Sound Off 924 - BLOCKBUSTER WWE/ESPN Deal, Brock Lesnar's Return And Bret Hart SHOOTS! - 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. I love you so, Mama monster, dude, I
want your soul. Woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in
the back going on Twitter. Come over here is that
Pet Patterson? You have legs? I was ninety nine percent

(00:24):
positive it was just chessed up. Now, congratulations. Who hasn't
beat Daniel Garcia. Welcome to episode nine to twenty four
of The Solo Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, August tenth,
twenty twenty five. I am the Solo Monster. A week

(00:44):
removed from Summer Slam. I can honestly say the best
thing I saw all week wasn't any of the wrestling
shows that I watched, and it definitely wasn't the Mets.
It was the New Fantastic Four movie. I enjoyed it.
Galactus was awesome. See that takes me back. I used
to collect all the cards, all the comics and stuff

(01:06):
Galactus Silver Surfer like that's part of my childhood. You know,
I haven't seen a Marvel movie since the first Guardians
of the Galaxy came out. That's how long it's been.
But it also goes to show this was not one
of the strongest weeks of wrestling on TV. It was
a very newsworthy week though, with the news of WWE

(01:26):
and ESPN reaching a deal for all of their plees,
and there has been a lot of confusion about what
it all means, so I'm going to break it down
for you. This week we also had the return of
brock Lesner at SummerSlam after a two year layoff, why
some people are upset and what it does and does

(01:46):
not mean for the Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit. I'll
talk about that backstage heat in aw on MVP and
the Hurt Syndicate. More Hogan family drama coming out of
Hulk Hogan's funeral this week, and Brett Hart has chimed
in with a heartwarming eulogy for the Hulkster as only
the Hitman can. So let's get into it. If you

(02:10):
want to make a PayPal donation, you may do so
on Thesolomonster dot com. Ten dollars from more will get
you a nickname and a shout out. I want to
say thank you to the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton. Paul,
thank you, Ms Madness, Michelle Mills, Michelle, thank you very much.
Big B, Bryan Pisera, The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soap,

(02:33):
Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, Fast Blast, Tim Banks, Daredevil, Doug Lippert,
Night Stalker, I f Alsaphar, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iichord Killshot,
Keith Hart Best in the Game, Trey Porter, the Wichita Workhorse,
Clayton Nettleton, who says he turned off SmackDown this week.

(02:54):
I wish I would have done the same. Simon Costello,
Simon nick is Nick con is always in the front
row for those big shows, and no, I don't think
he becomes an on air personality, nor do I want
him to become an on air personality. Shout out to
Big Bad Ben Beckett, who has a GoFundMe set up

(03:15):
for his band, the ben Jammers. They're a Fokish band
from Melbourne, Australia, hoping to record their debut album. They've
got seven songs they're very proud of, but now they
need the funds to help make it a reality. So
if you're interested in helping out, just search for the
ben Jammers on gofundb and the campaign should come right up.

(03:35):
And Tyler from England whose brother runs a YouTube channel.
Both of them have been fans of the podcast for
over a decade, but his brother plays versions of the
Total Extreme Wrestling Emulator Emulator Simulator. I used to be
into all that stuff EWR and all that stuff, but
this is TEW And he's got a series up there

(03:55):
on his YouTube channel called a Challenge Run where he
books was but every so often he has to take
challenge requests from the comments section, and once a list
of challenges has been curated, he has a specified timeline
to try to make sure the challenge is met or
he will give himself an in game punishment. And he
just wrapped up his WrestleMania forty one show. He created

(04:17):
five hours of content around it. Sounds like he puts
more effort into it than Triple H does with the
creative these days. So if you're looking for more variety
in your wrestling content, or you just want to see
an alternate WWE timeline, go subscribe to his channel. It's
called Connell tw that's co n N E L tew

(04:38):
All one word. Now's a good time to join too,
because WrestleMania acts as his season finale and he'll be
doing a state of the Universe video soon catching everybody
up on everything they may have missed, so again, just
search for Connell tw on YouTube. The big news of
the week came on the media rights front, as WWE

(05:00):
and ESPN reached a deal for one point six billion
dollars over five years, which works out to three hundred
and twenty five million dollars per year to air WWE's
premium live events as part of ESPN's new streaming service
that is launching on August twenty first, which is called

(05:21):
How's this for an original name? ESPN? And now this
only affects the US market, All of the plees will
continue to air internationally on Netflix even though this deal
wouldn't kick in until next year. They have not announced
when it will kick off, but the Peacock deal I
believe is through March, which means this would start with WrestleMania.

(05:43):
That three hundred and twenty five million dollars a year
would mean they nearly doubled what they are currently getting
from Peacock. NBC Universal had the right of first refusal,
so they had the chance to match ESPN's offer, they
obviously did not. ESPN will also simulcan what they are
calling select events on ESPN's linear networks. By the way,

(06:06):
that could very well include ABC, which is also owned
by Disney. They could brand these events under the ESPN
on ABC banner and actually air something like WrestleMania Live
on ABC, which is a broadcast network, and that's never
been done before. I'm not saying they will, but it's
at least possible now it's at least plausible that they

(06:27):
would show a portion of it. But if you would
have told nineteen ninety nine meters that one day WrestleMania
would air on ESPN like that would have been unbelievable.
If you would have told me that pro wrestling would
even be covered on ESPN or on Sports Center, that
would have been unbelievable. But that's been going on for
a few years now. Imagine what that integration is going

(06:50):
to look like now, like live SportsCenter covered from the
actual venues for each event. They're going to treat it
like a real sport. ESPN may also be streaming the
pre post shows for all the ples, although WWE is
going to continue to produce them themselves, so they're not
outsourcing that to ESPN. WWE president Nick Cohn has clarified

(07:12):
that while the number of shows can always grow, the
current deal is for ten plees held over twelve nights,
since WrestleMania and Summer Slim next year are going to
remain two nights because Summer Slim next year was already
scheduled for two nights. They're going to be in Minneapolis,
so I mean that's not a surprise. And I mean
they just sold one hundred and thirteen thousand tickets for

(07:34):
two nights of Summer Slim at MetLife Stadium, right, So
those two nights are here to stay. But just because
those are the terms of the current deal does not
mean that they can't expand the Royal Rumble and other
events to two nights at some point. I fully expect
that to happen. I mean I would be shocked if
it didn't happen as early as twenty twenty seven. Now,
this new ESPN streaming service that launches later this month,

(07:55):
again on the twenty first, It will be priced at
twenty nine to ninety nine per month or three hundred
dollars annually. But the key is that if you are
someone who already has ESPN as part of your cable
package or your satellite package, you would not need to
pay extra for the streaming service. You would already have
access to it. You'll just need to go through there.

(08:16):
There's gonna be an authentication process, so you'll have to
just log in whatever your cable or satellite log in is.
You put that information in, and then you'll be able
to access the service for free. Existing ESPN Plus subscribers
will automatically be enrolled as subscribers to the new service.
It's basically being absorbed into this new service, and after

(08:39):
a period of time, ESPN Plus will be completely phased
out in favor of this new one. Now. Alex Sherman
of CNBC explained how everything is going to work. This
is how he explains it. Anyone who currently pays for
a bundle of TV networks that includes ESPN will eventually
get ESPN's direct to consumer service for no extra charge.

(09:01):
You'll download or click on the ESPN app on your
mobile device or you're smart TV. There will be a
login screen that asks you if you are a PayTV subscriber.
You will then be able to authenticate that you do
in fact pay for traditional PayTV and get ESPN in
your bundle. Once you authenticate, you'll get access to the
new service with everything in it. That means that's starting

(09:22):
in twenty twenty six. You'll get access to all the
WWE premium live events as well as everything else that
is on ESPN Monday Night Football, NBA games, etc. You
won't get NFL network yet, that deal needs to close first,
but once it does, the NFL networking games at air
on it will be integrated into the service as well.

(09:43):
The WWE live events will not be available on ESPN Plus.
You'll need to upgrade to the twenty nine to ninety
nine ESPN product. But again, just to be clear, if
you're a cable subscriber that gets ESPN, you will get
it for no extra charge and ESPN will not charge
an additional fee for the live events, so there's no

(10:03):
return to pay per view here, like ESPN has done
with some UFC events on ESPN Plus. And that's an
important point because some people were worried that you would
have to pay a fee on top of a fee,
so you pay for the ESPN service and then pay
an actual pay per view fee on top of that,
like you do for some of the UFC events, But
that is not the case here. That there's been a

(10:26):
lot of confusion about this. I mean I was confused
the day that this news broke. Everyone was confused. The
rollout has just been very confusing. It has not been great,
and people wondering how is this all going to work?
So a few important points to make. For one, not
everyone who gets ESPN will necessarily have access to this

(10:49):
for free. Now take me, for example, I'm on YouTube
tv and that is one of the services that they
have not reached a deal with yet. YouTube tv does
not even offer SNY anymore. Okay, Sportsnet New York they
used to, but they don't anymore. SNY is the network
that airs in New York Mets games. We have not

(11:10):
had access to SNY for the last two years, which
is ridiculous. You know, my brother has a subscription through
the MLB Network app, so we can watch the games
through there. But they took SNY away from US and
MLB Network as well two years ago, and they still
have not reached any kind of agreement to bring them back.
It's been two years, but the subscription price sure keeps

(11:33):
going up. We get less content than we did before,
yet we pay more. I mean, I do like the service,
and I really don't have any interest in ever going
back to cable. I would just as soon toss my
television out the window then ever go back to cable.
I cut the cord five years ago and I have
never looked back. Now, if you have Spectrum, if you

(11:55):
have Direct TV, Fubo TV, Hulu Live TV, or Verizon FiOS,
you're good to go. You'll have access. But if you
have Exfinity, which is Comcast, YouTube TV, Dish TV, or Sling,
you will not have free access to the service. You
will have to pay the twenty nine to ninety nine
a month for now, that could change before WWE even

(12:18):
migrates over there. They seem to believe that it will
that this will all be taken care of in time.
They'll have everybody on board by the end of the year.
It'll all be worked out, and if it is, then
you'll be able to get access to the service for
free like everybody else. But they have to come to
terms with those platforms first. Now, another important point is

(12:39):
that ESPN is going to be simulcasting select events on
their linear networks like ESPN, and it's a little confusing
because apparently that's what they're also calling their new streaming service,
ESPN but again, I'm talking about the actual ESPN network,
and so if the pls are airing on there so

(13:00):
some of them, does this mean that we are going
to start getting commercials mid match during ples. I mean,
we're already getting tons of ads on the ples anyway.
I mean, it's fucking twenty five minutes in between matches.
But the idea of hearing Michael Cole in the middle
of the Wrestlemaniam main event telling us Cody Rhodes is

(13:20):
down on the outside Wrestle Matias Sunday rolls on, and
then cutting to a Snicker's commercial like Picture and Picture
is absolutely nauseating to even think of, right just the
thought of it, and for everyone else streaming it. I mean,
they could just fade out and fade right back into
the match while the ad plays for all the other

(13:42):
people who are watching. I don't know. I'm not saying
that's what's gonna happen, but again, there's still a lot
of questions that have to be answered. It's at least
plausible that they could start doing that on some of
these ples, So I don't know if that's what we're
in for. Maybe it'll be limited to in match advertising,
in other ways that don't don't, you know, disrupt the
actual matches too much. But rest assured like they will

(14:05):
find a way to integrate more advertising and more sponsorships
into those pls. You can set your watch to that now. Also,
we don't yet know if the full plees will be
simulcast on those linear networks. Mark Shapiro of TKO said

(14:26):
that for some events, ESPN may only air the first
hour or two and then you would be forced to
switch over to the new service. So honestly, you're better
off just streaming them and not even watching them on
basic cable, because that sounds like a pain in the ass.
Another important point is that this package that ESPN is
paying WWE for does not include NXT events or any

(14:50):
of the library content, because I've been getting a lot
of tweets and emails about what happens to the library,
what happens to the classic content. Even Netflix hasn't had
the full raw episodes months, which is true, and so
there's been a lot of concern about that. If you
are a fan of the classic content on Peacock right now,
and Peacock doesn't even have again the classic raw episodes anymore,

(15:13):
I mean at least not all of them. If you
are a fan of that stuff, they are very likely
going to make a deal with another streaming service completely
separate from this one for that content. I mean, they're
going to slice and dice and carve this shit up
to squeeze every last penny out of it that they can.
Maybe they make a new deal with Peacock for that,

(15:34):
maybe it moves to Netflix, maybe it moves to another streamer,
but that will not be part of the ESPN deal.
They're going to have to make a deal soon for
the nxtpls, right, they can't wait until next year to
make that deal. But if the classics are not included,
that stuff may be in limbo for a while. And
the reality is like that content, I hate to say it,

(15:56):
but that content doesn't move the needle for them because
I don't even need to look at the numbers. I
don't have any inside track of what the viewership numbers
are for all the classic library content, all the archival content.
Like if it did good numbers, more people would be
watching it, And viewership for the classic stuff clearly is

(16:17):
not great, where they would be doing a better job
of updating it more frequently. The fact that they're not
tells everything you need to know. There's no focus on it.
They don't mention it, they don't advertise it. Like the
pace of updates has slowed, if not just completely been halted.
I mean they don't really post anything new as far
as like the classic stuff, and it's not like everything

(16:38):
is up there. It's just not a priority for them. Thankfully,
we have the Vault channels on YouTube, which I love.
I think the Vault channels all of them because they
have multiple vaults. The WWE Vault is my personal favorite,
but I think the Vault is awesome. They have one
for WCW, they have one for NXT, probably very soon

(16:59):
for E. But it would be nice to have one
centralized place with everything archived and know where everything is.
And that's why I tweeted this week. I was not
even really joking. I mean, it's true, you really don't
know what you have until it's gone. And the original
WWE network was fucking awesome because you had and we

(17:21):
didn't have all of the library fully digitized and uploaded
at that point, but there was a ton of classic content.
It was easy to access. You had access to the
pay per views, you paid nine to ninety nine. You
got everything you needed, and they had original content as well.
They had the Edging Christian Show, they had what was
that show Camp WWE, they had some other stuff and

(17:45):
it was a bargain. And it's not even that I
necessarily took it for granted. I mean I remember talking
about it on the podcast at the time and talking
about what a steel it was for all the content
you were getting and the just the search function and
the kind of the chapters. When you would go to
like a pay per view, they would have them divided

(18:07):
by match, you know, so you can go to the
match that you wanted. It was incredible and then they
migrated over to Peacock and it all went to shit
and it's only gotten marginally better still. I still hate
the search function on Peacock. Now we're talking about, you know,
not even knowing if we're going to have access to
all the classic stuff and where it's gonna go. Is

(18:29):
it going to be better, is it going to be worse?
And it makes me long for those days of the
original WWE network. They really were, you know, ahead of
the curve on that, and I long for those days. Man,
nine ninety nine is all you needed to pay. That's it.
I mean, they advertised their shit out of that. They
had T shirts, they had T shirts made with nine
ninety nine on it. One thing they're very good at,

(18:51):
They've always been very good, is at marketing. Even that
fucking Cane movie that came out See No Evil right
May nineteen. What year was that? What year did that
movie come out? It had to be two thousand and six,
right somewhere around then. We're talking twenty years and still
I remember it. I still choke. People still joke about

(19:13):
May nineteenth every year. So they're very good at that.
But I do miss those days. So it would be
very nice to have one centralized place where everything is housed.
Now on the YouTube channels, they do have playlists on
the vault channels and that does help, but it can
still be tough, you know, to find stuff that you

(19:33):
may be looking for. So if YouTube ended up being
the place for all that content, you know what, I
wouldn't mind it. I'm sure they can rake in plenty
of ad money on there. I'm sure they are raking
in plenty of ad money. They have well over two
million subscribers already on the WWE Vault channel I think
the WCW one has like three hundred thousand, but again

(19:55):
it's not like they're really advertising them or promoting them.
I ever ever said a word about it on TV.
So right now they're airing the big Triple A shows
on YouTube as well on their main channel. Would future
Triple A events be part of any streaming deal that
they make, Maybe for an XT It's possible maybe the

(20:16):
Triple A shows end up on a streaming service. SmackDown
is going to remain on USA networking on Peacock. That
deal runs through twenty twenty nine, so that is unaffected
by the ESPN stuff. Alex Sherman also reports that he
was told by his source that there was another bidder
that bid slightly higher for the wwepls than ESPN did,

(20:40):
but ultimately WWE opted to go with ESPN anyway, And
it makes sense when you consider all of the exposure
that WWE is going to get on the ESPN networks
over these next five years plus the advertising ESPN is
going to be doing for all of those WWE shows
during big events like Monday Night Football, right they're going
to be plugging the shit out a WWE, not unlike

(21:03):
the way Warner Brothers. Discovery promoted aw during the NBA playoffs, right,
that was huge for them, and this will be even
bigger for WWE. I don't know who the other bidder was,
but Amazon can't do that, right, They can't provide WWE
with what ESPN is going to give them. Netflix can't

(21:24):
do that. Hulu can't do that. Hulu isn't even going
to be around much longer. That was also in the
news this week. Disney is shutting down Hulu next year
and they're going to just integrate it and absorb it
into Disney Plus. Brian alvarezs Peacock made a bid to
keep WWE for somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred

(21:45):
and seventy five million dollars a year, although he doesn't
know if that was for five years or if that
would have also included the video library like they currently have.
But WWE got fifty million a year more from ESPN
for less content. Now they can just sell off the
rest to someone else like Peacock if they still want it. So,

(22:05):
I mean, it's a lot to digest. It's a lot
of moving parts here, and frankly, not all of it.
I think has been completely ironed out. Yet, if you
are WWE, this is a great deal that is gonna
net them a ton of money for business. It's great
for the consumer. A lot of it depends on your

(22:25):
individual situation and whether you already have ESPN. If you
already have ESPN, theoretically you will be able to see
all of the pls now for free. And if you
are paying for Peacock just for that. If you have
no other need for Peacock, if you're not watching the Office,
so whatever the fuck else they have on Peacock and

(22:46):
you just have it for the WWE shows, you could
ditch Peacock and just pay nothing extra. So if you
fall into that category, it's actually not a bad deal.
I say that without knowing it. Where they apes and
the classic content is going to end up, you'll have
to pay for those. But if you're a hardcore sports fan,

(23:06):
you're going to have access to a ton of other
sports through the ESPN app. Now, if you're not a
big sports fan, or if you don't have ESPN right
now and you need to pay the twenty nine to
ninety nine a month, then it's not such a great deal,
and you have every right not to be happy about it.
Not that WWE gives a shit, but if it bothers you,

(23:27):
then it's completely understandable, especially if you're already subscribed to
lots of other services. And I'm not just talking video services.
We're not just talking about Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime.
There's audio streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music. Maybe you
have a serious XM subscription. Right, All of that costs money.

(23:51):
There are so many streaming services these days, I mean,
it's impossible to keep up, and costs are rising us.
They're not going down anytime soon. When was the last
time you got a notification from one of your streaming
services saying, great news, your subscription fee is going down
next month. Right, Yeah, that just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen.

(24:14):
It's going up. It's going to continue to go up.
Especially as we see more of this type of consolidation
and there are fewer options, prices are going to rise.
Look at Peacock, they're increasing their prices again. Peacock Premium
is going from seven ninety nine to ten ninety nine
a month, Premium plus is going from thirteen ninety nine

(24:35):
to sixteen ninety nine, and so on. Their annual packages
are also going up. You know, at what point do
people tap out? At what point do people have to
make a list and say, Okay, I'm subscribed to these
six services, and I've got to cut them in half.
Which ones stay and which ones go? What's important to
me and what's not important to me? I mean, for

(24:57):
a content creator like me, that could be a good thing,
because there may be people who give up on watching
the shows altogether and they just tune into shows like
this to keep up with what's going on. There's already
a lot of people doing that. Nick Cohn believes that
the WWE audience is loyal and will follow them wherever
they go. They will follow them to the ends of

(25:19):
the earth and gladly pay the toll at each end.
He claims that ninety six percent of the USA Network
audience moved with them to Sci Fi when they were
shifted there on short notice during the Olympics. He claims
every WWE network subscriber, every single one, shifted over to Peacock,

(25:41):
so he is confident that all of their fans will
be there when they move to ESPN. In a challenging economy.
If it gets worse, that theory is going to be
put to the test. But you know what, he's not wrong.
For all of the moaning and all of the bitching
about having to spend thirty bucks a month to watch

(26:01):
these pls, the vast majority of those people will end
up paying the money. Like I've said this before, and
in light of this news, I think it's actually truer
now more than ever. You know, Nick Khn is Vince
McMahon's greatest signing after Hulk Hogan. Nick Con has made

(26:21):
this company more money than Hogan ever did. But without
Hogan as the face of their national expansion, they may
not even be in a position to be making these
types of deals. So I can't rank him above a Hulk,
But when it comes to talent, when it comes to
the executive end, nick Con is his greatest acquisition. I

(26:43):
don't think this deal happens without his relationships and his
contacts at ESPN. The last set of television rights negotiations,
he led the charge on those two. All these billion
dollar deals, he led the charge on those. If you're
a WWE shareholder, you're loving this. As a viewer, There's

(27:05):
a lot that I dislike about the current WWE product
and how overly corporate. It has gotten, but I accept
that it's the way of the world. Now. You know,
you got to get that money before the well drives up.
All these media rights deals, these astronomical fees that are
being paid to WWE and NASCAR and MLB and NBA

(27:26):
and NFL and all these different organizations. Like that money
is not always going to be there. It's not always
going to be that way, right, You got to get
it while the going is hot. And as a publicly
traded company, they have people to answer to, and those people,
more so than even the fans themselves, will always come first.
You know, does WWE give a shit that you have

(27:47):
to pay for three or four different services now if
you want to watch all of their content now, they
don't give a fuck because, as Nick con said, he
knows that you're going to pay for it regardless. I mean,
look at their ticket prices. Their ticket prices have increased astronomically.
They have priced a lot of people out, a lot

(28:09):
of families out of attending WWE events. Or maybe they
still go, but they don't go to as many as
they used to, or they sit in the cheap seats
now instead of sitting closer to the I mean, I
say cheap seats. I'm not sure those even exist anymore
at these shows. You know, over time, I think their
audience is going to change. I think the audience already has.

(28:30):
You know, they don't care so much about the matches
as much as they do the moments, right, It's what
they've been conditioned to expect. They wait for the moments
so that they can react. Maybe they get their face
on TV with their phony reaction. But as you price
certain people out, it's inevitable that the makeup of their
audience is going to change to some extent. The demographics

(28:51):
of their audience are going to change to some extent.
What will be very interesting is, you know, that first
turn down in business whenever it comes, and it is
going to happen. I mean it may take years, but
it will happen when it does. How loyal are those
new fans going to be? Right? Are they going to
be as loyal as the diehards right now? Are they

(29:12):
going to stick with WWE the way those other fans would,
the ones that they priced out. That's an interesting question
that I don't know the answer to. And another question
I don't know the answer to is when we see
the day that comes where that business turned down happens.
Who's going to be the first scapegoat? Right, is going

(29:35):
to be Triple h. He sure has positioned himself as
the face of this brand. But that's a whole other question.
But whether you can afford to go to their events
is really of no concern to them because those tickets
are still selling. They just put tickets on sale for
Survivor Series at Petco Park and already they move twenty

(29:55):
five thousand seats. This event is not until the end
of November, it's after Thanksgiving. The building fits forty seven
thousand people. They've already sold over twenty five thousand tickets
and they may well come close to that forty seven
thousand before all of said and done. So you're looking
at even more stadium shows in the future. Stadiums for
Survivor Series is going to become the norm, just like

(30:16):
they have for SummerSlam. So long as the demand is
there and people are willing to pay those prices, they
have no incentive to lower them. Why would they. So
if you don't like this ESPN deal, WWE has one
point six billion reasons not to care because I've gotten

(30:37):
those tweets too this week. You know, Well, I guess
I'm done with WWE. No more WWE for me. I'll
stick to the news sites and podcasts for my Phil. Well,
see you. For every fan that sticks to their guns
and leaves, they'll just replace them with five more. You know.

(30:59):
They get to be in bed with Disney at ESPN. Now.
It's always been about status with this company. That was
always the story with Vince McMahon. He was always upset
that there were no car companies who wanted to advertise
with them and sponsor their shows. Instead of seeing Audi
commercials during raw or hearing John Cena's voice on those
Honda commercials, it would be Burger King and Snickers like

(31:21):
those were the types of ads that you would see
on their shows over and over and over again. Only
in recent years has that really changed, Right, They're a
lot more accepted now in the mainstream and they're pretty
much covered in every realm of media. Right. They don't
have It's not like they have only cable shows, right.

(31:42):
I mean, they have the linear aspect of the deal
on lock, they have NXT on the ECW network, and
they have smacked down on USA network right, So they
have the basic cable aspect covered, and they've got the
streaming aspect covered. They've got their hand in everything instead
of just limiting themselves to one thing, which is smart.
You know, they've got guaranteed money coming in now more

(32:04):
than ever before. Even if you think the product is boring, like,
it doesn't matter. They're getting paid either way. You might say, well,
you know they're getting paid, but the shows are very bland. Okay, sure, yeah,
they're getting paid for mediocrity, but they're getting paid. But
if you have ESPN already and you have free access

(32:24):
to the streaming service after it launches the WWE shows,
they're not going to cost you a thing. So a
lot of fans are actually going to save money on
this deal. If they ditch Peacock. Unless you want to
watch the nxtpl s wherever they land, then you may
not be so lucky. And international fans don't have to
worry because nothing is changing for them. And to that point,

(32:46):
you know, WWE airs a lot of its content outside
the US on Netflix, And if you are worried about
having to pay more for another service, you do always
have the option of using a VPN, right, I mean
until unless Netflix builds in a mechanism to stop people
from doing so, you have the ability to use a VPN.

(33:09):
It is always an option. You just select a different country,
you connect, and then you refresh your Netflix and that's it,
so long as you already have an account with them,
you know. I mean, it'll cost you money, it's not free,
but I talk about Express VPN. Obviously they're a sponsor
for the show, but I pay for it. I use it.

(33:30):
It comes in very handy for me. And I've got
that offer where you could get an extra four months free.
I mean, I'm promoting it, but I mean, I'm serious
like this, This is the time to look into it.
If it's something you've never done before. And even if
you don't go with that one, you know, because there
are other ones out there. But it's going to be
an option that a lot of people are going to

(33:50):
flock to now, you know. But I've been mentioning it
a lot recently because of this European tour the WWE
is going to be going on this month leading up
to Clash in Paris. They're going to be doublin for
SmackDown on the twenty second. That's the first time ever
that they've done TV from Ireland. Then they have a
bunch of UK dates, mostly live events, but there is
a live RAW they're doing from Birmingham and then SmackDown

(34:12):
from Leon, France, and then Paris, France for RAW on
September first, And for at least some of those shows,
I'm probably gonna be watching them earlier using the VPN.
That way I can do earlier reviews, just like I
did back in March before WrestleMania. Speaking of big events,
I should mention this here. The chairman of the General

(34:34):
Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia Turkey, Al al Shehic, tweeted
this week that he just signed a deal to bring
a giant entertainment event to Saudi Arabia in twenty twenty seven,
a big surprise, he says, to be announced soon. That
he did not say WrestleMania, but when someone replied and

(34:55):
asked if it was WrestleMania, he responded with an upside
down smiley face and is smiley with shades on. They're
getting WrestleMania before London, aren't they. Oh, that's going to
make a lot of people mad. That's going to make
a lot of people of the UK very angry, but

(35:15):
you know what they're willing to pay for it is
far more than what the UK or anybody else is.
It'll be more money than anybody has ever paid for
WrestleMania in the history of WrestleMania. Dave Meltzer says he
knows people in the country who believe that it is
WrestleMania and that they are pushing for the rock to
headline the show. He also says there's been talk of

(35:38):
having two WrestleManias in one year, so maybe they don't
get WrestleMania proper. Maybe we have WrestleMania here and then
a few months later they get the Greatest WrestleMania, just
like they got the Greatest Royal Rumble. Or maybe they
get Super WrestleMania. It's a great game, by the way,
I had it on my Super Nintendo. To WrestleManias in

(36:02):
one year is honestly the perfect way to highlight what
TKO is all about. More than anything I could ever
put into words, it is all just so ridiculous. Today's
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at betterhelp dot com slash Solomonster. That's better Help h
e lp dot com slash solom Monster. Brock Lesner returned

(38:33):
to WWE last Sunday at SummerSlam in the big surprise
of the weekend, more so than even the seth Rollins
cash in the night before. Because I figured he would
be cashing in a lot of people did but I
didn't hear anyone mentioning Lesner even as a possibility for
the show. The Rock, yes, but not Brock. Brock had
not been seen since his loss to Cody Roads at

(38:54):
SummerSlam two years ago, and there were plans for him
to be in the Royal Rumble last year. I remember
there was talk about him being dumped by Dominic Mysterio
of all people, which would lead to a match, a
squash match, I mean, what else would it be at
Elimination Chamber and then from there he would wrestle gun
through at wrestle Mania. And then the week of the

(39:15):
Rumble is when the Janelle Grant sex trafficking lawsuit was filed,
and it was like a bomb went off and Vince McMahon,
you know, he might still be running the show had
Slim Jim not threatened to pull their sponsorship. They had
just announced a new sponsorship with Slimjim, very lucrative one,
and then this happened, and if you remember, they announced,

(39:37):
they put a statement out that they were putting a
pause on their partnership. And that's when Ari Emmanuel got
on the phone with Vince McMahon and convinced him that
it's best to step aside, because Slim Jim would probably
just be the first in a very long line of
sponsors to fall if he didn't. And so Vince left.

(39:57):
So thank you, Slim Jim. I will never make fun
of your stupid tables ever again. Actually I probably will,
but thanks anyway. And so they pulled Brock as well.
They replaced him with bron Breaker in that rumble, and
Dominic eliminated him instead, and Gunther went on to lose
his Intercontinental title to Sammy's Ain Or WrestleMania. So they

(40:18):
pulled Lesner from the video game like he was. He
was gone. It looked like he was just on ice indefinitely,
at least until the lawsuit was resolved in some way.
There's a reason that he was gone for two years. Okay,
that wasn't by accident. And then there he is at
MetLife Stadium last weekend. And when I heard the music

(40:39):
and I saw him come out, you know, there he is,
there's Cowboy Brock. I felt nothing seeing him out there,
like no excitement. It was just more like, this is
a man that is named forty four times in a
sex trafficking lawsuit. Sena not Roman reigns, not seth Rollins.

(41:04):
Brock Lesner is, though he is not accused of committing
a crime, nor is he named as a defendant in
the lawsuit. Vince McMahon is, WWE is John Laurinidis was
before he cut that deal that he be dropped as
a defendant in exchange for providing evidence against McMahon, and WWE.
Brock Lesner is not. And that is an important distinction

(41:27):
to make. But his name is all over this thing,
and it's pretty disgusting stuff. And so to clear up
any confusion as to what he is alleged to have
done or not have done, and why his name is
listed forty four times in this suit, let's just run
through it here once and for all. Janelle Grant alleges
that Vince McMahon recruited Brock for a sexual encounter with

(41:51):
her to be her next playmate, as he put it,
or as she puts it in the lawsuit. Supposedly that's
how Vince put it at a time when Vince McMahon
allegedly told her that he was trying to sign Brock
to a new contract. So if she quote helped him out,
it would be really helpful to him, so he had
her create sexual content for Brock that Vince could then

(42:15):
send to Brock, which she did. She produced the content,
she sent it over, and Brock likes what he sees, right,
or at least that's what Vince told her. Brock likes
what he sees. I don't know that she ever actually
met with Brock, although there's a passage in the suit
that makes mention of Vince flying him into Connecticut and

(42:35):
Brock stopping by her building for a visit, but that
he didn't return because he was too intoxicated and he
was taken back to the plane. So that almost makes
it sound like they did initially meet, but they just
didn't have sex. But again I'm a little questionable on that.
But she alleges that Vince gave Brock her cell phone number,

(42:56):
and so there would have been text messages between Lesnar
and Grant. I don't recall seeing any of those screenshots
in the lawsuit, only the phone messages between her and Vents.
Those are in there. But that's where she claims that
Brock requested that she send him a video of her urinating,
and then later she claims Brock wanted to have sex
with her and they allegedly sent her the address of

(43:18):
the hotel that he was staying at in Connecticut because
ww we had a show at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
That's the meeting that ended up not happening because there
was a snowstorm it changed his travel plans. And then
she also claimed that she had COVID anyway just as
an excuse to back out. And there's more in the suit.
I'm not going to get into every single detail. I

(43:39):
think we could leave it there, but for all the
people asking like, what did brock do? What did Brock do?
I genuinely don't know what he did. That's what she
alleges in the lawsuit. The point is, if this indeed happened,
she was being trafficked to other people for sex and
sex related acts by her boss. It's an issue of

(44:01):
power and exploitation. That's the real crux of the lawsuit.
Exploitation that brock Lesner may have potentially benefited from. Had
Vince McMahon paid her the money that he was supposed
to as part of the non disclosure agreement they signed,
we wouldn't be talking about this right now. We never
would have known about any of this. That's true. I've

(44:22):
seen people mention that that's true, because I see people
using that as an excuse to bash the woman and
call her all kinds of names. But if this happened
in the way that she describes, it's still wrong and
it's still disgusting all the same, and Vince McMahon should
never be allowed back into that company ever again. He

(44:42):
should never be in a position of power ever again.
Though I fully believe that if they were to hit
No Chance in Hell one day and he walked out
on TV, you would have thousands of idiots in the
crowd bowing to the man. You know, It's true. Brock
at worst was a willing party to all of this,

(45:04):
and that he's named forty four times in the complaint,
you would think since nothing has changed on the lawsuit front,
it would give them pause to use him again until
the case is resolved. Depending on what the outcome is.
It's still in this state of suspended animation until a
judge decides whether it should go to private arbitration, which
is what Vincent wwe want, in which case it never

(45:26):
goes to discovery and whatever happens happens behind closed doors
and that's it, or it goes to trial as she wants,
which means discovery, which means things could get even uglier
for Vincent, for WWE, and potentially for Brockeleisner too, if
there is more that we don't know about and if
she has the receipts to prove it. For whatever reason,

(45:48):
WWE decided enough time had gone by that it was
safe to bring Brock back, and on the Summer Slam
post show, Paul Leveck said this about Brock's return. This
is John seen as wish list. It's him writing the
last chapter of his book. And I think people saw
a conversation with us where he said that we'd have
to screw it up pretty badly to ruin his career.

(46:11):
That's yeah, they use that clip on Unreal, But he said,
it's not about that. For me. It's about John being
able to go out the way that he wants to
write his chapter. I know what that's like as a performer.
I know what that's like for everybody to feel that,
and I think for John to be able to do
what he wants to do, one of the very first

(46:31):
things I said to him is who do you want
and how? And we're working through that so you hear that,
and it sounds like he's putting it on John Cena,
that this is something John Cena requested for his retirement tour,
which even if he did so, fucking what like who

(46:52):
gives a shit, doesn't mean you have to say yes,
I don't care who he is, but he's putting it
back on John Cena. Meanwhile, John was asked about Brock's
return and his response was simply, they deal them. I
play him, which implies what he's always said for years,
which is that he does what his boss tells him
to do. He's always said he doesn't lobby for matches,

(47:15):
he doesn't lobby for opponents. Maybe all of a sudden
it's different because he's in the twilight of his career,
but that he has been consistent in that for years.
He comes to work, they pitch an idea to him,
and he says yeah or nay. They laid it all
out on Unreal when they talked about the heel turn.
They came to him and said, hey, what do you
think about turning heel? He's like, I like it, Okay,
let's do it. Like I don't get the sense that

(47:37):
he's actively, you know, showing up at these shows with
a list of ideas. Oh, you know, I want to
do this, and I want to wrestle this guy and
I want to do that. Like he shows up and
he does what they tell him to do, and all
of a sudden, we're supposed to believe that he has
this wish list of opponents. I mean, they've had him
outside of Cody playing the hits with people like Randy

(47:59):
Oh and Cmpunk. It's not surprising they would want to
run him and Brock back one more time. I mean,
the two of them have a lot of history together,
going all the way back to the OVW days. They've
had three classic matches together, Wanted Extreme Rules in twenty
twelve when Brock came back, the SummerSlam Squash in twenty fourteen,
and the Triple Threat match with Seth Rollins at the

(48:21):
Royal Rumble in twenty fifteen. That was ten years ago.
I don't know what a Brock lesnar John Cena match
looks like in twenty twenty five, but I can't say
it's something I was clamoring for. If Sina was then
good for him. He got his wish when Brock walked
out at SummerSlam, the place went nuts for him, right.

(48:42):
I Mean, the reality is most fans aren't going to
care about any of this. A lot of them probably
don't even know from this lawsuit you think they, I mean,
like even know it exists. But even the ones who
know kind of the basics of it, Like, how many
people do you think actually sat there and read through
sixty nine pages of that initial complaint pdf? I mean, really,

(49:07):
they just want to watch the show for the big
moments and be entertained. Brock coming out was a moment.
They talked about the seventy five million social media views
that it generated. That's what they care about. Dave Meltzer
says Lesner was under contract with them this entire time
and was paid his guarantee for the past two years.

(49:27):
Even though he never made a single appearance, he was
still one of the highest paid wrestlers in the entire company.
To sit home, he was never suspended, he was never fired,
and about a month ago WWE's legal department the same
legal department. Funny enough that once employed Jenelle Grant, the
legal department cleared him for a return. Now cleared him

(49:52):
has caused some confusion. Cleared him doesn't mean he was
cleared of any wrongdoing. This is not a legal case,
so like in the legal aspect of things, it just
means that they gave the ok for him to come back.
A spokesperson for Janelle Grant issued his statement regarding Lesner's return,
saying for far too long abuse was allowed to thrive

(50:13):
under WWE's leadership. Instead of writing this wrong, WWE has
done nothing to ensure those responsible are held accountable. This
attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug will backfire. We
look forward to the full set of facts, including those
about mister Lesner, coming out in a court of law
where they belong. But in the meantime, we refer you

(50:34):
back to Janelle Grant's updated complaint, which outlines in detail
the abuse that she endured by McMahon and others while
employed at WWE. Either WWE is confident that this case
is not going to trial, or they simply don't care
and they are willing to take the risk that nothing
else is going to come out. As it relates to

(50:56):
Brock Lesner, maybe they spoke with Brock, maybe he shared
his own TIS messages with their lawyers. We don't know.
You would assume their legal team knows more than we do.
But again, it could just be as simple as we're
paying this man a lot of money and we want
to get a return on our investment. He's not accused
of any crime, so we're going to bring him back.

(51:19):
If her legal team is to be believed, there may
be more that comes out that paints him in a
bad light, but that only happens if the case goes
to discovery. Right now, it's fifty to fifty whether or
not that happens. Wwe clearly believes they have nothing to
worry about. This could also be settled before it ever
goes to trial, with her getting a big fat payday
out of it. Like if the judge rules in favor

(51:40):
of a trial, there's definitely a settlement offer coming. And
if it's high enough, I think she takes the money
and runs and then this all goes away. I just
don't see what's in it for her to do it
any other way. You know, Again, this is a civil case.
No one's going to jail. This is a civil case.
It's not a criminal case. Vince McMahon reneged on money

(52:02):
that she feels was owed to her. It comes down
to money. If the money is high enough, why wouldn't
she settle, Like that's what started this entire thing in
the first place. And no other women have come, at
least publicly. No other women have come forward to kind
of join onto this or support her on this. It's

(52:22):
like this has turned into a gigantic class action lawsuit.
No it hasn't. There was talk at the start that
more women might come forward. I mean, if they have,
they might have done so privately, but they haven't attached
their names to it. That's a tough position to be
in when you're fighting against a billionaire and a multi
billion dollar company. I mean, this woman is not Aaron Brockovich.

(52:46):
I mean, she's not going to take down the evil
empire here. The only thing that really matters to WWE
are their sponsors. You know, even if more bad stuff
comes out, I just don't see it having any appreciable
impact on their business. Unless it's something so bad that
sponsors threatened to pull out. They probably look at it
as more of a nuisance than anything else. And if

(53:07):
they have to crack open the checkbook or Vince does
to make it all go away, then that's what they're
gonna do. Now. Brock was not on SmackDown. This week.
The only mentions of him came in the highlights of
what happened to the end of SummerSlam and a brief
mention by John Cena and his promo about how he
never backs down from a fight and if brock Lesner

(53:28):
wants some, he can come get some. So after that
big angle, that's all they gave us. They want to
stretch this out. I don't even know if the target
is Perth in October. You would think, Okay, they're not
gonna do Paris at the end of the month, and
then you go through all of September and surely by
October in Perth they'll do the match. I'm not totally

(53:51):
convinced of that. I could see Brock being seen his
final opponent at this point in December. Would they actually
drag this out that long? I mean, that would be
disappointing because I'd like to see that spot go to Gunther,
But Brock would certainly be the more marquee match beyond Seno.
We don't even know for sure that Brock is back

(54:11):
for anything more than that. If he is, then you
start thinking of other potential opponents for him heading into
WrestleMania season, and Gunther's name is at the top of
that list right because that was the match they were
going to do last year before those plans got scuttled
by the way. Roman Reigns was asked by ESPN who
his favorite all time opponent is, and he named Brock Lesner.

(54:34):
He said everything changed for him once he stepped into
the ring with Brock. And the funny thing about that
is the best matches those two ever had together were
their first and last ones. Like almost almost everything, not everything,
almost everything in between was terrible. I have to say
almost because they were part of that great four way
match at Summerslim in twenty seventeen that was great, but

(54:58):
all the terrible shit in between. They booke ended it
with two excellent matches Wrestle Mannia thirty one and then
the Last Man's Standing match at Summerslim. To go back
to SmackDown for a second, I thought SmackDown was awful
this week, just a chore of a show to sit through.
I enjoyed Dynamite more than I did smack That at
least we got that fun match with the Young Bucks

(55:20):
Brody Kingdom Bandito. But they set up two matches. They
set up two directions here for Clash in Paris one
with John Cena against Logan Paul, which has already been confirmed,
and they shot an angle at the end of the
show with Drew McIntyre delivering a Claymore kick to Cody
Rhodes through the bottom part of the announced desk as
Cody was sitting there propped up against it. He was

(55:43):
laid out dead, So it felt like a way to
write him off TV, maybe to go film for Street Fighter,
but it felt like the setup to a title match
in Paris, and I like that. I think McIntyre makes sense.
Is Cody's first challenger after his match with Logan. John
Cena will have eight dates left on his retirement tour

(56:03):
unless they add more, which is always possible. But you
figure three of those eight are actual matches on the
Plees or special events like Saturday Night's main event, which
is probably where his final match is happening. We know
one of those three, at least one is Brockeleisner, so
unless he's in the Wargames match at Survivor Series, that

(56:23):
leaves as little as two opponents other than Brock left
for John Cena to work with. That's not a lot
That's why I'm hoping Gunther is one of them, and
another one with AJ would be cool. I mean, I
honestly don't think it's going to happen, but I think
Sena in AJ styles, you know, one more time, would
be pretty neat. We also had a brief backstage interaction

(56:46):
with Tiffany Stratton on Friday, her and Jade Cargill, so
that direction is continuing. I'm still thinking we get healed
Jade out of this. There was no hint of that
at all on Friday, but I still feel like that's
probably the direction here, and the rest of the show
on Friday was a waste of time. Now over on
Raw seth Rollins is the new World heavyweight Champion, and

(57:08):
it appears his faction finally has a name, The Vision.
That's the name they trademark last weekend and then on
Monday night it was mentioned in the opening promo, so
we'll see if they stick with it officially. I'm just
glad they actually have a name now. I'm not even
going to comment on whether or not it's a good
name or a bad name. It's not a terrible name.
I mean, I've heard much worse. I'm just glad they

(57:30):
seem to have a name, and Seth put the title
on the line in the main event against La Knight
SmackDown's La Knight. Just like Raw's Sammy's Ain Pin Solo
Socoa the United States Champion on SmackDown, nothing matters anymore.
La Knight belongs on Raw, though, so I'm fine with it.

(57:51):
Their match ended when Cmpunk ran out of the crowd
to attack Seth, so La Knight is not going to
be very happy about that. They've already announced that Punk
is opening Raw tomorrow night. I would expect Night to
crash the party and build tension between the two of them.
They were both laid out by the vision Roman reigns
came out. He also ended up getting destroyed, including three

(58:13):
tsunamis and Bronson Reid stealing his shoes again the tribal thief.
Now like the Cody angle on Friday, this felt like
their way of writing Roman off TV so he can
go film Street Fighter. But the Wells Fargo Center in
Philadelphia just announced that Roman is going to be on
that show on August eighteenth, and he's also been announced

(58:34):
for the August twenty fifth Raw. They're going to be
in Birmingham, England. So according to p W Insider, Roman
is not expected to arrive on set for Street Fighter
filming until September second, and if all goes according to plan,
he'll be on set through September twenty sixth. That'll be
down in Australia. Cody is playing Guile in the same movie,
but he is not expected to be on set for

(58:57):
as long as Roman realistic. It makes no sense for
punk In La Knight to want to be in a
tag team match on that Paris show with Roman if
they were going to do like a six man tag
because they both have a valid claim to being screwed
out of the championship, Like, what the fuck would they
want to have a tag team match for? It should

(59:18):
be a triple threat match, and maybe we get Roman
one on one with Bronson Reid since he keeps stealing
the men's sneakers. If Brett Hard could fight a pirate
to get his jacket back, then Roman can fight Bronton
Reid to get his shoes back. And I really don't
have any interest in a fatal four way just because

(59:40):
if it were me, I would keep Roman in Seth
out of the ring together. But barring a War Games match.
I would keep them out of the ring until you're
ready to do that singles match, and WWE may see
that as a WrestleMania match, but I just think putting
Roman in Seth in a match like a four way
match kind of takes away from doing the eventual singles match. Right.

(01:00:01):
We already got them in a triple threat at WrestleMania,
so I would just do a triple threat here and
have Punkin Knight challenging Rollins in Paris for the World
Heavyweight title. That there was no carrying cross follow up
on Raw after his loss to Sammy's Ain't at SummerSlam,
so they never bothered to follow through on the stipulation
that if he lost, he would need to admit to

(01:00:23):
the world that he was wrong about Sammy. Never did
anything with it. He got beat at Summer Slam, nothing happened.
I said, well, maybe they'll save it from Monday night.
He wasn't even in the building. Him and Scarlet were
not even there in Brooklyn on Monday. But the whole
cross story took another turn last night after he and
Scarlet were moved to the alumni section on WWE dot Com,

(01:00:46):
which is usually a sign that someone's contract has expired
and they're no longer with the company, or they've been released.
That Cross has a new book out. It was just released.
It's called Life Is Fighting, and he's out promoting. It's
a book, by the way, they promoted on TV, which
is telling because they didn't have to do that. But
he's been out promoting it and addressing these rumors online

(01:01:09):
about his contract status, and the belief has been that
his contract was expiring at the end of this past week.
So supposedly his contract expired as of last night and
WWE had not made any offers to him. Then Dave
Meltzer reports that they did make him in Scarlet a
late offer, possibly as late as this week, but we

(01:01:30):
don't know if they actually signed it or not. We
don't know if it's been accepted. If Paul Hammond was
on Ariel Helwani show this week and said, the audience
is calling for Cross to be a bigger star, and
if WWE doesn't deliver on that, the audience is just
going to get behind him even more. And then he
compared Cross to Stone Cold, Steve Austin or Daniel Bryan

(01:01:54):
when it comes to the demand to make him a
bigger star, the idea being that that was organic, right,
Their rises were organic, and so is this. Yes, it's organic,
so are the eggs in my refrigerator. That doesn't mean
it's appropriate to compare them to stone cold Steve Austin
other than his bald head, I guess. I mean he

(01:02:15):
does bear a striking resemblance to my eggs. But please
do not ever make any comparisons between stone Cold Steve
Austin and Carrying Cross. All right, let's not get crazy here.
I like Cross's character work, I like his social media videos.
I have no idea why they haven't done more with Scarlet.
But Cross had three matches with Sammy's Ain okay, one

(01:02:38):
of the best wrestlers on the roster, and not a
single one of them stood out as anything remarkable. That's
his achilles heel. That and his age, right, His age
works against him. He's forty years old. Doesn't mean you
don't do anything with him, but they're not going to
necessarily invest in him in the way they might if
he was five years younger. The few opportunities is that

(01:03:00):
he's actually been given in ring. He has not done
anything to really make himself stand out. So that's a
mark against him, But the fan support is there and
his character work is at least interesting, so I hope
he stays. I think there's room for someone like him
on that roster. He's not going to be headlining shows, right,
not unless the fans dictate that that's where they want him.

(01:03:21):
That's just not going to happen. But as a player
in the middle of the cards, somewhere, there's room for
someone like him, especially with the fan support that he has.
Even if you just look at him as a mid
card guy. You know what, He's got more fan support
and social media support than most people do in the
mid card, So do something with it, right, You could

(01:03:43):
still do something with that. There is room for someone
like him on that roster, So I don't know why
you wouldn't make an offer to someone like that. You know,
when Triple H walked out for the SummerSlam post show
on Sunday, they had fans in the parking lot behind
them all chanting, we want Cross, we want Cross, and

(01:04:06):
Triple H either needs his hearing checked or he was
being disingenuous when he thought they said we want Brock,
we want Brock. He's like, you want Brock. You got him,
You got Brock like he's not hard of hearing. Okay.
He knew exactly what they were saying, and then Cross
tweeted about it and said unreal. They write the scripts,
but the fans write the truth. Thank you, TikTok, and

(01:04:31):
he was also on the two man Power Trip podcast.
Cross said, I'm still under contract. I saw a bunch
of stuff online. What is today Thursday. I don't know
where it's coming from, and I don't care to speak
to any of it, but I mean, all I can
tell you is the only way you're gonna get the
real story is when you get it from me. That's
all I can tell you. I can't really speak to

(01:04:53):
any of the legitimacy of anything that is being reported recently,
but I'll tell you right now. Everyone's going to know
exactly what that's going on very soon, so we'll have
our answer soon enough. Here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking
they really did make him an offer late, but he's
already signed, and moving them to the alumni page is

(01:05:14):
part of their plan to work the sheets and work
the fans. That's what this feels like. I don't think
he's actually going anywhere. Natalia made a rare appearance on
Raw Monday Night, very briefly in a backstage segment confronting
Becky Lynch after her promo on Nicki Bella, we are
getting Becky against Nicky soon. This led to Natty challenging Becky.

(01:05:39):
Becky said she would fight Maxine Dupre instead tomorrow night,
not Natty. I would imagine that'll be the following week, right,
Becky goes in there, beats Maxine and then we get
Becky and Natty maybe the Monday after. We haven't seen
much of Natty since she signed her new contract last year.
Remember there was all this news going around last spring
last Sun that they were negotiating and Italia's contract was

(01:06:04):
coming due and wwe really wanted to keep her, and
then ultimately she signed a new deal. So we just
haven't seen much of her at all since signing that
new deal. But she has been announced for Triple Mania
next Saturday in a three way match against Fabe Apache
and Lady Flammer for Flammer's Rena de Rainas Championship. Flammer

(01:06:26):
has been the champion for two years after beating Tia
Valkyrie for the belt back in twenty twenty three. I
just love how Natty resigned with him, and she has
been wrestling everywhere but WWE. She's wrestled in blood Sport.
She's wrestling in the Triple A. Actually she wrestled there
last month. She's going back again. She's wrestled for the NWA,

(01:06:47):
She's wrestled for Booker T's Reality of Wrestling promotion. Everywhere
but actually wrestling on WWE television. Speaking of Triplemania, it
is airing live on WWE's YouTube channel next Saturday in
both English and Spanish. The show has already sold out
nineteen thousand fans. In fact, the demand has been so

(01:07:08):
high there scaling down the size of the stage so
they can open up more sections. See this is the
power of dirty dom. Corey Graves will be handling the
English commentary again. I thought he did a great job
last time. I don't know if Conan will join him
again on color, but Raymisteria will be there to induct
Conan into the Triple A Hall of Fame. Conan is

(01:07:31):
the one who gave Ray his big break, and he
inducted Ray into the WWE Hall of Fame, so it
only makes sense. In addition, to the natty match. Finn Balor,
JD McDonough and Raquel Rodriguez are wrestling Mister Iguana, Nino
Hamburgesa and Lola Weis. Los Garza Angel Imberto will defend

(01:07:51):
the Triple A Tag Team titles in a street fight
against Psycho Clown and Pagano and Lijdel Vikingo defends the
Triple A Mega title in a four way against Dominic, Mysterio,
Dragonly and El Grande Americano. I mean, you look at
this card like it basically reads like a WWE card.

(01:08:13):
That's what it is. This is the future for Triple A,
only a matter of time now before it becomes NXT.
Mexico and Ashanti Viadnis announced on social media this morning
that he is leaving WWE. He was only briefly on
the main roster. He spent most of his time down

(01:08:34):
in NXT for the past few years. He said, after
six unforgettable years under the WWE lights, the time has
come for me to close that chapter. I'm filled with
nothing but gratitude for every opportunity, the experiences, lessons, and
incredible talent that I've had the chance to work with.
I'm truly excited to show the world what I can
really do. Sometimes you got to get off multiplayer and

(01:08:56):
progress your story mode. I believe I'm the face of
the future, and the reason your girls stop texting you back? Huh?
Is that why? This is a brand new beginning. I
am becoming the best version of myself. You have only
seen a glimpse of my true potential, and I'm just

(01:09:17):
scratching the surface. I know that to some this can
be a dark time, but stars can't shine without darkness.
Sounds like his contract was up and they didn't renew
because he's already taking bookings. Who would have thought that
Beefab would be the last remaining member of hit Row
on that roster, But here we are. Today's episode is

(01:09:39):
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(01:10:02):
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(01:11:54):
we've had a story about backstage drama in AW. I
guess we were due for one, although this is tame
by comparison to some of the ones in the past.
It was reported this week by Fightful that MVP has
rubbed a lot of people the wrong way behind the
scenes in AW, as expressed by a number of talents

(01:12:14):
on the roster. MVP has supposedly made it well known
that he does not like speedball. Mike Bailey, I don't
know why he doesn't like speedball. That in and of
itself is a nothing burger, because who gives a shit
if MVP likes Speedball or not not everyone on the
roster has to like each other. I'll bet you work

(01:12:35):
with at least one person that you don't like, right.
Doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to
work together, but it goes beyond that. He apparently did
not want Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin to lose their
tag team titles to Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight. Now
it's not known if Jet Speed was originally going to
beat the Hurt Syndicate to win the tag team titles,
but they never did. The report also states that MVP

(01:12:57):
turned down pitches for the Hurt Syndicate to drop the
belt to FTR at all in, and if not at
all in, then to do so at Forbidden Door. MVP
reportedly suggested they lose the titles instead to either The
Gates of Agony, the Outrunners, or Private Party, three teams
that they have already beaten this year, and the same

(01:13:19):
Private Party that they destroyed and took the titles from.
Private Party has not been seen on aw television since.
In fact, the only match that Private Party has had
since losing to the Hurt Syndicate all year Okay it
is August now. The only other match they've had all
year was in House of Glory that was back in March.

(01:13:40):
That ship has sailed so long as the Hurt Syndicate
have those tag team titles, Private Party won't. And I
mean they made sure that with the way that their
run was treated. After they beat the Young Bucks for
those belts, they beat the brakes off those boys, they
buried them. Tony Kahn and the Hurt Syndicate both buried
those two men six feet under to where they're still

(01:14:01):
trying to dig their way out for oxygen. Now. There's
also said to be frustration within the AW locker room
that the Hurt Syndicate beats everybody up. They high five
the fans, and they do cool moves when they're supposed
to be heels. And it was also noted the storyline
with MJF was originally planned to run even longer, but
there was a certain member of the group, not MVP,

(01:14:25):
that wanted it over and done with, and so MJF
is out of the Hurt Syndicate. Although there's not said
to be any heat between MJF and the group only
that this person just wanted him out. If there are
any issues between MVP and Speedball, they did their best
to poke fun at it and diffuse the situation by
posting a It was very short videos, like twenty seconds

(01:14:47):
on social media. Backstage at Dynamite where Speedball was filming
for his vlog, when the Hurt Syndicate walked up to him,
MVP said fuck you, Speedball, and then Bailey said, with
a smile on his face, well fuck you too, MVP.
I like to think this is how all these guys
greet each other backstage in aw They keep their distance.

(01:15:10):
This was all tongue in cheek. It should be noted
that so far, no one has denied any of these rumors. Right,
they're poking fun at it, but no one has actually
said that this is bullshit. It just felt like, hey,
it's out there, so let's try to make fun of
it and just move on. Now. Again, the Bailey stuff
is pretty trivial. I don't see that as any kind
of a big deal. But when it starts to bleed

(01:15:32):
over into the product, that's when it becomes a problem.
And I was wondering, you know, and I talked about
this on the show. At the time, I was wondering
why the build to that tag team title match in
Texas was so wonky. You know where they ended up
adding the Patriarchy to make it a triple thread. It
was the Patriarchy, Jet Speed and the Hurt Syndicate, and

(01:15:52):
I said, well, why wouldn't you just add FTR and
make it a four way? I mean, that would have
made more sense to me. That way, the Hurt Syndicate
could have lost the titles it all in without having
to take the losing fall, like FTR could win the belts,
but they're not directly beating lashly In Benjamin to do it. Instead,
FTR worked a match on the pre show and then

(01:16:13):
did commentary for the title match, which was very weird.
I don't know if MVP has creative control of any
kind as part of his deal, either written or otherwise.
I'm going to assume he does not. Why is he
making decisions about who lashly In Benjamin will or won't
drop the titles to, like, why is that his call

(01:16:35):
to make. It's not his call to make, it's Tony
Kahan's call. It's his company. He does the creative for
the shows. And if he wants the titles on FTR,
then the title should go to FTR, and if they don't,
then it should be because Tony Kahn says so, not MVP.

(01:16:56):
It's like the inmates running the Asylum. FTR is wrestling
Brody King and benditdo in the finals of the Tag
Team Eliminator tournament, which means the winner challenges the Hurt
Syndicate in London at Forbidden Door. It should be FTR
in that spot and they should win the tag team titles.
That way they can put the titles on the line
it all out against Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. I

(01:17:18):
think that's the play to do cope in Christian the
Reunion and then put the belts on them in Toronto.
This idea that AW has to come up with a
workaround or a plan B of some kind is ridiculous.
It's not like they're being asked to drop the belts
to fucking Dan Housen in Orange Cassidy. FTR is one

(01:17:40):
of the best tag teams in the entire company. They
have plenty of credibility. But even if they didn't, even
if Tony Kahn wanted them to drop the titles to
Dan Housen in Orange Cassidy. My point still stands, it's
not MVP's call to make, or it shouldn't be, or
Bobby Lashley or Shelton Benjamin for that matter. I mean,

(01:18:01):
given the giving talent creative input is one thing, giving
them creative control is another. Nobody should have control over
things like this other than the promoter. Unless it is
specifically written into someone's contract, then it's fair game if
you're dumb enough to give it to them. If FTR
is what Tony wants, then FTR is it. That's it, period,

(01:18:23):
end of story. After dropping the TNT Championship to Kyle
Fletcher last week on collision in a very bloody, very
violent Chicago street fight, the same Kyle Fletcher, who Fightful
says signed a new multi year contract in the spring
for big money, Dustin Rhodes announced that he is going
to be undergoing major invasive surgery in the form of

(01:18:45):
a double knee replacement. He tweeted, knees or both destroyed.
I have to go under the ninthe August twenty. First,
they can't actually fix the damage, so we are getting
two knee replacements. Damn hashtag keeps stepping by the way,
that this is not the end, so he's blaming Kyle
Fletcher for the injury. That part of it is a work.

(01:19:06):
The surgery is very much not a work. And it
comes at a time when Dustin also holds one half
of the Ring of Honor tag team titles with Sammy
Gavara and one third of the Ring of Honor six
man titles with the Von Eric Boys, which I assume
will all have to be vacated. Now. Even walking out
there for the match with Fletcher, like you could tell
his knees or shot, like it's painful to watch him walk.

(01:19:29):
So this was inevitable. But to get both knees done
at the same time is going to be a tough recovery,
especially for a guy. I mean, look, he's fifty six
years old. Fifty six in and of itself is not old,
but when you're a professional wrestler with thirty plus years
of wear and tear on your knees and on your body,
fifty six years old, and he's a fifty six year
old man who wants to get back in the ring

(01:19:49):
after double knee replacement, Like, I'm not saying it's impossible,
but it's going to be tough to come back from that,
he said. It's people telling me to retire that pushes
me even more. I am still at fifty six, one
of the greatest professional wrestlers in the world. Age is
just a number. Sometimes you have to manifest shit and

(01:20:10):
get it done. I absolutely know my time is nearing
the end, but not yet. Got to get the world title,
as that should be every pro wrestler's goal. Good luck
with that. If that was the last match of his career,
I can think of worse ways to go out. You know,
he finally won a title in aaw He got to

(01:20:30):
go out on his sword in a brutal street fight,
putting over one of the company's young rising stars. Not
a bad way to go out if that was to
end up being his final match. We already had a
fifty eight year old in Jeff Jarrett earlier this year
claiming this would be his last year in the ring
and that he wanted to win the world title, and
then Tony Kahn was wise enough to abandon that idea

(01:20:51):
because no one wanted to see that. Dustin can still go.
But I am not clamoring to see that anymore than
I was for Jef Charrett, I've got an injury update
on Buddy Matthews and it's not good. We have not
seen Buddy since his Grand Slam Australia match with Kazushka

(01:21:12):
Okada back in February. That's where he injured his ankle
during his entrance when he jumped over the top rope
getting into the ring. He rolled it very badly and
then wrestled Okada for thirteen minutes on the ankle, which
I imagine did not do himself any favors. He told Chris
van Vliet back in April that he suffered a partial
ligament tear and cartilage damage and there was no break,

(01:21:35):
which was good, and he said the doctors told him
they've never seen an ankle roll that much under someone
without completely disintegrating the bones. But that was in April,
and in April he was estimating that he was about
eighty five percent recovered and had his fingers crossed that
he would be back in the ring very soon, possibly
by the end of the month. Fast forward to June,

(01:21:57):
he sounded less optimistic. He said the ankle was not
healing as well as he thought it would be. There
was no mobility to it and without that mobility, he
can't move properly, and once it hits the three month
mark without healing, it becomes chronic. So that was in June,
and then this week he posted a photo from his

(01:22:19):
hospital bed after surgery with his wife Rhea Ripley by
his side. So he finally caved and had surgery on
the ankle, which is only going to prolong his recovery
from something he thought he would be back from in April.
I'm frustrated for him and it's not even my ankle.

(01:22:40):
Now Forbidden Door is coming up in a few weeks,
actually a couple of weekends from now Forbidden Door. It
still is not looking much like a Forbidden Door, but
that doesn't seem to bother the UK fans Aw has
almost fifteen thousand tickets out for the show at The
Two in London for a two and a half million
dollar gait, so the fourth largest in company history. Now

(01:23:04):
the g one climax ends of the week before the
pay per view. So whatever new Japan involvement there may be,
it looks like those appearances. If they're going to show
up on TV and they're going to make some of
those matches, it may be limited to that last week.
We know Hiroshi Tanahashi has said he will wrestle his
last ever UK match on that show. We just don't
know against who. My theory was maybe they're holding out

(01:23:26):
hope Will Osprey can work the show and they could
do Tanahashi against Osprey. They also announced on Collision last
night that next week there's going to be a four
way match to determine who challenges Zach Saber Junior at
Forbidden Door for the IWGP title. It'll be Nigel McGinnis Etchesro,
Daniel Garcia and Lee Moriarty. So basically Nigel McGinnis is

(01:23:50):
wrestling Zach Saber Junior at Forbidden Door. Can't go any
other way now. Not announced yet, but it looks like
Hangman Adam Page is going to be defending the aw
World title, most likely against MJF. That appears to be
the direction for that show. MJF got a win that
was not without controversy over Mark Briscoe on Wednesday, and

(01:24:12):
they have announced that MJF and Hangman will be having
a face to face this week on Dynamite. Darby Allen
he kidnapped Wheeler Dah on Dynamite and then tried to
run him over with his truck after sticking a sign
to UTA's forehead that John Moxley found that read just
forbidden door. That was the message on the note. So

(01:24:32):
Moxley against Darby is all but confirmed as an aside.
Darby Allen told Steve O on his podcast that coming
off his Mount Everest climb, I'm literally stopping and smelling
the roses right now. I just want to be focused
on being as grounded as possible. I do want to

(01:24:55):
go to space, of course he does. I love how
he talks about being grounded and then proceeds to talk
about going to space where he will be anything but grounded.
He'll be the exact opposite of grounded. But I guess
if Jason Vorhees can go to space, then why not

(01:25:15):
Darby Allen. Tony Khan's ready to fund the expedition just
so Darby can plant the AW flag on the moon.
You know, Darby goes to Space actually sounds like some
direct to DVD animated film back in the day that
you would buy for your kid. That's it sounds like.
So you could also throw in Tony Storm against Athena

(01:25:37):
for the AW Women's World title. That's confirmed the Hurt
Syndicate against Leo Rush and Action Andretti. Probably if MVP
has his way Okata against Swerve for the unified title
and Mercedes defends her TBS Championship in a four way
match against Alex Windsor representing AW, someone else that will

(01:25:58):
be representing CMLL, and someone else that will be representing Stardom.
That is the lineup so far. Other news and notes.
Hulk Hogan's funeral took place on Tuesday in Florida, just
south of his mansion in Clearwater. Among those in attendance
were Vince McMahon, who spoke at the service and asked

(01:26:20):
everyone to give Hogan one last standing ovation. Others included
Linda McMahon, Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Paul McMahon aka Triple H.
John Laurinidis was there. He crawled out of his hole
to attend. Rick Flair, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Big Show Sting,

(01:26:42):
Lex Luger, Ted d Bassi, Jeff Jarrett Hacksaw, Jim Duggan,
Brutus Beefcake, Jacques Rougeau, Jimmy Hart, Brian Blair, Dennis Rodman,
Kid Rock, THEO Vaughn and Bam Margera. That is certainly
more people than you hear about for most wrestler funerals.
Hogan would have turned seventy two years old tomorrow. Hulk's

(01:27:04):
wife Sky, his ex wife Linda, and son Nick were
also there, but noticeably absent was his daughter Brooke, whom
he had been estranged from for the past couple of years.
He never even met his grandkids. On Instagram, Brooke explained
why she was absent because she was getting heat for
not being at her dad's funeral. She said, my father

(01:27:26):
hated the morbidity of funerals. He didn't want one. And
although i know people grieve in many ways, and I'm
so grateful for all the celebrations and events organized to
honor him. As his daughter, I had to make my
own decision to honor him the best and most genuine
way that I knew, how privately, the way that made
me feel closest to him. The only thing missing today

(01:27:46):
was him in his pop up lawn chair watching the
waves and the sun set. Says Daddy. We honored you
in the simplest way we could. We took our babies
to the beach and put them in the same salty
waters that you loved. Molly loved the water. I think
she'll be a little fish as you called me. We
love you and honor the things that made you so special.

(01:28:08):
Every grain of sand and every wave reminded me of
being your beach baby and brought us closer to you.
I pray that you're at peace and know how dearly
I love you. Rest in heaven, Daddy. Brooke was in
the news on Thursday saying that given all the speculation
and all the uncertainty around her father's death, because there

(01:28:28):
aren't questions that have been raised, she is offering to
pay for an autopsy herself. After Hulk's wife said that
they have not yet cremated. Now they gave him a funeral,
he was in the coffin he is supposed to be cremated.
His wife said they have not cremated him yet, which
is what he wanted. To make sure that every question

(01:28:49):
about his medical care is answered first. So Brooke stepped
up and said that she would personally cut a check
for any invoice required by the medical examiner to get
an autopsy done. She says, that's what it takes to
get it done. My dad's dignity and legacy deserves it.
She finds aspects of her father's death very fishy, especially

(01:29:11):
the stuff about him having a history of leukemia, which
was news to her. And she was talking, you know,
she called into Bubba the Love Sponge before that, before
she made this offer, she called into Bubba the Love Sponge.
She was talking about a litany of different things, including
his care. She always used to, you know, basically be
the point person for all of his medical care and

(01:29:34):
getting his blood checked and all that stuff. Now that
hasn't been the case now for at least a couple
of years, so it's possible that, you know, he was
diagnosed with stuff after the fact. She just finds it
all very fishy. But she called into Bubba the Love
Sponge on Tuesday, which shock Bubba because he used to
be very close with Brooke. Obviously, he was Hulk's best friend.
He knew the family very well, and he had a

(01:29:56):
very close relationship with Brook. He was like an uncle
to her and the two of them had not spoken
since twenty eleven. So, like he's doing his radio show
and you know, one of his co hosts says, hey,
we got a woman on the line who claims to
be Brooke. It's like Brooke Hogan like, yeah, he got

(01:30:17):
very nervous, right. He couldn't imagine why she was calling in,
but he assumed it was probably for no great reason.
He thought it was going to be a disaster. But
she put his mind at ease right away and said
that she doesn't blame Bubba for anything. She just wanted
to set the record straight on a few things. One
of the big reveals from the conversation was Brooke admitting

(01:30:38):
that her father told her that Bubba was not the
one who leaked the sex tape all those years ago,
the one with Hogan on it calling himself a racist
and using the N word. Yeah, that one Hogan was
having sex with Bubba's wife on there. He had asked
his good friend if he could have sex with his
wife because he was down on his luck, his life

(01:30:59):
was falling apart. He might have been going through his
divorce at that point, and I guess just went to
Bubba and said, Hey, I'd like to have sex with Heather,
and he was like cool. I mean, who among us
has not asked our best friend the same thing? If
I asked my best friend that he wouldn't be my
best friend anymore. But for years people have blamed Bubba

(01:31:20):
for leaking that tape, so he was very appreciative of
her admitting that he wasn't the one responsible, though he
did say I wish you would have come out years
ago and said this because it kind of ruined my life.
But you know, better late than ever. It was actually
someone who worked for Bubba at the time. I won't
say the person's name because I don't know if it
was ever confirmed to be him, but if you care

(01:31:42):
enough to know, it's out there now. Another big takeaway
from their conversation, and this one did not make hul
Kogan look great at all. This one's actually pretty despicable.
Bubba said that he wasn't looking to upset her, but
he asked her, do you remember Christmas Day many years
ago getting a letter from her record label terminating her

(01:32:05):
music contract, and Bubba revealed that he helped her father
write that letter. It did not actually come from her label.
She thought it was a real letter on Christmas, no less,
and that effectively ended her music career, although she did
say that she just signed with the same label again.
She's trying to get back into singing all these years later,

(01:32:28):
but that letter actually came from her father. Bubba claimed
that Terry did it because he wanted to get her
away from the label and split the sides up, including Stax,
who was the rapper that Brooke was dating at the time.
He was the son of Cecil Barker. Barker was the
owner of the label. Stax is the guy that Hulk
was referring to in the sex tape when he dropped

(01:32:50):
the N word multiple times and said he was a
little racist, not a lot racist, just a little racist.
But it would be okay if she was dating an
NBA player, that would be okay. Apparently. He said. Brooke
had a two year deal at seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars per year with the record label, and Bubba

(01:33:14):
said that Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and Jason Hervey wanted Barker
to instead take that money and fund Paul White Big
show as a boxer. He said the idea was that
they would drop Brooks contract and convince the owner of
the label to put up three million dollars for Paul

(01:33:34):
White to move to Miami. They would buy him a house,
and they would have him trained to be a boxer.
For a year. God, I do remember that Hogan got
this idea in his head that they would make a
fortune backing Big Show as a boxer. This is a well,
it had to be around the time the Big Show
left WWE. I mean physically, he was not in good

(01:33:57):
shape at all. And it was probably after he lost
the ECW title in that awful December to Dismember match
the Elimination Chamber lost it to Bobby Lashley, and then
Big Show left the company, So that would have been
around that period of time. But yeah, I remember that.
You know, there was a great story on this. I
had to go back and find it. It's still online

(01:34:19):
from twenty sixteen by David Bixon, spen on SB Nation.
In a deposition in twenty twelve, Paul White said that
Hulk introduced him to Cecil Barker. He said, I know
a guy from Miami that was interested in you, helping
you start a boxing career, and he's also financing my
daughter's singing career. Right. Hulk was really pumping him up.

(01:34:40):
He was pumping up White, and White only knew of
Barker whatever Hogan told him, and they really gassed him
up by both those guys did Barker and Hogan. So
when Big Show left WWE, he started training to become
a boxer until he got tagged with a left hand
in a sparring session with a real boxer and he
went down and he didn't even remember getting hit and

(01:35:04):
leaving the gym that day. The only thing he remembers
was waking up with the key in the ignition of
his car, and in the deposition, White said, apparently they
had taken my gloves off called the match, and I
had taken my bag and walked out of the gym
and was sitting in my car with the car running
when I woke up. It scared the shit out of me.

(01:35:27):
Because he was never knocked out before all of his
years of wrestling. That was the first time he was
truly knocked out. And that's when he realized, you know what,
this ain't for me. And he talked to his wife
and told his wife what happened, and they agreed, this
is not for you, and he quit and Hogan tried
to talk him out of it. He couldn't believe that

(01:35:48):
he just up and quit, and the two of them
didn't speak much after that. They weren't on speaking terms
for a while. The only reason this information is even
available and that there was a deposition is because the Big
Show was broke at the time, which is probably why
he agreed to do it. And he still owed Cecil
Barker money that Barker had put up for him. And

(01:36:11):
after you know, Big Show went crawling back to WWE,
Barker sued to stop it and argued that he still
had him under contract. And I know that litigation dragged
on for years and years. I don't remember what the reservoir,
if it was, ever really resolved, but anyway, that showed
what Hogan was most interested in. He didn't give two

(01:36:32):
shits about the man's health or the fact that Big
Show spoke to his wife and they decided, you know what,
it would be best not to pursue this since you
got knocked out cold. You know, all Hogan was interested
in was, you know, the golden goose here. I stuck
my neck out for you, brother. You gotta go back.
Bubba said that he and Hogan wrote a letter on

(01:36:55):
the record label Stationary and they forged Barker's signature with
a Christmas gift that Brooke opened when she really believed
that it was a termination letter when she read the letter,
and Hogan later went to Barker and said that Brooke
was out and with the one point five million dollars
in money that Barker would save on her contract, that

(01:37:16):
he could instead put that money up to fund, you know,
Paul White's boxing career, and Hogan would of course own
points in Whites. But he did this to his own daughter.
He deceived his own daughter, Like, think about that, and
that's not anything that even played a role in their
rift for all those years. That's something that he did

(01:37:37):
that Brooke didn't even know about until this radio interview
this week. And she also talked about a business partner
that Hogan was close with who was screwing him, and
you know how Hogan didn't see it. She didn't mention
the person's name. But the next day on his show,
Bubba said the name that the two of them were
talking about was Eric Bischoff. He said, I know for

(01:37:59):
a fact, and Bischoff consume me all he wants. I
know for a fact. It was absolutely Bischoff that she
was speaking of. Bischoff needed Hogan to stay relevant. Well,
there you have it. I've always said if Hulk Hogan
was walking down the street and he stopped short. Bischoff
would have browned all over his nose. Of course, he

(01:38:21):
felt the need to attach himself to Hogan. I can't
speak to him screwing Hogan on business deals. I mean,
they would know better, but I wouldn't be surprised in
the least. Meanwhile, Brett Hart commented on Hulk Hogan's death
on The Masked Man Show this week. One thing about
Brett he is not afraid to share how he really feels,

(01:38:43):
even if the person did just pass away. There are
just certain things he cannot let go. He said, you
can never deny what Hulk Hogan did. His footprint in
the wrestling business will always be huge, maybe as big
as it ever was going to get. When Hulk Cogan
left the WWF in nineteen ninety two and wasn't at

(01:39:04):
SummerSlam ninety two. Was WrestleMania eight when I fought Roddy Piper.
Piper was one of the few guys that reached down
and pulled me up to his level. I want to
wrestle Brett Hart because I want to make him. Roddy
Piper made me and contributed to the next generation. There
were a lot of wrestlers who didn't do that. Hulk
Cogan never did that for anybody, never pulled anyone else up.

(01:39:27):
Jake Roberts never did anything for anybody else. He only
did for Jake Roberts. I look at Jake Roberts and
Hulk Cogan, that's just two guys. Man, Jake the snake
catching strays. I think Brett's been waiting to unload that one.
Jake's been knocking him for years, saying that Brett didn't
have what it took to be championship material. He would

(01:39:49):
potato guys when he was younger, because you know, Brett
prides himself on set always saying that he never hurt
another wrestler in the ring his entire career. So, I mean,
that's about the worst thing that you could say to Brett.
Calling Marty McFly chicken in Back to the Future was
the worst thing you could say to Marty McFly. Saying
that Brett Hart hurt people in the ring is basically
the equivalent, Like, it's just he can't let that stand.

(01:40:12):
So I'm sure that's just him giving Jake a receipt.
But on his experiences of working with Hogan, Brett said
Hulk Hogan. When I got to WWF in nineteen eighty four,
there was a schmorgasboard of bad guys like Piper Orndorf,
Bob Orton, Kamala, Killer Khan, King Kong, Bundy. It was

(01:40:33):
like a candy box. He had such a lineup of
guys to work with the best villains in wrestling. That
all made Hulk Hogan. Same with Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat,
and Macho Man. They never lost. They got their hands raised.
In nineteen ninety two, comes along and they're gonna give
me this big push. There is nobody there and nobody left.
I didn't have anybody to work with when I won

(01:40:55):
the belt, really, not any monsters anyway. That's what I
always think. Nineteen ninety two, the elevator was falling to
the bottom. Everything was sinking so fast. They were in trouble.
Hogan was off in the steroid scandal, though he said
he never took them. All of that hurt the business.
Hulk Stick was getting tiring at that point. I don't
know how I got picked. I never had any say

(01:41:16):
when I found out I was gonna be world champion.
I was the first one to find out and it
was a shock. I didn't expect it, but I was
grateful for it. I always felt like things were falling
so bad and Vince had to figure something out stick
it on him. I was a safe bet. I wasn't
a guy who was gonna get busted for having a
couple of ounces of coke in my bag, like Jake Ron,

(01:41:37):
like Jake Roberts Videm. I wasn't a guy who was
gonna fail my drug test. I was a safe bet.
That's why Vince picked me to be champion. I need
somebody who's not going to drop the ball and have
any scandals. I can't take any more scandals. Stick it
on Brett Hart, so they stuck it on me. I
wasn't expecting it, but I stepped up to the plate.

(01:41:58):
I always thought that the day I won the belt,
Hulk Hogan would come up and pat me on the
back and tell me how glad he was that I
was the guy they picked to pull the sword out
of the stone for him. Unfortunately, that's not how it was.
The second I won the belt, I was the enemy.
I had what he wanted and we were never really
friends ever. Again. That had nothing to do with me.
I was always honest, Hulk. It was like a little

(01:42:21):
kid in elementary school. Some kids are bullshitters who tell bullshit,
classic bullshitters. Sometimes you have to kick kids like that.
I think Hulk Hogan was a bullshitter. I will always
shake my head and wonder why he was such a
roadblock for me. He wouldn't do anything for me, and
he made sure and I know this as a fact.
He made sure that when I was in WCW, he

(01:42:43):
made sure that they didn't do anything with me. Don't
do anything with him, Just leave him, have him sit
on the bench in the dressing room. Brett Hart does
not like Hulk Hogan. If you've paid attention to any
of his interviews over the years, or you read his book,
it is clear that he didn't care for Hulk Hogan.
So no one should expect that just because Hogan died,

(01:43:05):
his opinion is suddenly going to change. Now. Does Brett
Hart love the smell of his own farts? Sure he does,
but I appreciate his commitment to consistency and Hulk Hogan
was not his only target. In that interview, he also
commented on Gunther and his extreme hatred of chops in wrestling,

(01:43:26):
something else that he has always been very consistent about
throughout the years. He said, I don't want to sound
like I'm tooting my own horn all the time. Well,
I think that bus has left the bus stop there,
but he goes. The best wrestling has to pretend to
be real. That's what I did. I tried to make
it as real as I could, contrary to that gunther guy,

(01:43:47):
who seems like a nice enough guy when I met him.
But I hate wrestlers that hurt each other on purpose.
I hate it when you're out there and getting beat
up and hurt by a guy for real, like chops.
Whoever want to fight with a chop? What a waste
of time. Rick Flair is famous for bringing the chops
the way they are now. My dad used to tell
wrestlers at Stampede, nobody ever beat anybody with a chop.

(01:44:10):
It's true. They hurt and they look like shit. They
make a big slap sound, but they hurt. And you
get chopped by somebody like Rick Flair for a thirty
minute match and he chops you fifteen times. Your whole
chest the next day is bruised. It hurts to put
a shirt on. I used to wrestle Rick Flair and
wake up going why am I hurting so much? Doesn't
Rick Flair know it's a show. It's not supposed to

(01:44:33):
be real. I'm not supposed to wake up with a
really sore chest. I have no respect for guys that
hurt each other all the time. It's just to me,
lazy shit wrestling. When guys like Gunther and I've told
him this to his face, it's bullshit. When you're hurting
somebody for real, you're unprofessional. I wrestle guys and never

(01:44:53):
hurt anybody. See I'm telling you. It's like his greatest
point of pride that he never hurt anybody in the
ring that Brett also mentioned wrestlers like Cmpunk and Dax
Harwood when he's not busy tweeting obsessively over podcasters online,
who frequently pay homage to him in their matches. He said,
I take it as a compliment. And whenever I watch

(01:45:15):
wrestling and I see something that's obviously a salute or
sort of like, hey, that was bretttheart in nineteen eighty
eight or something like that, I take that as a
huge compliment, Especially from the wrestlers today. I think they'd
all be a lot better off if they copied me more. Oh,
I love it. I love it. He's not wrong. They

(01:45:37):
would be better off if they borrowed from Brett Hart. Look,
the stuff with the chops, right, the stuff with the
chops is what it is with him. This isn't even
the first time he's criticized Gunther for them. Like Brett
was at that first clash at the Castle show in
twenty twenty two when Gunther wrestled Seamus and they had
that awesome match. I loved it. It was one of

(01:45:59):
my favorite. Actually, I think I had that as my
WWE match of the year. Brett Hard hated it and
said that he thought all the chops made wrestling look
like a charade because he hates chops. Right. I don't
even think he likes pork chops because the word chops
is in it. Brett is very old school in a
lot of ways. Right, It's just how he was brought

(01:46:21):
up in the dungeon. He's not going to like a
lot about modern wrestling or evidently wrestling from years ago either.
If you chop people, that's his opinion. I think people
can go overboard on the chops, absolutely, but I don't
hate them the way that Brett does. And I also
think it's silly for him to say that. You know,
my dad always said nobody ever beat someone with a chop. Well, yes,

(01:46:45):
and no one ever gets beat with a side Russian
leg sweep either, But that didn't stop Brett from doing
them in all of his matches. I mean, that's a
pretty silly argument. Like one hundred percent of wrestling matches
are filled with moves that no one ever loses to
or would lose to in a real life fight. That's
every match. I mean, hell, today, finishing moves don't even

(01:47:06):
beat people. But that doesn't mean that guys should stop
doing them. If they did, all wrestling matches would be
ten seconds long. You know, if I want to watch
a boxing match that could end in ten seconds, I'll
watch a boxing match. If I want to watch an
MMA fight, I'll watch UFC. One thing I do agree
with him on, and I'm not saying I don't enjoy
matches where guys lay their shit in. I mean that's

(01:47:28):
basically all of Japanese wrestling. But and I think Brett,
it's Brett who once said this. I've always attributed this
quote to him that The real art of wrestling is
making it look like you're hurting your opponent when in
reality you are not harming a single hair on their head.
That's what pro wrestling is supposed to be, in my opinion,

(01:47:50):
that's the real art of pro wrestling. Anybody can get
into the ring and really hurt someone like that's easy.
It's a lot harder to make your shit look convinced
and make people believe and make people do a double
take like, hey, I know it's a show, but that
looked like it really hurt and in reality it didn't
hurt them at all. They can go backstage and laugh
about it, turned around twenty four hours later, do it

(01:48:12):
again the next night. That's the art of wrestling. I
agree with Brett on that now. Having said that, when
Gunther and Shamus get in the ring and they start
beating the crap out of each other and Seamus ends
up with these welts all over his body, which is
basically every Shamus match, I love that shit, all right.
I love that too. So. I mean, there's different styles

(01:48:34):
to pro wrestling. You may not agree with them all,
you may not like them all. I mean, God knows,
there's wrestling out there, especially the ultra violence stuff that
I absolutely hate. But people have different tastes and they're
gonna like what they like. That's always been the case,
from the days of Frank Gotch to Gorgeous George, to
Abdullah the Butcher and what he did to Brett Hart

(01:48:56):
to Gunther. You need that variety and then you can
pick and choose what you like. This was a very
scary story from the other day. In a social media
post on Thursday night, former Ring of Honor world champion
Jonathan Gresham revealed a very serious situation where he suffered

(01:49:18):
not one, but two strokes. Said two days ago, I
woke up and couldn't walk or move the left side
of my body. I couldn't see, and I could barely walk.
It took me thirty minutes to dial nine to one one,
but I finally did. I woke up in the hospital,
couldn't remember what had happened. They told me they had
done an MRI and I had two strokes. I had

(01:49:39):
a lot of tests run, but everything has come back clean.
They're not sure what happened, and the only thing that
they said was it could have been a possible complication
from a bad case of COVID that I had a
couple of weeks ago. They said that we may never
know the exact reason. Needless to say, I will be
taking the next two to four weeks off from wrestling
to recover and get cleared fully by my neurologists. My

(01:50:00):
wife saw me get carted off from the house on
our ring doorbell camera and somehow flew from Orlando to
Atlanta in time that she was there when I woke up.
I wasn't fully convinced that I had a stroke until
she showed me this photo of how my face looked.
I never thought this would be something for me to
worry about at thirty seven years old. I will be
back soon. Well. Unfortunately, when it comes to strokes and

(01:50:26):
even heart attacks, age is but a number. There are
a lot of younger people who can and have had
strokes before. And I saw the image. It's kind of grainy,
but again it's from his ring doorbell camera. It shows
the paramedics carrying him out of the house and you
could see like his face is contorted, and it's very scary.

(01:50:46):
It's very very scary. This is a video. I don't
remember who uploaded it or what organization. It's from but
it's on YouTube. It's kind of like a not commercial,
but it's like a PSA and it shows like how
quickly a stroke can impact somebody. It shows this guy
in his house with his family. In one second, he's fine,

(01:51:08):
maybe he's eating in the kitchen, and it's from the
perspective I think of his wife and she turns away,
and then when she turns back, his face is like drooping.
And then they're all panicking and they're calling nine one
like it's taking you through like a real life situation.
And I remember the first time I watched that video,
it scared this shit out of me. But you need

(01:51:29):
to know the signs to watch for. And even scarier,
he was home alone, like you know, Jordan Grace wasn't
even home because again they're married for those who don't know.
So he was home and there was nobody else there,
and it took half an hour for him to even
pick up the phone and call nine to one one
for help. What if he couldn't What if he was
on the floor and couldn't get back up and she
was on the road. I mean, it could have ended

(01:51:50):
very badly if he didn't get medical intervention when he did,
and one stroke is scary enough, let alone having two
at thirty seven years old. I did kind of laugh
when he was like, I'm going to be taking the
next two to four weeks off and then I'll be
back in the ring hopefully. Like, brother, I think you've
got bigger problems to worry about right now than getting

(01:52:11):
back in the ring in the next two weeks. Like
my god, I mean, I get it, you want to
go back to work and make money, but shit, like,
take care of yourself. Okay, you may not be able
to get back in the ring in two to four weeks.
Hopefully he'll be able to get back in the ring
sometime soon. But that was a very scary situation to
hear about. And this was also scary, but for a

(01:52:33):
very different reason. It was scary, And then I laughed.
Joey Ryan, there's a name you may not have heard
in a while, and for good reason. He got swept
up in the me too movement, Not me too, wasn't
me too? Me too? Speaking out whatever whatever hashtag they
attached to it. This was five years ago. He's a
creeper and he was basically expelled from wrestling, and nobody

(01:52:57):
would work with him and anyway. There was an indie
promotion attempting to revive Portland Wrestling that has canceled its
booking of Joey Ryan after receiving backlash from the fans.
Oh you don't say. The Portland Wrestling Reborn event is
or Or was scheduled for August twenty third in Vancouver, Washington,

(01:53:22):
and it was announced that Joey Ryan, who has been
out of wrestling since being accused of sexual assault and
harassment during the Speaking Out movement of twenty twenty, would
be making his return at the show. However, that is
no longer happening and the entire event is in jeopardy
of being canceled. I have canceled Joey Ryan's flight. The
promotion announced he will not be appearing at the August

(01:53:45):
twenty third show. The person behind the Portland Wrestling revival
said that it is highly likely the show will not
take place anymore, blaming another Pacific Northwest wrestling group for
threatening to blackball anyone who is going to work the show.
Prestige Wrestling's promoter threatened to black ball every wrestler, trainer,
and ring crew member who works with me, causing multiple

(01:54:07):
wrestlers to drop out of the show, and even the
guy I was renting the ring from canceled the rental.
We currently do not have a ring for the show
taking place in less than three weeks. Prestige Wrestling is
holding a show of their own in Portland on August
twenty third, which was announced as a counter to this event.
This was before Joey Ryan was canceled. The Prestige show

(01:54:29):
is billed as a night of safe space pro wrestling
action for the scene, by the scene that helped cultivate
modern day Portland wrestling. Fans can pay whatever price they
want for tickets, with all profits being donated to charity.
And explaining why he booked Joey Ryan in the first place,
the Portland wrestling promoter wrote, he was very reasonably priced.
Oh well, okay, all right, Well, hey he came cheap.

(01:54:54):
What a great reason? He said, he was very reasonably priced.
He hadn't worked the area since like twenty fourteen. Local
guys wanted to work with him, and it was an
opportunity for him to move past the mustache gimmick that
I never cared for anyway. Alas other promoters have publicly
threatened to blackball anyone who worked for me and explicitly
stated that they would destroy my show before it even

(01:55:16):
got off the ground. They were successful at that. Well,
hold on a second. Here, let me strum the world's
smallest violin for this promoter. There you go. I always
have my trusty tiny violin here for just these very occasions.

(01:55:37):
I love this thing. I may take my act on
the road. At least that'll be one show more than
what Joey Ryan will be working. And on that note,
we will leave it there. I hope you've enjoyed this episode.
A lot of news this week. Hopefully there'll be a
lot of news next week when we come back next
Sunday for episode nine to twenty five of The SoundOff.

(01:55:59):
Of course you can I meet live on the YouTube
channel Solo Monster Sounds Off all week long, Monday night
for the Raw post show, Wednesday night for the Dynamite
Post Show, and Friday night for the SmackDown Post Show.
And Tuesday night over on JD's channel for another episode
of Tuesday Night Titans, which has been killing it so
far this summer. So it's going to be another busy

(01:56:20):
week leading into nine to twenty five next weekend. And
at a very busy end of the month with that
European tour coming up, Forbidden Doors coming up, Clash from Paris,
a very international flavor for wrestling for the latter part
of August. Here be well, stay safe, have yourselves a
great week, and I will see you back here next

(01:56:41):
Sunday for more sound off. Until then, take care, guys.
The Solemn Monster sounds off. Bronzon Reid one on one
against jay Uso. So Usa got back in the ring
and he was looking for another suicide dive. He has
stopped in his tracks because Bronze and read yeat it.
You talk about yeating. He yeaded this fucking chair, this

(01:57:04):
office chair, right at jay Usso's head, and the referee
falls for the bell for what you would assume is
a disqualification. They called this a no contest. I would
love to know what do you have to do to
get yourself disqualified? If Bronson red shot jay Usso in
the face, would it be a no contest? Like? Where's
the line here? When I saw that on the screen,

(01:57:25):
I said, you got you gotta be shitting this man
threw a fucking office chair at this man's head. A
no contest? 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 Sola Monster
on Facebook, Instagram, and X the Solo Monster. I Love

(01:57:48):
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Sound Off 924 - BLOCKBUSTER WWE/ESPN Deal, Brock Lesnar's Return And Bret Hart SHOOTS!

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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 924 - BLOCKBUSTER WWE/ESPN Deal, Brock Lesnar's Return And Bret Hart SHOOTS!