mean,and there's a season ends with football,
right, you get some time awayfrom that you can kind of decompress,
right, But this doesn't end.It kind of just keeps going and going.
So there'll be pills and valleys ofit, you know, like there'll
be there'll be something after estimating wheresome people just drop off. And that's
just natural, right. Uh methough, I'll be insane yelling at children
(16:22):
and Arena, oh yeah, inPhiladelphia, yelling at children, And I
am looking for it. I amlooking forward to back at you and Philly
all right, Oh yeah, Iam looking forward to some just some real
rough neck folk. You know,I want to meet I want to meet
a broad street bullying person. Yeah, you know. And I'm not saying
(16:44):
I want to pick a fight withhim, but I want to. I
want to meet somebody be like,come on, do you gonna go out
there and just do all that?And you're not gonna go out there and
pin neck guy the mat with hisstone cold star solid that's a solidude.
We're I'm gonna I'm gonna go towall I'm gonna get an ears in an
iced tea and totally wallop you overthe head. Then see my thing?
How do you pick up? Howdid you pick up on the Philly accent?
(17:07):
Like? What what are the thingsyou want? I watched a lot
of Shane Gillis. I think probablya lot of Big j Okerson, a
lot of Big j Okrison crackle crackle, a big j a lot of the
Philly the Philly comedy people turn outof that nice. Okay, So you
you you have been able to pickup the accent. So I do want
to get one more through Chicago.It's very similar, like Philadelphia is very
very similar. The chip is onyour shoulder between the other big cities.
(17:30):
Oh no, we're cool, verydiverse, wild. Chicago's eruption everywhere it
takes fantastic. But I feel like, you know, New York and l
A and all them, they lookdown on cities like Philly and Chicago.
So I feel like, yeah,we're a bit of the we We we're
the scrappers, you know, chipChip, the chip chip. So there
(17:52):
is a thing in wrestling we calla show stealer. It is the match
that is going to steal the show, the one that everybody talks about that's
not the main event. Always think, but there's a show stealer, the
one that go, oh my gosh, and what's two nights? Yeah,
you have two nights? What couldbe the show steelers? Because I'll ask
that since we might have multiple thethe one that's been built up to lightly
(18:14):
and I think could be a realbig surprise for people. And then somebody
that people slept on. He wasa guy who's in one of the main
events last year is sammy's Ain,a very valiant French Canadian wrestler. He
is the good guy that you love, but he loses big matches. He
won last year with his tag partnerfor many years and he beat the longest
reigning tag team champions of all timeat that point. H and it was
(18:36):
a big deal. And but there'salways a sense of he won't win big
matches by himself. He did totake on somebody who's been built much up
like Roman Reigns into the guy inWWE as terms of that number two monster
on the mountain, and he willkick you off the mountain. Longest reigning
Intercontinental champion, longer than Brett Hart, longer than mansho Man, Randy Savage,
(18:59):
longer than Sean Michael, saying namesthat the casual fan might know in
Gunda, the Ring General and Gunthercame out of Germany. He's a very
much larger than life, but verysoftly spoken character. I would compare him
to the Kingpin in Marvel's films inthat regard, and he is just He
(19:21):
has what I would describe as themeanest, most vicious sounding chop to a
human beings chest. You would everyou would think someone got shot. Yeah,
that's how it sounds. And Igot to interview Sammy's a few weeks
ago. That interviews up on theSports Get Wrestling wrestle Bins channel to check
it out. And and Sammy isthe underdog, and he's always been the
underdog, so who better to havehim in this match? I think it's
(19:44):
a match that if they get thetime on a two night card where everyone
wants ever in that locker room isfighting for their time, and every producer
is fighting for their talent to gettheir time. I think he's a guy
you could have a match that peopleleave the weekend talking about Cody rock Roman,
that two night storyline that's going tosell out the building, that's the
one they're tuning in for. Butdo they you know, Wrestle in Ay
three back in eighty seven, everyonecame to see Hulk slam Andre, but
(20:07):
they left talk about Macha Man andRicky the Dragon Steamboat. I think this
is a similar situation. I thinkso this wrestles Own reunion, it's gonna
happen again. Kevin and I usedto do so many podcasts, talk about
wrestling every week, the SmackDown Rebellion. I think we were on the Ross
I we did a couple of those. I missed those days so much.
I'm miss talking wrestling with you.Also, you're a great radio personality,
(20:29):
oh dude. And also I lovethat you're still in the game, and
like, you know, we dothis media business. I know maybe this
doesn't mean much to the average listener, but people that listen to uh,
you know, did the line changeall the time? John? John's good
dude, and like seeing it,seeing him come through things and weather and
do the stuff in the career.And I you know, we we work
together pre pandemic and no, we'vechecked in during the pandemic when we were
(20:51):
when we were those early those earlyMarch twenty twenty days, were like,
Hey, we're getting laid off.Are you get laid off? I think
I'm getting laid off with those conversations. Yeah, So it's I love Hey,
I'll be corny. I love seeinga Rocky story. Man. I
love seeing it Rocky too, becausehe wins in that one, not Rocky.
Yeah, Rocky one was the betterRocky, so I'll take that.
Yeah. I was almost going toquote a line from Rocky I can't repeat.
(21:12):
That's good, Kevin, We're gonnado this again. Tell everyone again
where you're gonna because you're gonna bein Philly. Yeah, I'm doing a
lot of stuff. Just follow sportskey wrestling if you just want to know
more. What's going on. We'rea great aggregator. We cover up a
bunch of different things. I'll beout and about all the different events,
ww World, all those different things. Hopefully I'll get to see you on
Friday as well. MEETI interviews thosejust look up sports Key Wrestling, you
(21:34):
look at our website, you downloadher app. We have everything there.
We can give you so much greataggregated sports content in general. And then
I'm gonna be doing live stand upcomedy Wednesday night. I will be at
Punchline Comedy Club at seven thirty pmfor the All Pro Comedy Showcase. And
then on Thursday night at ten pm. If you're staying out late, you
just turn it into a weekend.I'm gonna be at the Helium Comedy Club
(21:55):
for the Nightcap show. You cancheck me out on Instagram at keV Kellum
six. It's key d K EL L l A M six Love it.
That's Kevin Kellum More line change continuingnext
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