Sound Off 886 - WWE Crown Jewel HONEST REVIEW, THREE Talent Releases And The "Alexa Bliss" SCAM - Solomonster Sounds Off

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monster
Sounds Off. It's such good shit. Monster Concude Ill fighting
a woman.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Come over here, we'll speak, bitch. Come on now you
have legs. They've made Solo a monster. I was ninety
nine percent positive it was just chessed up.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Now I want out of my contract if I don't
care what I want.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Welcome to episode eight eighty six, The Solo Monster Sounds
Off for Sunday, November third, twenty and twenty four. You know,
when I sat down here seventeen years ago this week
to record the very first Sound of I did not
expect that seventeen years later I would still be sitting
here talking to all of you about pro wrestling. But

(00:54):
here we are. This week is the seventeen year anniversary
of the Sound of. I know we still have people
who have been listening since episode one, but whether you
have been listening since episode one or if you have
been listening since last week's episode, I just want to
say thank you for all of the support and for
allowing me to turn this into a full time gig

(01:17):
that I never imagined I would be able to do.
But here we are, and we're doing live screaming every week.
We got the flagshaped rock in every Sunday and it's
been a lot of fun. And so here's the bigger
and better things. As we head into year number eighteen.
You know, before long we're going to have to think
about what we're going to do for the twentieth anniversary.
It's not that far off. Got to start thinking about that.

(01:39):
But again, thank you for all of the support. The
news broke yesterday that Bill Goldberg is getting his retirement match.
He has been bitching about this even before Vince McMahon left,
that Vince promised him a retirement match, and he was
lied to Vince McMahon lying to someone. I can't imagine

(02:01):
such a thing. He's such a paragon of virtue. Well,
now he's finally getting the match that he wanted. He
made the announcement during an appearance on the SEC Network, saying,
per three executives, this is what he said, per three
executives Nick Cohn, Chris Lagentile, and Paulovac In twenty twenty five,
Goldberg is having his retirement match. Legentle. For those who

(02:24):
don't know, he's the head of talent relations and communications
for WWA, and they were airing footage during the segment
from Bad Blood last month of Goldberg's confrontation with Gunther,
and Goldberg said that we can see there who his
victim will be or who the front runner is right now,
strongly implying that the match would be with Gunther. First

(02:45):
of all, I don't think he even knows who it's
going to be against yet. I'm sure that hasn't been
locked in. Second of all, if it is Gunther, he
needs to put this man down quickly and be done
with it. He said he's got a couple of months
to get ready, no date and no time yet. It's
probably a WrestleMania match, But Gunther deserves better at WrestleMania

(03:07):
than a four minute match with Goldberg. Same for bron Breaker.
I would love to see bron Breaker against Seamus for
the Intercontinental title. For Bron's the name that I suggested
on SoundOff seven ninety eight. That was March of last year,
long before he was ever on the main roster. Bron
was still the NXT champion at the time, and I said,
if he's going to have a final match in WWE

(03:29):
because the reason I was talking about it at the
time is you know, Goldberg was bitching about it, and
I said, bron Breaker is the man to retire him
the Battle of the Spears. Bron Breaker's spear is like
the spiritual successor to Goldberg. Spear got Goldberg back in
the ring one last time with a Steiner. His star
is on the rise. To me, he gets whatever rubbed

(03:50):
there may be left by retiring Goldberg. I would rather
be Breaker because Gunther deserves so much better for that show.
And if that's where it's going to happen, who knows.
Maybe it won't b MBB Elimination Chamber or something. But
I have to assume that if what he is saying
is true, and it is because WWE tweeted about it
WrestleMania in Las Vegas, he got two nights, And if

(04:13):
they're looking for an attraction, then you have Goldberg's retirement
match on the WrestleMania card. They're already telling a retirement
story next year with John Cena, so you don't want
this to trample over that. So I think you build
up one match for one of the nights of WrestleMania.
Let it be bron let him get out of it
whatever he can get out of it, and Goldberg can
ride off into the sunset. We've got a lot to

(04:35):
get into here, and I do mean a lot, including
my Crown Jewel review, thoughts on the latest WWE cuts,
their new indie development program that has some people thinking
this is the end of the independent wrestling scene. I'm
here to bring a little bit of sanity to the
conversation and talk about what it does and does not mean.

(04:55):
Vince McMahon's new project, Bobby Lashley's horrendous idea that he
wanted to do in ww A, and a crazy story
out of the New York Times involving Alexa Bliss sort of,
and I've got a personal story to add to that.
It's it's pretty sad actually, if you've read the article.
But we'll get into that first. If you would like

(05:17):
to make a PayPal donation, you may do so on
theosolomonster dot com ten dollars or more. We'll get you
a nickname and a shout out. And if you have
something to promote. If you would like to inquire about
an ad, get in touch because the calendar is filling
up fast. Thank you. To the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton,
who had a I hope had a very silver Shamrock Halloween,

(05:40):
Big b Brian Bessera, The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soap,
Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, Iowen Corn Farmer, Jesse Lamfear, The
Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichord, Knight Stalker, nif Alsafar, Killshot, Keith Hart,
Best in the Game, Trade Porter and Tough Guy Ten
and Zephyr. I will not be at Saturday Night's main event,

(06:03):
but I will be here covering it. Just to answer
your question, I appreciate all my PayPal peeps more than
you know. I know a lot of people choose to
support on the live streams instead these days, and that's great,
but there's just something extra about my PayPal producers, especially
the ones that support here and there, So I just
want to say thank you. The TNA tapings last Sunday

(06:28):
turned into a nightmare with two people being stretchered out.
One of those people was l e Odel Vikingo, who
was wrestling Trent seven when he hit a springboard corkscrew
dive out to the floor and he landed very awkwardly.
It looked from the video I saw the fan video,
it looked like his ankle bent in a way that
it's not meant to bend. It was either an ankle

(06:49):
or a knee injury. And this is after he just
missed seven months with a knee injury. He was less
than ten matches into his return. One of those matches
was the weekend before for House of Glory. We had
him into Ussell Nick Nemmith and anyway, the match was
called off. He was stretchered out. It did not look good.
But we got a positive update from him on Instagram
on Thursday, saying that the injury did not affect any

(07:11):
ligament or muscle, so it sounds like a knee injury.
He was told to rest for five days while the
swelling goes down, and then he can start rehab and
he is only expected to be out. This is according
to him. He's only expected to be out fifteen to
twenty days. You know, even if he was out a month,
that's a hell of a lot better than what I

(07:31):
thought it was going to be. So he's very lucky
it wasn't worse because the video did not look good.
You know, I would say that he should think about
toning down his style to save his knees, but he's
never going to do that. Even Raymisterio once told him
to slow down. He said he would still be incredible
if he toned it down a few beats, but it's
just in one ear and out the other. Then he

(07:53):
wouldn't be Vikingo anymore. Right, It's the only speed he knows.
All the high risk stuff is what makes him who
he is. The more serious situation of of one half
of ABC, Chris Bay, who was seriously injured in a
tag team match against the Hartis. It happened on a
spot where By came off the top rope into a

(08:14):
Matt Hardy twist the Fate, but there was a timing
issue and he got hurt, and on his podcast, Matt
said that it was a total freak accident, nothing outlandish.
He wasn't doing some kind of crazy, wacky maneuver and
Bey was lying motionless on the mat for several minutes.
He was not moving until they loaded him on a stretcher.
They took him away in an ambulance. He had to

(08:36):
undergo emergency surgery on his neck that night, which is
never a good thing. His girlfriend indicated that he broke
his neck, but outside of that, it's been a week
now and there has been no update on exactly what
the specific injury is beyond the fact that it's just
really bad. And I think you could tell that it

(08:57):
was really bad just based on all of the outpouring
of support and the messages and everything that has been
talked about. It's just very cryptic. It just you read
that and it concerns you because you realize this is
not just your typical injury here now. He released this
statement later Bay did. He said, I just want to

(09:19):
take a few moments to extend my heartfelt thanks and
deepest appreciation for so much and to so many over
the past few days, from everyone at TNA Wrestling, to
the incredible medical staff here in Detroit, to family, friends
and fans worldwide. I know you have been praying for
my full recovery from the in ring accident this past Sunday.

(09:39):
Monday was day one for me on this journey, which
I know will be long and challenging. Thanks again for
the love and support, and please keep the prayers coming.
TNA posted an update later that Bey is going to
remain in Detroit with multiple daily rehab sessions under the
direction of specialists. His tag team partner Ace Austen gave

(10:00):
update on Bay as part of TNA statement. He said,
I was in the ring with Chris when the incident
occurred last Sunday, and I have been by his side
ever since. It was just as normal as anything we've
done in the ring thousands of times. Everything was all
right until it wasn't. Each moment is precious, and I'm
cherishing every moment I've had in the ring and around
the world with Chris, and every moment I have by

(10:22):
his side right now. There will be a lot of
hard work ahead, but we don't know any other kind
of work. Chris won't be alone for any of this.
He's going to be surrounded by love and support from
every single one of us. The road to recovery is
going to be as easy as ABC. Matt Hardy did
confirm that TNA is covering his medical expenses, which they

(10:42):
should since the injury occurred in their ring. There is
a go fundme set up to assist him with his
everyday expenses. He was not exclusive to TNA, so he
was also taking indie dates. He did meet and greets
and things of that nature. And so whatever TNA is
paying him, if he was working elsewhere to suppent that income,
he's not going to be able to work now, and

(11:03):
this is going to be a long term thing, hence
the GoFundMe. TNA is also putting a rare memorabilia for
auction on eBay to raise money for Bay. They're going
to have a couple of fundraising drives at their shows
on November eighth and November ninth. Last night checked, the
GoFundMe was up over eighty five thousand dollars on a
goal of one hundred k. I think the original goal

(11:24):
was like thirty and it has just gone up, up, up,
and people have been contributing. Ten thousand of that alone
came from one person, and that was Adam Copeland, so
he's been getting a lot of support there. You know. Look,
here's hoping that there's no paralysis or anything like that
that's involved here. Again, nobody is saying anything about the
specifics other than it's really bad and that's for him

(11:47):
to share when and if he wants to share that information.
But you hear about something as bad as what this
sounds like and a broken neck, and you can't help
but worry. I mean, when Big E got hurt, right,
that was a concern then too, you know, was he paralyzed?
Is he ever going to be able to walk again,
let alone wrestle again? And in his case, thankfully he's
able to live a normal, pain free life. He can train,

(12:10):
he can walk and run and do all the things
you know he used to do. He just hasn't been
able to get back in the ring and he may
never get back in the ring. In Bay's case, I
you know, we just don't know exactly how serious it
is beyond the fact that it's serious, whatever is going on,
Hopefully he can at least recover enough to live a

(12:30):
normal life. Hopefully he can get back in the ring
at some point. This is how he makes a living,
and nobody wants their career to end like that. But
right now that's not even the most important thing. And
one more health note, sending positive thoughts to El Fantasmo,
who revealed this week that he has been diagnosed with cancer,

(12:50):
which is why he was taken off the New Japan
shows this week that he was scheduled for. On social media,
he said, the last two weeks, I've had a bunch
of scans and tests done and doctors have found a
little tumor of cancer. Things are happening really fast. But
I have amazing family, friends and fans by my side,
and I am so grateful to have the support of
warriors who have gone through the same thing before, and

(13:11):
I look forward to help those going through it next.
Believe me what I say, I am in good spirits
and I am not nervous, worried, or scared. He just
wrestled Mike Bailey on the second night of those Maple
Leaf Pro Wrestling shows two weeks ago. Here's hoping it
was caught early and it can be dealt with and
he'll be cancer free very soon. WWE presented its Crown

(13:34):
Jewel show yesterday from Riod, Saudi Arabia. Today, as I speak,
they are taping an episode of Raw from Riod, so
we've got another taped show tomorrow night. It was all
about crowning the first ever men's and Women's Crown Jewel Champions,
and out of it, on the men's side we got
a really good match. On the women's side, we did not.

(13:55):
Cody Rhodes became only the second man to pin Gnther
on the main roster in the main event to win
the Crown Jewel title, and since SmackDown got the win there,
Raw got the win in the other match with liv
Morgan beating Naya Jacks, while Solo Socoa got a i
would say shocking but much needed win over Roman Reigns

(14:16):
in the Bloodline Versus Bloodline match, which sets the stage
now for Wargames. Sammy z Ain also made an appearance
to further the storyline there as well. Randy Orton and
Kevin Owens never even got out of the gate. It
ended up as a brawl and not a match, so
there was no finish. It just ended. Seth Rollins and
Bronson Reed had a really good match, as did La

(14:36):
Knight Androtti and Carmelo Hayes. The second best on the
entire show the women's four way match on SmackDown Friday Night.
They had one member from each team. Got me really
interested in the full four way match on this show,
but the match on SmackDown ended up being better than
the one at Crown Jewel on the whole though. You know, look,
with three really good matches, I can't go thumbs down

(14:57):
on this show. But I also sit here and give
it an enthusiastic thumbs up either it was, it just
wasn't very interesting. The twitter Paul I put up with
over two thousand votes. Last I checked, it had it
fifty five up forty four down. You know, I would
say sixty forty sounds about right for the show. They

(15:18):
opened with the Bloodline match because the Heels were going
over and they wanted to save Cody's win for the
end so that he could pose with Paul Levek and
all the other dignitaries with their big new belt. It
was Roman Reigns, Jimmy Usso and Jay Uso against Solo Sukoa,
Jacob Fatu and Toma Tongo, with Tongaloa the odd man out.

(15:38):
No surprise there. I liked how they gave Jay his
own entrance, separate from Roman and Jimmy, and they let
Jay come out last. It made him feel like a
bigger deal. I mean, even Cody didn't get to come
out after Roman. When they tagged together a Bad Blood
on SmackDown. Jay told Roman that he would only go
along with this if Roman treated him as an equal
and he was not going to take orders from him.

(16:00):
He was not going to be his right hand anymore
so during the match when Roman wanted the tag j
Tag Jimmy instead, and Corey Graves explained that it was
Jay testing Roman to see how he would react, you know,
to show him that he wasn't just going to go
along with whatever he wants, and I like that. Roman
spent most of the match out on the apron waiting

(16:21):
for the hot tag. It was every bloodline tag match
that you've ever seen. Nothing really great about it, but
the finish was a shock, and it was the right finish.
Solo put down Roman with a Samoan spike and had
him pinned, but Jimmy broke it up at the last minute.
It actually looked like he was late on the save.
He pulled a tangaloa here and the referee had to

(16:42):
hold up his count. Then the referee got bumped when
Roman pulled Tama into the ring. Fought to put Roman
down with his step up moonsalt, and then Solo put
Roman down with two more Samoan spikes and he pinned
him clean in the middle of the ring. So in all,
it took three Simoan spi but it took two back
to back to put down Roman reigns and he needed

(17:06):
that win. Solo's Sokoa has been a loser since Summerslim.
He needed that win, and pinning Roman was absolutely the
right call there. The Bloodline had to win this anyway,
the new Bloodline to give them a purpose to run
it back for wargames, And so they all ganged up
on Roman and Jimmy and Jay after the match, until

(17:26):
Sammy z Ain ran out to make the safe for
Jay Uso. Solo wanted Sammy to join with them. You know,
last we saw them on Raw last week. They were
having a conversation outside the arena. Zaane ended up dropping
him with an exploder and they all swarmed him. And
here comes the og Bloodline to Sammy's aid, and now
Solo is left all alone in the middle of the ring.

(17:48):
You got Roman in one corner, Jimmy and another, Jay
and another, and Sammy in another. Roman goes for a
Superman punch at the same time that Sammy came charging
in with the Halluva kicks. Solo ducks it, and so
Sammy knocks out Roman instead, and then Jimmy got in
Sammy's face, what are you doing? Jay tried to calm
things down. I loved it in all of these situations

(18:10):
in wrestling. I always love how as the viewer, you know,
we're watching this and it's so clear that it was
a mistake, right, It's so clear they were trying to
target Solo Sokoa. He just moved out of the way.
Sammy didn't mean to hit Roman, but you get you hat.
Jimmy standing there like what are you doing? How can
you do this? And You're like, all right, you're seeing

(18:30):
the same thing we're seeing, brother, But I get it,
I get it. You gotta dumb it down here in wrestling.
That's just funny to me. So Jay tried to diffuse
the situation. Now we've got even more tension in the
ranks here, and they've got another four weeks to write
the ship and get everybody on the same page if
they're going to team up at Survivor Series. So, I mean,
I thought the angle was a thumbs up as far

(18:51):
as the match. You know, again, the match was good,
but I wouldn't say it was anything more than that.
Bianca Bellair and Jade car Gill they remained the women's
tag team champions. They beat out Lash legend in Shakara Jackson,
Chelsea Green and Piper Niven and Damage Control. I thought
the four way preview on SmackDown was better than the
actual title match. It wasn't bad. It actually got pretty

(19:15):
good there in the last few minutes. But you know, again,
it was a match that was only thrown together a
week ago. It wasn't like there was much of a
story behind it. Chelsea Green. I will say this though,
Chelsea Green continues to be the most entertaining of all
the women in these matches. And if her and Piper
do not eventually win the tag team titles, and they
do introduce and I believe they will in twenty twenty five,

(19:36):
they will introduce a women's mid card title. I think
she would be a great candidate for it. Not saying
I want to turn it into a joke belt, but
Chelsea is that good, and her as a women's intercontinental champion,
I think she is someone who a mid card title
would be tailor made for. Seth rawlins pinned, Bronson reed

(20:02):
the wrong man went over here. That being said, they
did as good of a job as you could possibly
ask for in protecting him in defeat and putting red
Over as a monster if he was going to lose
this match, but he should not have lost this match
unless the idea is that Seth Rollins is going to
be challenging Gunther for the World heavyweight title at Survivor Series,

(20:26):
which is entirely possible because Rollins is in a fatal
four way match tomorrow night with Seamus, Damian Priest and
Dominique Mysterio to Crown a number one contender. Now, maybe
read takes Seth out of the match, he cost him
the match. But if Seth is going to win, and
I think he's got to be the favorite, then yes,
it makes sense that he would have won the match

(20:47):
here at Crown Jewel. I would also, by the way,
keep an eye on Finn Balor in one of those
Judgment Day segments last week when they were talking about
dom possibly challenging for the world title, he had a
look on his face. He wasn't too happy about it.
So that could be something to watch for Seamus against
Gunther again. Yeah, of course it would be cool, but

(21:07):
it's been done I think enough for now. I think
it's either Rollins or Priests going over tomorrow night. These
two here had a really good match. I hated Rollin's
no selling that first tsunami splash. Which they've been trying
to get over for months as this devastating finish, and
they have. They've done a very good job with that.
Rollins took one in the first two minutes of the match,

(21:29):
and then when Reid went back up for a second one,
Rollins moved out of the way, which is fine, but
he got right back up and then he hit a
stump like he never even took the splash. I hated that.
It's the one thing about this match I absolutely hated,
even more than the finish and him losing. I hated
that Reid grabbed the steel steps later on he tried

(21:50):
to hit Rolins with them. Rolin swept his leg out
and so Red fell face forward down into the steps,
and I think that's where he cut himself open, because
he had a nasty gash above. When the match was over,
Rollins followed with a stomp on the steps, so maybe
it happened on the stump. Reid climbed back into the
ring to avoid a count out. Rollins immediately hit another

(22:10):
curb stump. Then he went up to the top rope
and hit a super stomp and he pinned Bronson Reid
and as Rollins was gingerly walking away. He turned and
he saw red like like a sea monster rising from
the from the waters. He's back up to his feet,
and we got this great visual of the blood from
the eye streaming down his face and he was motioning

(22:33):
he wants more. And Rollins couldn't believe it, couldn't believe
what he was seeing that this man was back up
to his feet even after a super stomp. It took
three stumps, including one off the top, to put the
big man down, and even then he was back up
and bleeding, but he was asking for more, and Rollins
also put him over big In his postmatch promo, he said,

(22:53):
We're gonna do this again down the road at some
point if they were going to beat Bronson Reid. They
tried to put him over as strong as they could,
and they did a good job with it. But I
still think the best way to put the guy over
is to let him actually get a win over the
former world heavyweight champion, the former champion who five days

(23:14):
earlier took a death valley driver off the back of
a truck and got sent to the hospital with a
back injury, which I thought they would use as an
out for Rollins losing here, but the back injury didn't
even come into play. This dipshit came out dancing to
the ring like he always does. I mean, why even
shoot the angle? Now, maybe these two will eventually have

(23:37):
a second match and read a win and they'll leave
it at that, and they'll actually let Bronson Reid get
out of this program with a win instead of then
having to give Seth another win back. I mean, that
would be nice, right if they have a second match
and Reid wins the second match and comes out of
it a winner. I will be pleasantly surprised if it
works out that way, But right now I think that

(23:59):
it would have been better off having him go over
here in the first match. But if Rolins is going
to wrestle Goonther, then you can't have Seth Rolins lose
and then become number one contender for the World Championship.
So we'll see how things play out on Raw. But
didn't take away from the fact that I enjoyed the match.
I thought it was a very good match. We had
lived Morgan beating Nya Jacks to become the first ever

(24:21):
Women's Crown Jewel Champion. This was the worst thing on
the entire show. It was heel against heel, with no
one for the fans to really root for, although they
seem to like Live more than Nya. It was all
about waiting for Tiffany Stratton to run out with the briefcase,
which she did five minutes into the match. I mean
they didn't even wait. I think the match itself went

(24:42):
like eight minutes. And it was maybe five minutes into
the match, and all of a sudden we hear Tiffy
time and here she comes running down to the ring
and she was about to cash in. Nya told her
off though, and said what are you doing? And Stratton
tried to claim that she was going to cash in
on Morgan and not her. Nya told her to leave,
and then Live hit a crucifix bomb into a cover

(25:04):
for a near fall, or she tried to anyway. She
got the crucifix and she went down, but Nya landed
right on top of her, and so Live had to
adjust to get Nya over onto her shoulders for the
pin attempt. Stratton jumped up on the apron, hoping to
cash in on Live. She got yanked down by Raquel Rodriguez.

(25:25):
Morgan and Raquel they end up cornering Tiffany on the
outside and Nya comes flying in. She squashes them up
against the barricade. Nya sets up for the annihilator in
the ring. Dominic meanwhile, is distracting the referee. Raquel then
kicks Naya off the ropes and Morgan hits Oblivion for

(25:46):
the wind. This was an overbooked mess. You know, if
you're gonna overbook a match, at least make it good
like Cody and Roman a WrestleMania. That was fun. That
was overbooked, and that was fun. This was not. After
the match, Triple H presented the Crown Jewel title to Live.
The belt was bigger than she was. I thought she

(26:09):
was gonna tip over as she was holding this thing. Now.
I predicted a live win, and I predicted no cash
in from Tiffany, So I wasn't surprised by any of this.
But these constant cash and teases, they're so played out
at this point, I mean, how many more times are
we going to see this? How many more months of
this are we going to have to endure? I should

(26:32):
also mention here that Rhea Ripley is injured again. She
was not on this show. The NXT parking lot has
claimed yet another victim. They filmed an angle that they
aired on NXT where living Raquel. We saw them running
away from a car in the parking lot, and then
we saw Rhea Ripley on the ground outside the car
bleeding from the eye. Rhea posted x rays online showing

(26:55):
and they showed him here on the show too. They
showed a fractured orbital socket, which is not a pleasant injury,
so that was their way of writing her off television
because it is a legitimate injury. Apparently she suffered it
a few weeks ago. The belief is that it happened
on the October twenty first episode of Raw on a
headbut spot with Raquel and with liv Morgan. That she

(27:18):
likely would have been wrestling Raquel at Crown Jewel if
not for the injury, which may have been why the
four way match was added for the women's tag team titles,
because ain't no way they were going with eight matches
on that show. I can promise you that I'm surprised
that they scheduled seven. We technically only got six because
Orton and Owens that never really got underway, but they

(27:39):
scheduled seven matches for this show, which is more than
we usually see from Triple H on anything other than
a WrestleMania or a Summer Slam. Usually it's kept at five.
So we probably would have gotten Riha against Raquel. Ria
would have to beat Raquel. Once she does, then she
could get her rematch but live, but it didn't work
out that way. Now he missed three months this year

(28:01):
after WrestleMania with a shoulder injury. I don't know if
she's going to need three months to come back from this.
One worst case scenario, I mean she could wear the
old Undertaker Phantom of the Opera mask that he wore
in ninety five when Mabel broke his orbital bone. It's
not ideal. Rhea is the top star in the women's division.

(28:22):
It's not ideal because you know it means that it
drags out her feud would live even longer. I didn't
see a way to extend this until WrestleMania, but I
think they just found a way to extend it until
WrestleMania if they want to. So if she can make
it back in time for the Royal Rumble, she would
automatically move up to number one on my list of
favorites to win the Women's Rumble next year, and in

(28:43):
the meantime it's a chance for them to have one
or two other women step up on the Raw side.
They've got Eosky, who would have been my choice before
this to win the women's Rumble if I could choose.
You've got Lyra Valkyrias, she's not doing anything right now.
There's really not a lot of other great options on
the baby Face side, unless they break Glass in case
of emergency, and they call Becky Lynch back because they

(29:04):
think they need her. You know, Live is the one
who retired Becky and beat her for the belt, so
the story is there, but you know, to bring Becky
back only to have Live beat her again, that doesn't
really serve any purpose in my eyes. They could have
shaken things up and had Tiffany cash in and live
at Crown Jewel, move her over to Raw, then build

(29:25):
to Rhea against Tiffany. But you know, Liv's got a
good thing going right now, and they don't want to
disrupt that, at least not until Rhea can get her revenge,
which you know I get that apparently, And again they're
they're doing the tapings as we speak, so I'm not
even I'm not reading the spoilers anyway, but there's no
spoilers here. But they are doing a Battle Royal, apparently

(29:45):
on Raw Tomorrow night, to crown a new number one
contender for the women's title. I still feel like someone
like lyra Is is more likely to get the nod
if they just need somebody in the interim. But I
guess we'll find out the Battle Royal with the number
one contender is gonna be. It's gonna have to be
somebody who they flew over there because they're taping it
in Saudy, so it's it's I mean, look, it's it's possible.

(30:10):
I guess they could fly in a surprise at the
last minute, but it's gonna have to be somebody who's
already on the crew who they flew over there. Kevin
Owens against Randy Orton never even got started. They had
a brawl, not a match, but it was I thought
what it needed to be. I liked the little touch
of Owens walking out in the Cowboy Bob Orton t shirt.

(30:32):
Orton took about seven years to make his entrance impose,
so Owen's attacked him with a chair. I can't say
I blame him. They immediately fought out to the floor.
Then they ended up back in the ring where Owens
stunned the referee. So here come officials. I saw Davari
was out there. The general managers came out. Orton ended
up giving Adam Pearce the raw GM and RKO, so

(30:55):
there may be some hell to pay for him doing that.
They brawled into the crowd. Orton ended laid out on
top of a table. Owens ran up some stairs and
then he ended up diving off the upper level with
a flying elbow to put Orton through the table. And
that's how it ended. After they showed a replay, they
faded to black and they cut to an ad and

(31:17):
it was on to the next disappointing if you were
someone who was expecting an actual match. You know, we
didn't get the ding ding ding, but what we got
was a brawl with Owens doing something to try to
put Orton back on the shelf. I thought it might
be an Apron power bomb, you know, talk about the
surgically repaired back. We've seen Owens try to put people
out with that power bomb before. Instead, he did an

(31:40):
elbow drop from the from one level up put him
through a table. If I had one critique, I don't
know that Owens went far enough, you know, given the
way Triple H was talking about him last Friday and
how unhinged he is now, how unsafe he is, be careful.
I thought that he would have done something a little

(32:00):
more dastardly than this. But it gives them a reason
to keep Boarton off TV for a few weeks if
that's what they want to do, and then they can
set up Owens to challenge Cody again for the title.
At Survivor Series. La Knight beat Andrade and Carmelo Hayes
to retain the United States Championship. And what was up
to this point the best match on the entire show,

(32:22):
and it turned out to be the second best match
of the night, behind the main event. I thought this
was really good stuff. They kept a quick pace, they
had some innovative spots for a three way, you know,
and that's hard to do because it feels like everything's
been done. Finally, androde and Hayes get a chance to
shine without commercial breaks Night being added. You know, he

(32:42):
didn't hurt the match at all. I thought he hung
with both these guys. The only slip up was on
his running leap up on the on top that he does.
He slipped and he crotched himself and he had a
no sell it because it wasn't a planned spot, and
you could tell when he was asked about it after
the show he was still hot about it. It was
funny because Bigie asked him. Biggie was on the panel

(33:05):
and he asked him about his loins. Now, you don't
normally walk up to another man and start asking him
about his loins without some context there, and La Knight
did not know the context. He didn't realize he was
asking him about the botch spot. He was probably hoping
that it wouldn't get brought up. He probably wasn't very
happy about Biggie even mentioning it. He just thought Biggie

(33:27):
was asking him about his loins. He's like, what do
you want to know? You want to know if they're
tingling right now? And Biggie is like, no, when you
slipped on the ropes, and he wasn't happy about that,
but you know, he recovered quickly and it was fine.
I love the finish. Hayes set up for a facebuster
to Andrade Night cuts in and he drops him with

(33:47):
the BFT but in the same motion Hayes took Andrade
down anyway for the move, and so then Andrade rolls away,
Night covers Hayes and he pins him to retain the title.
Great finish to a great match. Andrade and Carmelo now
have lost to La Knight in singles matches and now
here they have lost to him all at the same time.
So they are done as far as being contenders for

(34:10):
the US title, and it is on to the next
for La Knight, whoever that might be. There is no
obvious next challenger for him, and if ever there was
a time for a montese Ford singles run, especially a
heel run, he would be a great choice. And he
has not been shy about voicing his frustration with his
spot in the company. He told the Daily Mail this week.

(34:33):
For me to sit here and go like, how's it going,
that it's good, that would be a lie. There's always
pleasure in doing what you love, what you admire, what
you've dreamt of, but it does get to that sense
of frustration where anything you try to accomplish in life,
where you may feel like it's either taking too long,
or it's been too long or nothing is happening. I'm
not going to lie and say that I don't sit

(34:54):
here and watch all the comments and everything. I watch everything.
We're not in conversations when it comes to time tag teams.
We're not in conversations when it comes to anything wrestling
related besides the fact of getting handled by the Bloodline,
and that doesn't sit well with me. So as well
as it's going in terms of being my dream job,
it's as enjoyable as it is frustrating. This is the

(35:16):
crossroads that I am at right now in life. Ever
since I was a kid, I always wanted to be
WWE Champion. Now I've got the dream job I wanted,
been with this tag team and it's been fantastic. But
I've also made a lot of changes and adjustments to
try to be successful within this tag team, and I'm
now at the point where I've done everything to be successful.
I've tried to do something for a long time and

(35:38):
there's still no success. I'm looking at the universe. I'm
trying to look at the signs. Is it time to
adjust to a new era, a new mode, a new mindset,
or do I need to start getting rid of people?
I hope he's saying this out loud now is part
of a story that they're going to tell on TV.
But I don't want to give them credit for an

(35:58):
idea that I might just be he manifesting in my
own head. That getting rid of people line, though, that
stood out to me. If I'm Angelo Dawkins, I'm keeping
this guy in arms length. After that, and it was
Cody Rhodes over Gnther to become the first ever Men's
Crown Jewel Champion. Like the match that Gother had with
Randy Orton in Berlin, this was just a great professional

(36:20):
wrestling match. There was no bullshit. It was no outside interference,
which you know, Goother doesn't typically have in his matches anyway.
But I thought we might see Kevin Owens back out there. Nope,
no Kevin Owens. The crowd was hot for it. Goother
kept trying for the sleeper that he put Cody out
with at the end of SmackDown on Friday. He slipped
out at one point, hit across roads, the shotgun, drop

(36:44):
kick and power bomb with a stack by Goother only
got two. Cody tried for a super Cody Cutter, but
Goother caught him in mid air. In the sleeper, but
Cody rolled over and trapped Goother's shoulders the old Bret
Hart spot from WrestleMania eight, and he pinned Gunther to
win the Crown Jewel title. Goother pounded the mat in

(37:05):
frustration because he knew he got caught only the second
time that Gunther has been pinned since coming to the
main roster. That is how well they had protected him
so far. And if he was going to get pinned,
at least he got pinned by the WWE champion. And
it was a spot where he simply got caught. You know,
he wasn't beaten decisively. He wasn't pinned with a crossroads

(37:26):
or three, since apparently it takes three if your Cody
to beat most people on this roster, which is a
sign that he needs a new fucking finish if it
takes three of them to win. But nope, he didn't
get beat that way either. He got caught. I mean,
that's how Brett Hart used to beat guys. It wasn't
always with a sharpshooter in the middle of the ring.
You know, he would get his ass handed to him
and he would escape by the skin of his teeth.

(37:49):
It's the same way. He beat Piper in ninety two
and Austin in ninety six. He pinned Bam Bam Bigelow
with a victory roll to win King of the Ring.
He pinned the Bulldog in ninety five with a La
Mahi stral cradle Diesel in ninety five with a small
package at Survivor Series. Diesel was so frustrated he mouthed
stupid motherfucker in clear view of the camera after he
got pinned, which is something you didn't see back in

(38:12):
nineteen ninety five. WWF, I will tell you, but that's
the kind of loss that it was for Gunther, you know,
and he knew it, and he confronted Cody after the
match was over. He said something to him. We couldn't
hear what it was, but they shook hands and Gunther
left so showing sportsmanship in defeat. He is honestly unlike

(38:32):
any other top heel that I have ever seen in
this company. It is so rare to find a top
heel like that over the years in WWEE. It's just
not the way that Vince did it. Not that every
heel was the chickenshit heel. I think most of them
were but even the tough heel like they didn't act
like this. If they did, if they showed sportsmanship, it

(38:54):
was very, very rare. But that's one of the things
that I love about Gunther In the way he's presented.
Triple H was back out to present the Crown Jewel
title to Cody, and they brought liv Morgan back out
with her belt so the two of them could pose together.
To some pyro, I thought she was going to fall
over holding that thing. It has to be the biggest,

(39:14):
most expensive championship they have ever created, and I'm sure
the Saudi's they kicked in the money for it. I'm sure.
I don't even want to speculate how much money these
belts must cost. And you won't be seeing them again
for another year because they're staying in Riod. They're going
to be locked away in a vault, they said, until
next year's Crown Jewel. But Cody in lived. They got

(39:37):
their own Crown Jewel rings to wear, like a Super
Bowl ring or the old WCW Battle Bowl ring. The
less set about battle Bowl, the better. I mean, who
wouldn't want to see Brian Knobs and Johnny b Bad
against my God? Who they read they were matched up randomly.
I just saw the show a few weeks ago. Don't

(39:57):
ask me why Johnny b B and Brian Kobbs randomly matched
up against Eric Watts and Paul Roma. This show is
much better than battle Bowl. I bet you won't find
that line in any other review this week, and that
you're gonna hear. But like battle Bowl, the Crown Jewel
stuff was completely pointless. At least here we got a

(40:18):
great main event out of it. You know again, I
can't go thumbs down on this show, even though it
wasn't really all that interesting to me, because some of
the wrestling was really good and the bloodline angle in
the opening match with Sammy was well done, and that
does forward one major story heading into Survivor series. This
week's episode is sponsored by Express VPN. I got a

(40:39):
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(42:07):
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(42:51):
few hours before SmackDown, WWE announced three talent releases, Baron KORbin,
Indie Heartwell, who wrestled on SmackDown later that night, an
Tigan Knox. They are all gone and all of them
will become free agents in ninety days. None of these
three are that surprising at all. Maybe Indy a little bit,
just because she's had a little more FaceTime on TV

(43:13):
than the other two. But even with Indy, I mean,
they weren't doing anything with her. Corbin it we'll start
with him, he posted on social media. That's all she wrote. Folks,
it's been real and I appreciate everyone who supported me.
You know, Corbyn's been real friendly on Twitter over the
years with MJF. I'm just saying I'm not advocating anything.

(43:36):
I'm just saying those two working together in some way
two douchebags on TV, since they play them so well,
I mean, that could be interesting. But look, you know,
Corbin had been with the company since twenty twelve, and
in that time he did well in NXT. He was
never the NXT champion or anything, but he had a
decent rundown there as the lone Wolf right with the scullet.

(43:57):
Once he got called up in twenty sixteen, he was
like a modern day Brutus Beefcake. He went through gimmick
after gimmick after gimmick, the Lone Wolf, King Corbin, constable, Corbin,
bumb ass Corbin, Happy Corbin, Happy Corbyn, but with a
JBL in his corner. I mean, they handed this man

(44:18):
so much shit. I don't think that anybody could have
made it work. The King Corbin stuff was terrible and
it went on for way too long. Then they made
him constable of the Raw brand, which is when we
got the infamous segment on Raw with all the McMahon's
basically apologizing to us for how terrible a television show
Raw was at that time. That's how you know the

(44:40):
show was bad when they turned it into an angle
on TV about how fucking terrible the show was. Truly
the dark days of Raw. But in storyline they tried
to assign blame for how bad the show was to
Baron Corbin. They made him the scapegoat to try to
deflect the heat away from themselves. Broke ass Corbin. That

(45:01):
was the best Baron Corbyn we ever got outside of
the initial lone wolf stuff. That was the most entertaining
he's ever been. But then his luck turned around and
he got rich and so he was happy Corbin. And
then they paired him with the well, I mean they
had the pairing with him and oh gosh, who is
his sidekick? It really, it truly is out of sight,

(45:24):
out of my med cap Moss. There you go, my goodness,
mad cat Moss. They added him to the act. Yeah,
that turned out real great. Then they paired him up
with JBL which will go down as one of the
worst pairings in WWE history, right. I mean it is
right there next to Alberto Del Rio and Zeb Culter. Okay,

(45:44):
the Del Rio and the ZEB pairing made absolutely no sense,
which is why Vince did it, because he's a weirdo.
So that was a Vince McMahon idea and it didn't work.
The Corbyn and the JBL pairing, that was a Triple
H idea, just to show all of you the Triple H.
He doesn't always cook the way that people say he does.
I have to go online every every now and then,

(46:05):
every now and then, I every fucking week, and there's
always somebody, Oh, boy, Triple H is cooking, right, Let
him cook, isn't that what they say? Yeah? Well what
he cooked up there tasted like shit and they knew it,
which is why they nuked the pairing after I think
it was about three or four months. And they didn't
just nuke it. They had JBL go on TV in

(46:27):
a backstage segment with this guy after he lost another
match and absolutely buried this man six feet under the ground,
right to his face, right down to telling him you
can't polish a turd. I tried. There was no coming
back from that. The only thing you could do to
try to salvage this man at that point was send

(46:49):
him back down to NXT, put a fresh coat of
pain on him, get him off of the main roster
for as long as humanly possible, make people forget that
any of that stuff ever happened. And he actually he
found some success down there as a fan favorite. No Less,
He and bron Breaker, they got paired up as the
wolf Dogs and they won the NXT tag team titles
and the fans really took to them. But then he

(47:11):
got drafted to SmackDown and they tried to do the
same with him and Apollo Cruise, and that was the
beginning of the end for him. It's like die Jack,
dye Jack, he said. As soon as he found out
that he was being drafted from NXT to raw, he
said shit because he knew, he knew he was finished.
And sure enough, it wasn't even two months later he

(47:32):
was gone. They decided not to renew his deal. It's
like somebody asked me during the SmackDown stream on Friday
night about Giovanni Vinshi. Whatever happened to Vinci? That's a
great question. I'm shocked that Vinci was not on the
cut list. They ran weeks of vignettes for him just
to bring him back the way they did. He got
beat like a jabron in three seconds and that was it.

(47:54):
He was done. After that, he made one more appearance
and we haven't seen him since. We haven't even heard
his name mentioned. He is done. He may pop back
up on TV again for a one off at some
point if they need somebody to beat, but he may
as well go and ask for his release right now
because his career is dead in the water if he
stays in that company. That's what happens when they don't

(48:18):
have any plans for you. You don't need to be
in the writer's room to know who they have plans
for and who they don't, who they see as stars
and who they don't. Just watch the shows. You don't
need any inside information on that. Just watch the television shows.
Corbin had one of the worst money in the banksians
of all time, right up there with Austin theory. He

(48:40):
was constantly saddled with shitty gimmicks and shitty angles, and
the one time they do something entertaining with him, they
pivot away to a far less interesting gimmick. That is
the story of Baron Corby. Match wise, the guy can
can wrestle. I mean, his matches were fine. He had
some cool moves, but not cool enough to make him
interesting in the absence of a good story, and they

(49:02):
just never had one for him. So he's a guy
who I think could do well on the indie scene
if that's something he wants to pursue. I remember in
NXT he used to heal on indie guys to get heat.
He told Apolo Cruz ones in a takeover match. It
might have been in Brooklyn. He goes go back to
Ring of Honor, even though Cruz never worked for Ring
of Honor. That's what made it so funny. And now

(49:23):
he's in a position where he may be the indie guy.
You know, but people have left WWE and they have
reinvented themselves and come back bigger than they were before.
Drew McIntyre is the best example I could think of.
He was doing goofy shit too in three MB and
look at where he is now. You can't say that
if somebody is doing a goofy cartoony silly gimmick, that

(49:44):
that's it, they're done, that they can never be redeemed
because Drew McIntyre is a great example of the fact
that you can be redeemed. The big difference in that
example is that McIntyre was twenty nine years old when
he got cut from WWE. Corbin is forty, so the
clock is ticking. But I mean, just because he's forty
doesn't mean that his career is over. But he's going

(50:05):
to have to go out and show people that WWE
was sleeping on him and that they weren't right, and
that Corbin is mid and there just isn't anything there
as far as a major star power. Clearly that's the
way they felt. That's why they cut him. It's up
to him to go out and put the work in
improve people wrong. If he can do that, then he's
got a shot. And if not, if WWE was right,

(50:26):
then he was just a mid guy who didn't offer
them any real value. Then he'll be that EXWWE guy
who wants smeared dog food on Roman raids. The choice
is his. Indy Hartwell, she was a former NXT women's champion.
She got called up and as with many others, they
didn't have any real ideas for what to do with her.

(50:47):
She was Candice Laray's sidekick. She peaked in NXT with
the Dexter Loves Indie stuff and the wedding with Dexter Loomis.
That was a fun storyline, But I was also thinking
to myself, what were the memorable matches that Indy Hartwell
had in her time in WWE, even going back to NXT,
I can't think of a single one. You know. I'm

(51:09):
sure she must have been part of some really good,
you know, multi person matches, but I mean as far
as like a big singles match, I can't think of
a single one. And maybe that was part of the problem.
But when they don't have anything for you, it's all
hell of a lot easier for them to cut what
they see as dead weight. Indy is another one who

(51:32):
I don't think is going to hurt finding work somewhere else.
And then Tigan Knox, who has not wrestled a match
since July. She made it very clear on social media
that it wasn't because she was out hurt. She said,
some things are just out of your control and you
can only do as much as you can. Let's clear
one thing up though, I'm ready, I've been ready. Just

(51:54):
have to show people what they've missed Tigan Knox is
a case of what if? What if she never got hurt?
What if she would have won the May Young Classic
like they wanted her to. What big plans might they
have had for her. I know they re signed her
two years ago, and they were already well aware of

(52:15):
her injury history. So you can't lay it all on
the injuries. But you also cannot honestly sit there and
tell me that her injury history did not play a
role in their reluctance to do anything major with her.
Her body betrayed her. It betrayed her at all the
wrong moments. Three ACL tears in the span of four years.

(52:35):
And I believe she tore her ACL the first time
playing soccer before she ever even set foot in a
wrestling ring. I know it was a serious knee injury.
I'm pretty sure it was her ACL. That's four ACL
tears in her life. You know, they called Steve Austin
the Bionic Redneck because of all of his surgeries, the neck,
the knees. She's like the bionic Woman. One of the

(52:58):
most heartbreaking things I'll ever see in a wrestling ring
is her screaming and crying in agony in the ring
with Rhea Ripley when she realized that she just tore
her acl again and she was crying, and not only
because of the pain, but she was crying that she
can't go through this again because in her mind, she
knew immediately and she knew all the rehab, everything she
had done previously. I can't, I can't go through this again.

(53:21):
And the building, you know, full sale, was just stone
cold silent, and you see people crying in the crowd.
Your heart breaks for her. Her knee exploded. She tore
so many things that night, and she fought hard to
come back from that, But at no point did it
ever feel like they were truly committed to doing anything
with her. So if she's annoyed that people have called

(53:43):
her injury prone damage goods and they think that she
can't go anymore because of all the injuries in ninety days,
she has the chance to go out and make fools
out of those people. She's already teasing the return of Nixon. Noel,
I'm rooting for her. What a shitty for her career
to end if this were to be it. I hope
she can come back and stay healthy. That was always

(54:05):
the question with her can she stay healthy. If she can,
she can make a quality addition to the women's division somewhere.
There are other people on that roster that have very
good reason to be worried that they might be next.
And it sucks because it's not a case of them
being lazy. I mean, these are people that want to work.

(54:25):
They don't fly all over the country and come to
work and just want to sit in the back and
have a sandwich and watch everything on a monitor. They
want to be featured on TV, but it's largely out
of their hands if they're advocating for themselves and they're
lobbying for more ring time, more television time, Like Cameron
Grimes was doing that. Trevor Lee when he was in
WWE every week at TV and he just didn't interview

(54:48):
recently and talked about the power struggle between Vince McMahon
and Triple H. Vince McMahon wasn't going to do anything
with him. He had more hope that Triple H might,
but he was coming to TV every single week and
he he was probably pestering people, but I would too.
He just wants to work. He just wants to go
out there and just wrestle and show what he can
do every single week. That's all you can do. All

(55:12):
you can do is sit and wait for the inevitable
to happen. Or you can go and be proactive and
you can ask for your release and hope they give
it to you so that you can go work somewhere
else and drive up your value. Your value is not
going anywhere if you're just sitting in the back doing nothing.
WWE this week announced the launch of its new Independent

(55:34):
Wrestler Development Program, or the WWEID program as they're calling it.
They already have their next in line program to recruit
college athletes. They started that in twenty twenty one. Gable
Steveson was their first NIL signee that didn't work out
too well, but Obafemi was part of their first NIL
class and he's turned into one of their biggest prospects.

(55:56):
This is like a companion program to that, but for
independent wrestlers. They're not partnering with indie promotions, which is
an important distinction to make that. I think a lot
of people have either overlooked or I don't know if
just not aware of the fact that this is not
tied into indie promotions per se but with select training

(56:18):
schools and individual wrestlers themselves. The point is to establish
a pathway for them to one day join WWE. Doesn't
mean they will, but they kind of get first DIBs
and maybe one day they'll end up working for the company.
In a press release, they said, under the program, WWE
will provide prominent independent wrestling schools with the WWEID Official

(56:41):
Designation with the goal of providing new trainees and existing
talent at these select institutions with enhanced developmental opportunities. Booker
T's Reality of Wrestling out of Houston, Cody Rhoades is
Nightmare Factory out of Atlanta, Seth Rolins Black and Brave
Academy out of Davenport, Iowa. Elite Pro Wrestling Training Center

(57:02):
out of Concord, New Hampshire, and knock x Pro Academy
out of Los Angeles, which is Rikishi School, are the
first wwe ID independent wrestling schools to earn the official designation. Additionally,
WWEID will identify top independent wrestling prospects with an Official
Prospect designation and support their developmental journey by providing financial

(57:26):
opportunity and assisting with training, mentorship, and development, including access
to world class facilities, best in class ring training, athletic trainers,
and more. WWEID will give fans the opportunity to follow
the paths of these standout prospects on the independent wrestling
scene through curated behind the scenes content as well as
highlights and matches showcased across WWE's social platforms. So what

(57:54):
is this breaking this down? What does this mean for WWE?
What does this mean for these schools? What does this
mean for the independen scene. For WWE, they get first
crack at top prospects, That's really what it boils down to.
And for the schools, it's a great deal because they
get the WWE Seal of Approval, which makes them more
attractive to prospective students. And for the ones that run

(58:15):
their own shows, they're going to have access to NXT
talent that WWE may send for more seasoning. They've scaled
back a lot on house shows. I mean, I'm not
just talking main roster, but NXT someone like a soul
Ruka for example. But I checked on this. She has
not wrestled on an NXT live event since the end
of August. Lolavice September twentieth, Javon Evans September twenty seventh.

(58:41):
They're not running as many shows as they should. You
cannot replicate working in front of a crowd by just
working matches at the PC, and they're only going to
scale back on these live events even further in twenty
twenty five. So that's one of the benefits is that
you can have some of these people that you sort
of loan out to. I know Booker T for example,

(59:02):
he you know Reality of Wrestling. They run their own shows.
I don't know that seth Rollins Academy, does you know?
But I know Booker T's does. And Booker T has
had NXT talent come out to ROW before. But in
some of these cases, if they're not getting enough reps
let's say at the live events down in Florida wherever
NXT is running these shows, typically it can be beneficial

(59:23):
to them to go down to Houston and work a
show at, you know, an ROW event. So there's benefits
in that respect. I think that go both ways. Her
PW Insider, former Ring of Honor and Evolved booker Gabe
Sapolski will be among the names overseeing the program. If
the PC is the finishing school quote unquote. The idea

(59:44):
is to have WWE ID accredited schools be places where
beginners can go and where independent talents who have potential
can be pointed to train at for continued improvement. Where
there may be some ripple effect on the independen scene,
could be talents that want to get in or stay
in WWE's good graces, focusing on doing only what would

(01:00:05):
be best for them to get funneled through the WWE's system.
That could lead to a change in how some talents
direct their path in the business, the same way that
the opening of OVW and FCW led to talents rushing
to move to Kentucky or Florida, hoping that by being
geographically close to those then WWE developmental systems, they would

(01:00:26):
have an inn If talents are primarily concerned about getting in,
they're going to do whatever they believe would be best
in WWE's eyes, and that will change how they pursue
pro wrestling. A few independent promoters we spoke with have
already worried that this could be the American equivalent of
WWE signing all of the British talents ahead of the
launch of NXTUK, where talents will have issues doing jobs

(01:00:50):
or even end up pulled from dates at WWE's behest.
But whether those fears are correctly founded remains to be seen.
It is too early to tell, but the there is
no doubt that this could tip the scales and what
indie wrestlers will want to achieve and aim for right
out of the gate in their careers and how and
where they decide to work. That could also be a

(01:01:12):
downside because if all of these talents are being taught
to achieve what WWE wants, that could break down the
uniqueness that pervades the independen scene. The only thing I
would push back on there, as you know, you look
around at the independen scene, is there really a lot
of uniqueness anymore? It just seems to me like across

(01:01:34):
wrestling in general, let alone the independen scene, there isn't
a whole lot of uniqueness anymore. I mean, the last
really unique sort of presentation of wrestling that I could
think of that I personally enjoyed, and this is not
indie per se, but Louch Underground. Lucha Underground was such
a different, unique, creative take on what wrestling could be,

(01:01:58):
and I really enjoy I enjoyed the sort of cinematic
nature of how a lot of the segments were filmed,
really the whole show, how the whole show was filmed.
And yeah, they went over the top, and it was
very cartoony with some of the gimmicks and people were
killed off and stuff like that, And that could be
a turnoff because in some people's eyes, that's not what
wrestling should be, right, But it was a unique enough

(01:02:22):
twist on wrestling, and they had the right talent for
it and the right performers that I really was very
disappointed and very sad when Luca Underground just sort of
fizzled out. It never even got a proper ending. But
I look at wrestling today and I look at all
these promotions and even the independen scene, and you try
to be creative in the way that you present wrestling,

(01:02:44):
you know, we try to do that with House of
Glory even you know, we specifically try to borrow from
that Luca Underground mentality with some of the vignettes. We
have great, very talented people audio video people who helped
film some of this stuff do a tremendous job. I've
had the chance to be part of some of these
segments and you get to turn around after the fact

(01:03:06):
and watch them back, and it's like, there's really nobody
else right now on the independen scene, for example, doing
stuff like that, and so you try to be unique
in that respect. But by and large, when I really
think about the entire scene, I don't know these days
that there's a whole lot going on that truly I
would call unique and creative in a way that we

(01:03:30):
haven't seen before. And I know what Mike is getting at,
you know, Mike Johnson when he makes that comment, and
it's true. I mean, this is something that could only
erode that even further. But I already feel like we're
in a situation where there's just not a whole lot
of unique shit going on in wrestling. Everything just kind
of feels the same. So personally, I already feel like
we're there. We're already seeing that issue play itself out.

(01:03:52):
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston they did a podcast together
this week and revealed that several indie talents are already
under WAD deals. No names have been announced yet. I
said it on Twitter right after the news broke, and
we had a great discussion about this on TNT Tuesday Night.
The reality is you have a lot of independent talent.

(01:04:13):
I would say the majority of them, not all of them,
but the majority of them who aspire to one day
work for WWE. They grew up a fan, They grew
up dreaming of one day wrestling a WrestleMania. WWE is
also the biggest promotion in the world. Business is booming
for them right now. They want to make money, so
any opportunity for them to find an easier pathway there

(01:04:37):
for them. It's a great thing and it's smart business
on WWE's part to partner with these schools, not only
because it gets the men at the ground level when
it comes to these prospects, but it's like having many
nxts in different places throughout the country without the expense
of building more performance centers, which cost millions and millions
of dollars and have to be staffed. This is their
way around that. In some ways, it's very much like

(01:05:01):
the idea that I pitched years ago for them to
create their own little territory system partnering with existing schools.
I mentioned land Storm at the time. I don't think
he's doing his academy anymore, but he was at the
time that I talked about this, and I cited him
as one example. Why not partner with somebody like land
Storm at his school and you'll have a presence up
there in Canada and then one here and one there.

(01:05:21):
It's very much the same concept. Remember Billy Corgan, he
said that he was bringing back the territories for the
NWA where they would collaborate with different promotions and give
them the NWA Affiliate designation and they would give them
access to NWA talent. Just this morning actually they announced
a new partner in WLW, which is Harley Race's old promotion.

(01:05:44):
The thing is the NWA name. It doesn't mean anything
like what it used to. But collaboration is fine. Collaboration
is a good thing. We're seeing it now with NXT
and tna AW collaborates with New Japan and with CMLL.
I think collaboration is a great thing. But this is
more than just collaboration. And that's where the other side

(01:06:05):
of this comes in, where some people, like those independent
promoters that Mike mentioned, are worried about where this leads,
and I think for good reason. I worry that we
may end up with fewer talents who might otherwise have
worked television in other places before WWE, or maybe they
would have gone to Japan, maybe they would have gone
to Europe or Mexico or other places, learning the different

(01:06:28):
styles and making a name for themselves. Who now that
they're being targeted at such a young age by WWE,
they might not go down that path. They may just
see a straight line to WWE and that's it. This
was always the concern when TRIPLEH announced his plan for
global domination years ago for NXT, he was going to

(01:06:49):
have other nxts set up in other countries. We're going
to get NXT Japan, We're going to get NXT Mexico.
We're going to get NXT here and there are we
going to lose out? Now on the next CMPI unk
Where does the next Brian Danielson come from? Or Walter
or will Osprey who cut their teeth on the ndcene,
working all different places. Because it wasn't just about going

(01:07:12):
straight to WWE. That's a concern. I mentioned NXT UK before,
right look at how that turned out. Originally it was
just going on hiatus. They were preparing to launch this
thing called NXT Europe. We're still waiting for NXT Europe
to become a thing. In the meantime, they gutted the
UK roster and they picked out a few names they

(01:07:33):
wanted to keep. I mean, it wasn't a hiatus, and
then people knew it wasn't just a hiatus, it was
a permanent hiatus. But the NXTUK brand was not a
positive for the UK ind scene. And I will also
say the UK indy scene was also a fucking cesspool,
as we found out, and a lot of the damage
was self inflicted. You can't lay that all at the
feet of WWE. But what did they do. They came in,

(01:07:58):
they rated all of the good talent and limited a
lot of the other places then that they could work
because now we have them under contract and they have
control over where you can and can't work. So when
WWE gets involved, if you're an indie promoter, you can
understand why they might get a little clammy, you know,
why they might get that lump in their throat. Yeah,

(01:08:20):
right now, we're not talking about independent promotions. But that
doesn't mean that eventually it doesn't lead down that road.
They can just see an army of WWE recruits coming
in and saying, oh, I can't lose. I'm a WWE
ID guy. Look I got my badge. Sorry, believe me.

(01:08:40):
That's bad enough as it is on the NDCNE it
already happens. Now you're gonna have an army of people,
even younger, who think, oh I can't lose. You know,
WWE's got their eye on me. You got to make
me look good. But right now we're not talking about
indie promotions. We're talking about training schools. So far, who
knows where this may lead. For now, it sounds like

(01:09:02):
a positive thing. WWE can only recruit so many NIL talents.
A lot of them are never gonna sign with WWE.
A lot of them are never gonna pan out. Like
on TNT the other night, I mentioned the Cavender Twins, right,
I think we saw them once on TV. Because the
way the NIL program works, it's not like they're not
signing you and now you're a WWE talent, right, They're

(01:09:22):
basically it's like they're putting their stamp on you and saying, Okay,
we're gonna provide you with access to our training facility
and you know, all of these opportunities and then maybe
if you want to maybe, then if you want to
do this, you'll sign with us, right. That's the whole
point of the program. You're gonna have a lot of
people in that NIL program and in those classes who
are never gonna make it. I compare it to other

(01:09:44):
minor leagues and other sports. You know the minor league
system in baseball. Do you know how many of those
minor league players ultimately make it to the major leagues?
Very few, very very few. They need independent talent. It
can't just be relying on one NIL recruits collegiate athletes.
It's got to be a mix of both. You look

(01:10:05):
at the men scene right now on NXT, it is
a bleak, especially when you compare it to the women's division.
It is night and day. But there are still questions
that need to be answered. How restrictive are these ID
designations If they get an offer from another promotion. Let's
say somebody is a WWEID talent, but they get an

(01:10:26):
offer from AW and they want to take it. Does
WWE have the right of first refusal? They have the
right to match it, even if that person has already
decided I don't want to go to WWE, I want
to go to AW. Right if WWE wants them the
talent may not have a say in the matter if
you are tied to WWE in some way, this billion
dollar company. At that point, can you truly call yourself independent?

(01:10:52):
You know the financial aspect mentioned in the press release,
What does that mean? They didn't explain what that means.
Are they paying anything to the schools or is it
the talent themselves. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.
For WWE, though, it's a no brainer. And for the talent, look,
nobody is saying they have to go to WWE, but
they obviously do things a certain way, and you'll eventually

(01:11:15):
have to adapt to their way of doing things if
you ever want to work there. And maybe the ID
designation gets them paid more when they work indy dates,
you know, kind of like how when a legend gets
inducted into their Hall of Fame, they get to promote
themselves at conventions and meet and greets as a WWE
Hall of Famer, and they probably get to charge more
depending on the different stakeholders involved. There are pros and constatus,

(01:11:39):
and there are still questions that need to be answered.
And just when I thought we were done with the
old geezer, we come to learn this week from pw
Insider that Vince McMahon is preparing to launch a new company,
but it is not a wrestling company. Multiple sources with
knowledge of the situation have confirmed McMahon has been in

(01:12:01):
the process of setting up what has been described as
a new entertainment hub company that would financially back, develop,
and produce film and television productions. The belief among those
we've spoken with is that there are no plans for
the company to launch anything similar to WWE, and they
would instead focus on fiction and non fiction projects. Pw

(01:12:22):
Insider is also told that several WWE alumni are already
working with McMahon to get the company prepped, with the
idea of officially unveiling it if and when his legal
issues are resolved. Brad Blum, WWE's former chief operating officer,
has long been a McMahon loyalist and is confirmed to
be working on the project. Blum was McMahon's chief of

(01:12:44):
staff when he reigned supreme in the company, and he
had originally departed after Vince's first retirement in the wake
of the Wall Street Journal articles. When McMahon returned to
sell WWE to Endeavor, Blum quickly followed after McMahon's second exit,
Blum remained for several months before resigning in May. We
are also told that Kristin Proudy, who is WWE's liaison

(01:13:08):
to the Hollywood World before being let go earlier this year,
is also on board. Proudy came to WWE's attention as
the original casting director for the initial Diva search won
by Christy Hemy. She's credited with finding lots of talents
who came into the company, including the Bellas and the
mizz and would have been the person booking raw guest

(01:13:29):
hosts and locking in celebrities for storylines. The company is
expected to be based out of the Los Angeles area
if and when it officially launches. We are told that
Kevin Dunn has not been involved in this new venture
at all. That may be the most surprising part about
the whole thing. Give it time. I'm sure he'll pop

(01:13:51):
his head above ground soon enough. The man's name is
toxic sludge right now. I don't think any network would
want to touch him or anything that he may be funding.
But it's the entertainment business. There's a lot of very
sleazy people in the entertainment business, and when you have
a lot of money to spend. Never underestimate the power
of the almighty dollar. All I'm going to say is this,

(01:14:12):
this man started a bodybuilding federation and it failed. He
started a supplement brand and it failed. He started a
football league and it failed. He opened a restaurant in
Times Square and it failed. He bought a casino in
Las Vegas and he sold it before he could do
anything with it. It failed. Everything this man has ever
tried outside the realm of professional wrestling has been a failure.

(01:14:36):
So unless he is just the moneyman and other people
will be running the day to day operations, there is
no reason to expect that this is going to be
any different. Now. This week coming up is going to
be a very interesting week because NXT is out of
its normal time slot on Tuesday and it is going
to be airing on Wednesday this week only opposite AW

(01:14:58):
Dynamite from eight to ten PE and NXT this week
is going to be emanating from the twenty three hundred
Arena in Philadelphia, which is the old ECW Arena, and
they are loading up on ECW nostalgia. So they have
already announced that Bubba Ray Dudley is going to be
tagging with Trick Williams to take on Ethan Page and
Ridge Holland we are going to also have Rob Van

(01:15:22):
Dam making a special appearance. He will probably end up
being the guest referee. They were teasing a match between
Wes Lee and Javon Evans, so RVD is going to
be involved there in some way. Probably is a referee,
not a triple threat. There's going to be a hardcore match.
Jada Parker is taking on Lolavice. Dawn Marie is coming

(01:15:43):
back as a special guest referee for that match. And
this is what I am most interested in. It's not
Bully the Clown, It's not any of this other stuff.
It is a ten woman tag And what a site.
This was on Tuesday on NXT because we had the
n Ring debut of Zaria. They have the former Delta
and then things broke down when the match was over,

(01:16:06):
and you know she is using brock Lesnar's F five
as her finish. She looks great by the way, I
mean the makeup and her costuming, her presentation. She looks
just fantastic. In no time, I was gonna say a
relatively short period of time. In no time at all,
They've already just created a star out of this woman,
who I guarantee you ninety eight percent of the people

(01:16:27):
watching the show had no fucking idea who she was before.
All Right, there was a lot of hype around the
debut of Stephanie Vicaire and around Julia, and they're great,
but this woman just feels like she came out of
nowhere and just already has become one of the top
stars in NXT. And there she is in the ring
and she's surrounded by all of these other women fatal influence,
and here comes Rock San Perez, and here comes Coora Jade,

(01:16:50):
and she's out numbered. Here what Zaria gonna do? Right? Well,
here it comes Klanie Jordan, and here comes Julia, and
here comes Stephanie Vicaire and they're still outnumbered. It's still
five on four. And then Jordan Grace from TNA makes
a surprise appearance. They clear the ring of the heels
and we get the visual of all of these women,
all five of these women, but especially like you've got

(01:17:11):
Jordan Grace and you've got Zaria, and they're standing there
and it's like there's no competition here for these women,
and they're all going to be a team. There's a
ten women tag on the show this week. All five
of those babyfaces I just mentioned, including Zaria, who I
guess is a babyface, are going to be taking on
Roxan Perez, Corrige, Aide, Fallon Henley, j C. Jaane, and

(01:17:32):
Jasmine Nicks. You know, with Rhea Ripley going down with
the injury, obviously she's not going to be wrestling at
Survivor Series. I was trying to think of if they're
going to do a women's Wargames match, which I'm sure
they're going to, the only thing that would have made
sense would have been Team Ria against Team Live. You
could have made something like that work. Now Ria's out
of the equation. I look at the Survivor Series show

(01:17:55):
coming up at the end of the month. I don't
see a reason to do a women's Wargames match. It
is gonna feel complempletely and utterly forced, and there's just
no reason for it. And it's a shame because if
they were willing to do it, and I don't think
they are. But you look at that site we had
on NXT this week, right and they're already doing the
ten women tag this week coming up. You could have

(01:18:15):
had a war Games match out of that five on five.
There you go. You could have done a war Games
match with those ladies. But to take what's going on
right now on NXT and throw it on Survivor Series,
I don't see them doing that. I would just assume
they don't bother with the women's war Games this year.
Ultus they want to throw the NXT ladies on there,

(01:18:36):
then you got a war Games match ready and waiting.
I'm looking forward to that more than anything else on
the show. But I'm looking forward to watching NXT this week.
You know. The nostalgia thing is going to make I
think for a fun atmosphere, given all of the history
that ECW had in that venue. And I know the
venue has been renovated since then. It's not exactly like

(01:18:56):
the old ECW Arena, but there was a lot of
history in that venue. Five me fuck. Tony Kahn talked
about how his dad used to bring him to the
ECW Arena for shows. He was such a big ECW
mark back in the day. I wouldn't be shocked if
while Dynamite is on, Tony's got the NXT show on
a little TV screen on his desk there at the
gorilla position. I'm going to be watching NXT on Wednesday.

(01:19:20):
As far as live streaming is concerned, I am considering
reviewing both shows. I really don't want to do that
and go back and forth. At the very least, I'll
be doing an NXT live review on Wednesday, if not both,
and if I don't do both, we'll just talk about
Dynamite on the podcast next weekend. But just so you
know what the plan is for this week, I will

(01:19:40):
be reviewing at the very least NXT on Wednesday. Now.
I just think it's shaping up to be the more
fund of the two shows. And I really love the
vibe in the atmosphere in Saint Louis a few weeks
ago when they were at the Factory, so I can
only imagine what the vibe is going to be in
Philadelphia this week. And in a recent interview on the

(01:20:01):
Hitting the Turnbuckle podcast, I had to mention this because
this put a smile on my face. Bill Edy and
Barry Darco Acts and Smash of Demolition were asked about
the WWE Hall of Fame, and Darzo revealed that they
were actually invited to attend last year's ceremony, not not
to be inducted, but just to attend the festivities. But

(01:20:23):
they had to turn it down first. This is what
Edie said. Well, we never had an objection to going in.
There was a lot of politics involved, and now it's changed,
like you say, and hopefully the change for the better
with our relationship. But we've never been in contact with
anybody from the office and the only person that made
the decision for anything before was Vince, and we were

(01:20:43):
on on Vince's like list, I guess. But we've never
objected to being inducted. We've never objected to being included
in anything with WWE, so quite possibly it could happen.
But one thing we haven't done. We have not lost
any sleep over it. Darso said. Now, last year at
wrestle Mania time, right before Madia, they called us and
they invited us to wrestle Mania and they invited us

(01:21:05):
to the Hall of Fame, and that was a big
change with Triple H in there. I'm sure that was
all his idea. We had to unfortunately turn them down
because the person who brought us in, he paid for
us to come in, and we were busy doing stuff
with him, So it wasn't like we could just leave
and jump ship and go over there. And I'm hoping
they understood it, and they should have. But that was

(01:21:26):
the first kind of hey, you guys want to come
and be with us a moment. So that was a
good sign. So there's hope yet, that's the first positive
sign that they might actually be willing to work with
Demolition in some way. Two men, by the way, that
have had long singles careers even outside of their run
as Demolition, and if they're ever going to be acknowledged,

(01:21:48):
it would be nice for it to happen before they're
not around anymore. So Triple H, let's make it happen,
AX and Smash Hall of Fame, Las Vegas, twenty twenty five.
Switching over to AW. At the end of the Fright
Night episode of Dynamite Wednesday, Bobby Lashley made his AW debut.

(01:22:10):
Came out after Swerve Strickland's win over Shelton Benjamin. He
laid a beat down on Swerve. The Hurt Syndicate is here, Lashly,
Benjamin and MVP and who knows what other members. MVP
may add I throw out the name Will Hobbs, the
other day only because it looks like he has no
spot anymore in the don Kallis family when he comes back.

(01:22:31):
But honestly, you know who I think could work in
this spot Wardlow. We've seen him rock in the suit before.
I could see him fitting in well with that crew.
Now go and watch them bring back Wardlow with MJF.
Because of the way Adam Cole cast him aside, They'll
put Wardlow and MJF back together. Great career growth that
would be. The video of Lashly's debut has well over

(01:22:54):
a million views on aw's YouTube channel, and that's why
Tony Kahn brought him in to try to get more
eyeballs on the product, to the extent that Lashley might
be able to do that for them. I mean, it's
not as if he was heavily featured on WWE television
these last six months, but he does have a name
that people would recognize, and he is a star, you know.
I'm sure he's going to be wrestling Swerve at full gear.

(01:23:16):
That match has not been made official yet. The only
match is official so far are John Moxley against Orange
Cassidy for the AW World Championship. One year after Cassidy
beat Moxley at full gear. He's going to try to
do it again. Hangman Adam Page against Jay White, And
on the pre show they have added a match. This
is a match of epic proportions. Here you talk about

(01:23:38):
the irresistible force against the immovable object. QT Marshall is
going to go one on one with Big Boom AJ
from the Costco guys. Apparently AJ has some independent wrestling
experience from twenty years ago. Now, I am not familiar
with the Costco guys. I don't shop at Costco and

(01:23:59):
I don't shop at Beach anymore either, because the lines
are too damn long. They're longer than an aw pay
per view. But I guess they're a big deal. On
the TikTok, he'll have his kid, Big Justice in his corner.
Then I got people telling me about this other kid
that I guess they hang out with. I guess he's
also a social media star. Anybody could be a social

(01:24:20):
media star these days. This seven year old kid, he's
called the Rinsler or the Rizzler. I saw a picture
of him. I thought it was Hasbulla. Can we get
Hasbulla on the show? What I thought was hilarious was
a few weeks ago. They didn't say it with any
malicious intent or anything, but they kind of smacked down

(01:24:41):
AAW by saying what they really wanted was a deal
with WWE. They really wanted to make one WWE appearance,
but then Sanjay Duck got ahold of him and he
convinced them to do something with AAW instead. So they
were like, well, if they're the ones, then sure, why not?

(01:25:03):
But Tony con should send Sanjay a thank you card
for making it happen because AJ he did a guest
spot on the Tonight Show and he was plugging the
pay per view. You know, when was the last time
that AW got mainstream publicity like that for one of
their shows. The only problem is he was promoting full gear.
Full gear is still three weeks away. Ideally, you want
to have like a Tonight Show appearance, You want to

(01:25:24):
get a lot of media pub like the week of
not three weeks before. It'll be forgotten about by that.
But back to Bobby Lashley for a minute. He sat
down with The Lame Guy's podcast and revealed an idea
that he had for a feud with Gnther in WWE.
This is one I wish he would have kept to himself.

(01:25:47):
He said, when Gunther was rolling, there was one thing
I wanted to do with him, and everybody would have
been like, oh, if we were still the hurt business,
I was like, I want to roll up on him
and I want gooth to say people like you don't
deserve a chance at my title. People would have been like,
what did he say? We would have towed that line.

(01:26:09):
If you think about the German and these black dudes,
is there a little bit of racial tension there? We
didn't have to go there. What do you mean by
people like you? He could have been like older guys
in wrestling. The crowd would have been like, uh did
he say that? Then I was gonna say, I think
you look familiar and do one of these and he
holds his thumb to his top lip, indicating a Hitler mustache.

(01:26:34):
There it is. I don't know if we could have
went there, but if we could have, there are so
many things you could toe the line with there and
it could have been a huge feud. What an absolute
dogshit idea good grief. Lashly has had some wild ones.
I mean he once told Vince McMahon he wanted to
do an angle where he gets beat and he goes

(01:26:57):
into a severe depression and he puts on seventy pounds
a fat and then MVP gets him to snap out
of it and he works to get the weight off.
Carrie and Cross just told the story on Chris Van
Vliet's podcast that lastly came up to him when they
were feuding and they were heading into their WrestleMania match,
and he pitched getting into a real fight backstage to

(01:27:18):
make everybody think they were shooting on each other, which
I know Cross has MMA and jiu jitsu training, but
I could see why he would not want to start
shooting with Bobby Lashley. Probably a bad idea. They also
would have been sent packing and that would have been
the end of them. They would have been off the
WrestleMania card, So that would have backfired on them at
least those ideas, though, like as kind of out there

(01:27:40):
as they are, you can see like, Okay, he's trying
to come up with something and it's ridiculous, but all right, whatever,
this idea, this is straight out of the Vince McMahon playbook,
and that playbook should have been retired with Vince. And
the thing is, like, if you watch the video like
I did. He was genuinely excited to do it, like
he He was popping out of his seat as he

(01:28:02):
was talking about this idea. He was so excited. You see,
this is why some wrestlers. They pitch ideas and when
they don't get used, they complain about their ideas not
being used. It makes you wonder how many of those
ideas are as awful as this one. Now it makes
sense why he said he had more of a connection
with Vince than he did Triple H Private Party. They

(01:28:26):
are the new aw World Tag Team Champions. They beat
the Young Bucks on Wednesday in a match where if
they lost Quinn and Za they would have been forced
to break up. It took them five years, but they
have done what Proud and Powerful could never do, which
is when the tag team titles. Very happy for those guys.
They're right out of House of Glory, trained by the

(01:28:47):
amazing Reds, so that makes it extra special. I'm happy
for them, like I was happy for Alex Shelley and
Chris Saban. After eighteen years together they finally won tag
team gold in WWE. And in both cases you could
definitely argue there was a story there that should have
been built up better the machine guns. They just came
in and in week two they won the titles, right
when there was a story to tell of two guys

(01:29:09):
after eighteen years, this is their last chance. They're trying
to win the big one and same here. Tony Kahan
hasn't done shit with Private Party in years. Suddenly in
the last four weeks they get some TV time and
now they're the Tag team champions. I think both companies
could have told a longer story with them, but they didn't.
It is what it is. They're the champions now. In

(01:29:32):
both cases, I worry about their reign because the tag
divisions for both they're not thriving in the way that
they should be. But my hope is that with Private Party,
Tony really starts to focus his efforts on building that
tag team division back up, you know, to some semblance
of what it used to be. I don't know that
their Tag team division will ever be what it was
when they first started, but that doesn't mean they can't try.

(01:29:55):
They just put Brian Cage and Lance Archer together as
basically like the New Skyscrapers. They've got FTR, they've got
the Acclaim, they've got House of Black the Patriarchy, LFI
Top Flight, the outrunners Mark Davis just came back on Wednesday.
If they wanted a reform Aussie Open, they can bring
the tag team titles to the Callous Family, even though

(01:30:18):
Fletcher just cut a promo on Collision last night with
Takeshta saying that the two of them should challenge for
the titles because they have a win over Private Party
months ago. First though, they're going to be challenging Ricochet
and a partner of his choosing Undynamied this Wednesday, which
almost certainly is going to be Will Ospray. It's like
I said over a month ago, what did I tell you, guys?

(01:30:39):
Ospray and Ricochet? How do you handle this? They're going
to this match awfully quick. You have them wrestled to
a non finish on the five year anniversary show, which
is what they did, or a DQ or whatever it was,
and they end up his allies facing off against the
Callus family, and then they can run Osprey against Ricochet

(01:31:00):
back again next year if they want to. As for
why they took the titles off the Bucks now, was
it because Tony Kahan had this grand plan for Private
Party to be the ones to do it. Nope, it
had more to do with the fact that Nick Jackson
has been working with a separated shoulder for the past
few weeks and they needed time off, so they had
to get the belts off of them. After the match,

(01:31:20):
they shot an angle where the Bucks were shown in
the back they were shredding documents and they said that
they would be working from home from now on. Even
after Christopher Daniels he begged and he pleaded with them, stay,
we need you, We need you to help fendof John
Moxley's crew. You can't leave us. There's no timetable for

(01:31:41):
their return. They are scheduled for the Russeled Dynasty show
at the Tokyo Dome that's on January fifth. They had
already announced that that was going to be the Bucks
return to Japan, so they're not going to be gone
for that long. Dynamite this Wednesday has Orange Cassidy and
Darby Allen against Claudio and Pack. Adam Cole takes on
Malachi Black, coming off Cole's win over Buddy Matthews this week.

(01:32:07):
Adam Cole, you know, his first match in over a year.
I thought he looked good, obviously, selling the leg but
he didn't look rusty. And when I say he looked good,
I mean as far as his in ring. He didn't
look rusty or anything like that. If he can beat Malachi,
he just needs to win one more match after that
to get the match with MJF at Full Gear because
him and Roderick Strong they have a competition going per

(01:32:28):
MJF where the first man who gets the three wins
gets to wrestle Max at Full Gear, So expect it
to come down to Cole against Roddy. In that final match,
Jamie Hater is going to be taking on Penelope Ford
and in a Fight Without Honor, Mark Briscoe, Kyle O'Reilly
and Tomohiro Ish take on the Ring of Honor World

(01:32:50):
champion Chris Jericho, Big Bill and Brian Keith. Dave Meltzer
claims Tony Kahan is close to making a TV deal
for Ring of Honor. He said True TV has always
been the rumored station because they're transitioning their primetime block
soon to sports only programming and they're gonna need content,

(01:33:10):
so it may end up being a mutually beneficial thing
and putting the title on Jericho could be a way
to make Ring of Honor more attractive for a deal, yes,
except that they tried the ones before and it didn't work.
It was the same premise, let's put the ROH title
on Jericho and because he's a big name, that might

(01:33:32):
help Ring of Honor land a TV deal, and it
didn't happen. So now they're trying again. But if they
land on True TV, and True TV is looking for
sports programming, I doubt making Chris Jericho the champion is
what's gonna end up tipping the scales and making the
executives say, you know what, we weren't gonna make this deal,

(01:33:52):
but now that Chris Jericho is the champion, I mean,
how can we not Yeah, I don't buy it. I'm
not saying that Tony Kahan didn't put the belt on
Jericho with that mindset, but I don't buy that it's
going to end up making a difference one way or
the other. If they make the deal, it does not
hinge on Chris Jericho being their champion. But evidently that's
why Jericho and his promo on Wednesday told the audience

(01:34:13):
not to underestimate him so that if a deal gets
done now he can take credit for it. I don't
know who they're appealing to anymore with this Ring of
Honor product. I know it's not the hardcore ROH fans.
I used to be one, so I don't know who
this is supposed to appeal to. But if they make
a deal and they can actually get paid for ROH content,

(01:34:37):
then at least Tony you'll have something to show for
his investment. And one last story here before I get
into your questions. The New York Times ran an article
on Halloween about an elderly man who was scammed out
of almost a million dollars by an Alexa Bliss impersonator. Now,

(01:34:57):
Alexa has many times she's gone on her Social med
accounts and she's warned people about this. She has warned
them about giving money to people impersonating her. I mean,
that's how many people were easily falling for it. And
it happens with other wrestlers too, not just Alexa. But
this story is really sad, and it's also a good
warning for anybody out there who knows someone that might

(01:35:19):
be easily conned by this sort of thing, because I've
seen it firsthand. But let me read you the full
story first. When Chris Manicelli walked into his father's home
for the first time after the seventy nine year old
man died last summer. He stopped to look at family
photos displayed on the refrigerator door. Near a crayon drawing

(01:35:40):
spelling out Grandpa in rainbow colors were photos of his
father's three granddaughters at a swimming pool, but one image
jumped out, a photo of Alexa Bliss, a professional wrestling personality.
Mister Manicelli's father, Alfred, was completely smitten with her, or
at least with the con artist impersonating her. He was

(01:36:00):
convinced that he was in a romantic relationship with Alexa Bliss,
leading him to give up about one million dollars in
retirement savings and his granddaughter's college fund to the impostor
and a varied cast of online fraudsters that he interacted
with over several years. When mister Manicelli tried to intervene

(01:36:21):
moving his father's last one hundred thousand dollars to a
safe account, Alfred sued him his loyalty was to Lexi.
There was nothing we could do to convince him, said
mister Manicelli. An elder care specialist deemed Alfred really sharp
but lacking purpose. Mister Manicelli and others who have tried

(01:36:42):
to awaken their loved ones from this trance often feel powerless,
even after they've done everything to shatter the fiction and
protect their assets. They say it's as if their parent
had been brainwashed into a cult. In some ways, they were,
these victims were slowly groomed by cod artists posing his
love interests, investment advisors, or government officials. Once ensconced inside

(01:37:05):
this bubble, they are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that
they have become victims, even when their own children are
warning them of the con Romance scams are the most pernicious,
said Darius Kingsley, head of consumer banking Practices at JP
Morgan Chase. Some victims have become confrontational after being told
that their wires were not going to lubvers but were

(01:37:26):
being used for nefarious purposes. They don't believe it, he said,
which means banks may need to shut down their accounts
if the behavior continues. Americans lost and estimated twelve and
a half billion dollars to online criminals in twenty twenty three,
according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaints Center, including six
hundred and fifty two million dollars in losses tied to

(01:37:49):
romance and confidence scams. Technology has put just about everyone
in scammers crosshairs, but older Americans are disproportionately targeted for
some of the costliest cons often because they are perceived
to have more money, to have less familiarity with technology,
and to be potentially experiencing cognitive decline. Fully competent people

(01:38:09):
fall for scams. Also, for many people, what is going
on is they are looking to fulfill an unmet need
for companionship, an unmet need for financial security, and unmet
need for a purpose, said Marty Delima and gerontologists than
assistant professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work.

(01:38:33):
Victims are often caught up in fantasies created by perpetrators,
isolating them from their real life existence and families. That's
what happened with Alfred Manicelli, who had already endured tragic
losses in his life. He and his wife lost their
first child to leukemia when she was three. Then he
lost his wife when their boys were nine and fourteen,
raising them largely on his own. Later, he was forced

(01:38:56):
into early retirement from his position as an electronic technician
for Khan ed the New York Power Company. Chris Manicelli
said his father had opened his heart with some of
his scammers, which may have played into how he was manipulated.
Before the Alexa bliss impostor, Alfred sent money to someone
called Kate, who said that she had a sick four

(01:39:16):
year old daughter. He also sent money to Anna, who
was helping a friend caring for unwell children. Alfred's involvement
in scams dated back to twenty eighteen, but worsened during
the isolating days of the pandemic. By the spring of
twenty twenty one, his once nine hundred thousand dollars nest
egg had dropped to one hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars.

(01:39:38):
Mister Manichelli estimates that most of his father's money went
to one or more Alexa bliss impostors and what seemed
to be a satellite of associates. His chat messages with
the sham Alexa read like a soap opera. There were
battles with his son, whom he disowned after mister Manicelli
tried to safeguard his money. Evil meddlers trying to spoil

(01:40:02):
their relationship and ongoing references to Vince McMahon, the former
wrestling promoter whom the fake Alexa accused of humiliating her
after she refused his advances. But Alfred was always there,
ready to extend emotional and financial support. The Alexa impersonator
often claimed to be hospitalized for bad menstrual periods and

(01:40:23):
would plead with Alfred to send money so the hospital
could begin treating her. Tell me how much you have left, baby,
the impostor said in a chat. Though the scammers refused
to chat with Alfred using audio or video, they occasionally
reached out through the screen, sending him trinkets in the
mail and even pizza delivery for his birthday. Mister Manichelli

(01:40:44):
sought help from an elder care manager and a therapist,
and he cleaned up his father's Google account, which was
connected to two devices with Nigerian IP addresses. He set
up a trust and a financial plan to help his
father manage his expenses. When that didn't go far enough,
he pursued the nuclear option. He took away his father's
last hundred grand, putting it in another account. Blocked from

(01:41:07):
sending money to a purportedly ailing Alexa. Alfred became enraged.
That was when he sued his son in February of
last year. He wanted his money back, plus interest and
legal fees, and at that point, mister Manichelli asked himself,
why am I in federal court trying to help my dad?
Why don't I just let it go to zero? A

(01:41:30):
month after he returned the money, it was gone. If
he didn't pass, he would have kept going, said mister Manicelli,
who found documents indicating that his father may have been
getting ready to sell his home. His father had also
taken out personal loans, using his car and televisions as collateral.
The fraudsters knew so much about Alfred that they had

(01:41:53):
also begun to target his family. Mister Manichelli was threatened,
but scammers also sent his youngest granddaughter photos of Alfred
demanding gift cards. The girls all knew that their grandpa
was getting scammed, so they were already on alert for
suspicious activity. It's really hard for us to accept that
there was not some unseen mental decline, since his behavior

(01:42:14):
seems so out of character with the man that we
knew growing up. Now, a lot of their stories are
usually behind a paywall. I don't think this one was,
but in case it was, I wanted to read the
whole thing. It's very sad, but there's only so much
that you can do. And I'm going to share a
personal story with you something I've never shared before. When

(01:42:35):
my father died, I had to drive five hours to
Pennsylvania to his house to go through all of his belongings.
And my parents were married for thirty one years and
then they got divorced and he moved to Pennsylvania. He
wanted to be closer to where the trucking company was
based that he worked for. So as I was going
through his papers, I find this pile of Western Union

(01:42:58):
money transfers, like money transfer receipts, and I'm pretty sure
they all had Nigerian addresses on there. From what I remember,
it was definitely international, and it was for all kinds
of dollar amounts. And it was nothing like this guy
in the story. It was nothing like Alfred. I mean,
my father didn't have a pot to piss in, but
yet he was sending money to somebody that he thought

(01:43:18):
was real. They clearly were not. I don't know why
he would have done it. I can only imagine he
was lonely. You know, my father wasn't someone who was
expressive with his feelings, but he moved to Pennsylvania in
the middle of nowhere. He just decided to buy a
mobile home. He had no family out there. He was
a truck driver, so he was on the road most

(01:43:39):
of the time. Anyway, I was the only family member
who kept in contact with him, but he was five
hours away. I was not in a position to visit
him all the time. You know. When Money in the
Bank was in Philadelphia, we made plans to meet up
before the show, and that was the last time I
ever saw him. Otherwise we would speak on the phone
every few weeks. I can only guess that he was lonely,

(01:44:01):
and he was very gullible, and he was sending money
to some random stranger, money that he really did not
even have. He was in so much debt, right which
I would later find out. Yet he was sending money
to this fictitious person, and it made me angry. But
it was an eye opening thing for me because it
doesn't just happen to old people that may be losing

(01:44:21):
their marbles. Okay, we all lose our marbles at some point.
Some of us earlier than others. But this kind of
thing can happen to anybody you know. For you and me,
we get an email from an Nigerian prince and we
laugh at it and we go on with our day,
or we probably never even see it because it goes
straight to the spam folder. But we're conditioned to it.

(01:44:42):
I'm just naturally skeptical of everything. I assume every message
I get telling me what a great show I have
and hey, you can make even more money if you
join our network, it's all a scam. I'm assuming it's
all a scam. I especially like the ones that are
addressed to They're addressed Hello Solibonster sounds off or Hello
solemn Monster sounds off. Team. Apparently I have a team.

(01:45:05):
I didn't know about instant delete. But if you're not
computer savvy, if you didn't grow up in the Internet
era and now I mean smartphones and tablets, they're so ubiquitous.
If you didn't grow up with it, you're going to
be more susceptible to stuff like this. Because they can
be very slick with some of their messages. I can
see how some people might fall for it, but only

(01:45:26):
up to a point. How do you let it get
to the point where you're sending hundreds of thousands of
dollars like this guy to someone that you've never met.
You've never spoken to them on the phone, You've never
even heard the sound of their voice, you don't know
what they look like. And then you run out of money.
So what do you do? You take out a loan,
you cash out your investments. I don't understand it. I mean,

(01:45:49):
at that point there has to be some degree of
mental decline involved where even your own family members they
can't get through to you. So all that to say,
this happens more than you think, and there is a
special place in hell for those who prey on people
like that. We got time for some mailbag questions. You
could always email me the soolomn Monster at gmail dot com.

(01:46:13):
I'm sure the SOLA Monster Sounds Off team would love
to hear from you. Please include your name and where
you are from when you write in. Mohammed from Toronto.
I wanted to get your thoughts on how AW has
utilized EXWWE stars up to now. I hear a lot
of talk online about how AW has elevated many of them,

(01:46:33):
and I can only really think of one guy and
one girl in that Swerve Strickland and Tony Storm, A
lot of these other names like Moxley, Claudio Neville, Adam Cole,
Malachi Black, Miro, I would say have been taken more
seriously in terms of presentation. But have any of them
gotten more over in terms of star power, I wouldn't
say so, And for some of them, I would even

(01:46:54):
say they have regressed. I don't know where you're seeing
all of this talk online, but it's a mixed bag.
Swarve Strickland is an example of someone the previous regime
in WWE just didn't believe it. They didn't see anything
in him, they didn't see money in him, and he
has proven them wrong with this run in AW. This
guy is a hell of a lot better than they

(01:47:16):
ever gave him credit for. Tony Storm was not up
on the main roster very long. She wasn't up there
long enough to know for sure how things would have
turned out for her. But she clearly was not happy
there and she felt like it was best for her
to leave, and so she left. And she has done
very well in AAW with the timeless gimmick guys like

(01:47:36):
Adam Cole, and Keith Lee. They did really well in
NXT in AW, though they've both been plagued by injuries.
Had they stuck around longer for the Triple H regime,
I think they would have been taking care of far
better under him than they would have been under Vince McMahon.
But you know, Adam Cole headlined aw's biggest show ever

(01:47:57):
last year at Wembley Stadium. You know, he was in
the main event, he was in the top storyline, but
he just has not been able to stay healthy for
any length of time. It was a similar thing with
Malachi Black, who got a bit of a push out
of the gate. Remember he beat Cody Rhodes, and then
he just fell off a cliff. Now, he did have
a back injury for a while that he was dealing

(01:48:18):
with Over the past year, though I have no idea.
I have no idea, he's been a complete non factor
and he is someone who I think would be better
off going back to WWE and taking his chances under Levec.
Miro just seems like an absolute basket case in AW.
I don't think you can lay all of that at
Tony Kahan's feet. Claudio and Pac right now, they're in

(01:48:41):
a much better position than they were in WWE. Whether
you think this BCC angle is working or not, they're
in a top spot every week on TV. Moxley is
in a top spot. Brian Danielson was in a top
spot from the moment he came into the company and
said the moment that he got at Wembley this year
was the best moment of his entire career. Samoa Joe,

(01:49:02):
he left WWE, I can't even say he left. He
got fired twice. I think that says it all. He
ended up in AW. He has been more valued in
AAW than he ever was on the main roster in WWE.
Same with Christian Cage. He's done some of the best
work of his career these past two years FTR for

(01:49:22):
a while there, anyway, they were doing far better in
AAW than they ever did in WWE. What's the biggest
thing they ever did in WWE on the main roster
they were shaving their backs in the bathroom while the
USOS made fun of them, and then they got sketches
for fucking Ninja Turtle outfits that they were going to
be wearing on TV. They would have been dead in
the water. So I think things turned out a hell

(01:49:44):
of a lot better for FTR going aaw.

Speaker 2 (01:49:48):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
I don't think you can say it's been overall great
or overall terrible. It's a mixed bag. And the reason
I wouldn't say a lot of the EXWWE guys have
been elevated is because they came into the company in
their forties. A lot of those guys already had their
big runs in WWE. How do you elevate Brian Danielson
any more than he was already elevated? How do you

(01:50:10):
elevate Chris Jericho any more than he was already elevated,
Adam Copeland, now Bobby Lashley. I don't think elevated is
the word I would use here day John from New Jersey, Buy, Sell,
rent or erase from History for the better trilogy. AJ
Styles against John Cena, Drew McIntyre against CM Punk, Seth

(01:50:31):
Rollins against Edge, Seth Rollins against Cody Rhoads all fine trilogies.
I don't dislike any of them, but if I have
to rank them, I'm buying on John Cena and AJ Styles.
I think that's the best of the bunch here. I'm
gonna rent on CM Punk and Drew McIntyre, and that

(01:50:53):
was a lot of that is on the strength of
just the the build to the matches. I don't think
the first two matches they had were honestly anything tremendously great.
The Hell in a Cell match was great, So taking
the Hell in a Cell match and then all the
build up and all the social media trolling and everything,
that's at least a rent from me. I'm gonna sell

(01:51:16):
on Rollins in Edge. They had some great matches, but
I got to put him at number three, and I'm
gonna erace Seth Rollins and Cody Rhoads. I'm sorry, Jose
from New York City. Rank these bloodiest most violent WWE
matches of the Ruthless Aggression era. Eddie Guerrero against JBL

(01:51:38):
Judgment Day two thousand and four, John Cena against JBL
Judgment Day two thousand and five, Edge against Mick Foley
at WrestleMania twenty two, Mister McMahon against Hulk Hogan at
WrestleMania nineteen, Triple h against Rick Flair at Taboo Tuesday
in two thousand and five. So I thought about this,

(01:52:00):
I would go Sena and JBL at Judgment Day two
thousand and five, so much better than their WrestleMania match.
So bloody. I mean, you can barely make out seen
his face. His face is just covered in blood. Eddie
Gerrero and JBL. I'll put that at B. If judgment

(01:52:21):
day five is A, then judgment Day four is B
between Eddie and JBL. You talk about bloody, okay, Eddie
bled a gusher. Obviously he had an artery when he
cut himself. That was at the end of the match.
I don't remember too much about the match itself. I
remember Eddie bleeding, and I remember the Matt looking like
a crime scene. Actually they both bled, but the Matt

(01:52:43):
looked like just an absolute crime scene, something out of
a horror movie when it was over. I'm gonna put
Triple H and Rick Flair Taboo twosday at number three,
so that would be C. I'm gonna put Edge and
mc folett WrestleMania at a D. To put McMahon against
hul Kogan at the very bottom they get an E.

(01:53:04):
I mean, as compared to these other matches, it wasn't
nearly as violent or bloody. They had a good match,
but even quality wise, like it's it's dead last on
this list. Jacob from Walton, Kentucky. Why doesn't WWE or
AWD segments on TV anymore like they used to in

(01:53:24):
studio to promote their pay per views? I really felt
like it helped sell the shows. I agree, I wish
they still did them, But they also don't have a
mean Gene Oakland anymore. Mean Gene could sell you on anything, man,
he could sell ice to an Eskimo. You know who
else was really good at those Todd Pettengill. I know
some people like to hate on him, but I thought

(01:53:45):
he was really good in those segments. These days, you know,
WWE thinks it's fine to just have the announcers run
down the match card from ringside five days before the show.
They just have too many other segments on the show
to devote an entire one to something like the old
control centers they used to do. I think aw still
does the control centers, but Tony Shavanni does them on

(01:54:06):
their YouTube channel. They're not getting the same visibility though,
or the same numbers on their YouTube channel that they
would get on Dynamite or on Collision. Shavanni actually talked
about this once on his podcast. This was many months ago.
But he said they have actually brought this very question
up because he thinks they should be done too, And
he has brought this question up to Tony Kahan about

(01:54:28):
doing segments like that but doing them on TV, and
Tony's answer is always no, we need action. He's all
about action. We got to have action, we gotta have
more matches. Even the backstage interviews, Shavanni said, they're all
limited to a minute, whereas back in the day they
would let the guys in the back, they would just
let them riff, which is probably why so many of

(01:54:50):
those promos were so entertaining, right that and the drugs,
But now they can't be longer than a minute long,
and they all sound the same. They're all fucking boring.
But if you ever wanted to know why they do
those segments on YouTube and they don't do them on
the actual shows, now you know it's been brought up
to Tony Kahn before, and he just doesn't want to

(01:55:10):
do it. He doesn't want it to eat into the matches.
There has to be constant action. That's why so many
times it feels like they don't give things enough time
to breathe. That's the way Tony likes it and it's
his show, so what he says goes. I think it's
a mistake. Now it may matter less to WWE because

(01:55:31):
they don't do pay per views anymore. Right, they're getting
paid for the Peacock deal. What they're getting paid regardless
of what the viewership is for these shows. The shows
are essentially free. Like we just had Crown Jewel, I
flip on Peacock. Right, there's no pay per view anymore.
They still do, believe it or not, in some places.
In some markets they do still offer these shows as

(01:55:52):
pay per views and they still sell, but their pay
per view by rates now are like ten thousand and
fifteen thousand, so they're really out of the pay per
view business. Aw is still very much in the pay
per view business and trying to get as many buys
as they can for those shows. I think they would
be served much better to do a control center type
segment running down the new matches. Let's say that we're

(01:56:14):
just added to the full gear card and throw in
a few pre tape promos from some of the people
on the show, and do a hard sell for the
show instead of not doing that, because we need to
see action Andretti against Commander, which is not going to
sell a single fucking pay per view. Joanell from Chicago,

(01:56:36):
with the Royal Rumble match being your favorite match, I
would love to know what are your top ten favorite eliminations.
I don't have a top ten. I don't do these
offhand top tens, but I can tell you Gene Snitzky's
elimination of Paul London in two thousand and five is
at the top of my list. He got clotheslined off

(01:56:56):
the apron, He does a flip and he lends flat
on his face. He actually got heat for that in
the back from all the insecure, petty little assholes. Michael
Hayes like, there were people coming up to him going, man,
that was awesome. You know, good job. He sees Michael Hayes,
what'd you think? And Hayes he says, it looked a

(01:57:17):
little too good. It was good, but it was a
little too good. What the fuck does that mean? Yeah,
of course you want it to look good. You want
to make the other guy look like a monster. Not
trying to get himself over. He's trying to get Snitzky
ot Shane mcmahony said was very cold to him about it.

(01:57:38):
Then years later they wanted him to recreate the spot
and he refused to do it because he got heat
forward the first time. He's like, yeah, I'm not doing
this again. I know how that worked out for me
last time. I'm telling you now, working in that company
back then had to be just a complete mind fuck.
It had to be. You know that, you take the bumps,
and that's the part that really takes a toll on you.

(01:58:00):
Night in and night out. You're taking bumps, You're getting hurt,
you gotta go back to work though you're on the road,
You're tired, you got a red eye, fly like. It's
a tough life, especially back then with the schedule they kept.
But I'm thinking like they were just as fucked up
from the mental stuff as much as the physical stuff.

(01:58:21):
I hear stories like that, the politics, the pettiness. Who
the hell would want to work for a company like
who would want to work in an environment like that?
I can't leave off the bushwhackers, or at least bushwhackers.
I think it was Luke marching down to the ring,
gets inside, he gets tossed out of the ring by earthquake,

(01:58:44):
lands on his feet, and just continue like in one stride.
He just continues marching right back to the locker room.
Just legendary said Justice eliminating Sergeant Slaughter in nineteen ninety two.
That looked brutal. I mean, he absolutely rocketed this man
halfway across the ring at warp speed. He wore it.
He's so hard. He whipped him in there. You could

(01:59:05):
hear him smack the post. The ring looked like it
moved an inch and Slaughter flew out of the ring.
Maven eliminating the Undertaker in two thousand and two. Yeah,
I would say, if I don't put Snitsky in London
in the top spot, it would have to be Mavin
and the Undertaker, right. I mean, that's one of the
great ones. And you know what, I'll throw one more

(01:59:28):
in there. This is also a great one. One of
my favorites. Drew McIntyre eliminating Brocklesner in twenty twenty. Go
back and watch that elimination again, and when they pan
out and they show the stadium crowd, everybody is losing
their minds. God did McIntyre miss out on a moment
at WrestleMania that year. But that's another one that's one

(01:59:49):
of The Great Rumble Eliminations and Neil from Chicago, Do
you have a favorite Captain Lou Albano commercial? As someone
who did not grow up watching the era he was in,
what would be some recommended Lou Albano matches to watch?
These can be matches that involve him as a manager
as well. Well, it's gonna have to be because I

(02:00:13):
don't have a favorite Lou Albano match. I don't know
that anybody has a favorite Lou Albano match. As far
as him wrestling, and his in ring career was just
before my time, although when I grew up, Captain Lou
was still around as a manager. You know, the closest
thing I could offer you would be the Bulldogs and
the Dream Team tag team title match WrestleMania two. Albano

(02:00:36):
was in the corner of the Bulldogs. I think Johnny
V was in the corner of the Dream Team, and
that was a very good match. That's probably the best
match on the attire WrestleMania two card, So I'd have
to go with that one. But you know, it's not
just matches that And I don't know what you mean
by commercials, by the way, I don't know I don't
know any Lou Albano commercials, but what I remember when

(02:00:59):
it comes to Captain, I remember, and the first thing
I think of it's the Girls Just Want to Have
Fun music video with Cyndi Lauper. It's the Goonies music video.
It's the Hulk Hogan rock and wrestling cartoon that he
was in. And it's the Super Mario Brothers Super Show,

(02:01:19):
which was a big favorite of mine when I was younger.
You don't know what that is. It was a car,
it was a cartoon. It was a Super Mario Brothers cartoon,
but it was wrapped in like live action scenes from
like Mario's house or wherever it was. It was Mario
and Luigi, and so that part was actual, like two

(02:01:40):
human beings in costume playing the roles, but it was
just kind of wrapped around the cartoon. The cartoon itself
was the story each episode. But I used to man,
I used to sit in front of my TV screen
to watch that, and I still have the song in
my head, the theme song. You could find it on YouTube.
That's my greatest memory of Lou Albana. I got to

(02:02:01):
meet Lou this brief, but I got to meet him
and Fred Blassi very briefly at WrestleMania ten, the FanFest
that I went to in ninety four, So good stuff.
Keep sending me your questions the solom Monster at gmail
dot com and follow me on x at Solo Monster.
I'm always putting up polls after each of the TV

(02:02:24):
shows and offering my thoughts on there first on any
breaking stories during the week, so be sure to follow
me there. Add on YouTube of course, subscribe to the
channel over eighty two thousand strong Solo Monster Sounds Off.
I also want to remind you that there will be
an NXT review live on the channel this Wednesday, possibly

(02:02:44):
not aw if I choose not to do both, but
there will be an NXT review. If I don't review
Dynamite live, then you'll probably get the review here on
eight eighty seven next Sunday. That is the next time
I will be with you here for the flagship and
one final word here again, we are celebrating seventeen years
this week, really the entire month of November, but specifically

(02:03:05):
this week, we are celebrating seventeen years since the very
first sound off episode, and I want to say thank
you to those of you who have been listening from
the very beginning. I want to thank those of you
who are new listeners, and I want to thank everybody
who continues to preach the good word of the Sound
Off and spread the word and bring in friends and family.

(02:03:26):
Anybody who you think likes wrestling or might like the
sound of my voice, recommends the podcast, shares the episodes
when I put them up, and repost them on Twitter, everything,
all of that. It is incredibly gratifying to me that
I can still be here doing this show. I enjoy
doing it, I enjoy getting feedback from you guys, all

(02:03:47):
of it. So just wanted to say thank you one
more time, and here's to I was gonna say here's
to another seventeen, but let's take it one year at
a time. Hopefully we'll be celebrating eighteen next year, and
then before long we'll hit the big two zero. But
we still have a waste to go before we get there.
Be well, stay safe, try to have yourselves a good

(02:04:07):
week wherever you may be, and I will see you
back here next Sunday or episode eight eighty seven of
The Solemn Monster Sounds Off. Until then, take care, guys.
The Solemn Monster Sounds Off let's go ninety five. A
lot of people screamed cinema after the recent SmackDown episode.
Not me. I think that word cinema. I cringe every

(02:04:28):
time I hear it. Oh, it's cinema. It's cinema. If
you took a non wrestling fan, but they're like a
movie connoisseur, and you showed them these segments and they
saw people going, oh my god, this is cinema. This
should win an award. Like these people would look at
you like you need to get your head exam All
you fans of the Bloodline segments that call them, we
need to take that word. Okay, we need to take

(02:04:50):
the word. Cinema is given to me. I'm gonna take
them away from you and we have to throw them
in a fire and he has to die. Okay, you're
over you using the word to the point where now
it's just becoming cringing. Okay, please don't use that word.

Speaker 2 (02:05:05):
The Solo Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,
and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
and X The Solo Monster.

Speaker 1 (02:05:20):
I love you so long.

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Sound Off 886 - WWE Crown Jewel HONEST REVIEW, THREE Talent Releases And The "Alexa Bliss" SCAM

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sound Off 886 - WWE Crown Jewel HONEST REVIEW, THREE Talent Releases And The "Alexa Bliss" SCAM